RWNEFE -Chapter 494 Amending the Law in the Street!

Madam Song had eaten a little food and drunk some sweetened water, and she had already regained consciousness.

Weakly, she raised a trembling hand and pointed at Tian Chunshan and the woman holding the child, angrily accusing them:

“That adulterous pair tried to kill me. Regent Prince, please give me justice!”

Having exhausted her strength with those words, Madam Song closed her eyes again. The doctor stepped forward to examine her and said, “She has only collapsed from weakness and the torment of the past few days. After some rest, she will wake again.”

After speaking, the doctor glared at Tian Chunshan with disgust. Despicable and shameless.

Cold sweat streamed down Tian Chunshan’s back. All he wanted now was to shake off the blame.

“Who are you people? Why are you interfering in my family’s affairs?”

“You broke into my house illegally. You must have spoken ill of me to Song while she was gravely ill, and she’s been misled by you!”

“Officers, these two trespassed and even kicked in my door. Arrest them at once!”

A Capital Guard turned to look at Wei Dongzhu. He seemed somewhat familiar…

Wei Dongzhu directly removed the disguise from his face and announced clearly, “I am the Commander of the Imperial Guards, Wei Dongzhu—the last survivor of the Wei Family Army of the Northwest!”

People might not know who the Commander of the Imperial Guards was, but everyone knew of the Wei Family Army.

Throughout the Great Zhou, from three-year-old children to the elderly, everyone had heard of them.

The Capital Guards also recognized him. Since General Wei was here, then the person beside him must be—

Shen Lanxi removed her disguise and said calmly, “I intended to travel incognito today to observe the people’s lives. I didn’t expect to come at such an opportune time.”

All the Capital Guards immediately recognized Shen Lanxi and knelt in unison.

“Long live the Regent Prince! Long live! Long live!”

“Rise,” Shen Lanxi said. “You arrived very promptly.”

The captain of the guards immediately ordered his men to summon reinforcements. With only a few of them protecting her, what if someone attempted an assassination?

The common people were stunned. They had actually seen the Regent Prince in person.

Wei Dongzhu raised his voice. “All civilians, step back ten meters and clear space for the Regent Prince to investigate the case.”

The guards quickly spread their arms to clear the area.

The people obediently moved back, not daring to make a sound.

Tian Chunshan felt as if the world were spinning. It was over—the Tian family was finished!

Wei Dongzhu brought a chair for Shen Lanxi to sit on and stood beside her as guard.

“Tian Chunshan, when your whole family was exiled, if Madam Song hadn’t fought and struggled all the way, your family would have died on the road long ago.”

“Now you say she neglected her mother-in-law and children by going out to work. Do you have no hands or feet? Could you not care for them yourself?”

Tian Chunshan’s face turned deathly pale as he kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy.

“Regent Prince, that’s not what I meant. I am grateful to Madam Song, but while she was outside, she had improper relations with men. I repeatedly tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. It was Song who failed to observe a woman’s virtue and made herself ill with anger. Now she wants to blame me—I’ve been wronged!”

“You need not argue,” Shen Lanxi said coldly. “When Madam Song wakes, there will be a conclusion. I have also sent people to investigate and have summoned your entire household here for a face-to-face confrontation.”

Tian Chunshan’s heart sank to the bottom. Hatred and a vicious gleam slowly appeared in his eyes.

“Regent Prince, you are a woman, so of course you side with women. Since ancient times, it has been normal for men to have multiple wives and concubines. Song is jealous and has committed grounds for divorce. She insulted my mother—that is unfilial. She failed to educate the children—that is unkind. Such an unfilial, unkind, and promiscuous woman—I have already been exceedingly tolerant of her!”

“That is not a reason for you to lock her up and starve her to death,” Shen Lanxi replied.

Tian Chunshan’s heart pounded wildly. He didn’t want to die. Clearly, the Regent Prince would not help him—but he believed he wasn’t entirely wrong either. If Shen Lanxi punished him, she would offend men throughout the realm.

She wouldn’t dare.

“Regent Prince, Madam Song relied on your backing to act arrogantly at home, disrespecting her mother-in-law and ignoring me, her husband. In the countryside, such a woman would long ago have been drowned in a pig cage.”

Shen Lanxi looked at him with eyes sharp as knives.

“The only reason your Tian family was able to return from Dongchuan was because of Madam Song. Your fine clothes, rich food, and wealth were all earned by her. Since you disliked her so much, why didn’t you divorce her?”

“You dragged me into this, thinking I would help you for the sake of appearances, so you could cover up the truth of murdering for wealth—wasn’t that your plan?”

Tian Chunshan, desperate to survive, threw caution to the wind.

“Madam Song acted so arrogantly only because she borrowed your power!”

“So you blame me for promoting Madam Song?” Shen Lanxi asked.

The resentment Tian Chunshan had long suppressed burst forth. Thinking Shen Lanxi would never spare him anyway, he spoke recklessly.

“Yes! I am the man of the house. If anyone were to be promoted, it should have been a man. Yet you promoted a foolish woman who only knows how to make a scene. Is it because you are also a woman, so you promote women not for their ability, but merely for being women?”

Wei Dongzhu shouted angrily, “Insolence!”

Shen Lanxi’s gaze flickered, and she raised a hand to stop him.

“You’ve asked what men all over the world want to ask.”

Men in the crowd began whispering among themselves.

Shen Lanxi let out a scornful laugh.

“Let everyone here take a good look at what ability you actually possess.”

“You say I promote women just because I am a woman? Then show me some ability worthy of promotion!”

“Let me make this clear today: when I, Shen Lanxi, promote someone, I never look at whether they are male or female, their family background, or their seniority. Even if you limp on one leg or have lost an arm—if you have the talent to govern the world, I will still employ you!”

Those words reminded the people of someone—the lame Marquis Zhao Zheng.

They had all clearly seen him enter and leave the capital several times to quell rebellions.

“And what are you?” Shen Lanxi continued coldly. “Ability? When I was in Dongchuan, I saw Madam Song charging at the front while you picked up the spoils behind her. Now that life is comfortable, you despise your wife for being crude. How shameless can you be?”

The women in the crowd all nodded in agreement.

Shen Lanxi raised her voice: “Today, I will take this opportunity to amend the marriage laws of Great Zhou. I will never allow shameless and treacherous scoundrels like this to take advantage of women!”

Wei Dongzhu’s eyes flickered. So this was her real aim—to change the law.

No wonder she had been so patient in arguing with Tian Chunshan.

“Summon all officials involved in drafting and revising the laws—the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, the Censorate, the Legal Bureau, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and all related offices. I will amend the law here in the street and open a path of survival for women!”

Everyone was stunned, eyes wide in disbelief.

Shen Lanxi actually intended to revise laws that had been in force for over a century—for the sake of a single woman?

Was she joking?

How could she dare? Was she not afraid of being denounced by scholars throughout the realm or opposed by the entire court?

The women, of course, were delighted—but some of the men were displeased.

What did she mean by “opening a path of survival for women”? Since ancient times, women had followed their fathers at home, their brothers after their fathers died, and their husbands after marriage. It had never changed. Women in the past and present had lived just fine—what “path of survival” was there to speak of?

Yet as soon as Shen Lanxi appeared, she wanted to change everything—trampling the dignity of men into the dust.