This was also why Bai Qingyan wanted to establish schools, advocating that all people, regardless of gender, should attend school to study. She wanted to select talent for the Great Zhou…
For a nation, talent was never sufficient.
The Imperial Academy Chancellor following beside Bai Qingyan nodded and responded: “Your Majesty, rest assured, this minister will certainly arrange everything properly.”
Bai Qingyan exited the Imperial Academy gates, leaped onto her horse, turned the horse’s head, and departed.
Grand Commandant Lu and the others were still anxiously waiting in the palace. This morning, they had originally planned to accompany Bai Qingyan, but she hadn’t permitted it, instead having Grand Commandant Lu and other important court ministers handle state affairs. They must be waiting quite anxiously by now.
Now that the Imperial Academy matter was concluded, she should send someone to report to Grand Commandant Lu and the others first, to put their minds at ease.
Bai Qingjue also performed a deep bow to the Imperial Academy Chancellor, mounted his horse, and departed with the Imperial Guards alongside Bai Qingyan.
Today, my elder sister had personally come to the Imperial Academy to speak directly and honestly with the students, successfully persuading them and establishing a new goal for them – to work hard for Great Zhou’s unification of the world. In the future, the Great Zhou’s court would surely form a vibrant new situation.
The group had just left the Imperial Academy when Bai Qingjue saw a Bai family guard approaching on horseback.
Bai Qingjue pulled on the reins and moved forward to tell Bai Qingyan, “Elder sister, it’s our Bai family guard. I’ll go take a look…”
Bai Qingyan nodded.
Seeing Bai Qingjue ride forward quickly, the guard immediately dismounted and performed a deep bow to Bai Qingjue.
Bai Qingjue calmly dismounted, led his horse, and signaled for the Bai family guard to follow him. He walked unhurriedly to a secluded area, clearing the road to not obstruct the Imperial Guards and Bai Qingyan’s party.
He asked the Bai family guard: “Your expression is urgent – has something happened?”
The Bai family guard nodded: “Seventh Young Master, Master Lu Ping has returned from Shouyang. Just as he entered the capital on his way back to the Bai mansion, he encountered a maid from a woman of the Bai clan. The maid sought help from Master Lu Ping, saying her mistress had been widowed for a long time and, hearing that the eldest miss had promulgated new laws encouraging widows to remarry, had mentioned wanting to remarry to her mother-in-law yesterday. Unexpectedly, her mother-in-law and father-in-law flew into a rage, locked up her mistress, and planned to drown her in a pond at the end of the noon hour today. It’s happening right now outside the city.”
Bai Qingjue’s expression darkened. Knowing that elder sister was implementing new laws, as members of the Bai clan… if they were allowed to set this precedent, elder sister’s new laws would surely be obstructed.
The guard’s voice was extremely low: “Master Lu Ping has already taken people to stop it and specifically came to ask the eldest miss how this should be handled.”
“Go tell Uncle Ping that no matter what, the person must be saved! Also, tell the Bai clan members that if anyone dares to violate and resist the law while His Majesty is implementing new policies, they will not only be dealt with according to the law, but the Bai clan will not tolerate them!” Bai Qingjue said in a low voice.
“Yes!” The Bai family guard clasped his hands in acknowledgment and hurriedly departed.
Bai Qingjue didn’t delay, leaped onto his horse, joined the traveling party, and rode forward quickly to tell Bai Qingyan: “Elder sister, the Bai clan side is about to drown a widow preparing to remarry in a pond right now outside the city. Uncle Ping has already rushed over. Would your elder sister like to go take a look?”
Just as the new laws were being implemented, the Bai clan members were so eager to challenge her bottom line!
Bai Qingyan had been thinking about how to establish authority for the new laws, even considering using herself as an example… to establish authority for the new laws, letting the people know what the law meant, knowing that the Son of Heaven breaking the law was the same crime as commoners.
Who would have thought that before Bai Qingyan had figured out how to implement this, the Bai clan members had crashed right into it? She could only reluctantly use them to establish authority for the new laws.
Bai Qingyan’s grip on the reins tightened: “Let’s go take a look.”
As soon as she spoke, Bai Qingyan spurred her horse and rushed forward quickly. Seeing this, the Imperial Guards hurriedly quickened their pace to follow.
·
Outside the city, the Bai clan elder, who had originally planned to quietly drown his daughter-in-law, gripped his walking stick, his face dark with anger. He watched helplessly as Lu Ping led the Bai family guards to fish his daughter-in-law out of the river and release her from the pig cage, now even protecting her behind them. His anger flared.
Originally, this clan elder had planned to quietly drown the person in the dead of night, but his wife said that after their family arrived in the capital, they had met a fortune teller who was extremely accurate in her predictions. It was this fortune teller who told her that someone would give their family a house, and sure enough, someone later came to give their family a house. The fortune teller also said that their daughter-in-law had a fate of great wealth and prosperity and could bring prosperity to the household.
The clan elder’s wife inevitably worried that with her daughter-in-law’s fate being so good, drowning her in the pond might bring household unrest. So she went to find the fortune teller with generous gifts. The fortune teller said… their daughter-in-law’s natural lifespan wasn’t finished, and if they forcibly drowned her, she might die with grievances and become a vengeful ghost, causing trouble, bringing unrest to their household. She said if they insisted on drowning this woman, they should do it at the end of the noon hour and beginning of the afternoon hour, when the blazing sun was at its peak but about to decline.
This clan elder, fearing attention, had brought his daughter-in-law early to this deserted riverside with his clan members, even hiding it from clan leader Bai Qihe, planning to drown his daughter-in-law when the noon and afternoon hours intersected.
Who could have imagined that not only would the Bai family steward Lu Ping arrive with people, but he would also make such a commotion that the common people working nearby would all be drawn over to watch the excitement. Now their family shame couldn’t be hidden.
The woman rescued from the pig cage was crying breathlessly after surviving the ordeal, her face deathly pale. She thought she was going to drown in the water. Her maid beside her took Lu Ping’s cloak, thanked him, and draped it over the young woman, wrapping her up while crying and vigorously rubbing the young woman’s arms: “Miss, I’m sorry, I came too late! I came too late!”
The young woman’s tears fell drop by drop.
If she hadn’t returned from the palace banquet and heard her father-in-law say that the Bai clan would spare no effort to support His Majesty’s new policies to establish a firm foothold in the capital, and heard her mother-in-law say… that she would return to her maiden home another day to persuade her mother to let her widowed sister-in-law without sons remarry, she wouldn’t have dared to mention wanting to remarry to her mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Who knew that as soon as she finished speaking to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, she was slapped several times by her mother-in-law, who cursed her as a loose woman… and wanted to drown her in the pond.
The clan elder’s wife viciously pointed at the daughter-in-law who was protected behind the guards and couldn’t even stand up, cursing angrily: “You shameless little hussy, black-hearted little whore! Lowly spawn! My son has only been dead a few years, and you’re already thinking of remarrying, always flirting with other men. You little whore can’t live without sleeping with men, can you! My poor son… who knows, maybe you, this cheap woman, conspired with bandits to kill him!”
The young woman rescued by the Bai family guards trembled with anger, never imagining that her mother-in-law, supposedly a refined, wealthy old lady, could speak such filthy words. She was no different from a marketplace shrew.