Chapter 51

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Author: 打字机N号

Chapter 51: The search for one’s mom second spring 19/For the sake of my mother’s remarriage 19

The law and

decrees of the Jin

Dynasty in regards to false accuse stipulate that the sentence that should

befall on the accused will be used against the accuser. This is a gesture of

goodwill against the slander befall on the other’s party. Once it was investigated

and handled, they will use the punishment that should befall upon the accused

to punish the false accuser. There are several grades of punishment for slandering. Any false accusation

will be considered as a first-grade offence. The accuser will be considering

committing a second-grade offence if the slander was against the government

official. Consequently, to falsely charges a royal with slander will be

considered as a third-grade offence. The minimum exiled penalty could vary from

100 miles to a maximum of 3,000 miles.

Jiang Erchun and

his wife had falsely accused Jiang Liu of being unfilial. Although Jiang Liu

had not yet been officially appointed as a minister, he was still a member of

the new rank of the Imperial Civil Service. Thus, this couple should be

punished with a second-class

felony. In addition, Emperor Jin Wen himself demanded severe punishment to

befall upon them. In the end, Jiang Erchun and his wife were sentenced to 80

flogging and ten years exile to Kunnu

City.

Kunnu city is a

place where all criminals who had not been sentenced to death to be an

exile. This is a place where

people need to undertake heavy labour for the sake of obtaining basic living

materials. They basically did not possess any freedom at all. Before entering

the city, these criminals will be tattooed on their faces which indicated their status as a

felony for life

So for many people, being exile to Kunnu City was much more miserable

punishment compared to death. So much that every year, many of those Kunnu’s

sinners had committed suicide because they can’t stand such a life.

Before the couple,

Jiang Erchun and Su Panyun had the time to enjoy the rich life promised by

these people, they were ended up being taken away from the Lu residence by the

government officials.

After being hit

with eighty boards, not even waiting for their wound to heal, these two people

hand and were chained up and set to follow a group of criminals on the road to

Kunnu City.

At that time,

Jiang Erchun and his wife finally suspected that this was indeed a revenge act

by Jiang Liu, however, by now, they did not even have time to regret it.

This time, Jiang

Erchun and his wife completely have no chance for a comeback. These two people

probably not appeared again in front of this mother and son in this lifetime.

******

“By himself bestow Meng-shi a FengGuanxia, a jadeite Ruyi sceptre,

two jade bracelet and 200 taels of silver. ” [T/N: FengGuanxia = Wedding dress for noble]

On the day of Meng

Yun-niang dowry’s makeup, a sacred decree from the emperor came down

unexpectedly. [T/N: Dowry make-up is the ceremony where relatives and friend of

the bride come to the bride’s home and add more dowry to what already

prepared by the family. It was said that the value of a bride correspondence by

the amount of dowry she brought to her husband house.]

Not only Meng

Yun-niang who was kneeling at that time was shocked by the sudden bestowment.

Even the ladies who came for the sake of preserving Jiang Shendao’s face were

also stunned.

They had heard from their husband about Jiang Liu’s battle with Lu Guang in the Imperial Palace. From their perspective as a mother, many of them envied Meng Yun-niang for having that kind of filial and caring son, but from the perspective of a woman, not all of them agreed that a woman should marry after being widowed.

But now that the Emperor had bestowed a decree, it is certainly not foolish to think that the Emperor has truly appreciated Meng Yun-niang. This decree not only revealed that the intention of the Emperor in supporting the movement of allowing the widow to remarry, but also act as a deterrent towards old ministers by giving them a proper measure if they planned on going against the Emperor.

“Congratulations.

“

These ladies are all human beings. They immediately changed their attitude toward Meng Yun-niang, becoming more intimate as they put her at the centre of the crowd.

As for Meng Yun-niang, she was holding the decree with a dazed expression while looking at the exquisite bridal gown which was far better than her carefully tailored wedding dress and those beautiful phoenix crown. Her mind was full of thousands of thoughts.

She thought about

the night after her son got selected as the champion and asked her.

Her son asked her

if she wanted to marry someone she liked if there was no obstacle for her to do

so.

