Chapter 151 The Cage and the Cry (1) Protecting Women from Violence...

On his way back to his residence, Feng Tan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was attacked by assassins. He was saved by the top scholar who risked his life to protect him. However, the mastermind behind the scheme was truly cunning, and the arrows shot were poisoned. The newly appointed head of the Ministry of Justice was on the verge of death. The Left Vice Minister stayed by his side all night, but unfortunately, he was also poisoned and his life was in danger.

The latest news published in the official gazette caused a huge uproar among the people, and that very night it enraged Emperor Chongming. Wei Shengxian was once again punished by the emperor for failing to protect the princess, and was demoted to deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Prince Jing was suspected of murdering the princess, and his palace was surrounded by the Imperial Guards. Emperor Chongming personally arrived at the scene, and Prince Jing, bearing the brunt of the blame, admitted to assassinating the princess, but denied poisoning her.

Emperor Chongming ordered him to hand over the antidote. Since Prince Jing hadn't poisoned him, there was no antidote. His assassination attempt failed, and he was outmaneuvered, unable to prove his innocence. The next day, news spread from the Vice Minister's residence that Meng Henabul, a skilled physician under the tutelage of the Ghost Physician Xia Rui, had already cured the Vice Minister's poison.

Emperor Chongming's anger subsided somewhat, and he confined Prince Jing to his palace, forbidding him from leaving without an imperial edict.

Emperor Chongming, who had been sitting high on his throne watching the two tigers fight, has now seen one of them injured in the struggle. His carefully constructed facade of power has been shattered, and the bureaucratic system, forced to choose sides, will undergo a new restructuring, with power being redistributed once again.

When the King of Chu and King Jing were fighting each other, King Jing already had a strong foothold in the court. So, although this redistribution of power could not significantly affect his already large base, it still had a considerable impact on his power.

Feng Tan was confined to his bed to recuperate, and during this time, the threshold of the Vice Minister's residence was worn down by officials who came to inquire about his condition.

She lay listlessly on the bed and said to Meng Henabul, "Uncle Meng, this medicine is too bitter."

Menghenabul remained silent, only pressing the medicine bowl to her lips before speaking, "This medicine is harmless to the body. Even if the imperial physicians come, they won't be able to find anything wrong with it."

Feng Tan resignedly picked up the bowl, when suddenly she heard a girl outside the courtyard shout in a clear, sweet voice, "Sister Yu, you're bullying me!"

Feng Tan walked to the window and looked out at the courtyard. Feng Ke's fair face was marked with a pink whip mark, and he was glaring angrily at Yu Ruxi.

Yu Ruxi smiled broadly, showing no remorse whatsoever for being the instigator. Lin Wanzhou, who was sitting under the old plum tree, had no choice but to get up from the stone table and walk over to Feng Ke. She applied the ointment to Feng Ke's injured cheek and said softly, "Alright, Xiao Ke, it was already difficult for you to fight General Yu. It's nothing to lose."

The cool ointment spread across Feng Ke's face, and Yu Ruxi controlled the force of her whip so as not to hurt Feng Ke's cheek.

Feng Ke turned to look at Yu Ruxi and said helplessly, "Sister Wanzhou, you might as well not comfort me at all."

Yu Ruxi chuckled, and Lin Wanzhou blushed slightly. She placed the ointment in Feng Ke's hand and said in a gentle tone, "Twice a day. The red marks will disappear completely in three days. Don't be lazy and forget to apply the ointment."

Before the carved window frame, the gnarled branches of an old plum tree intertwined, cutting half of the wooden window into fragmented picture frames. Feng Tan pushed aside a thin branch blocking his view, leaned out of the window, and smiled at Yu Ruxi, saying, "Xiao Ke has no talent in martial arts, just like me. General Yu is the newly appointed martial arts champion, so quickly find a disciple with exceptional talent, lest you torment our Feng Ke."

Yu Ruxi put away her whip. The woman in red stood proudly in the courtyard. Hearing this, she raised an eyebrow and said, "Xiao Ke writes well. If she can master martial arts, she will be both a scholar and a warrior. I, Yu Ruxi, refuse to believe in such nonsense! Xiao Ke, get your sword!"

After she finished speaking, her long whip lashed out at Xiao Ke like a snake. Xiao Ke blocked it with her sword, and the two began to fight again in the courtyard.

