Harem: Biography of Concubine Qin

Chapter 260 Counting the Silver

They all had lunch in Nianxin Garden with Chen Wenxin, after a short rest after the meal, they dispersed.

In the afternoon, there was an endless stream of people from various families sending money.

At first, the servants of the concierge came in one by one to report, but then there were too many people, so they simply put them in the concierge and sent them in again every half an hour.

Chen Wenxin sent Xiaozhuo and Bailu to accept the money, and went back to Guanlan Pavilion to take a nice nap.

When I woke up in the afternoon, I saw a mountain of silver piled on the round table outside.

She has been in a high position for a long time, and she has seen a lot of precious gold, silver and jewelry, but it is the first time she has seen so much white money piled up in front of her.

Her eyes lit up, and before Bai Lu stepped forward to serve her, she walked over in her pajamas.

"A lot of silver..."

Seeing her look like a money fan, Bai Lu smiled and presented a list.

"Master, this is the amount of money sent by each family recorded at the concierge. Just now, while the master was taking a break, I compared this record with the one recorded in the morning. Not only is there nothing missing, but there is more."

Chen Wenxin took the list and looked at it, and Bai Lu integrated the two records.

The big black characters were written by a special person at the concierge of Nianxin Garden, followed by the small characters, it was Bai Lu who marked the discrepancies.

She looked carefully and found that some people said they would donate 200 taels, but they actually gave 300 taels.

Some said they donated 300 taels, but they actually donated 350 taels.

There is only more, and there is really no less.

She pointed to the names above, "These are prominent officials, I think I went home to discuss with the adults in the family. I think the numbers are too low and not good-looking, maybe they are not worthy of official positions."

For example, a lady from Yuanwai Lang's family donated 300 taels, and you, a lady from a serious book family, only donated 200 taels, which is naturally ugly.

"There are a few more."

She clicked on a few other names, and said: "These ladies spoke earlier, and the number of words was smaller. Later, the number increased, and they had to add more so as not to lose to others."

Bai Lu nodded and said, "Look, master, this is Miss Wang who dances the Jinghongzhaoying dance. She donated a full 450 taels."

For dancing like that, Chen Wenxin not only didn't laugh at her, but also rewarded her with snacks.

Presumably, she was grateful in her heart, so she refused to begrudge the money.

"There's also this one, Miss Zhang, who praises my virtuous master and whom my master likes very much."

Bai Lu clicked on the list, and it was recorded that Miss Niu Hulu also donated 300 taels.

"That's too much. Her family is just an Ama leading the title of second-class guard. Fortunately, she was born in Manchuria, so she can have so much money."

Manchu being a second-class guard is naturally different from Chen Xihai's second-class guard.

The Manchus originally had their share of silver and rice, so even if they were not working on errands, they would not have to worry about food or clothing.

He will not try to curry favor with those Manchu superiors like Chen Xihai did back then, and spend a lot of money to bribe them in order to live in peace.

If it were Chen Wenxin who had come to this garden banquet, he would only be able to spend three taels of silver, right?
Thinking of this, she asked Bai Lu, "Order the little table to investigate carefully. If there are some adults who are clean officials and whose families are relatively poor, please return the money to the young ladies of these families."

Although it is necessary to raise money to make guns for the Shotgun Team, it is impossible for poor people to spend such a large sum of money to buy face.

Maybe some ladies are crying at home, forcing the elders in the family to take out the money.

Bai Lu said: "The ladies invited by the master are either rich or noble, and there is no one whose family is so poor that they can't live without this money."

"Even so, it's better to investigate carefully. My original intention was to rob the rich and help the poor, but not to rob the poor and help the poor. If there are some poor families, it's okay to return one or two hundred taels of silver."

Chen Wenxin himself came out of such a family, if not for being so poor, Chen Xihai would never be willing to send his 14-year-old daughter to the palace.

As for others, she was always afraid that if she was not careful, she would force such people to donate a large amount of money.

That would be too sinful.

"Yes, master, don't worry, this slave will go and tell the little table."

Bai Lu knew that she was kind-hearted, so she didn't dare to procrastinate, so she hurried out to find a small table.

After leaving the small table, she turned and went back to her room.

All I could hear was tinkling and clanging inside, as if they were packing something up.

After a while, Bai Lu walked to Chen Wenxin's bedroom with a wooden box in her arms.

Chen Wenxin saw that Bai Lu carried a box, put it on the round table where the silver was piled up, opened it and said, "Master, this is a little thought from the servants. Naturally, it is not as good as those rich ladies, but it is a kind of heart."

Chen Wenxin looked into the box, there were also large pieces of silver ingots and small pieces of broken silver.

