Looking at the scene before him, Lin Yuze felt a surge of anger in his chest, like a powder keg that had been ignited, and it burst into flames with a "boom".
His eyes instantly became bloodshot, his jaw clenched, the veins on his temples throbbed, and his hands unconsciously clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white from the force.
The expression that seemed to want to crush everything in front of him froze when he met the old woman's wrinkled face.
During his two years in office in Jing'an County, he had thoroughly understood the intricacies behind it all.
In most families that cruelly abandon baby girls or reject girls, the people behind the scenes are usually elderly people.
He felt utterly powerless when faced with elderly people like this. He couldn't bring himself to discipline them; their hair was white, their bodies hunched over.
After all, respecting and caring for the elderly is a tradition ingrained in our bones, so how can we throw it to the back of our minds because of a momentary impulse?
If you sit down and try to reason with them earnestly, it's like casting pearls before swine; they seem to be firmly imprisoned by outdated ideas.
His mind was filled with his own stubborn and unyielding fallacies, and no matter how others tried to reason with him, it was like a breeze passing by in an instant.
Even when they witnessed the government severely punishing those families who drowned their baby girls, they were only trembling with fear at the time.
Once the storm passed, they quickly cast their fear to the winds and continued to do as they pleased, unchanged in their old ways.
This situation has caused headaches for officials in various places, who are often frowning with worry, yet they have been unable to come up with an effective solution.
At that moment, the old woman sat down heavily on the ground, slapping the ground with both hands, kicking up clouds of dust.
He kept chanting those clichéd refrains about favoring sons over daughters, his sharp voice piercing the air and drawing the attention of those around him.
Lin Yuze took a deep breath, trying to calm the turmoil in his heart, but the anger spread like wildfire and was impossible to contain.
His eyes grew increasingly cold, the chill seemingly capable of freezing the surrounding air.
His previously gentle tone suddenly turned cold, each word seeming to carry the chill of frost.
She spat out coldly from between her teeth: "You are a woman yourself, so why do you think women are a waste of money?"
Could it be that you weren't born after your mother carried you for ten months, endured morning sickness and swelling, and spent countless sleepless nights?
Didn't you raise your son with painstaking care, changing his diapers and enduring countless nights of feeding and soothing him to sleep?
Furthermore, the key to having a boy or a girl lies with the boy; this was said by His Highness Prince Zhao himself.
"What, do you think you're more knowledgeable and more capable than His Highness Prince Zhao?"
The old woman was throwing a tantrum, waving her hands wildly in the air, cursing and swearing, and kicking up dust from the ground.
But when she looked up unintentionally, she met Lin Yuze's suddenly cold expression.
His gaze was like frost on a cold night, carrying a chilling coldness that made her spine go cold, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her from head to toe.
The originally loud, shrill shouts stopped abruptly, like a kite with its string cut.
She opened her mouth, but something seemed to be stuck in her throat, and she could only make a few weak "uh...uh..." sounds.
The fat on his face twitched unnaturally, and his eyes were filled with fear and helplessness.
When she heard that the sex of a child depended on the man, a look of disbelief flashed across her cloudy eyes, and her brows furrowed tightly into a "川" shape.
The wrinkles on his face became more and more obvious, like deep ravines.
She shook her head vigorously, muttering to herself, "This is impossible. How could the principles passed down from our ancestors be wrong?"
But when she looked at Lin Yuze's unquestionable, cold expression, the rebuttal that was on the tip of her tongue was swallowed back down like a startled rabbit.
She could only stand there, her feet shifting nervously, her hands clutching the hem of her clothes, her lips slightly parted.
The sound it made was so faint, like a mosquito's hum, as it mumbled indistinctly, "How could this be..."
The man standing nearby stared in astonishment upon hearing this, his face filled with surprise.
His eyes were wide open, like two black pearls about to pop out of their sockets, his eyebrows were raised high, and his forehead was covered with lines of surprise.
His mouth unconsciously opened slightly, forming an "O" shape, and he subconsciously let out a "Huh?" sound.
He couldn't utter a single word for a long time. He was frozen in place, as if under a spell, staring blankly at Lin Yuze with a look of confusion and bewilderment in his eyes.
Looking at the scene before him, Lin Yuze was filled with exhaustion and helplessness.
He had been grappling with this patriarchal mindset for a long time, and every attempt to persuade or teach him felt like hitting an invisible wall, leaving him physically and mentally exhausted.
He knew that changing mindsets was not something that could be done overnight, but seeing these outdated ideas still poisoning the people, a sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart like a tide.
He really had no energy left to waste on arguing with them; these pointless disputes would only waste precious time, while there were many more important matters concerning people's livelihoods that needed to be addressed.
He slowly turned his gaze to the county magistrate beside him, his eyes filled with trust and expectation, nodding slightly in acknowledgment, his eyes full of entrustment.
The magistrate immediately understood, quickly stepped forward, straightened his back, cleared his throat, and prepared to take over the handling of the follow-up issues.
Lin Yuze turned around and hurriedly left the house with his entourage.
He looked up at the horizon and saw that the sun was gradually setting in the west, and the originally azure sky was dyed orange-yellow, like a spilled palette of paint.
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