Concubine An nearly stood to applaud, and even Concubine Jing quietly sipped her wine to stifle the urge to cheer.
No matter if they liked Fang He or not, all the women present felt a silent satisfaction in her words.
Concubine Jing leaned back on the beauty chair, smiling brightly, eager to watch the drama.
Before anyone could reply, Fang He’s voice was calm but sharp as she countered in quick succession.
“Duke Niu, you say you’ve never heard? Then have you heard that human society began as a matriarchy? Filial piety—does it only apply to fathers and grandfathers? Are mothers undeserving of your respect? Wives undeserving of your honor? Daughters undeserving of your love?”
“How many women have been immortalized in history? I bet Duke Niu can’t claim the same for himself!”
If not for being addressed, Noble Consort Wenxi almost laughed out loud.
Her opposition to Fang He was political, but she was a straightforward person who raised the Tenth Prince to be so open-minded.
She couldn’t help but admit that Fang He’s words were gratifying.
The Crown Prince frowned slightly and silently signaled Suo’etu to speak.
The third Prince and the ever-gluttonous Tenth Prince Yin’e couldn’t help but reach for the half-empty bowl of peanuts.
Even Eldest Prince Yinzhi stuffed a few into his mouth.
Except for the Crown Prince and the meticulous Fourth Prince Yinzhen, the others didn’t care much about gender debates or women’s academies.
They just thought…
Noble Consort Zhaoyuan sure knows how to quarrel. The more, the better!
Aling’a was dazed by the questioning, but someone was quick to interject.
“Even if society started as matriarchal, today men are Yang and women Yin. Women should keep to their duties at home—supporting husband and raising children—otherwise the world wouldn’t have evolved this way!”
Fang He clapped her hands and replied, “You really have the ability to state your ignorance and narrow-mindedness so openly.”
She stretched out her hand behind her.
Xinhua placed a stack of papers into her palm.
As Kangxi returned and quietly took his seat, Fang He stood up and walked deliberately to the center of the hall.
Holding the Sage’s slips, she swept her sharp gaze across everyone present.
“For all you say that women are inferior, can any of you men claim to have invented Werewolf kill—a game that has swept the capital?”
“Oh, I know what you’ll say next—you’re busy serving the emperor every day. Even if there are many idle officials, corrupt ministers, and oppressors… I’ll grudgingly allow you to be busy serving the country.”
She gave Duke Niu a mocking glance and said, “Yet you still have time to mock others.”
“What surprised me is that most men playing this game openly are ten out of ten, but among the statistics I had collected, women win five or six out of ten. Well? Gentlemen, do you leave your brains at home when you go out?”
Kangxi’s wine cup paused at his lips.
Below, Third Prince and Prince Hongxi both sprayed their drinks, torn between laughter and embarrassment.
They had lost plenty playing that game too.
Concubine Jing and Concubine An covered their mouths to stifle laughter.
Several consorts who had lost their Sage slips and were ordered to teach outside the palace glowed with bright eyes looking at Fang He, eager to cheer her on.
Suo’etu saw everyone’s reddening faces and, unable to retort, sneered and shouted roughly, “We were just letting the women win! Noble Consort said it’s just a game; as real men, why bother taking it seriously!”
Immediate agreement rose.
“Exactly! It’s just a joke—who’d take a woman seriously?”
“We just don’t want to win unfairly. If we got serious, we’d just be accused of bullying!”
“If you can handle serious matters, why stoop to childish games? Winning or losing is just for fun. Noble Consort probably doesn’t understand.”
Fang He listened calmly to their noisy censure, then finally looked at Kangxi.
‘Emperor, it’s time for us to quarrel!’
Kangxi’s lips twitched, pretending not to hear the ruckus below.
He pulled Fuquan and the lively Changning aside, drinking steadily, never looking at Fang He.
Just looking at that bastard made him want to drown himself in a jar of wine in advance.
