Chapter 524: Strategizing and Adding Fragrance to the Night [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
Xu Jie stared blankly at Ning Yan.
Ning Yan looked at Xu Jie with a firm gaze.
The two remained silent for a long time until Xu Jie broke the silence. His voice was hoarse, filled with surprise, shock, and disbelief: "Senior Sister Ning, you just said... said you wanted to serve me?" He couldn't have imagined that Ning Yan would make this move.
Compared to Xu Jie's loss of composure, Ning Yan's reaction was much calmer. She said calmly, "Wen Zhu did not mishear me. I do have this intention. I know it is a difficult request, but I do not want to be taken care of by you for a long time."
Xu Jie hurriedly spoke up: "Senior Sister Ning, you..."
Ning Yan knew what he wanted to say.
“I know Wen Zhu is righteous, but ‘friendship’ is the most fragile thing in the world.” After a good night’s rest, Ning Yan was in much better spirits than yesterday. However, she had lost too much weight recently, and her cheeks were slightly sunken. Despite her haggard appearance, the determination in her eyes was undeniable. “It’s not that I don’t trust Wen Zhu. On the contrary, I trust him too much, so I hope to earn my own place through my own abilities.”
She couldn't let her daughter feel like she was living under someone else's roof.
With Xingning gone, she must shoulder the hopes of both of them.
Ning Yan said, "Although I am an ordinary woman with neither literary talent nor martial prowess, I am capable of handling clerical and planning work!"
Xu Jie moved his lips.
He wanted to persuade Ning Yan to change her mind but didn't know where to begin. He knew Ning Yan's temperament well; she seemed gentle and mild-mannered, but in reality, she was stubborn and unyielding, and once she made a decision, she wouldn't easily change her mind... It wasn't that he doubted Ning Yan's abilities.
Ning Yan is strong in every way; this is something Master Yan has confirmed.
The only regret is that she was born as a girl.
If he were a man, he would be second to none.
After a long silence, he sighed softly and spoke frankly with Ning Yan.
“Senior Sister Ning, I am overjoyed that you have chosen to serve me with your abilities, but have you considered the rumors that might circulate? I am fine with it, but I cannot bear to see you criticized.” This was Xu Jie’s biggest concern.
Ning Yan knew what was going on.
But he still asked, "Rumors?"
Xu Jie took a deep breath: "There are precedents of women serving in government, but without exception, they all..."
What followed put him in a difficult position.
How can he possibly tell Ning Yan this?
Saying it aloud would only offend her ears.
Ning Yan then asked, "Without exception, what are they?"
"...How should I put it, Senior Sister?"
Before Xu Jie could finish, Ning Yan finished for him: "I know very well what happened to those female advisors. They shared the emperor's worries and made plans during the day, and added fragrance to his life at night. Is this what you're trying to say? I know how the world despises and discriminates against them."
Xu Jie pursed his lips and remained silent.
Ning Yan's words were actually quite subtle, but the gist was the same. Among male subordinates, even those of exceptional beauty might have shared intimate moments with their lord, which became the subject of gossip and conversation. No matter how outrageous the rumors, they ultimately only added a touch of romance to the relationship between ruler and subject, and overall remained harmless. Female subordinates, however, were quite different; they were naturally subject to prejudice and even slander.
A beautiful woman who is exceptionally intelligent and shrewd—people notice her face first, not her wisdom or abilities. It seems that with such a face, any achievement can be shrouded in an unspeakable transaction.
This is a prejudice of the world.
Even more deadly is the prejudice from those in power.
When dealing with uncontrollable male subordinates, superiors often employ a policy of checks and balances and suppression. However, when faced with female subordinates who are too intelligent to be controlled, the first reaction of a superior is to take them as their own women. Once this label is applied, a heavy shackle that the other party cannot escape can be placed on their head. When things get completely out of control, they can simply be thrown into the backyard and locked up.
Real power can be easily regained.
The methods adopted by those in power have made people more stubborn and rigid—women who enter officialdom inevitably become delicate flowers that can be picked at will in the backyard of those in power.
When a woman enters officialdom again, the procedure will be directly modeled after that of her predecessors.
Without exception!
This is the main reason why Xu Jie was so shocked, worried, and panicked when Ning Yan said she wanted to take up an official post—he knew, of course, that he wouldn't have such beastly thoughts, and he also knew that Ning Yan's decision to take up an official post was a legitimate one, solely for the purpose of survival.
But how can we silence the gossip of outsiders?
People are tolerant of men, but harsh and even vicious towards women... How could he bear to see his most respected senior sister being criticized, slandered, and smeared? The more outstanding she becomes in the future, the more ferocious the rumors and gossip she will face.
