Those days when I exiled the paralyzed, deposed crown prince to farm

The courtyard gate was broken, and the intruder rushed in. Aman quickly got up and stood in front of Zhao Ye, her face full of vigilance and ready to attack at any moment.

It was as if Ah Man would rush over and fight them to the death if anyone dared to charge at them.

"Village chief, it's her!"

The woman who arrived was Li Guai Tie's wife. Pointing at A Man, she said, "She's the one who caught Li Guai Tie cheating with her own eyes. I'm not lying, it was Li Guai Tie who cheated on her!"

"I worked so hard to manage the household and bear his children, yet he cheated on me with a widow. Today, I'm determined to get justice!"

The woman was very agitated; her hair was disheveled, and there were handprints on her face.

Ah Man guessed it was her man who hit her.

She couldn't help but think that women of this era should not be jealous.

Even if she asks just one more question, her husband can use her jealousy as an excuse to divorce her and make her a discarded woman.

"Tell me, did you see Li Guai Tie cheating on you with your own eyes?!"

The woman pointed at Aman in the courtyard and questioned him loudly.

Ah Man then realized that their family matter had escalated to the village chief's level, probably because they wanted solid evidence or something else, which was why they came to Ah Man.

"You damn woman, haven't you made enough of a scene?!"

Li Guai Tie slapped his wife across the face. The woman had probably been slapped quite a few times; her face was red and somewhat swollen.

The village chief of Waguan Village was a middle-aged man of about forty-five or forty-six, slightly overweight, with a faint sheen on the top of his head.

"You're not ashamed, but I am!"

"Village chief, she's just jealous. According to our village rules, jealous women are unacceptable!"

The woman's eyes widened, as if they were about to pop out.

"You're divorcing me?"

The air suddenly became quiet, and the women who had come to watch the commotion, as well as the women who had witnessed Li Guai Tie cheating with her earlier that day, all fell silent.

"She saw it! That girl saw it!"

"You all saw it, why aren't you saying anything?"

"He cheated on me, so why should I be divorced because it's my fault?" The women around her avoided eye contact.

Ah Man pursed her lips and said, "I saw it."

"He cheated on me." Aman pointed to Li Guaitie standing to the side.

"What nonsense are you spouting, you little brat? What do you mean by stealing? Aren't you ashamed, a young lady like you!"

"Oh, I see!" Li Guai Tie saw Zhao Ye behind A Man and sneered, "Village Chief, look, this girl is keeping a man in the yard too."

"I don't know where this girl was exiled from. She's an outsider who came to our village and shamelessly lives with a man. A lone man and woman, without any sense of shame."

The village chief sized up Aman, and the way he looked at her like she was a criminal made her very uncomfortable.

"Alright, you're making your family matters public. Aren't you ashamed?"

"Village Chief, Village Chief!" The woman, seemingly unwilling to accept defeat, gripped the village chief's hand tightly, pointing at Ah Man and saying, "She admitted it all, she saw it!"

"She really saw it!"

The village chief ignored him, and Li Guai Tie roughly grabbed the man from the ground; the difference in strength between men and women was significant.

"You should resolve your own family matters behind closed doors, and not let outsiders laugh at you," the village chief said, and Li Guai Tie followed with a forced smile.

"Yes, yes, I understand, Village Chief. I'll take her back right away. That wretched woman is so petty. How could I have married such a thing in the first place..."

A group of people came and went in a noisy manner.

"Sigh, her days ahead are probably going to be tough."

"Yes, this isn't the first or second time Li Guai Tie has cheated on his wife. It's normal for men, and women can just turn a blind eye. Why make such a fuss?"

"How will we survive from now on?"

"See? You better behave yourself. A woman's duty to her husband is a fundamental ethical principle..."

Husband is the most important person in the world, and the ethical and moral order is paramount...

The courtyard returned to its quiet state, with insects chirping incessantly at night, and the darkness filtering through the dilapidated walls into the chilly courtyard.

Ah Man felt down, and when she sat down, the meat in her bowl didn't seem to taste good anymore.

"You men... can divorce women at will; all you need is a accusation of jealousy to discard them."

If a woman cannot produce a son, she can be divorced.

Zhao Ye watched quietly as A Man fell silent, noticing that she had no interest in eating the food in her bowl.

She said, "Ah Man, not all men in this world are like that."

"Not all living beings in the world are lost in the crowd."

"I know," Ah Man said, "but good men are one in a million."

"We women are not allowed to go to school, nor are we allowed to roam the world as freely as men. The only way is to get married, and then we are confined to the inner quarters to be good wives and mothers and to be filial to our parents-in-law."

Ah Man said, "After my eldest sister married into her husband's family, she gave birth to three daughters and one son, which is why she was not spared from being divorced."

"My father said back then that if she was divorced by her husband's family, it would be better for her to die outside than to come back to her parents' home and bring shame upon them."

"Why is it that men's philandering is considered their natural inclination, while women are expected to be virtuous and faithful?"

Zhao Ye had never thought about this question before; his mind was not on such matters.

Now that he lives with Ah Man as a commoner, it seems that he has only begun to notice the lives of ordinary people at the bottom of society.

Ah Man sighed deeply, as if women throughout history have never been able to escape discipline. In fact, women in modern society are no exception.

The good thing is, they got back up.

"I was just saying." Aman shrugged. Why would she ask a feudal ancient person this question?

Zhao Ye was born in this era, and everything he saw and learned was like this. How could we expect him to answer this question?

The candlelight flickered in the small kitchen at night, and Aman fanned the fire under the earthenware pot with a palm-leaf fan.

The lid of the earthenware pot was flapping and steaming, as if the hot air inside was eager to burst out.

She would steam and boil the leftover dregs of the medicine again after each use, then wrap them up and apply them to Zhao Ye's joints while they were still hot.

Ah Man sighed and said, "We can't ask Li Guai Tie anymore. Tomorrow I'll go to the market to see if there are any cheaper carpenters. We still need to install this door."

Ah Man was very worried. Looking at the empty courtyard, the door had been damaged. Ah Man simply took the door panel and burned it as firewood, since it couldn't be wasted.

She also found a cellar here. Ah Man had been hoping to find some food in the cellar, even just some sweet potatoes or potatoes would be good, but there was nothing inside, though there were quite a few dead rats.

"Zhao Ye, are you hot?"

Ah Man lay beside him, with a medicine bag Ah Man had made covering Zhao Ye's body, and the air was filled with the warm smell of herbs.

The fumes made Ah Man sweat profusely.

The old doctor said that in Zhao Ye's case, he needed to apply hot compresses frequently to revive his bodily functions; otherwise, he would continue to atrophy and there would be no possibility of recovery in the future.