Li Yue had only read two pages before he couldn’t continue. He set aside this book titled Male Virtue (《男德》), the crystallization of Meng Yanxing’s painstaking effort, intending to pick an auspicious day later to give this book to the officials, so they could all open their eyes—stop disliking this and that all day long—and spend more time reflecting on themselves.
Meng Fu walked in from outside holding Guifei. Guifei no longer immediately took off running upon seeing Li Yue like she used to, but she still did not act particularly close to him.
However, His Majesty didn’t mind. Guifei was clearly now Meng Fu’s Guifei. He reached out, pulled Meng Fu into his arms. Guifei gave a displeased “meow,” unwilling to join in the two people’s game, and jumped out from between Meng Fu’s arms.
Meng Fu leaned against Li Yue’s chest. Li Yue lowered his head, his chin resting on her shoulder, warm breath brushing across her neck. He said, “Meng Yanxing’s Male Virtue is finished. A’Fu, do you want to take a look?”
Meng Fu gave a soft “mm,” her gaze sweeping over the desk in front of them. She reached out and picked up Male Virtue, opening it as she asked Li Yue, “Did you finish reading it?”
“No,” His Majesty’s arms encircled Meng Fu’s waist, and he sighed, “Meng Yanxing wrote too well. I couldn’t even finish a page before wanting to go out and hit someone.”
Meng Fu let out a speechless laugh.
Guifei flicked her ears, turned her back in dislike, walked to the cushion, curled herself into a ball, and closed her eyes to sleep.
The Nu Jie (《女诫》) is less than two thousand characters, and because it quotes many words from ancient sages, it became the behavioral standard for many women. Male Virtue is slightly longer than The Nu Jie, because many of the viewpoints it presents are being proposed for the first time. Meng Yanxing had no choice but to insert many examples to support his arguments, so the final word count ended up being higher.
To argue that male debauchery was the root of family ruin, he selected many examples originally used to prove that women must not be jealous. Perhaps because Meng Yanxing himself kept his personal conduct pure and only had one wife, he found it especially smooth to write this section—his writing was like a river rushing unceasingly, pouring down from towering mountains, grand and magnificent, earth-shaking and thunderous. Reading it in one go could be described as delightfully unrestrained, resonant and stirring.
However, for most men in the world, they probably wouldn’t be able to read this piece in one sitting, nor would they easily appreciate Meng Yanxing’s talent.
Meng Fu flipped through the pages one by one. She felt she could already imagine Meng Yanxing racking his brains while writing Male Virtue—she wondered, was his hair still as thick as before?
Very quickly, she reached the last page. Meng Fu closed the book, and with an extremely objective nod, praised: “He really put a lot of effort into this.”
It was clear that Meng Yanxing truly wanted to use this Male Virtue to stage a comeback and have his name go down in history. Every single word and phrase was meticulously polished.
As for how future generations would evaluate Male Virtue many years later, Meng Fu didn’t know. But now that the book had been passed around and read, most men would definitely want to beat up Meng Yanxing.
But this point, Meng Yanxing himself was well aware of. When Meng Fu had coaxed him into writing Male Virtue, she had already made that very clear. Meng Yanxing could be said to be seeking glory through risk.
Once Male Virtue was published, she’d better advise him to hire a few more gatekeepers and go out less if he had no business.
Meng Fu tilted her head up and gently let out a breath. A thousand years later, what kind of final verdict would there be?
As for His Majesty, he very benevolently decided to wait until after the New Year to give this surprise to the officials.
On the night of the twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month, just like in past years, a banquet was held in the palace, inviting the nobles and aristocrats of the imperial capital, as well as civil and military officials. The only difference from past years was that the palace now had a Zhonggong Empress.
In the Linde Hall, many officials had already taken their seats. Since His Majesty had not yet arrived, they allowed themselves to relax slightly. They did not speak of state affairs, only gossiped about the recent events in the capital. Just as the conversation was heating up, the surroundings suddenly fell silent. The chatting crowd assumed the emperor had arrived, and all looked up toward the palace gate—only to see Xie Wenzhao walking in from outside.
That was even more terrifying than the emperor arriving, okay!
Everyone in the hall inhaled sharply in unison. If they were Lord Xuanping, they absolutely wouldn’t dare come to the palace—wasn’t this too awkward?
Xie Wenzhao ignored the many scrutinizing gazes, found his seat, and sat down. He hadn’t wanted to come, so for several past palace banquets he had feigned illness. Originally this time he had planned to find an excuse to stay home again, but the old Marquis gave him a fierce scolding.
Was he planning to avoid it forever? Then the wealth and nobility of the Xuanping Marquis Estate would also be at an end.
