On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

The gate of the Golden Palace closed behind the last minister, and Murong Yan's nine-phoenix golden crown glowed coldly under the candlelight.

She walked down the nine-level Phoenix Terrace, and her peony skirt embroidered with gold thread swept across the white marble steps until she reached Lin Zhen.

"I haven't seen you for a few days. Come walk with me." After saying that, she suddenly reached out and held Lin Zhen's hand.

The warmth from the fingertips came through the court robes.

Lin Zhen looked at the flower ornament between her eyebrows, which was shining slightly, and remembered what she said in the bridal chamber on their wedding day: "I wish to share the fireworks of this world with you."

At this moment, she took off her golden crown and tied up her black hair with a simple jade hairpin. She looked less majestic than an emperor and more gentle like a wife.

Lin Zhen naturally wouldn't refuse and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

After saying this, Murong Yan smiled a beautiful and sincere smile, and the two of them walked out of the Golden Palace hand in hand.

The sunlight of late March shines obliquely into the corridor, and the auspicious beasts on the glazed tiles cast mottled shadows in the light and shadow.

Murong Yan held his hand as they walked through the peony garden, her fingertips tracing the calluses on his palms. Suddenly, she became curious: "Husband, are you still practicing martial arts recently?"

"You've been a bit slack, what about you? You're not still dragging Wushe into fights every day, are you?"

"Of course, I haven't relaxed for a moment. In this world, only those who are strong can be truly powerful. When I become the world's number one female master, if anyone bullies you, tell me and I'll beat him up!"

Murong Yan waved her little fists as she spoke, looking as cute as a young girl.

Suddenly I remembered that Murong Yan is only twenty-two years old this year.

It was the imperial aura around her that concealed her age, forcing her to pretend to be calm and majestic that did not belong to her age.

If in the future, what would twenty-two-year-old girls do?

They should be in college, if they are still in school.

Those spirited young girls who graduated from junior high school and are now hanging out in society may have already seen through society and are now working in a factory to make a living; of course, there are also giant babies who lie at home all day and are spoiled by their parents like babies; and there are also those young girls who get something for nothing but think they have a good figure, lying in bed with an empty stomach, holding their mobile phones and asking the merchants over and over again: Hello, do you need to send photos?

No matter what kind of lifestyle it is, it is probably not as hard as Murong Yan's.

Although she was a little eager for quick success and a little girly, she was really very hardworking. Officials in charge of the emperor's residence would always praise her when talking about her, praising her as the most hardworking emperor in the history of Daqian, who often worked until late at night to review memorials.

Therefore, Lin Zhen didn't want to disturb her too much.

The most rare thing is that Murong Yan seems to understand this matter very well. She never quarrels with Lin Zhen, nor does she blame him for not coming to the palace to accompany her.

"Husband, do you remember? I told you before the New Year that I planned to go to Yangzhou after the New Year."

Lin Zhen looked at the scattered hair on her temples being blown by the wind: "I remember, but later you didn't say you wanted to go. Why?"

"Well, it's because I'm so busy with government affairs. Now that Daqian's territory is growing, many things need my personal decision-making. Your regent never cares about government affairs, he only knows how to go out and fight wars. You, the regent prince, are an idle person, trying to take care of everything, but you don't care about anything. There's nothing I can do, so I have to take care of it myself."

This doesn't sound like a complaint, but more like a plea.

Lin Zhen smiled and let go of her hand, instead hugging her slender waist like a willow branch, and secretly touched her chest with his big hand.

Murong Yan immediately noticed it and blushed: "You are so frivolous."

"Just teasing you, we're all alone together, so why can't we relax?"

Murong Yan suddenly stopped and turned around, her peony skirt wafting up tiny specks of light. "Husband, are you aware that Yangzhou merchants are now selling skinny horses in the capital?"

"I think I've heard of it. You're really well-informed."

Murong Yan's intelligence network seemed to have expanded further and became more and more thorough.

Strange, didn't Lao Zhuang of the Hundred Cavalry Division already go to Ye County? How could this intelligence still be so powerful?

Murong Yan saw his doubts but didn't expose them. Instead, she said, "My dear, have you heard that Shou Ma has been taught to please men since she was three or four years old? Music, chess, calligraphy and painting are just icing on the cake. The most important thing is to learn how to read people's expressions and entertain them at banquets."

Lin Zhen looked at the sorrow in her eyes and thought of Zhang Li's hands when she was peeling crabs last night - the same white fingers, one peeling crabs in the casino, the other clenching fists in the palace.

"You feel sorry for those girls?"

"It's more than just heartache!" Murong Yan slammed her pink fist on the stone railing.

Bang.

This can't be called a pink fist, it should be an iron fist!

