Chapter 398 - 175: Cousin Zhou and the Hostility of North Kong (Please Subscribe)

Words : 2362 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

The Luo Sect Master soon fell into deep thought. Xu Qing’s request was simple: to help the Red Flower Society resist the threat of the Heshan Tao in Lingnan and Southern Fujian, allowing the Red Flower Society to truly establish a foothold in the lands of the far south. The predecessor of the Red Flower Society was the Lotus Sect, so such a change of face could not be hidden from the Luo Sect. In fact, it was not a new phenomenon for government figures to control the forces of the underworld. Even the Luo Sect had connections with important figures at the Court, just not as deep. Besides, among the high officials in the Court, there were even those who came from a background of heretical and demonic paths. The waters of the Court are already the murkiest in all the land, diverse and complex; to distinguish clear from muddy is something not even the resurrected Great Yu Emperor could achieve, much less necessary. The Luo Sect Master burned Su Lianqing’s secret letter, then wrote a reply. He wanted to know what price Xu Gongming was willing to offer for a cooperation with the Luo Sect. In fact, he was well aware that his reply asking for a price had already fallen into the trap set by Xu Gongming. But then, what good would refusing do? He might as well take this opportunity to probe what Xu Gongming was really thinking. ... ... When the Luo Sect Master sent his reply, an uninvited guest arrived at the Xu Residence. "Greetings to my brother-in-law." The young girl before him was around thirteen years of age. She perfectly matched the verse from the poem: "Graceful and slender, she is just over thirteen; resembling the early February shoots of the cardamom." Her demeanor was beautiful, like a flower bud ready to bloom in February. With Feng Wu’s explanation, Xu Qing understood that the young cousin before him was Academician Zhou’s daughter, having reached such an age. The cousin’s name was Pingting. Xu Qing exchanged greetings with her before pulling Feng Wu aside into the study, asking, "What exactly is going on?" It was not strange for daughters of prominent families to stay with relatives. What was key was that such relatives were usually from an older generation; it was unheard of for a young girl to come to stay with a cousin-in-law by herself, and it seemed like she would be staying for a while. This was clearly not normal. Feng Wu then recounted the entire situation. It turns out that the Taicang Zhou Clan, a prominent northern family, was on good terms with the Duke Yan Sheng from the North Kong. Zhou Pingting and the legitimate second son of the Duke had recently become engaged, but the Zhou elders discovered that Zhou Pingting had not practiced foot-binding, and naturally, the issue blew up. "Does the Zhou Family require their women to bind their feet as well?" "Over the past hundred years, indeed many have, but if the parents are adamant against foot-binding or keep it secret, there’s not much issue. My mother didn’t bind her feet. However, I’ve heard that this trend is intensifying lately, and many daughters of prominent families are expected to bind their feet. My uncle and aunt did not let my cousin bind her feet, but my aunt thought that an alliance with the Duke was a great opportunity. When asking which girls of good birth had their feet bound within the clan, she kept it a secret and put forward my cousin’s name. Perhaps because my uncle has reached the position of Governor, his family is especially prominent now, which is why the Kong Mansion is quite satisfied with this marriage," Feng Wu paused before continuing, "Because the engagement was set, my aunt was afraid it could not be concealed anymore and wanted my cousin to bind her feet to avoid the engagement falling through." Xu Qing’s mouth twitched, "Normally, foot-binding starts at the age of four or five, or six or seven at the latest. Who has ever heard of starting to bind feet at this age?" Feng Wu replied, "My aunt fears that if the engagement is broken, it would ruin my cousin’s whole life." Xu Qing thought this was some sort of ludicrous strategy: to be afraid of breaking an engagement and ruining her daughter’s life, yet still signed her up. He then said, "So why did our cousin come to our residence? If she does not want to bind her feet, wouldn’t she seek her uncle or your father?" As he spoke, he also considered that the climate in Lingnan was harsh and, with Academician Zhou serving as a Governor, constantly under surveillance. If his daughter fled an arranged marriage to his place, it