Evil Prince, Come Play With Me

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

How could the noble masters who had been raised in luxury live with such grievances?

But what could they do? The embroiderers had been employed by the empress, and couldn’t be snatched away.

Thus, the nobles and the ministers of the imperial court wrote memorials one after another, requesting the emperor to confer rewards… and not to keep all the treasures for himself.

Feng Qingtian thought that this made sense. He hadn’t given the ministers anything during the new year.

He discussed it with Gu Bailu. Since it was spring and everyone wanted to wear new clothes, they would give the noble families some fabrics to make clothes and send a few embroiderers to make them.

Gu Bailu naturally agreed.

She had been waiting all this time for these guys to come begging.

Gu Bailu was generous, too. She rewarded the nobles and the ministers with hundreds of fine silk fabrics, and sent ten embroiderers to tailor clothes for them.

The noble families were so touched that they praised the empress for being a good person. It was a blessing for the people in Southern Glory Empire to have such a good empress.

Those who had looked down on Gu Bailu didn’t dare look down on her anymore.

How would they dare? Did they not want to eat or wear clothes anymore?

Of course, Gu Bailu didn’t just bestow the rewards willy-nilly. For example, she skipped the Bai family that had offended her.

As well as the family of the blockhead second prince.

And the families which she had run-ins with in the past two years.

Bu Yaolian was stunned when she heard how generous Gu Bailu was. “Lulu, you’re so generous. If you continue rewarding them like this, how much money will you be spending?”

Even if the weavers and the embroiderers were under Gu Bailu, it would be very difficult to obtain the fabrics. How much manpower and money would that require?

Gu Bailu chuckled. “However much I give them now, they’ll return it to me ten-fold. Do you want to do the same?”

Bu Yaolian wasn’t good at other things, but she was full of enthusiasm when it came to earning money. “Yes! Of course!”

“It’s simple. Go hire some people with low spiritual power and keep them. Let them learn whatever skills they want to learn. I’ll lend you my people to teach them.”

Gu Bailu wanted to expand, but she had limited energy and didn’t want to oversee too much.

The best way to do this was to outsource it. It had to be handled by a person with the clearest outlook, and Bu Yaolian was the most suitable.

By the time she gave birth, those people should already have finished their training.

“Are you saying I should hire some people to learn from your people?”

“That’s right. When the time comes, the nobles won’t come to me, but go to you.” Gu Bailu said slyly, “If they want something, they have to pay through their noses for it!”

At the moment, they just couldn’t enjoy a lavish lifestyle, but in the future, they might not even have food to eat.

Southern Glory Empire didn’t have slave contracts like Heavenly Wind Empire. They just bought people to serve them, and these servants had to have some spiritual power.

They didn’t want anyone with low spiritual power.

Hence, the farmlands of the noble families were left to peasant households to manage.

To put it bluntly, they looked down on farmers and were unwilling to take them in. Thus, they gave the farmers a few taels of silver and their fields for planting.

They might give one type of seed this year, and another type of seed the next.

Because there was no lack of peasants to farm their land, they never signed contracts.

Gu Bailu had already given a lot of land to the peasants who really knew farming. The harvest was split 30-70, and she also gave them a wage for every area they farmed.