Helpless, Lin Wanzhou brewed a cup of fruit tea and handed it to Feng Tan by the window, saying gently, "Yongle, have a cup of fruit tea to soothe the bitter taste in your mouth."

As the two were talking, the servant guarding the courtyard bowed and hurried in. He greeted Feng Tan and reported, "Sir, there is a woman outside the courtyard requesting an audience. We were about to send her away, but seeing her covered in blood in broad daylight, she said she has something to ask of you, sir, or she will smash her head against the stone lion in front of the mansion..."

Lin Wanzhou asked in surprise, "Who is so bold?"

The servant shook his head, indicating he didn't know. "She was covered in blood, dripping onto the bluestone slabs, and the crowd of onlookers in front of the mansion was growing larger and larger."

Feng Tan put down his white porcelain teacup and said, "Please invite her into the mansion."

*

Just as the gatekeeper had said, the woman was soaked in blood, her deep purple jacket had turned dark brown, a few strands of her hair were stuck to her face, and the half of her eye that was exposed was bloodshot, but the pupil was frighteningly bright, like the eye of an owl in the wilderness.

The cold rain, carrying the stench of blood, rushed into the hall. Feng Tan stopped in front of the woman and asked, "Liu E?"

During the imperial examination a month ago, Liu E had accused her husband, Li Xiucai, of cheating on the exam. Feng Tan was quite good at recognizing people, and even though Liu E looked disheveled at the moment, she recognized her.

They had met once.

Liu E knelt at Feng Tan's feet, her right hand's knuckles digging deep into the brickwork, while her left hand still tightly gripped the scissors she had used to commit the crime.

Scissors were originally used for cutting satin in the boudoir, but now the blades were still covered with blood and bits of flesh, gleaming coldly against the backdrop of the silvery rain outside the hall.

She raised her bloodshot eyes, and faint red tears streamed down her wet hair, which was soaked by the cold rain, as if they were blood tears flowing from her eyes. "Lord Feng, I killed someone... but I am innocent."

She didn't cry or scream, but instead recounted the whole story in an extremely slow and calm tone: "That day I reported Li Ting for cheating in the imperial examination. After Li Ting was imprisoned and returned home, he hung me upside down from the beam and whipped me. I endured it for many years, but I couldn't bear it any longer... Lord Feng, I couldn't bear it any longer, so just now, while he was fast asleep at noon, I used this pair of scissors to slowly stab his throat, his chest, and every part of his body."

She closed her eyes and said in a relieved and contented tone, "He's dead."

Liu E knelt down again, and when she lowered her head, there was indeed a horrifying bluish-purple whip mark and congealed blood scabs in her disheveled, wet hair. "My lord, he deserved to die, but I don't want to die. Please save me, my lord."

Liu E's father was a private tutor. Influenced by her father's profession, she studied with the students every day. She learned to read and write. Later, by chance, she obtained the forbidden book "Women's Education". She read Feng Youming's ideas, but she also followed the ethics of the time and married Li Ting.

However, after their marriage, Li Ting beat and verbally abused her because she had not conceived for a year. He called her a hen that couldn't lay eggs, saying that she had been studying all day and had become stupid, that she had knowledge in her head but no children in her womb, so what use was she? He forbade her to read his books anymore, and even later, when the imperial examinations were opened to women, he tied her up at home, causing her to miss the important examination three years earlier.

Liu E was indignant, and the suppressed anger burned within her day and night, which led to her reporting her husband's cheating in the imperial examination a month ago.

Liu E was intelligent and cunning. Confined to the inner quarters, she still had the ambition to fly. She could have chosen to poison her husband quietly, but for some reason, she chose such a cruel way to torture him.

Now that the murder has been committed, she wouldn't be foolish enough to wait for the authorities to arrest her. She'd reported it to the authorities before, and she knew the officials' rhetoric by heart: "The Dahuang Criminal Code states that a husband who beats his wife is not punished unless he causes serious injury. Even if there was actual beating, the wife must confess to it for the husband to be punished, and his punishment will be reduced by two degrees. Your husband is a scholar; why would he assault you without cause? It must be that you were unfaithful, angering your husband and thus incurring his wrath."

Therefore, Liu E chose to turn herself in, also to choose someone who might choose to protect her.

The dim light of the lamp fell on Liu E's blood-stained and disheveled face, leaving only her bloodshot eyes looking up at Feng Tan.

Feng Tan, of course, saw through her intentions; Liu E wanted to use her. But didn't she also need a powerful driving force for reform?

