The living conditions of ordinary people have improved greatly compared with previous years.
After the inspection, Feng Ming felt very satisfied.
He had originally thought that with such heavy snow this winter, many houses might be crushed, but he did not expect that those families who bought spinning machines or looms all reinforced their houses in order to protect their important property.
Therefore, except for a few extremely poor families, most people lived a comfortable life.
"Let's go home." Feng Ming took Zhuang Li's hand.
When he said "return home," he didn't mean returning to the palace, but to the village. Tomorrow was Chinese New Year, and we had agreed to be together.
Zhuang Li interlocked his fingers with his and said with a smile, "Okay, let's go home."
The two of them walked on the thin layer of snow, making a crunching sound, and their backs looked particularly harmonious.
When encountering potholes, Feng Ming would immediately put his arms around Zhuang Li's waist and half-hugged him. His attentiveness was particularly eye-catching.
The more Zhuang Xiaohui looked at it, the more strange it seemed to her, but she suppressed her doubts deep in her heart and didn't dare to think too much about it.
Only when she saw the emperor's carriage drive directly to her door did she show a look of surprise and doubt.
Feng Ming carried Zhuang Li down from the car as usual. They walked into the gate hand in hand.
"Xiaohui, come meet your sister-in-law." After sitting down in the living room, Zhuang Li supported his forehead with one hand and pointed at Feng Ming with the other, with a mischievous smile on his face.
Zhuang Xiaohui: “!!!”
Zhuang Xiaohui's eyes were bigger than copper bells.
The Emperor? Sister-in-law? Did her brain just get struck by lightning?
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Feng Ming scolded him in a feigned dissatisfaction, but his ears turned red. He waved his hand and said, "Call me Big Brother."
Zhuang Xiaohui: "...Big brother?"
"Hey." Feng Ming responded, and naturally took out a red envelope from his sleeve, saying in a cheerful tone: "Spend it."
Zhuang Li also took out a red envelope and handed it to Wan Jun, "I'll leave Xiaohui in your care."
"Thank you, Lord Zhuang." Wan Jun accepted the red envelope flattered.
Zhuang Li waved his hand and said, "Just call me big brother from now on." He glanced at his sister's neck which was covered with fox fur.
Wanjun's cheeks flushed red.
Zhuang Xiaohui also realized it belatedly and cried out "Ah", then covered her face and ran away.
After returning to her boudoir, she shook her head and chuckled softly with pleasure. Her brother always had a way of turning around awkward or tense situations with just a few words. In just a few moments, she had actually accepted the fact that the emperor and her brother were a couple.
Her brother is so smart, she really doesn't need to worry about him.
If even her brother couldn't control the future, then her struggle would be in vain.
Let it be, just think of it as one more person in the family and live a good life from now on.
Thinking this way, Zhuang Xiaohui had completely returned to normal during the New Year's Eve dinner. She laughed when she should, joked when she should, and didn't seem to be restrained at all by Feng Ming's presence.
Feng Ming only cared about Zhuang Li the whole time, so naturally he didn't feel embarrassed.
The family blends in very well.
After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, Zhuang Li and Feng Ming stood in the corridor, watching Wan Jun and Zhuang Xiaohui setting off fireworks and firecrackers in the yard.
The brilliant fireworks dotted the night sky and illuminated the two people's faces filled with happiness.
"Here, this is today's private talk." Zhuang Li handed over a note.
Feng Ming's eyes lit up, and he immediately took out the password stick he carried with him and wrapped it around his wrist.
"Let's go horseback riding together." This incoherent sentence caught my eye.
"It's too late, it's not safe to ride a horse. Besides, I'm afraid you'll catch a cold." Feng Ming looked embarrassed.
Zhuang Li pushed him into a dark corner and whispered in his ear, "No, I want to ride a horse right now."
Feng Ming struggled internally for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying, "Come on, I'll take you back to the palace. The horse farm in the palace has flat roads and is relatively safe."
He pulled Zhuang Li down the stairs, but Zhuang Li jumped onto his back and chuckled, "Fool, can't you just be my horse? I want to ride you from this year to next year."
Feng Ming: “!!!”
Only then did he grasp the meaning of "riding a horse," and then his ears burned redder than a branding iron.
Zhuang Li bit the tip of his burning ear, his voice low and hoarse: "In just one hour, this year will be over and next year will begin. Are you sure you want to waste time here with me?"
Feng Ming immediately carried him on his back and ran to the backyard.
Feng Ming and Zhuang Li had a very fulfilling New Year. Of course, this "fulfillment" included both the literal meaning and the spiritual needs.
---
After the spring, Zhuang Xiaohui's school was successfully established. In order to work in her factory, many poor people sent their daughters to study, which greatly changed the local people's mindset.
In the past, girls were not allowed to go to school. Now, seeing that girls who have successfully graduated from schools have successively got good jobs and received high salaries, many people feel that they must send their own girls to school.
Who doesn’t want to live a good life?
Zhuang Xiaohui opened several water-powered textile mills in Beijing and Jiangnan, and the woven cloth was taken overseas for sale by royal merchant ships.
The merchant ships modified by Zhuang Li sail at a very fast speed and are equipped with cannons and other powerful weapons. They are not afraid of any challenges from pirates or small countries.
As a result, Zhuang Xiaohui made a fortune from foreign trade.
The local wealthy businessmen were envious and also wanted to set up factories, so she opened a machinery factory, specializing in making water-powered spinning machines and looms, and then reselling them to make a fortune.
