Chapter 50
I thought the Ye family was cheated by a fortune teller, but if the Ye family is a den of scammers, doesn’t that mean that scammers are cheating scammers?
Hiss—the plot is getting complicated.
Chu Hua: [Who deceived whom? ]
System: [It is mutual fulfillment. 】
This adjective left Chu Huan and the others confused. How could the deceiver and the deceived person help each other?
The system knew this was a complicated matter, so it offered a soothing response: "Don't worry, just listen to me and I'll explain it to you."
The fortune teller had a lover who was a matchmaker, so he knew the basic information of the unmarried girls and widows in the capital. If he could find a way, he could obtain the birth dates and horoscopes of these people.
Chu Huan quickly interrupted: [Birthdates are kept secret, how can I get them?]
System: [Bribe off the midwife or servant. Even if they don't have the exact time of birth, they still have to celebrate their birth. By asking around, you can figure out the year, month, and day. If they don't have the exact time of birth, the fortune teller should be vague and let the host family find out for themselves.]
It’s not that Chu Huan hadn’t thought of the above two methods, but it was very difficult to implement them.
Every industry has its own rules. If too many people fail to follow them, the entire industry will lose its credibility and everyone's job will be ruined.
Therefore, those who break the rules may lose their professional qualifications at best, or even their lives at worst.
Once a midwife takes money from the host family, she will keep it secret. If she doesn't keep her mouth shut, she will lose her job.
If a servant in the house leaks the master's secrets at will, he will be given a mute drug if he is discovered, so that he can no longer speak.
Young ladies may invite friends and family to their birthdays, but the celebrations are limited to a small circle. Meanwhile, ordinary women's birthdays are known only to their neighbors. To find out about this, how many people would you have to ask, and how much would it cost?
All this effort just to arrange a few marriages?
Chu Hua: [This intelligence gathering capability is outstanding, but the Jinyiwei is only so good, right?]
Jia Yi and Cai Gang: "..."
System: [You don't need to know the information of all the unmarried girls and widows in the capital, just knowing some of them will be enough.]
[The fortune teller said that their birth dates were compatible and that they were a match made in heaven. Could it be that someone would be so blind as to say that they were incompatible and couldn't get married?]
Chu Huan had thought that the fortune teller and the matchmaker had formed an intelligence network similar to the Jinyiwei, and was quite disappointed to hear this.
Okay, I guess there’s not much behind the intelligence network.
System: [They eat several heads of money, matchmaker money, fortune teller horoscope comparison money, and also a large reward money.]
Chu Hua: [What's with the large reward?]
System: [There are always some people who are not so popular in the marriage market. Some have domineering personalities and are difficult to get along with, some have physical defects, and some have poor personal ethics. It is not easy to find a partner for such people.]
[This is usually done by concealing the truth, minimizing or covering up shortcomings, highlighting or exaggerating the other person's strengths, and also by saying that the two people's horoscopes are extremely compatible or that they are a match made in heaven.]
If the man is promiscuous, likes to visit gambling dens and brothels, and the woman has had affairs with other men before marriage, then we can propose marriage from a distance. Nowadays, with transportation and communication difficulties, few people would travel that far to inquire about the situation.
[One party finally gets married, and the other party thinks they've found a good partner. But shouldn't both parties be rewarded handsomely?]
Chu Huan was confused: [This is a premeditated marriage scam.]
Modern single men and women will modify and polish their photos and resumes to try to show their best side, but in modern times, if a relationship doesn't work out, they will break up, while in ancient times people would go straight to marriage.
If you describe someone with an arrogant and domineering personality as being well-behaved and gentle, and then discover problems with them after a while of marriage, can you immediately cancel the engagement? Impossible.
In modern times, there is a cooling-off period for divorces, and the elders of both families take turns persuading you to get married again. It was even more difficult in ancient times.
If a man married a woman he didn't like, he could have three wives and four concubines. If a woman wanted a divorce, she needed the consent of both her husband's and her own families. Many families, for the sake of their reputation, would rather die than divorce.
By doing this, most of the victims are women who have no choice.
Chu Hua: [This behavior is extremely bad. Hasn't this happened before?]
The system hummed: [Many men nowadays are all good when they're in love, but their true colors are revealed after marriage. Do you think there's something wrong with the matchmaker?]
Yes.
Nowadays, there is a serious conflict between men and women. People already have opinions about the opposite sex. When they discover a problem, they naturally attribute it to the other party hiding it well before marriage. How can they blame the middleman?
The same principle was applicable in ancient times.
The matchmaker only plays a role of matchmaking. She has not lived with the bride and groom for more than ten years. How can she know if the other party is hiding anything?
When life becomes a mess, we will only blame each other for hiding it well, and not the middleman.
In this way, fortune tellers and matchmakers took advantage of the situation.