It was the first

time her son had talked to her about the subject that she had shut down eight

years ago.

What if there’s no

obstacle?

Meng Yun-niang

thought of Hu Guirong, who had never settle down. She thought of the brief

contact that she had with him every time he came to the tofu factory to pick up

the batches, the bitterness, the joy, the tangled feeling and the hesitation in

forming the eye contact… …

The feeling that

had never been put down, over the course of eight years, had become even

stronger.

If there is no

worldly pressure and prejudice; if it does not affect her son; Meng Yun-niang

thought that she is willing to do it. That man had waited for her for more than

ten years. They had not been able to be with each other for more than a decade,

but there is still a lot of time left in the future. So she wanted to spend

with that man.

It’s just that the

reality dictated that she could never marry Hui Guirong. It was impossible for her to get married without

any obstacle. She felt that her son only wanted to give a wonderful longing.

However, Meng Yun-niang had never imagined that, after their thoughtful talk on that day, her son will do so much in order to her long-cherished wish.

Not only did the

patriarch and the elder agreed to her remarriage. Even those high and above son

of heaven had sent the gift for her marriage which was too dreamlike for her.

But if this is s a

dream, Meng Yun-niang hopes that she never wakes up.

*****

On the day of the

wedding, the bride was sent out with 72

chests of dowries, in which the

treasured object bestowed by the Emperor becomes the focus of attention.

Even a young lady

from a normal rich household will not be able to come out with expensive and

luxurious dowries as Meng Yun-niang. In addition to some dowries added up by

her friends and colleagues, vast of the dowries actually came out from Jiang

Liu’s coffer. At first, Meng Yun-niang was not willing to let her son prepared the dowries for

her. Yet she could not persuade her son who reasoned her that it was his

willingness to show his filial piety by making up her dowries.

It was at this

time that Meng Yun-niang finally realized that her son had sneakily conducted a

side business while attending the school. She did not specifically know how

much profit he had made, however, for him to be able to provide these much of

dowries, it was unlikely that he had been cheated or making a poor business.

Jiang Liu had assured her that by the time he was ready to take in his wife, he

should be able to provide an equate to value or maybe even more expensive betrothal gave for

his intended.

Meng Yun-niang

reluctantly agreed to take the expensive dowries upon his son’s guarantee, but

she also secretly swore that whether she will have a baby with Hu Guirong in

the future, this dowry will be left to her most beloved eldest son.

The wedding had become the most favourite event among

the common people of the capital for a long time. Even with the increasing

number of widows who got remarried, this event of the Champion marrying off his

own mother remained the biggest topic for idle conversation.

*****

“Yun-niang

did you have a nightmare? “

That night, Meng

Yun-niang could not resist from sleeping soundly. In the meantime, Hu Guirong

who was still immersing himself in the excitement from being able to marry his

beloved had been staring at Meng Yun-niang the whole night under the faint

light of the wedding candle. So much that he was reluctant to close his eyes.

He was afraid that

once he closed his eyes and then when opened it again, Yun-niang will not be by

his side.

Just as it was

approaching dawn, Meng Yun-niang appeared to be having a nightmare as she

started to get agitated while her eyebrows were tightly locked and her hands

and feet were struggling under the cover.

Hu Guirong quickly

hugged the person tightly as he fixed her struggling hand and feet in fear that

his beloved will ended up hurting herself.

“What a

terrible dream. “

When Meng

Yun-niang opened her eyes, she couldn’t tell the difference between dreams and

reality, and only after she felt the heat of the person next to her did she

believed that all she had experienced was not real.

“Don’t be

afraid, it’s just a nightmare, I’ll go to your nightmare and protect you.”

Hu Guirong had solemnly promised Jiang Liu that he will always

protect Yun-niang, and he would naturally help her to be safe against any nightmare.

Meng Yun-niang laid her face against Hu Guirong’s chest. She knows that this man is not good at lying. As long as he promised it, he will

do

it. Even against the nightmare, he will

surely protect her for life.

