Chapter 39: The Crime of Gender 39
Although most people in the Qin Clan survive by farming, there are a few wealthy families who send their children to study, and two of them have successfully passed the imperial exam to gain the title of Scholar.
The scholars were the first to get angry, as the court has laws specifying that officials cannot have someone with slave status within three generations of their family.
Unlike the previous dynasty, the current dynasty does not discriminate against those who sold themselves into servitude, so it is easy for someone with slave status to change to commoner status, as long as their master is willing to release them. However, slave status is different for those of lower, unchangeable status; once you become one, you can never change to commoner status.
Criminals automatically become part of the lower status, as do women who sell themselves to a brothel. Having someone of this lower status in the family is a disgrace to the entire clan.
This matter enraged the entire clan, and because of Mrs. Bai’s tragic death, the Qin Family members were heavily punished and almost expelled from the clan. It was only after Mr. Qin and the Qin Family knelt at the ancestral hall for three days, agreeing to grind rice for the clan for ten years in shifts, that they avoided expulsion.
Qin Shuangshuang fell gravely ill due to her mother’s death and became mentally slow. For three whole years, she wandered in a daze, calling every woman she saw "mother," unaware of how to eat or drink, and oblivious to the cold and warmth.
If her mother’s death hadn’t been so tragic, the Qin Family under the clan’s supervision wouldn’t have dared to let Qin Shuangshuang die. Reluctantly, they had to feed and clothe Qin Shuangshuang; otherwise, she would have starved or frozen to death.
Even so, Qin Shuangshuang was constantly in a state of hunger, often relying on the goodwill of villagers, eating from one house’s share today and another’s tomorrow to survive.