Since the heavy military pressure three years ago forced the court to passively accept reforms, their progress has been obstructed, overtly or covertly, by those in power, or rather, by those who have vested interests. Now that the first imperial examination has successfully concluded and other women are in power in the court, although they are not yet influential, this can still be considered a small victory.

But what to do next was a question she kept pondering. Their reforms aimed to protect women's rights, which was a human rights issue. So how could women's human rights be fairly upheld and permeate every aspect of the Daehan Dynasty?

Liu E's anti-domestic violence case was the catalyst for this.

The term "domestic violence" was taught to her by her teacher when she was young. Feng Youming had taught Feng Tan that in the new era before her, the beatings suffered by women from their husbands were called domestic violence. Domestic violence is not a single, occasional impulse, but rather a periodic, repetitive act of abuse that establishes control over the victim through long-term oppression.

The gentleman said that the first anti-domestic violence case in the new era was initiated with the full assistance and promotion of the All-China Women's Federation. The legislative project demonstration work was fully launched, and the final result was that the typical case was included in the trial model and the "Anti-Domestic Violence Law" was promulgated, which greatly deterred husbands with violent tendencies who attempted to beat their wives.

Feng Tan is at the center of power in the Dahuang Empire. If she wants to implement new laws to protect rights, such as the complete deprivation of women's political rights, the lack of property inheritance rights, the lack of bodily autonomy such as being sold or rented out as wives, and the deprivation of economic participation rights... it is easier to promote the new laws from the top down rather than from the bottom up, to address these all-round oppressions from the system to the culture.

She could establish these laws five hundred years earlier than later generations.

Liu E placed her fingers on Feng Tan's palm, and with her strength, she stood up, gradually meeting Feng Tan's gaze.

Feng Tan continued, "We can't let you return defeated."

......

As the cold rain intensified, the candlelight in the study of the Vice Minister's residence cast a warm glow. Inside, the white candles coiled like slender snakes within the openwork bronze lamp, casting a dim, half-lit light on the "Dahuang Criminal Code: Regulations of the Ministry of Revenue" spread out on the sandalwood desk.

Under the paperweight on the desk lies a half-page tattered scroll, containing an article from the revised Law on Litigation from ten years ago: "A wife who beats her husband shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane; a husband who beats his wife shall not be punished."

Feng Tanzhu's brush landed above the words "Do Not Discuss," and after a moment's thought, his gaze returned to the "Dahuang Penal Code." He lowered his voice and softly read the words his fingertip pointed to: "If a husband beats his wife, and the injury is not broken, there is no punishment; if the injury is broken or more serious, the punishment is reduced by two degrees compared to ordinary people (Note: the wife must confess before the punishment is carried out). The couple will be interrogated first. If they wish to divorce, they will be sentenced to divorce; if they do not wish to divorce, the crime will be verified and they will be redeemed; if the husband dies, he will be hanged. If a wife beats her husband, she will be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane. If the husband wishes to divorce, he may do so (Note: the husband must confess before the punishment is carried out); if the injury is broken or more serious, the punishment will be increased by three degrees compared to ordinary fight injuries; if the husband is seriously ill, he will be hanged; if the husband dies, he will be beheaded; if the husband intentionally kills the wife, he will be executed by slow slicing." [1]

According to the law, Liu E should be sentenced to death by a thousand cuts, regardless of whether she surrendered herself to the authorities.

Feng Tan used a wolf-hair brush to pick up ink and wrote: "Any man who injures his wife in the bedroom, whether it is a broken limb with blood or bruises, shall be punished as 'injury in a fight' and shall be punished with forty strokes of the cane according to the law; if he causes disability, the punishment shall be the same as that of an ordinary person plus two degrees. If the wife makes a report, the officials shall not use 'private matters of the bedroom' as a pretext to evade responsibility, and those who violate this rule shall be dismissed or demoted."

As she bowed her head and began to write, the door to her room was pushed open, and a visitor brought a bowl of hot tea and placed it on the desk. He then took in the new law drafted by Feng Tan. “When Emperor Taizu and his ministers created the Dahuang Code and established the principle of ‘the husband is the head of the wife,’ he must never have imagined that his descendants would overturn and rewrite the laws they had created.”

Xiao Changgeng's features flickered in the candlelight. He looked up at Feng Tan and continued, "Laws and regulations have evolved over a thousand years. Tomorrow at court, I fear all the censors will refute you with the Book of Rites."

