Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1177 Epilogue : The Evil Old Society I Love It So Much
(I forgot that Li Yanxian's title would be posthumously conferred upon me. I have changed it to Prince of Longxi.)
At dinner time, Minister of Works Chen Wenzhao strolled back to his residence.

When he was young, he was honest and upright, not greedy for money and beauty. He had only one wife and one concubine in his life, and the concubine was brought as a dowry by his wife.

When he was old, he was transferred back to the capital and held a high position. He rarely had social engagements.

Regardless of whether they were pretending or not, the ministers of this term were generally very honest and selfless. This was because they were all loyal officials who were demoted in their early years and were not employed until the young emperor ascended the throne.

There are definitely people who are corrupt and abuse power, but they are not obvious at this stage.

"Greetings, old husband!" Xie Yan stood up to greet him.

Chen Wenzhao raised his hand and gestured, "Please sit down. No need to be polite. You have been out of the city for only a few days, but you have caused such a big commotion. You are indeed a young genius."

Xie Yan said: "It was just luck."

Sit down to eat and continue chatting. There is no rule of "no talking while eating".

Chen Wenzhao asked a lot about the academic conference, and naturally turned to the princess, reminding her: "If you marry the princess, you can't pursue a career in government. In the early years of the country, the highest position a son-in-law could reach was prefecture governor, which was already a special case. After that, the late emperor doted on his daughter and let the son-in-law serve as a county magistrate for a year."

Xie Yan explained: "I just used the princess's hair to weigh it."

"You should solve your own problems by yourself. I am just giving you a reminder." Chen Wenzhao did not talk about this topic anymore.

Officials do have to give face to top scholars, but as Chen Wenzhao is the Minister of Works, he only needs to give face to the old president, and the other scholars are just that in his eyes.

That’s not right. Those medical scientists have to be coaxed, in case they or their family members get sick someday.

Chen Wenzhao took extra care of Xie Yan and his brother, mainly to win over Xie Yan's uncle. His foundation in the local area was not stable, and there were even fewer capable people who could be entrusted with important tasks.

No matter what Chen Wenzhao's original intention was, since he had taken this position, he had to cultivate his own confidants, otherwise many tasks would be difficult to carry out.

After dinner, Xie Yan returned to his bedroom.

The maid Yanyan asked him if he wanted to take a bath. Xie Yan really wanted to take a bath, but it was inconvenient to take a bath in the school dormitory.

After the bath water was ready, Xie Yan soaked in the tub. The excitement of the day gradually faded away, and he began to reflect on his mistakes of the past few days.

First, he was a little bit carried away.

Relying on plagiarized academic work and his own six months of research, he caused a sensation at the academic conference. He was cautious at first, but he heard too many compliments and became flattered. He really thought he was a genius.

Even after being in an excited state for two consecutive days, he was able to continue to maintain a respectful attitude when facing important people.

Second, he does things without thinking.

Especially asking the princess to borrow her hair for weighing was really outrageous. He did it on impulse and later kept the hair as a souvenir.

I really didn't think much about it at the time. I just did it to show off without considering the consequences. Now it seems that it is difficult to end it.

"Snapped!"

Xie Yan slapped his forehead and muttered, "I'm really not suitable for being an official. I only have a little bit of cleverness, and I'm sure I can't beat those old-timers in the officialdom. Alas, the gossip spreads so quickly, and the princess may not be able to save face. What was I thinking at the time?"

Will the princess be angry and resentful of me because of this, or will she really marry me?
I really want to have three wives and four concubines.

Can a prince consort take a concubine? I need to ask someone about this.

In all dynasties, the prince consort was allowed to take concubines, but it depended on whether the princess was powerful.

Princesses in the Tang Dynasty were very powerful, and their husbands were all dominated by their wives.

Princesses in the early Song Dynasty were relatively powerful. However, as the emperor tightened his supervision over the royal family, the power of princesses gradually became weaker, and it became more common for princes-in-law to take concubines.

