Chapter 154 Tear the Face

Guan Suyi didn’t like to socialize and didn’t know many people, but she had deep impression of this woman. She nodded and asked, “This person’s name is Ji Ting? The eldest daughter of the second house of Ji Mansion?”

“Miss, do you know her?” Jinzi was greatly surprised, and immediately said, “She is Ji Ting, the eldest daughter of the second house of Ji Mansion, because her husband spoiled the concubine and destroyed the wife, she had to bring her only daughter Qian Shuiyao and reconciled with him. However, the second house has no power or authority, and she lost her father since she was young. She has younger brother and sister and a daughter to take care of, and has her infirm and sick mother to support. Her life is really difficult. As a last resort, she has to embroider some patterns and take them to the cloth shop to sell. Gradually she and the steward of the cloth shop developed some feelings, and wanted to remarry. The steward was from a poor background with only a meager monthly income, but he was willing to help her support her family. The two originally had already exchanged Eight Characters card, Second Madam Ji also agreed, but unexpectedly the marriage was reported to Master Ji, which made him furious. He sent someone to Qian’s house to ask them take Qian Shuiyao back, and then ordered Ji Ting to shave her hair and accompany the green lightsbasically become a nun. Today is the day the Qian family supposed to come to pick her up, his family spoiled the concubine and destroyed the wife, and the back house was filthy and chaotic, if Qian Shuiyao was really taken away, her life and death in the future is difficult to say.

“Ah? Is there such thing? Master Ji is too cruel! That’s his niece, she’s just remarrying, what could hinder him?” Minglan said angrily.

Guan Suyi put down the teacup, her tone became colder, “Hindering his face is a capital offense. A pedantic person like him regards ethical dogma as more important than human life. Ji Ting reconciled has already hurt his heart and lungs, now she wants to remarry, and her husband is a commoner from a humble background, how can he bear it? Naturally, he must greatly punish her to show off his prestige as the head of the family.”

For that kind of people, their own authority and face were the most important, so who cares about other people’s life and death? In her previous life, when “Lesson for women” was popular in Yanjing, Ji Ting was supposed to remarry, but was forced by Master Ji to become a nun, breaking off her engagement. Qian Shuiyao was killed by her father’s concubine less than a year after she returned home, but it was said that her eight character was bad and clashed with the Qian family. Not only did she not have a tomb to be buried, she didn’t even get a thin coffin, just dug a pit in the wilderness and hastily buried. Ji Ting was devastated after hearing the news. She ran to her daughter’s grave overnight and dug her out with her bare hands. The mother and daughter hugged and died quietly.

The steward had a deep love for her, and spent all his family wealth to buy a coffin and hold a funeral for the two of them, but because of this, he angered Master Ji. His legs were broken off and he expelled from the capital, since then his whereabouts were unknown. Second Madam Ji became mad and died in the back house of Ji Mansion within a few years. A pair of siblings had no support, one tried to assassinate his uncle with no success, and instead was sent to death in prison; one was forced to marry an old man in his fifties or sixties as his successor, and died within a few years.

The experience of the second house of Ji Mansion was thousands of times more miserable than Guan Suyi, and it was also another wound that was left in her heart. Seeing Ji Ting was still alive, she could hardly suppress the surging hatred in her heart, and walked over step by step.

At this time, the people watching had already inquired about the situation and said contemptuously, “What are you kneeling for? Reconcile then just reconcile, but you took away the children of the husband’s family, and still delusionally wanted to carry the daughter to remarry. Really lost personal morals, how dare you have the face to beg?”

“Yeah. The husband only has a few concubines, why make a fuss to the point of reconcile? It is the mistress’s responsibility to spread branches and leaves for the husband’s family. If you can’t have children, are you still not allow the concubines to have children? If the husband’s family have no heir, even you die then thousand times still cannot escape the blame.”

“There are always some people in the world who are deviating from the norm, and ending up like today only has themselves to blame. Looking around, which man in Wei doesn’t accept concubines? If everyone is like you, wouldn’t it be all messed up? The concubine is just a husband’s plaything. If you can’t even tolerate this, how can you still talk about managing the family, assisting your husband and educate your children?”

