After their minds were read, the entire court trembled with fear.

Chapter 59 The Mother Who Sold Her Daughter

Shen Zhiyi, tell me quickly, what big trouble has that "Huang Daopo" encountered?

Oh dear, this is really worrying the Minister of Works.

[This "Huang Daopo's" mother is truly a scoundrel.]

[Huang Daopo's mother was a widow who lost her husband when she was young. She had two sons and a daughter to support, and everyone around her advised her to remarry. However, she insisted on remaining a widow to observe chastity for her deceased husband.]

Shen Zhiyi felt a chill and couldn't help but complain.

[It's no use you remaining chaste; the old emperor isn't going to award you a memorial arch for your chastity. Who are you trying to impress?]

The old emperor nodded in agreement.

Originally, these chastity arches were awarded to women with pure and noble moral values. Later, for some reason, they evolved into something that could be obtained by remaining a widow for decades.

The old emperor scoffed at this, saying that remarrying after one's husband's death was no big deal.

The Minister of Works was getting anxious. Why was he seeing the chastity archway again? He quickly checked what trouble his "Huang Daopo" was facing.

He refused to believe that the Emperor couldn't handle the situation.

That's going too far.

[She was unwilling to remarry and lacked the ability to earn money, so once "Huang Daopo" started menstruating, she began to have some thoughts about remarriage.]

The old woman was proud and arrogant, wanting to sell her daughter for a high price. However, years of malnutrition had made "Huang Daopo" look like a small bean sprout, and no one wanted her. Those who did want her were unwilling to pay a high dowry, so the matter was delayed for several years.

The entire court fell silent.

Especially the old emperor.

He couldn't help but think of his sisters, who had also been sold.

His family was starving and couldn't afford to eat, so his older sister volunteered to sell herself.

The old emperor still remembers that his eldest sister only exchanged a small bag of rice.

But this small bag of rice was like opening the devil's box.

This led his parents to frantically sell off their sisters.

When there's nothing left to sell, the oldest ones start starving to death, followed by the youngest.

It's less about starving to death and more about...

The old emperor shook his head, pulling himself out of his reverie.

Soon it was time for the old woman's two sons to get married, and with so many expenses, she even considered selling her daughter to a brothel.

[Damn it! You old bastard! Are you even human?!]

Shen Zhiyi was filled with indignation.

The ministers present were also angry, but the main reason for their anger was that "Huang Daopo" was useful to them.

If it's useless, they'll just take it for granted.

Such cases of selling daughters are all too common in rural areas.

Fortunately, this "Huang Daopo" was clever. She knew there was a sickly wealthy merchant in the county who was in a hurry to find someone to bring him good luck through a marriage alliance. So she gave all the money she had secretly saved to an old blind man, pretending to be a fortune teller, and said that she could bring good luck to the sickly merchant. In this way, "Huang Daopo" was bought by the wealthy merchant.

The sickly wealthy merchant later traveled south for business, but died on the way. Afterwards, "Huang Daopo" lived in Yazhou for ten years, then felt she should return to her roots and went back.

Shen Zhiyi was puzzled and furious.

【What's the point of finding a family like that? That old woman and her whole family moved to Dajing (Beijing) with the money they got from selling you. Even though they lived in the dirtiest and most chaotic neighborhood, it was still a house in the capital.】

Look, look, your mother's going to sell you again!

"The dirtiest and most chaotic neighborhood?"

The Minister of Works quickly realized which place it was, and his eyes lit up as he looked up at the old emperor.

The old emperor nodded slightly.

So the Minister of Works made an excuse to urinate and left.

He claimed he was making a show of urinating, but in reality, he led the Left and Right Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Works and the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Works directly to the old woman's house.

But halfway through, the old emperor arrived with Shen Zhiyi.

Minister of Works: ? ? ?

The old emperor coughed and said, "It's been a long time since I've traveled incognito. I've come to take a look."

Why are you here if you have nothing to do? Ugh, it stinks.

The old emperor glanced at the Minister of Works.

"Has no one cleaned this place?"

The Ministry of Works official said sullenly, “Your Majesty, the residents living here don’t pay. Over time, the cleaning staff will run away. We can’t keep using the national treasury to pay for their services.”

The old emperor: That makes sense.

The Minister of Works seized the opportunity to complain: "Your Majesty, the Minister of Revenue simply refuses to approve this portion of the silver, so over time, no one comes to sweep and clean."

【I get it, I get it. This is because the homeowners don't pay their property management fees, so the property management company stops cleaning.】

The old emperor said, "We need to find a way to improve the sanitation here. The key is to find a way to make them pay a sanitation fee. This place is so dirty and chaotic that people will get sick sooner or later."

"Your Majesty is right."

The old emperor nodded: "Let's go."

The group arrived at the outside of a courtyard. The gate was tightly closed, and the outside was overgrown with weeds up to their knees.

The Minister of Works took a step back, and the two vice ministers, each about 1.8 meters tall, tacitly kicked the gate of the courtyard.

The door is open.

This is trespassing!

The Minister of Works was not pleased to hear this.

What trespassing? This is rescuing people in distress... uh?

The Ministry of Works officials and the people inside exchanged glances.

The Minister of Works was dumbfounded.

No, what is going on?

Inside the courtyard, an old woman was having her hair pulled hard by a woman with her hair tied in a bun, and the old woman was screaming loudly.

There was also a child with a missing tooth crying uncontrollably nearby, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

The entourage from the Ministry of Works were still wearing their official robes.

Upon seeing the official robes, the old lady disregarded everything and immediately began shouting.

"Your Honor! Help! Someone here is trying to kill my mother!"

"What a terrible thing, to have given birth to a debt collector."

The group from the Ministry of Works gave an awkward smile.

It seems like they've gone to the wrong place.

The Ministry of Works official said in a low voice, "There shouldn't be any. This is the only family whose daughter has come back recently. There's no mistake about it."

[Wow, what are the old emperor and his entourage doing at "Huang Daopo's" house?!]

[Oh right, I remember now. The Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review received a memorial from Yazhou, and this "Huang Daopo" has some connections with the wives of officials in Yazhou. Perhaps the old emperor learned about it from the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review.]

The old emperor smiled with satisfaction. He knew that Shen Zhiyi would find a perfect reason for herself.

Shen Zhiyi confirmed that the woman before them was indeed "Huang Daopo," but...

"So what's going on here?"

They came to rescue that "Huang Daopo," didn't they?

But it seems like it's not necessary.

The Minister of Works stepped forward and asked the woman with her hair in a bun, "Are you Lady Liu?"

Lady Liu looked at the Minister of Works with suspicion and wariness.

"Did you come from Yazhou?"

Liu took off running!

The incident happened so suddenly that everyone was completely bewildered.