Xie Wenzhao saw that the old Marquis was truly furious, and only then did he have no choice but to enter the palace. Meng Yu wanted to come with him; he didn’t know what kind of thoughts Meng Yu was harboring, but with the way Meng Yu looked like she could go crazy at any time, he truly didn’t dare bring her out.
He suddenly recalled that palace banquet in June of last year—when Meng Fu suddenly left the banquet midway, and not long after, His Majesty also went out. Perhaps, at that time, the two of them already had some entanglement. But no matter what, it had nothing to do with him.
Meng Yanxing compiling Male Virtue (《男德》) could be considered as establishing a great merit. After discussing it with Meng Fu, Li Yue added his name to the banquet guest list.
The crowd in Linde Hall had just been startled once by Xie Wenzhao, and then they saw Meng Yanxing arrive soon after. Their hearts jolted once more. Although New Year’s Eve was approaching—a time for reunion—His Majesty didn’t have to reunite quite this thoroughly, right?
Could it be that the emperor wanted to let the empress return to the Meng family? But judging from the seat arrangement given to Meng Yanxing, it didn’t seem like there was any intention of elevating him. Still, to prevent Meng Yanxing from getting any funny ideas and thickening his skin to reclaim the empress as part of the Meng family, Li Wan and the others decided they should go over and provoke him a bit.
Meng Yanxing’s face turned red then white under Li Wan’s words. Seeing he was about to lose his temper, Li Wan quickly cupped his hands in apology and said, “Just joking, all just jokes. I know Brother Meng has always been magnanimous, surely won’t take to heart this little brother’s drunken ramblings.”
The colleagues beside Li Wan also echoed him in agreement. Meng Yanxing, his stomach full of fire with nowhere to release it, could only coldly snort and turn his head away, refusing to respond.
Li Wan, like a rooster who had just won a fight, puffed out his chest and returned proudly to his seat, continuing to chat and laugh with his peers.
Meng Yanxing was so angry his temples throbbed violently on both sides. Fortunately, after over a year of swallowing grievances, Li Wan’s few words weren’t enough to make him faint on the spot.
If he had known earlier that his eldest daughter would become the current empress, he would never have struck her from the family register, no matter what. Now, not only he himself regretted it—his clan members in the Meng family also blamed him for being too cruel back then.
But at the time, due to the matter of Meng Yu and Xie Wenzhao, the Meng clan was already full of dissatisfaction with him. He had truly been afraid that Meng Fu would do something to further ruin the Meng family’s reputation, and thus had no choice but to make that decision. Now, all of it had become his fault instead.
While writing Male Virtue in the Meng residence, he had heard that Meng Fu now joined the emperor in attending court and discussing governance. That night, he couldn’t sleep a wink. He couldn’t help but think—if Meng Fu were still his daughter, how glorious would the Meng family be now? How would that Li Wan dare act so arrogantly in front of him?
The more Meng Yanxing thought, the more miserable he felt. He tilted his head back and drained the wine in his cup in one gulp—but that wine in his mouth tasted like it had been soaked in huanglian [bitter herb], so bitter it numbed the root of his tongue.
The lights were bright, the flower shadows swayed, and dancing accompanied the music of silk and bamboo instruments. His Majesty arrived at Linde Hall hand-in-hand with the Empress, the emperor and empress in harmony, jointly blessing the New Year.
In the Xuanping Marquis Residence, Meng Yu sat alone in the courtyard of the Lingxiang Pavilion. She wore only a thin robe. The maid asked her to wear more layers, but she completely ignored her, only tilting her head to stare blankly at the bright moon hanging in the night sky. In her daze, she felt that now, Meng Fu was like that moon in the Ninth Heaven—never again would anyone compare her to Meng Fu.
Two lines of tears slipped down Meng Yu’s cheeks. Her heart flooded with endless remorse. Back then, she had schemed against Meng Fu, ruining her excellent marriage prospects—but in the end, she had paid for it with her own lifetime. What she wanted, she hadn’t obtained; what she had once possessed, she was now losing, one by one.
In the autumn of this year, Sun Yulian gave birth to a grandson for the old madam. Mother elevated by son, she became the most favored person in the Marquis estate. Hua Xiaoling gave up on that blockhead Xie Wenzhao and spent every day coaxing the old madam into happiness—her days passed quite well. Meanwhile, Qu Hanyan exchanged her contract of sale with Xie Wenzhao for a single song, left the Marquis estate, and no one knew where she went afterward.
Only Meng Yu—she still did not know what she truly wanted. The Old Madam had confined her to Lingxiang Pavilion, and day by day, her sharpness and spirit were worn down.