Tang Dynasty: Taking the Empress Dowager to a brothel, Father Emperor, what a coincidence!

In just three days, Chang'an City went mad.

It wasn't the kind of festive celebration we usually see, but rather a kind of almost manic collective revelry.

Teahouses, taverns, entertainment venues, and even the pork stalls in the East and West Markets of Chang'an were packed with people.

Qin Huaidao's golden beans paved the way, and Zheng Qiuying's witty anecdotes elevated the entertainment life of Chang'an to a whole new level.

Juxian Teahouse in Xishi.

Old Zhang stood on the platform, slamming his gavel down with a deafening roar.

"Dear neighbors, today we're going to talk about the secrets of the Cui family in Qinghe."

The Cui family's outhouse was quite something. The entire floor was paved with gold bricks.

"After Master Cui finished defecating, he used the finest Yun brocade, which we've never even seen before, to wipe his bottom."

The audience below the stage listened with wide eyes.

"My goodness, the finest brocade for wiping your bottom? Isn't that stuff reserved for the palace?"

A man dressed as a blacksmith started shouting loudly.

Old Zhang chuckled and waved his fan:

"What's so special about that? The guard dogs kept by the Wang family in Taiyuan eat shark fins that are transported by fast horses from the East China Sea every day."

In years of famine, the Wang family would rather burn all the moldy millet in their storeroom than give it out to distribute as porridge.

"These bastards are childless and will have no descendants."

"That's inhuman."

A chorus of curses erupted from below.

The people of the Tang Dynasty lived a life of hardship and could not bear to hear about the extravagance and corruption of the wealthy.

But the worst was yet to come.

"Yesterday we talked about the second young master of the Lu family in Fanyang digging up other people's ancestral graves. Today we'll talk about the old patriarch of the Lu family's quirks."

Old Zhang lowered his voice and spoke with a mysterious expression,

"That sanctimonious old patriarch actually abducted more than a dozen young women in the countryside, stripped them naked, tied them together, and used them as human screens in his study."

"Wow!!!"

The teahouse was in an uproar.

Such exotic and erotic stories are most popular among ordinary people.

Within half a day, these jokes had spread to every household in Chang'an.

Even a three-year-old child with a runny nose on the street can sing a few lines of rhymes satirizing aristocratic families.

"These powerful families are shameless, spouting benevolence while harboring filth. They pave the ground with gold bricks while feeding dogs, leaving the people starving to the bone during famine years..."

The moral integrity built up by these aristocratic families over hundreds of years crumbled in the face of these easy-to-understand proverbs and dirty jokes.

The common people used to revere these prestigious families as gods, but now...?

All that remained in my heart was anger.

Afternoon, Suzaku Avenue.

Choi Min-won sat in the carriage, rubbing his temples.

These past two days, he's racked his brains trying to get the Wang and Lu families to spend money.

He finally managed to scrape together 1.7 million strings of cash and was preparing to go to the Ministry of Revenue to report back.

"My lord, what's all this commotion outside?"

Choi Min-won lifted the carriage curtain and asked.

In the past, when the carriage of the Cui family of Qinghe traveled down the street, every passerby would quickly make way for it.

But why does the atmosphere feel a bit off today?

The people on the street not only didn't avoid him, but they looked at Cui's carriage as if it were a pile of excrement.

"That's him. The official from the Cui family of Qinghe is sitting in the carriage."

An elderly woman selling vegetables suddenly shouted.

This shout ignited the anger of the people on both sides of the street.

"Kill this greedy and heartless traitor."

"You use brocade to wipe your butt, right? I'll let you use it."

A rotten egg was thrown directly into the carriage and hit Cui Minyuan on the head.

The sour, pungent smell almost made Choi Min-won faint.

"Ah! What is this?"

Startled, Choi Min-won quickly wiped his face with his sleeve.

But then, rotten cabbage, dead rats, and leftover vegetable leaves rained down on the carriage.

