Of Soil And Sovereign

Early the next morning, Mei went to the town just to look around and do research before creating and distributing the pads she decided to create.

She did not want to do it via a shop because she wanted it to be available for all women so that commoners too could easily access it once she was done creating and releasing it.

In all eras, women bore the silent burden of menstruation shrouded in taboo.

The era she was born in and was from was used to justify excluding women from high-level positions of power because it made them "emotional", and were not to be trusted with important decisions in this era, with no proper sanitary hygiene, she was sure the methods currently used brought discomfort and infection to girls and women all around.

She had already drawn the design, and she used clothes as she was hoping to create a reusable one. The cloth at the base will be thick, with some cushions to absorb blood stuffed at the centre and a cloth fabric that will not irritate the body at the top. For easier pad placement, she will also add a button to one wing and a hole to the other. Having found the perfect fabric after a long search through the market's many shops, she hired a carriage and went home.

She forgot to ask about the carriage last night and wrote Xuan a letter this evening. She thought about how to pass on the word as she did not want shops to commercialize. Should think of a good way and be disappointed by the lack of effective advertising channels. She was downcast.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. She remembered travelling theatre troupes and who would be better suited to spread the word far and wide. She decided the troupe were the best people to do that, so after finishing, she will look for some and pay them to distribute samples and the design and also spread the word.

Years later, the identity and origin of this lifesaving invention were a mystery, but its positive effect on thousands of young girls and new mothers, relieving them of their stains, fear and shame.

Around midday, Mei got back to her estate, and once she freshened, the steward came requesting an audience. Once they met, he handed over a letter that he received from General Liu's family, inviting her to a birthday party celebration for the young Miss of the family.

She knew it was Chen who invited her to have her and her brother get acquainted in the noble circle, and this was the start of it. Since she had a week, she needed to prepare a unique gift and get her and her brother some nice clothes and jewellery as she needed to make a good first impression. Also, what better place to introduce her creation of the panties and the pads, as all the noble ladies will probably be in attendance

She requested a paper and wrote a letter to Xuan requesting his help in buying a carriage and sent them steward to deliver the letter.

In Duke's residence, he received a letter, but today he was not curious as he had a problem of his own as he was busy thinking about a gift to give to his fiancee on her birthday, and his mind couldn't come up with any unique ideas.

He just gave his steward to deliver the letter and to take it to the palace and make sure the chief eunuch of the emperor receives it and went back to his study to think more.

That's when the dinner they had last night came to mind, and the games were unique, so he knew the miss could help with suggestions to assist him in coming up with an idea for a gift.

With that part now settled, his moods improved, and since he wanted to visit them sometime later and ask about how to make the games they placed as he wanted to have some, he wrote them a letter and requested a visit and handed it over to a servant.

In the prime minister's residence, Shirong was thinking about all that happened last evening. Wondering how his two cousins made it back to the circle how they could afford to buy an estate, and also how they got acquainted with the emperor and the masters from the two most powerful families in the entire empire. 

When everything happened and they arrested his cousin's father, his grandfather called a meeting to tell everyone that, from then on, the Fang family would cut ties with the Li family and would offer no contact or help to any of its members; that was his final decision.

His grandmother threw a tantrum about them abandoning their grandchildren when they needed them most, but his grandfather ignored her. Over the past two years, his constant surveillance prevented her from secretly helping her grandchildren on many occasions.

That's why, till now, his grandparents were not on talking terms, and his grandfather spent the nights in his studies.

Now what he was confused about was whether or not to tell them what he saw.

He decided his grandmother deserved some peace of mind to know her grandchildren were not suffering anymore and had now moved back to the capital. Maybe then she could come back to who she was before. So he went to her courtyard and requested an audience expecting a rejection, and after standing for a while, he could hear being summoned into the chambers.

Once he entered, a sixty-year-old, old woman with age visible on her face and her hair and her hair with white stricken put into an elegant bun sat there on the chair seeping tea.

He rarely saw his grandmother the past two years as she had waged a war against his father and grandfather and made an announcement that if her other grandchildren were suffering, this ones too would suffer, and she has had very minimal interaction with them the past two years. That's why he was shocked when he was summoned in and was not turned away as done previously, claiming "fatigue ".