"Senior Sister Ning..."
Xu Jie's tone carried a hint of pleading.
Ning Yan said, "I don't care about rumors and gossip."
Xu Jie looked at her and said, "I care!"
Ning Yan said, "Xing Ning can bear the misunderstanding of the world and still practice his righteousness. I am no worse than him."
Xu Jie: "..."
His earnest advice was utterly powerless in the face of these words, which explains why Senior Sister Ning and Yan An were such a perfect match—aside from their genders, their temperaments were practically identical...
"That's fine then..."
If I refuse again, Senior Sister Ning will probably get angry.
Xu Jie didn't want to ruin the harmony between the two.
Just as he was about to agree, the attendant responsible for security outside the door suddenly came over with a box. One look at the pattern on the box revealed it was a letter from his troublesome cousin. Xu Jie secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and Ning Yan didn't press him further.
When the box was opened, letters from home were almost overflowing.
Xu Jie picked up one of the letters according to the date and muttered, "Wen Shi, that kid, is talking more and more nonsense..."
Each letter home was thicker than the last.
Although the Xu family is wealthy and has no shortage of money or writing materials, they can't just squander it like this... It's not easy for him, the head of the family, to earn money while holding multiple positions. Xu Jie complained inwardly, skimming through the text, finding nothing but empty talk.
Xu Jie: "..."
I read one letter after another.
I've truly come to understand what it means to spout endless nonsense.
It's all about various stories of what happened in Shiwu, and all sorts of exaggerated claims, such as leading two thousand soldiers to follow in the footsteps of the lord and causing the Shiwu tribe to scream and shout in chaos, or leading a few hundred soldiers to infiltrate the capital of Shiwu and take the heads of many Shiwu nobles.
It's a pity I didn't learn the secret to hair dyeing.
He was also instructed to have his clansmen who were traveling for business pay attention to this secret technique, as he wanted to dye his own hair green.
The lord said that green is more eye-catching. Standing in the crowd, you will definitely attract attention and become the focus of the whole place, the most dazzling and brightest kid!
He also wanted to emulate Sha Wujing and use the heads of the Ten Nobles to string together a unique necklace of human heads as a birthday gift for his beloved cousin this year…
Xu Jie: "..."
He felt nauseous just imagining it.
What kind of aesthetic sense is this?
Shen Jun's lack of disdain for him was likely due to some stroke of good fortune from his ancestors. Thinking of Shen Jun, Xu Jie sighed again. Shen Tang had entrusted him with the best river management position; if he allowed the various families of Tianhai to interfere in the river management and monopolize agricultural, irrigation, and mining businesses… the common people whom Shen Jun cherished would once again suffer from hunger. He absolutely could not agree to that.
Seeing the last letter home—
Xu Jie initially thought it was just idle chatter, but he was shocked after reading only two lines—Shen Jun was actually a woman?!
Being a woman...
daughter……
female……
Ning Yan was lost in thought when she heard Xu Jie slam his hand on the table, almost jumping up on the spot in a fit of rage, and blurting out...
"impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
He'd rather believe his cousin was his cousin's sister!
ヾ(ω`)o
Hehehe, I actually passed the glucose tolerance test smoothly.
Aside from slightly elevated D-dimer levels, requiring more water intake, there are no other issues.
What a relief!
I was worried about having gestational diabetes due to genetics, and the thought of controlling my blood sugar made me depressed.
PS: This chapter is a setup, and female characters will gradually appear. It's also a kind of rant from Shiitake Mushroom.
(The female strategist novels I read back then almost gave me a heart attack. Strategists are supposed to make a living with their brains, not with sex! Speaking of which, I can't help but think of a Three Kingdoms fanfiction. The male lead is Zhuge Liang, and the female lead is a strategist. They are mutually attracted, but because the female lead is too smart and hard to control, she gets slept with by Liu Bei. She sleeps with him for many years until Liu Bei dies in Baidi City. The female lead and her Zhuge Liang god never get together. Damn it...)
PS: It's perfectly normal that Ning Yan didn't go directly to Tang Mei. Each character has their own background and logic, and their actions are all within established frameworks. Ning Yan didn't go to Tang Mei or Kang Shi for two reasons: first, Tang Mei has always been misunderstood as a man, making him a stranger to Ning Yan and unreliable; second, Tang Mei's transfer was Yan An's idea, which is a grudge, so why would Ning Yan go to her "enemy"? It's naturally more appropriate to go to Xu Jie, who directly owes her a favor.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com