Chapter 18 - The Man in White (1/2)
TN: The author changed the name of Lan Province starting from this chapter. Previously, 州 as in prefecture/province was used, but now it’s 洲 as in continent/island in a river. I will be renaming Lan Province to Lan Zhou to simplify things. And to clarify, yes, Lan Zhou is a city.
Glossary
里 | li | unit of measurement that has varied over time but has now been standardized to 500 meters (Wikipedia)
What kind of situation was this? Ruan Zhu was in a bad mood and grumbled: “I’m afraid I don’t have the leisure to provide for such a large household.”
Yun Shi Yi smiled and gently tapped her nose: “You don’t have to worry about this matter. The men of Tian Chu are not in such dire financial straits as to need females to provide for them, so you don’t need to display such a gloomy face. If others were to know about this, they would think that this Head Yun is unable to support his wifey.”
In Tian Chu, it was regarded as exceptionally humiliating if one was unable to provide for his wife. Even if a man was to became a Buddhist monk due to a lack of talent, there were no monasteries that would be willing to accept such a disgraceful disciple.
Ruan Zhu was teased with until she smiled: “You Head Yun is so exceptional, there will be females that like you no matter where you go. We even ran into one of your admirers just after entering a teahouse. This era is where women are respected. If it was switched to how it was several hundred years ago when men were the ones with seniority and could have three wives and five concubines, you would already have a whole heap of children.”
These few days while she was at the Yun manor, Ruan Zhu had especially sought out a book detailing the history of Tian Chu. It turns out this world was not at all a continuation of the Tang dynasty timeline after the An Shi Rebellion. Rather, a provincial governor by the two-character surname of Xuanyuan from Lan Zhou had led troops to seize Chang’an[a]. Afterwards, he eliminated all opposing powers before restoring the country to one based on political and military achievements. He officially named this country ‘Tian Chu’.
It’s unknown if it was because the Tang dynasty’s fate had not yet ended or if the principal governor’s actions had angered the Heavens, but after the Xuanyuan clan successfully created the nation of Tian Chu, a period of suffering that was practically a devastating epidemic occurred in the fourth year after the founding of the country. This plague wreaked havoc on the female population, causing it to rapidly decrease.
The disease specifically targeted women. Whether it was because they were too healthy or their physique was too different, men were completely immune.
An innumerable amount of women died as a result. If one solely considered a single day in the ancient capital of Chang’an that was now famous in the modern ages, over seven thousand female corpses were cremated.
This disaster extended worldwide. It spread to Fusang and Liuqiu in the east, to Rome in the west and to Java in the south.[b] In the north, it reached to where the rakshasas reside and covered their entire territory. In short, anywhere that had people was devastated by this devil’s epidemic.
But not only that, the epidemic also changed the human genes. After the catastrophe, humans discovered that the female birth rate had decreased so much that they didn’t even amount to a quarter of the male births. Furthermore, all female children were born with a frail constitution and their chances of survival also weren’t high.
Not long after, the ‘one woman many husbands’ law was issued. In an effort to practice what one teaches, the Emperor took it upon himself to be an example and wed a joint Empress with his brothers. All the cabinet members also followed the example of their superior, one after the other sharing a wife with their brothers or taking the initiative to find other males for their wife. This caused the trend to become very popular among the people. Thus, through these various means, the population was able to increase and the nation’s power remained rich and powerful.
“What do you mean ‘a whole heap of children’? Why would Wife say it like this? In the future when we have children, you must not say such ridiculous things.” In the eyes of this Head Yun, family and children were sacred so one could not be irreverent.
“I got it. I won’t call it a heap, I’ll just call it a nest of piglets. That should be fine, right!”
Ruan Zhu’s impression of this society’s females was that they would have to give birth to and raise over ten children during their lifetime. A crowd of children surrounding their mother–wherever she went, they’d go. This scene was pretty much the same as leading a drove of piglets.
