Before Madam Feng finished her words and the grievance came to Sheng Weiqiao's mind, Mrs. Zhan got impatient first and rolled her sleeves to clutch her big daughter, snapping, "What are you saying!"
"Stop messing up, mother!" Madam Feng dodged with irritation and hit the table, "I'll tell the truth. My sister has no son. No matter how nice Weiqiao is, she'll marry someone else—now Sheng Lanci didn't grumble or have other concubines but only bring back a son of a mistress. He didn't even bring the mistress! Anyone who's asked to make judgments on this case would persuade us to forgive!"
"But Sheng Lanci, when he proposed to Yinlu, made such big vow that he wouldn't drift from her in any case!" Mrs. Zhan wasn't convinced, "If he didn't say that, even if he brought back a son of a mistress or that he had a concubine, I would say nothing though I feel sorry for my daughter and granddaughter! But he made the vow and he broke it, so why can't we question that?"
She added, "At least, Yinlu hasn't entered her age of incapacity to give birth! Even if she can't have a son in the future, the second son and third son in Sheng Family do have sons. He adopts one and he'll have a son himself, right?! To say the worse, get our Weiqiao an adopted husband, and let Weiqiao's son be named after Sheng. Doesn't it work?!"
"Even for poor families, is there anyone with some pride in heart willing to be adopted? Just for the succession of blood, you'll make do with Weiqiao's marriage? Even Sheng Lanci won't do that! But who doesn't want to leave his heritage to his own children?" Madam Feng said, untouched, "Especially that Family Sheng is totally built by Sheng Lanci alone. He resigned his position and came back to take on the business of his ancestors and after so many years of hard work he'll confer all this to other people. If you were him, mother, would you be happy?"
Mrs. Zhan fell silent.
Sheng Lanci was a decent former candidate Jinshi in the imperial examination and he once entered the National Academy. He was supposed to make accomplishments in the imperial court. But Old Mr. Sheng was badly ill in bed. He was too worried, so he asked the absence to return and fulfill his duties as a son. Seeing that the stepmother, brothers, and sisters too incapable and messed up their family business, which also vexed a lot Old Mr. Sheng in bed, he resigned.
From then on, he took care of Old Mr. Sheng and attended to their family business.
In about twenty years, he expanded the originally ordinary rich Sheng Family to one of the three most powerful families in Nanfeng County.
Such great commitment, unless he had no son, or who'd love to transfer it to a nephew?
"But he's in the wrong..." Mrs. Zhan's displeased words were interrupted lightly by Madam Feng, "He's in the wrong, but mother, do you want my sister to continue living with Sheng Lanci? If you want a divorce, our two families could get people to create havoc at Sheng Family and insult him as all we can. Even if we collaborate to oppress Sheng Family, it's reasonable."
"But if you still want my little sister to be the wife of Sheng Family, you please yourself and make a big scene, but how would Yinlu and Weiqiao live in Sheng Family later on?"
Her countering made Mrs. Zhan mute. Seeing her granddaughter also stunned over there, she felt a sudden sorrow, held her into the arms and cried, "My poor Weiqiao!"
Mrs. Yue and Mrs. Wu seeing that, all cried with their mother-in-law, "Why is our Weiqiao so pitiful..."
"Sheng Lanci never disobey Yinlu. But this time, before the son of a mistress entered the house, she'd already pack up baggage and come back. For more, she stayed until now!" Madam Feng bided for a moment, seeing that they were not to stop, and she could only raise her voice to catch their attention, "In this case, Sheng Shuihe still entered the house, right? So if you, Weiqiao, get angry now, what else do you think you'll get except for others' mocking that you've lost your father's love?"
Her words frustrated Weiqiao. She wept and said, "So according to you, I'll have to live my life catering to the mood of a mistress's son? What's the fun of living such a life? I'd rather die now!"
"Sweetheart, don't make it difficult for yourself!" Madam Feng heard that, and her face was frightened to pale. She held Weiqiao, cradling and sobbing, "So heartless your father is! He's raised you up, treating you as the only baby, so how could he abandon you so easily?!"
In order to compensate her fault and redeem her mother-in-law's good feelings about her, Mrs. Wu cried even louder than her mother-in-law, "Mr. Sheng even gave the son of a mistress a courtesy name, Hengshu, which exactly indicates that he's always special for him, isn't it? The bastard doesn't deserve that! Our poor Weiqiao, why she gets such a father!"
"..." Seeing the four crying into another mess, Madam Feng kept expressionless for a moment, suddenly rolled her sleeves and smashed on the table!
The abrupt noise disturbed the four, and they stopped sobbing, staring at her in blankness.
"Mother! We're thinking up solutions for Yinlu and Weiqiao! Even if you're regretful for Weiqiao, cry after I finish my words, alright?!" Madam Feng said irritably, "And you, Weiqiao—You're thirteen already, and several years later you'll be married. You know that we care about you, and you still say words like go die in front of us. Aren't you putting us heartbroken on purpose?! If you keep being so immature, even if your mother allows that, I'll scold you!"
