The Bai family’s Eighth Miss, Bai Wanqing, who had been buried in eating pastries, looked up. Her tender, chubby little face still had pastry crumbs on it as she spoke in her baby voice, “Mother is right!”

Li Shi was amused by the little one and used her handkerchief to wipe the pastry crumbs from Bai Wanqing’s face, “Oh my, our Little Eight has gotten it all over her face…”

The little one tilted her head up, obediently waiting for Li Shi to clean her face, then said sweetly, “Thank you, Third Aunt.”

Li Shi smiled and patted the little bun on Bai Wanqing’s head, then set aside her round fan and picked up her teacup, saying seemingly casually, “I heard that today at Princess Gaoyi’s event, quite a few remarried widows were invited. Whether remarrying is good or bad for these common women, why don’t we let them speak with Second Miss Qin before Minister Liu announces the competition’s winner? Let them say whether they would have doubts about His Majesty’s new policies just because we Bai family widows don’t remarry. After all, the new law was established for them.”

Those widows who had recently remarried – how could they think the new policies were bad? How could they have doubts? Each of them was deeply grateful for Bai Qingyan’s new policy encouraging widow remarriage, feeling that Bai Qingyan had truly done them a great service! Anyone who opposed this new law… would be opposing their good lives – who could tolerate that?

After all, the widows who could be the first to take that step and remarry were all strong-willed by nature.

Hearing Third Madam Li’s words, a bold widow had already stood up, knelt, kowtowed, and shouted, “This commoner woman is one of the remarried widows! This commoner woman is grateful from the bottom of her heart that His Majesty established new laws specifically for us widows, encouraging us to remarry! Those who have never been widows… how could they know how unbearable life is for us common widows? They speak without knowing the hardship! This commoner woman may not speak well… but I’m grateful to His Majesty from my heart. If anyone dares to use the new law to cause trouble and oppose His Majesty’s new law, this commoner woman will be the first to disagree!”

“This commoner woman also disagrees!” Another widow stood up and knelt before the pavilion.

Soon, one after another, newly remarried widows knelt forward, saying the new law had saved their lives and allowed them to live good lives.

A noble lady who disliked the behavior of the Qin sisters sneered coldly, “This new law encouraging widow remarriage was established for these widowed women. Second Miss Qin is an unmarried girl, not even a widow, yet she dares to stand up and criticize the new policy encouraging widow remarriage! Speaking of it, aren’t you afraid of being laughed at? Look, the widowed women themselves say this new law is good… I wonder what kind of trouble she’s stirring up!”

“The behavior of these two Qin family daughters is truly… shameful! Suddenly jumping out to publicly oppose His Majesty’s new policies – isn’t it just to attract attention!”

“Exactly! His Majesty’s new policies are for the Kingdom and the people… He went to the Imperial Academy to debate with the students, and even the Imperial Academy students couldn’t find fault with them! She has such audacity to use the new policies to force the Bai family madams to remarry!”

“Right! His Majesty’s new policies… allow widowed women to remarry, intending to elevate the status of women. But she… being a woman herself, not helping is one thing, but to drag things down for attention – such self-degradation simply disgraces us women!”

“Forget it! What face do these Qin family daughters need? Her birth mother dared to reach into her daughter-in-law’s dowry as soon as the daughter-in-law entered the house. The two of them first nearly killed the Auxiliary Duchess, then later had the shamelessness to flatter themselves and claim connections with His Majesty…”

“Having this idle concern about whether other people’s madams remarry or not, why doesn’t she worry about her imprisoned and widowed mother, or care about whether anyone would dare marry her with her reputation – truly meddling where she shouldn’t!”

“With the Qin family’s conduct… producing such Qin family daughters, do they still know what shame is? They probably don’t even know what face means!”

Second Miss Qin knelt there, hearing others’ discussions, clenching her fists tightly with an extremely ugly expression. Although she had already resigned herself to death and was willing to sacrifice her life to cause trouble for the Bai family, she hadn’t reached the point of being completely shameless. Being talked about like this… she was almost dying of shame and anger.

“If she truly knew what face meant, she wouldn’t have claimed to be as close as blood sisters with our Jinxiu after nearly harming her, and even shamelessly said that our A…” Liu Shi almost slipped and said Bai Qingyan’s childhood name, but immediately corrected herself, “our His Majesty also treats them as blood sisters. At such a young age with such behavior – what will become of them in the future!”

Liu Shi felt so pleased she wanted to eat several more bowls of rice. As they say, heaven is watching what people do, and now… the reputation of these two Qin family daughters was completely ruined by their actions.

Since they dared to oppose the new law, they shouldn’t expect to use their daughter Jinxiu and A’Bao’s reputation to swagger around and deceive people in the future.

“I’m still the Auxiliary Duchess’s sister-in-law after all. Second Madam, humiliating me like this… aren’t you afraid I’ll tell my brother?” Second Miss Qin’s eyes turned red, and after speaking, tears began falling drop by drop.

Liu Shi, already having a fiery temper, became even angrier hearing this. She directly came out from behind the table and stood before Second Miss Qin, “You still have the nerve to mention my poor son-in-law! Ask your conscience… how has my son-in-law treated you, half-siblings?! My son-in-law’s reputation… was first maliciously promoted and then destroyed by your mother, then ruined by you sisters. Don’t you wonder why when Qin Lang and Jinxiu went to Han City, they took the second young master but didn’t take you sisters!”

“Father…” That Second Miss Qin threw away all face and wailed loudly, looking up at the sky, “Did you hear that? Qin Lang deliberately didn’t take me and elder sister! Qin Lang is trying to harm us sisters, making us unable to survive! We sisters have no father… no mother to care for us! No one cares about us!”

Bai Qingyan looked up at Second Miss Qin, who was putting on this theatrical crying and wailing, and spoke slowly, “Since… these two Qin family daughters say they have no birth mother to care for them, then send someone to escort the two Qin family daughters to find their mother!”

Second Miss Qin was busy crying to heaven and earth. When First Miss Qin heard these words, her knees went weak. Her mother was serving a sentence and could never come out again. She hurriedly knelt and crawled forward, “Your Majesty, spare our lives! I didn’t do anything! It was Second Sister who was possessed and listened to others’ instigation to oppose the new law. It’s all Second Sister’s fault – I didn’t do anything!”

Hearing First Miss Qin’s words, Bai Qingyan also stood up from behind the table and called out, “Minister Lu Jin…”

Lu Jin stepped forward in response, “Your Majesty’s orders!”