Chapter 97: With such a wife, what else can a husband ask for? Yinzhen knows Fu Jin...
Yinzhen knew that his wife had always been kind to the servants. Since she left the palace and established her own residence, his wife had never punished or beaten the servants in the main courtyard. Even if she was angry and dissatisfied, she would just send them away and would not even make them kneel as punishment.
He had once wanted to teach his wife a lesson about how to discipline servants, but she always agreed verbally and then forgot about it. Later, he decided to just let it go. After all, he was there. Since his wife was soft-hearted, he could be tougher.
But out of consideration for Fu Jin, he never punished her in front of her, and even did not touch the people around Fu Jin, because he knew that Fu Jin would definitely be heartbroken.
But this time he really didn't want to let it go easily. Even though he was a little angry, these servants were not innocent. Even if the concubine blamed him for it, he would still do it.
Yinzhen held Fu Jin's hand in his palm and said gravely, "They didn't serve you very well. Each of them will be punished with twenty strokes of the cane."
Qi Buchen clenched his hands suddenly. As expected, twenty strokes of the cane meant a lot of damage. The flesh would be broken.
She wanted to be angry, but she couldn't blame Yinzhen. To Yinzhen, his master's illness was caused by the servants' failure to serve him well, and such punishment was perfectly normal. Even the servants who were beaten saw it the same way. She couldn't use her own standards to accuse Yinzhen from a high position, as that would only show how narrow her sense of moral superiority was.
Besides, she was the one who should be blamed for this matter. If she hadn't caused them to be beaten, how could she have done that?
"It has nothing to do with them. It's all my fault." Qi Buchen murmured.
Yinzhen couldn't help but feel distressed when he heard her words. Fu Jin was always like this, always finding fault with herself. He didn't know what she had experienced in the past to develop this kind of personality.
He gently opened Qi Buchen's tightly clenched hands, lowered his head and rubbed her palms, which were slightly red from being pinched by her nails, while saying, "It's really your fault. You were too lenient with them, which led to them being so perfunctory and careless."
"No, that's not it." Qi Buchen said, "It's me who doesn't want to eat and rest well. As servants, what can they do to me?"
Yinzhen paused and looked up at her: "Why don't you want to eat and rest well?"
Qi Buchen bit his lips lightly, unwilling to answer.
"Because I don't allow you to go out wearing clothes like that." Yinzhen asked himself and answered.
Qi Buchen said this, although he didn't say anything, but his attitude clearly showed that Yinzhen was right.
Yinzhen sighed softly, "Fujin, you don't know how sinister people are in this world, and how filthy and dirty their thoughts are. I feel sick just talking about those thoughts, so how can I let you bear them, even if you don't know about them."
I know, of course I know how filthy some people are, but we shouldn't confine ourselves to them. Doing so will only make them more rampant and encourage more and more people to join their ranks. We should stand up and change this trend, relegating them to the gutter, leaving them no place to live, and ensuring that those who come after them are less and less influenced by them, until they disappear.
Of course, such people may never disappear, but they must never be able to live in the sun and must carefully hide their dirty thoughts throughout their lives.
But he couldn't say that to Yinzhen. Qi Buchen looked at him with watery eyes, "I understand what you mean, Yinzhen, really. But I've been losing my appetite these past few days, thinking, today, because of those people's dirty thoughts, I can't wear the clothes I like. Then, tomorrow, will I also be unable to leave the house, laugh out loud, read, learn to read, ride a horse, or shoot arrows because of their words?"
Yinzhen's eyes moved slightly.
"Yinzhen, you've read so many books, you should know that what I'm saying isn't just empty talk or fantasy. These are all real facts recorded in history. Before the Ming Dynasty, there were women fighting on the battlefield, women serving as officials, women doing business, women being counselors, women opening academies, and women whose talents were renowned throughout the world. But are there still such figures after the Ming Dynasty? No. What are there? Women who are virtuous even if they don't have talent, women who smile without showing their teeth and walk without showing their feet, women who have bound feet, and women who never leave the house."
Yinzhen looked slightly surprised. He didn't expect that Fu Jin could notice these things.
"Yinzhen, let me say something extremely treasonous. Manchu women can still ride horses and shoot arrows now because we have only recently entered the Western Han Dynasty. But what about the future? You are so knowledgeable, you should know how strong the Han people's cultural assimilation is. Do we Manchus have a cultural advantage over the Han people? No, the ultimate result will only be our assimilation. Otherwise, why did the Emperor continue to ban foot binding..."
The rest of the words were suppressed by Yinzhen: "Shut up!"
He quickly got up and walked outside. When he came back, he leaned over to Qi Buchen's ear and said angrily, "You are so bold now that you even dare to make up stories about the Emperor. Is that something you can just say casually? If the Emperor knew about this, I wouldn't be able to protect you! Don't say such things again in the future! Don't even think about it."
Qi Buchen put her arms around his neck, pushed him down, and made him lie on top of her. Her lips gently brushed against Yinzhen's ear: "I'm only telling you. Yinzhen, do you really not know or have not thought about what I'm saying? I don't believe it. You're so smart, you must have thought about it countless times in your mind. Yinzhen, I'm not as smart as you, and I don't know what to say. I've been thinking about it these past few days. Since we can't avoid being assimilated in the end, why don't we prepare early and change all the things we don't like in it? Make it what we want?"
