Seeing Lin Yuelan’s surprised look, Jiang Zhennan said in a somewhat stunned manner, “This country’s Law of Filial Piety has too many drawbacks. Many people throw their children away after giving birth to them. When the children grow up, these same parents are thick-skinned enough to ask them to take care of them. They also demand things from their abandoned children.
“This is a common occurrence all over the country. Many shameless parents have forced their children to commit suicide by jumping into the river.
“The most outrageous thing was that six years ago, a high-ranking official of the Imperial court had been pestered by his shameless parents to give his brother and nephew official positions and to hand over his monthly salary to his parents for safekeeping. Otherwise, they would report him to the court for being unfilial. What was even more outrageous was that his parents had used this high-ranking official’s position to accept a large number of bribes.
“The official was reported by his political enemies. The Emperor investigated and found out that his parents had been doing it behind his back. According to the law, he had to bear all the blame. Thus, in his anger and grief, this high-ranking official jumped into the river. Fortunately, he was discovered in time and was saved.
“However, he had to bear ten years of imprisonment, but the Emperor took pity on him and spared him from prison. He even allowed him to continue to hold an official position, but he could only receive 30% of his salary to support his family’s expenses.
“This man was very grateful to the Emperor.
“However, this official’s parents were mad because their money source was gone. Thus, they threatened their son with the law again. They demanded he get more money, or they would bring him to court.
“The official was thus forced to demand bribes from other officials. Three years ago, he was found to have not only embezzled the money of the victims in disaster relief areas but also from the military.
“When this matter was reported, he had already embezzled at least ten million taels of silver in just a short three years. The emperor was so angry that he sentenced the official to decapitation.
“Before the official died, he said famously, ‘to be clean, I am unfilial; to be filial, I have to be dirty!’
“The official wanted to be a good and honest public servant to the Emperor, but he had no choice but to serve his parents. The law forced him to obey his parents unconditionally, or he’d be sent to court.
“Therefore, he only had two choices. He could choose not to be an incorruptible official, but he would be sued by his own parents. If he wanted to be a filial son, he couldn’t be an honest and good official.
“The Emperor was shocked after hearing his words.
“They immediately tracked down the whereabouts of the ten million taels of silver. Later, they found the ten million taels of silver in his family’s basement. The inspector checked the account book and found that not a single tael was missing. They also found another account book in a box.
“The account book had a complete record of the source of the silver. The account book also had a message left for the emperor.
“When the Emperor saw the contents of this account book, he cried bitterly.
“After that, he summoned me into the palace and asked my opinion about the law of filial piety.”
This was the first time in history that Jiang Zhennan had spoken so much.
Lin Yuelan’s heart moved when she heard him telling this story. She understood it very well, and her eyes immediately lit up as she said, “Big brother Nan, do you mean that in the future, it is very likely that the unreasonable filial piety laws in the Long Yan Country will be abolished?”
Jiang Zhennan nodded and said, “Yes, His Majesty does have such plans.
“The official was actually an abandoned child. When he was promoted to be an official, his biological parents tracked him down and fed on him like leeches.”
Lin Yuelan nodded and praised the official, “This official used his actions and his death to shock and inform the emperor about the unreasonable aspects of the law. To be forced to obey those who do not raise us, that is the sorrow of the whole country!”
Jiang Zhennan nodded and replied, “Yes. The unreasonable power given to parents through this law has caused countless tragedies!”
After receiving such good news, Lin Yuelan’s mood immediately brightened.
Previously, she was worried about how to completely cut off all ties with the Lin family. The stupid law was always in the way.
This was good news. Once the law was abolished by the Emperor no matter how rich or wealthy she was in the future, Lin Laosan’s family would not dare to threaten her with filial piety law anymore.
The reason why Lin Laosan’s family hadn’t taken any action yet was that they were temporarily frightened by Lin Yuelan.
After a period of time, they would definitely come back and make a scene again.
Lin Yuelan was happy to hear this good news, but she saw a man walking toward her from the corner of her eye.