Feng Tan pushed the revised draft of the law in front of Xiao Changgeng. The ink characters that had just been written shone brightly in the candlelight. “When Liu submitted the petition back then, Shuntian Prefecture claimed that ‘matters within the inner chambers are not for outsiders to know.’ Now, what is ‘not for outsiders to know’ should be the oversights in the law, not the new laws that need to be revised.”

Xiao Changgeng knew that she always had her own methods, was not bound by the rigid principles in books, and was never easily swayed by the judgments of others. Hearing this, he slightly curled his lips and said, "What you say is right, sir. 'Those who beat and injure their wives shall be punished two degrees less than ordinary people.' What is the difference? The pain is on the wife's body, yet the law is so lenient. This is an imbalance in the law."

Feng Tan glanced at Xiao Changgeng in surprise, finding it hard to believe he would have such an understanding. All along, their relationship had been one of mutual exploitation; he used her as a backer to climb the official ladder, while she regarded him as her right-hand man planted in the Ministry of Justice, always ready to serve. She had never investigated his character, and therefore didn't care whether his stance on her proposed reforms was genuinely based on a belief in the injustice of the law, or simply a ploy to advance his own career.

The moment the words "Lord Xiao" were uttered, both of them paused in surprise.

Feng Tan suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and continued, "To be able to agree to my actions regardless of etiquette, your wife must have received a lot of care from you during the duration of your marriage. Why did she later choose to leave you, and why did you enter the Buddhist order?"

Xiao Changgeng looked intently at Feng Tan, his voice low as if shrouded in mist, "Lord Feng has indeed investigated my origins thoroughly."

"If you doubt someone, don't use them; if you use someone, don't doubt them. You always need to investigate thoroughly first." Feng Tan spoke frankly, stood up from the wooden chair, walked to the window, pushed open the window frame to look at the bamboo forest in the night rain, "I'm just asking out of curiosity."

Xiao Changgeng picked up the legal draft written by Feng Tanfang. The strokes of her brush on the pale yellow Xuan paper were as sharp as her decisiveness when handling criminal matters. He looked at the steel-like handwriting, and a chillingly crazy obsession surfaced in his dark eyes, but his tone remained gentle and indifferent. "She is a person who loves freedom. She wants to see the changing times, so I let her go. As for me, I can't leave, so I entered the Buddhist order."

Dark thoughts were hidden beneath the surface of her words. Feng Tan turned around and met Xiao Changgeng's gentle eyes, saying, "Lord Xiao, you are deeply in love with her. When love is at its deepest, letting go is a way of fulfilling your wish."

Xiao Changgeng concealed the mockery in his eyes, took the legal text drafted by Feng Tan, and gently stroked it with his fingers. The newly fallen ink spread out in a light shadow, not as clean and upright as before. "After entering the Buddhist order, I often meditated under the paulownia tree, and only then did I realize where my 'fulfillment' for her came from. If one knows all the things in the world, then life would be meaningless. But if one comes for one person, then every life will be an addiction. For me, she is the original intention of life."

Raindrops falling from the eaves turned into specks of light, falling behind Feng Tan like a curtain of water. Upon hearing this, she suddenly smiled, a smile like melting spring snow, spreading across her usually cold and stern face. "I never expected Lord Xiao to be such a romantic."

Looking at her smile, Xiao Changgeng recalled that night they had been adventuring together in the waters off Linzhang many years ago. She had also shown such an unguarded smile then. At that time, he did not know that she was a woman and never showed her any mercy. However, he had a secret desire to get close to her.

At that time, he didn't know where this desire came from; now, he doesn't know how to resolve it.

Love and desire do not fade with time. He looked at her standing in front of him with a gentle smile, her body like that of a powerful minister, her face like that of Guanyin. He thought to himself that he wanted to devour her whole.

A wicked monk plays a skillful game of chess; truth cannot be found within falsehood.

Xiao Yinshi never spoke the truth.

“A romantic, perhaps,” Xiao Changgeng chuckled softly, his dark eyes brimming with a faint, almost imperceptible emotion, as if he wanted to pour it all out to Feng Tan. “She never loved me in her entire life, but I loved her my whole life.”

Xiao Changgeng seemed to be just like the fox Arslan had described. He was always subtly seducing Feng Tan, but apart from the illusion that his affectionate eyes gave her, he did not overstep any boundaries.