Chu Hua sighed: [No matter which world or dynasty, there are always people who are good at exploiting loopholes in the rules.]
"Forget it. I'll have Jia Yi beat them up a bit later, and then I'll find a way to expose their actions. I'll save as many as I can."
Jia Yi was already searching for tools to beat people within his sight, while Cai Gang was thinking about how to deal with the matter afterwards.
Jiang, the Second Prince's wife and other female relatives felt a wave of fear.
They are all married and will no longer be harmed by fortune tellers and matchmakers, but there are still many unmarried sisters in the family. If they are harmed by them, their lives will be ruined.
The women in the family were crackling their chopsticks, their chests heaving with anger.
When I get back, I'll ask my husband and father to keep an eye on what's going on at the Pacification Office. Once they know who the fortune teller and the matchmaker are, they'll quickly cancel the marriage they introduced!
System: [The fortune teller has finished speaking, now let’s talk about the Ye family.]
The Ye family's reputation for charity began with Ye Ziwen's great-grandfather. Back then, the Ye family was truly kind. By the time of his father's generation, they were obligated to help the poor due to ancestral teachings, but the family's wealth was no longer substantial due to years of charitable giving.
Ye's father came up with a plan. He actively engaged in charity work, opened a charity hall, and even exaggerated it, even more than his own father and grandfather, frantically cultivating an image of himself as a great philanthropist. At the same time, he sold the children attracted by his charity reputation. Yes, he was a human trafficker, a beggar.
Chu Huan: [Hiss——]
Everyone: Hiss——
A well-known philanthropist in the capital city was actually doing the business of beggars behind the scenes. This is really a distortion of human nature and a decline of morality!
The system continued to reveal: [He categorizes children into different levels. The good-looking, smart, and young ones are the best, usually sold to wealthy families who can afford to spend money. The younger and less memorable the children, the easier it is to raise them.]
However, wealthy families generally prefer boys. Girls are rare, so beautiful girls are sold to brothels. Brothels don't hesitate to pay for beautiful women, as they have many ways to make money.
[There is another type, namely those with special fetishes. They offer higher prices to conceal their interests. The Ye family has many lists and often sends them good-looking boys or girls.]
[Girls of average appearance and age are sold to remote areas where women are in short supply. Whether they are child brides or ready-made girls, they can be sold for a good price...]
The system gave several examples to illustrate, all of which were methods and places that Chu Huan and the female relatives had never heard of.
It was hard for them to imagine how desperate those children, who thought they would finally have clothes to wear and food to eat after arriving at the Ye family's charity house, would feel after being sold to such a place by the philanthropist in their minds.
Children may wonder: Why are kind people not kind? Why is it so difficult to live?
They may lose their lives in repeated escapes, or be worn down and become timid, or they may grit their teeth and persevere, still waiting for others to rescue them.
Chu Huan gulped down a large glass of cold fruit drink, and only then did she feel the fire burning in her chest cool down a little.
She gnashed her teeth and said, "Scumbag! I hate scumbags who attack children and women the most!"
"Tong'er, give me the full list when you get back. I need to figure out how to get it to the Minister of Justice or the Supreme Court. Damn it, why hasn't Miaoshoukongkong come yet? If he were here, wouldn't it be much easier to hand this thing over?!"
System: [That’s right!]
Everyone: ???
Everyone:!!!
With an expression as if the door to a new world has been opened, it turns out that the world-famous thief with empty hands is just a case file deliverer in your place?
However, when I thought about it in this direction, I found it was unexpectedly useful.
When it is inconvenient for both parties to reveal that the source of intelligence is the system, Miaoshoukongkong is the best tool and excuse.
Now, it was their turn to eagerly await the news: "Miaoshoukongkong, please hurry up! We have so many case files and intelligence waiting for you to hand over!"
At this moment, Miao Shoukongkong, who was on his way to the capital, was caught off guard and sneezed several times.
“Who’s thinking about me?”
Chu Huan muttered to the courier who was still on the way, "Tong'er, continue."
System: [Perhaps this is retribution for Ye's father's many filthy deeds. He was over forty, had taken in eight concubines, and all of them either miscarried or died young. Not a single child survived. Ye's father panicked and frightened, and gradually stopped. It was around this time that Ye Ziwen was born.]
Father Ye had a bit of a belief in retribution, so he had everyone keep it a secret from Ye Ziwen. Any issues were resolved outside the Ye residence, leaving his only son clean and unaware of anything.
Ye Ziwen's first wife was frail and sensitive. She noticed the discord in the Ye family and occasionally overheard arguments between Ye's father and mother, but she had no evidence and no way to expose her adoptive parents.
After much deliberation, my heart was filled with depression, I was bedridden, and my health was getting worse. I finally decided to risk my life to have a child. This would not only repay the Ye family for their years of raising me, but also allow me to escape this troubled world.