After the nobles and princes spun their same old excuses again, Fang He threw the Sage’s slips with a flourish onto Suo’etu’s and Duke Niu’s feet.
“All worldly reason comes from your mouths. Not even Heaven can out-bullshit you!”
“When needed, you say women should support their husbands, serve parents-in-law, manage the household—able to do all things.”
“But when you don’t need them, you say women and scoundrels are hard to nurture, that lack of talent is virtue, treating women as mere appendages.”
As Fang He’s words sharpened, Yinreng’s eyelids twitched violently.
Deep down, he felt something was terribly wrong.
But even if Noble Consort Zhaoyuan spoke the truth, male superiority wouldn’t change.
The world is the way it is, so why… would he feel so uneasy?
Fang He’s voice grew impassioned, “You preach the ways of the sages but forget the gentleman’s virtues and holy teachings. You all gang up to argue with a woman. Look at your faces!”
“Even if you degrade women to lift your own false superiority, look around the hall—does anyone here look as hideous and fierce as you?”
She sneered twice coldly, her disdain growing.
“Why does no one answer me? If women had the same education from childhood—learning the Four Books and Five Classics, gazing at vast skies and seas—would they not walk upright among men, take the Imperial Exams, and be as intolerant of losing as you?”
“Male superiority, rites, and laws are all decided by men’s mouths. When you lose, you invent excuses!”
The women’s achievements in future ages—female top scholars, CEOs, engineers—are no less than men!
She fixed Kangxi with a steady gaze.
Among the tense hearts of the women present, her challenge burned even brighter.
“So now I answer Duke Niu: I will not send women to take the Imperial Exams, because the world is the same everywhere!”
“Men? Ha… You just can’t accept losing, and when you do, you only get angry and humiliated!”
Kangxi’s low growl, like a sword hanging overhead, finally fell with thunderous wrath.
“Zhao! You’re insolent!”
The concubines and ladies-in-waiting lost their previous glee as their hearts beat even faster.
Many couldn’t help but look at Fang He with hopeful eyes, wishing she would say more, wishing she… wouldn’t lose herself.
The princes and noble relatives who had their faces struck by Fang He’s words and Sage slips sat up straighter, eyes burning as they looked toward the front, hoping the emperor would punish this ignorant and spiteful woman.
Fang He lifted her slender neck higher than ever and asked, “What’s wrong? Caught in your thoughts and angry?”
“Is His Majesty angry on behalf of Duke Niu and the others, or on your own behalf?”
Even Consort Yi, who knew Fang He’s intentions, couldn’t help but whisper.
“Noble Consort, be careful with your words!”
Fang He had only said she’d provoke the nobles and princes with a wager, not that she’d seek death publicly!
Kangxi’s face grew icy as he rose unsteadily down the white marble steps.
Fuquan hurried to support him.
Kangxi shrugged off Fuquan’s help, strode up to Fang He, grabbed her chin, and with a murderous tone shattered the tense air.
“Do you think I don’t dare take your head?”
Fang He shook his hand forcefully, kneeling with a pride that even made Yinreng shudder.
She bowed deeply to Kangxi.
“The emperor rules all under heaven. It is easy for him to order death. There is nothing you cannot dare.”
After speaking, she gave a mocking smile.
“Then do you dare to bet with me that well-read women, if allowed to take the Imperial Exams like men, would never be inferior?”
Everyone: “…………”
Alright, the emperor and consort really are quarrelling again.
Even Yinreng was confused by how things were unfolding, unsure whether to add fuel to the fire or try to stop it.
He knew Noble Consort Zhaoyuan never took the ordinary path, but… at least walk, don’t fly!
Other concubines and noble ladies who had experienced the Imperial Garden incident felt their scalps tingle— the consort had gone mad again!
Amid everyone’s shock, Fang He looked up at Kangxi, speaking each word clearly.
“If I could win a chance for women under heaven, so they could prove they are no worse than anyone else, no matter win or lose, I would die without regret!”
