Chapter 1250: Chapter 1222: Cunningly Leveraging Arlong's Power (Extra chapter for 100+ monthly tickets) Chapter 1250: Chapter 1222: Cunningly Leveraging Arlong's Power (Extra chapter for 100+ monthly tickets) “Teacher, I have something to say, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to speak out?”
“Please, go ahead.” The lecturer, seeing Kiara about to speak, immediately braced herself for a verbal skirmish. If this little girl dared to bring up something irrelevant, she would lecture on how women are prone to stir up trouble with their sharp tongues just to embarrass her in public.
“May I ask the master, when you mentioned 'Women's Virtue,' to which text are you referring? To my knowledge, there is no ancient book in our dynasty called 'Women's Virtue.' Forgive my limited knowledge, but could you enlighten me as to which book you are quoting from?”
“Of course, it's authored by Queen Xiao-ren of Emperor Ming, the paragon of wifely conduct. She encapsulated all the great qualities of Women's Virtitude in an extraordinarily demure manner!”
“Excuse me, my PhD Advisor just happens to have delved into this area, and he told me that Empress Samaras wrote 'Inner Training,' not a book called 'Women's Virtue.' As for the origins of the term 'Women's Virtue,' my advisor has also discussed it with me. Being a master, you must be even more knowledgeable than my advisor, right? Can you share the origins of the term 'Women's Virtue'?”
Oh crap!
The words “FML” floated through the lecturer's mind. After lecturing for so long and fooling so many women, she now encountered someone challenging her, and this little girl seemed to be an expert, casually throwing around terms like 'PhD Advisor' and 'origins.' How educated was she?
And she looked so young, too! The lecturer felt her world crumbling.
Why would Kiara's mentor discuss such things with her, especially Professor Liu Taylor, who was a staunch feminist? She hated these kinds of restraints on women, let alone talk about them. Kiara was simply showing off her academic pedigree to intimidate the lecturer.
Sure enough, after hearing about Kiara's academic background, the lecturer panicked a bit, but fortunately, she could answer Kiara's question.
“The term 'Women's Virtue' comes from 'Records of the Grand Historian.'
“As expected, Master, please continue.”
With just a few sentences, Kiara had gauged the master's level. It seemed she might have bought some pirated books from a street stall, memorized quite a bit, but lacked scholarly verification of the contents.
The lecturer kept fretting over the fact that Kiara said Empress Samaras didn't write a book called 'Women's Virtue,' and it made her prone to misspeaking during the lecture, frequently forgetting parts, while Kiara just smiled and waited for the chance to disrupt her further.
After speaking for a while and noticing Kiara silent, the lecturer breathed a sigh of relief and continued.
“A woman should be as gentle as water, for only a gentle woman is loveable. As the 'Women's Classic' states, one should comply with one's husband's words and endure even that which is unbearable. It means that a woman must listen to her husband, and even if he's wrong, she must bear it. Modern women lack this kind of patient compliance, a real virtue. The slightest thing happens, and they argue with their husbands, flipping heaven and earth, which will eventually bring trouble and misfortune upon themselves!”
This was utter dross among dross, applying feuding virtues meant to constrain women of that era to contemporary women, which was asking for trouble. The times have evolved to the size of a size 38 foot, yet trying to force a size 38 foot into a size 20 shoe, insisting that women back then were better off for it, was simply inviting a backlash.
Kiara's eyes twinkled, and she nudged Arlong, who was almost snoring from dozing off. Stirred by Kiara's prodding, Arlong shivered awake, and Kiara whispered something in his ear. Arlong, a bit embarrassed, blushed and said in a low voice to Kiara,
“Sis, doing this… wouldn't it be wrong?”
“That old witch was just saying that pretty women are vixens. If you can tolerate that, then don't do anything.”
Upon hearing this, Arlong sprang to his feet. He had one principle: if anyone dared to bully his sister, he was ready to dig up their ancestral graves. Arlong would allow Kiara to be killed but not insulted!
In this house, there was only one man, Arlong, a towering figure who, when he stood up, commanded all attention. Suddenly, a room full of middle-aged women's gazes fell upon him, curious to hear what this tall guy had to say.
Arlong's face turned a bright red, but he still did as Kiara told him and asked, stuttering.
“You said that women should be obedient to us, right?”
“Yes, the man is of 'Qian,' the principal of masculinity, and the woman is of 'Kun,' the principal of femininity. 'Kun' must obey 'Qian' to maintain social order, and a man who cannot control a woman is not masculine.”
The lecturer, having seen Kiara whispering to him, said this on purpose, assuming that Kiara and Arlong were husband and wife.
“So, what if I like beating my wife? When I have one, suppose I hit her three times a day. In the morning, if she annoys me, I kick her, and at noon, if I don't like the meal she cooked, she gets a slap across her underpants. At night, if she doesn't properly bring me foot wash, I give her a few big slaps across the face. Are you saying that women should still obey in these situations?”
Noisily–the room exploded like a frying pan. Arlong's words instantly sparked the women's dissatisfaction. The freshly indoctrinated ideas from the teacher were blown away in an instant, and even Kiara's mother trembled with anger. Could this bear of a child dare to say such outrageous things?!
When Kiara's mother heard her son say this, she immediately threw away the previous teachings about obedience and meekness from her mind. Her determination to become a gentle old lady had barely lasted half an hour before it was broken, as she stood up, wanting to kick her son.
Lil' bunny, if you have the guts, say it one more time. See if your mum won't skin you!
Kiara quickly pulled her mum back to sit down, and Arlong, grimacing, continued to ask.
“Your words just now imply that no matter what a man says, a woman must listen and bear with it, even if it's wrong. So, what if I have a liking for beating my daughter-in-law? Is there a 'Men's Virtue' that governs men's behavior to deal with this?”
“That…”
There really was none.
Kiara smirked with contempt, acknowledging that among the shackles imposed on women in ancient times, although some were not bad, the dregs were many, primarily serving the convenience of patriarchal rule. Why is it that people nowadays have overturned those so-called books of female restraint?
This is because only women's virtue was regulated, with no constraints on men. Now, in families, both men and women are expected to undertake economic obligations, and when both are earning roughly the same, to still try enforcing those old ways is asking for trouble!
Faced with Arlong's probing and the other women in the audience who had been agitated by his words, the lecturer found herself caught between a rock and a hard place. If she denied her earlier teachings, it would all be for naught, but affirming them without a reasonable explanation would also displease the women.
“First of all, you must control your temper and try not to hit a woman–”
“But you said masculinity is destined to override femininity,” Arlong pursued, following Kiara's instructions, clinging doggedly to any loophole in her argument.
“Right, master, my husband always beats me, what should I do in this case?” a woman from the audience asked.
“You still need to endure. If you can manage to be enduring and submissive, he will naturally change. If he is the sharp knife, then you be the gentle water, bearing whatever comes, and he will naturally change.”
This time, without any prompting from Kiara, Arlong himself couldn't stand to listen anymore.
“Master, what if I'm the type of man like me? The more a woman behaves, the more I feel like hitting her. What if the more submissive she is, the more I beat her?”
Chapter end
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