Chu Huan didn't know how to comment.
For an orphan girl who has lived in other people's homes since childhood and whose congenital defect cost the Ye family a large amount of money on medicine, this may be the best solution she can think of.
Many of the women present felt a sense of sympathy for this sickly but intelligent cousin.
If the same thing happened to them, it is hard to say whether they would make the same choice - escape is shameful, but useful.
System: [The second wife had bad luck. She happened to see the Ye family's housekeeper sending a beautiful boy to someone with a special fetish. The Ye family was worried that she would spread rumors, so they gave the fortune teller a hint and married the boy.]
They figured they were all family, and if they suffered together, they would suffer together. She probably wouldn't say anything irresponsible anymore, just like Ye Ziwen's mother. She was disgusted when she discovered the Ye family's activities and wanted to leave. Later, after being imprisoned for a while and becoming pregnant, she gradually became accustomed to their corrupt practices after living in luxury for too long.
Chu Huan was too tired to sigh. She had heard a lot of similar things in modern times.
[Women who were trafficked to remote areas were reluctant to leave after having children. They would later help villagers traffic other women, turning themselves from victims into perpetrators.]
The system noticed that Chu Huan was in a bad mood and asked worriedly: [Sister Huan, are you okay?]
The female relatives also looked at him with concern when they heard this.
"Master Chu, have some fruit drink."
"Master Chu, please have some food."
"Sir Chu, would you like some wine?"
Chu Huan thanked the sisters for their concern and ate some food. She felt the depression in her chest ease a little. "Tong'er, I'm fine. Go on."
The system didn't know whether she was really okay, so it could only finish the story quickly.
The second wife was different from Ye's mother. She was a kind person and wanted to expose the Ye family, but there were few good people in the entire Ye family. Her letter was discovered. Ye's father and mother used the fortune teller to constantly give her tonics, deliberately causing her to die in childbirth.
She also considered escaping the Ye family, but the bigger her belly got, the more inconvenient it became. During the month leading up to her birth, she was locked in the house and not allowed to leave. She was under constant surveillance, living a life like a prisoner.
[She was pregnant and about to give birth, with no other help. She had no way to escape this hell and could only die according to the script prepared by the Ye family. Her last words before dying were to Ye Ziwen: "Take good care of the child."]
No one knows whether this kind girl had any regrets in the last moment of her life.
If she had become a perpetrator like Ye's mother, she might have been able to give birth to her child safely and watch her child grow up and get married, instead of being imprisoned like a prisoner for several months and only being able to see her child once.
Chu Huan thought: Probably not.
Otherwise, the last words that lady left in this world would not be a trust to her husband.
The lady knew that the Ye family was a big dark melting pot, and everyone in the vat was black. She also knew that only her husband Ye Ziwen was kept in the dark and had not yet turned black.
At the last moment of her life, she could expose the Ye family's dirtiness in front of Ye Ziwen, but she was sure that it would be useless - Ye Ziwen had been kept in the dark for so many years, it was impossible for him to believe her accusations, any more than he would believe his parents who had lived with him for many years.
If she showed any resentment or unwillingness, she would not be able to wait for Ye Ziwen to come in and take a last look at her, and her child would probably be in danger.
Chu Huan felt an indescribable sense of crisis and urgency.
Life was very difficult for women in ancient times.
It is not enough to help one woman. There are too many women who are helpless in places she cannot see.
She had to do something, faster and more effectively than she was doing now.
System: [The third wife's difficult labor was due to taking the wrong medicine.]
[The first wife gave birth to a sickly son, and the second wife gave birth to a healthy daughter. She wanted to give birth to a healthy son to inherit the Ye family's fortune.]
When she was pregnant with her last child, her belly was round and everyone who saw it said it was a girl. Later, her mother asked someone for a folk remedy that said taking it would turn a girl into a boy, so she took it.
Chu Huan: “…”
Even nowadays, there are still people who believe in folk remedies that can change a woman into a man. She is not surprised at all that in ancient times, there were people who believed in and took them.
The sex of the child is determined at the moment of conception. What's the point of taking medication later in life? This scam has been believed for thousands of years.
The system said: [How can it be useless? ]
Female relatives: ???
Female relatives:!!!
Is this true? There's a medicine like this? It works!
Some people were actually tempted, their faces full of excitement, and they especially hoped that the system could publish the secret recipe for having a child so that they could go back and try it.
However, the next voice from the system completely shattered their expectations.
The system said: [The child has been harmed by eating.]
Chu Hua frowned: [What medicine?]
System: [There's a cinnabar ingredient in this folk remedy. Cinnabar is a medicinal herb that can calm the mind, but it contains mercury, which is poisonous!]
