The Lucky Farmgirl

Patriarch Wang said, "Send the child to Taiyuan, do not bring her back to the Wang Family. In a few days, Ma Feng from Daizhou will arrive, and then you can give the child to him."

Wang Geng and Wang Cheng looked bewildered.

Patriarch Wang then showed them what it means to leverage strength against strength.

It’s both to appease Ms. Wang and to clear Ms. Cui’s name. Ms. Cui spared no effort in striking against the Ma Family, and within a few days, rumors spread throughout the Taiyuan area.

Rumors had it that Sixth Lady Wang was bullied in the Ma Family, while her aunt Ms. Cui was deceived by the Ma Family and hadn’t noticed her niece suffering in their care. Ms. Cui felt guilty and sad, so she sent people to bring Sixth Lady Wang out and take her to the capital for treatment, while she returned to her family seeking reinforcements, determined to make the Ma Family pay the price.

Ms. Wang acknowledged this version of events.

This was the price for having Ms. Cui take action, overshadowing what Ms. Cui’s daughter had done; the costs that Ms. Cui’s daughter and the Wang Family’s second branch must bear, Patriarch Wang wouldn’t bother to ask about.

The incident stirred quite a commotion, especially with the emperor’s intentional propagation, even the harem heard about it.

Mingda and Changyu were very interested, but unfortunately, they couldn’t really go out now, nor was it appropriate to summon their outside friends into the palace, so they had to feign a cold today, a stomachache tomorrow, explicitly requesting Zhou Man to come diagnose them.

The weather has been stable lately, so hardly anyone inside or outside the palace was sick, aside from working on books, Manbao would just take on routine pulse-check tasks.

When Mingda and Changyu acted mischievously, Manbao could only carry the medicine box to the harem, and then sit with them over tea and chats in the open pavilion draped with curtains.

While eating, she shook her head and said, "Director Xiao already knows, he keeps looking at me these days, thinking I’m wasting medical resources."

Changyu said, "You don’t have any patients now, and we aren’t exploiting you as a doctor since we aren’t asking for prescriptions, how is it a waste?"

Manbao replied, "Wasting paper and ink is also wasteful."

She said, "Paper is expensive, because I write books, the people at Chongwen Pavilion complain about my high expenses, always suspecting I’ve taken their paper to the Imperial Hospital to write prescriptions."

The expenditure of one department is for that department alone, it cannot be shared.

Her paper expenditure has always been high.

Whether at Chongwen Pavilion or the Imperial Hospital, her paper usage is the highest, and Manbao would rather not use their paper; she buys hers from the marketplace, cheap and good to use.

However, sometimes the things she writes need to be shown to others, and although the paper she selects from the marketplace looks similar to theirs, attentive people can still tell it isn’t the court-produced paper.

Using her own paper is alright, but Mr. Zhuang said, public and private matters must be separated distinctly.

Her expenses on paper have always been high, if she used her own paper for things like pulse record entries, Chongwen Pavilion and the Imperial Hospital would inevitably reduce her funding for this, which would then lead to other issues, and she might be bullied thereafter.

Because she listened to Mr. Zhuang, although Chongwen Pavilion and the Imperial Hospital occasionally grumbled about her excessive paper usage, they never withheld her stipend.

"Although I don’t write prescriptions, every time I return, I still need to write pulse records for filing, isn’t that wasteful?"

Changyu bluntly said, "Then just write that I have an illness, say I’m heart-troubled, startled and hurt, and make up something, then prescribe me some calming decoction."

Mingda almost spat out her tea, laughing, "That’s even more wasteful."

Manbao nodded, thinking she missed the point, so she simply stopped continuing the topic, and instead asked, "Is there new information today?"

"Oh, Bai Shan didn’t tell you?"

Manbao replied, "Today isn’t his designated day, he’s over at the Hanlin Academy, not in the palace."

The emperor loves inviting Bai Shan to the palace to discuss politics or chat, and he likes having Bai Shan organize documents, but it can’t always be him.

There are three palanquin-bearers, and sometimes it’s others’ turn.

So occasionally, Bai Shan remains on duty at Hanlin Academy, not entering the palace.

Director Xiao forbade the Imperial Hospital from getting involved in court affairs, so the Imperial Hospital rarely discussed these matters.

Changyu and Mingda sourced half of their news from the emperor, the other half from palace servants and maids.

Mingda said excitedly, "Ma Hongzhong and Sixth Lady Wang formally divorced, I heard his uncle made the call, and let Wang Family take the child away, from now on Ma Family has no relations with Sixth Lady Wang and the child."

Manbao asked with bright eyes, "Really?"

Changyu replied, "Of course really, Father said so personally."

Yes, the gossip was shared by the emperor to the two sisters, the news spread so quickly, Wang Ruile at the Tang Residence probably doesn’t even know yet.

The emperor received his information from Yin Li, though this time it wasn’t for gossip, but for something else, gossip just happened to be incidental.

Changyu learned the news from the emperor in the morning and immediately wanted to share it with Manbao, she said, "Father said, Wang Min met Ma Feng overnight, who knows what they discussed, Ma Feng returned to Bingzhou and had the clan intervene, first seizing his brother’s position as clan leader, then wanting to separate their branch."

"In the end they didn’t divide," Changyu said with regret, "but being so threatened, the Ma Family is willing to give the child to the Wang Family."

Mingda said, "They are seeking survival at the cost of sacrifice, giving the child to Ms. Wang is better than keeping the child in the Ma Family, else forcing to keep them might make Ms. Wang unforgiving, the Ma Family and Wang Family are too different, so Ma Family can’t afford the gamble."

The emperor shared this with his daughters to let them know, "Our family ranks among the best in Great Jin, aside from the people of the world, no one can compare with our family, so remember, when you go outside, as long as you don’t break the law or offend the people, don’t be afraid if anyone bullies you, come back and tell Father, Father will stand up for you."

Of course, Ma Family couldn’t afford the gamble, as Manbao and others knew, Ma Hongzhong had been expelled from the academy, with Ms. Wang around and the emperor’s words of "no talent, no virtue," he can’t rise for the rest of his life.

As for his brother, it is said that Ms. Wang pressured him so much in Taiyuan Academy that he resigned and plans to go study abroad.

At this moment, Ma Feng’s snatching of clan leader position from his brother is a fatal blow to their main branch.

Manbao, however, had different insights than the emperor, she said to Mingda and Changyu, "It shows the impermanence of the world, people should stand upright and act righteously. Previously, Sixth Lady Wang was absolutely at a disadvantage in the Ma Family. Had the family’s conduct not been improper, they wouldn’t have ended up like this."

"It shows strength and weakness are not constant, when strong, act uprightly, then when weak, won’t suffer fatal blows; when weak, like Sixth Lady Wang, be resilient, then there’s a glimmer of hope."

Mingda and Changyu were stunned, and Changyu said blankly, "Father said to give me more bodyguards later, if anyone bullies me, call the guards immediately to report back to the palace, and he’ll stand up for me."

Mingda said, "... Father manages affairs of the state, since we’ve come of age, we should stand on our own and not always seek Father for everything."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!