The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1305: Difficult to appease public outrage
Chapter 1305: Difficult to Calm Public Anger
As soon as Bai Qingyan arrived at Dong’s bedroom, he heard the cheerful and hearty laughter of the aunts inside, and Bai Qingyan’s mood also improved.
Hearing the eunuch outside announcing that Bai Qingyan had arrived, Fifth Madam Qi turned around, looked at Bai Qingyan, and waved to her with a smile: “Abao, come and see! These two little guys are sucking their fingers here, ignoring everyone and eating very attentively, come and see!”
Bai Qingyan walked through the drapes and bead curtains, around the screen, and saw his aunts, Xiao Ba, and Wang Ge sitting on a soft cushion covered with an ivory mat and a blanket.
Two little babies wearing patchwork quilts made by Fourth Aunt were surrounded in the middle, with their backs to each other, sucking their fingers. They looked like they were really serious about eating.
The palace maids, nannies, and the four children’s wet nurses who were standing in a circle around them were all grinning from ear to ear.
Mrs. Dong used the golden bell in her hand to tease the two children and whispered to them, “Xi Le, Kang Le, grandma has been ringing the bell for a long time. You two should also look at grandma!”
But the two children were just sucking their fingers and ignored everyone, which made their aunts and others laugh again.
Xiao Ba pouted: “My nephews and nieces are not fun, they don’t even want to play with me!”
“Xi Le and Kang Le are still young, and they can’t play with Xiao Ba yet. Wait a year or more… Xi Le and Kang Le can walk, and they will definitely chase Xiao Ba to play!” Second Madam Liu smiled and touched the head of Xiao Wang Ge’er who was just chewing snacks in her arms, “But fortunately, now Wang Ge’er can play with Xiao Ba!”
Xiao Ba looked at Xiao Wangge’er, whose mouth was full of snack crumbs. Just as he was about to reach out to touch Xiao Kangle, Xiao Ba quickly crawled over and slapped Xiao Wangge’er’s hand away. She was somewhat disgusted with her little nephew’s drool, so she acted like an adult and sternly reprimanded Xiao Wangge’er, who was looking up at her: “Wangge’er, you can’t touch your younger siblings. They are still young, and you have drool on your hands…”
“Ah! Our Xiaoba knows how to protect his young nephews and nieces!” Third Madam Li covered her mouth with a handkerchief and laughed.
Bai Wanqing said seriously, “Kang Le and Xi Le were born prematurely by our eldest sister. We need to take good care of them. Nanny has told me that!”
Liu laughed out loud, took the hot towel from the nanny and wiped little Wang’er’s hands: “Our little Ba has become like a little adult! You are worthy of being the little Ba aunt of Wang’er and Kang Lexi.”
Seeing this, Bai Qingyan’s eyes were full of smiles, and he remembered that when they were children, they were also like this when they were young and ignorant… The older ones bullied the younger ones and looked down on the younger ones, but… they could bully their own brothers and sisters as much as they wanted, but when they went out, they would not allow others to bully or look down on them. If others bullied or looked down on their brothers and sisters, they would beat them up!
Nanny Tong smiled and came forward to help Bai Qingyan take off her shoes, then helped her sit down next to Mrs. Dong. She raised her hand and touched the little head of Xiaoba who was sitting next to the Fifth Madam Qi, and pinched Wangger’s little face. Turning back, she saw Kangle and Xile, the two children, sucking their fingers happily, and the smile in her eyes became even more intense.
These days, thanks to the hard care of Doctor Huang, my mother, and all the aunts and maids, my daughter Kangle’s health is getting better day by day. Although she is not as good as her brother Xile, at least she doesn’t spit up when drinking milk, and she is no longer as lazy and unwilling to move as before.
Bai Qingyan looked at Xile and Kangle’s expressions, and thought about going back to write a letter to Xiao Rongyan and draw this scene for Xiao Rongyan to see.
“Xiao Ba, have you finished writing the big characters that your elder sister asked you to write this morning?” Bai Qingyan asked his sister with a smile.
Bai Qingyan didn’t assign many tasks to Xiao Ba. They were all characters with very simple strokes, so he just had to write five sheets.
“I’ve finished writing them all!” Bai Wanqing smiled broadly at Bai Qingyan, “I even have two more!”
The nanny who served Bai Wanqing also smiled and said, “Yes, the Eighth Miss wrote two more pages today. She said that she will be able to write better next time when His Majesty checks her homework!”
“Oh… this kind of personality, maybe she inherited Abao!” Second Madam Liu couldn’t help laughing, “I remember Abao was like this when she was little. If you asked her to do 30%, she could do 60% or 70%. Our Xiaoba will be another little Abao when she grows up!”
Nanny Qin brought a bowl of milk in a small silver cup to Bai Qingyan’s hand and said, “Have some, young lady!”
Bai Qingyan took the silver cup with a smile, touched Bai Wanqing’s little head and said with a smile: “When our little eight grows up, he will definitely be more powerful than his elder sister!”
When Bai Wanqing heard this, she looked at Bai Qingyan with her bright black eyes, nodded vigorously, and secretly made up her mind to write three more tomorrow!
“I heard that someone in the clan was causing trouble again? And someone was killed?” Dong turned to look at Bai Qingyan.
“I have also heard about this. This clan is too outrageous. If they are not severely punished, it will be difficult to appease the public anger!” When Fifth Madam Qi heard about this, she was very angry. While fanning Kang Le and Xi Le with a round fan, she said, “They have already escaped from slavery and are now good citizens. The descendants of this clan dared to seize good women and beat their husbands to death. They think this is Shuoyang and are waving the banner of the royal family… What can a human do?”
“Now that we are implementing new laws in our Great Zhou, if we don’t handle it properly, and this matter gets out of hand… the people will only accuse the royal family of shielding their relatives.” Dong said softly to Bai Qingyan, “We must handle it properly.”
Bai Qingyan nodded.
This incident reminded Bai Qingyan of the words left by Queen Ji on the bamboo slips about abolishing the system of untouchables.
It was recorded in the bamboo slips left by Queen Ji that Queen Ji changed the slave system of Yan State to a system of untouchables, but it was also a transition in historical development. If one really wanted to achieve equality for all, one needed to carry out reforms again after Yan State unified the world, abolish the system of untouchables, and thus advance to a system of equality for all again.
There were only a few words left in the bamboo slips of Queen Ji, but they gave Bai Qingyan an inspiration.
Bai Qingyan felt that this incident was a reminder for him that the untouchable system should be abolished.
Nowadays, there are two types of slaves and servants in the Great Zhou Dynasty, one is of good status, and the other is of low status… Although the low status slaves have monthly wages compared to the original slaves, and have the opportunity to redeem themselves if they save enough money or get the grace of their masters, their masters can beat and sell them at will before they redeem themselves, and even if the masters beat them to death, it is their fate to die, and no one can be held accountable. Moreover, the children born to the low status slaves are house-born children, and there is actually not much difference between them and the original slaves.
It would be fine if a lowly slave met a good master, but if he met a cruel and ruthless master, one can imagine his fate.