Daily Life of a Villain at Work [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Tenth Day of the Villain Being Emperor

Chu Xin’s adaptability was indeed impressive; in just a few days, she had grown accustomed to interacting with Wen Qingyun. Only during meals did she remain exceptionally cautious, chewing slowly and swallowing carefully, making almost no sound at all.

After a brief afternoon nap, Chu Xin walked toward the Hall of Mental Cultivation as usual. However, as she reached the palace gates, she heard her Majesty’s voice sounding very displeased.

“Is this the solution the three of you came up with after seven days?” Wen Qingyun took a memorial and threw it directly onto the floor. “Are you planning to fool me?”

“Your Majesty, please appease your anger.” The three Ministers, who had been standing to report, now knelt in a row.

“Appease my anger? How am I supposed to do that?” Wen Qingyun sneered. “I asked you to find a way to eradicate the practice of mortgaging and selling wives and daughters. Instead, you tell me to have the government spend money to buy these people? And you want to lower the punishment for selling family members to a measly twenty strokes of the cane?”

“Do you think I’m that easy to deceive? Whose idea was this!”

As Wen Qingyun spoke, her anger flared. She snatched a teacup from her side and hurled it at the three men. The Minister of Rites didn’t dare dodge; he could only close his eyes and let the cup strike his head before it fell and shattered on the floor.

“What is happening inside? Her Majesty…” Hearing the commotion, Chu Xin looked at the female official hesitantly, unsure if she should enter.

“Master Chu, it would be best for you to wait here a moment until Her Majesty finishes speaking with the Ministers or summons you,” the official whispered a kind warning.

“Your Majesty, this was my idea. There is a reason for it,” the Minister of Rites began to explain. He argued that as brothels were gradually transformed into pure performance venues, a group of frequent patrons would inevitably find their desires unvented. This could lead to increased gambling or other vices, which in turn would drive more desperate people to sell their wives and daughters.

He argued that since it was impossible to ban the practice entirely, it was better to provide an official channel for a “legal process.”

“And how can you be sure people won’t intentionally sell their families for a few pieces of silver? I may not leave the capital often, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how these things work!” Wen Qingyun was laughed out of anger.

Once the cost of selling a human being became a light twenty strokes, the phenomenon would only worsen. Wives and daughters would be completely commodified. Furthermore, would local governments truly have enough land and work for them? In the end, the government would just become a middleman, selling these women to wealthy households as bondservants.

“Minister of Revenue, Minister of Justice, do you also agree with this proposal?” Wen Qingyun rested her hand on the armrest, her displeasure obvious.

The Minister of Justice spoke up: “Your Majesty, I believe increasing the penalties is necessary. As for the government purchasing people, I do not hold that view.”

The Minister of Revenue added: “Your Majesty, I also feel the national treasury’s money shouldn’t be spent on those people. It would be better to fund county schools to teach the people propriety, so they understand a real man should care for his family, not trade them for silver.”

These words held some weight, causing Wen Qingyun’s expression to soften slightly.

“Your Majesty, I am doing this for their own good,” the Minister of Rites kowtowed, stubborn in his view. “If there is no food at home, women and girls who have no ‘value’ to the head of the household will be the first to starve. Letting the government take them in at least gives them a bite of food to survive.”

Wen Qingyun took a sip of fresh tea. “So that is why you want the government to take over?”

The Minister of Rites’ views were steeped in a distorted version of Confucianism and the habits of the social elite. He truly believed he was offering a “way out.”

“Do you have no better suggestions?” Wen Qingyun asked, her voice unreadable.

The Minister of Justice began to waver, noting that many cases of men killing their wives or daughters stemmed from absolute poverty and desperation. However, the Minister of Revenue saw his chance to rise.

“Your Majesty,” the Minister of Revenue said clearly, “if the people have reached the point of starvation, it is because land annexation by the powerful is too severe. Instead of finding ways for the government to buy people, we should solve the root problem: ensure every farming household has land to till so they can fill their stomachs.”

As a minister trained by Prince Lian, he had already exchanged information with the Emperor through the secret police (Jinyiwei) and intended to pivot the conversation toward land reform.

Wen Qingyun’s anger vanished. “That is a fair point.”

She then dropped a series of bombshell decrees:

Land Survey: Next spring, students from the Imperial Academy will assist the Ministry of Revenue in a year-long nationwide land recount.

