"Why are you looking at your daughter? Don't you recognize her after a few days?"
Seeing Hongluo looking over, Jiang Xuelin glanced at her and then smiled.
Of her several head maids, only two were born into the household, while the other two were not, and they could leave at any time. However, Jiang Xuelin did not treat them differently, nor did she doubt their loyalty.
To outsiders, Jiang Xuelin's interactions with the head maids seemed rather unlike those of a mistress and servants. Even if a young lady had close maids and servants with whom she got along very well, it was rare for them to be as natural as Jiang Xuelin.
But she was never afraid of these things, nor was she afraid that giving too much closeness and power would cause these maids and servants to overstep their bounds and lose sight of their own status.
"The mute nanny hasn't seen you for quite some time. You don't have to be on duty today, so go back and keep her company. She misses you." The mother and daughter depended on each other for survival. Although the mute nanny wasn't the kind of person who was sensitive and couldn't bear to be apart from her daughter, they had still been separated for quite some time.
When Jiang Xuelin mentioned the mute old woman, Hongluo, who had initially wanted to refuse, immediately hesitated.
She had actually met the mute old woman when she was at Hongyuan, but they only met briefly twice and didn't get to talk much. She had been missing her a lot these past few days.
"Thank you, Princess Consort."
After thinking about it, Hongluo simply gave up.
Watching Hongluo leave, Jiang Xuelin turned her gaze to Fu Hanlai, then clicked her tongue in disdain.
"What?! You dare to laugh at me! Jiang Xuelin, you've gone too far! Look at the mess you've made!"
"Who told you to bite first? What, you bit first, and now I can't bite back!"
"Did I bite your face? Ah! I..."
Seeing that the conversation between the two masters was getting stranger and stranger, Green Ivy waved her hand and led all the waiting maids out.
Because of the injury on his face, Fu Hanlai did not go out for the next few days. He even asked for leave in advance to go to the main courtyard to pay his respects. At first, Princess Ping was worried that Fu Hanlai was sick, but when the nanny revealed it to her in private, she was both amused and exasperated and gave up on the matter.
Jiang Xuelin was also angry because Fu Hanlai wouldn't go out and even dragged Jiang Xuelin along. Whenever Jiang Xuelin showed any sign of wanting to go out, he would immediately start making a scene.
Because of this, the New Year's gifts sent to the Marquis of Jing'an's residence were delayed for several days.
The incident involving "The Sun Shines Brightly" is quite significant, even surpassing the initial controversy surrounding the Vice Minister of Rites' alleged sexual misconduct and childbirth with his sister-in-law. The most heated discussions are taking place in the capital and the Jiangnan region. Jiangnan, being the area with the highest concentration of unmarried women, is practically the epicenter of the storm, with the entire dynasty's attention focused there.
Moreover, the literary atmosphere there was very strong, which made the arguments even more intense. It was because of this that booksellers approached the shop, wanting to cooperate with them and open a "Tian Ri Zhao Zhao" store in the Jiangnan area.
However, these booksellers were all legitimate booksellers, not the ones Yao Yufang had hired to scheme against Jiang Xuelin and his group.
The aftermath can be handled by them, but Jiang Xuelin really can't spare the time right now. Even though she doesn't need to manage the household affairs of the Prince Ping's residence, as everything is handled by the Princess Consort, there are still a lot of things to do at the end of the year, and she always needs to lend a hand.
—Then she dragged Fu Han along with her.
Anyway, Fu Hanlai had nothing better to do.
While busy with these matters, Jiang Xuelin also kept an eye on the Jinlian incident.
When Emperor Xuande was about to put down his pen at the end of the year, this matter finally came to a complete end.
Emperor Xuande was extremely tough on this matter, just as he had done on the matter of martyrdom. He abolished all associations with women who had conceived lotuses, banned brothels from having them, and reprimanded all the sons of powerful and wealthy families who had conceived lotuses, whose fathers and brothers held official positions in the court. Their year-end performance evaluations were all downgraded by one grade.
The reason is that one should cultivate oneself, regulate one's family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world. If a family has a disciple who ignores the suffering of women, one will naturally doubt whether the father and brothers who are officials are truly dedicated to the people and care about the world.
Even if they are truly innocent, having such a disciple in the family is a dereliction of duty.
In addition, those so-called literati and scholars were banned from taking the imperial examinations for three years, which was meant to make them reflect on their behavior.
For the same reason, even if he is a man of great literary talent and can appreciate Jinlian so much, will he really care about the people and be a good official after passing the imperial examination, instead of being cruel and heartless?
Moreover, with women trapped here, the world's labor force will be reduced by half in the future. Isn't this a disaster for the world?
Of course, Emperor Xuande did not completely ban those people from taking the imperial examinations; this was merely a warning, a warning that indicated Emperor Xuande's attitude.
It is precisely because there are not many women who have taken the imperial lotus, and the number of people involved is still small, that he was able to use this method. If he had not intervened to stop the trend when it was just beginning, it would have been very difficult to deal with the problem later, and it might even have overthrown the government. At that time, he would have had no choice but to acknowledge that women who take the imperial lotus are "model women".
These words were not spoken by Emperor Xuande, but by those scholars who tried to argue their point. Of course, Emperor Xuande was ashamed to call those people scholars, as it would be a disgrace to all scholars in the world.
Jiang Xuelin learned of this decree as soon as it was issued, and then sent the good news to Li Wenruo.
She was one of the victims in this incident, so naturally she would want to see the woman escape her misery in the future.
After leaving Li Wenruo's place, Jiang Xuelin returned to Qiutang Courtyard and saw someone she hadn't seen in a long time.
"How was the journey south?"
"Replying to Your Highness, everything is going smoothly and has been arranged as you instructed. Steward Li sent me with a letter, which contains all the details. He said Your Highness will understand once you read it."
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