Chapter 950 (1/2)
It’s Time to Go Back
Zhu Kongshan still had many plans that were waiting to be realized. She did not touch the banknotes that had been sent over by the treasury. Instead, she told the treasury to hold onto them for now until she needed them. She took the accessories that Xuan Tianmo had given her and sold them off. The money that came from the sales was then turned into a congee stand in the northern part of the city just as Winter was coming around. Congee was handed out three times each day, and it was done under the Sheng Palace’s name.
Aside from this, she also brought her maidservants around with baskets to go around the market to buy vegetables, stockpiling large amounts of lettuce and potatoes in the Sheng Palace. These were foods that the Sheng Palace usually did not even eat, yet they were treated as treasures by her. From time to time, she would go and buy some bones from the market. Bringing along the lettuce, she would then go to the northern part of the city to stew a giant pot of food to be given to the poor people.
In this era, bones were very cheap. They did not have much meat, but once it was cracked open, the marrow inside added to the fragrance of soup. Lettuce was a common vegetable and did not have much taste, but when it was put in bone soup and stewed, it was different. The people in the northern part of the city were all poor. Even if bones were cheap, they could not afford to buy them. Also, stewing a soup used a large amount of firewood. They were not willing to use it. Moreover, these people were all beggars. How could they have the ability to make food for themselves?
Zhu Kongshan worked hard in the northern part of the city for half a month without any signs of stopping. She even decided to rent a small residence in that part of the city. Although it was shoddy and old, it was fine for a temporary repose after it had been tidied and fixed up. Once the residence had been rented, she announced to the poor folk of the northern area that she would do her best to continue providing food for them throughout Winter. It was for no other reason than in hopes that they would be able to successfully get through this Winter and not die from freezing or starvation.
For a while, word of the Sheng Palace producing a female Bodhisattva had spread around the entirety of the capital. In addition to this, Xuan Tianmo had deliberately tried to secretly publicize it, which made the information spread even further. Xuan Tianmo was now really impressed with this cousin. It was not just because she was able to suddenly lower her own status to go and do those things in the northern part of the city, nor was it because she had helped the Sheng Palace recover so much in such a short period of time, but the most important reason was that Zhu Kongshan’s attitude was something that he viewed favorably. Without touching the palace’s money, she sold the things that he had given her then used that money to do things for the Sheng Palace. She did not argue over gains and losses, nor did she care about gold and silver. This sort of girl suddenly gave him an illusion of “Zhu Kongshan being a second Feng Yuheng.” This sort of feeling caused Xuan Tianmo to rejoice. If Zhu Kongshan really could support him the way that Feng Yuheng had support Xuan Tianming, when he succeeded, giving her the position of empress would not be impossible. So what if she was the daughter of a concubine? Turning the daughter of a concubine from a sixth rank official’s family was as easy as waving his hand.
He was planning ahead like this while continuing to observe Zhu Kongshan’s movements. At the same time, the group of people sending things to Peng Zhou had returned, relaying the situation in Peng Zhou to Zhu Kongshan. They also said that when they delivered the items, they had specifically emphasized that they had been sent by the eighth prince and Noble Lady Yuan. After that, the Zhu family looked upon her mother, Liu shi, very favorably.
Having received news from her family, Zhu Kongshan naturally felt thankful towards the eighth prince. Aside from gratitude, she began another round of activity.
Handing out congee and making soup, just relying on herself was not enough. Even if the Sheng Palace had mountains of gold and silver, it would not be able to sustain this sort of thing, thus Zhu Kongshan contacted the madams and young misses from the families of the eighth prince’s faction and invited them to participate. As for benefits, put plainly, there were no real benefits. But they would be able to improve the reputation of their families. How important was reputation right now?! The reputations of those in the eighth prince’s faction were already quite bad, and they had been worrying about the lack of ways to recover it! Zhu Kongshan’s suggestion received approval from the officials in court, as they urged their wives and daughters to participate. They also had them listen to Zhu Kongshan.
With this sort of thing happening outside, the members of the imperial harem were also unable to sit still. Those without children were all leaning toward the eighth prince’s side. Hearing that their families had begun moving, they thought a bit and decided to put in some of their own contributions. The members of the imperial harem did not have much money, but they did have large quantities of accessories, and they were all things that had been made in the palace. When taken out, they could be sold for large sums of money. They had people send their accessories back to their homes to give them something. The families were naturally happy to accept.
Like this, the group handing out food in the northern part of the city grew once more. It was such that there were some that simply decided that instead of congee, they would just give out plain rice with some vegetables. This sight, to Feng Yuheng who had secretly gone to take a look, had a similar feeling to a modern soup kitchen run by the government.
With so many people participating, the ones to benefit were the poor citizens. But because of the public opinion of the Sheng Palace, the people were not too thankful to the officials that had come to help. Instead, they thanked the young miss from the Sheng Palace. They believed that these people had only given these things to give face to this young miss. The one with the greatest contribution was the young miss.
Of course, this was the outcome that Zhu Kongshan desired the most. Aside from this, she deliberately sought out the people who had been harmed by the fake Hundred Herb Hall opened by the eighth prince. This was all within plans for making amends. Of course, the situation needed to advance one step at a time. She did not want to go and claim it all at once. If things were done like that, her value to the Sheng Palace would shrivel up.
In the Yu Palace, Huang Quan stood at Feng Yuheng’s side. While listening to Ban Zou’s report about the situation, she asked with great concern: “Young Miss, are you really not worried? To allow them to continue like this, the hearts of the people in the capital will be pulled away!”
Ban Zou also had such a thought, but he did not say it as directly as Huang Quan. He just nodded to Feng Yuheng, indicating that he had a similar thought as Huang Quan.