Professional Ethics of a Concubine

"After the talented scholar finished writing his reply, he did not wait for the lady to write him a thank-you letter. Half a month later, he took the initiative to write her a letter to ask about her brother..."

Ye Qingzhi continued to preach,

“Because of the talented man’s initiative, the young lady felt that he was a little too frivolous and became less willing to correspond with him.

The young lady no longer opened her heart to the talented man and expressed her various opinions as she did before.

Because she already had a bad impression of this talented man, even though what he said in the letter was the same as before, or even more pleasant, the lady still felt that he had ulterior motives.

So, after receiving three or four letters from the talented man, the young lady did not reply after reading them, let alone fall in love with him.

The talented scholar did not receive a reply from the young lady and became anxious, thinking that something had happened to her.

He quickly packed his things and went to the young lady's home, anxiously wanting to propose to her in person instead of going back to the old path of developing a relationship through correspondence.

However, when the talented man arrived at the young lady's home, the young lady said that she didn't know him at all and directly asked her parents to report him to the authorities and sue him as a lecher.

The talented man defended himself by saying that he had corresponded with the young lady, but his words made the young lady's father furious. He thought that he had deliberately slandered his daughter's reputation, so he beat him up with his servants and reported the case to the authorities. In the end, the talented man was thrown into prison!

The talented man didn’t understand why this time the ending between him and the young lady was like this!

Not only did it end before it even began, he was also beaten up by the young lady's father, and was even reported to the authorities and locked up!

The talented man couldn't help but wonder if the young lady had no feelings for him in the previous life, and everything was just his self-touching..."

emperor,……

Why is it more heartbreaking this time!

No, every word is heart-wrenching, the only difference is that the talented man in this story is replaced by his name!

He took the initiative to write letters to the empress and kept writing to her, but she ignored him. Some even wanted to arrest him and beat him with a stick after seeing his letters.

He thought that the two of them had feelings for each other, but that was just his wishful thinking!

The emperor's face darkened. He looked very unhappy, extremely unhappy.

Xie Jin looked at his father, then at Ye Qingzhi. Originally he was in a very relaxed state, but now he became tense and ready to save the situation at any time.

However, Ye Qingzhi did not look at the emperor's expression and continued to preach.

"The talented man was filled with remorse and pain in prison. He began to recall the past carefully and over and over again, and gradually realized that he was too impatient.

Because he had the memories of his previous life, he knew the young lady's personality and their past, so he thought this was his advantage.

So, he became proactive, thinking that as long as he took the initiative this time, he would be able to win the beauty immediately.

However, few people know that interactions between people also go through stages. Usually, they have to proceed step by step, and require more adjustments and a sense of propriety.

His impatience, his lack of sense of propriety, and that over-familiarity from the beginning all frightened the young lady, leading to this outcome.

The talented man fell asleep in prison with regret in his heart.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that he had turned into a white-haired old man over fifty years old.

The talented man got up from the bed and took a long time to finally figure it out.

It turned out that of all the experiences he had just had, only the initial correspondence with the young lady was true.

The letters he exchanged with the young lady, the killing by the soldiers and bandits, and the story of his rebirth were all just a dream he had."

emperor,……

With so many twists and turns in the story, he was almost choking on the blood!

So, the subsequent rebirth is just a dream, similar to a dream? ?

This explanation is indeed reasonable. There is no possibility of rebirth.

The emperor felt slightly relieved, but also a little melancholy. He couldn't help but savor what Ye Qingzhi said and reflect on his actions.

When Xie Jin heard this, his eyes lit up. He had never expected such a reversal.

His daughter's rhetoric is so powerful that, through the development of the story, she repeatedly reverses the situation and warns her father step by step about some truths:

For example, the sense of propriety and boundaries in interpersonal interactions. Being too anxious and irritable will only scare others away.

Xie Jin couldn't help but become more curious about what she would say next. As the talented man grew old, he realized that those were just past events and dreams, which were very close to his father's situation.

"It turned out that when the talented scholar grew old, he had many children and grandchildren, no worries about food and clothing, and his wife had passed away. He often thought about this beautiful past when he was young, and he had all kinds of regrets in his heart.

As the saying goes, you dream about what you think about during the day, and he had such a dream, which arranged a lot of developments and endings for things that happened in his youth.

