V3: Chapter 2: Sister, We Should Get Down to Business
Everything has settled down, including the Langwendi family.
Liang Di and Liang Lin have been incredibly busy for the past month, finishing up the remaining work.
A new king has ascended the throne, bringing about a major upheaval throughout the empire.
The new king has promulgated new laws and regulations, several of which are particularly noteworthy, offering numerous benefits and conveniences to commoners and women.
For civilians, the benefits include:
1. "Raising the minimum wage to ensure that working civilians receive sufficient income to maintain a basic standard of living, reducing poverty and improving overall welfare."
2. "Strengthening rights protection, prohibiting exploitative employment of civilians, improving their working conditions, and banning the practice of 'dismissal and re-employment.' These measures aim to safeguard the legitimate rights of civilians, reduce labor disputes, and increase satisfaction."
3. "Promoting infrastructure construction, accelerating housing and infrastructure development, enhancing the capacity of local planning departments, and simplifying permitting procedures for related projects. This will help improve the living conditions of civilians, promote economic development, and advance the empire."
4. "Strengthening the social security system: increasing the coverage and level of social security to ensure that civilians receive timely and effective assistance when facing risks."
And some benefits for women:
1. "Promoting gender equality, explicitly stipulating the principle of gender equality in law, eliminating gender discrimination, and guaranteeing women's equal rights in employment, education, and political participation."
2. "Strengthening anti-sexual harassment and anti-domestic violence efforts, formulating stricter and more comprehensive rules and provisions to combat sexual harassment and domestic violence, and protecting women's personal safety and mental health."
3. "Expand the scope of women's rights protection, providing women with more guarantees and support in areas such as pregnancy and reproductive health, ensuring they receive full care and respect during childbirth and child-rearing."
4. "Increase women's participation in the political and economic spheres, encouraging women to participate in political decision-making processes, increasing the proportion of women in male-dominated jobs, and simultaneously promoting economic development."
And the exploitation of some of the privileged rights of the nobility:
1. "Increase the types and amounts of taxes, increasing fiscal revenue by adding new taxes and raising the rates of existing taxes, with these taxes borne by the nobility. This could weaken the economic power of the nobility because they would need to pay more taxes."
2. "Restrict tax exemptions, as nobles typically enjoy certain tax exemptions. Therefore, these exemptions should be restricted through legal means."
3. "Increasing military conscription of nobles during wartime or when the king needs to expand the army, requiring them to provide more troops or material support. This increases the military burden on the nobility and may force them to expend more resources to meet the needs of the empire."
4. “Change the conscription system, abolishing the noble conscription system and replacing it with a mercenary system. While this doesn't directly deprive nobles of their rights, it may weaken their influence and status within the army.”
5. “Restrict land transfer and inheritance. Legally restrict nobles' rights to transfer and inherit land to ensure the empire's control over the allocation and use of land resources. This limits nobles' activities in the land market and weakens their economic power.”
6. “Confiscate property. In extreme cases, if nobles are accused of treason or other serious crimes, the empire can directly confiscate their property and land. While not a common practice, if it occurs, the impact on nobles will be enormous.”
7. “Reduce noble positions in government. By reducing the number of noble positions in government and lowering their ranks, their political influence will be weakened. This limits their opportunities and power to participate in imperial decision-making.”
8. “Strengthen central authority. Weaken the power of local nobles by strengthening central authority. For example, they might establish new administrative agencies to manage local affairs, thereby reducing dependence on local nobles.”
These are all the changes outlined above.
The nobles were full of complaints, but the commoners were quite happy. Although absolute fairness and justice were still impossible, the lives of commoners and women were far better than before.
Liang Lin and Liang Di were busy with these matters for a whole month. During that month, they had virtually no emotional interaction, constantly focused on their work. Even when they lay together, they would only hug each other to sleep, exhausted, without engaging in any other secretive or clandestine activities.
This busy period continued into the third month.
Finally, everything was finished, and life returned to normal.
Liang Lin finally had the opportunity to have afternoon tea with Liang Di.
"Phew~"
Life suddenly felt less hectic, less busy, and it was quite unusual.
Liang Lin sat somewhat awkwardly in her chair, looking at the blooming flowers in the back garden.
"Liang Di, it seems like it's been a long time since we went out for tea together, and enjoyed the scenery."
Liang Di hummed in agreement and nodded.
“It has indeed been a long time, and it’s been so long since we sat down to chat and have a heart-to-heart talk.”
She smiled slightly, picked up the teacup on the table, and took a sip.
“Today is a perfect day, isn’t it? We’ve finally finished everything, and we can finally rest for a while.”
After saying this, Liang Di put the teacup back on the table.
Liang Lin was about to say something when she looked up and met Liang Di’s solemn expression and gaze. Startled, she froze, the words stuck in her throat, and then she forgot what she was going to say.
“Sister Liang Lin, I want to tell you something very serious, extremely serious, and I hope you can take it seriously.”
Liang Di’s tone was quite heavy.
“You... you go ahead.”
Liang Lin followed, becoming nervous.
“I’m listening, go ahead.”
Liang Di cleared her throat, stood up from her chair, and walked around to Liang Lin’s side.
Liang Lin looked up at Liang Di.
Suddenly, Liang Di squatted down, like a kitten, nestled beside Liang Lin, resting her chin on the other's thigh, her big eyes blinking pitifully.
"Sister Liang Lin, do you remember what I told you a year ago?"
What she said a year ago?
So much time has passed, how could I possibly remember? Besides, Liang Di had told me so many things; I couldn't possibly remember every single one.
"Uh, I forgot what it was. Could you remind me?"
Liang Di pouted, silently uttering two short sentences.
"Child."
"I want a second child."
Author's Note
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