In just a few months, textile factories were everywhere in Jiangnan, and the demand for labor was even greater.
Compared with men, women are more dexterous, hardworking and easier to manage, so most textile factories like to recruit female workers.
The entire Jiangnan region was in need of female workers, so graduates of Zhuang Xiaohui's school had no trouble finding jobs. They could read and write, and had received professional technical training. All they had to do was show their diplomas and claim they were from Huimin School, and factories would hire them without hesitation.
So naturally, more and more people send their girls to school.
At the same time, the extremely high employment rate promoted the birth of megacities and the development of various industries such as education, manufacturing, printing, trade, and smelting.
An unprecedented huge change is quietly brewing because of a woman's small action.
In June of that year, Feng Ming appointed Zhuang Xiaohui as the Supervisor of Jiangning. Although his official rank was not high, his power was real.
This was the first time a woman had held an official position in the dynasty, and naturally, the entire court, both civil and military officials, did not approve. However, Zhuang Xiaohui was both capable and well-connected, and if she wasn't allowed to take the position, the court couldn't find anyone more suitable.
The censors impeached him several times, but the emperor ignored them, and the matter was settled.
In stark contrast to the reaction of the court officials, there was no opposition from the people.
The common people, who had enjoyed a prosperous life thanks to Zhuang Xiaohui's various business initiatives, would never throw their jobs away. They would resolutely refuse to accept someone else as the Jiangning Supervisor.
You haven't done anything, yet you come here to pick the peaches of the shopkeeper. What gives you the right? Just because you have a dick? The common people's words are so crude, but the truth is that they are true.
As long as it brings them tangible benefits, gender really doesn't matter.
So Zhuang Xiaohui took office smoothly.
---
After the fall, the prisoners who were sentenced to death last winter knelt one by one at Caishikou, waiting for their last meal.
Yu Yuxian also mixed in with them, still dressed as a man.
Zhuang Li didn't want her viciousness to ruin the beautiful image of all Dayan women, so he made her wear the skin of a man until her death.
Yu Yuxian didn't reveal his identity.
She was fed up and tired.
She looked around, her expression gradually becoming one of surprise. There were so many women walking on the street, and most of them were unmarried girls. They wrapped their heads in scarves, wore aprons they only wore when working, and walked in groups of two or three, their faces filled with bright smiles.
Each of them was as confident and generous as Zhuang Xiaohui, and their hearty laughter could be heard from a long distance away.
Zhuang Xiaohui has Zhuang Li and Feng Yi protecting her, so she can act with impunity. What do these ordinary people have?
Why are they so free and unrestrained?
The men around her didn't find it strange, and never blamed or scolded her. What's wrong with this world?
Yu Yuxian watched all this with wide eyes, his heart beating wildly.
At this moment, a woman with gray hair and an old face squeezed out from the crowd and placed a bowl of rice and a bowl of braised pork in front of Yu Yuxian.
"Mom!" Yu Yuxian looked at her in disbelief and said miserably, "How did you get so old?"
"Your half-brother kicked me out, and I have to support myself, so I'm aging very quickly." Li said calmly, "Don't look at me aging quickly, but I'm much happier now. I work in a dyeing workshop, dyeing cloth, and earn a few taels of silver a month. I rent a house and live in peace and quiet. I can go out alone, have fun, eat whatever I want, and no one will say I'm unfaithful. I can go wherever I want, and it's quite comfortable."
Tears streamed down her face as she spoke, and she sincerely repented: "If I had known that the world would become so better, and that women could hold official positions with dignity, I would never have disguised you as a man. If you hadn't disguised yourself as a man, you wouldn't have been bullied by those five beasts, and everything that happened later wouldn't have happened. I was wrong! I ruined you!"
Li covered her face and cried bitterly.
Many family members came to give their loved ones their last meal, and they were all crying loudly, so no one paid attention to what was happening on her side.
Yu Yuxian immediately grasped the key point: "Mom, what did you just say? Can a woman be an official?"
"Yes, you've been in jail. I don't know what's happened recently. Let me tell you..."
Li began to tell the story of Zhuang Xiaohui, her eyes full of envy and admiration.
Yu Yuxian, however, slumped on the ground, muttering, "I've actually made a joke of myself. Haha, hahahaha..."
She laughed crazily, the regret piling up in her heart as deep as the sea.
What she couldn't do, Zhuang Xiaohui did.
To walk freely and proudly in the world as a woman—this was her original dream! Why did she forget this dream as she walked along?
Yu Yuxian closed his eyes and kowtowed to Li. There was no more resentment on his face, only two lines of tears of sincere repentance.
At the same time, Zhuang Li also received a notification from 7480: "Master, your Demon Hunter experience bar has increased a little bit."
"No golden finger?" Zhuang Li looked at the sky and found that it was already past noon, and Yu Yuxian should have been executed.
"No, the hero and heroine in this world don't have golden fingers." 7480 felt very strange.
"The hero and heroine don't have the golden finger, but Xiaohui was reborn. If I hadn't come, the evil Xiaohui would have enough power to avenge her past life. So, this world is actually consciously correcting the destruction caused by the Lord God. Is it because of this that Xiaohui was reborn?"
Zhuang Li pondered, "Ming's consciousness is the consciousness of this world. It has begun to fight against the Lord God. Does this mean that Ming's situation is improving?"
7480 suggested, "That's probably it. How about we travel through another world and see?"
"Sure, but we'll have to wait a few more decades." Zhuang Li smiled and pursed his lips, then wrote a cryptic message on a piece of paper: [I want to grow old with you in this life.]
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