After the Ten Great Taoist sects were purged, Qi Jiu issued an imperial edict restoring the old practice from many years ago, ordering people from the Ten Great Taoist sects to enter the Imperial Observatory and be sent to guard and patrol the city at night. During this period, Ye Xianya rarely encountered ghosts and monsters causing trouble when she told fortunes for people.

Although she only helps people with small things every day, she is quite happy.

Fortune telling has become a habit.

After her afternoon rest that day, Ye Xianya went to the small courtyard where she did fortune-telling.

A young woman sitting under the eaves caught her attention.

The woman was quite young, looking to be around twenty years old, but she had several bruises on her face and a newly scabbed wound on her forehead.

She didn't wear a veil to cover herself, and seemed quite at ease in the face of the strange looks from the crowd.

Seeing that she was holding a number plate, Ye Xianya didn't say anything more. She figured she could tell the woman's fortune later.

Ever since she learned that ordinary women in this world live even more difficult lives than she had imagined, Ye Xianya couldn't help but feel sympathy for them.

Although Emperor Qi Jiu agreed to change everything, Rome wasn't built in a day, and some things take a long time to accomplish and cannot be achieved immediately.

Women still have a very low status and are easily bullied at home.

In this life, she also wants to do what she can for these ordinary people.

When about half the people had left, it was the young woman's turn to have her fortune told.

She took out five coins from her bosom and placed them on the plate in front of Ye Xianya. She rubbed her hands together and after a moment said, "Please, Your Highness, help this humble woman calculate her fortune..."

The woman paused slightly at this point, and after a moment said, "Never mind, I won't bother you, Princess!"

“Madam Yuan, this is your only chance to live. Are you sure you don’t want it?” Ye Xianya said.

Upon hearing her words, Madam Yuan, who had already reached the door, paused, her whole body trembling. After a long while, she turned around to look at Ye Xianya and suddenly knelt down.

Shen Furong, who was standing behind Ye Xianya, quickly went over and helped her up.

Madam Yuan sat in the chair, and it took her a while to calm down before she said in a trembling voice, "Princess, I want to ask, when will my husband and mother-in-law stop making things difficult for me, especially my mother-in-law? How many more years can she endure this?"

After Yuan Niangzi finished speaking, she took out a handful of copper coins from her purse and placed them in front of Ye Xianya.

She knew the princess would definitely not care about her copper coins, but the princess charged five coins for a fortune telling, and since she had asked about more than one thing, she would naturally give her more to feel a little more at ease.

"As a daughter-in-law, I shouldn't be hoping for my mother-in-law's death, but I really can't bear it anymore. Please help me calculate. If... if there are many more years to go, I... I won't have to endure it any longer!" Madam Yuan said, already sobbing uncontrollably.

For a daughter-in-law to wish for her mother-in-law's death is utterly disrespectful.

But if her mother-in-law doesn't die, she won't be able to live.

If she has to wait several more years, she will go back and jump into the river to end all her suffering.

If she has another year or two, she will grit her teeth and persevere.

"As long as you live, they will continue to torture you until you die. They will never have a change of heart and spare you!" Ye Xianya said after calculating with her fingers.

After hearing her words, Madam Yuan's face turned terribly pale.

"As for how many more years your mother-in-law can live, actually... she died a long time ago," Ye Xianya said.

Upon hearing this, Madam Yuan's eyes widened in disbelief.

"This...this..." She swallowed hard, and after a moment she said, "But Princess, my mother-in-law hit my arm and back with her cane when I went out yesterday morning, but she didn't die!"

To prove she wasn't lying, Madam Yuan quickly pulled up her sleeve. Her arm was covered in bruises, with one very obvious mark indicating she had been beaten recently, and it was still red and swollen.

Everyone said that the princess was a master strategist, and she dared not question what the princess said, but her mother-in-law was indeed still alive.

“When I married into this family five years ago, my mother-in-law was already sitting in the main hall. We would bow and offer her tea. Although there aren’t many people in our village, the neighbors get along quite well. They all know my mother-in-law very well. Yesterday, when Aunt Wang from next door went up the mountain to pick wild vegetables, she even invited my mother-in-law along. I watched them go up the mountain, and I’m sure my mother-in-law is still alive and well,” Yuan Niangzi said somewhat anxiously.

Although she dreamed of that old woman dying, the woman was indeed still alive.

"Your village has only eleven households, with a total of over fifty villagers, right?" Ye Xianya asked softly.

"Yes!" Madam Yuan nodded hurriedly: "Liu Family Village is a bit small, but it has a lot of land, and the villagers are very hardworking. Many people work at night, so everyone lives a very comfortable life. Because of this, I've been married there for five years and still haven't had a child. Seeing that everyone next door has children, but we don't, my mother-in-law is treating me worse and worse..."

She thought that if she worked hard and gave birth to the child sooner, her mother-in-law and husband would stop beating her.

She went back to her parents' home last year, and her mother took her to see a doctor. The doctor said that there was nothing seriously wrong with her and that she was able to have children.

The doctor said that there was most likely something wrong with her husband.

She went back and told her husband about it, hoping he would take her to the doctor. However, she was beaten half to death. Her mother-in-law and husband said she was a useless woman who couldn't lay eggs and dared to question a man's infertility; she deserved to die.

“They said that if I don’t get pregnant again this year, they will divorce me.” Madam Yuan said, covering her face and weeping. “A divorced woman will be criticized when she returns to her parents’ home. My father and brother also said that our family cannot have a divorced person, otherwise it will be difficult for my sister and two nieces to find husbands in the future. I… I’m afraid I have no choice but to die.”

Ye Xianya frowned upon hearing this: "Didn't the Emperor issue an imperial edict encouraging widowed and returned-home women to remarry? The edict also stated that women are allowed to initiate divorce proceedings, and if a man goes too far, he can also divorce her."

Upon hearing this, Madam Yuan was taken aback. After a long while, she said, "Princess, if a noble lady from a prominent family has the support of her father and brothers, she will naturally have a way out if she marries the wrong person. But I am just an ordinary woman, and my father and brothers are not on my side. Although I feel sorry for you, I cannot make the decision. I am really at my wit's end."

Ye Xianya frowned upon hearing this, and after a moment said, "Let's not talk about that for now. Once I've resolved your mother-in-law's matter, everything will naturally fall into place. I've already told you, she's long dead."

Madam Yuan was stunned for a moment: "But...but she's really alive! I've heard that ghosts are afraid of sunlight and generally don't dare to appear during the day, but she wanders around the yard every day. Although she rarely goes to work in the fields and leaves all the farm work to my husband and me, my mother-in-law likes to pick wild vegetables and climb mountains!"