After hearing the Queen's words, Concubine Jia and Concubine Hui had the banknotes delivered to Kunning Palace as soon as they returned to their own palaces.
On the surface, each person gave 6,000 taels, but in fact, each person secretly took an extra 4,000 taels.
The six thousand taels were their donations, to be turned over to the national treasury for record keeping. The four thousand taels were the money they had agreed to cover the cost of the banquet. Although the Queen didn't ask them to pay in the end, they had to pay it anyway, and in order not to embarrass the Queen, they had to pay it quietly.
The queen took the silver notes for the two of them and did not say anything about it, but she did not hide anything either. When the emperor came in the evening, she placed the 20,000 taels of silver notes neatly in front of him and explained the reason.
The emperor flipped through the banknotes in his hands while listening to the empress's words. He waited a long while until she finished speaking before saying, "Noble Consort Jia and Noble Consort Hui are both worried about their daughters, but the empress doesn't care about Yaoyao?"
The queen was stunned and glanced around. Seeing that the palace servants were all lowering their heads, she quietly touched the emperor's ear with her jade hand and twisted it hard, causing the emperor to grimace in pain.
As soon as she sat up straight, she heard the Queen say leisurely, "I naturally believe that the Emperor will make plans for Yaoyao."
The emperor chuckled twice and said, "What the queen said is very true, very true."
Knowing that the emperor was short of money, the empress gave him all 20,000 taels of silver notes.
But the emperor held her hand and said, "You gave me all the banknotes. What about the banquet you promised to Concubine Jia and others?" At this moment, he no longer called himself "I", as if they were just an ordinary couple.
The Queen gave him a displeased look and said, "Do you really think that I'm so poor that the only thing left is the position of Queen?"
Then she asked Qingyi to go to the inner hall and get another 15,000 taels for the emperor. "The concubines know how to contribute to the country. As the queen, I should take the lead."
After the emperor left, the queen's shoulders slumped and she joked to Qing Yi, "This time you're really so poor that you only have the position of queen left."
The Queen was kind, and the master and servant were used to joking around. Now that there were no outsiders around, Qing immediately exposed her, "Your Majesty, you're joking again. A few days ago, His Royal Highness the Prince of Chen sent you a lot of goodies and banknotes as a token of his filial respect. I sorted all the things out for you, so don't try to fool me."
Speaking of Prince Chen, the Queen's eyes were filled with love and longing. "I wonder how those two children are doing recently."
Qing Yi stepped forward, rubbed her shoulders and comforted her, "Don't worry, Your Majesty! Princess Chen is a kind and virtuous woman, managing the household well. The two of them are deeply in love, and their lives are filled with joy and happiness. Whenever I hear the palace maids discussing them privately, I am filled with envy."
"In that case, I am relieved. Now I just hope they can give birth to children soon, which would be even more perfect."
Qing nodded and said yes with a smile...
The emperor received more than 30,000 taels of silver from the two concubines and the queen, but he couldn't just do nothing. After thinking it over, he simply wrote a poem praising their noble character for each of them, and asked the palace maids to write it and send it to them as a reward.
Concubine Jia and Concubine Hui had resorted to this desperate measure for the sake of their daughter, but they did not expect such an unexpected surprise. What they did not expect was that the Queen did not take a single cent for herself and handed over all the banknotes.
They originally thought that since the Queen had handed over all the banknotes, the banquet promised to them would be invalidated, especially since the Queen also took out such a large sum of money.
The two people who were in the same situation soon got together again, but after discussing for a long time, they finally came to the same conclusion:
Given the Queen's personality, she would definitely not go back on her word since she had promised them.
The two exchanged glances and said in unison, "So, Your Majesty, is planning to shoulder this expense alone?"
This matter was instigated by the two of them, but now it fell on the Queen's head. They felt guilty and went to Kunning Palace together again after a while.
However, after the Queen knew their purpose, she smiled and said, "Since we want to be frugal, we can't just rip Peter to pay Paul and do superficial work. Only when we are truly frugal can we be truly frugal."
The two concubines were confused and said, "I am stupid, please explain clearly, Your Majesty."
The queen thought for a moment, asked the palace maids to bring out exquisite tea and snacks, and prepared the four treasures of the study, and then began to explain her plan in detail.
"We will then prepare a tea party and invite the young men and women who come to the banquet to bring their own prepared tea and snacks for everyone to enjoy.
Firstly, it gives them the opportunity to show themselves, and secondly, it saves food.
If I could give you some more prizes and select the first and second place winners, wouldn’t that create a good atmosphere?” The Queen said as she wrote and drew on paper.
Anyway, other people would not think that the purpose of holding the banquet in this way in the palace was to save money. Instead, they would think that such a banquet was novel, interesting and unique.
The two concubines were in disbelief at first, but as the queen spoke more, they felt it was feasible and finally nodded repeatedly.
"I think this method is very good." Concubine Hui said excitedly.
Concubine Jia pondered it carefully and said with some satisfaction: "This is a good deal for those ladies who are looking for daughters-in-law."
"That's right! It's another opportunity for them to get to know the ladies they like better." Concubine Hui raised her hand and wiped the pastry crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
Seeing that both of them agreed, the Queen put down her pen and passed the paper to them. "You two, don't be idle! Think about it for me quickly. The young ladies of the official families have their chance to show their talents, but the men haven't yet. Don't you two want to find a son-in-law?"
Upon hearing this, the two concubines immediately took it seriously. Yes! The girls' performance had little to do with them. Their goal was to recruit a husband!
Thinking of this, the two of them immediately buried their heads in thinking hard, wishing they could come up with three levels and sixteen steps to let those young masters show off all their abilities.
The three of them gathered together and thought for the whole day, and the paper in front of them was filled with words.
Finally, they picked and chose the project that the three of them unanimously thought was the best!
The two concubines who were leisurely enjoying their dinner in the Queen's bedroom did not know at this time that their donation to the country was an unintentional act, but it caused an uproar in the harem.
The emperor's handwritten poems, which they only read a few times before letting the palace servants deal with, actually made the concubines' eyes tingle.
Behind their backs, they couldn't help but complain about the two men being treacherous, as they had secretly donated money without their knowledge and even caught the emperor's eye.
So, the next morning, all the concubines gathered in Kunning Palace, and after paying their respects to the Queen, they took out their banknotes and clamored for donations. They were unwilling to donate if they were not allowed to.
The queen was stunned for only a second, then she told the palace maids to accept everything and asked Qingyi to prepare the account book and send it to the emperor along with the banknotes.
Looking at the thick stack of banknotes in front of him, the emperor was stunned for a rare moment. After excitedly shouting "good" three times, he began to think about what other rewards he could get that would not cost money and would not lose face.
After all, poetry is not that easy to write. If he were to write a poem for each concubine, he would probably exhaust his brain.
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