"I've heard that when matchmakers select girls, they pinch their bones and check for moles, and if anything doesn't match, they'll discard them like trash. Their foster mothers often beat and scold them, and only give them half a bowl of porridge a day, just to keep them slim. How is this any different from raising livestock?"

"Fool, ever since the skinny horses appeared in Yangzhou over the past few hundred years, they have always been a 'refined hobby' for the wealthy in Jiangnan. The livelihoods of countless families are tied up in those pawnbrokers. The Yangzhou magistrate just reported last month that 30% of local farmers rely on selling their daughters for money and food."

Murong Yan suddenly turned around, the pearl on her jade hairpin swaying gently. "So? Just because it's tradition, I'm going to allow men to treat women as playthings? I heard reports from the Hundred Cavalry Division that those thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls, proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, can't even change their names. They can only wait to be "selected" by nobles, and the highest bidder will get them. This!! This is typical objectification of women!"

"So what? Do you have any good ideas?"

"I... didn't, but I can't just let it go!"

"Yan'er, I know you really want to do something for a woman, but I won't let you go." Lin Zhen grabbed her hand that was trembling slightly due to anger, and the warmth of his palm ironed her fingertips.

"But this matter must not be rushed; it must be managed slowly. Remember, a few years ago, when the Jiangnan floods hit and the people were trading their children for food, who opened the granaries to release the grain? It was the wealthy families who bought skinny horses. Although the skinny horse trade was a dirty business, it was also a way for women from poor families to make a living."

Murong Yan's eyelashes suddenly trembled, and her voice lowered: "But they shouldn't have taken this road."

"I know, so I've asked the Secretariat to draft the 'Skinny Horse Rules,' requiring pawnbrokers to record the origins of young girls, strictly prohibiting the trafficking of young children, and limiting the selling price to no more than one thousand taels. In addition, a 'daughter-birth subsidy' will be implemented in Yangzhou, exempting families from taxes for three years if they give birth to a girl."

"One thousand taels?" Murong Yan sneered. "Those wealthy families spend thousands of taels on skinny horses. How can one thousand taels cut off their huge profits?"

"We can't eliminate exorbitant profits, but we can eliminate vicious competition. In the past, pawnbrokers inflated prices, forcing poor families to sell their daughters to survive. From now on, prices will be capped. If wealthy families want to buy skinny horses, they'll have to spend more money on their upbringing, which will actually increase their value. For those girls who are well-versed in poetry and literature, a thousand taels of silver will only make them more valuable to the wealthy."

Murong Yan suddenly fell silent: "You always say that we should follow tradition, but in tradition, women are supposed to be bought and sold?"

"Tradition also holds that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent." Lin Zhen suddenly chuckled. "But when His Majesty reviewed memorials in the Golden Throne Hall, he used the 'Women's Instructions' handwritten by a woman. Tradition is like flowing water; it's better to unblock it than to let it flow. If Yangzhou Shouma could become a training ground for talented women rather than a production line for playthings, wouldn't that be a form of reform?"

Murong Yan looked up and found that his eyes were shining with the rosy glow of the sky: "You are always like this, using profit to guide good."

She suddenly sighed, "But when I think of those girls being taught how to please men, I feel like all the men in the world are enjoying their suffering."

"Am I not a man too?" Lin Zhen suddenly took her hand and pressed it against his chest. "I enjoy the care of His Majesty and the care of his other wives and concubines, but I am also trying to make more men understand that a woman's talent shouldn't be used to please others. The 'Skinny Horse Rules' clearly state that if a skinny horse can pass the annual exam, he can redeem himself."

Murong Yan's eyes suddenly lit up: "You want to give Skinny Ma a way out?"

"Exactly. It's better to open a way out than to block the trade. Yan'er, have you ever thought about why foreigners are able to infiltrate the skinny horse trade? It's precisely because there are no regulations on the pawnbrokers that they are able to take advantage. If all skinny horses were registered with the government, how could they fish in troubled waters? The skinny horses bought by foreigners have an even more miserable fate."

The whispers of palace maids could be heard in the distance. Murong Yan suddenly loosened her grip and turned to look at the water of Huaqing Pond. "Why do you always think ahead of me? I always want to cut the Gordian knot, but I forget that countless people's livelihoods are entangled in this tangled mess."

Lin Zhen walked up behind her and looked at the jade hairpin in her hair. "Your Majesty, do you still remember that day in Fengxian Hall when you said you wanted to be an emperor who would ensure that the people had enough to eat? Ensuring that the people had enough to eat is not something that can be achieved by simply killing a few prostitutes."

"Never mind. I'll do as you say." Murong Yan turned around, the anger in her eyes gone. "Don't leave tonight. I've had venison hotpot prepared in the Pepper Room."

"Okay."