299. V4C299: Family, National, and World Affairs (III)

“But… the maids and eunuchs in the Palace of Tranquility are the most…” Minglan got a bit dazed with her heart missing a beat. As a senior in the Palace, Empress Dowager De had much more servants than the new Empress and Empress Dowager An.

“That’s right.” Madam Geng sounded quite joyful about that.

“Did Empress Dowager De… agree to that?” Minglan, a bit startled, asked that timidly.

“I heard that this matter has been discussed in the imperial court for a few days.” Madam Duan said in a soft voice, “However, now our national treasury is empty and the investigation in this hasn’t finished. Since our emperor is willing to cut the expense in his own Palace, who would dare to argue with that? Let alone the two empress dowagers could keep more servants than anyone else, even our emperor.”

Minglan understood her words right now. Then she went stiff for a long while and was not able to utter a single word. What a tough move the Emperor had made!

The waterside pavilion fell into silence for a while. Then Little Shen shi said,

“The Palace of Tranquility is a bustling place recently. A few beauties are reluctant to leave and crying all day. I think they even threatened to suicide themselves.” Her voice sounded breezy like the wind, “This morning, the eunuch from the Imperial Household Department went to the Palace of Tranquility to take those girls away with the imperial edict. By the way, the two gorgeous girls we saw that day are among them—” She drawled happily, “On that day, Empress Dowager De has said that the two girls are old enough to get married and their marriage couldn’t be delayed anymore. Now she got just what she wanted.”

The women there went silent again. After a long while, Minglan said in a low voice, “I wonder which guys they will marry?” Why did she never stop worrying about something like this today?

Madam Geng was hostile to any women who wanted to be concubines, and then she snorted right away, “They will live their married life of course. Doing labor, giving birth to children, dealing with all the family affairs, those are the things all the women will do. As long as they are willing to lead a good life and stop having those evil thoughts, they would be safe and sound. The men who are qualified to marry the women from the Imperial Palace would never be mediocre. Otherwise, well…”

The word ‘well’ she uttered sounded quite threatening, suggesting that she was probably thinking of something against the domestic violence regulation in the Marriage Law.

Actually, after those women had gone to the north border, they would never be able to make any waves as the wives of the leaders of the troops. It would be better if those women were willing to lead an ordinary life. If they were the kind of women who set their goals of enchanting the noble men and measured their happiness by material things, it was hard to say what would happen to them. Moreover… Minglan glanced at Little Shen shi secretly. Once those women were out of the palace, the marriages of the ones whom Minglan had met before surely couldn’t be decided by Empress Dowager De anymore.

After Madam Guan gave some small talks, the atmosphere in the pavilion became harmonious again. As the conversation lasted for a while, Minglan asked them to stay for lunch with a smile, “Master said that he wouldn’t come back today. I have already asked them to prepare a table of delicious dishes and game, let us drink together.”

However, her sincere invitation was declined by all those women.

“I can’t.” Madam Duan waved her hand and laughed joyfully, “I know you have the great dishes here, but I need to go back to deal with an affair this afternoon.”

Madam Zhong said smilingly, “That’s right. Today was the first time I went to the Palace. My family are waiting for the news now, I have to go back.” Madam Geng also said, “Maybe next time. After you finish the construction in your mansion, we’ll get together to have some drinks.”

Minglan chuckled and then looked to Little Shen shi, saying with a smile, “What about you? I know you don’t have to take care of your whole family!”

However, Little Shen shi also waved her hand and sighed deeply, “I have to go to the Purple Smoke Shop. My niece will go to school soon. I’ve agreed to accompany my sister-in-law to buy the four treasures for studying for girls. I’ve already ordered a green jade set.”

“Hey, what a considerate sister-in-law you are!” Madam Duan bantered, “The Zheng family has got a great woman.”

Little Shen shi, face turning red, said bashfully, “Elder Sister-In-Law is like mother to me.”