In the Ming Dynasty of another time and space, princesses became weaker, and almost all the princes-in-law would take concubines. Even if the prince-in-law died, the princess could not remarry. Of course, if the princess died, the prince-in-law would not remarry - that would be equivalent to giving up all the princess's inheritance and his own status as a prince-in-law.

In the Ming Dynasty, a prince consort was impeached for taking concubines. That was because he had hundreds of concubines, including a large number of prostitutes.

In addition, the children of the concubines of the emperor's son-in-law in the Ming Dynasty were all considered commoners and did not receive any clan treatment. The princess and the emperor's son-in-law usually lived separately. The emperor's son-in-law had his own house, and the concubines were also kept in private houses.

The Qing Dynasty basically continued the Ming Dynasty system, but before a princess got married, a maid would be sent to live with the future prince consort to determine whether there were any health problems with him.

Moreover, the imperial consort in the Qing Dynasty was like a slave, and the couple lived separately, just like in the Ming Dynasty. Every day, he had to go to the princess's mansion to pay respects and get the princess's permission to enter. Even eating at the same table with the princess required the princess's permission. After the princess died, the court would take back the house and land, and the imperial consort and his son could only get a small amount of floating wealth.

"Would you like to add hot water, sir?"

Xie Yan had been excited and tired these past two days, and he fell asleep in the bathtub while taking a bath.

"Boom boom boom!"

"My dear, would you like to add some hot water? The bath water may have gone cold."

The shouting outside the door woke Xie Yan up, and he replied: "No need, I've finished washing."

Not long after, Xie Yan came out dressed and said to the maid, "You should also go to bed early."

Yanyan was a little annoyed and blamed herself for not being pretty enough to attract the attention of young scholar Xie.

Alas, I'm afraid I can only marry a male servant from now on.

Nothing happened overnight.

Xie Yan got up early in the morning and went to say goodbye to Minister Chen and the two old ladies. He had already told them about moving to the suburbs last night.

Minister Chen gave some words of encouragement, had breakfast and went to work.

Since Chen Shilang returned to his hometown to take the imperial examination, the two old ladies had no children or grandchildren around them, so they took even more care of Xie Yan. They took Xie Yan to their side and talked to him for a long time, and then sent a carriage to take him out of the city, taking away even the bedding that Xie Yan had used.

The maid Yanyan hid behind the pillars, looking at him reluctantly, but she didn't even dare to go forward to say goodbye.

Li Minqiu personally went out to greet him.

Upon learning that the coachman and attendant who brought Xie Yan here were servants in the household of the Minister of Works, Li Minqiu generously rewarded them.

He now claims to be the patriarch of the Li family. Even if he is short of money, he has to show off his status, otherwise it would look so shabby if it got out.

Xie Yan was speechless when he saw it.

The money that Li Minqiu just gave out as a reward was enough to cover two months' rent for Xie Yan.

You are a fallen nobleman, without an official position, a title, or much wealth left. Why are you being so generous here?

Of course, if Li Minqiu was willing to sell his house and land, he could become a truly wealthy family in an instant, given his family's superior location. But he would never sell it, as he was still thinking about revitalizing his family.

"Mr. Xie, this is my wife Xiuniang, from the Guan family of Kaifeng." Li Minqiu introduced his wife and deliberately introduced her background as well.

The Guan family of Kaifeng are descendants of Guan Sheng.

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But with Li Minqiu's ability, he could only marry a girl from the Guan family's side branch.

This is purely flirting with a blind man. How could Xie Yan have ever heard of the Guan family of Kaifeng?
Guan Xiuniang bowed and thanked everyone.

Xie Yan bowed and said, "I'm sorry to bother you by asking you to stay with me."

Guan Xiuniang said: "Xie Xueshi is a young and talented man. If he lives in my home, it will bring honor to our humble home."

Then, Li Minqiu introduced his son, "This is my son Li Dunshi, courtesy name Wuqin, who is currently studying in the outer dormitory of the Imperial College."

