All the Upright Officials present instinctively held their breath and focused. Though they had yet to notice anything strange, they devoted their full attention to the little one's inner voice.
-Emperor Mingze was handsome and carried himself with extraordinary bearing, and at first glance, he exuded that captivating aura unique to the wealthy.
When all three qualities came together in one person, anyone would involuntarily focus all their attention on him.
What was more, they were on the Spring Reliance River, where Jiangnan's Slender Horses most often appeared. If Ding Ruihan truly had that sort of background, it was perfectly normal for her to have eyes for no one else.
But...
Everyone's breathing quickened.
Anyone who passed up gossip was either an idiot or a fool!
Under everyone's burning gazes, Jiang Yingcheng quickly skimmed Ding Ruihan's information, and then-
Gasp- She sucked in a great breath of cold air!
Is this Slender Horse the kind of Slender Horse Chengcheng knows about?!
The Upright Officials who could hear the little one's thoughts: Whoa!!
She really was a Slender Horse!!
-Slender Horses were a peculiar "industry" that had arisen in Jiangnan under the incompetent rule of the Former Dynasty's Imperial Family.
Back then, ordinary people lived in great hardship, and most struggled to feed their families, young and old. Unscrupulous merchants would visit impoverished households, select pretty little girls, and buy them for next to nothing. They brought the girls into their residences and taught them music, chess, calligraphy, painting, needlework, singing, and dancing. Once the girls grew up, the merchants would sell them as concubines to wealthier merchants or officials under the guise of marrying off "adopted daughters."
Some went even further, selling them straight into brothels and sealing these women's miserable fates.
Great Rui had always wanted to eradicate this