It just that, that nightmare was too terrible. In that dream, because of the Jiang’s second household’s scheme, she was forced to destroy her appearance in order to protect themselves. It was also not easy for her son to participate in the

examination. Additionally, because of a

dispute

between her and her son’s wife, she had been wasting her time and even delayed

her son’s future.

But this man in front of her, whether in the dream or in reality, continued to be consistent, as he silently guarding her.

Meng Yun-niang

still remembers when she was dying in

her dream, she had been holding

her son’s hand and saying that she had been treating someone badly, and the person she meant to say was the person currently in front of her.

“Shall we

have a child?”

Meng Yun-niang

couldn’t help speaking.

“Good!”

Hu Guirong was

dumbfounded and then nodded with joy.

In fact, he has

long been ready not to have a child. But now that her beloved said that she

wanted to give him a child, a child solely belongs to the two of them, how

could he not be thrilled by it?

Meng Yun-niang

could not help smiling as she looked at her husband with a foolish expression

on his face.

Her life was very

different from that nightmare, and indeed, a dream was just a dream.

******

Four years later.

Four years ago, the reforms that encourage widows to remarry had become a trend, and the Court had amended the Law of the Jin Dynasty to stipulate that the husband’s family cannot force widows to observe their dead husband and maintain their widowhood. It also specifies that the dowry is a woman’s personal property and that widows can take their dowry away if they intend to remarry. Any party who was found to force a widow to remain as a widow will be flogged with 30 times and serve five years of hard labour.

Due to the

emergence of this law, the life of the widows of the Jin Dynasty suddenly

improved a lot. Jiang Liu was considered as a living Buddha who brought benefit

to the widow. However, in the following four years after that event, Jiang Liu

had seemed to be relatively quiet. As for Emperor Jin Wen, instead of promoting

him as an official, Jiang ended up being sent to the Imperial Academy where he

becomes the 7th-grade officer responsible for compiling and

editing.

But in the eyes of

those clever people, they knew that the Emperor was working on tempering Jiang

Liu’s character.

Three years ago,

at the Jiang Furong’s coming of age ceremony, Jiang Shendao had announced that

his daughter will marry his apprentice, Jiang Liu. But he wanted to keep his

daughter for a few more years and will send her to marry after she was 18.

Today is the day

of great joy for both Jiang Lu and Jiang Furong

After a night of

**, Jiang Furong and Jiang Lu washed up with the help of their attendant. When

Jiang Furong sat in front of the mirror preparing to trace her eyebrow, Jiang

Liu took the eyebrow pencil and held her face as he carefully drew her

eyebrows.

“Furen is

very beautiful.” [T/N: Furen = Madam]

After the eyebrows

were drawn, Jiang Liu gently flicked the tip of his little wife’s nose and with

a smile on his face uttered such words.

She did not know

why, but Jiang Furong somehow remembers of her mother who had always cajoled his father with

such words

every morning.

Unlike her father,

she still knew the level of her. However, when her husband smiled softly and

gently said that phrase to her, Jiang Furong felt more than half flustered.

She felt that, at least in the eyes of the person in front of her, she was really beautiful.

T/N: I am not sure, but no matter how many times I read this chapter, I cried, both at the ending of Meng Yun-niang as well as Jiang Furong.

Someone commented in my other story, [Why should tasker exist, should people take care of their own revenge or counterattack?]

At first, I was shocked, so, why tasker exist? Until I read from one novel [ It is a danmei, I am not going to include the title lest people blaming me for dragging them into the world of no return lol].

The MC there said, even if people experience a rebirth, it will be difficult for them to change themselves. We already have this set of personality that has been nurtured since young and it was difficult to change ourselves subconsciously. Most of the MC who managed to counterattack are those who always kept themselves on the edge in order not to revert back to their old personality. It’s tiring you know, to force yourselves becoming what you are not. That’s why tasker exist. They have a different set of experiences and values which help them to cope with the changes/butterfly effect/etc that happened throughout counterattack. After all, it was weird if no changes happened when they spoiled the already existed plot, right? Anyway, I think the next arc will prove the importance of tasker and why tasker are more appropriate in helping the victim.

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