In fact, the real story of the two of them is this:

At the beginning, it was indeed that the young lady wrote the wrong address and sent the wrong letter, which led to her contact with the talented man. Afterwards, the young lady also took the initiative to write a letter to thank the talented man.

As they talked back and forth, the two of them got along very well and regarded each other as close friends.

Later, the young lady's last letter to the talented man was in which she bravely told him that she was a woman and asked him if he was willing to elope with her.

The talented man has family responsibilities. He cannot abandon his family and elope with a woman. He also knows that doing so is unacceptable in the world and will not have a good ending for the two of them.

So, he did not reply to the letter in which the lady confessed her love to him and invited him to elope, nor did he plan to keep the invitation.

He chose to burn the letter, and also burned all his past correspondence with the young lady, severing this relationship.

However, after the talented scholar burned the letters, he found that he also liked the young lady.

Because the less you can get it, the better it seems. This feeling has always existed in his heart, making him feel a little guilty towards the lady.

Especially when people get old, it is easier to recall the past and miss old times. The talented man often thought of the young lady. He thought about it too much and couldn't help wondering what would have happened if he had kept the appointment. He started having nightmares.

The talented man really couldn't let go of this past event. He also wanted to know how the young lady was doing now, who she married and whether she was living a good life.

So, the talented man sent someone to the young lady's hometown to inquire about the news, but when the news came back, the talented man could not accept it.

It turned out that because of her beauty and intelligence, the young lady was chosen by a nobleman and married as his second wife, despite her low birth.

And this noble person happened to be the powerful and influential person that the talented scholar was familiar with.

Over the years, he also knew that the second wife married by the powerful was very powerful. He had heard many rumors about her and knew that she was granted the first-rank imperial edict and was honored as Madam Zhaohua.

But he never thought that this Madam Zhaohua was the lady he knew.

The talented scholar had thought that the young lady might be living a miserable and unhappy life and might be sad because of his rejection, but he had never imagined that her life would be so brilliant and successful.

For some reason, this huge gap made him feel cheated, and a deep sense of loss surrounded him.

He couldn't help but visit Mrs. Zhaohua. When Mrs. Zhaohua saw him, she smiled and called him an old friend.

The talented man felt uncomfortable with the word "old friend" and couldn't help but bring up the past, saying that you had feelings for me at that time, and you wanted to elope with me, why...

The talented man started to bring up old things and acted very uncomfortable, as if he was the poor man who was abandoned.

Madam Zhaohua smiled and shook her head, then told him the truth of what happened that year.

It turned out that the young lady had never fallen in love with him, and she corresponded with him only as a confidant.

Because the young lady is full of talent and has great ambitions, she is not like other young women who only have little love in their hearts. When she talks to a man, she will blush for a long time, her heart will beat fast, and her imagination will run wild.

Judging from worldly standards, her thoughts and character are more like those of a man. She treats the talented man as a good friend, and communicates with him on an equal footing, talking about her experiences and academic studies. She is happy to have such a good friend.

However, the world does not understand her feelings. If a woman and a man communicate, if it is not private communication and not out of love, then what else could it be?

There will be no second possibility.

So, when the young lady's father found those letters, he was furious and locked up the young lady.

No matter how the young lady explained, no one believed that she had no romantic feelings for the talented man. On the contrary, the more she talked, the more the young lady's father felt that her love was as deep as the sea.

In order to make the young lady give up, her father asked someone to imitate the young lady's handwriting to write the letter of confession and elopement and sent it to the talented man.

If the talented man accepted the invitation, he would bring his men to beat him up severely, teach him a lesson not to think about seducing his daughter again, and then lie to the lady and say that he didn't come at all.

If the talented man refuses and does not accept the invitation, that would be even better, so that my daughter can see his true face.

When the young lady knew her father's intention, she followed his will.

Because she also knew the secular requirements for women, once her identity as a woman was exposed, this kind of communication would not be able to continue.

After hearing the truth, the talented man was stunned and seemed unable to accept it. He stared at Madam Zhaohua blankly and asked her, "You really have no feelings for me?"

Madam Zhaohua shook her head helplessly and did not answer his question directly. Instead, she asked,

"If you knew I was a woman, would you have told me about my experiences and knowledge?"