would provide too many reasons for criticism... As for Mr. Feng in the Capital, although serving as one of the Six Department Inspectors, he couldn’t possibly guard the young cousin all the time. The North Kong and Zhou Family, their influence in the north was evidently very strong as well. Feng Wu agreed. Xu Qing pondered and said, "There’s something odd about this situation. The fact that my cousin was able to make it safely to our residence suggests there might be some issues." He was habitually suspicious, feeling that something was amiss. Feng Wu asked, "Does my husband mean that the Zhou Family or the North Kong wish to use this situation to their advantage? Deliberately allowing the cousin to flee south to our protection?" Xu Qing replied, "The Zhou Family is unlikely to do so, but the North Kong is hard to say. I need to consult Mr. Xie about this matter; he has traveled around the north for many years and knows many things more clearly than we do." He paused and then continued, "My uncle has helped us a lot. Regardless of any peculiarities in this matter, I still trust my uncle. You take good care of Pingting. If there’s any trouble, it’s not a problem in Jiangning Prefecture. You don’t need to worry." Trouble aside, the matter of Mr. Zhou’s daughter was something Xu Qing had to deal with, setting aside the factors concerning Feng Wu. A true gentleman makes clear distinctions between favors and grudges; the good that Mr. Zhou has done for him, Xu Qing could not ignore. ... ... Xu Qing went straight to the Jiangning Weaving Government Office to find Xie Quan, and spoke straightforwardly about the situation. After hearing the matter, Xie Quan smiled slightly, "You’ve come to the right person. Even without this issue with your young cousin, the North Kong would probably still find reasons to trouble you." Xu Qing was baffled, "What conflict do I have with the North Kong?" Xie Quan laughed heartily, "So Xu Gongming also gets confused when he’s too close to a situation. The trouble starts with the conversion from rice to mulberry cultivation and the sea trade." Xu Qing caught on immediately and asked, "I’m not very clear about the North Kong’s business dealings; do they also smuggle and trade in silk?" The Kong family has always been arrogant, daring to meddle in any business. If there really is a conflict, Xu Qing will deal with it all the same. Otherwise, how could business continue? Conflict is not to be feared; the key lies in understanding the causes and effects to tailor the solution. To the world’s scholars, the Kong family represents the face of orthodox teachings and must not be desecrated. But in Xu Qing’s eyes, aren’t they just a piss pot for imperial power? He respects the Master in his heart, but he holds no such respect for the Kong family. What’s more, his respect for the Master is for the latter’s life achievements, not for deification. Xie Quan: "The Kong family owns countless good fields, definitely more than a hundred thousand, many of which are mulberry groves. Hence, they hold a large share in the silk trade in the North. Yet, little rascal, by shifting from rice to mulberry cultivation, and furthermore, sourcing silk mainly from the He family of Nanyang, you have significantly affected the silk business of the Kong mansion." He is the Jiangning Weaving Supervisor and is well-informed about such matters. To say it had a significant impact might be an exaggeration; the real reason is that Xu Qing simply ignored the Kong family. Standing on Xu Qing’s side, there naturally is reason. Old He has a good relationship with him and is from the He family of Nanyang. Now he’s even the Assistant Governor of South Zhili. As for what the Duke Yan Sheng’s mansion is, does Xu Qing need to consider their sentiments when doing business, and go out of his way to bring business to their doorsteps? But to the scholarly community, the Duke Yan Sheng’s mansion is equivalent to the spokesperson for scholars across the land. Xu Qing, at best, is the most capable hall master, incense master in recent years in South Zhili. After topping the district examinations, Xu Qing had no interaction with the Duke Yan Sheng’s mansion whatsoever. He didn’t even visit the East Mountain Province to seek their advice to polish his reputation, indirectly affecting their business too—it’s truly unbearable. Without the issue involving Cousin Zhou, there would have been other matters. Xie Quan, fearing that Xu Qing might not understand the intricacies, explained in great detail. Regardless, as someone from the orthodox teachings, one cannot bypass the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues, nor the Duke Yan Sheng’s