It turned out that when the loquat slept until Mao, she felt that her face was a little itchy, and it was gradually itchy, so when she got up to look, she saw countless small red rashes on her face.

This night it was she and Basho who were on duty here, and as soon as she made such a fuss, Cai Wei woke up, and when she saw the appearance on her face, she was also startled. The face of this girl is very delicate, and when the spring flowers bloom or sometimes eat some hair, there will be a rash on the face, but it has never been so bad. Busy asking Basho to see Mama Du is up, if she does, ask her to come and take a look at the loquat.

For a while, Mama Du came over, saw the description on her face, and comforted her a few words first, only saying that although it looked terrifying, wait for a few flavors of medicine to come back and decoction and wash a few times, but it will be fine in three or five days. Then he asked her, "But you have such a rash again after eating the few things I don't let you eat?" ”

Loquat made a bitter face and shook his head again and again, "Since Mama told me, how dare I eat those things again!" ”

Mama Du also wondered when she heard it, it was just February, and many flowers had not bloomed yet, and there were no flowers, powder, or other things scattered around, why did this loquat have so many rashes on its face?

I heard loquat crying: "I originally wanted to use this peach blossom jade powder to be beautiful for a while, but I didn't think that I would use it once to become like this." ”

The plantain on the side listened to it and stopped drying, "That's because your skin is too thin, and you can't be blessed with such good powder, how can you blame this peach blossom powder, I used this powder with you yesterday, but you look at my complexion today, how good it is, although I only used it once, I feel whiter than usual!" ”

When Mama Du heard this, she seemed to suddenly remember something, and hurriedly said, "Quickly bring that powder to me to see?" ”

Everyone was a little puzzled when they heard it, could it be that there was something wrong with this powder?

Basho hurriedly handed the box of peach blossom pollen to Mama Du's hand, and saw her dip it lightly, wipe it evenly on the back of her left hand, and pull out a silver hairpin from under her head to rub it back and forth on the back of her left hand, and after a while, she saw that the silver hairpin was a little black.

Loquat exclaimed: "Could it be that this powder is poisonous, but Mama Du shook her head, and asked them to pour a bowl of water, poured some peach blossom pollen into the water, and after a while, poured all the pink water on it, and saw that there were many fine powdery things at the bottom of the bowl, but they failed to melt into the water."

Mama Du then said: "I am afraid that this powder is mixed with some Hu powder and dansha, in fact, these two things are commonly used in those inferior fat powders, although the first use of the effect is very fast, can brighten the skin, but if it is used for a long time, it can ruin a good face into black spots, old and rough, the most disfiguring face." In the past, when they were in the palace, some high-ranking concubines were afraid that the young beauties who had just entered the palace would share the king's favor, so they often gave this kind of fat powder mixed with hu powder or dansha to those newcomers, which would spoil their color. It's just that there are too many of these two things in this box of powder for the girl, and I'm afraid that if this box of powder is used up, the girl's face will be ......."

Basho heard this and said angrily: "Didn't you say that this Spring Rouge is the No. 1 fat powder shop in Beijing today?" Actually sell this kind of thing to harm people! ”

Cai Wei shook her head and said: "Since this shop is so famous in the capital, then they will never use shoddy products and smash their own signboards, but I am afraid that our box of powder will be tampered with." ”

Mama Du nodded and said, "That's what I think too." ”

Mama Guo couldn't bear it anymore, "I don't know who is so black-hearted that he came up with such a subordinate means to harm our girl, fortunately the girl never uses these things, otherwise-"

Cai Wei also smiled: "Fortunately, the face of this girl is delicate, and she can't stand it after only using it once, but she tried to find it bad, otherwise if you use it for a few more days, even if I escape, you two won't be able to save your face." ”

Basho was also busy thanking Loquat, "This time it's thanks to you, if there is any fat powder rouge sent back, we will ask you to try it first, and when you use it well, we dare to use it with confidence." ”

At this time, the people in the house were all brought by Cai Wei from Meizhou, only a fragrant orange was missing, but they were guarding outside, because of the matter of the New Year's money, Cai Wei was afraid that the wall had ears, and every time she said something important, she always had to send a girl to guard outside before she dared to speak with confidence.

