It was quiet in the Rose Garden. Even though they were busy, Su Xin and Su Jin moved very lightly.
In contrast, Heyan Hall, located on the central axis of Wu'an Hou Mansion, was full of laughter and lively at this time.
Heyan Hall is the residence of the old lady of Wu'an Hou Mansion.
The old lady is in her fifties, her hair is gray, but her spirit is strong. She is fair-skinned and somewhat wealthy. She wears an emerald on her head to wipe her forehead, and a string of jasper beads around her neck. She is leaning comfortably on the big pillow, looking at the two-year-old who is showing off his literary talent in the middle of the flower hall.
The old lady smiled lovingly and kindly, her eyebrows and eyes curved into a slit.
It's really not much different from an ordinary old lady who lives her whole life.
Looking at the child who made everyone laugh, his name is Shen Rongan, and he is the eldest son of the third wife, Zhou Baolu.
The old Mrs. Wu'an Hou looked down upon her younger son's insistence on marrying a daughter-in-law. But now that her direct grandson is so old and the child is so smart and lovable, even if it is to make the child look good, she still has to give Zhou Baolu a thumbs up.
The old lady took a bright red pomegranate and handed it to Zhou Baolu. "Brother Rong, you taught me carefully. The child is very good. He is destined to have a great future when he grows up. This pomegranate has big seeds and is sweet. Eat as many as you like. Well, let’s add a younger brother and sister to Brother Rong later, so that our family can be more lively.”
Zhou Baolu took the big, red and plump pomegranate with both hands. She was flattered for a moment and smiled as brightly as a flower. "It's because I teach well. It's obvious that the children in our family are born smart, and the third master teaches me when he has free time." A few words, Brother Rong is so smart."
"After all, it's all thanks to you."
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law exchanged a few polite words, and the second lady sitting next to them suddenly became sour. She loves to laugh and make trouble. Even though she is just a concubine's daughter-in-law, her mother's family is very capable and she can speak well in her husband's family.
"My mother only gave pomegranates to my younger siblings but not to me. I don't agree with this. If our father later says that my stomach has been silent all this time, I will just ask him to come to my mother to reason with you. Who told you not to give me pomegranates?"
The old lady was so amused that she couldn't help laughing, pointing at the second child's house and shaking her head, "You are just a naughty bitch. If I have any good things here, what was missing from you this time? Well, well, well, I'll give it to you too. Later, your sisters-in-law. The two of us will divide the pomegranates, and one of us will give birth to a fat grandson next year."
The second daughter-in-law said, "Don't you dare to take all of my mother's things. My uncle sent them to honor you. The rain has been heavy this year, and the pomegranates have peeled off. There are not many pomegranates in such good condition in the palace. It's still my uncle." Your Majesty deserves your respect, so I divided them up like this. My uncle was filial and brought them all to your house. My brothers and sisters and I just took advantage of you by playing in the autumn wind. If you really dare to divide the pomegranates and take them back to our house, you will come back later. The two sons appointed us to be beaten."
The old lady smiled so hard that she couldn't see her teeth, "You are the only one who knows how to talk nonsense. If the second brother dares to touch a finger of yours, tell me later and I will ask his elder brother to chop him up."
The second lady chatted a few words with the old lady casually. Zhou Baolu was a little unable to answer the words and could only sit and get angry. But she couldn't bring out anything from her face, so she was filled with evil fire and almost tore the veil in her hand. I couldn't help but snorted silently in my heart: What's the use of being eloquent? The second child is a bastard, not someone who crawled out of the old lady’s belly. If it's not the flesh that fell from one's own body, even if one is close to him, one can still transcend one's own flesh and blood?
Thinking like this, Zhou Baolu finally felt less choked up in her heart.
The second lady looked at the handkerchief in Zhou Baolu's hand, which was twisted like a hemp rope, and she looked down upon this younger sibling even more.
Can't stand it?
Where did this go!
These are the only two biological sons of the old lady. The uncle has never married since the divorce, and there is not even a boy or a girl under his knees. The old lady was getting older and cared less about her direct grandson, so she loved Rongan especially. For Rongan's sake, I had to look down on the child's biological mother. Zhou Baolu is completely worthy of the mother. Otherwise, the old lady would not bother to take a second look at this daughter-in-law who is so picky and has a lot of small thoughts, claiming to be smart but actually being stupid.
The old lady just pretended not to notice the quarrel between the two daughters-in-law, and sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, drinking tea and watching Brother Rong eat snacks and fruits with a smile.
The child is really smart and smart, and he is really well-educated, but he is the legitimate son of the younger son. The eldest son, Tingjun, has never had any intention of getting married since the divorce, and he is still alone. Is it true that she, the old lady, will never be able to hold her eldest son in her arms?
The old lady of the Marquis of Wu'an was born into a noble family. She grew up in a noble family, and when she got married, her husband was the Marquis of Wu'an, who was born in a noble family. After the marriage, the husband and wife were harmonious, but within a year she gave birth to her eldest son Shen Tingjun, and successfully established a foothold in the Hou Mansion. After that, she gave birth to a son and a daughter, and the family flourished for the Marquis of Wu'an.
Mrs. Wu'anhou's life has been smooth sailing. If her husband died unexpectedly, it was the first obstacle in her life. However, her eldest son was already an adult at that time, and his martial arts skills were not a problem. He was valued by His Majesty and the Crown Prince. It was smooth. Provoke the important task of Wu Anhou.
