Chapter 432 Finding the culprit behind this evil trend

"Nonsense! Noble ladies in the capital don't bind their feet, yet they still marry well." Lu Can's face turned red with anger, and he immediately refuted.

"Can you recognize the noble ladies in Beijing?" The lady looked at Lu Can and then shook her head.

"The daughter of the prefect has her feet bound, how can those noble ladies not bind their feet?"

Lu Can didn't know how to refute for a moment.

Lu Li opened the melon-eating system with a gloomy face.

Good, good, we have found the culprit who started this evil trend.

It was the prefect of Yunzhong City—Li Shouzheng.

[Okay, this Li guy, on the surface, has no objection to my father making me the Crown Princess, but in fact, he is very dissatisfied.]

[He was afraid that his father would dismiss him, so he was secretly doing something behind the scenes.]

[They dare not offend me, nor do they dare offend a female official of high rank like Concubine Shu, so they try their best to harm their own female relatives.]

[He actually required his wife to stay at home and not step out of the house, and also required his daughter to bind her feet. ]

[If the lady talks to the butler for a few more words, he will fly into a rage.]

[Where did this old zombie come from? ]

Lu Li was furious after reading this.

Li Shouzheng served as the prefect of Yunzhong City for fifteen years. During these fifteen years, under his promotion, the people of Yunzhong City all regarded small feet as beautiful.

Rich families considered it an honor to marry a girl with bound feet, and would compete to have their daughters’ feet bound.

The smaller the feet were bound, the more beautiful they were, as if this could prove that they were of higher status than ordinary people.

No wonder so many people stared at her feet after she came out of the inn.

I guess they thought she looked like she came from a wealthy family, but had big feet, which was unreasonable.

Lu Can, who was standing aside, was speechless due to the various questions asked by the ladies.

After all, he couldn't reveal Ninth Sister's identity, and he couldn't prove to everyone on the spot that noble ladies in the capital didn't bind their feet.

"Alright, they are a bunch of country bumpkins who have never seen the world and would think that noble ladies should bind their feet. In their imaginations, they probably think that the emperor uses a golden hoe." Lu Li interrupted their argument and signaled her brother to stop arguing with them.

There's no use quarreling.

"Hey, you rude little girl, how do you talk like that?"

"That's right, who are you calling a bumpkin?"

The group of aunties and grandmas immediately became unhappy.

"I'm talking about you." Lu Li sneered.

"You may not have seen the noble ladies of the capital, but you must have heard of the story of the Concubine Shu killing the enemy in battle, right?"

Everyone nodded subconsciously.

Of course I've heard of it. It was this concubine who led the troops to conquer Xichang.

"The Concubine Shu didn't bind her feet. If she had bound her feet, she wouldn't be able to walk steadily, so how could she fight on the battlefield?"

"Is it possible that in your eyes, the Concubine Shu is not noble enough?"

Lu Li's question left them speechless.

"The noble ladies in the capital are busy taking the college entrance examination and serving the country. What else can you noble ladies here do with your bound feet? If foreigners come to kill us, we won't be able to escape."

Lu Li's words made them nod involuntarily.

Yes, if a war breaks out, people with bound feet will have to be carried by others when they can run, but people like them with big feet can just spread their legs and run very fast and still save their lives.

Lu Li's voice was so loud that it attracted men, women, young and old from the neighborhood.

"That was more than ten years ago. Da Xia is very strong now. Who dares to invade us?" Someone in the crowd whispered.

"Poor people don't bind their feet, but rich people do."

"If rich people eat shit, do you have to eat it too?" Lu Li said expressionlessly.

Crowd: …

Oh, it’s disgusting just thinking about it.

"What other benefits does foot binding have other than making yourself suffer? Originally, your daughter could have passed the college entrance examination and entered the court as an official, but you ended up binding her feet and she can't even leave the house. Isn't that putting the cart before the horse?" Lu Li looked at the aunt who had said earlier that she wanted to bind her daughter's feet so that she could marry a scholar.

