Chapter 555 Isn't that an elopement?
The daughters of officials in the capital were educated from a young age to be well-mannered and knowledgeable, and the students of the women's colleges of high-ranking officials were also of high quality. At the social gathering, everyone was talking in hushed tones. Later, when Qin Mo suddenly entered the room, the room became even more silent.
But because of someone's promise, a loud shout suddenly rang out, causing many people to drop their plates.
"Ah...ah..."
Zhang Wenlu dropped her plate. She didn't care about picking it up to cover up her rudeness. Instead, she stared blankly at the group of female students who were jumping and skipping around.
The girls from Da Yuan Women's College hugged each other, tears streaming down their faces, crying and shouting as they tried their best to vent their grievances and express their joy.
"Don't go over there! Let them go crazy for a while!"
Shi Jing and his colleagues were already pale. They were about to rush over to stop the girls' crazy screaming when Qin Mo stopped them.
"Teacher, this is outrageous! The students and ladies of the capital are watching. Their madness is damaging to our official reputation..."
Shi Jing was truly terrified. Qin Mo seemed easy to talk to, but the two empresses were formidable! If his sister and her group really embarrassed the prince, Shi Jing would be in serious trouble. Not to mention, the annual research funding for his steam power research institute was controlled by Empress Lin!
"Shi Jing, are you willing to spend your life with a partner you've never met, who is of average appearance or who doesn't reciprocate your feelings?"
"The students... naturally don't want to!"
"You don't want to, and they... don't want to either!" Qin Mo pointed to Shi Shengnan and the others who were hugging and crying, and said with a sigh.
Arranged marriages are a good thing for some people; the rare case of an unattractive man marrying a beautiful woman is the ultimate benefit of arranged marriages for poor young men. However, for elites like Shi Jing, arranged marriages are a huge bad habit that lowers the happiness index of life.
There aren't that many stunning beauties to be your fiancée from childhood. The vast majority are just average-looking. You should be grateful if you don't end up with an ugly woman with buck teeth!
When Qin Mo first proposed "compulsory education and gender equality," he had considered the possibility of a women's rights movement, but he didn't expect it to come so soon. Once the idea of gender equality emerged, the grievances that women had suppressed for thousands of years would spread like wildfire...
When the first women's club appeared, Qin Mo once considered reversing his decision to close the women's academy and let them receive traditional private school education. However, he ultimately decided to guide them with goodwill and steer their thinking onto the right path, at least maintaining a certain amount of implicit privileges for the male students.
A few old friends are getting together, so you must let me go to a brothel for a drink, right? A girl with a tragic past is about to fall into a pit of fire, so you must let me take a concubine, right?
As for Qin Mo's agreement to publish a commentary opposing arranged marriages, it actually has another purpose.
The area has developed rapidly over the past decade, and the talent pool is insufficient to meet the development needs. Under such circumstances, Qin Mo could only promote a large number of his own subordinates. It didn't matter if they lacked ability, as long as they could be loyal!
But now Qin Mo has discovered a very bad sign: his honest, uneducated retainers have started to form cliques and start their own factions.
Their most important tactic was marriage alliances. Starting a few years ago, the reputation of the Prince Heng's old retainers became so strong that not only Japanese girls but also courtesans from Suzhou and Hangzhou were eager to marry them. These direct descendants of Qin Mo enjoyed the good fortune of love and also had a large number of children.
As a result, arranged marriages between children became prevalent among high-ranking officials, senior management, and the wealthy, and small power groups linked by marriage quickly took shape.
Qin Mo understood that now that he was in charge, and the older generation like Uncle Lin and Wu Shengze were still alive, no one dared to engage in factional infighting. But what about the future? Decades later, these factions would grow large and entrenched, inevitably having an adverse impact on the internal affairs of high-ranking officials.
Qin Mo established an all-girls school and supported various social events. She plans to unleash the powerful weapon of "co-education" when the time is right, encouraging young men and women to freely pursue love and opposing arranged marriages. While this won't completely stop arranged marriages, it's certainly an effective method!
"Alright! Quiet down, everyone, and let me say a few words!"
Seeing that the female interns had almost finished crying, Qin Mo decided to say a few words to correct their thinking and prevent them from developing any distorted ideas.
Girls in white shirts and canvas pants came over and surrounded Qin Mo. The girls' grateful looks made Qin Mo feel a little ashamed.
"First of all, I just did what I was supposed to do, so you don't deserve to look at me with such admiration. It's easy to cause unnecessary misunderstandings. You two principals have tempers... they're quite fierce. I'm even afraid of you when you get angry!"
"Hahaha…"
People in this world don't have a high threshold for laughter. Qin Mo's self-deprecating remark made the female students, who were just teary-eyed, laugh. Qin Mo's doting on his wife was well-known in Dayuan, but none of these female students thought he was unworthy of his princely status. In their hearts, a prince like him was the most perfect man and hero.
"While I support your aspirations for freedom, I must warn you not to act too radically, for example... not to turn against your family members because of differing opinions!"
Qin Mo glanced at Shi Shengnan intentionally or unintentionally, causing Shi Shengnan to instinctively shrink her neck and avoid Qin Mo's gaze.
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