Even trace amounts of mercury poisoning can have a significant impact on the fetus. Some may result in immediate miscarriage or fetal arrest, while others may not experience any symptoms temporarily. However, the toxins accumulate in the fetus's brain and cerebellum, causing damage to the nervous system and affecting intelligence and movement.
Chu Huan suddenly realized: [So this is the truth behind the third wife's previous child being a bit silly.]
It seems that calling the system stupid is already a very euphemistic way of putting it.
Mercury poisoning, this person is really...harmful to the child.
System: [This time her belly is round again. She thinks the medicine can really change a girl into a boy, so she wants to take it again.]
[After what happened with the previous wife, Ye's father and mother were on guard. How could they dare let their daughter-in-law take medicine of unknown origin?]
Despite the strict precautions, she was unable to get her medicine, but she never gave up. When she was about to give birth, she begged her mother to come with her and secretly brought her medicine.
[That folk remedy wasn't something that could be cured with just one drink, but she ran out of time, so she increased the dosage, and then she died.]
So, it’s not so much a difficult labor as it is death from mercury poisoning.
At this point, the truth behind the difficult childbirths of Ye Ziwen’s three wives was revealed.
So this is what is called mutual fulfillment.
As expected, they helped each other. The fortune teller and the matchmaker helped the Ye family find a daughter-in-law, who died in childbirth. In return, they received a large sum of money, and the Ye family's secrets were not leaked.
They were in cahoots with each other! What a bunch of scum! Everyone was filled with hatred.
Chu Hua: [What's the matter with Ye Ziwen's friend having two wives who had difficult childbirths?]
[This...] The system's tone was rather difficult to describe. [This person's aesthetic is different from the current public aesthetic, but rather closer to modern tastes. He likes fair, young, and thin people.]
[Modern white, young and thin people can enhance their resemblance through baby faces, makeup, and dressing up. However, in ancient times, white, young and thin people were all underage girls.]
[A fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, whose body hasn't even fully grown yet, is being forced to give birth. Her elders even tell her to eat more so she can have a big, fat baby. If she can't have one, they'll want her to keep the baby. Isn't the chance of her dying during childbirth high?]
Chu Huan: “…” The melon I ate today was a little uncomfortable.
She was so upset that she went home immediately after the banquet and recorded everything according to the list and details provided by the system, working on it for most of the night.
The Jinyiwei also worked for most of the night.
Not only did he have to record and transcribe the conversation between each person, but he also had to beat up the fortune teller and the matchmaker as Chu Huan requested.
The Ye family's affairs can be said to have been discovered by Ye Ziwen who found the Pacification Office and the Jinyiwei with their powerful abilities. The fortune teller must have made some arrangements, otherwise it would be difficult to conceal it.
After today's news was passed on, the emperor confirmed that the second attempt was successful and was in a good mood.
He then summoned many doctors from the Imperial Hospital and asked, "Is childbirth so dangerous for women?"
The imperial physicians reported truthfully, "Generally speaking, if you take good care of yourself during pregnancy, don't overeat, follow the doctor's advice, and find a few experienced midwives, the birth will go more smoothly."
"But it's true that many pregnant women have difficult deliveries. Some have babies that are too big to be delivered, and some have heavy bleeding after childbirth and can't be saved. It's all unpredictable."
The emperor's expression darkened. "If I let you take care of Chu Huan, how confident are you that she can have a smooth birth?"
This... The imperial doctors looked at each other in bewilderment.
They knew too well how important Chu Huan was to Dasheng, and no one dared to guarantee anything, not even to say they were 30% sure.
For such a crucial person, what's the difference between not being 90% sure and not being sure at all?
Without certainty, how could they dare to reply to the emperor?
The emperor saw that they were hesitant and dared not speak, and he knew that the result was not satisfactory, but he still wanted a definite answer.
With a majestic look from the emperor, the Imperial Hospital Envoy had to put down the report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and stand up to reply.
"Your Majesty, the situation described in the report does exist."
"There are currently no exact statistics from Dasheng, but based on my years of experience, it is indeed difficult for young and frail pregnant women to give birth."
"If we want Lady Chu to have a smooth life, we have to let her marry and give birth later. Of course, it would be best if..." The Imperial Hospital Envoy closed his eyes and finally said those two words, "No childbirth."
When he said this, the Imperial Hospital official felt a slight pang of conscience.
What woman in the world doesn't long to be a mother and enjoy the joy of family life? Yet, for the sake of prosperity, he proposed such an unethical suggestion to the emperor.
"Back off."
The emperor dismissed the imperial physician and sat alone in the imperial study for a long time, repeatedly thinking and weighing the opinions of the director of the Imperial Hospital.
Compared to Chu Huan and the system's contributions to Dasheng, no matter how smart her child is, the risks far outweigh the potential benefits.
Then, why not just not have children?
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