Seeing Sheng Weiqiao about to cry once again when hearing her words, Madam Feng restrained her heartache and got straight to the point, "Your father must be truly-hearted to your mother! Or he doesn't need the help of Feng Family and Xuanyu Family. Why has Sheng Shuihe not been brought back until now? The biggest problem, for now, is not the admitted son of a mistress, but the mistress who hasn't shown up until now!"
"Counting the age of the son of a mistress, we can see he's born around when your father married your mother. Mother, do you remember how much he was fancied by Yinlu?"
Mrs. Zhan pondered, "He was thinking about her all the time. They were already engaged, but coming over eight times a day still seemed not enough for him. I was worried that Yinlu couldn't control herself and was tricked by him to do something before getting married..."
"That's it!" Madam Feng held back her impulse to angry and interrupted her with a high voice, "At that time Sheng Lanci was dreaming about Yinlu day and night! Under that condition, mother, do you think he would hook up with other women or even have Sheng Shuihe with her?"
"Oh... Yes!" Mrs. Zhan and others exchanged eyesight, "Then where did Sheng Shuihe come from?"
Madam Feng mocked coldly, "Is any explanation needed? It's naturally because of his mother's good scheme! Sheng Lanci isn't a generous person. When he decides to be ruthless, everyone in the Nanfeng County would draw back. Even if we're his relatives, we didn't have an easy time with him when we made an alliance to suppress him in order to stop him from rising to the same level as us!"
"Sheng Shuihe's mother could conceive his child when he was most attracted by Yinlu, gave birth to him, raise him to a grown-up and let Sheng Lanci bring him back to Family Sheng—Such a personage, even I felt astounded. Leave alone that you mother and daughter didn't realize that before, you're now holding grudge against Sheng Shuihe! See how stupid you are?!"
"Master is still partial to Madam and Second Miss." Seeing Sheng Weiqiao's face turn pale when hearing those words, her maid Lvqi felt sympathetic and plucked up her courage to interrupt, "Just now Mater said when splitting the family business, he'll let Second Miss make her choice first. Then what she doesn't want will be left to young master!"
"Advancing by receding, I've seen too much of that!" Mrs. Zhan had hardly put on a cheerful face when Madam Feng smirked coldly without raising her eyes, "Weiqiao and Yinlu come back to their original family, crying and stirring. While on the other side, he stays calm and wise, never mentions his unfair situation, and keeps being sympathetic! As time goes on, for whom do you think Sheng Lanci will feel sorrier?"
Mrs. Zhan was so angry, and beat the table, "Then think up a solution! What are you saying all those ironic words for!"
"I'll designate some capable people to investigate the origin of the mistress, and how she had Sheng Shuihe with Sheng Lanci!" Madam Feng made a response and couldn't hold back blaming her sister and niece for being silly, "For so many years I've never heard that Sheng Lanci has a mistress—And a 17-year-old son appeared all in a sudden. Stupid as you, you didn't check anything and you cause such a big scene!"
"It's mean to say that, but what if your father gets cheated, and he's not your brother at all? Then do you think it's worthy of such a mess?!"
Madam Feng also doubted. When she got the time, she should examine whether Feng Yinlu was her real sister born by the same parents or not?!
Since she was insightful, her sister shouldn't be so stupid!
On this day's trip to Xuanyu Mansion, Sheng Weiqiao came back from a good mood into a bad one.On the way back, the more she thought about the reprimand she heard from her aunt today, the angrier she became. She even refused to go back to Sheng’s Mansion. She was wondering if she should go straight to the Feng family to meet her mother. The carriage stopped suddenly. Without waiting for Sheng Weiqiao to get angry, a sweet and crisp voice sounded outside the carriage, "Big Weiqiao?""Little Jiuniang?" Sheng Weiqiao turned her anger into joy when she heard the voice. She had got up quickly, pulled up the curtain and got off the carriage before maid reacted. She took the girl in purple with bright eyes beside the shaft and asked happily, "Why are you here? Didn't you say you would not come until next month?"The girl reached out her finger and pinched her cheek, pretending to be angry, "No rules! Call my cousin instead of Little Jiuniang!"
