Transmigration: Reverse Exploitation, the System Works for Me

"During your stay at the Yu family's residence, just take good care of your leg. You don't need to serve me. If you're bored, find out about them for me and train a few clean, clever, and capable girls."

Unlike palace maids, eunuchs were destined to serve the royal family for their entire lives.

In terms of practicality and cost-effectiveness, training eunuchs is more cost-effective than training palace maids.

Moreover, eunuchs could do even more for her.

“Once we go to the Prince’s mansion, you won’t be able to slack off even if you want to. If you’re the only one there, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it. You should have a good idea of ​​what’s going on with this marriage. If you don’t train a group of people early on, I’m afraid I’ll become blind.”

Xiao Linzi's heart tightened, and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

"Princess, please rest assured, such a thing will not happen. This servant has already inspected them; they are all honest and upright, and it is unlikely that they have spies among them. Two of them look quite clever, and with a little training, they can be at Your Majesty's beck and call."

Xi Qiao nodded, "They say birds of a feather flock together. You and Xiao Lezi are as close as brothers, which shows that you have similar temperaments and your skills are probably not bad either. I'm looking forward to seeing your results."

Xiao Linzi grinned, "Then this servant will ask the princess to wait and see."

He smiled for a moment, then became serious and said, "This servant has come to bother you for two reasons, firstly to thank you for your kindness, Princess, and secondly for this."

He took out a stack of thin papers covered with writing from his pocket and gave them to Xi Qiao.

"This was brought by the head steward of the Yu family when you were talking with Lord Yu in the front courtyard. It lists the congratulatory gifts sent by various families after the imperial edicts for your elevation to a banner and the marriage were issued. These things are now piled up in the side rooms of the main courtyard."

Xi Qiao looked at the thick stack of papers, which was almost as big as a book.

"So many? The royal family also sent congratulatory gifts?"

Upon hearing her words, Xiao Linzi immediately pulled out the gift lists for the imperial family, which made up about three-quarters of the stack.

"Your Highness is incredibly insightful. Sending it to the Prince's residence or sending it to you makes no difference. Why should the nobles of the royal family go through all that trouble? Please take a look, Your Highness, these are all the royal family's gift lists."

Xi Qiao's gaze fell on it, and the first list was from the Fourteenth Prince's residence.

She picked up this page: "A three-foot-two-inch tall Hetian white jade Guanyin statue, nine pairs of red gold mandarin ducks, fourteen jade seals of various colors, and a jade lotus seedpod ornament."

"This servant took a special look at the items sent from the Fourteenth Prince's residence. The jade Guanyin is of superior quality and exquisitely crafted; it is worth at least ten thousand gold pieces, if not a priceless treasure. The red gold mandarin ducks are solid, and each one is larger than this servant's fist. The seal is also of excellent quality and craftsmanship."

Xiao Linzi didn't mention the lotus seedpod ornament.

He was a little confused about what the Fourteenth Prince's family was trying to do. Lotus pods have many seeds, but who didn't know about their princess's situation?

Isn't this blatant mockery?

But if you say they have bad intentions, then the other three gifts are exceptionally valuable.

Xi Qiao chuckled lightly, "You're in the Yuanmingyuan Garden, so you don't know much about what's happening in the palace and the capital. I wonder what the Fourteenth Prince has done lately to incur the Emperor's wrath. If he didn't still have a shred of reason left, I'm afraid he might be..."

She looked meaningfully at the gift list in her hand: "These things are not for me, but rather the Fourteenth Prince's residence pleading with the Emperor to show weakness."

"Since Guanyin is compassionate, this is to ask the Emperor for mercy; the mandarin ducks symbolize deep brotherly affection, this is to ask the Emperor to consider the bond between brothers."

"Jade seals are mostly official seals, and the fourteen seals also allude to the Fourteenth Prince. This means that the Fourteenth Prince resigned from his official post and no longer coveted power and the court. The lotus seedpod contains lotus seeds, and the lotus seeds pity the children, which is a request for the Emperor to have pity on the Fourteenth Prince's young children."

Xiao Linzi didn't know what had happened, but with the emperor asking for mercy and the prince voluntarily relinquishing his title to preserve his bloodline, what terrible thing had the Fourteenth Prince done?

"Princess, what should we do with these things sent from the Fourteenth Prince's residence?"

Xi Qiao put down the gift list and returned it to Xiao Linzi along with the other lists: "Make a copy of these lists, send someone to the palace to give to Xiao Lezi, and then have him deliver them to the Emperor and hand them over to Su Peisheng as soon as possible. Tell him that I am apprehensive and ask the Emperor for instructions on how to handle these things."

Although the details of these things may have already appeared on the emperor's desk, this did not prevent her from using the matter to reinforce the emperor's stereotype of her as timid, cowardly, and obedient.

Xiao Linzi carefully put away the gift lists from the royal family, and then handed over the remaining lists: "Princess, these... I've taken a quick look at them. Although they're not rare or precious items, they're still quite valuable."

In particular, the Ma family, the maternal family of the lady of the house, presented a three-inch-tall gold Buddha and a four-courtyard house located in the outer city.

Xi Qiao saw it too; it was written on the first page.

"When the head steward gave these lists to the servants, he specifically said that the golden Buddha was a congratulatory gift from the Ma family to the princess, and the house was an apology gift from the Wusu clan to you and the Empress."

The matriarch of the Ma family came from the Wusu clan. The Ma family and the Wusu family had bullied their mistress quite a bit back then.

"Princess, please look at these two. The Zhang and Lin families on these are the husband's families of the Second and Fourth Aunts of the manor. In addition to the ones sent by their husband's families, they also sent an extra copy, specifically naming the Princess."

These two married aunts are no good either! They've bullied and humiliated the princess and empress quite a bit.

However, according to the housekeeper, ever since the news spread that the Yu family had misappropriated the old lady's dowry, the two of them have not had a good time in their husbands' homes.

Xi Qiao raised an eyebrow and pulled out the second gift list to examine it closely: "Three white fox pelts, five silver fox pelts, ten otter pelts, a box of deer antlers, and one fifty-year-old ginseng root."

This one was sent by Yu Yuan.

Looking at the generous gift, Xi Qiao said thoughtfully, "I vaguely remember that the current governor of Jilin is Zhang Tingyu. What is the relationship between the Zhang family that Yu Yuan married into and Zhang Tingyu?"

Fox fur, deer antler, and ginseng are typical specialties of Northeast China.

Xiao Linzi's eyes lit up. He really didn't expect that his princess could guess 80% of the information he had specially inquired about just by looking at the gift list.

"Replying to Your Highness, the second son-in-law's grandfather was named Zhang Tingzan, who was the elder brother of Lord Zhang Tingyu. However, the second son-in-law was born out of wedlock, so the relationship is rather distant."

But no matter how far away, it's still the Zhang family's place!

Given the Yu family's financial situation, Yu Yuan was definitely marrying into a higher social class.

Xi Qiao narrowed his eyes slightly and said nothing more.

Xiao Linzi wisely refrained from asking further questions and instead spoke of Yu Yang's husband's family: "Fourth son-in-law is the eldest son of the family. Although the Lin family is wealthy, none of them hold official positions in the court. I heard that back then, the Lin family paid no less than 30,000 taels of silver as a dowry to marry Fourth Miss."