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

Chapter 60 Proposing Betrothal at the He Family

He Jinlan found Liu Xiuxiu and said, "Mother, quickly give me the silver."

Liu Xiuxiu frowned and looked at the shopkeeper in front of her, asking, "How much silver?"

"The clothes here cost a total of one hundred and twenty taels of silver. If we multiply that by a hundred, it would be twelve thousand taels of silver. Madam He, would you like to pay with silver notes, silver, or gold?"

Liu Xiuxiu frowned and asked, "How much? This pile of clothes is worth a hundred taels of silver?"

"Yes, the 120 taels of silver here has been rounded down."

Liu Xiuxiu glared at He Jinlan.

He Jinlan didn't dare look Liu Xiuxiu in the eye. She pulled Liu Xiuxiu aside and whispered, "Mother... I've already said it..."

Liu Xiuxiu said, "Your wedding is imminent, and the He family is going to arrange the wedding and dowry for you. Where will you get so much money?"

Not to mention that, in order to protect He Jinlan's reputation, Lu Jinshi had already extorted 15,000 taels of silver from her, so where would she find 12,000 taels of silver to buy this pile of tattered clothes?

He Jinlan said in a low voice, "If the Seventh Prince wants to marry my daughter, he will definitely come to offer betrothal gifts. The royal betrothal gifts will be several times more than 12,000 taels of silver. Mother, I can't let Lu Jinshi laugh at me."

Looking at He Jinlan in front of her, Liu Xiuxiu sighed helplessly, "To spend 12,000 taels just to save face and avoid being laughed at, it's really... sigh!"

He Jinlan tugged at Liu Xiuxiu's sleeve coquettishly and said, "Mother... the auspicious day is in a few days. The Seventh Prince might come to present the betrothal gifts. Please give me this 10,000 taels of silver first. Since Lu Jinshi returned to Chang'an, she has been suppressing me in every way. She also looks down on you in every way. It's not easy to have a time when she can make her unhappy."

Liu Xiuxiu sighed helplessly, "Never mind, I'll send someone to get the silver."

Liu Xiuxiu instructed the nanny beside her to go back and get the silver.

He Jinlan then saw Lu Jinshi choosing clothes again.

Lu Jinshi selected more than ten pieces of clothing and said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, I helped you earn more than ten thousand taels of silver, so I won't give you any silver for these clothes."

The shopkeeper was naturally overjoyed to have an extra ten thousand taels of silver for no reason. He smiled and said, "Alright, alright, young lady, please take it. I'll wrap it up for you."

The shopkeeper was very attentive.

When Lu Jinshi saw He Jinlan's face turn pale with anger, he smiled lightly and left the clothing shop.

"Big sister, wait a minute."

Lu Jinshi hadn't gone far when he saw He Jiayi approaching.

He Jiayi leaned closer to Lu Jinshi and said, "Big sister, I warned you before that you can't easily change the world. Why do you still want to recruit female students? Do you really think you can be like those transmigrated women in third-rate romance novels, opening a girls' school and leading female students to shine? Don't be delusional."

He Jiayi said, "I specifically inquired about it. Since your girls' school started enrolling students, only Xu Dan and her orphaned cousin who lives with her family have gone to study there. You'd better stop daydreaming and make a fool of yourself."

Listen to me, settle down and get married. If you behave well for a few years, you'll earn a title that everyone envies. Stop being so unconventional. It's bad enough that you ruin your reputation, but you'll also prevent the He sisters from finding good husbands.

As transmigrated women, the most important thing is to be honest and keep our lives, marry a good husband, and manage the household for him. That's the true path. You've already given birth to a child, so your reputation is ruined. You're lucky you transmigrated to the Great Sheng Dynasty. If you had transmigrated to the Qing Dynasty, having a child out of wedlock would have meant being put in a pig cage and drowned in a pond..."

Lu Jinshi was already displeased because his attempt to recruit female students had been thwarted. Upon hearing He Jiayi's words, he said, "Where did you get such a pedantic idea? Just how ignorant was the Qing Dynasty you were talking about? They even drowned living people in pig cages?"

