Chapter 29: The Thrilling Imperial Proclamation of Rewards

Chapter 29: The Reward Proclamation That Set the City Abuzz

As soon as Yun Ran returned to the palace, she began writing a menu.

At the same time, she issued an imperial proclamation offering a reward for four crops: potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and peanuts.

Food is the backbone of any nation. Although Yanchi wasn't big, surely at least one of these crops could be found somewhere.

Yun Ran blew on the ink to dry it, then gave a little wave of her hand.

"Yuanbao."

Yuanbao, who had been diligently memorizing his lessons, quickly straightened up and hurried over.

"How's the memorizing going?"

Recently, Yun Ran had written out a practical first aid manual and instructed Yuanbao to memorize it word for word, so she wouldn't be caught unprepared in an emergency. Medical care here was basically nonexistent, and life trumped everything—she wasn't about to kick the bucket before building her empire.

For the past few days, Yuanbao had been memorizing it standing up, sitting down, while eating, and even on the john. The booklet was starting to soak up the stink.

What his master wrote was way over his head—he couldn't make heads or tails of half the terms, and he had to swallow his pride and ask for explanations all day long.

He'd gone over the Heimlich maneuver a dozen times by himself.

Could there really be such a weird way to save someone in this world?

Yuanbao was scratching his head, but with no one to test it on and nobody in that kind of trouble right now, he had to shelve it for the time being.

Seeing Yuanbao spacing out, Yun Ran smirked and tapped his noggin with the brush handle.

"Spacing out? Go on, get this notice out and post it in every town and county. This is crucial—don't screw it up!"

"Got it, Your Majesty."

At the imperial city gate,

the freshly printed proclamation was up on the board, while a young guard next to it hollered at the top of his lungs.

"Roll up, roll up! The emperor's offering a reward! Find any of the four crops on this list and where they grow, and you can come to the palace to claim your prize! Cold, hard cash—don't miss out!"

A reward?!

The scholars who'd swarmed over at first lost interest the second they heard "crops" and shuffled off.

"Pfft, who knows anything about crops? We're scholars—we don't dirty our hands with that kind of grubby stuff."

"Right? Taking that reward would be so beneath us!"

Instead, a sharp-eyed young scholar in a faded cloth robe elbowed his way to the front and asked the guard politely.

"Hey, mister, how much is the reward for finding these?"

The guard had his orders straight from the palace—the eunuch had told him to hype this up big-time. Seeing someone bite, he jumped right into the details.

"This reward? Let's just say it could change your whole family's fortune!"

Old Liu, the candied hawthorn vendor nearby, let out a scornful snort.

"Oh yeah? How much silver we talkin'? Tell this old man—I've never seen a reward that could change anybody's fate in all my days."

The guard's temper flared at the old man's sneer. He rolled his eyes, leaned in close to Old Liu's ear, and whispered a number.

"Wait, how much?! Whoa!"

The number hit Old Liu so hard he lost his footing, tripped over his own hawthorn pole, and landed square on his butt.

Seeing Old Liu's shock, Da Lang, the peddler nearby, and the young women passing by all got curious and crowded in to ask.

"Hey, man, how much silver is it? Look how it spooked him!"

The guard puffed up his chest like the money was coming out of his own pocket and announced at the top of his lungs.

"By the emperor's decree, anyone who finds one of these crops gets five hundred taels of silver! Four crops total, and you get paid once for each one—first come, first served! Latecomers only get fifty taels."

"Holy cow, forget fifty taels—give me twenty and I could build a brick house in the village, get hitched, buy a few acres of good land, and make my ancestors proud!"

Indeed,

an ordinary family could scrape by on three to five taels a year, and village life was even cheaper—two taels could feed a family of five.

A reward that big hit everyone right in the gut.

Not just the village girls working as maids or the shop hands—even the small-time merchants and peddlers were green with envy.

Sure, they'd managed to rent a shop in Chang'an,

but they only pulled in about a hundred taels a year. Who wouldn't drool over five hundred taels?

The crowd scattered in a flash.

This was free money—no chasing down criminals, just hunting for crops. Too easy!

Why not run home, round up the whole family, and head out? What were they waiting for?

Even the heroes on the chivalry board had caught wind of the proclamation.

It was up in every town and county across the land, and some heroes had already ripped it down and taken the job.

Everyone figured this had to be a hell of a lot easier than tracking down a fugitive.