"Marrying a scholar may not necessarily make him an official, but if your daughter becomes an official herself, wouldn't that be better?"

After hearing what she said, the aunt suddenly felt that it made a lot of sense.

Before, I only thought about letting my daughter marry into a good family, but I never thought about letting her take the exam to become an official.

"You may not pass the exam even if you do it. But if you bind your feet, you can marry a rich man." A man couldn't help but speak up.

"In my opinion, it is better for a woman to stay at home and take care of her husband and children. Why would she want to be an official? Such big feet are so ugly."

Lu Li walked over and kicked him five feet away.

Her movements were so fast that no one could react.

Lu Li said expressionlessly: "This is the advantage of big feet. When I meet someone like you who talks nonsense, I can kick him away with one foot."

"The Emperor has chosen the Crown Princess to succeed him and encouraged women to take the college entrance examination and become officials. Who do you think you are? You think women should stay at home to take care of their husbands and children. Are you smarter, more capable, and more far-sighted than the Emperor?"

After Lu Li put a big hat on him, the man dared not talk back.

The people around also shut up, and there was silence for a while.

"Let's go, let's continue shopping." Lu Li let out a breath, feeling much better, and continued shopping with his brother.

When they reached the next street, they saw a little girl running out crying.

She cried and shouted, "Sister-in-law, I don't want to bind my feet! I don't want it!"

She ran so fast that she didn't notice the stones on the road and almost fell.

Lu Li was right beside her and quickly pulled her back.

"You heartless ungrateful little bastard, I'm doing this for your own good. If you bind your feet, you'll be able to marry well in the future." A woman chased after him, panting.

"I don't want to marry well, I don't want to bind my feet, wuwuwuwu." The little girl cried even more miserably.

"Come on, go home with your sister-in-law. Your elder brother and I have paid Granny Liu. You must wrap your feet." The girl's sister-in-law stepped forward and was about to pull her away.

But after pulling it, I found that it didn't move.

Looking closely, the sister-in-law's other arm was in Lu Li's hand.

"Didn't you hear her say she didn't want to?" Lu Li stared at her with a cold face.

"She's just a little kid, what does she know? I'm doing this for her own good. If I didn't have a concubine, do you think she would have gotten such a good thing?" After the woman finished speaking, she stared at Lu Li's feet. Although she didn't say anything, the contempt in her eyes was obvious.

Lu Li's anger was flaring up at these words.

"Sister, please save me, I don't want to bind my feet. Wuuuuuu." The little girl held Lu Li's hand, tears streaming down her face.

She had seen her neighbor's sister binding her feet.

Foot binding requires forcibly bending the other four toes except the big toe and fitting them tightly against the sole of the foot, which looks very scary.

Then wrap the entire sole of the foot with a long strip of cloth.

After a few days, continue walking like this.

She still can't forget the screams of her sister after her feet were bound.

She didn't dare go play with that sister again. Later, she heard from her friends that not long after the sister was bandaged, her feet were damaged and she couldn't walk, so she died.

She doesn't want to die.

"Don't be afraid. If you don't want to bind your feet, no one can force you to do so." Lu Li touched her head and comforted her.

The sister-in-law was furious when she heard this: "Who are you? This is my family affair, what do you have to do with it?"

"Of course it's my business." Lu Li sneered and decided not to go shopping.

She immediately wrote a letter back to tell her father, asking him to issue a decree to prohibit women from binding their feet.

Anyone who dares to threaten women to bind their feet will be forced to go mining or grow cotton.

The prefect of Yunzhong City is truly a heinous criminal, actually spreading such evil tendencies that are detrimental to the development of Daxia.

In just a few decades, the atmosphere in Cloud City has developed to this point.

A hundred years later, if all women had their feet bound, wouldn't there be fewer talents available?

In the future, there will be no more female generals on the battlefield, and no more female officials speaking eloquently in the court.

This is destroying the foundation of Daxia. Their intentions are despicable!