The rain suddenly intensified, pattering against the windowpanes. A cold wind rushed in, and Feng Tan's thoughts, which had been caught in the man's gaze, snapped back to reality. She reached out to close the window, her official robe brushing against the vermilion-annotated legal code on the desk, causing the inkstone to tip over. As ink spilled, Xiao Changgeng used the back of his hand to shield himself from the newly drafted legal text, and the deep brown ink instantly soaked through his pale sleeve.

Feng Tan subconsciously reached out to pull his wrist. Her fingertips, calloused from years of flipping through files and writing, brushed against Xiao Changgeng's palm, causing a slight tingling sensation.

Feng Tan looked at the dirty ink stains on Xiao Changgeng's sleeve with complicated eyes and said, "Why are you protecting it? Just write another copy. Why get your clothes dirty?"

"Back then, Lord Feng spent nearly ten years plotting and scheming in the court to overturn the old rule that 'women are not allowed to take the imperial examinations.'" Xiao Changgeng's slender fingers were also stained with ink. He placed the paper on the table. "At that time, I thought that women are more resilient than the laws engraved on stone tablets. If one day you want to change the laws again, I will always protect you from the ink."

He cleaned his fingers, his gaze fixed intently on the new law in his hand, and said, "The law originates from punishment. As an official in the Ministry of Justice, Chang Geng has an unshirkable duty to take the lead in enforcing the law."

Feng Tan asked, "What do you intend to do?"

Xiao Changgeng said, “The ‘rites and laws’ of the Huang Dynasty are not monolithic; they inherently contain the intention to protect the weak and vulnerable. The key to implementing the new laws is not to break the established order, but to package the protection of abused women as an inevitable choice to uphold ancestral rules, consolidate imperial power, and quell public grievances. Use the power, benefits, and fame that the court cares about as bait to make it an inevitable choice that can be accepted by officials and common people alike.”

Feng Tan's eyes flickered slightly. This was indeed a surprising and effective method. "Explain in detail."

Xiao Changgeng's deep, cold voice was as orderly and logical as a teacher giving a lecture: "To ensure that the new law protecting women from violence is implemented in the Huang Dynasty, we need to avoid the opposition from the court, which would be like 'a hen crowing at dawn,' and gradually advance it by leveraging the inertia of the system, the support of imperial power, and the consensus of the people. The core logic is not to directly confront the 'rites and laws,' but to 'transform the rites and laws' for our own use."

Feng Tan excels at direct confrontation, while Xiao Yinshi, having been immersed in power for generations, is adept at using underhanded tactics and leveraging others' strengths to his advantage in the court.

"As for the specifics of how to implement this, it is already late at night. I see that you have been working hard all day and night and look exhausted. Perhaps we can discuss it tomorrow." Xiao Changgeng handed the list of officials obtained from the trial of Consort Su to Feng Tan. "I will not break my promise to you, my lord."

Feng Tan accepted the list and sat back down at her desk. As Xiao Changgeng closed the palace door, her figure was reflected in his dark eyes.

She lay prostrate among the stacks of official documents, her back ramrod straight, like a sword hidden in its sheath, silently gathering the sharpness to pierce through the fog.

Many people around her have passed away, and she is building herself into the loneliest monument in the Daegu Dynasty.

Xiao Changgeng withdrew his gaze and, unsurprisingly, met Arslan's eyes.

Arslan leaned against the door and scoffed coldly, "You've used all your intelligence to bewitch the ruler. She wants you to be a wise minister, not a treacherous one."

The author says: [1] According to the Ming and Qing legal code, if a man beats his wife, he will not be criminally liable as long as no injury occurs; if serious injury occurs, he will be punished according to the principle of being two degrees less than the punishment for beating a common person; if the couple is willing to divorce, they will be granted a divorce; if they are unwilling to divorce, they will be allowed to redeem their sentence; if the wife beats her husband, she will be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane. The above situations are crimes that are brought by the victim. The following situations are not included in crimes that are brought by the victim: if a husband beats his wife to death, he will be sentenced to hanging; if a wife beats her husband and causes serious injury, she will be punished according to the principle of being three degrees more than the punishment for fighting a common person; if the husband is crippled, the wife will be sentenced to hanging; if the husband is beaten to death, he will be beheaded; if the husband is intentionally killed, he will be executed by slow slicing.

A crime that is only prosecuted upon complaint is a crime that is reported to the authorities.