Concubine Jing immediately knelt as well, shouting, “If women could stand tall and say their supporting husband, raising children, and serving parents-in-law… is because they respect their husband’s family and not because they have no choice, I too would wager my life!”
Consort Yi covered her rapidly beating heart, downed a cup of wine, clenched her teeth, and summoned all her strength to steady herself, wanting to go crazy alongside the two.
But she was stunned by Fang He’s boldness and couldn’t match An’s storm-like courage.
Concubine An knelt straighter than Fang He, voice louder than Concubine Jing’s, “If all women could have a chance to leave their homes, and even fight on battlefields to defend the nation, I would also bet my life!”
Concubine Jing was gentle but red-eyed as she knelt.
“If I could plead for justice, to reduce the number of women sold as children, not just treated as men’s appendages, I too would die for this wager!”
Consort Yi finally stood and knelt alongside them.”I would also die for this!”
With high-ranking consorts kneeling, several noble ladies and attendants—pounding hearts and clenched jaws—also rushed forward.
“I too would…”
“Ah— I too!” Suddenly, a soft, trembling voice unlike the others spoke.
Aling’a, startled sober, turned in disbelief to see his own wife kneeling quietly to the side.
After the fall of the Uya clan, Aling’a would not remarry into the Uya clan.
Instead, at his mother’s behest, he had married the younger cousin of Dong E, Minister of War’s wife.
Though her family was all military men, Dong E was a gentle woman who rarely left the estate.
After marrying into Duke Niu’s household, she had always been gentle and virtuous, never acting so boldly before.
***
Dong E’s eyes were red and pale.
If women had a choice, the girl who loved martial arts and weapons from childhood would not have been locked away by her mother for ten years,
forced to pick lotus seeds and cultivate herself.
If women could take the Imperial Exams, she would not have to marry a brute like Aling’a or worry endlessly over his harem.
She knew the emperor was unlikely to agree to the wager.
Even if he agreed, the ministers and officials might block it.
But seeing more and more kneeling consorts, she couldn’t resist the urge.
She wanted to fight for the tragic life she’d lived, even at the cost of her life.
Dong E’s kneel was like a rallying cry after a massacre.
The consorts of Prince Hongxi, Crown Prince, and Prince Yu stood together with resolute sorrow.
Their faces tinged with desperate grief, none regretted their choice, filling most of the space.
There is a saying: the defeated soldier’s victory is certain; law does not punish the crowd.
The princes and nobles acted like they suddenly got stabbed in the back, gaped, speechless.
Even Fuquan and Changning darkened their faces and downed drink after drink in silence.
Yinreng’s eyelids twitched furiously as he stood up abruptly.
“Your Majesty—”
Kangxi, as if infuriated to the extreme, laughed suddenly, cutting off Yinreng.
With heavy drunkenness but with clear voice he said, “Fine. I grant you this. I accept this wager!”
“Your Majesty!”
The eldest Prince Yinzhi jumped up in surprise.
“Your Majesty!”
Not only the Elder Prince and Crown Prince, but all the men present who could stand quickly rose, some nearly fainting, loudly trying to stop him.
Fang He shouted before they could, “Your Majesty has spoken. I accept your decree!”
Concubine Jing and the other ladies had not drunk much.
Their flushed faces betrayed pounding hearts, knowing this dreamlike chance had truly arrived.
One by one, quick-witted, they all shouted—
“Your Majesty has spoken. I accept!”
Just as Yinreng was about to continue persuading the emperor to rescind, he turned to see several of his usually indifferent sisters—from Princess Hajilan to Fifth Princess Galu Dai—all kneeling beside their seats.
Yinreng: “…”
‘What are they making a scene for?’
Before long, Yinreng failed to stop the furious Kangxi, who angrily strode out, sleeves flying, without giving anyone another chance to speak.
The next moment, the Hall fell silent, cold as a graveyard.
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