Chapter 385 Design
Jiang Yuan's strict guarding not only infuriated those who wanted to curry favor with him or frame him, but also inadvertently made him the subject of gossip for the emperor and the retired emperor.
The two were very perceptive and knew about Jiang Yuan's schemes from the very beginning, but Jiang Yuan's series of outrageous actions truly opened their eyes.
Family members, does anyone understand? This person really doesn't follow any conventional path!
The father and son were like fans of a serialized novel, asking their trusted subordinates every day if Jiang Yuan had used any new self-defense tactics that day.
Jiang Yuan had no idea that the most powerful father and son in the world would be so idle as to gossip about his trivial matters. He was filled with vigilance and wariness towards these monsters and demons, and his only thought was to protect himself and his child before Xie Wanniang returned.
Yes, a few heartless individuals even went after his son and daughter with Xie Wanniang.
Since the controversy surrounding the selection of study companions had completely died down, Xie Wanniang sent An'an and Linlin to her uncle's house.
Her uncle and aunt hired some very good tutors for their children. Not only Xie Wanniang, but also other members of the Xie clan in Beijing, as well as her uncle's relatives and friends by marriage, all greeted her uncle and aunt and sent their children to her uncle and aunt's house to study.
Therefore, An'an and Linlin's schedules are quite full now. After all, they not only have to learn to read and write from the teacher's level, but also learn the most basic etiquette, music, mathematics, archery, and charioteering.
Chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, gardening, needlework, cooking, household management, and female virtues and precepts—if they wanted to learn these, the Xie family had people who could teach them.
The only thing they didn't have a family to teach them was martial arts, but Xie Wan's mother and Jiang Yuan's family had plenty of people who could teach them.
Of course, having qualified teachers doesn't mean that the two children have to attend the school or become exceptionally outstanding.
As parents, Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan did not put too much pressure on their children's studies. Apart from the requirement that they be able to read, be familiar with the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty, and be able to do accounting, they did not force their children to learn any particular subject or to any particular level. Moreover, if they were not keeping up with their studies, they would patiently give them extra tutoring.
This attitude of their parents has instilled in their two children a constant curiosity and desire to explore everything around them, including the things they need to learn.
They are happy to try new things and never try to hide from their parents their clumsiness or lack of talent in a certain area.
Linlin is still young and in the naive stage where she can only be grateful that her parents are tolerant of her. An'an, however, already has a little bit of a sense of crisis and a long-term vision.
She once asked Xie Wanniang privately if her father and mother would feel ashamed and disappointed if she and Linlin accomplished nothing and were unsuccessful.
Xie Wanniang imagined the situation An'an envisioned, "No. As long as you are healthy, safe, and happy, act with discretion, have principles, don't pick up bad habits, don't prey on the people, and don't harm the country, your mother and father will be very happy."
Being an ordinary and normal person, and living a simple and happy life, is also a kind of fulfillment and success.
She told An'an, "Even if you don't have great abilities, as long as you manage what your parents left you well, you can live a peaceful and prosperous life without worrying about food or clothing. Of course, if you can grow up to be even more outstanding and have more ability to protect yourself, your father and mother will also be proud of you."
The children are ordinary, and she and Jiang Yuan would never use the excuse of "disappointment" to scold or beat them or despise them. But if the children could excel, then she and Jiang Yuan could indeed close their eyes more peacefully when they die.
Simply put, it means having the highest expectations, preparing for the worst, and avoiding creating unnecessary pressure and pain for your child.
The couple's attitude made An'an and Linlin two of the happiest children among all the children studying at the Xie family home.
But the two children's grades did not plummet because of this. Knowing that their parents hoped they would be better and able to protect themselves in the future, An'an, the little girl, not only began to work hard on her own, but also began to supervise her younger brother in a very respectful manner.
Fortunately, compared to her, Linlin is not only more interested in reading, but also more talented. Her sister's supervision did not make Linlin upset. On the contrary, because she had an extra opportunity to show off her achievements, the little girl was more proactive than An'an in having her sister check her homework.
Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, who were secretly observing, quickly noticed the changes in the two children's behavior. The couple were happy to see this happen, so they pretended not to know anything and let the siblings do whatever they wanted.
However, Jiang Yuan can no longer give the two children maximum freedom.
The reason is simple: some extremely shameless guy, after realizing that all his schemes could not break through his defenses, directly set his sights on his son and daughter with Xie Wanniang.
One day, the two children left the Xie residence and took a carriage home as usual. However, on the way, they encountered a young girl with disheveled clothes who was running towards their carriage while crying and shouting "Help!"
Behind her, there was another group of burly men who came on menacingly, carrying sticks and ropes, shouting things like "Stop right there!" and "If you run again, I'll break your legs!"
With the accompanying guards blocking their way, neither the girl nor the burly men were able to get close to the carriage that An'an and Linlin were riding in. However, their arguing and pulling around around An'an and her party did indeed hinder their return to the mansion.
Haitang, who accompanied An'an and Linlin out, told the two children not to get out of the car before opening the car door and getting out with a stern face.
Although the two children were curious, they obediently did not follow them out.
The siblings, accompanied by their respective maids and servants, curiously observed the situation through the crack in the door.
Upon seeing the car door open, the girl, who was already crying miserably, immediately cried even harder.
She reached out her hand to Haitang, pleading for help with a pitiful expression.
Haitang then said to one of the guards, "Go and invite the patrol officers from the Jingzhao Prefecture over here. Also, have the officers from the Five Cities Garrison come out and do their work."
The girl stopped crying, and the burly men who had been trying to pull her away also stopped what they were doing.
The onlookers, drawn by this farce, thought: ...Wait, why is this woman completely unpredictable?