I heard another big girl, Gan Tang, say: "Even if we can do this with fat powder and the like, what if the bad guy puts something in the meal?" ”

Cai Wei smiled and said: "I'm not afraid, as long as they still think about my dowry, they won't ask for my little life first." My father once told me that my court has a law that if an orphan girl dies unmarried, all the dowry she once entered in the government will be collected into the treasury, and a relative will not get a copper plate. Dad had put a dowry list into the official file in Meizhou that day, another copy is now received by my grandmother, and there is a copy of ......" but he didn't say it anymore.

Everyone knew where the dowry list was, and they didn't break it, they just smiled.

Mama Du also said: "They tried their best to move the girl away from Mrs. Tai, just to be at the mercy of the girl, when Mama Guo went out to collect and sell sacrifices, she deliberately passed by the girl's silk shop, and saw that there were several face-to-face guys there, but I was afraid that the person's hand had reached into the shop." ”

Gan Tang listened and hurriedly said, "How can that be good?" Is there anything we can do? ”

Cai Wei shook her head, "What can we do now, although those farm shops are in my name, I can't take care of them before I get married." Fortunately, as soon as the title deeds were all in the hands of my grandmother, they put their hands in them, and at most they could get some of the profits they earned each year. As long as they don't have the heart to hurt others, they will just be greedy for more silver, my father has already said that the income from these fields and shops is going to be used as my expenses in this house, so we don't have to feel distressed. ”

Seeing that Mama Guo was still worried, Mama Du also said: "The girl is very right, there is indeed this law, as long as the person still thinks about greedy for the money in the girl's dowry shop, they will never harm the girl's life, otherwise the bamboo basket will be empty at that time." ”

Mama Guo recited the Buddha, "It's really thanks to such a law, I don't know which saint set it up, and I don't know how many poor girls have been saved!" ”

Cai Wei said with a smile: "This law was jointly submitted to the first emperor by Song Shangshu of the Household Department and Gu Shangshu of the Criminal Department during the reign of the first emperor Guangzong. Our Yan Qin from the Hongwu Dynasty, women's life is no longer as comfortable as before, to the Tianshun Queen heroine in the court, ignoring the three from the four virtues, and trying to improve the status of women, not only allow women to set up a household, but also participate in the scientific examination to enter the court as an official, but also abolished the seven out of the divorce of the wife, only and divorce, righteousness two methods to choose. It's a pity that decades later, after her son Emperor Xianzong returned to power, not only did he abolish all of them, but instead intensified the imprisonment of women. ”

"Women are not allowed to read books such as the subset of scriptures and histories, only the four books of women, not even poems and songs. The law of divorce of wives was re-established, but no reconciliation and divorce were allowed, and if a woman was divorced, not a single dowry could be taken back. He also abolished the female household, and did not allow women to recruit money, and if they had no children and did not want to succeed, they would be cut off, and at most half of the family wealth would be given to the daughter as a dowry, and the rest would be returned to the treasury. In addition, the real estate such as the woman's dowry, land, property, and shops are also shared by the man's family, and the dowry must be known to her husband. Even if the wife dies without any biological children, the mother's family cannot be recovered, but the concubine can also be shared, because it is also the son in her name. ”*

When Gan Tang heard this, he couldn't help but say: "What kind of bastard law is this, fortunately this is not the case now, otherwise I would rather not marry for the rest of my life than marry out to suffer hardships and sins, and give others to make wedding clothes for nothing!" ”

Cai Wei sighed: "It's because this law has only been practiced for twenty or thirty years, and there have been many cases. Some men are so shameless that they live on their wives' dowries, but instead they take concubines, and the sons born to their wives are killed by their concubines, but they divorce their wives on the grounds that they have no children, and even swallow other people's dowries. Although our women are weak, there are also some fierce women, who are forced to be anxious, and in a fit of anger, they simply poison or set fire to the house, causing many tragedies where the whole family dies. ”

