Saying this, Bai Qingyan put down the cup in her hand, stood up, and said, "Thank you, Mr. Ji, for informing of these matters. I plan to take a stroll around Feng County, so I won’t disturb you further."
Doctor Ji quickly nodded, making way by the door, and couldn’t help but remind, "Counting the days, His Majesty the Emperor is due to give birth in another two or three months. The journey back to Dadu City... must not be too jarring or tiring. Please take good care."
"Alright, I will rember!" Bai Qingyan held onto Chun Zhi’s hand and stepped outside, "Mr. Ji, no need to see off."
Doctor Ji personally escorted them out through the back gate of the Ji Mansion. Watching Bai Qingyan and her entourage leave, Doctor Ji bowed deeply to Bai Qingyan’s departing figure once more. As he straightened up, he couldn’t help but reflect inwardly that he had never seen an Emperor like Bai Qingyan, who carried no airs and was pregnant yet still ca to Feng County to inquire about new policies.
He recalled the letter Ji Langhua wrote shortly after Bai Qingyan ascended to the throne... She said the eldest daughter of the Bai family would surely be a good Emperor, and now Doctor Ji believed it.
Doctor Ji thought, if future emperors of the Zhou Kingdom were like Bai Qingyan, how could the Zhou decline? How could the Zhou Kingdom not thrive and endure forever?
After Chun Zhi helped Bai Qingyan into the carriage, she noticed Doctor Ji still standing at the door and asked Bai Qingyan in a low voice, "Why didn’t you ask Doctor Ji’s family to return to Dadu City? If Doctor Ji were to work at the Imperial dical Bureau, then Miss Ji’s family could reunite in Dadu City, and they would surely serve you better."
Bai Qingyan leaned against the side of the carriage and said softly, "Miss Ji’s family played a critical role during the case of Imperial Censor Jian Congwen. If we were to now have them return to Dadu City and Doctor Ji to work at the Imperial dical Bureau, and their family history were exposed, how could they live there? What would people think? A loyal and upright minister like Jian Congwen had his entire clan executed, and yet descendants of those who betrayed the loyal could re-enter the Imperial dical Bureau, wouldn’t that chill the hearts of the people..."
"Moreover, Doctor Ji is highly skilled in dicine. Staying in a remote place like Feng County to practice and save lives is more aningful than entering the Imperial dical Bureau! I believe... when they chose to settle in Feng County, it was also to atone for their ancestors’ mistakes." Bai Qingyan smiled with her eyes downcast.
Chun Zhi nodded, "You’re absolutely right, ma’am!"
Bai Qingyan raised her eyes and teasingly said, "If the eldest daughter sold you, that would also be right?"
Chun Zhi thought for a mont and earnestly replied, "If the eldest daughter sold , it must be because she faced so difficulty, and she would only sell for my own good, not to burden . Sister Chun Tao has said... the eldest daughter is such a good person!"
She was amused by Chun Zhi, "Just look how Chun Tao has taught you, turning you into another silly Chun Tao!"
·
Bai Qingyan strolled around Feng County, noticing that the people’s lives seed to have improved compared to before. As for seeing real results from the new policies, that would have to wait two more years.
Bai family’s guard, Wei Zhong, and Chun Zhi accompanied Bai Qingyan as they walked through various streets. Bai Qingyan occasionally conversed with the common people and went to villages to ask for water in the fields where villagers worked together. Seeing Bai Qingyan’s pregnant belly, they graciously provided water.
After drinking the water, Bai Qingyan had the guard give them silver coins and then, without disdain, sat on a tree stump to chat with the won sewing shoe soles about what it was like when she first ca to Feng County.
At the ntion of this, the won laughed heartily.
"This lady is right, in the past, we couldn’t afford complete sets of clothes! This... it’s all thanks to our Zhou Emperor’s great new policies!" The elderly woman laughed as she pierced a shoe sole with an awl, her hands deftly threading and pulling the awl, "No wonder they say the General of the Bai family was sent by the heavens to save us people of Feng County! Before... General of the Bai family led the guards to protect us commoners of Feng County, and now that His Majesty has beco Emperor and is implenting new policies, it’s all to give us a better life. What did Mr. Cai say..."
The old woman turned to ask her daughter-in-law.
"Mother, Mr. Cai said that His Majesty’s new policies reduce the advantages of the aristocracy and increase benefits for the common people! So those who don’t want to see new policies implented successfully and speak ill of them are all wealthy people..." her daughter-in-law said with a smile.
"Yes, yes, that’s the sentence!" The old woman’s eyes crinkled with her smile, "We don’t lack labor now, so we let Erniu take her little brother to school to read and write. It’s the governnt that is paying for our children’s education, sothing that in the past, we couldn’t have afforded to pay a teacher. If ten villages produced one scholar, it was a remarkable achievent! Now all our children can beco scholars! Isn’t this a grand opportunity!"
"Indeed, if they study well and score on the imperial exams, our entire family could rise from hardship!" chid in a young, spirited wife, "Mr. Cai ntioned that for poor families like ours, there’s no other way to excel except for the imperial exams. Now that His Majesty has waived the fees, we just need to squeeze out a bit of ti to send them to school. This is a great opportunity!"
Initially, the Feng County residents sent their kids to school because they couldn’t afford the old tuition. Now that it’s free, they felt like it was a benefit for them. However, realizing the loss of labor at ho, they called the children back to help with farm work.
It was only after Mr. Cai visited Feng County and persuaded the residents that letting their children study was the path to change their generations-old fate of toiling away on the fields.
Who hasn’t dreamt of becoming a top scholar at night? In the past, they couldn’t afford tuition, but if they now begrudge the little bit of labor and call the kids back to work, they would truly be holding back the whole family’s future.
"Aunt Gu, our Erhu is finishing school, I have to go make dinner! I’m off!" A woman stood up with her winnowing basket and bid farewell to the old lady, nodding shyly to Bai Qingyan before leaving with a red face. Goodness... she had never t such a kind lady, as if a fairy had descended, without any airs.
After conversing mostly with the residents of Feng County, Bai Qingyan stood up and excused herself, saying she wanted to stroll around Feng County further.
"How peculiar, it’s a Yan Kingdom shop..." Bai Qingyan remarked upon seeing a store’s sign on the long street bearing the character for Yan, "Why would the Yan Kingdom open a shop in Feng County?"
Logically, Yan rchants entering Zhou, especially for shops selling clothes, should be in prosperous cities, or at least within Tiann Pass.
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