"When he learned that Mother had accidentally lost my little brother when he was six months old, that man beat her to death."
Although Gao San recounted everything calmly, speaking of it still stirred emotions she struggled to quiet.
Zi Shou nodded thoughtfully. Drowning a daughter once a son had been born was an all-too-common occurrence in feudal society.
Given the unequal treatment Gao San and her mother had suffered, he could understand why she thought this way.
Gao San must have been terribly confused back then. She could not have understood why, when she and her brother were both her parents' children, her father wanted to drown her but nurture her brother. Nor could she have understood why her mother had to be beaten to death simply for losing him.
Remembering things from the age of three was a little far-fetched, but her experiences truly were tragic.
After Gao San finished speaking, there was a brief silence.
Zhang Da, too, was shocked by Gao San's history.
Only after a long while did Gao San rally herself. "Your Majesty, I used to feel utterly lost. But Your Majesty's Ballad of Mulan, the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, and your promotion of Female Physicians to official posts showed me something different."
"Whether it was the Ballad of Mulan at the beginning or the Medical Academy, I saw them all as Your Majesty's efforts to change women's status! I understand your intentions, Your Majesty!"
"The former king Wu Ding was a wise ruler of his generation. He dared to employ the lowly official Fu Yue and the woman Fu Hao. Your Majesty is a sage king who can stand alongside him, even surpass him-the First Emperor."
"In the former king's time, Fu Hao restored the nation's prosperity and drove out foreign enemies.