"The same goes for clothes, Yinzhen. The world shouldn't be like this. Good people shouldn't be forced into hiding by bad people. If you don't even dare to wear a piece of clothing you like today, you'll lose something more important tomorrow. Yinzhen, someone has to stand up. We have money, power, and status, and we're already in a very high position. If even we don't dare to declare war on them, then this world is truly hopeless."
A soft touch came from his ear. It should be the concubine's lips. This knowledge made Yinzhen's hair stand on end. Before he could have any romantic thoughts, a set of words with profound meanings came into his ears, making him tremble uncontrollably.
"Yinzhen, what do you think?"
Yinzhen propped himself up and hovered over Fu Jin. He looked at Qi Buchen with a complicated expression, as if he had just met her.
Suddenly, he smiled: "I think, with a wife like this, what else could a husband ask for?"
He sat up and pulled Qi Buchen up again, put one hand around his waist and the other hand on the back of his neck, and nuzzled Qi Buchen's nose affectionately: "Fujin, you still say you are stupid, but I think you are extremely smart. In order to make me agree to let you wear that dress to go out, you even came up with such a reason."
Qi Buchen hooked his neck and said in a soft voice: "Then do you agree or not~"
"Promise, how could I not agree?" Yinzhen sighed, "I should work harder in the future. Otherwise, what will happen if I become dumber than you?"
Qi Buchen chuckled and whispered in his ear, "I remember someone said a few days ago that he would never touch me again."
Yinzhen: “…”
"It's not good for Fu Jin to cross the river and then destroy the bridge like this." Yinzhen also leaned close to Fu Jin's ear and said in a threatening tone.
Qi Buchen smiled secretly, then pushed the person away and leaned back holding his stomach: "Ouch, my stomach hurts."
Do you really think he can't see through such obvious acting?
Yinzhen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, he was more worried about her health: "Does it really hurt?"
His stomach had indeed been aching dully, but he had been concentrating on his work just now so he could ignore it. Now that he was relaxed, the pain was becoming more noticeable. Qi Buchen nodded sullenly, then shook his head: "It's okay, I can still bear it."
Yinzhen's face was full of pity: "I'll go ask again, is there any other way to make you feel better?"
Qi Buchen held him back and said, "Don't embarrass me, an honest man. Menstrual pain is a common symptom among women. If there was a way to treat it, it would have been known to everyone long ago."
"It's okay, I just need to lie down for a while, it's just too hot." Qi Buchen said a little dissatisfied. The weather was already hot, but because of her illness, only one ice basin was left in the house, and she was still wearing a full set of clothes and covered with a thin blanket.
Yinzhen heard this but did not indulge her on this matter: "The imperial physician said that it was because you used the ice basin too much that the cold air entered your body, so don't think about it, just bear it."
"Alas." Qi Buchen sighed softly, "By the way, what are you going to do with your errand now that you're back today?"
The two of them started chatting about family matters, but after a few words, Qi Buchen kicked the person out to solve his personal problems.
When the effect of the medicine wore off, Qi Buchen was in double the pain again. She tossed and turned on the bed, groaning in pain, while Yinzhen was still turning around beside her. Qi Buchen didn't want to endure the pain and comfort and stop him, so she simply drove him to the front yard and forbade him to come to the backyard for the next few days.
——Every time he comes, she has to wear a full set of clothes. It’s too hot, so she wears as little as possible.
Qi Buchen was in pain for ten days and almost missed the ceremony of enthroning the Crown Princess. All her previous suffering would have been in vain.
"Oh, this is the Fourth Lady, right? I've heard of her beauty for a long time, and seeing her today is truly captivating."
"Yes, the Fourth Lady is dressed very beautifully. I have never seen such a style before. Could it be a new model from some brand?"
"Where did the Fourth Lady buy her lip balm? It looks quite different from what I used to use."
Loving beauty is a woman's nature. As soon as Qi Buchen showed up, he was surrounded by women with bright eyes. They praised him endlessly and asked him the questions that concerned them most.
Qi Buchen said generously, "Thank you for the compliments, ladies. This is something that came in from my dowry shop. They say they just hired an embroiderer from the south. She often sees foreign women there, and she got inspiration from their dress styles to make some changes to our clothes. The shopkeeper said he didn't know if the new style would be popular with customers, so he sent it to me to take a look and ask the ladies he knows."
"I really like it, so I just wore it today."
"This lip balm is also new from my dowry shop. They say it's a new color, called alizarin red."
"I like it, of course I don't like it. If you don't like such a beautiful dress, what kind of fairy dress do you want?" said a cheerful young lady.
"That's right. Anyway, I like it very much. Fourth Lady, when will your shop be open to the public? I want to reserve a spot first."
"Where is the Fourth Lady's dowry shop? Is the lip balm available now? I'll have someone go buy some."
A group of women were talking at once, and Qi Buchen greeted them with ease, quickly establishing good customer relationships with a group of ladies.
But not everyone likes Qi Buchen.
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The author has something to say: Yinzhen: How can my wife be so smart? It’s over. Will I be able to hide my private money in the future?
Qi Buchen: Still want to hide your secret money? Did I give you face?
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