Many years ago, if Mira had seen a scene like this, she might have sighed and thought, "How nice, this family looks so happy. The son is caring, and the parents love each other."
But the truth was, both the young man and the middle-aged man were husbands of that middle-aged woman.
This was a world where women were more powerful, and there were very few of them. Just walking down the street as a woman could attract a lot of attention.
Young women especially stood out. Even if a woman wasn't very beautiful, she could still marry several handsome and rich husbands. Because women were treated so highly, many of them became spoiled. Mira often saw middle-aged women acting cute or needy in public, though she still couldn't get used to it.
When Mira and her father Riyo suddenly appeared on the street together, they quickly caught everyone's attention.
Many people turned to look at them. Some men even stared at Riyo, who was on Mira's back, with looks of dislike. A few pointed at him and seemed to be talking about them.
Mira could hear people quietly guessing her gender. Some even wondered if she was being abused.
Others said it couldn't be a girl. After all, who would let their weak and delicate daughter carry a grown man on her back in public?
But Mira and Riyo acted like they didn't notice the stares or hear the whispers.
Mira knew these people were looking down on her father. In their eyes, he was useless. He was so weak that he had to be carried around.
In this world, weak men who couldn't support a woman were looked down on the most. If they went out in public, people might even yell at them.
In the past, Riyo would have cared a lot about what people said. But after Mira talked to him and helped him understand, he started to let it go. He knew his weak body couldn't slow her down. He agreed they should hurry to the Lu family's house.
It would be noon soon, and Riyo didn't want Mira to get heatstroke.
He stayed quiet and gently wiped the sweat off his daughter's forehead. Mira walked faster, following the directions she got at the gate. At the same time, she stayed alert in case some man tried to stop her and "save" her without knowing the truth.
Mira clearly understood this world was completely different from the one she came from.
For some reason, the number of men and women was not balanced here. The latest report said that there were ten men for every woman.
Because women were rare, they were treated very specially. They had to follow many rules. The government made many laws to protect women. If someone broke those laws, they could be punished very seriously.
Also, in this world, marriage worked differently. Women married men. It was common for one woman to have several husbands.
The government said that a normal woman must marry at least four men before she turned thirty-five. If she didn't, the government would force her to marry. They would even send men directly into her home.
When Mira first learned about this, she almost fainted.
She told herself that she would just find a place to live quietly and grow old alone. She would never follow those rules.
She remembered the first month after she arrived in this world. She saw the old-style room and thought maybe she had ended up in some historical story. She noticed that her mother, as a woman, ordered her father around, which felt strange. But she still didn't realize how different this world really was.
Later, one night while half-asleep, she saw the nursemaid who took care of her being close and loving with several men.
At first, Mira was shocked and scared. She thought the nursemaid was secretly dating too many men and might get caught.
Then one day, she saw those men sitting close to the nursemaid, talking sweetly to her. Mira listened carefully to what they said and finally understood. All of those men were her husbands and male companions.
Mira: 0-0
Mira was completely shocked. She suddenly found herself in a strange and bizarre world and kept worrying that she might see something even worse.
Luckily, her household, managed by Riyo, had strict rules for the servants. Other than the first time when she saw the nanny sitting with her arms around two of her husbands while greeting her, she didn't see anyone else doing anything inappropriate.
Later, she learned that her mother had married into her father's family, which was why she only had one father. In this world, that kind of marriage was actually unusual.
Men had to pay a heavy price to bring a woman into their family. Women who married this way were often mocked by other women.
In this society, although women married men, everything else was the same as Mira's old world. Men worked to support the family, while women stayed home to have children. They didn't even need to take care of the children or do housework. All those things were handled by servants or husbands. Women just had to enjoy life.
But after the Empress came to power, many women started running businesses, taking exams for official jobs, and trying to support their families.
All these changes began three years ago.
At that time, the country wasn't called Xiguo, and Laifeng City wasn't so rich and lively.
The emperor was still a man, and women didn't have the freedom they have now. They couldn't follow their dreams or walk openly in the streets.
In those days, women could only live in their parents' homes or move into their husband's homes after marriage. Once married, the husband's property became the woman's property. She could use anything the husband owned. Women didn't need to make money. They just had to find a rich husband and live a life of comfort.
That might sound like a perfect life for women. But Mira didn't want that kind of happiness.
It looked like women had an easy life, but in truth, they were controlled their whole lives. They were spoiled and raised to be fragile and dependent, like decorations or baby-making tools.
Even now, many women still lived like that. But because of the new laws and the Empress's example, more and more women started to want something different. They wanted to live their own lives.
Three years ago, the Empress fought against the former emperor to take the throne. Her five husbands helped her from both inside and outside the palace. In the end, she won. After taking the throne, she quickly made new laws to protect women's safety and freedom.
Many nobles and rich people didn't like the new laws. But husbands who truly loved their wives and many women supported them.
One of the most talked-about laws was this. If a woman was very talented and made big contributions to the country or paid enough money, she didn't have to marry four husbands.
This law was Mira's favorite.
She had always believed in one husband and one wife. She had never even thought about getting married.
Now, this world expected her to live with four men in the future. That was something she just couldn't accept. For the past few years, she had lived in fear, always hiding, afraid that someone might see her on the street and try to make her marry into their family.
If the Empress had never taken the throne, if those new laws hadn't been made, if the last three years hadn't changed anything, Mira would have rather stayed hidden in a small village for the rest of her life.
But when she heard about that law, it felt like she had finally found hope in a dark world.
She didn't think she had a high chance of meeting the law's conditions. But at least it gave her something to aim for. Why not try? She still had twenty years. If she failed by then, she could make a new plan.
That's why she had been watching carefully for the past three years, always worried that the Empress might give in to pressure and cancel the law.
The support and opposition to the law were very unbalanced. Only a few women supported it. Most others were against it.