Gradually, many women preferred to comb themselves or become nuns, or even to fight to the death rather than get married. I don't know how many orphan girls' dowries were taken by relatives and killed. Until one day in the first emperor's dynasty, an old lady stopped the sedan chair of Gu Shangshu of the Criminal Department on the street to file a complaint, saying that she was the nurse of the only daughter of an official eunuch surnamed Lin, and after the death of her young lady's parents, because she was engaged to her cousin, she was fostered in her uncle's house, not wanting her uncle's family to be greedy for her dowry, and thinking that she was an orphan girl who could not bring the help of her mother's family, so she actually murdered her for money, first drove them away as old servants, and then rubbed and treated the young lady in every way, abusing her to death. ”

Gu Shangshu checked it, and as the old woman said, he made the decision to avenge her, and later someone wrote this story into a play, which is called "Revenge". That Lord Gu is a rare good official, he later investigated carefully, and found that in the case files reported by the local government offices, there were many orphan girls who were killed by relatives who were not married and were killed by their relatives for money, or were killed by their husbands after marriage, and even after the marriage of non-orphan girls, the husband's family was greedy for their dowry, and there were not a few who were abused to death or killed. At this time, the Hubu Shangshu was also distressed by the increasing number of women who would rather die than marry, so after the two Shangshu discussed, they jointly explained the matter to the first emperor, and pleaded to rewrite the law to protect some of the rights and interests of women. ”

When Basho heard this, he asked, "Then the first emperor is also a man, how can he agree to the invitation of these two scholars?" ”

Cai Wei smiled: "If according to what you say, then these two Shangshu are also men, why do they want to speak for our women?" There are always some far-sighted men in this world who can sympathize with the suffering of our women. As for the first emperor, he couldn't be compassionate, but his own mother, Concubine Xiaode, happened to be an orphan girl, and her own uncle took her dowry to his own daughter, and married her husband who was originally scheduled to be given to her in her name, but sent her to the palace as a palace maid. Because the concubine knew the suffering of orphan daughters, she strongly persuaded the first emperor to allow her to play, re-establish the law, and determine that the woman's dowry was all private property, and the husband's family should not occupy it, and how to distribute it to the children was decided by the woman. ”

"An orphan girl may also receive one-third of her father's property as a dowry, the remaining one-third to be paid to the state treasury, one-third to the clan sacrifice field, and half of the family property to the state treasury and half as a dowry. If an orphan dies without marriage, her family property will be returned to the treasury, and if she dies childless after marriage, it will also be returned to the treasury. Since this law was issued, I really don't know how many women's lives have been saved in the past few decades. ”

After listening to her explanation, everyone really put their minds at ease, but Loquat was still puzzled, "Then who did it in the girl's peach blossom pollen?" Why do you want to harm the girl like this? ”

Cai Wei took the box of peach blossom powder in her hand, looked at it over and over, and said, "I'm afraid that I offended someone in this mansion, so people retaliated against me like this." It's not hard to know who did it. ”

She handed the box of peach blossom powder in her hand to Mama Guo, "I'm going to bother Mama to go out for a run again, first buy a few flavors of medicine for loquat to cure her rash, and then go to Chun Rouji to buy a box of peach blossom jade powder that is exactly the same as this one." Mama must remember that on the way back, I threw away this box of powder mixed with things, so as not to throw it in our courtyard and cause some trouble. ”

Mama Guo was a little distressed about the silver, and a little puzzled, "What does the girl want to spend money to buy another box of this powder?" ”

Cai Wei smiled a little slyly, "Mountain people have their own wonderful uses, we can't be so calculated, how much we have to return the color." ”

At that moment, Mama Guo went to the back corner door, gave the mother-in-law who guarded the door 500 yuan, and went out of the house to buy a few flavors of medicine written on paper by Mama Du, and then went to Chun Yanji to buy the peach blossom and jade powder. She carefully put the newly purchased powder in her arms, wrapped the box of powder mixed with the contents in a rag and threw it into a wooden barrel on the corner of the street for storing discarded things.

She only cared about complaining about the gold of the peach blossom and jade powder, and asked for three taels of silver for a box, not noticing that behind her, a figure was picking up the rag bag she had just discarded from the old wooden barrel, opening it and taking a look, putting it in her arms, and turning away.