Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 262 Time to Get Married (1)

Song Yan was really tired.

Since transmigrating to this world, whether he was still in the Song family or married into the Luo family, getting a good night's sleep has been an extremely luxurious thing for him.

However, when he was still with the Song family, he was exhausted from just trying to survive.

Now, I am exhausted because of some ideals in my heart.

There are still some differences.

Her slender fingers gently caressed her beautiful face, which was cracked from the cold wind of Liaodong, making her feel even more distressed.

This is such a good son-in-law.

He should have lived a life of wealth and honor, and should not have suffered these hardships.

Watching quietly for a long time, Luo Yuheng sighed. In the end, the royal family owed Song Yan too much. He had heard from his elder brother about Song Yan's ideal: to be a small landowner, owning thousands of acres of fertile land, and living a peaceful and healthy life—that would be the greatest satisfaction. As for the idea of ​​leading a few lackeys to harass respectable women on the street, that was nothing more than drunken ramblings and shouldn't be taken seriously.

No matter what, leading an army to conquer all directions and slaughtering countless lives is not the life Yan'er wants.

No one else heard what Qian Yaozu said, but Luo Yuheng did. She didn't know what the future held, and she couldn't be sure what her brother's attitude would be towards Yan'er if he were to regain the power of the royal family. Would the scene of "the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked; the birds are gone, the good bow is put away" occur? However, in Luo Yuheng's heart, Yan'er would always be her son-in-law, and even the emperor could not touch him.

Even if it meant turning against her brother, she didn't care. She had already sacrificed so much for the royal family, and she wouldn't allow her son-in-law to suffer the same fate.

With Yan'er's abilities and the wealth accumulated by the Luo family, she could probably make a living anywhere.

Suddenly, Song Yan, who was asleep, started to twitch for no reason, whether she was having a nightmare or something else, and her brows furrowed tightly.

His once steady breathing turned into heavy panting.

Luo Yuheng then stretched out her fingers and gently smoothed out the wrinkles on the forehead, bit by bit.

It seemed to have some effect, as the convulsing body gradually calmed down.

A light footstep came from outside the door. Looking up, I saw Luo Tianxuan and Luo Tianyi.

After several months of medication, Luo Tianxuan has completely stopped coughing. She consulted the renowned physician Sun Shuji, who said that her tuberculosis should be completely cured, but her body is still somewhat deficient and she needs to recuperate for about a year and a half.

It's best to avoid sexual intercourse during this period, especially to avoid getting pregnant... otherwise the fetus may be born with a weak foundation.

Of course, getting along with others is no problem.

Seeing the situation inside the room, Luo Tianxuan remained calm, while Luo Tianyi subconsciously raised an eyebrow.

"Shhh."

Luo Yuheng put a finger to his lips: "He's very tired, he's asleep."

Luo Tianyi pursed her lips. Since leaving Ningping, except for the few days when she was kidnapped by Hua Lianyue, Luo Tianyi had seen everything along the way.

All things considered, my brother-in-law really didn't get a single day off.

Liaodong is a desolate place, and there are far too many things to deal with.

Aside from Yang Siyao and Liu Yisheng, no one else was capable of helping with these tasks. Even the strongest body would give out after such a long time. Shaking her head, Luo Tianyi sighed and went out to get a charcoal brazier, which slightly raised the temperature in the room.

Luo Tianxuan brought over a quilt and covered Song Yan's body, which would at least keep him a little warm.

Luo Yuheng looked at Song Yan in his arms, then at Luo Tianxuan. It is said that daughters are not meant to stay at home once they grow up, and it is indeed true. Now, Xuan'er only has eyes for her husband.

Even Tianyi, that girl, mostly had eyes for her brother-in-law, and pursed her lips: "Tianyi, you'll be nineteen after the New Year, right?"

Luo Tianyi didn't know why Luo Yuheng would bring these things up, but she still nodded.

"She's a grown woman now...it's time for her to get married."

"It's still early, no rush," Luo Tianyi said sullenly, feeling inexplicably irritated.

"What do you mean 'early'? She's already nineteen. Other people's daughters are nineteen, and their children are almost ready to start school," Luo Yuheng said with a smile, seemingly casually.

Luo Tianyi fell silent, just like when her mother urged her to get married, using silence to resist everything.

Luo Yuheng didn't force anything: "If you ever find a man you like, just come and tell your mother. No matter who it is, your mother will agree."

After a pause, Luo Yuheng spoke again: "By the way, I heard that when Yan'er arrived in Liaodong, Yang Siyao and a young man named Liu Yisheng were mostly helping her with her affairs..."

“A county town has a lot of complicated things to do.”

"Now that it's a prefectural city, there are naturally more things to do."