“If you want to remarry, you can report it to Madam Ji, can she not find a good match for you? You actually privately communicated with a lowly commoner, and secretly agreed marry. Only sending you to the family temple is already considered merciful! Quickly get up, don’t kneel, the husband’s children should be returned to the husband’s family, even if you talk until the sky is broken, it still doesn’t make sense.”

Ji Ting just kowtowed resolutely, choked and cried, “You can’t give Yao’er back! Cuihong will kill her! Eldest aunt, I beg you to save her! You want me to break off the engagement then I can, or let me become a nun I also can, as long as you can save Yao’er, I’m willing to do anything!” She had a bloody wound on her forehead, and the blood mixed with tears, but it could not win the slightest sympathy from others.

These women, men, all looked at her with contempt, as if she had done something really sinful. However, she just wanted to find a good home with her daughter, was that wrong? She just wanted to let her daughter grow up safely, was that wrong?

Great despair and mourning took over her heart, made her almost fainted.

At this moment, Madam Ji took out a booklet from her sleeve and said slowly, “Our Ji family is also a Confucian family, and we understand propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame very well. After a woman gets married, she should take her husband as the sky, faithful unto death*the original meaning is ‘from the beginning to the end’ which means being dedicated and consistent, but later it was extended to the feudal dogma that a woman should not remarry. This is then an exemplary woman, the best of women’s virtue. You were restless in the house, then asked to get reconcile, this is the first sin; Taking away the children of the husband’s family, and mess up other people’s bloodline, this is the second sin; Privately communicate and secretly set marriage with lowly commoner, this is the third sin. You are so sinful, for what reason you still have the face to beg me? The reputation of my Ji family’s women has been ruined by you. Come on, take her away quickly!” She then raised her eyes to Guan Suyi, and said softly, “I also sent a copy of “Lesson for Women” to Miss Guan, have you read it? If you have, do you think I’m right or wrong in treating Ji Ting like this?”

Most of the people present were the young ladies, young masters, and madams of Confucian families. If the Emperor Teacher Mansion wanted to let her marry, they could only choose from these families. If she answered incorrectly, everyone would immediately attack her; if she answered correctly, in the future don’t even think to remarry, just directly become a nun. This question was extremely sinister, and the people around her were already showing cold and stern eyes, obviously they have classified her as an unchaste and immoral woman like Ji Ting, and itching to exiled her.

Guan Suyi looked at Xu Yayan, who was standing outside the crowd, looking extremely serene, and at Ji Chengyue, who was hiding in the crowd, his eyes were evasive, and suddenly chuckled, “Madam Ji’s move is a big mistake!”

The crowd immediately burst into uproar, and some people stood up to argue with her, but she blocked them with her sentence, “Don’t be too fast opening your mouth to reveal your ignorance and stupidity. Even if I dictate what is right and what is wrong today, I am afraid you will not understand. Jinzi, Minglan, serve the brush and ink.”

She rolled up her sleeves and sat down gracefully. Jinzi immediately took out the brush, ink, paper and inkstone from the bundle she carried with her, and laid them out one by one. Minglan poured some tea into the inkstone and grinded it.

Seeing this, Xu Yayan walked in immediately and said coldly, “Miss Guan wants to attack us again? Do you think that women should not respect their husbands, be filial to their in-laws, and be kind to their concubines? Some people are willing to be chaste and virtuous, faithful unto death; Some people want to deviate from the norm and become restless in the house. Each person has their own choices and ways of living. You are a reconcile person, do you think all women in the world should also reconcile? You want to remarry, do you think all women in the world should remarry? Miss Guan, with all due respect, your way of thinking is already heretical, so don’t mislead the public anymore!”

“I will not comment whether a woman lowly or not for the time being. I will only refute you on one point, whether women should or should not remarry.” Guan Suyi glanced at her and wrote fast, she finished writing in three quarters of an hour. Everyone was waiting to see her joke, but they also didn’t dare to disturb her.

