In his previous life, he and Bai Yuexia had not interacted much, but he knew that Bai Yuexia had a mysterious love and closeness for His Majesty.
The way Bai Yuexia looked at His Majesty always made him unhappy.
Now that he thought about it, that gaze contained not only reverence and worship, but also a deeper meaning.
Wei Ci's expression did not change, but his heart was in turmoil.
Bai Ning laughed. "Apart from her looks, Ah Xia is good in everything. She's worthy of the best man in the world!"
After saying that, Bai Ning signaled Wei Ci with his eyes.
Should he change his mind and marry his daughter?
Wei Ci smiled awkwardly and said, "Hero Bai is right. Lady Bai will definitely find the best husband in the future."
If it was in the past, Wei Ci would definitely not be worried.
Ever since he found out about his lord's background, he was a little confused.
The lord's background was mysterious. She must have been very open-minded in her previous life, so she regarded men as normal.
Then —
Wei Ci could not help but let his imagination run wild.
It was normal for men to be attracted to men, so was it normal for women to be attracted to men?
When he thought of this, he felt the pressure on his shoulders suddenly increase.
Opening the door to a new world, Wei Ci turned his head and recalled again. He realized that he was surrounded by rivals in love!
Among the many rivals in love, Bai Yuexia was the most threatening one.
If they were to fight, Wei Ci felt that he could not defeat her.
In her previous life, Bai Yuexia was a very low-key woman. However, no matter how low-key she was, it couldn't conceal the fact that she stood in the imperial court as a woman. She was the Minister of Works. A few years later, she paid her respects to the Prime Minister at the Golden Unicorn Platform. Before she retired, she even sent her portrait to the Heavenly Craftsman Ranking of the Golden Scale Pavilion!
Just from the Golden Scale Pavilion's three lists of civil, martial, and heavenly works, Wei Ci, who did not even have a ranking in his previous life, was under immense pressure.
After that, His Majesty proposed the policy of "one family, two households", and Bai Yuexia was the first one in the court to stand up and support it.
In comparison, Wei Ci was apprehensive of the power in the imperial court and reacted a beat slower, unlike Bai Yuexia who staked everything on one throw.
What was "one door, two households"?
To put it bluntly, a family was allowed to have two heads of household.
Children born to a woman could inherit both the family property of their mother and the family property of their father. The children's surname and household registration could be decided through consultation.
Many officials thought that this policy was specially established to ensure that the empress would continue to exist for a long time.
At the beginning of the proposal, almost no one objected.
If they were to oppose the "one family, two households" policy, wouldn't they be supporting the empress in a disguised form? Just like ordinary women and children who married their husbands, wouldn't they?
This was not nonsense!
Whoever objected would have their brains filled with seawater!
However, this was only the opinion of a mediocre person. Wei Ci was very clear that the 'one family with two households' was actually to support the female household system.
After the establishment of the Jiang Dynasty, the world was at peace, and there were fewer and fewer women who set up their own households. In some places, there was even a culture of despising women.
It wasn't that the women didn't want to establish a female household, it was just that there were too few good men who were willing to marry into the family, and the pressure of establishing a female household was too great.
Many women could only choose to compromise.
Even if they got married and earned more money, their income could only be regarded as "supporting the family" and not "supporting the family".
In order to solve this problem, His Majesty proposed to have two heads of household and set up a series of new marriage laws.
From the start of the new law, Jiang Chao had a clear concept of "joint property after marriage".
Of course, concubines and children born of concubines were not considered "joint property". Their daily expenses and future marriage residences were only managed by the man.
This made the majority of legal wives applaud and feel even more grateful to His Majesty.
One had to know that before this system was introduced, many legal wives not only had to help their husbands take care of the family property, but they also had to manage the daily expenses and various trivial matters of the concubines and children born of concubines. When faced with a husband who favored his concubines to the detriment of his wife, the legal wives couldn't even defend the interests of themselves and their children.
Although the 'one family with two households' was to protect the continuation of the empress, they were also beneficiaries of the new law.
At first, Jiang Chao men didn't care about this new law. Anyway, they didn't covet their wives' money.
Even if there were people who coveted their wives' dowry, who would have the face to say it?
There was nothing wrong with the imperial court promulgating laws to protect the empress, the royal family, and the legitimate children of the legal wife.
However —
Not long after, many men started to complain. They couldn't stand this kind of grievance.
There was a story that left a deep impression on Wei Ci.
An official paid a high monthly salary to hire the legal wife to take care of the children born of concubines and a house full of concubines.
That's right, the husband paid the legal wife to help take care of the concubines and children born of concubines!
The laws of the Jiang Chao Dynasty stipulated that concubines couldn't touch the authority of a housekeeper. It was fine among the people. If it was discovered that a concubine had taken over the authority of the legal wife, it would at most cause a bad reputation. If an imperial court official was found to have a concubine touch the authority of a housekeeper, he would be demoted or even dismissed.
Cultivating one's moral character, managing one's family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world. If even the house was in a mess, how could one be an official if one didn't understand the orthodoxy?
If the legal wife didn't care about the concubines and children born of concubines, then the husband could only take care of them himself.
During the day, he would go out to earn money and work. At night, he would come back to settle accounts and take care of the concubines' rouge, cosmetics, and cloth materials.
The men couldn't take it anymore!
Many court officials took advantage of this to make things difficult for them. Since ancient times, men took care of external affairs while women took care of internal affairs. Concubines and children born of concubines were also the responsibility of the legal wife!
In the end, they were ruthlessly beaten down by the empress and the aristocratic families, and soon, there was no more movement.
The Jiang Chao Dynasty was newly established. Those who took in a bunch of concubines were mostly the new nobility or poor families who had gained power.
Once they gained power, they became arrogant. There were many poor families who drove out their first wives or neglected their wives, and took in beautiful concubines.
The aristocratic families had a long history. They had always claimed to be supporters of orthodoxy, and there were also strict rules for taking in concubines. For them, the loss of the new policy was not big. On the contrary, the poor families and the new nobility were angry. The aristocratic families took this opportunity to stand on the empress's side to suppress the poor families.
As the leader of the female officials, Bai Yuexia was the direction and role model for all the women to work hard.
She carried out the new policy and played a good role in leading the way.
She had a son and a daughter. The son followed his husband, and the daughter followed her.
Bai Yuexia's son was not capable, but her daughter was different. She became the Crown Princess Jiang Yan's most trusted confidant.
From a rational point of view, Wei Ci admired Bai Yuexia very much. When the world despised women, she reached such a high position that it was difficult for others to catch up to her. From a emotional point of view, Wei Ci really couldn't force himself to like Bai Yuexia. It was good enough that he didn't treat her as a love rival.
But if he could go back in time, he would still come to recruit Bai Ning.
After all, the lord's interests were the most important. Love was just a small matter.
"From what you said, Lady Bai admires my lord very much."
Wei Ci smiled warmly, like a quietly blooming spring flower, bright and warm.
Bai Yuexia spoke quickly, "The world treats women so unfairly, but the Duke of Lanting still walked to a point where no one can catch up to him. Isn't he a role model for all the women in the world? I've admired him for a long time. In a moment of excitement, I made a fool of myself in front of the teacher. I'm indebted to the Duke of Lanting for not abandoning me. If father can become an official and work for him, pacifying the world and clearing the jade world, it will be a blessing for us father and daughter! "
Wei Ci was speechless.
I only want to recruit your father. I didn't include you …
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