The most depressing thing for Little Shen shi was that her mother-in-law was gentle with a weak body and not hard to serve at all, but her eldest sister-in-law was the most reserved madam in the capital. Due to First Madam Zheng’s seniority and reticent character, she was well respected by everyone in the Zheng family. As long as she gave Little Shen shi a glare, the latter would get even more scared than when meeting the emperor.

Minglan then sent everyone off. At last, she bid farewell to Little Shen shi with a pitiful look, “You know a lazy girl like me never likes to go out. If you feel bored, just come to have a chat with me.”

“Of course, you lazy girl! In most cases, when I go to your place, I would see you climbing up from the bed.”

Little Shen shi felt touched deeply. She came from a remote region and was still not able to integrate into the group of noble madams in the capital because she had a hard time adapting to the accent and the rules here. As a result, she had to try hard to stand on her dignity, afraid that others would laugh at her. Only Minglan was able to make her feel relaxed.

Hearing Little Shen shi’s words, Minglan stopped being sympathetic and said, “Nonsense, that’s the Xiangfei couch.”

Before Little Shen shi could say ‘what’s the difference’, she was pushed onto the couch by Minglan who was pulling a long face.

After lunch, Minglan felt it was inappropriate for her to stay lazy anymore since she had been stimulated more or less. So she skipped her afternoon nap and called Rong over to check the latter’s study. However, to Minglan’s surprise, after she got ready and showed great expectation, Rong stammered and couldn’t answer any of the questions.

It was reasonable that she couldn’t answer the questions on the books, but Minglan was shocked to find that this girl didn’t even know The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars. As a result, she recited one third of the article by making up the content by herself. For example, the content ‘tasting the excrement makes me worried’ was changed to ‘tasting the shit bothers me’ while the ‘bury the son for the mother’ to ‘kill the daughter to eat the flesh’.

Minglan almost fainted. Rong’s grades declined again without Xian’s supervision and encouragement.

“Perhaps the things I have recited were all true.” Rong argued for herself with an anxious look, “and just haven’t been widely spread.”

Minglan looked at the little girl helplessly, having no intention to sleep at all. Well, she couldn’t blame everything on the little girl.

She found long ago that Gong Hongxiao was indeed not a learned person. Not only was her teaching style very dull, but her knowledge was quite limited. Not only that, but she made mistakes from time to time. Minglan assumed that Gong Hongxiao had forgotten about most of what she had learned in her childhood. Since the students lacked respect for the teacher’s morals or knowledge, the failure in the teaching result was unavoidable.

As a matter of fact, Minglan was qualified for the teaching job, because she had studied the whole set of Four Books for Females, Women’s Principle, Stories of Chaste Women, Poems for Paragon of Chastity which she thought to be the poison of feudalism. Also, she had learned a lot from Sir Zhuang’s lecture.

It was easy for Minglan to teach the little girl in front of her. However, she was not willing to do that.

As she and Rong spent time with each other longer, she only found the latter like Gu Tingye a lot, wild, stubborn, fully interested in challenging the established rules and having lots of weird reasons in mind. The day before yesterday, she taught Rong one chapter in The Analects for Women in which there was a sentence ‘Late in the morning, still not get up.’ Hearing that, this little girl stared at Minglan with a teasing look right away.

Minglan felt awkward at once. It was already quite hard for her to explain the importance of learning in high spirits to Rong.

In Minglan’s previous life, the people she usually dealt with had either been the slow-witted victims or cunning defendants, so she nearly had zero experience in getting along with children. Now, she didn’t even know how to educate her own kid if she really gave birth to one, not to mention the girl who had no kinship with her.

She pondered for a long while. Then, thinking of the information she had heard just now, she then decided to ask the professionals to handle this, in order to protect her brain and mental health.

“How about this,” Minglan drew a deep sigh, “you can go to school now.”

Rong blinked her big black eyes, looking innocent and naïve like a small rabbit.