The head of the Red Mansion

In the imperial court, everyone from the emperor to the ministers was deeply astonished.

The data compared between the two sides is shocking.

The girls' school mobilized all thirty-seven prefectures in Dazhao to collect all data as fairly and impartially as possible over a period of five years.

It's not impossible for close relatives to have normal children, but compared to couples who are not related by blood, they gamble with about 60% to 70% of their luck.

Lin Ruhai finished reading it with trembling hands.

The data above details the difficulties faced by 129 couples who were consanguineous in their attempts to conceive.

The rates of miscarriage and premature death are unusually high.

There's also the issue of physical weakness. Children from farming families are often weak and don't live to adulthood. Even if they do, according to past data collected by the government, they often become a burden on the entire family.

For this reason, some particularly poor or heartless families will abandon these children or let them die accidentally at an early age.

As for wealthy families...

Several prefectures dug up information on families that had died out in the previous dynasty. The reason they all had no descendants was that they had married close relatives.

Before the children grew up, the parents passed away one after another, and the family property was either divided up by the clan or by the children's maternal relatives.

But if that were all, it would be fine. Unfortunately, their only son always ended up dying.

he……

Lin Ruhai didn't know how he left the court session. When he got home, he sat in his study for a long time, unable to move.

The Lin family has a history of consanguineous marriages for several generations.

By the time it came to him, it was time to make changes, because his maternal family had been wiped out.

Although his mother brought a considerable amount of family property with her, most of it was divided up by her clan.

His mother hated the clan, so when he was old enough to get married, the most important factor in choosing a woman was whether she was fertile, in addition to her family's strength.

Because she, too, had suffered enough from the pain of trying to conceive.

She wanted to have another child to inherit her maternal family's surname. Only in this way could she leverage the Lin family's influence to reclaim the property that had been distributed among the clan members.

However, my mother never got what she wanted until my father passed away.

The past is like smoke!
These past few years have been good, and Lin Ruhai has subconsciously forgotten the pain of that period.

Because he had been married for several years but had not been able to give his mother a grandson.

Even if Min'er arranges for him to take a concubine, it won't work.

The mother eventually fell ill from worry and passed away at a young age.

Lin Ruhai's hand trembled as he touched his chest.

The same mistakes must not be repeated in the next generation.

Especially since her daughter's health is not good.

But the engagement was called off...

He's been able to have such a smooth life all these years thanks to his wife's family.

Whether it was the East Prefecture or the West Prefecture, even if one person was skilled in literature and the other in martial arts, they did their best to help each other.

Now that he has agreed to the marriage, he's backing out and breaking off the engagement...

If the second brother-in-law hadn't passed away, things would have been fine, but both he and his wife are gone. Although it was their own doing, they were still the mother-in-law's own sons. Over the years, her desire to protect the second branch of the family has only grown stronger.

Especially since this old lady is quite old.

One bad thing...

Having no other choice, Lin Ruhai went to Jia Min and told her about the day's court proceedings, then went on to discuss the major events of the day.

Little did he know, Jia Min had been waiting for this day for a long time.

Ever since she learned about the various drawbacks of consanguineous marriage from her daughter, she has been thinking about what happened after she got married.

She and Lin Ruhai were not related by blood, but the Lin family had been related by blood for three generations.

She hadn't had children for several years after getting married, and her mother-in-law blamed her on her deathbed.

She compromised step by step to allow her husband to take a concubine, but even after the concubine was taken, they still couldn't have children.

How many bitter medicines did she have to endure for her child?
To what extent did she blame herself?
Even after she realized that the problem lay with her husband, she still suffered along with him.

She couldn't let others think that her man was incompetent. Given Jiangnan's situation, she had to help him, which is why she was jealous.

Later events seemed to prove this point, as she was the only one with children.

Therefore, she was a notorious jealous woman in Jiangnan.

"My husband, I had a dream..."

With tears streaming down her face, Jia Min said, "In my dream, Chang'an had an accident the summer that Lian'er went to Jiangnan. I was so heartbroken that I passed away a year later."

what?
Lin Ruhai's heart trembled.

He vaguely remembered having similar dreams. But upon waking, he forgot most of the details, leaving only sadness and grief.

Now that my wife has said that...

"At that time, the eldest sister-in-law of the East Mansion also died early because of giving birth to Yue'er. Mother was worried about Daiyu, so she sent someone to bring her to the capital."

