Charity.
Rich people loved charity. Through that I could help people with my money and I could improve our family's reputation. It's killing two birds with one stone.
It's a perfect way to put our family's name back into the society.
"Old lady, you have a letter from the first master."
I raised my eyebrow in surprise. In the four months since he was banished, he had never written a letter to his old mother. Well probably because he was iliterate. But he could very well ask someone to write for him!
As for the reason why everyone accepted why I could read and write, I believed it's probably a bug from the game. All the better. Saved me the time to explain and fake studying.
I took the letter from Sparrow and read through the letter.
I snorted in contempt. "As expected, nothing good comes from him. Send a servant to bring his precious concubine back to the capital. Oh send a doctor as well. He's demanding a raise of pocket money because his concubine is expecting a son. Who knows if it's going to be a son or daughter? Tell him not to worry, I will take good care of his concubine and his child. Don't worry about not able to handle everything with a gold coin per month. We relieve him from his stress."
I rolled my eyes. A gold coin per month was a lot in the countryside. And this pergnant concubine was a new one he 'rescued' on the road. And according to plan, he should still be on the road. This explained the +(1) on the panel. I humphed. Seemed like one school was expecting a new student.
"Sparrow, bring me the documents listing out our properties. Do we have villas?"
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"Old lady, are you really going to do that? It's going be a huge commitment" Sparrow asked nervously.
I smiled at her and nodded my head.
What type of charity should I do? I have pondered on it. I decided to turn a villa in the country side into an orphange. An orphange for girls.
As I had mentioned, this world did not treat girls nicely. Families prefer boys, especially farmers. Sometimes when they're too poor, they decided to sell their girls to dealers. If the girls were lucky, they might be sold into large household as servants, if they're not, they would be sold into prostitue house. Sometimes their parents might even kill them directly when they're infants.
I could not change the world, I did not have the power. But I could help them with what I had. I had money, if I could save one little girl, it's one more girl saved in this world.
I decided that I would hire some female tutors for them too, I had a few on the list that were screened out when I hired tutors for my granddaughters. The orphans would be fed and taught. Hopefully equipped with a skill that helped with their survival when they grew up.
The orphange would be girls only, only female staffs would be hired to provide more opportunities for widows. To protect the villa from bandits, I would just send some loyal male servants from the family to keep guard around the villa.
"Let's start the preparation first, the construction team we hired last time is quite good. Contact them. We will start with the villa in the east, more villages are around that area. Get me the list with female tutors, we will contact a few. And ask around the older female servants in the estates, if they want to work in the villa, they can apply."
When everything is prepared, all that's left is promotion, I thought. This time I would definitely earn a few prestige!
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I was walking past the garden when I saw the wives of my three sons trying to peek into the courtyard their sons were currently studying in.
"What are they doing?" I asked Sparrow.
"The madams miss their children. They wander between the two courtyards nearly everyday, in the hope that they can hear their voice."
"No wonder it's been so silent these few weeks. They no longer clutter in my house every morning."
"Old lady you ordered them not to! If they could, they would!"
"Well, they're too noisy. Don't they have anything better to do? Go out shopping or something?"
"They only have 2 gold coins each month, so they'd rather not."
"2 gold coins are quite a lot for couch potatoes," I humphed. "Bring them with us." I ordered.
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I regretted, sitting in the same carriage with my three daughters in law was a nightmare.
"Mother, where are you bringing us?" one asked excitedly.
"Are we going shopping?"
I raised my hand to stop their chittering, I was getting a headache.
"Sparrow, you tell them."
"We're going to the city gate. We're going to give out porridge to those villagers who lost their farm produce this year due to the floods."
My three daughters in law opened their mouth and then closed again, at a lost of words.
"Mother, you'd rather spend money on them than us?" cried my first daughter in law.
I had this urge to slap her on her head like how Mr Crow did to me.
I took a deep breath and said, "We're helping people, that's all you have to know."
And to build up our reputation from debris, thanks to your dear husband.
"If you want to get your 2 gold coins next month, you put on a smile and distribute the bowls of porridge." I smiled graciously.
My three daughters in law shuddered and nodded solemnly.
"Where are your smiles?"
They quirked up the corners of their mouths in response.
I nodded with satisfaction.
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My three daughters in law were busy handing out the porridge with tight smiles on their face.
The servants I brought with me were busy organizing the crowds into lines. It's about time, I gave Sparrow a nod.
Sparrow took out a gong and struck on it.
"Sir and Madam, allow our old lady from the Chiu's family to say a few words."
The crowds whispered among themselves, as if trying to find out who the Chius were.
"The Emperor," I bowed reverently in the direction of the palace, "bestows blessings on us the Chius, it's our responsibility to assist the Emperor whenever we can. We might not work in the government, but we the Chius can do what we can. We are setting up porridge stalls for three days per week for one month."
Cheers echoed throughout the crowds. They were mainly villagers near the capitals. Last year, there were heavy rainfalls for nearly one month. This greatly affected their land's produce. All they could do was to flood to the capital in the hope of looking for job and begging for food.
"Also, the Chiu's family is starting our first orphange for girls. We accept girls of all ages, in return you will get a bag of rice and 50 copper coins."
I gave them more than enough, I have asked Sparrow how much the girls were usually sold for. And the answer was saddening. It was just merely 50 copper coins. We will give them a small bag of rice to further raise the incentive.
From the uproar from the crowds, my event was a success.
YOU ARE READING
After transporting into a game, I became the Family Head
Historical FictionWhen I opened my eyes, I was thrown into a game and become Old Lady Lau, the matriarch of the family. Apparently I was sent to a ripped off game of Crusaders King and now to return to my own world I have to turn my butcher family into the most pres...