Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Tong Yingying said, “I don’t dare to think of rebellion, but clan inheritance is the eternal truth of China for thousands of years. If there is no clan, it is equivalent to a tree without roots. No matter how big the tree is, it will quickly fall to the ground!
“There will be chaos among the people, and the people will not be able to live in peace.
“Qiao Jinniang, if you covet the money Myriad Taste can bring to you and ignore the clan rites, you are committing a serious crime. His Majesty is a wise monarch, and he will definitely punish you!”
Qin Miaomiao came over and said, “Oh, County Mistress, you’re here. I went to the Foundling Home and they said that all the children in the Foundling Home had been moved to the school you opened in a manor on the outskirts of Chang’an, so I came to discuss with you about money donation.
“Such a large school must cost a lot of silver taels.”
Princess Fulu asked curiously, “School? What school?”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Some people think that it’s extravagant and cold-blooded for me to purchase a golden tuinga, so I donated some money to the Foundling Home, and spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to set up a women’s school.”
Upon hearing this, Princess Fulu said, “Qiao Jinniang, you are not donating, you are harming those girls. Which girl would like to read those boring scriptures? Going to school was the most annoying thing for me when I was a child.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Going to school can make them literate and sensible. Princess, you’re of noble birth, and even your maids are literate, but some women are born in poor families, and if they are illiterate, their lives can be even more difficult.
“Moreover, there are all kinds of people in the Relief Workshop, including many bad people, so it’s not a good place for the girls to live. ”
Qin Miaomiao nodded and said, “That’s true. I always wanted to help them but I lack the power, but it’s really benevolent of you to donate 50,000 taels of silver to set up a school for them, County Mistress.” “50,000 taels!”
“Amitabha, 50,000 taels? I’ve never even seen so much money!”
Fulu frowned and looked at Qiao Jinniang. “You just spent 100,000 taels to buy my mansion. Where did you get so much money to run a school?”
“Don’t worry. I earned the money myself, and I’ve paid taxes.” Qiao Jinniang said, “Ladies, if you want to help those poor girls, you can donate some money to them. If you don’t have money, it’ll be great to provide some books you’ve read, and the brush and ink you don’t need anymore. ”
Pen, ink, paper and inkstone were extremely expensive. Many people couldn’t go to school not because they couldn’t afford the tuition fee but because they could afford the pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
Especially books.
The novels Qiao Jinniang were reading were not cheap either, some of which cost several taels, but they were not serious books.
Those serious books for imperial examinations were even more expensive. Some poor scholars could only go to bookstores to transcribe them.
The noble girls in the Jewelry Pavilion all agreed to provide some books. They all had a few books at home.
Tong Yingying said, “County Mistress, since you have opened a women’s school to earn yourself a good reputation, you should set an example for women!
“Don’t take the money that does not belong to you to live an extravagant life and earn a good reputation.”
Tong Xuan angrily ordered someone to cover Tong Yingying’s mouth and dragged her out of the Jewelry Pavilion, fearing that she would really offend Qiao Jinniang and implicate her.
Tong Yingying completely ruined everyone’s mood, and Fulu had lost interest in continuing to select jewelry. She said to Qin Miaomiao, “Isn’t Tong Yingying your good friend? Why did you allow her to scold your sister-in-law’s sister like this?”
Qin Miaomiao said, “I broke up with her a long time ago.”
Qiao Jinniang asked Fulu, “Who is that woman?”
Fulu said, “Oh, she is very famous. When she was only ten years old, she dared to preach to the Empress at a palace banquet that she should not be a jealous woman, and women should make their husbands happy.
“When she was twelve years old, she pointed at my aunt, Princess Shouyang’s nose and scolded her for keeping a gigolo and even fighting with her sisters for that gigolo, which was a disgrace to women, ”
Qiao Jinniang asked curiously, “Then why didn’t His Majesty punish her?”
Fulu said, “She has always compared His Majesty to Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty and compared herself to the famous censor, Wei Zheng. My imperial uncle wanted the reputation as a wise monarch, so he certainly couldn’t punish a little girl.
“Tong Yingying dared to do this because her father was an imperial censor. If His Majesty really punished her, he would leave a reputation in the history books that he could not tolerate a little girl.
“Besides, although Tong Yingying is sometimes irritating, what she says is all justified. And this Miss Qin also introduced her to literati, so Tong Yingying became famous and many people compared her to your sister Qiao Ruoyi, because they were both born by a concubine.
“In the past two years, Qiao Ruoyi became more famous than Tong Yingying, but before that, the literati who went to the Tong family to propose marriage to Tong Yingying almost trod their house’s threshold flat.”
Qin Miaomiao said to Qiao Jinniang, “Tong Yingying has always been like this. She is not deliberately targeting you. Whenever she sees something that she thinks is going against ethics, she will always condemn it.
“When I was young, I thought she was daring and righteous, but then I gradually felt that she was just trying to build herself a good reputation, never considering others’ difficulties.
‘Gradually, I got distant from her. In fact, what Tong Yingying said about the Qiao clan was the currently prevailing code of ethics.
“You don’t have a husband who married into your family now, nor does my sister-in-law, so in others’ eyes, Myriad Taste should be inherited by the Qiao clansmen.”
Qiao Jinniang bit her lip. She knew it, but what Tong Yingying said was really annoying.
Fulu looked at Qiao Jinniang and said, “Alas, Jinniang, why don’t you just return Myriad Taste and Tasty Pavilion to them?
“After all, even me…
my mother dies, everything in this princess mansion will no longer belong to me, but if I am a man, I can inherit the princess mansion.
This is the rule.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “But you don’t know how many disgusting things those people have done. My father was forced to sell himself into a slave because they seized his land by force and he had nowhere to go, but when he came back with his cooking skills and opened a restaurant, they came to greedily seize benefits from my father again.
“When I was four years old, Myriad Taste’s business was just picking up, and they came to demand to act as the purchaser of ingredients for Myriad Taste, but the ingredients they bought were all rotten.
“Some clansmen forced my father to hire them as cashiers, but they often charged more money from the guests and kept the overcharge for themselves.
“There was even an aunt, who collected the leftovers from guests and served it to other guests on the pretext of saving money, but it turned out tihat she packed the newly made dishes for her son to eat.
“There are countless things like this, and my father was finally disappointed with those people although he certainly didn’t want to fall out with his clansmen.
“But later what the clansmen did was even worse, especially when my adoptive parents were seriously ill. My third aunt even wanted her lecherous nephew to marry me so as to seize Myriad Taste.
“I will certainly help them if they’re not so disgusting. And when my dad was seriously ill, his greatest fear was that his clansmen would ruin Myriad Taste.”.
