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.
But Feng Yuheng remained unworried, only saying: “The hearts of the people do not belong to us alone. That’s why we can’t treat their hearts as our personal items, not allowing others to touch them. Moreover, I spent three years capturing the hearts of the people in the capital. Zhu Kongshan wants to capture them in a single winter? You’re overestimating her too much.”
“But the eighth prince’s side is pressing hard!” Huang Quan stomped her foot and could not help but begin complaining about Xuan Tianming: “His Highness really is able to hold his breath, not even saying a single word about helping young miss.”
“How can he help?” Feng Yuheng could not help but laugh bitterly, “Men need to concern themselves with matters in court. Could it be that you want him to spend his time worrying about the inner courtyard’s matters? That really would be a drop in his status. Don’t worry! Your young miss is not an herbivore. Didn’t I say it, just let that cousin stand out a bit more. We’ll make our move a little later, and it will let the poor people in the northern part of the city benefit a bit more.” She thought for a bit then said: “Right, Hundred Herb Hall will be handing out tea as usual. Un, you guys go out and spread the word. Just say that aside from eating their fill, the people from the northern part of the city need to pay attention to their health. They spend most of their days living in unsanitary conditions. It makes it easier to get sick. This is especially the case for their stomachs. In the past, it could be ignored when they would just eat spoiled leftovers that they had obtained through begging, but now they’re having congee and stewed-bone soup. Wasn’t it said that there are some that even had plain rice? Eating like this, won’t there be a group of them that fell ill? Find a way to spread word of this to Zhu Kongshan. At the same time, our Hundred Herb Hall will prepare some more medicine for these things. We’ll just wait for them to come and buy it. It’ll be a waste if we don’t make money from the eighth prince’s faction.”
Hearing Feng Yuheng say this, Huang Quan became spirited, as she happily went to arrange for this matter; however, after Huang Quan left, Ban Zou said to Feng Yuheng: “You should not have sent Wang Chuan to Peng Zhou. The situation in the capital is unstable. You can’t be left without someone stable at your side. Huang Quan has a rash personality. With these sorts of things, she does not think things through thoroughly.”
“Aren’t you still here?” Feng Yuheng smiled, “Wang Chuan isn’t here, so some of the things that should have been done by her will be done by you.”
The tsundere hidden guard rolled his eyes, as a very clear “I can’t stand you” expression appeared on his face. Without saying anything else, he disappeared.
Feng Yuheng shrugged. Her hidden guard really was becoming less and less cute! Very well, Ban Zou had never been cute; however, he had been very close. She knew that they had always been earnestly doing their best for each other. As for her sending Wang Chuan to Peng Zhou, it was because Peng Zhou’s matter was also very important. She would not feel at ease with leaving it to someone else.
Zhu Kongshan, such a cousin appeared out of nowhere. Taking care of her would not be as easy as she had made it sound. It was possible that she would need to use a few more tricks.
At present, the eighth prince’s faction had succeeded in reversing the negative impression that the people of the capital had of the eighth prince. This was achieved through Zhu Kongshan working with the madams and young misses from the eighth prince’s faction. Public opinion was beginning to change, but it was strictly limited to no longer feeling as disgusted by the eighth prince. It had not truly risen to the point of affecting Feng Yuheng. It was as Feng Yuheng had said. She had used three years to win over public opinion. How could it be taken away by just one girl in a single winter?
Zhu Kongshan also understood this reasoning, and she was in no rush to face off against Feng Yuheng. She just continued to do the things that she wanted to do. Either way, they were all good things, and nobody could find any problems with them. She just quietly worked away. When she heard that the poor needed medicine, she went to learn about the situation and found that there were indeed quite a few that had fallen ill, thus she did not argue over it. She called the servants and had them bring the banknotes to buy medicine at Hundred Herb Hall.
But who knew that after the poor took the medicine that had come from Hundred Herb Hall, they did not feel grateful for the people that had spent money to buy it. Instead, they gathered and spoke of how “the medicine at Hundred Herb Hall is good, and Princess Yu is our Bodhisattva of medicine.” Zhu Kongshan heard this but did not get angry. She even said a few nice things about Feng Yuheng. As the people saw it, this young miss Zhu was benevolent and kind. She was also a Bodhisattva!
This winter, began with a happy atmosphere. Even after a round of heavy snowfall, there was no word of anyone dying from the cold or starvation. The Emperor had even praised the eighth prince specifically for this, awarding quite a few things to Zhu Kongshan, as well as the madams and young misses who had participated. Naturally, those things were used by Zhu Kongshan to do good deeds. When the Emperor heard about this, he repeatedly lamented that if every daughter from a noble family in Da Shun was like this, the world really would be flourishing.
The eighth prince had received praise, and he had regained some momentum in court, as he overtook some of the other princes in positioning. Of course, no matter how momentous the recent events had been for the eighth prince, there were none who dared to overlook the might that came from the ninth prince. There were even some who said in secret that they would feel a bit flustered for no reason whenever they saw the purple lotus flower on the ninth prince’s brow. It was as though that flower would eat humans. It made them not dare to look for too long. There were even some who did not even dare to complain mentally.
At the same time, Noble Lady Yuan was no longer able to sit still. What Zhu Kongshan had said to her about “the child also needs the mother’s support to live well.” These words had been on her mind this entire time. That was right! She had been a noble lady for too long. It was time for her to return to the position of Imperial Concubine Shu.
Thus, on that day, Noble Lady Yuan stepped through the snow that had not yet been swept and headed toward the Empress’ Jing Ci Palace…