Xuanyu Che said with a smile as expected, “I heard that your new elder brother made you so mad today. I care about you.”Sheng Weiqiao and Shen Jiuniang’s face became sullen at the same time. Although the social atmosphere was open at that time, saying the words “care about you” on the street like Xuanyu Che did was still offensive. In fact, nothing had ever happened between Sheng Weiqiao and him!“My cousin, have you made a fortune recently and repaid the debts of Tianxiang Lou totally?” Sheng Weiqiao sneered and asked back, “otherwise, why do you have spare time to care about other people’s business?”The reason Xuanyu Che wanted to seduce Sheng Weiqiao was that he was a frequenter of Tianxiang Lou due to his concupiscent nature. As the top one brothel among all the brothels, it was sure that the customers had to pay a lot for it.Xuanyu Che, as the current house host’s related cousin, could only afford the daily extravagant life
Sheng Weiqiao had stepped on Sheng Shuihe’s foot on purpose, and Shen Jiuniang comforted her all their way back home. However, she still felt wronged.After returning to the Sheng Family, she shouted at the chief steward of the Sheng Family regardless of her need for changing clothes in her room. “Were those guards picked by you? They were like dead men! When Xuanyu Che insulted me and even my mother to my face, they just stood there and watched, like some of the onlookers! Did they see me as an insignificant one after Sheng Shuihe entered the family?!” She shouted.Sheng Lanci heard the news. When Sheng Weiqiao was scolding the chief steward, he happened to arrive to give her some comforts. He was furious after hearing that, “Junk! You did your job in that way?!”The chief steward pleaded his guilty words after words with a very careful mind. Because Sheng Weiqiao wanted to visit her aunt’s family, after Sheng Lanci took over the task of teach
Chapter 9 The Worried Old Madam MingThe old friend that Senior Master Sheng visited was Xu Baoting, whose son was the Ningwei Marquis, named Xu Zijing.Those two elderly people met in the army when they were teenagers. During the years of war in Beijiang, they warded off arrows and swords with their own body for each other, saving each other on many occasions. Therefore, they had a very deep friendship.After their leaving from the army because of the old age, they no longer stayed with each other day and night. Later on, the Xu Family was conferred as the Marquis. Such changes didn’t estrange them. On the contrary, they became more closely associated.Nevertheless, there was a huge gap between their social classes. Old Madam Ming got very nervous.Although her daughter, as well as her daughter’s family, had just arrived, she was in no mood to entertain them. She sent a maid to call over Sheng Lanci to have a discussi
In fact, Sheng Shuihe didn’t want to run this errand. He sat on the couch and spoke to the steward through the curtain, “The reason why my father took me home was that I got wounded seriously, and he was worried about my wounds might result in sequela because no one could take care of me out there! So, how am I supposed to work with an injury?”Then, he coughed.The steward smiled sadly and thought that actually, Sheng Lanci did say the same thing after he brought his son home.But during these days, everyone started to talk about the news that Sheng Family’s son hit a person for his sister. Now, everybody knew that the first day Sheng Shuihe came back home, he beat the ass of the Xuanyu Che.But strangely, Xuanyu Che said something rude and insulting to Sheng Weiqiao and her mother that day in public. However, until now, his parents still didn’t bring his son to the Sheng Family to offer a humble apology. Well, the reason actually
Sheng Weiqiao went back to Zhuying Mini Villa with a flushed face. She felt grateful that no one appeared in her way to see her nuances, and hastened to warn Lvqu and Lvjin never to let out the thing.The two maids logically nodded, “We’ve seen nothing and heard nothing today!”“He’s fortunate!” Sheng Weiqiao relieved herself. When recalling the scene that she ran into today, though she felt bashful and annoyed, she had no courage to go trouble Sheng Shuihe again, so she simply cursed in her mind, “Next time when I catch you, you’ll see!”At that thought, she lowered her head, caught the kylin jade pendant and couldn’t help crumpling her brows. She considered in heart, “The jade is not a common one. I have to take it to my aunt!”After a while, At Xuanyu’s mansion, Madam Feng frowned, studying the kylin jade pendant, and said, “It belongs to the son of a mistress? Are you sure?”“I saw him put it by his hand myself. Ho
“Old Sea Master Gongsun, who was keeping us good connection, failed in the war and died. His son has retreated to Daimao Island. Outside there are two Sea Masters seeing covetously, including Han and Pan; Inside there is a group of cunning underlings who are not loyal to him for his inferior age,” Sheng Lanci sighed, “The son of Old Sea Master sent his henchmen to island to sell the treasure accumulated by the ancestors during a long time on sea. That jade pendant was in the treasure.”The name Sea Master was to address the leaders of the pirate respectfully.Nanfeng County was next to the sea, surrounded by many islands where lived abundant pirates making a living by robbing the boat past. They robbed the people near the sea from time to time but could not be arrested by feudal officials more than once. The officials only set out the sea as a deterrent for the pirates every year.But the emperor on the throne indulged himself in the lust and n
We would leave aside the bustle and stir in Sheng’s Mansion tonight first. The early next morning, all the people ranking below Old Madam Ming, including Sheng Lanxin who came back for a visit with her whole family, had dressed up and went outside of the gate in order to receive Senior Master and Young Lord Xu.Senior Master Sheng had got married twice, and he had three sons and two daughters in total. Among them, the oldest son Sheng Lanci’s birth mother was Madam Ai, his first wife. When giving birth, she suffered from dystocia, but Senior Master had happened to be absent, so the midwife had followed Madam Ai’s orders and had sacrificed the mother to save the son. Because of this, Sheng Lanci was born but Madam Ai died, which was why Old Senior thought he owed Madam Ai a lot and he had been partial to the eldest branch all the time.Fortunately, his second wife Old Madam Ming wasn’t a narrow-minded person. Even if she had given birth to two sons and two d