My husband, who abandoned his father and kept his son, actually wants me to be his concubine.

Chapter 17 Husbands are not allowed to take concubines
Lu Jinshi frowned slightly as he looked at Rong Yi in front of him, "Why are you blaming me?"

Rong Yi looked up at Lu Jinshi, remaining silent.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lu Jinshi understood the meaning in his eyes. She ignored Rong Yi and looked away, continuing to talk about Jiang Yin's article. "Junior Brother Jiang's article is about reducing agricultural taxes. It uses classical allusions to reduce the tax burden on farmers. The wording is excellent, but this article can hardly be considered a good article, and it will certainly not pass the imperial examination."

Jiang Yin frowned and said, "What makes you say that? What's wrong with my article?"

Lu Jinshi said, "The sentence you wrote in your article, 'People of this time do not know the hardships of farmers, and will think that grain grows by itself in the fields,' is enough to show your arrogance and ignorance due to your upbringing in a wealthy family."

Jiang Yin said angrily, "How could I be ignorant? I have been in Lingxiao Academy for three years and have seen the wheat at the gate ripen for three years. I know how tiring it is to cultivate the fields. That is why I thought of writing an article to reduce farmers' taxes."

Lu Jinshi smiled and said, "Who in the world doesn't want to reduce taxes and ease the burden on the people? Who doesn't know that reducing agricultural taxes is a good thing for the people and can earn the praise of the people as a good official? But do you know what the world would be like if agricultural taxes were completely eliminated?"
Without taxes, where would the government come from? Without the government, who would manage the land for the people? You are all descendants of military generals; you should know that without these taxes, how would military soldiers be fed? How would they protect their homes and country?

Eliminating agricultural taxes will only invite barbarian invasions, and the country will cease to exist.

You only write about lowering taxes and reducing the burden on the people, but you have no solutions. All I see in your article is your condescending pity.

You probably haven't even spent a single day in the fields, yet you utter these words of compassion: "People of this era don't know the hardships of farmers. Little do they know that although farmers suffer, at least they still have grain in their fields. But if the country is on the verge of collapse, and war breaks out everywhere, then even the grain in the fields will be gone."

Jiang Yin's face turned very ugly.

Lu Jinshi slowly said, "If you're going to write about agricultural taxes, you shouldn't just write about the current agricultural taxes. You should look for solutions from the agricultural taxes of all dynasties. Every agricultural tax has its advantages and disadvantages. The rent-labor system of the previous dynasty was excellent at first, but later, powerful families and officials hoarded land, which made the rent-labor system lead to the people's suffering and the court's tax revenue was very low."

The current agricultural tax is a two-tax system, which is a tax system that is beneficial to both the people and the imperial court. The current tax is mostly collected from the land of landlords, gentry and clansmen, which is relatively more beneficial to farmers. The current agricultural tax allows the people to live a stable life.

"You will all one day serve as officials in the imperial court. You come from wealthy families and have no shortage of money and power. I know you certainly want to do something practical for the people, but there's no need for you to act condescendingly and pity them. If you want to reduce agricultural taxes, you must explain the current drawbacks of the tax system with reason and evidence, and how to change those drawbacks, instead of writing a long article about the benefits of reducing agricultural taxes—benefits that even a three-year-old knows."

Jiang Yin lowered her head, feeling very ashamed.

Rong Yi looked up at Lu Jinshi and asked, "Then what do you think are the drawbacks of the current agricultural tax, and how should it be improved?"

Lu Jinshi said, “The current agricultural tax system is not inherently flawed, but it could be improved so that in years of good harvest, the extra tax paid can be carried over to the following year. If the harvest is exceptionally good this year, the extra tax paid can be deducted from next year's tax. If the following year is a famine year and the court reduces taxes, the tax paid in the previous year's good harvest will be deducted. If it is a year of disaster and the court exempts taxes, the extra tax paid in the good harvest year can be carried over to the following year, which greatly protects the farmers…”

"Isn't this the essay by Shen Xing, the top scholar in the previous imperial examination and the current Hanlin Academy probationary scholar who came first in the palace examination?"

Mu Yan, who was listening in from below, spoke up.

Lu Jinshi lowered his head. "So that's how he won the top scholar title."

Mu Yan looked at Lu Jinshi and asked, "Junior Sister Lu, do you also know Shen Xing?"

Lu Jinshi smiled faintly: "Yes, Shen Xing is my former fiancé."

Rong Yi frowned upon hearing Lu Jinshi's words. She spoke of her former fiancé with such gentleness and a smile.

Mu Yan said, "You were actually engaged to Shen Xing? Then why..."

"Not married?" Mu Yan felt that the following words were inappropriate and did not ask any further.

Jiang Yin said, "It must be because you don't have the manners of a proper lady. Shen Xing was right not to marry you."

“It’s not that he didn’t want to marry me,” Lu Jinshi said. “I was the one who took the initiative to break off the engagement.”

Rong Yi looked up at Lu Jinshi.