He Jiayi said, "Women should be obedient and virtuous. Getting pregnant out of wedlock and abandoning the father to keep the child is against ethics and morality. If you were in our 21st century, it would be better, but this is ancient times. Women are supposed to value chastity. Drowning them in a pig cage is not an exaggeration..."

Lu Jinshi frowned slightly and said, "Because a woman loses her chastity, she should be punished by being drowned in a pig cage? Sister, it's good that you hate women studying. If you were an official in the Ministry of Justice who drafted the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, I don't know how women in this world would live. It's a pity that you yourself are a woman. Most men have concubines before marriage, so why don't you want to drown men who have lost their chastity in pig cages?"

Lu Jinshi found it hard to believe that such a world still existed. Originally frustrated by his inability to find female students, Lu Jinshi regained his confidence.

Lu Jinshi thought she had to teach women to read and understand reason, so that future generations of girls wouldn't think that losing their chastity meant they should be drowned in a pig cage...

Lu Jinshi didn't want to talk to He Jiayi anymore. She returned to the East Family Villa and saw Rong Yi holding Zhang'er, forcing Zhang'er to call him "Daddy".

Zhang'er didn't give him any face at all and didn't call him "father" even once.

Lu Jinshi chuckled and went over to pick up Zhang'er, saying to Rong Yi, "Don't force Zhang'er. He will call you when he wants to. He's not even eight months old yet, so it's okay if he doesn't call me 'father' or 'mother'."

Rong Yi looked at Lu Jinshi and said, "Why did it take you so long to buy some clothes?"

Lu Jinshi looked at Rong Yi and slowly said, "I just heard a storyteller say that in one dynasty, if a woman lost her chastity, she would be put into a pig cage and drowned. What do you think?"

Rong Yi frowned and said, "Which storyteller is spouting nonsense? He is disregarding the laws of Dasheng. The laws of Dasheng stipulate that only the government can decide a person's life. Even if the government wants to sentence someone to death, it has to wait for the approval of the Ministry of Justice. It is not easy to sentence someone to death. This is a peaceful and prosperous era, not a chaotic era where people's lives are treated like dirt. How can a woman's life be killed so casually?"

Lu Jinshi said, "I find it unbelievable. How can someone think that such a thing, which disregards human life and the law, is not excessive? I must let women study more, so that one day there will really be such a law to bind the girls."

Rong Yi said, "Which emperor would dare to promulgate such a law? This is probably the work of some clans that value their reputation and are far from the emperor's reach. If it were under the emperor's nose, such a disregard for human life would not happen."

Lu Jinshi thought about it and realized that it made sense. She thought that she not only wanted to establish a girls' school at Lingxiao Academy, but she also wanted to open girls' schools all over the entire Dasheng in the future.

Rong Yi said to Lu Jinshi, "By the way, in a couple of days it will be an auspicious day for the betrothal ceremony. The Ministry of Rites asked me where we would be presenting the betrothal gifts. Do you think it would be better to go to the Prince An's residence or to a separate courtyard? Or perhaps Father has already ordered the Ministry of Works to renovate the Princess's residence, so that when Aunt Mingzhu arrives in Chang'an, she can stay in the Princess's residence."

Lu Jinshi said, "Then we'll go to the He family to propose marriage."

Rong Yi looked at Lu Jinshi and asked, "Didn't you say you wouldn't marry into the He family?"

Lu Jinshi laughed and said, "If we're going to put on an act, we have to go all the way. If we don't go to the He family to propose marriage, how dare they fool the imperial decree and let He Jinlan marry as the Seventh Prince's consort..."

Rong Yi frowned slightly and said, "If you want to deal with the He family, why go through all this trouble?"

Lu Jinshi said, "The He family is, after all, a family of nobles. Unless they commit serious crimes such as disobeying imperial orders and deceiving the emperor, their titles cannot be easily taken back."

(End of this chapter)