Chapter 49: Her Retaliation is Ruthlessly Fair
As Shengli and Xing left, Feiye looked at AoTian who was in deep thoughts.
"AoTian you should really admire the way the contract was written. That Lord Ming should be really good, don’t you think?"
"Yes, should be... The contract explains everything and Chu Yixin has no way to claim anything. There were even witnesses to prove everything was done with his conscious mind, so he or his heirs can have no claim to those lands anymore. But why did she give twenty percentage of the profits and kept the change of ownership as secret? He still wanderers around as a Lord even though he has nothing to his name", AoTian grunted.
"Xiao Tian, you didn’t know of the talks among the officials these days? Apparently the situation in the East has improved in the past year and people are receiving their salaries properly. Also many of the middle management people who worked for the Chu family had been replaced by new people and most of them are from the West and there are rumours that they are those bastard kids who grew up in the Heavenly Flowers Palace. Of course those Noble kids from there were not happy about it and tried to get rid of them but seems like the common people had grew a liking to them and even the Nobles could not do nothing much as they have the backing of the Heavenly Flowers Palace. They even talk to the government officials on behalf of people as they are well educated in the laws of the land and treat the people well too. I bet it was all part of her plan", he smirked.
AoTian’s eyes widened in surprise. Of course when he had heard from the Emperor that there was someone who could give the same advise as him, he never thought that one would be his daughter.. She sure is wise.
In the Ming family’s case since the Emperor intervened personally, people had no choice but to accept the change in ownership of the lands they had worked for generations. But for someone unknown and with no background as Lord Táng, even though she had the support of Heavenly Flowers Palace and she got everything fairly, the people in the East will not accept her. They were already suffering and a sudden change in ownership would only spook them and Lord Chu may use their fear to his benefit and start a riot or worse not accepting his defeat. He even has a private military too. After all people always prefer to live adjusting to known evil than the unknown,even though there is the possibility of the unknown to be better than the evil they already know. That’s how Nobles had stayed in power for generations.
So she first distracted Lord Chu with a generous twenty percentage when he thought he had lost it all as if she was paying him to look after her properties. The proud Lord Chu thinking that his loss won’t be outed agreed and tried to live as usual. She used that chance to replace his loyal people to people who are loyal to her and gained the support of the people there using them. Now people there who had seen better life will be grateful to the ones who had helped them recently and now if by some way they reveal the change in ownership, even Lord Chu and his military cannot do much as people still remember the atrocities the Chu family had committed for generations oppressing the common people.
"My daughter sure is wise.. Beating my enemy in his own game although for a petty reason. But I am happy", AoTian grinned. Soon his expression turned somber, "But I wonder how she managed to take Xu Mama who was always loyal to me to her side in just weeks. She even hid Shengli’s stay in her room last night from me. Huh! What should I do?", he asked Feiye.
"Little brother, let me give you some advise. If you want Mingxia to get along with you, you’ll have to be nice to Shengli. You heard her today right? My boy and the Ming boy are important to her. As for Xu Mama she is not reckless as she always has your interest in her heart so give her some slack", Feiye said patting AoTian’s back.
"I know", AoTian poured some tea for himself, " But brother, how do you know this much about the official’s gossips?", he asked.
Feiye chuckled, "I’m just a fourth ranked official and not as important as you, the Prime Minister and I do have a lot of time to spare for tea and other merriment with my colleagues. You should try to enjoy yourself once a while too, little brother! ".
"You go out for ’tea’ and first brother visits brothels and are you blaming me for following the rules of our family", AoTian questioned.