Little pigs sometimes are really annoying, but they could also be pretty cute. When she had watched Journey to the West on her TV, the one that had attracted her attention the most out of the four protagonists was precisely older brother Zhu.[c]
Yun Shi Yi helplessly forced a smile as he remembered that his little wife was only fifteen years old, a child still brimming with innocence. It wouldn’t be fair to compare her to an adult’s standard.
Ruan Zhu looked outside the window. The inspection at the city gates was nearing the end as the majority of the carriages and travelers had entered the city. Xiao Feng and Xiao Shan were idly chatting next to their carriage. Yun Shi Wei had also finished his walk and returned with Dao Qiang and Jian Ji following behind him. During this parental visit, he had organized the things in his Jian Garden into two large carriages and ordered his two personal servants to return to the city with him.
The Yun residence in the city was the Yun family’s Eldest Young Master’s property. Before getting married, the second young master of the Yun family did not consider this as his home, but after getting a taste of a relationship between a male and a female, he genuinely started thinking of the Yun residence as his and essentially established himself there.
Even though it was around March or April, these few days have been abnormally sweltering. As a result, Ruan Zhu drank a few more cups of tea and now felt the need to empty her bladder. Yun Shi Yi saw that her expression was not good and asked: “What’s wrong?”
Embarrassed, Ruan Zhu responded: “I accidentally drank too much tea and would like to relieve myself.” If it was at the Yun residence, it would be fine and easily done. But since this was outside, it was probably really inconvenient to relieve herself. Thinking of this, it made her reminisce even more fondly of the flush toilets in her previous life.
“The lavatory is in the back garden. After exiting through the back door, take a left at the corner and you’ll see it. I’ll take you there.”
“No need. I’m just using the toilet so why would you, a grown man, follow me? Could it be that we’re going to do something explicit there?”
Alone, Ruan Zhu walked out of the private room. Across from them was where Ma Cui Yun was seated and the entrance to her room was wide open. Hearing the sound of a door, Ma Cui Yun instinctively turned her head just to see her love rival. She became exceptionally envious and her eyes filled with hatred.
As if nothing had happened, Ruan Zhu calmly left the view of the pair of eyes that wanted to drill holes into her. She didn’t steal the other’s man so there was no need for her to have a guilty conscience. Her two hubbies were talented enough to also be able to protect her. It was hard enough having to conduct herself with her tail between her legs in her past world, so in this life, she would do her utmost to live her days with her head held high and her chest out.
Reaching the back garden, she found the toilet and at long last resolved the issue with her physiology. On her way back, she came across a male dressed in white. He didn’t have the same sort of imposing and impressive manliness that captured people like her two hubbies had. Nevertheless, he was simple and elegant, as if he was an immortal. With a silver cap on top of his thick jet-black hair, a pair of slender peach blossom eyes glanced at Ruan Zhu and immediately exposed a dazzling smile.
“I was just wondering why the Eurasian magpies were singing so joyfully in the trees. What a splendid beauty with a lotus face, floating by like a cloud, giving off such a quiet and exquisite charm with a waist as slim and graceful as a young willow. But I do not know which family this Miss is from? Is it possible for this humble one, Liu Fei Xu, to ask for Miss’s esteemed name?”
Was he referring to her? Ruan Zhu blinked her eyes. In her past life, she had an ordinary appearance and even by her death at eighteen, had never been addressed by a male. In this life, she had been entrusted with this body’s good appearance and unexpectedly could enter the eyes of beautiful men. Other than secretly being somewhat delighted at this realization, she didn’t have any devious thoughts.
From time immemorial, no matter if one was male or female, all humans had a kind of vanity in their hearts. They would be strongly attached to beautiful appearances and yearn for the perfect person of the opposite sex. It didn’t matter whether or not you liked the other party. If they complimented you, there would be no sense in taking offense. Thus, Ruan Zhu also couldn’t avoid this convention. It was unrelated with feelings of like or admiration. It was a gaze that was purely appreciative just as one would admire a painting, a poem, or a handicraft.