It's not uncommon for wealthy people to be stopped in the street for help in a bustling city like Beijing. While some are genuinely driven to desperation and have no choice but to resort to desperate measures, the vast majority are simply staged accidents to extort money.
Unlike the traditional kind of "extortion," they do not deliberately portray their chosen target as the party at fault. Although they are essentially creating the illusion that they are the "victim," the "perpetrator" is a person or force that is completely different from their target.
When faced with this situation, wealthy families who are being scammed generally have two options: either they casually throw some money at the victim to get rid of her, or they take pity on her and buy the girl in distress, taking her home.
The first approach avoids accusations of a lack of compassion while also preventing trouble from getting them home.
The second approach is easy to get entangled with people with ulterior motives, but that's okay. Apart from a very few naive and innocent people, most wealthy people have plenty of ways to deal with those who are hostile to them.
They didn't even need to lift a finger; the other servants in the house were enough to make those scheming fellows regret their decision to plot against this family.
Of course, the number of people who come with malicious intent is actually very small. The vast majority of people who use this "call for help" to extort money are ultimately only after practical benefits such as money and status.
Those girls who were bought into wealthy families, if they were pretty, would eventually become concubines or maids of one of the young masters of that family. If they were of average appearance, they would be assigned to jobs that were not close to their masters and were not very important. Then, when they reached a certain age, they would be reassigned by their masters to other servants in the household.
This kind of future may not be something to be happy about for those with power, status, and wealth, but for girls from poor backgrounds who have no way to change their lives through normal means, it is the best way out they can have.
It's not just young girls; some young men will also choose to stage accidents for insurance fraud when the opportunity arises.
Despite being men who have more opportunities to work hard and change their own destiny in today's society, they still can't help but choose to take shortcuts.
Having grown accustomed to the usual practices of wealthy men, women, sons, and daughters, the onlookers assumed there would be nothing new today. So, their focus of discussion remained on how beautiful the girl was, the backgrounds of the men pursuing her, which noble family was sitting in the carriage that had been stopped, and whether the noble family would pay them off or simply buy the girl.
However, Haitang immediately shattered these people's preconceived notions. She neither paid money nor bought the person, but instead took it very seriously and sent someone to summon the street patrolmen of the Jingzhao Prefecture and the soldiers from the Five Cities Garrison in charge of this area.
Not only were the onlookers surprised by her unconventional approach, but even the girl and the group of burly men who had been making a ruckus were caught off guard by Haitang's way of handling things.
For a moment, they didn't even know whether they should continue.
The two groups quickly exchanged glances, and then the girl burst into tears again, her face streaked with tears, and she reached out her hand to Haitang in a weak, pitiful, and helpless manner, "Save me! Madam, please save me!"
Haitang didn't give her a chance to get close. She stood calmly on the carriage shaft and said, "I'm saving you right now."
The girl was taken aback.
The burly man in the lead reacted quickly, stepping forward to grab the girl, shouting, "I told you to behave! If you dare to cause any more trouble, believe me, I'll break both your legs!"
As he spoke, he waited for Haitang to send someone to stop him.
However, Haitang showed no intention of ordering the guards to stop her. She stood there calmly and said to the girl in a very objective and calm tone, "Don't be afraid, the people from the Jingzhao Prefecture and the Five Cities Garrison will be here soon."
Whether those guys are genuinely not around here or are deliberately avoiding this place, they certainly wouldn't dare to go too far.
If Haitang only delays for a moment, those people, whether they like it or not, will have to obediently come over and settle things as she expects.
Her gaze swept over the girl and the group of burly men. "In broad daylight, under the clear sky, right here under the very nose of the Emperor of our Great Wei, if there is no law and justice in such a place, then where can we seek law and justice?"
The girl was at a loss, but the burly man in the lead said, "What law and justice! This little wench was sold to our Chunfeng Pavilion by her own father. No matter what, we are in the right!"
Upon hearing this, the people around immediately started discussing it in small groups. Although Chunfeng Tower was not as famous as the three most famous brothels in the capital, it was still a relatively well-known brothel in the area.
So this girl was sold to a brothel by her own father?
Some people found it hard to believe, some felt immense sympathy for the girl, and others immediately turned their gaze to Haitang, secretly urging her to quickly rescue the girl from her predicament.
Haitang didn't say anything because of this. "How much did you pay for this girl? I paid for it."
She thought to herself, "What a coincidence! She just happens to know the best way to handle this situation."
Her princess once said that in the previous dynasty, fathers who sold their daughters into brothels would be sentenced to "one and a half years of penal servitude," while brothels that bought respectable women into prostitution would also be sentenced to penal servitude or exile.
In this dynasty, the heinous act of a father selling his daughter into a brothel, which involves luring and selling innocent children, would be punished as human trafficking, and if the circumstances were serious, the offender could be hanged.
If a brothel owner is the buyer, they will be considered an accomplice to the traffickers, and in serious cases, they may face the death penalty.
She looked at the girl with reassuring eyes and said, "Don't worry, since you are determined to escape this hellhole, the law and the government will definitely give you the greatest protection."
Fearing she wouldn't believe her, Haitang kindly explained the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty regarding this matter: "You resisted so fiercely, yet they still forced you into prostitution. Their evil deeds are enough to warrant a hanging. So, once the people from the Jingzhao Prefecture and the Five Cities Garrison arrive, you will be completely safe."
After all, the person who pushed her into the fire is going to be sentenced to death by hanging, so what possibility is there for this girl to be unsafe?
Haitang thought to herself, "I really am kind."
No, to be precise, it should be said that her princess really had foresight; studying, especially studying law, is indeed exceptionally useful.
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