Xie Yan quickly greeted him.

Li Dunshi looked about 17 or 18 years old. He was quite excited when he saw Xie Yan: "I went home yesterday and learned that Mr. Xie was going to move in. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep all night."

After chatting for a while, Li Minqiu said, "I have two daughters who are already married, a son who is an official in Huainan, and a younger brother who is leading troops in Gaochang."

These are all just flattering themselves.

His brother barely graduated from the military academy and paid a lot of money to be assigned to Gaochang, where he was taken care of by the Li branch. However, since this man was mediocre, the Gaochang Li branch was not in the mood to take care of him, and now only managed a hundred or so soldiers.

His eldest son was not an official either, but was admitted as a scholar to work as a clerk in a government office in Huainan. In the future, he would be promoted to a first-class official at best if he worked hard until his death.

The officialdom is too corrupt.

If one wants to be promoted from a clerk to an official now, one must at least be a juren.

In the eyes of the tenants, Li Minqiu was the eldest master. Once he left the village, his halo faded and he could only deceive those who did not know the truth. But he always emphasized these things, insisting that his younger brother was leading troops outside, that his eldest son was an official outside, and that his wife came from a famous family.

Now I have something to say. Mr. Xie lives in my house!

"This courtyard is the guest room," Li Minqiu boasted. "Master Xie, don't think it's shabby. In the third year of Longsheng, Empress Xiaoduan went to Longmen Grottoes to worship Buddha and pray for the seriously ill Emperor Longsheng. She stayed in this courtyard that night."

Xie Yan could only follow up the conversation and say: "The Luoyang Li family is indeed very profound and cannot be compared with ordinary families."

These words made Li Minqiu smile, and he continued to talk about the glorious history of his family with great interest.

His son stood nearby, somewhat embarrassed.

Li Dunshi knew the situation in his family. Every time his father said this, he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

After a long and rambling speech, Li Minqiu said, "Master Xie has four male followers, but no maids. I will assign a few strong women to do the chores in the courtyard. I will also find two beautiful girls to serve Master Xie. Don't bother with food. The maids will bring it to Master Xie's courtyard. There is also a carriage for Master Xie to go out."

Xie Yan said: "Thanks to Mr. Li for taking care of me, the food expenses will be included in the rent and will be paid according to the market price every month. I can hire a maid myself."

"How can we trust maids hired from outside as well as those hired from home? Scholar Xie is a romantic and unrestrained man, and he certainly doesn't like ordinary women," Li Minqiu said to the housekeeper. "Send people to the two villages to tell every household that Scholar Xie wants to recruit maids, and those who are willing can send their daughters to be examined by Scholar Xie. Let them consider it carefully, and don't bother yourself with girls who are too ugly."

Before Xie Yan could even refuse, the butler ran away.

Li Dunshi hid aside with his face covered, saying that he did not know his biological father.

At noon that day, applicants arrived one after another.

In the afternoon, a large group of village girls were brought to Xie Yan, and he could choose any eight or ten of them.

Those village girls were presented like goods for selection, but they did not feel wronged. Instead, they were all very excited, hoping that they would be chosen by young scholar Xie.

Especially after seeing the young scholar Xie in person, his handsome appearance made him even more attractive, and he even fantasized about becoming a concubine in the future. Even if he didn't have that blessing, it would be good to be a maid forever, firstly, he could earn money to supplement the family expenses, and secondly, he would be more confident in finding a husband in the future.

Xie Yan looked carefully at the group of girls and found that quite a few of them were pretty. Who knows how much dowry they would have demanded in future.

He is just a stinky delivery boy. If he could marry someone like this, he would bring her home and treat her like a ancestor.

Now, he can choose.

You can pick any few and do whatever you want.

This damn old society!

Xie Yan compared them carefully with anger, trying to pick the most beautiful one. But after comparing them, he found that the two were equally good, and it was difficult to tell which one was better.

Forget it, I'll take both. There'll be plenty of time to compare them later.

(End of this chapter)