The backwardness of medical care is certainly one of the reasons why these children are born generation after generation.
Food scarcity and war also contributed to their generally short lifespans, but has anyone considered that perhaps their weaker physical constitution at birth was also a factor?
While the adults drank tea and chatted, they began to ponder what the divine artifact had said. Was getting married too early really that harmful?
"Indeed, seventy years old is considered an ancient age here. Let's not compare them to us immortals. One sleep for us is their whole life."
Compared to the modern places we've visited, it's vastly different. There, seventy-year-olds are still singing and dancing, experiencing a second spring in their lives; here, people are just waiting to die.
[The medical care there is advanced, and the food is good. It's not surprising that people can live long without war. But the marriage age is also late: 22 for men and 20 for women. Marrying earlier is illegal and can lead to imprisonment.]
The group was surprised and puzzled. So late? At this age, people in their area would be parents of two or three children.
Yu Zhongchun and his colleagues in the officialdom had much more to think about. This news had to be reported to His Majesty. Even if the age couldn't be raised to that level, it would be good for future generations to allow their children to get married a little later.
Every family wants its descendants to be healthy, live long lives, and enjoy lasting blessings.
"Did my cousin not marry Wen Dalang in the end?"
Originally, they were waiting for Wen Dalang to finish his mourning period so the two of them could get married. Who would have thought that perhaps he was too stifled by the four years of mourning?
Wen Jia's eldest son had just finished his mourning period when his friends dragged him to the Cangchun Pavilion, and he never came out again.
"A brothel? Is he dead or lost?"
[He died, supposedly from drinking too much. The specific details are unknown, but to protect their reputation, the Wen family's official explanation was that he drank excessively and accidentally fell into their lotus pond and drowned.]
"So my cousin was engaged for four or five years, and then her fiancé died? My cousin is the most tragic one, isn't she? After all, it was Wen Jia Da Lang's own fault for dying in a brothel, but my cousin has to suffer because of him!"
"That's right. The Wen family even said that your cousin has a tough fate and brings bad luck to their family. She got engaged less than a year ago, and then her family members died one after another."
As a result, your cousin's reputation suffered, making it difficult for her to find a husband. Later, your aunt and her family had to look for suitable matches in the surrounding prefectures and counties of the capital.
She eventually married Huang Wei, who was two years younger than her.
"What is Huang Wei's family background?"
His family were landowners with several hundred acres of ancestral property. He himself was a scholar who had passed the county-level imperial examination. Because he always wanted to pass the provincial-level examination and marry a daughter from a wealthy family, he was still unmarried at the age of eighteen.
"That sounds like he's quite ambitious. My uncle's family is, after all, a family of officials, and my cousin is the kind of noblewoman he's trying to marry. He's already got her even though he didn't pass the imperial examination, isn't that enough to make him happy?"
Men are sometimes just like that; they don't cherish what they get too easily. After passing the county-level imperial examination at the age of fifteen, he failed the provincial-level examination three times in a row.
People began to become restless, and under the influence of their bad friends, they first went to prostitutes, then to gambling, and eventually even the longevity paste made by the Nanzhao people from imperial rice flowed to Dayan.
Many people are addicted to that taste, and Huang Wei is no exception.
"Has this person fallen so low so quickly? And that Nanzhao, selling that thing to Dayan, their intentions are despicable!"
At that time, your cousin already had a son and a daughter, and she could only endure him for the sake of her two children.
Your uncle and cousins tried everything—beating and scolding—but it was no use. The year before the fall of the Dayan Kingdom, he squandered the entire Huang family fortune and your cousin's dowry.
Your aunt felt sorry for her daughter and took them to live on her small estate. This person was lucky; he died a few months before the fall of the Dayan Kingdom, receiving a proper burial and avoiding the suffering of national subjugation.
The Zhang family fell silent for a moment. Zhang's aunt wished she could refuse the Wen family right now. Their family was unlucky; their son was immoral, and in the end, the blame was all placed on their daughter. It was simply too much!
The two families had a decent relationship before, and Lord Wen and Zhang Zhi were classmates. It's not fair to say they'll break off relations immediately. In the future, the two families should try to have as little contact as possible, or even no contact at all.
It just so happens that Zhang Zhi hasn't visited the Wen family for the New Year yet, and starting now, he won't go!
These things haven't even happened yet. He's already incredibly frustrated that he can't rightfully avenge his daughter, let alone the Wen family...
The group exchanged glances. They knew the Wen family was not to be trifled with, and they would not help Lord Wen, who had died unexpectedly.
Zhang Sheng was secretly grinding his teeth. How dare they humiliate his sister like this! No matter what happened, neither Wen Jia Dalang nor Huang Wei would get away with it!
Aunt Zhang thought of Madam Wen, and a cold smile appeared on her lips. Did she really think Madam Wen was dead after talking about her daughter like that?
When Yue Fuguang left the Zhang residence, two carriages followed her, filled with gifts from the Zhang family.
"System, it looks like my warehouse is about to fill up again."
[That's good. Convert everything in the warehouse into silver; that's enough to support that new army for two or three years.]
Speaking of the new army, it is said that 10,000 people were recruited before the New Year, and training will begin after the Lantern Festival. By the time the cotton seeds of the Moonlit Floating Light are planted, before the harvest season, half of these people will be able to be recruited by her.
Yue Fuguang had already spoken with Huo Ying and Wei Shouyi; she wanted the best five thousand men, and she believed that these men wouldn't dare to try to fool her with inferior ones.
The same days always seem to pass faster on holidays than during workdays.
Before the Lantern Festival was over, the emperor and his officials of the Dayan Dynasty began their work. Even Yue Fuguang, who had trouble getting up, had to endure his sleepiness and the northwest wind in order to go to court on the Lantern Festival for today's revelation.
Having slept through most of the morning court session, Yue Fuguang woke up and began to replenish her energy. After eating and drinking her fill, she glanced at Ling Yinghua, the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, and said, "You're the one."
【Master, the lantern festival tonight is said to be the most lively and beautiful. Shall we go see it too?】
"No matter how beautiful the lantern festivals on earth are, are they as beautiful as the stars in the Milky Way? Or as beautiful as the celestial lanterns in the Milky Way?"
"That's different. Doesn't the mortal world have more of a lively atmosphere and more human warmth?"
"If mortals don't have human charm, do they have divine or ghostly charm?"
【Master, don't argue, let's just go take a look, we're just killing time anyway.】
"Noisy places are unsafe, especially places like lantern festivals, which are accident hotspots. Maybe we should just forget about it?"
No way! With Little Beads around, who would dare to cause trouble? But what the master said about accident hotspots is really true.
Look at that thin old man standing in front of your eldest uncle, Zhang Zhi.
Ling Yinghua: Old man? My divine artifact, I have a name, I have a name! And I'm only forty-eight this year, still very young, how can I be an old man?
"You mean Chief Instructor Ling? What happened to him?"
[During his family's Lantern Festival this year, which is today, his grandson and granddaughter were kidnapped by pimps. Even after the death of the Great Yan Emperor, the two children were never found.]
Emperor Mingxi: My Lord, when discussing the Ling family, there's no need to repeatedly bring up the fall of the Dayan Kingdom!
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