Lu Jinshi glanced at the time outside and said, "It's already noon. I'll stop here for today. You should all revise your articles. Tomorrow I will talk about Xu Yang's article."

After Lu Jinshi finished speaking, he left the classroom.

After Lu Jinshi left, before Rong Yi could get up to chase after him, Jiang Yin, Yuan Fei, Xu Yang and the others walked up to Rong Yi.

"Brother Rong, are you alright? That she-devil is too fierce, how dare she hit you with a book?"

"What do you mean she took the initiative to break off the engagement? It must be because Lu Jinshi was too fierce that Shen Zhuangyuan broke off the engagement."

Qin Ke chimed in, "No, that's not it! It was my sister who initiated the annulment. My sister isn't fierce at all." "She grabbed your ear the moment she arrived yesterday? And she's not fierce?"

"You must have been used to being beaten by your sister."

Qin Ke said, "It really was my sister who broke off the engagement. The first brother-in-law who was engaged to my sister died suddenly from a serious illness shortly before the wedding, leaving my sister a widow."

Later, Shen Xing proposed to my sister, insisting on marrying no one else. However, not long after the engagement, Shen Xing fell seriously ill. At the time, everyone said it was because my sister was a jinx to her husband, so my sister took the initiative to break off the engagement. After the engagement was broken off, Shen Xing recovered from his illness and became the top scholar in the imperial examination the following year.

Jiang Yin gasped: "So she's a jinx to her husbands."

Rong Yi frowned. She didn't want Shen Qing to get seriously ill, so she asked him to conceive a child?

Did she use herself to get rid of her father and keep her son from the very beginning because she couldn't forget Shen Xing and didn't want to marry someone else?

Qin Ke frowned when he heard Jiang Yin say that he was a jinx to his husband. He said, "Whether he is a jinx or not is just a coincidence. The essays that Shen Xing wrote for the palace examination were all about the taxation points that my sister had discussed with him. His success in the palace examination is also a blessing brought to him by my sister."

Rong Yi left the school and went to catch up with Lu Jinshi.

Lu Jinshi had already arrived at Qin Ke's room.

Rong Yi followed Lu Jinshi inside and saw Xiao Zhang'er sitting there playing with a calligraphy brush in his hand.

"Yeah."

When Xiao Zhang'er saw his parents come in, he waved his hands frantically.

Rong Yi was one step ahead of Lu Jinshi and picked up Zhang'er. He frowned and looked at Lu Jinshi, saying, "You don't want to be my concubine, but you want to be Shen Xing's wife?"

Lu Jinshi scoffed and said, "I don't want to be your concubine, simply because I would never allow my future husband to take a concubine, so I would never become a concubine."

Rong Yi frowned and asked, "Why is it not permissible for my husband to take a concubine in the future?"

Lu Jinshi said, "Why should women be faithful to one man, while men can have three wives and four concubines?"

I cannot bear to share a husband with other women, nor do I want to compete with other women for a husband, and I certainly do not want to manage my husband's concubines!
My mother divorced my father because he wanted to take a concubine, so naturally I won't marry a despicable man who wants to take a concubine.

Rong Yi frowned slightly and said, "But men have the heavy responsibility of producing offspring for their families. If you were to give birth to six, seven, or eight children by yourself, your body would definitely not be able to handle it, and it would also damage your health. You should let your concubines help to produce offspring and continue the family line of your husband's family, so that there will be many children and grandchildren."

"Pah!" Lu Jinshi spat at Rong Yi. "Don't say these things in front of my Zhang'er, you'll corrupt him."

Lu Jinshi took Zhang'er from Rong Yi's arms and said, "You should leave quickly and don't come in front of me and make me angry."

Rong Yi said, "In this world, it has always been the case that men can take concubines to continue their family line..."

Lu Jinshi sneered coldly and said, "Is it right just because it has always been this way? My husband is only allowed to have me as his wife and cannot take concubines. Since you already have a wife and want to take a concubine, stop bothering me."

Rong Yi frowned. Lu Jinshi was not only bold in his actions, but also in his thoughts.

He would find it difficult to accept Lu Jinshi as his legal wife and not take concubines...

His six elder brothers all had wives and concubines. Among the princes, only he himself had Lu Jinshi as his only woman, but he had never thought of not taking a concubine.

This was the first time he had ever heard of a woman forbidding her husband from taking concubines... Upon closer reflection, Rong Yi realized it wasn't the first time; his future mother-in-law, Princess Mingzhu of the Prince An's Mansion, also forbade her husband from taking concubines.

For this reason, he divorced and left Chang'an.

Rong Yi wondered if his future seventh prince's wife would share the same thoughts as her mother and not allow him to take concubines.
It's unlikely, since she already has a child with her deceased fiancé, so why would she care whether he takes a concubine or not?

Thinking of this, Rong Yi recalled what Qin Ke had just said: Lu Jinshi's first fiancé had died of illness, leaving her a widow...

His fiancée and the mother of his child both had fiancés who died young. How could there be so many coincidences?

(End of this chapter)