The young woman trembled all over with anger. Though filled with indignation, she couldn’t utter a single word.

The maid holding the young woman tightly, her face covered in tears, couldn’t bear it any longer and screamed heartrendingly: “The gods watch from three feet above! Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning for slandering our miss like this? Our miss has served her in-laws diligently day and night for all these years since marrying into the Bai family, never showing the slightest lack of devotion. You always claimed to treat our miss as your daughter – is this how you treat a daughter?!”

“Bah! You shameless, filthy wretch! If I had a daughter like you, I would have strangled her long ago rather than let her live!” The clan elder’s wife threw away all pretense, raising her voice to curse loudly.

Seeing that quite a few common people had gathered to watch the excitement, all standing by the river looking and discussing, the clan elder knew… this time, there was no way to drown his daughter-in-law. After all, with Bai Qingyan currently implementing new laws, if they forcibly drowned someone, given Bai Qingyan’s ruthless style that recognized no family ties, she would certainly use their family as an example.

“Enough!” The clan elder looked deeply at Lu Ping and spoke: “This matter… let’s just drop it!”

“Master!” The clan elder’s wife widened her eyes, unable to believe her husband would really just let it go like this. “She wants to remarry!”

The clan elder gripped his walking stick with both hands, looking at the young woman trembling all over: “Since you’re determined not to be a woman of my Bai family, then I’ll fulfill your wish and give you a divorce letter on behalf of my son!”

Though the Bai clan elder had no choice but to back down, he was still furious and spoke deliberately: “Our Bai clan is now imperial relatives by marriage! You’re leaving the Bai family today – I hope you won’t regret it in the future! I’m putting this out there… your maiden family can’t afford to offend our Bai family. After you’re divorced, you definitely won’t be able to return to your maiden family! And in the future… no matter who you marry, the Bai family won’t forget this great humiliation and won’t let you have good days. These words… when they reach your cousin’s ears, I hope your cousin still has the guts to dare marry you!”

Just as the clan elder finished speaking, they heard the sound of an angry horse neighing behind them.

The clan elder turned to look and saw Bai Qingyan leading the charge on horseback. He immediately panicked, hurriedly pulling his wife and servants to kneel in greeting, sweat breaking out all over his forehead.

Wasn’t it said that Bai Qingyan was going to the Imperial Academy today? So many people had gone to the Imperial Academy to watch the excitement – how did Bai Qingyan appear here again?

“Welcome, Your Majesty!” The Bai clan elder hurriedly kowtowed and called out, his posture respectful.

The people watching the excitement also hadn’t expected that Great Zhou’s Female Emperor would personally arrive, and they all knelt and kowtowed in greeting.

Seeing Bai Qingyan arrive, Lu Ping also led the Bai family guards to kneel on one knee in salute: “Eldest Miss!”

“Uncle Ping, you’ve worked hard. Please rise!” Bai Qingyan said, looking toward the master and servant who were protected behind the Bai family guards, crying uncontrollably and holding each other tightly. “First, help your mistress onto the carriage and change out of her wet clothes.”

The young woman came to her senses and hurriedly brought her stunned maid to kowtow to Bai Qingyan: “Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Bai Qihe rushed to catch up but was still a step behind Bai Qingyan. When he arrived, he just saw the young woman being helped onto the carriage that Bai Qingyan had ordered brought, and immediately dismounted to salute Bai Qingyan.

“Does the clan leader know about this matter?” Bai Qingyan’s gaze fell on Bai Qihe, who was kneeling and kowtowing.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, Bai Qihe has only just received the news.” Bai Qihe knew he had failed in his duties again and hurriedly kowtowed to Bai Qingyan. “As clan leader, Bai Qihe failed to manage the clan members properly. Please punish me, Your Majesty!”

“Clan leader, please rise first…” Bai Qingyan held her riding whip and stood with her hands behind her back, her cold gaze looking down at the clan elder kneeling on the ground. “Knowing that the new laws now encourage widows to remarry, as a member of the Bai clan, not only do you not support the new laws, but you also want to drown a woman who wishes to remarry. Clan elder… are you trying to oppose Great Zhou’s new laws?”

Bai Qingyan spoke slowly and gently, but each word seemed to carry the weight of a thousand gold, suddenly crushing the clan elder’s spine. The clan elder hurriedly kowtowed, his voice trembling: “Reporting… reporting to Your Majesty, although there are national laws, clans have clan rules. I acted according to clan rules and did nothing wrong!”

“Clan rules…” Bai Qingyan narrowed her eyes. “Bai clan rules… forbid Bai family widows from remarrying?”

Bai Qihe hurriedly stepped forward: “Reporting to Your Majesty, there has never been such a rule. The clan laws stipulate… if a woman doesn’t maintain wifely virtue and commits adultery, she should be drowned! If a woman commits adultery with someone within the clan or with household servants, then both should be drowned together.”

“Your Majesty!” The clan elder kowtowed again. “Drowning this cheap woman was not because she wanted to remarry, but because this cheap woman was already flirting with her cousin before remarrying, having unclear relations with other men, and damaging the Bai family’s reputation. According to clan rules… such cheap women should be drowned.”

Bai Qingyan paced to the pig cage still hanging with water weeds and asked: “Have you caught the adulterer? Who is the adulterer?”

The clan elder hadn’t expected this matter would blow up. Only when he heard Bai Qingyan’s question did he randomly give this reason.

“Your Majesty, she wants to remarry her widowed cousin – isn’t this solid evidence? Her cousin lost his wife… my son also died unnaturally. Who knows… maybe she and her cousin conspired together to kill my son and her cousin’s wife!” The clan elder’s wife cried and shouted. “Your Majesty, you must seek justice for us!”

Bai Qingyan stared at the pig cage, her eyes growing colder: “Where’s the solid evidence?”

The clan elder didn’t dare lift his head, turned around while kneeling to kowtow to Bai Qingyan, trembling all over: “We… we haven’t obtained solid evidence yet.”

“Without obtaining solid evidence, you privately used torture and treated human life lightly.” Bai Qingyan turned to look at the clan elder, her fingers stroking the black gold riding whip. “Dealing with matters according to clan laws and rules is the clan leader’s right, but you secretly handled a Bai family woman here without the Bai clan leader even knowing…”

“Violating new laws, treating human life lightly, attempting murder – every crime deserves death!” Bai Qingyan pressed her lips together, looking at the clan elder and his wife, who were crying incessantly. “Someone come, bind them and send them to the Jingzhao Magistrate’s office for strict legal punishment!”

Lu Ping immediately led people forward and lifted the clan elder.

The clan elder’s throat tightened repeatedly as he cried in desperation: “Your Majesty, after my son married, he went away to build a family fortune for my daughter-in-law and unborn child! In the end, my son died at the hands of bandits, and my grandson was lost too! My son truly loved this daughter-in-law – as his father, I can’t just watch my daughter-in-law remarry!”

The clan elder’s wife also began crying hysterically: “What kind of new law is this? Why must it force widows to remarry? That’s my son’s woman!”

“That’s right, why does the new law force widows to remarry?”

“Exactly! If my wife took my children to remarry after I died, I really couldn’t rest in peace!”