mansion. Then, Xie Quan enlightened Xu Qing as to why the practice of foot-binding had become a common tool used among people of orthodox teachings nowadays. After foot-binding, women’s ability to partake in production activities weakened, and the practice itself incurred a cost. Thus, for some farming families with land, originally, both husband and wife working together could support the family’s expenses and save during bountiful years. Influenced by the trend of foot-binding, in years of disaster, it becomes inevitable that there might be not enough to eat. As a result, borrowing grain from wealthy households becomes a must, eventually leading to the loss of their land and becoming tenants for the nobles, with the land belonging to them. This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding how the wealthy oppress the common people. For example, during the Han Dynasty, lavish burials were popular, treating the dead as living, which could bankrupt even mid-sized landlords, providing large aristocratic families with opportunities to annex more land. Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han could suppress the nobles because the lower and middle classes were extremely disgruntled with these powerful elites. Initially, they were very cooperative with Emperor Wu’s measures against these powerful clans, but Emperor Wu was fair to all, regardless of whether they were great or small, or commoners—treating everyone equally and dealing with them all. Of course, this was because the aspirations Emperor Wu had were grand and urgently needed funding, so he had no choice. If future generations were to emulate Emperor Wu, they would first need an Emperor Wen of Han as their grandfather. Xu Qing: "This trend is also present now in South Zhili, isn’t it?" Xie Quan: "Yes, but not widely. Because girls also have their uses, whether it’s sericulture or being textile workers, they can earn quite a bit of money. If it’s too harsh, it could easily cause a backlash..." Xu Qing sighed: "The world bustles for profit, and everyone struggles for gain; one is not the master of their fate when in the worldly society. Mr. Xie, I plan to write an article and would like you to critique it." Xie Quan always knew Xu Qing was truly gifted in learning; not even the resurrected Han Yu could match his answers for the four books in the provincial examination. Seeing Xu Qing moved to write, he couldn’t help but look forward to what controversial article Xu Qing was going to produce. Xu Qing pondered for a while. He was searching his memory for some information, comparing and choosing against the historical records of this world. With the operation of his peak Manifestation Divine Soul and a state of Absolute Focus, Xu Qing’s thoughts processed at incredible speed. Xie Quan looked into his eyes, as if sparks were about to fly out. Roughly after two quarters of an hour, Xu Qing picked up his brush and wrote with a flourish, each character distinctly visible in the standard library script. Xie Quan read along with Xu Qing’s strokes. The more he read, the more shocked he became. When Xu Qing finished writing, Xie Quan had also finished reading the article. Xu Qing put down his pen and sighed, then asked Xie Quan for advice: "Mr. Wenyuan, what do you think of my article? Where might there be errors?" Xie Wenyuan looked very odd, and said: "Gongming, what exactly do you intend to achieve with this article?" Xu Qing: "An article is written to be read by people, it would be good to capitalize on this and start a newspaper." Xie Wenyuan was familiar with newspapers; this sort of thing existed since the Former Song, and Shuntian Prefecture even had an official paperhouse like the ’Shuntian Times’. With the Grand Secretary’s reforms, private newspapers were also permitted. But other people’s papers generally discuss affairs of state. The content of Xu Qing’s article was too explosive, it was even worse than attacking state affairs or cursing the Grand Secretary’s mother. "Not really, Gongming, isn’t this going too far?" "Is there anything wrong with my article?" "I cannot tell at this moment." Xie Quan’s forehead darkened, but to be honest, Xu Qing’s article was clear in its arguments, like the iron strokes of a historian, leaving no obvious logical flaws for him to find. The problem, however, was the article bluntly stated that the North Kong were not Kong, and had barbarian ancestry. Others may simply be testing you by plucking a whisker, yet you want to dig up their ancestral graves? Is there no justice left?

Chapter 398 - 175: Cousin Zhou and the Hostility of North Kong (Please Subscribe)

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