There are even some gold and silver lockets of different sizes.

From this it looks like Bai Lu's box for storing her own money, and the money in it includes her portion as a court lady, and also gold and silver rewarded by other masters.

Adding up all these things, there are about two or three hundred taels of silver.

"The servants dare not take out those rewards from the master without authorization. These are all preserved by the slaves as palace maids over the years."

Chen Wenxin didn't even want the silver money of those daughters whose families were not very well-off, how could he want Bai Lu's hard-earned money?

She closed the box, and said seriously to Bai Lu: "You have saved so much money in the palace for so many years. You have donated it all, what will you do in the future?"

Bai Lu said with a smile: "The slaves rely on the master for food and clothing in the palace. They are more noble than ordinary concubines. How can they starve me? Besides, the master has always rewarded me with so many things, and I haven't even taken them out. Woolen cloth."

The ones given by Chen Wenxin are the most valuable ones. Even if she donated all the money, the rest are much more luxurious than ordinary grand ladies.

Chen Wenxin refused, "That won't work. No matter how much I try to raise money, I can't make it on you."

In her opinion, being a slave and a handmaid is already hard enough.These maids endured torment until they were released from the palace at the age of 25, and lived on the money.

Naturally, Bai Lu will not be so miserable in the future, Chen Wenxin will prepare the most generous dowry for her, so that she will marry into a wealthy family in a prosperous way, and will not make her suffer.

But what if?
What if something happened to her and she couldn't keep Bai Lu?
She has some obstacles in herself, so she can leave an extra path for herself.

So Chen Wenxin often gave her rewards, sometimes gold, silver and jewelry, and some Kit Kat jewelry.

Not only her, but also Bai Shuang and the others, there is also a small table, Fu Guier...

With money in hand, don't panic, this is an eternal truth.

I think back when she first became a resident, she saved more than a dozen taels of silver and refused to waste it, so she wanted to send it back to her family.

She knows best how embarrassing she looks because of poverty.

It's hard for the emperor not to dislike her, and to help her solve the poverty situation at home...

Said Cao Cao Cao Cao arrived, just as Chen Wenxin thought of the emperor, his voice sounded outside the door.

"If I haven't come back for a day, silver mountains will grow here?"

The emperor's strides were long, and the voice fell silent. The man had already entered, and sat directly beside Chen Wenxin.

"Where did it grow? I raised it after a day of hard work. Look at the emperor, there are 5000 taels in total."

She said angrily: "This amount of money is not enough for Bailu, I have to make a fuss to bring her private money as well."

The emperor also knew a thing or two about Bai Lu's feelings for Chen Wenyi.

He laughed and said, "I heard it from outside the door. After all, Bai Lu was trained by you, so she and you are of the same mind."

Hearing what the emperor said, Bai Lu thought that he would persuade her master to accept the money.

Unexpectedly, the emperor changed the subject, "But it doesn't matter whether the money is donated or not. When you get married in the future, it will be your master who will pay for the dowry. She saw at that time that you didn't even have any money for yourself, so you still have to make up for it." .”

This made Bai Lu's face turn red with embarrassment, Chen Wenxin took the opportunity to put the box into her hand.

"You go, let me talk to the emperor freely."

She couldn't help but drive Bai Lu out.

The emperor picked up the list on the table and looked at it. When he saw some names, his expression was a little strange.

"Xuan Ye looks at this list, is there any problem?"

The emperor said indifferently: "I never thought that some adults would cry poorly to me, and my lady would be able to spend so much money."

Although the emperor also knew that some people were pretending to be poor, he was still a little annoyed when he saw this naked evidence of slap in the face.

"I think some young ladies are impatient. They took the money and brought it here without discussing it with the adults in the family. At this moment, they may be reprimanded at home."

Chen Wenxin's method not only raised funds for the shotgun team to make guns, but also allowed the emperor to see the true colors of some ministers.

This can be regarded as a pleasant surprise.

Chen Wenxin said: "I'm afraid that some adults' families are not well-off, and they will take out the money to hinder their livelihood. So I asked the small table to investigate and investigate, and some poor officials who have nothing to do will return the money."

The emperor snorted coldly and said, "How can any of these families who can hang around in front of you not be rich? If they are not rich, they won't have the energy to send you and the Chen family gifts every new year."

The people Chen Wenxin invited were those who often gave her and the Chen family gift stickers. These people seemed to want to make friends with the Chen family and were interested in Chen Wenyi.

Otherwise, Chen Wenxin would not invite them either.

What the emperor said made her understand, it seemed that she was worrying too much.

(End of this chapter)