Jia Min looked at her husband, tears streaming down her face. "Husband, tell me, what kind of life will our daughter have with my second sister-in-law? Can you even watch her grow up?"

Lin Ruhai: “…”

In one dream, he seemed to have died young.

If the eldest sister-in-law of the East Mansion also passes away early, the second brother-in-law of the West Mansion will definitely take charge.

that……

“In my dream, although I died very young, I was worried about you and our daughter, so I didn’t reincarnate.”

Because of that dream, Jia Min harbored a lot of resentment towards her own mother.

So true.

Many of the things she did were things that her second brother and sister-in-law were capable of doing.

Jia Min was heartbroken. “Our daughter and Baoyu got along very well, but Second Sister-in-law didn’t like her. After you passed away, people talked about our daughter, saying that she used Jia’s family’s money for every needle and thread.”

Lin Ruhai: “…”

How could that be? His family has been marquises for five generations, and they are extremely wealthy.

It was precisely because of this that the retired emperor and the emperor were able to confidently place him in the position of Salt Inspector.

He doesn't need to be corrupt; he just needs to be a good official.

“My daughter was heartbroken and wrote a poem called ‘The Burial of Flowers’, which says, ‘Three hundred and sixty days a year, the wind and frost are like swords, relentlessly pressing us.’”

She was filled with hatred, wishing she could transform into a vengeful ghost and kill all those who had harmed her daughter.

Jia Min trembled all over, “Mother is old and can no longer stand up for our daughter, nor can she restrain Second Sister-in-law. Our daughter… died of heartbreak on the day of Baoyu’s wedding.”

She woke up in heartache and couldn't get over it for a long time.

"We're all here, we're all here, we're all here..."

Lin Ruhai hugged his wife, his voice trembling, "We will protect our daughter ourselves."

The couple went to break off the engagement in a grand manner.

Jia She never expected that the first thing burned down in the imperial court would be his house.

Of course, the one who couldn't accept it the most was Grandmother Jia.

The old lady couldn't catch her breath, pointed at her daughter and son-in-law, and fainted on the spot.

The physician immediately gave him acupuncture and prepared medicine.

But the old lady was getting on in years, and Jia She was worried, so he invited the imperial physician.

As a result, the various negative aspects of marriage between close relatives surrounding this broken engagement were quickly spread throughout the capital by people sent by Shen Ning, Lin Daiyu, and others.

Before the imperial court had even officially issued a decree, more than twenty couples had already entered Shuntian Prefecture to sign divorce papers.

They all had one thing in common: they married close relatives, and either they didn't have children for several years, or their children died young...

Half a month later, the marriage law of the Great Zhao Dynasty clearly stated that marriage between relatives within five generations was prohibited.

If a couple is already married but has no children, the government should assist them in getting a divorce, provided that either spouse is willing.

Of course, it was Lin Ruhai who presided over the reform of household registration and marriage laws.

Fellow students, classmates, and former students were all mobilized at once.

That year, Dazhao experienced its largest wave of reunification since the founding of the nation.

The paradoxes of "marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog; be born into his family, die into his family" are subtly changing some people due to the promotion of household registration and marriage laws.

The household marriage law guarantees the absolute inheritance rights of women who have no male heirs (i.e., no male heirs in the family), and clearly stipulates the inheritance shares of unmarried women, women who have returned to the clan, and married women.

The rights to dowry, freedom of divorce, and other such rights have become known to countless households thanks to the free short plays (stories) promoted by local sales bureaus.

The common people have almost no resistance to free operas. It was Shen Ning's idea to let them gradually become aware of their rights while watching the opera that she suggested to the Empress.

Because of this, the girls' school even launched a prize-winning essay contest to adapt various cases from the Great Proclamation into operas.

Because two of the cases were revised so well, the emperor simply launched a similar essay contest with prizes in the name of the Hanlin Academy.

However, the emperor held great power, and being a person who loved stories (gossip), he specially appointed the top three as deputy directors and staff members of the Dazhao Academy.

As long as you write well and perfectly combine laws and cases, making it easy for ordinary people to understand and enjoy reading, then at least a seventh-rank official position is yours.

So countless people were eager to try their luck, but what no one expected was that the top three spots were all taken by female students, with Lin Daiyu at the top of the list.

Well, one day when Baoyu went to work at the library, his immediate supervisor turned out to be none other than Lin Daiyu, the woman he had broken off his engagement with. (End of Chapter)