Zhao Hanzhang quickly gave them their answer.

After the holiday ended, the Ministry of Rites finally finished organizing the list of imperial patents to be conferred and submitted it to the Secretariat-Chancellery.

After the Secretariat-Chancellery reviewed and approved it without error, they passed it to the Emperor.

Zhao Hanzhang looked it over and separately extracted the portions for Fan Ying, Chen Siniang, Sun Linghui, and Zhao Yunxin, setting aside the rest for now.

She wrote the character for “approved” on the four documents, then handed them to the Imperial Secretariat.

The Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat saw that Zhao Hanzhang had set aside so many documents and only approved these four. His heart immediately filled with anxiety. Unable to make a decision, he went straight to find Fan Ying.

Fan Ying flipped through the four sets of documents and immediately understood what Zhao Hanzhang intended to do. She pushed the documents back to the Vice Director, saying, “These include the documents conferring patents on my father and mother. It’s improper for me to participate. Please submit them to Director Ming for his decision.”

The Vice Director then delivered the documents to Ming Yu.

After reading them, Ming Yu thought briefly and said, “Draft the edicts according to the documents.”

“But Your Majesty has set aside many more documents…”

Ming Yu said, “Conferring patents is like bestowing rewards – it needs to be done step by step. No need to worry. First prepare these four edicts properly. Your Majesty hasn’t said there’s any problem with the documents.”

Only then did the Vice Director agree and withdraw to draft the edicts.

The edicts were sent back to the Secretariat-Chancellery for review. Seeing that the content hadn’t changed, they immediately approved the edicts and sent them to the Ministry of Rites, then waited for the remaining edicts to be delivered.

But they waited without result. The next day came with no sign of them. Someone from the Ministry of Rites came to ask, “Why were only four edicts approved?”

They had worked hard for half a month to determine the patent conferrals based on officials’ titles and positions, working overtime until their eyes went dark, and the result was only four approvals?

The Secretariat-Chancellery was being too excessive! If they had done something wrong, they should at least point it out!

The Secretariat-Chancellery felt wronged too, saying, “We’ve already reviewed and submitted the documents, but the Imperial Secretariat only sent us four edicts. Naturally, we review however many are sent. If you have complaints, go find Director Ming.”

The minor official from the Ministry of Rites naturally didn’t dare go directly to Ming Yu, so he ran to find the Minister of Rites, Zhao Cheng.

Zhao Cheng thought briefly and said, “Since only four edicts were approved, let’s promulgate these four first.”

Fan Ying’s parents had already passed away and had died heroically defending Xiping County, which could be considered a martyrdom. Combined with Fan Ying’s own merit, the posthumous patent conferral ranks were quite high.

The edict was published in the official gazette, while newspapers simultaneously reported on the deeds of Fan Ying and her parents.

Then came Chen Siniang’s story – one person per day. Ordinary people always grew weary reading long passages of court documents, but they were very interested in these stories.

Storytellers also preferred telling stories – finally they didn’t have to rack their brains interpreting documents from the newspapers. Let there be more stories like these; they loved telling them.

The stories spread rapidly. Xiping County soon saw newspapers flowing in from the capital. The local printing houses even reprinted them twice before they could satisfy the consumption of nearby counties.

They all knew the four people listed in the official gazette, and all were from their Runan Jun. Soon, the stories of the other two were also published in newspapers and spread to local areas.

Fan Ying, Sun Linghui, and Zhao Yunxin were one thing, but Chen Siniang’s family exploded in uproar.

The Song family, which had remained silent all along, finally couldn’t help protesting and objecting at the Xiping County yamen. They even ran to the Chen family, saying, “Siniang is our Song family’s daughter-in-law. Even if there’s to be grace conferral, it should grace the husband’s family. There’s no principle of a married daughter conferring grace on her natal family.”

In the past, the Chen family hadn’t dared confront the Song family, so back when they knew the Song family wanted Chen Siniang to be buried alive with her husband, though they were dissatisfied, since it hadn’t succeeded, they didn’t pursue the matter.

But now things were different. They were unwilling to lose Chen Siniang as a daughter, and even their views had changed.

Previously, they had always felt it was improper for Chen Siniang to run around everywhere with Zhao Hanzhang. They had repeatedly urged her to return to the Song family to maintain her chastity, or remarry instead – she shouldn’t be showing her face in public.

But after news of Chen Siniang’s noble title conferral arrived, they stopped mentioning this and even deliberately distanced themselves from the Song family, wanting to monopolize the benefits this daughter brought.

When newspapers from the capital reached here and they saw the patent conferral for Chen family’s parents in the official gazette, they were even less willing to give up Chen Siniang as a daughter.

So for the first time, they openly broke with the Song family: “Our Siniang left your Song family long ago. Back then your Song family was so vicious – as soon as my short-lived son-in-law died, you wanted Siniang to be buried alive with him. Fortunately, His Majesty saved her, otherwise grass would have long grown on our Siniang’s grave.”

Old Master Song flew into a rage. “Don’t you dare slander us! How could our Song family do such an inhumane thing? There was absolutely no burial alive. All these years Siniang hasn’t remarried, which shows she still thinks of my son. As long as she doesn’t remarry for even one day, she’s still a Song family daughter-in-law for that day, and the patent conferral should belong to our Song family.”

Before the court’s edict could be delivered, the two families fought bitterly over which family Chen Siniang belonged to.

Even the Xiping County magistrate couldn’t render judgment and could only seek help from his superiors.

The matter grew so large that not only Xiping County, but all the people of Runan Jun knew about it. Everyone was curious, eating metaphorical melon seeds while taking sides.

One person said the patent should be conferred on biological parents, another said it should be conferred on the husband’s family.

In just half a month, because of disagreeing opinions, even couples fought and brought their cases to the county yamen. County magistrates everywhere saw their ability to handle trivial cases increase dramatically.

Because of the newspapers, news spread quickly, and the trend from Yuzhou soon blew to Yangzhou.

Wang Dao himself never expected that one day, as Regional Inspector, he would have to adjudicate such a case.

Three county magistrates finally couldn’t bear it anymore and led a crowd to the Regional Inspector’s mansion for judgment, asking the cleverer Wang Dao to determine who was right and who was wrong.

There were eight cases total from three counties, all involving arguments over different opinions about Chen Siniang’s family matter. They had shouted things like “those with different principles cannot work together” and now wanted to divorce, brothers wanted to divide the family, and even parents wanted to sever ties with their children.

Wang Dao sat in his seat looking at the two clearly separated groups of people in the hall, slowly revealing a smile. “So you’re fighting and disturbing the neighbors, and want divorces and family divisions over the Marquis Xuande’s patent conferral?”

All eight families nodded together, then asked Wang Dao, “Inspector, should the Marquis Xuande’s patent conferral go to her natal family or husband’s family?”

Wang Dao asked them, “Among you eight families, who has daughters? Step to the center.”

All eight families stepped to the center.

Wang Dao asked again, “Who has sons? Stand to the right.”

The eight families all moved to stand on the right.

Wang Dao said, “Those who believe that if their daughter-in-law gains the ability to request patent conferrals for parents in the future, it should be conferred on the husband’s family, stand to the left.”

All eight families moved to stand on the left.

Wang Dao said again, “Those who believe that if their daughter gains ability in the future, regardless of whether she’s married, she should request conferrals for her biological parents, stand to the right.”

The eight families vaguely understood and hesitated, unwilling to move. Wang Dao smiled and said, “In that case, aren’t your decisions quite consistent? You all agree that daughters should confer on their husband’s families.”

The eight families refused to acknowledge this and hurried to stand on the right.

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