The Treacherous Concubine’s Guide To Whitewashing

Chapter 17, Pt 2 - Talent

"The Emperor is wise." Yuan Luo smiled kindly at Sikong Lin.

"Therefore, this palace drew this snow disaster house painting to advocate that the sisters of the harem and other ladies present, who may have an abundance of money, would find no harm in donating it toward a worthy cause. This palace wants to set up a special fund for the common people affected by the blizzards. The fund would help build homes and buy food and clothing so that they can survive this winter safely."

Everyone, including Empress Wei, was stunned. How did a perfectly good banquet suddenly become a government fundraising meeting.

"Since this palace initiated this plan, I will be the first to donate."

The imperial chief Liu Xiu Chun personally brought forward a little court eunuch, holding a large copper tray, and knelt in front of Yuan Luo.

Yuan Luo pulled a golden phoenix hairpin with a string of rubies from her hair bun and put it in on the tray. "In addition to this golden hairpin, this palace will also donate a thousand taels of silver to help the victims."

Looking at all the people who were still in a daze, Yuan Luo kindly added, "This donation is completely voluntary. Everyone should do what they can. After the victims are relieved, a stone tablet will be erected outside the Capital, giving credit to all the contributors."

You are called to do what you can!

The noble’s faces were complicated. If you really do what you can, but you complain about being hard up with only ten or twenty taels to donate, and then that exact amount was engraved on a tablet in the future, wouldn’t that be a public sentence? This was simply a way to push a person to do something beyond their actual ability. Luckily, the standard set by the imperial concubine was not very high at one thousand taels.

The nobles could not, in good conscience, steal the imperial concubines limelight.

Except for one person.

Empress Wei glanced at the tray brought before her and the corners of her mouth twitched. It was reasonable to assume that this sort of thing should be the responsibility of the Empress and yet this woman stole her limelight again.

Angrily, she pulled out a hairpin with twelve large pearls inlaid, threw it on the tray, and raised her voice, "This palace donates three thousand taels."

Yuan Luo grinned widely and said with a bow, "The Empress is indeed kind-hearted."

Empress Wei sat up straight perfectly satisfied as she seemed to be putting pressure directly on Yuan Luo. However, as she turned her head in thought she had a sudden deep pain. That was her favorite pearl hairpin and that night pearl in the middle was also hard to find! She glanced at Yuan Luo again. There was a taint of hypocrisy about the whole matter regardless of how you looked at it.

Fortunately, other people did not struggle in a like manner. According to their status, there were 800 taels, 600 taels, and 300 taels.

Yuan Luo returned to her seat and to her satisfaction she watched as the amount of accumulated silver increased.

But the people in the hall who reluctantly paid their silver were not so relaxed. Many of them still couldn't understand how a good palace banquet had suddenly turned into a charity party.

----

After the banquet was over, Yuan Luo returned to Zichen Palace.

Lian Yan Qiu left the main hall and Yuan Luo impatiently asked, "How much money was received in total?" Liu Xiu Chun had already sent the silver donations to Zichen Palace.

Lian Yan Qiu replied, "The total amount of silver is forty-six thousand one hundred taels. There was too much jewelry to be counted. We can only make a detailed inventory slowly."

Yuan Luo impatiently wanted to take a look at the list of accounts. The amount listed made her excited and she let out a satisfied cheer.

Lian Yan Qiu wanted to laugh at her mood. She really resembled a kitten who had stolen a mouth full of fat fish. After a pause, he asked, "How did the Empress come up with this trick?"

"Who are they to always want to ridicule me? Since a person can’t avoid being mocked, then you might as well collect a little compensation for it." Yuan Luo closed the accounts.

"Congratulations to the Empress. Her small vault has become a lot richer. Unfortunately, this collection of bead hairpin jewelry is simply too distinctive to be stored in the storeroom. It would be better to send them to a workshop for dismantling and then dispose of them."

"That’s not needed. Auction them directly." The preciousness of the jewelry was not only the material used in creating them, but also the exquisite craftsmanship. Selling the parts after dismantling them will cause an unnecessary depreciation in value.

"Besides, we should give the lady who likes her bead hairpin an opportunity to buy it back. After all,
nobles won’t want to lose their affectations to others." Yuan Luo said very considerately.

"Empress." Lian Yan Qiu's eyebrows twitched slightly. Using this method, one can imagine that those noble ladies would spend a lot of money.

Lian Yan Qiu hesitated for a while and tactfully persuaded, "Empress, this kind of money accumulation is simply too opportunistic. The Empress cannot repeat it in the future."

"This palace is aware that to have achieved this result they were caught off guard this time. Once they are prepared, there is no way they will pay to buy the reputation of this palace."

Lian Yan Qiu laughed out loud. "The Empress is wise." He worried that Yuan Luo's indulging in such small tricks would intensify the conflicts between the family's clan and herself.

"There won't be a next time. Noble people know themselves." Yuan Luo shrugged. "This money is for the victims of the disaster in the Capital. The common people in the Capital will have an extra roof tile to protect them from the wind and rain and an extra grain of rice to satisfy their hunger. Wouldn't it be better than moldering away while locked in a box?"

Lian Yan Qiu was surprised. "The Empress means that she really intends to send this money out of the city."

Yuan Luo looked at him calm and steady. Hey, is even he suspicious of the character of this palace?

Lian Yan Qiu buried his astonishment and looked at her seriously. "What percentage is the Empress going to use to help the victims?"

"All of it naturally." Apparently her past character really was a problem.

Lian Yan Qiu's expression was grave. "When the news of the Empress' move spreads, the government and the people will definitely praise the Empress for her kindness."

Yuan Luo blinked. This had originally been her goal. Recently, the strategy had been to seize every opportunity to ruin the reputation of the East China Sea king and at the same time give herself a better reputation.

"Isn't it a good thing that the reputation of this palace becomes better?"

Lian Yan Qiu took a deep look at her. "The Empress is wise."

----

Empress Wei returned to Kunning Palace angrily.

A trusted female officer beside her persuaded, "The Empress should not be furious because of such petty people. She is only a poor and lowly person, therefore, she can use any unscrupulous method to pull in money."

Nevertheless, Empress Wei was still annoyed and it took a long time to persuade her out of her anger. She then asked, "By the way, what is "Ma Liang" that the Emperor mentioned earlier and what happened?"

Nurse Miao thought for a bit then said, "I heard that recently Zichen Palace has made some books for the Emperor to read. Presumably it must be one of those."

"Show it to this palace."