The accompanying guards tried to draw their swords to scare people.

But several hundred people gathered around, and they all raised their carrying poles, kitchen knives, and hoes.

"You dare to draw your knives? The laws of the Tang Dynasty were established by the Emperor himself. Does your Cui family intend to kill someone in the street?"

Someone in the crowd shouted.

The guards had never seen anything like this before. They were so frightened that they couldn't even draw their swords. The angry crowd pulled them off their horses and beat them severely on the ground.

Choi Min-won shouted urgently:

"Hurry up! Turn back!"

The carriage fled in disarray toward the Cui family's residence in Qinghe.

Not only Choi Min-won, but all the officials from the powerful families experienced today what it means to be a rat crossing the street.

The Eastern Palace.

"Your Highness, you didn't see how terrified Lord Cui's old face was. I heard he had to crawl in when he entered the Cui family."

Xiao Shunzi told Li Chengqian with a smile.

Li Chengqian curled his lip in disdain:

"This is nothing."

The message was relayed to Zheng Qiuying: production needs to be increased; it's not enough to just use the lower three routes, we need to dig into their ancestors' graves.

We must make them so that they don't even dare to go to a pancake stall in Chang'an.

"Alright, I'll go and urge them right away." Xiao Shunzi accepted the order and left.

Meanwhile, the mansions of the major aristocratic families in Chang'an were in an uproar.

The managers of the Cui family of Qinghe, the Lu family of Fanyang, and the Wang family of Taiyuan gathered together urgently, their faces ashen.

"This is outrageous! It's obvious that someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes."

Lu An was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table.

"Our century-old reputation has been ruined in just a few days by these unruly people."

"Go to the Jingzhao Prefecture! Go to the Dali Temple! Send the yamen runners to the streets to arrest people."

The powerful families immediately mobilized their connections and servants to forcibly arrest storytellers and opera troupes on the streets.

But they underestimated the power of this thuggish style of play.

I just smashed up a teahouse today and arrested an old man named Zhang.

Tomorrow, next to the butcher shop in the West Market, ten more pig butchers will be telling the same story.

Send troops to manage it? They said they just heard it from someone else.

The more they crack down, the more enthusiastic the people become.

"See? They're feeling guilty. The Cui family really used brocade to wipe their own ass; otherwise, why would they arrest people?"

"That old man from the Lu family must have a human shield, afraid we'll find out the truth."

This action directly amplified the rumors to a fever pitch.

This fire finally reached the highest levels of the aristocratic alliance.

The main residence of the Wang family in Taiyuan.

Wang Gui has been keeping his door closed to visitors for the past few days, simply because he doesn't want to get involved in Cui Minyuan's mess.

"Master, something terrible has happened!"

The butler rushed in, flustered.

"What's the matter with such panic? Have you lost all manners?"

Wang Gui roared in dissatisfaction.

"Sir, look at this. The news is going viral outside..."

The butler handed over a piece of paper.

Wang Gui took it and glanced at it.

That was Zheng Qiuying's wildly popular serial novel, "Secret Stories Overheard in the Taiyuan Courtyard," which she rushed out overnight.

The text not only vividly describes the Wang family's forced seizure of the elder brother's widow, but also details the secret division of spoils among the elders, almost revealing the Wang family's sordid affairs to the world.

"Who...who wrote this?"

Wang Gui felt his blood pressure skyrocket.

He felt a tightness in his chest, his vision went black, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"master!"

The steward was so frightened that he rushed forward to support Wang Gui, who was swaying precariously.

Wang Gui barely managed to support himself, his eyes filled with terror.

Only one person in all of Chang'an would do something so shameless.

That's the Crown Prince from the Eastern Palace.

However, Wang Gui had absolutely no evidence.

"Quickly, send a letter to Luoyang and tell Cui Min that he has done something big."

Wang Gui grabbed the steward's clothes and anxiously gave instructions.