Do you know that my grandfather was entitled to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple?

Chapter 76: Who will I marry in the future?

Jingxintang

Since Wang You and his mother left, Old Mrs. Wang has been sitting on the soft couch in a daze.

She made no comment when she learned that Wang You had gone to kneel in the ancestral hall.

She had no appetite for dinner and only snapped out of her daze when her mother came to remind her that it was time to rest.

"Do you think I've been too lenient with Ruoyu?" Old Mrs. Wang asked.

"This..." Mrs. Qian hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

Grandma Wang said calmly, "Even you don't dare to tell the truth to my face?"

Although Old Mrs. Wang's family was not a prestigious clan, they were still officials.

Qian Mama was her dowry maid, and she grew up with her since childhood.

"Since the old lady asked, she probably already has the answer in her heart, doesn't she?" Mrs. Qian said.

"Ugh."

Grandma Wang sighed and said, "If it had caused someone's death, she would have written to me, and her letter was full of fear."

But in recent years, whenever she's gotten into trouble, there's no fear in her letters. I do bear some responsibility for how she's become like this.

The people killed by the Kang Wang clan were not ordinary citizens.

She was a concubine of the Kang family.

Although the Qin Dynasty completely abolished slavery, the status of slaves persisted.

There's really no difference between a slave who sells himself into servitude and a slave; the master can decide his or her life at will.

However, during the Song Dynasty, the laws in this regard were strengthened.

Although the concept of "lowly status" still existed in the Song Dynasty, even with a contract of indenture, the master could not arbitrarily execute the servant.

Servants can be beaten or scolded for making mistakes, but they cannot be beaten to death.

It is necessary to report to the government and obtain their permission before killing someone.

To put it bluntly, it's about letting the authorities assess whether the crime warrants a death sentence.

However, the legal standards applicable to servants are different from those applicable to ordinary people.

What might not be a capital offense for ordinary people could be a death sentence for servants.

However, the law is the law, and in reality, very few people strictly abide by it.

After all, when servants make mistakes, some of them involve household secrets.

Family scandals should not be aired in public. Sometimes, the only reason for such behavior is to silence the person in question, and naturally, it's unlikely to escalate to the point of involving the authorities.

This is also the reason why, in the original drama, when Wei Xiaoniang died in childbirth, Sheng Hong only killed a few servants who knew the inside story, and sold off the rest who knew little about it.

Although he was an official, executing too many servants at once would easily give others a handle to use against him.

In any other dynasty, anyone who knew even a little bit about the matter would be executed to prevent it from leaking out.

The concubine that Kang Wangshi killed was a lowly concubine.

In essence, they are no different from servants.

If someone dies under mysterious circumstances, it must be reported to the authorities for an explanation.

If we conceal it, it could cause trouble if someone from the deceased concubine's family takes it to the authorities.

The government is also relatively lenient in handling such matters.

Normally, killing a servant without cause would result in a fine and caning.

The severity of the punishment depends on the reason why the servant was killed.

Kang Wangshi was naturally unwilling to be punished, so after killing her concubine for the first time, she concealed the news and wrote to Old Madam Wang for help.

Although Wang Min and Sheng Hong did not hold high official positions, they were capable of handling such matters well.

Later, Lady Kang killed several more of her concubines, and she no longer showed any fear in her letters.

After reflecting on her actions, Mrs. Wang realized that it was her indulgence that had emboldened her daughter to become increasingly reckless.

The reason they were able to cover it up before was because the matter wasn't serious, and both Wang Min and Sheng Hong were working in other places.

But Bianjing was different; the censors and remonstrators there were only interested in impeaching people.

If one day the trouble caused by the Kang Wang clan cannot be covered up, and the censors find something to hold against Wang Min and Sheng Hong, then everything will be over.

"Since the old lady has asked me to speak, then I will say a few words."

Madam Qian said, "Eldest sister has indeed gone too far. In the past ten years or so, she has already caused the deaths of six people. I think what Brother You said makes sense. If she is not restrained, eldest sister will only become more and more unscrupulous."

To put it bluntly, you have no choice but to help the master and the third son-in-law, but what will happen when you're no longer around?

In my opinion, the eldest sister also considered this point, which is why she thought of marrying her cousin to You-ge.

Upon hearing this, Old Madam Wang closed her eyes, and after a while, she opened them and said, "Send someone to the ancestral hall to let You-ge'er go back and rest."

"Yes."

"Mother Qian responded."

…………

Wang Family Ancestral Hall

Wang You sat on a prayer mat, reading a storybook.

The so-called "huaben" is actually a novel.

It is often said that Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan drama, and Ming novels are the most important.

In fact, neither opera nor novels were niche genres in the Song Dynasty.

It's just that Song Dynasty poetry was so popular that it didn't seem that famous.

Take lyrics, for example. These things have existed for a long time. It's just that they were sung by courtesans in brothels.

Many ci (lyric poetry) titles originated from the Jiaofangsi (a government-run music and dance academy), and each title had a fixed melody.

Writing lyrics is actually just filling in lyrics; it's simply adding a section of lyrics that fits the melody and rhyme to a fixed tune.

This is somewhat similar to songs from later generations.

Scholars simply disdain writing lyrics.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, warlords fought each other, and most of them were military generals who usually enjoyed listening to a little tune.

At that time, the rites and music system collapsed, and the talents of scholars also declined sharply.

If you can't write good poetry, then those in power like to listen to music, so you write lyrics instead.

It was in this environment that the ci poetry form gained recognition from scholars.

Although vernacular stories had a wide audience, a hierarchy of contempt still existed among scholars. Only those who knew a few words but didn't have much talent would write vernacular stories.

Therefore, vernacular stories have very low literary content and are looked down upon by scholars.

Wang You, however, found it fascinating. The author's literary cultivation was low, but the story was naturally simple and easy to understand, much easier to read than those classical texts.

Feng came by once in the middle of the journey, but seeing that Wang You was engrossed in his book, she left without disturbing him.

I wonder if she would be so angry that she would resort to family discipline if she knew that Wang You was reading storybooks in the ancestral hall.

Just as Wang You was engrossed in watching, Xiao Man entered, bowed, and said, "Young Master, the Old Madam sent someone to say that you should return to your room to rest."

"How much of her grandmother's sanity is left?"

Wang You closed the book, stood up, and stretched.

Actually, besides the reason he told Madam Feng, he had another purpose in voluntarily kneeling in the ancestral hall.

That was to test Old Mrs. Wang's attitude.

His previous words must have angered Old Mrs. Wang. If Old Mrs. Wang stubbornly believes that she is not wrong, she will not care about him for a while and let him kneel there.

Even if they stopped him from kneeling later, it was only out of pity for him, not because they agreed with what he said.

Now, just over an hour later, the old lady is telling him to go back, which clearly shows that she has wavered.

This is a good thing. If Old Mrs. Wang were really a stubborn old woman, he really wouldn't have any way to deal with her.

Back in my room, I ate something, washed up, and then went to bed to rest.

Lying on his bed, he reflected on the day's events.

There's a question he hadn't considered before, but now he has to think about it.

That was his marriage.

Entering officialdom as a Hanlin Compiler right after graduation is a highly prestigious title.

Kang Wangshi was the first, but not the last.

When Wang Min arrives in Bianjing, many more people will want to form marriage alliances with the Wang family and marry their daughters to him.

Who will I marry in the future?