“I know Yan’er can’t tolerate any wrongdoing, but it’s not appropriate to execute all the officials in Pingyang City at once. The government office is basically shut down. The guards can maintain order for a short time, but it will eventually cause problems.”

"Tianyi, go to Xinhou County and bring Siyao over. That will help Yan'er a bit."

Yang Siyao is considered his son-in-law's concubine... Although she doesn't have that title yet, it's only a matter of time. Luo Yuheng is already figuring out when to get it done.

The son-in-law was hesitant to speak up due to his status, but she couldn't ignore it.

Luo Yuheng had a good impression of this woman. She was humble yet resilient, intelligent but not ostentatious, and never competed for anything. She was very respectful to Tianxuan and Tianyi, and was quite dutiful.

Tianxuan helped her uncover the truth behind her sister's death.

This is the kindness the Luo family has shown her.

The hatred between them was irreconcilable, and she felt at ease having such a woman by Yan'er's side.

Living in this era, men with multiple wives and concubines are commonplace, and no one seems to find anything wrong with it.

Although, in order to maintain the dignity of the royal family, princes and noblemen were not allowed to take concubines unless there were special circumstances.

Born into royalty, Luo Yuheng was well aware that many princes and noblewomen, while outwardly refraining from taking concubines, secretly kept mistresses. Princesses and noblewomen, to avoid damaging the royal family's reputation and for the sake of family harmony, mostly turned a blind eye. Of course, a large part of the reason for this was ultimately the decline of the Ning Kingdom's imperial power; the princesses and noblewomen had lost their powerful backers and had no choice but to swallow their anger.

There were also times when princesses held sway.

For example, the Han Dynasty and the Wu Dynasty.

During the height of these two dynasties, imperial power was supreme, and anyone who dared to disobey was often sentenced to have their entire family wiped out. The status and power of princesses also rose accordingly; at that time, a prince consort marrying a princess was not called "marrying," but "offering a position of respect."
After the prince consort and the princess get married, the prince consort's generation will automatically be reduced by one generation. When he sees the princess, he must perform the rites of a nephew or son. In the most extreme case, even the prince consort's parents will be reduced by one generation.
Even after marriage, the princess would not live with her husband, but in a separate princess residence. Whether the husband could share a room with the princess depended entirely on the princess's mood. If the princess wanted to, she would send someone to summon the husband. If she didn't have that intention, they probably wouldn't be able to meet once a year. In order to share a room with the princess, the husband even had to humbly please the princess's maids.
The prince consort had to go to the princess's residence every day to pay his respects to her. If the princess was in a bad mood, she would beat and scold him at the slightest provocation.

All of this suggests that the princess's status has risen.

But what were the final results? All truly talented young men avoided princesses like the plague. Once a princess set her sights on them, some would spend the night in brothels, ruining their reputations; others would retreat to the deep mountains and forests, living like hermits, escaping the world; some would find a woman on the spot, even a prostitute, and marry her immediately; some would even openly declare their homosexuality…

They would stop at nothing to avoid marrying the princess.

In those days, anyone who dared to arrange a marriage between a capable young man and a princess would be cursed and gossiped about for the rest of their life.

Despite being of noble birth, she became a girl who couldn't get married. In the end, she would reluctantly marry someone, and the chosen husbands were mostly mediocre people who were only after the status of the royal relatives and lacked both talent and virtue. As a result, most of the princesses were depressed and unhappy throughout their lives.

Luo Yuheng has a very clear understanding of this. In his view, what a family needs most is compromise and tolerance from both sides, and the gradual adjustment in every aspect of life.

He shook his head, suppressing the slightly chaotic thoughts in his mind, and let out a soft breath: "Right, let's call Gao Yang over too."

Song Yan didn't hide this matter. Knowing that Gao Yang was still alive, she was very happy. She was also a little worried. Moreover, unlike her two daughters, Gao Yang didn't like martial arts. Instead, he preferred literature and art. Perhaps he could help with some things and lighten the burden on his son-in-law.

"Tianxuan, go to the Zhang family."

"The Zhang family is the local bigwigs after all, and their understanding of Pingyang City is beyond ours. Fortunately, although Yan'er is very murderous, he only killed the officials, leaving the clerks alive."

Although officials and clerks are often mentioned together, they are not the same. Officials are people appointed by the imperial court, receive salaries from the imperial court, and have official ranks.

Clerks, on the other hand, were local employees without official ranks.

Officials control the overall direction, while clerks are the lowest-level staff who actually do the work.

Thinking this, Luo Yuheng spoke again: "Let the Zhang family take the lead in finding these officials and asking them to do their best to maintain the operation of Pingyang City. Furthermore, they should make a promise in the name of the Princess... no, in the name of the Princess and Song Yan: if they do well, they can be promoted to official positions without regard to precedent."