Strict Punishment: Anyone selling a wife or daughter, regardless of reason, will receive 100 strokes. Buyers and sellers are equally guilty.

End of Brothels: Brothels are to vanish within two years. Performers may form independent troupes to earn a living with the same rights as commoners.

Domestic Concubines/Entertainers: Numbers are to be halved. Officials of the 5th rank and below are forbidden from keeping them; those above may keep no more than five.

Academic Integrity: Anyone taking the imperial exams must not have visited a brothel in the last three years. If caught lying, they and their descendants for three generations are barred from exams for life.

“Your Majesty, this… this might cause public outcry…” the Minister of Rites stammered.

“Are these ‘noble’ scholars and elites not always boasting of their virtue? Can they not even manage self-restraint? I am not forbidding them from enjoying music and dance, only from playing with and violating people,” Wen Qingyun snorted.

She wasn’t targeting the bottom tier of society—the poor couldn’t afford high-end brothels anyway. She was targeting the elite who used human beings as playthings to be gifted and traded.

When the Minister of Rites asked what would happen to the women who had no skills and nowhere to go, Wen Qingyun gave a calm answer: “The government will gather them, and I will support them. I will establish a Women’s Army in Anji Sub-prefecture.”

The Ministers were shocked. A women’s army? Made of former entertainers?

“Your Majesty, they are of low birth, how can they be soldiers?” the Minister of Rites reflexively argued.

Wen Qingyun didn’t answer him directly. Instead, she called Chu Xin into the hall.

“Chu Xin, I plan to take in homeless entertainers and teach them fitness, strategy, and formations to form a Women’s Army. After five years of service, they can choose to remain as military households or return to civilian life. What do you think?”

Chu Xin was stunned but answered, “Your Majesty, this is indeed a wonderful refuge for them.”

“Then are you willing to share my burden? I intend to station this camp in Anji.”

“This subject obeys,” Chu Xin agreed instantly.

With that settled, Wen Qingyun turned her gaze back to the Minister of Rites. “Minister of Rites, do you want to keep your dignity, or shall I provide it for you?”

The Minister of Rites closed his eyes and kowtowed. He confessed that his own grandmother had been a domestic entertainer who earned her freedom. He wept, admitting he had lost his way in the pursuit of status and had tried to deceive the Emperor to protect the interests of the elite.

Wen Qingyun didn’t linger on his confession. She summoned the Left Vice Minister of Rites and promoted him to Acting Minister on the spot.

She then gave the disgraced former Minister a secret task: to re-annotate the Confucian classics to serve as the new standard textbook for the imperial examinations—a chance to clear his name and leave a legacy in history. The man was overcome with gratitude, thoroughly won over by Wen Qingyun’s “appreciation” of his scholarly talent.

…

Later, as Chu Xin worked with the other ministers to draft the official edicts, she couldn’t hide her smile.

“The Emperor’s decrees are all for the welfare of the people,” she argued when the Minister of Revenue suggested a slower rollout to avoid a backlash from the elite. “The elite are the most concerned with their ‘face.’ If they rebel over the loss of their playthings, they will become a laughingstock for eternity.”

After an hour of work, the draft was ready. As the other ministers departed at sunset, Chu Xin took the memorial to Wen Qingyun.

“The edicts drafted?” Wen Qingyun asked, taking the memorial personally. She was pleased with the result. “I recall your home is quite far from Imperial City. It takes nearly half an hour by carriage?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Sometimes I ride a horse to make it faster.”

“Have your servants go back,” Wen Qingyun told her official. “Tell them Master Chu is staying in the palace today.”

Chu Xin was startled. “Your Majesty…”

Wen Qingyun smiled and walked ahead. “I have more to discuss regarding the Women’s Army in Anji. Stay and have dinner with me. You will sleep in the palace tonight.”

Chu Xin blinked, her fingers tightening under her sleeves. To stay in the palace after dark… she was becoming the Emperor’s true confidant.

“Why aren’t you following?” Wen Qingyun looked back.

“I… I am coming!” Chu Xin hurried to catch up, keeping her eyes on the Emperor’s hem.

“Don’t be so tense. Interact with me as you usually do,” Wen Qingyun said, patting her shoulder with a smile. “I just want to have a late-night talk by candlelight. I won’t do anything to you. Relax.”

Chu Xin’s heart raced. She was the first “outsider” allowed such proximity since the coronation. Was she truly becoming the Emperor’s most favored official?