“Who pride themselves of being visionary? Come up and read.” Her eyes were sharp and her expression was solemn.

Ji Chengyue came up after a moment of hesitation, slowly reading, “The people are the foundation of the country, and without people, there is no country. Therefore, the establishment of a country lies in nurturing the people, and the prosperity of a country lies in strengthening the people…”

This was a policy argument based on the foundational of the country, not an attacking article that everyone thought. This article did not involve the content of “Lesson for Women”, but discussed the importance of women’s remarriage from various aspects. At this time, it was the end of hundred years of war, and the Nine Continent, which had experienced the war, was already ten rooms and nine empty spaces*it means nine out of ten families have nothing, which describe the scene after a large number of people died or fled. The men were captured and forced to become soldier, and died under swords and horse’s hoof; The women tried to escape the chaos and suffered huge casualties; The old and weak, sick and disabled were left unattended, one after another lost their lives in the upheavals. Not only Wei Kingdom lacks people, Shu Prefecture lacks people, and the mainland of Shenzhou was broken and needed to be revitalized.

How to bring a scorched earth back to life? There was no other way but to breed. When the soldiers took off their armor and went back to their hometowns to farm, who didn’t want to marry a wife, and live and work in peace and contentment? However, the reality was that most of the young women died because of the wars, epidemics, and even exchanged for food as two-legged sheep*refers to a person eaten as food, in ancient times when wars are raging, the people were struggling to survive and had no choice but to cook and eat people. A moment of silent to be grateful that we live in current era!. Few women survived, and most of them that did were married women who were physically strong, but their husbands died on the battlefield, so they became widows. The decline of the population was accompanied by an imbalance in the ratio of men and women. If women were strictly prohibited from remarrying, the population of Wei would decrease again and again within a decade, and it would eventually become a country without people.

If the people do not exist, then how they become a country?

At the end of this statement, the article changed its tone again, from history, laws, and even the customs of the Jiuli people to express the importance of women’s remarriage to the country’s population growth. Whenever the mainland of Nine Continents encountered a long-term war, after the founding of the country, the monarch could issue a decree to encourage women to marry and have children. This was determined by the special circumstances of the country at that time, and also a major measure for population rejuvenation. There were historical records – if the parents did not marry their daughter until the age of seventeen, the head official would match her; It was also said that women at fifteen still not marry, the family could go to jail. It could be seen that if a woman did not marry, local officials could force her to marry, even count it as a crime, they could also set up official matchmaker to force men and women to marry. In order to revive the prestige of the clan, the Jiulu people even changed their customs. Marrying the stepmothers and older brother’s widows had become a tradition. Eventually, the population of the clan prospered and returned to its former glory.

The irrefutable evidence was listed one by one, and it was logical to conclude that the current Wei Kingdom not only could not prohibit women from remarrying, but also should encourage women to remarry, so that they could raise more children, and at the same time raise the country destroyed by the war. Men as the sky and women as the earth, the sky is high and the earth is deep, and both of them also shoulder the heavy responsibility of balancing the yin and yang.

After reading the article, Ji Chengyue was already red in the face and felt ashamed. The rest of the people were not fools either. Guan Suyi had already explained it so thoroughly, how could they not understand it? Not to mention that she brought out the law to support her point of view, the marriage customs of the Jiuli people alone could make everyone shut their mouth.

Xu Yayan was already dripping with cold sweat, and her soul was cracking. Only then did she understand how her father felt when he was completely refuted by Guan Suyi and on the verge of desperation. Is the emperor here? No, no, he must not come today!

Just thinking about this, there was a burst of applause from outside the crowd, and everyone turned around to look, only to see Emperor Sheng Yuan and several officials standing under the flower stand, holding a child with red lips and white teeth, delicate like polished jade. “Madam’s literary talent is brilliant and farsighted, it’s better than many men, not to mention a bunch of ignorant madams!” He said word by word.

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