"Of course, those officials who have close ties with Xilin Academy and Qian Yaozu must be purged."

"In addition, a notice was posted seeking talented scholars within Pingyang City."

Luo Yuheng sighed helplessly. Although he disliked the scholars of Xilin Academy and Bailu Academy, the power of scholars was ultimately indispensable for governing a region. Putting aside other matters, just the various clerks alone would be impossible to handle if an illiterate person was put in charge.

"Prepare another blank memorial for me..."

While Song Yan was fast asleep, orders were issued one after another, and the vast city of Pingyang quickly became agitated.

Although more than a hundred officials and even their families were executed, and the torture of combing and washing that Qian Yaozu endured was particularly horrifying, the temptation of being promoted was still very strong. Some officials with guilty consciences secretly slipped away, while many others showed ten times the enthusiasm they usually did.

For a time, a very strange scene appeared in Pingyang City. Although there was no official in the city, the whole city was running in an orderly manner, even more normally than when Qian Yaozu and his people were alive.

……

Song Yan slept very comfortably.

Even the instinct to be half-awake during sleep has been forgotten.

The pressure was forgotten.

They forgot their burdens.

They even forgot about hatred.

It felt like I was back in my childhood, in my mother's arms.

When Song Yan opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a bed.

This is a room that has just been cleaned up. All traces left by Qian Yaozu's family have been removed. It is clean, tidy, and simply furnished, yet it doesn't make people feel disgusted.

My abdomen was churning violently; I was feeling hungry.

I glanced out the window; it was pitch black.

Song Yan scratched his head, remembering that when he fell asleep in his mother's arms, the outside was just like this. Could it be that he slept for a whole day and night? That was really terrible.

Muttering to himself, Song Yan yawned again, stretched his stiff limbs, and got out of bed, intending to go outside to find something to eat. Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door, and as the door was pushed open, a familiar face appeared before him—it was Luo Tianxuan.

Holding a tray with a bowl of vegetable soup, two steamed buns, a plate of meat, and a plate of vegetables, she saw Song Yan and her big, dark eyes immediately filled with joy: "Husband, you're finally awake."

As they spoke, they went inside, placed the tray on the table, and picked up a robe that had been prepared nearby. Song Yan turned his back and draped the robe over his shoulders. Although they hadn't known each other for very long, at this moment, they acted like an old married couple.

Song Yan shook his head vigorously, still feeling a bit drowsy: "How long have I been asleep?"

Luo Tianxuan, who was fastening the buttons one by one in front of Song Yan, smiled and said, "It's been two days and two nights. My husband must be exhausted."

"Some things can be done slowly, there's no need to rush."

Song Yan grinned. He knew he had been asleep for a long time, but he hadn't expected it to be this long.

After buttoning up the last button, Luo Tianxuan straightened Song Yan's collar and said, "Are you hungry? Eat something first."

Song Yan sat down at the table and first picked up the bowl of vegetable soup. He ate half of it in one gulp, which made his empty stomach feel much better. Then he picked up a steamed bun and slowly ate it. Luo Tianxuan sat quietly opposite him, supporting her chin with her hands, with a faint smile on her face, just staring at Song Yan.

It seemed that simply watching her husband eat was the greatest happiness.

Feeling a little embarrassed by being stared at like that, Song Yan casually changed the subject: "I've been asleep for so long, how's the situation in Pingyang City? Nothing's happened, right?"

"Mother has made arrangements, so don't worry."

In Pingyang City today, Luo Yuheng is in charge as the eldest princess.

Luo Tianxuan recounted everything Luo Yuheng had done to Song Yan in detail… After listening, Song Yan had to admit that Princess Luo Yuheng was indeed very capable. She appeased the common people, subtly instigated and won over the Zhang family, and recruited scholars and local officials—step by step, link by link. If he were to handle these matters, he would likely be far inferior.

"By the way, there's something that you'd be very interested in, my husband." Luo Tianxuan seemed to have thought of something, smiled, and took out something that looked like a memorial from her bosom, handing it to Song Yan: "In the two days you were asleep, the 132 officials, the Huang family, and Xilin Academy have all been searched and confiscated, and the data has been compiled. Would you like to take a look?"

As expected, Song Yan's eyes lit up. He stuffed the rest of the steamed bun into his mouth in one bite, then took the memorial from Luo Tianxuan, opened it, and read:
"A total of 4,478,762 taels of silver was seized!"

hiss.

The terrifying number above made Song Yan gasp sharply. The steamed bun she had just stuffed into her mouth got stuck in her throat, and the sudden feeling of suffocation and tightness made her face turn bright red.

dying!
dying!
(End of this chapter)