The talented man shook his head.

"If you didn't know I was a woman, after we had been communicating for a long time, would you consider me your confidant?"

This time the talented man nodded.

"Can't women communicate with you on an equal footing? Once they talk to you, can they only become your wife or concubine?" the lady asked him again.

This time, the talented scholar remained silent and could not answer for a long time, because he himself seemed to not know the answer.

“But once they become your wives or concubines, secular etiquette and laws will make women lose the right to talk to you on an equal footing. They can only live by looking up to you and relying on you.

Then, not long after, you get bored again, and feel that the woman has lost the aura that attracted you in the first place, and has become a puppet, extremely boring. "

Madam Zhaohua spoke again,

"If a married woman still maintains her own opinion, she will have her own opinions on big and small things and will argue with you about right and wrong.

In this way, you feel that the husband's authority is challenged, and you feel that the woman is not docile and virtuous enough.

You began to seek the tenderness and care of other wives and concubines, and the conflicts between the two of you increased, and you went from being a loving couple to a couple of resentment. "

The talented man wanted to refute, but he couldn't say anything to refute.

Because what the woman said was the naked truth.

Madam Zhaohua looked at the silent scholar and continued,

"Why do you insist on making a woman your own?

You want too much and are too unsatisfied. You want a woman who is gentle and considerate, who can coax you and go along with you, but you also want her to be unique and generous, who can resonate with you and talk to you about everything.

If you let go of all the excessive thoughts and just treat me as an old friend you can talk to, you won’t be possessed and keep thinking about the past.

Don’t try to get all your feelings from one person. It’s hard to meet a close friend in life, so don’t expect her to love you, respect you, and want to keep you all to herself…”

The emperor, like the scholar, was speechless for a long time after hearing these words.

Although he was looking at Ye Qingzhi, his eyes were empty and he was obviously immersed in his own world.

Xie Jin looked at Ye Qingzhi, also thoughtful.

Because she can be gentle and considerate, yet unique and generous, she is the perfect woman in a man's heart, so she has a firm control over him.

However, then again, how smart and self-disciplined she is, and how clear-headed and ruthless she is to be able to do this all the time.

"Ahem... Your Majesty, I have almost finished my story."

Ye Qingzhi coughed lightly, allowing the emperor to come back to his senses, and then continued,

"After listening to Madam Zhaohua's words, the talented scholar was deeply moved, but for a moment he was unwilling to admit that she was right, so he left without saying a word.

The talented scholar returned home and thought about Madam Zhaohua's words over and over again. Every time he thought about it, he seemed to understand something.

A month later, he began to write letters, and the address was "Taining's own name", which was the name that Mrs. Zhaohua used when she wrote to him.

The talented scholar shared his happy things with Mrs. Zhaohua in the letter, and after receiving her reply, he also felt happy.

The talented man confided to her the angry things he had encountered, and after receiving her reply, he gained comfort and recognition.

Whenever he had doubts in his mind, the talented scholar would write them in a letter and ask for her advice. He would then receive a feasible suggestion that would make him suddenly enlightened and resolve his doubts.

The talented man discovered that such communication also brought him infinite joy and satisfaction.

My heart, which feels lonely due to old age, seems to become lively again because of this special company.

The talented scholar sometimes asked himself, was his correspondence with Madam Zhaohua against ethical norms and a private exchange?

Was the pleasure he derived from the letter due to love between a man and a woman?

The talented man didn't know the specific answer either, he couldn't figure it out, and later he stopped thinking about such questions.

Because human emotions are complex and varied, why bother to define them? He only knows that his spirit has found some comfort, and his life has become more interesting and full of expectations...

He did not disturb her life, but communicated with her through limited words, enriching his own life and embellishing her life.

The two of them are independent of each other yet seem to be dependent on each other, they are far apart but their hearts are very close..."

Ye Qingzhi stopped talking here. She had finished making up the story and had cooked up pot after pot of chicken soup for the soul, which made her almost vomit.

If after hearing these words, the Emperor has no realization or change in his relationship with the Empress, or in his behavior of writing letters, then let him be.

Everyone has his or her own way of living, and she respects that.

The emperor looked at Ye Qingzhi and slowly smiled.

"Master Ye, you told this story very well. I like it very much. I want to reward you. What do you want?"