Everything in the house is as before, and her children are happily married. Except for the absence of someone to talk to at night, Mrs. Wu'anhou's life is not much different from usual.
What really hit Mrs. Wu'an Hou was that her eldest son and his eldest daughter-in-law decided to divorce and they have not married yet.
The eldest son, Shen Tingjun, was the son that Mrs. Wu'anhou relied on the most, and was the son she was most proud of and loved.
When he was five years old, he was selected as the prince's companion and has been accompanying him in the palace ever since. At the age of 18, he won the imperial examination and was appointed as the number one scholar. After the death of his father, he inherited the title of Marquis of Wu'an, and was promoted to the sixth department in rotation after being favored by the emperor. Now, less than 30 years old, he has been appointed as the Minister of Dali Temple of the third rank. He is His Majesty's confidant and the Crown Prince's right-hand man.
Such a promising son, dignified, dignified and powerful, would not be disrespectfully addressed as "Marquis Shen" or "Sir" when he went out.
But her son was alone. Every time he came back to the yard late at night, he didn't even have a caring person to talk to. How could this not make her, a mother, feel distressed?
The old lady was lost in thought for a while, but when she came back to her senses, she heard the second daughter-in-law asking the third daughter-in-law, "I heard that my sister-in-law's maternal cousin came into the house in the morning? Why didn't she come over to say hello to my mother? Is it her sister-in-law's after all? My direct cousin is considered a family member and we should still meet her."
The old lady suddenly remembered that there seemed to be such a thing.
She opened her mouth, "Is it your poor widowed cousin?"
When Zhou Baolu was asked this question by the old lady, her heart suddenly tightened. Although the atmosphere nowadays is much more open, many people still think that widowed women are unlucky. Unless they are close relatives, others don't want to get close to them, let alone accept them.
When a widowed woman returns to her parents' home, some members of her clan try to push her back. But if Sang Nianyue returns to the Zhou family, Zhou Baolu will really be able to talk. But now this is not the Zhou family, but her husband's Wu'anhou Mansion.
Bringing a widowed cousin to her husband's house is something that no one else would be able to do.
But Zhou Baolu did it and succeeded, naturally not because she was reckless and not afraid of offending the old lady. It's that she sold herself miserably in front of the old lady in advance, which touched the old lady's compassion. The old lady was compassionate and pitied Sang Nuanyue's experience, so she agreed to take Sang Nuanyue into her residence temporarily.
Zhou Baolu relaxed, and the expression on her face changed to compassion, "My cousin is a pitiful person, and she was devastated when her husband died unexpectedly. However, her mother-in-law didn't say a word to comfort her. Instead, she blamed her son's death on her cousin. I secretly sent someone to check on the situation before, and they said that my cousin was tortured to the point of breaking out of shape. If he didn’t have a younger brother to take care of, gritting his teeth and holding on, he would have left long ago. What is the specific situation now? I haven’t seen anyone yet, so I don’t know.”
He added, "I was busy coming over to greet my mother in the morning, so I asked Zhijin to greet my cousin on my behalf. Now it's time for Zhijin to come back."
The people waiting outside heard the voices inside, and someone immediately responded, "The brocade girl next to the third lady is here. Old lady, would you like the brocade girl to come in and answer?"
The old lady nodded, "Come in."
Brocade hurriedly walked in and bowed to the masters in the house.
At this time, she was not as aloof as before, but she was respectful and did not dare to take a wrong step.
Under Zhou Baolu's instruction, Zhijin explained everything he had seen and heard before.
It was not Zhijin who went to Wang's house to pick Sang Nianyue up in person, but the old man next to Zhou Baolu who made the trip in person. However, when the confidant came back, he told Zhijin all the situation, so that when the ladies above him asked about it, Zhijin would not be blinded, and would incriminate them again.
Zhijin first said, "The Wang family's wife is so angry. The Wang family's young master has been away for more than a year. She also forced her cousin to wear linen clothes and a white hairpin. She knelt in the ancestral hall every day and copied Buddhist scriptures to keep her filial piety for the Wang family's young master."
This sentence alone made the old lady frown, "Isn't the Wang family a family of scholars? Don't the Wang family understand the law?"
At the beginning of the new dynasty, Taizu and Queen Sheng Zhaoming made changes to many legislative provisions. One of them is: "A wife's service to her husband will be reduced for three years, and a husband's service to his wife will be reduced for one year." It was changed to "A wife's service to her husband will be reduced for one year, and a husband's service to his wife will be reduced for one year."
This incident shocked the government and the public at the time. Many literati and officials stated that this move had shaken the saint's etiquette and demanded that the saint change his ways.
It is a pity that the new dynasty was just established at that time. Taizu and Queen Sheng Zhaoming were in great power. Most of the ministers in the court were their supporters. They were able to speak out on all government affairs.
The most important thing is that in the last years of the previous dynasty, the tyrants killed innocent people indiscriminately, the eunuchs had the power to kill people, and the government failed to act. Natural and man-made disasters and wars were everywhere. In just a dozen years, the country's population dropped from 19 million to 600. Nine hundred thousand.
Efforts to increase population were the most urgent thing at the beginning of the founding of the country. It is under this premise that reducing the time for mourning and urging widows to remarry has become a political task.
It is said that twenty years before the founding of the People's Republic of China, if a widow could not remarry within two years of her husband's death, the government would force her to be assigned a family. Until now, although widows are no longer forced to be assigned, the remarriage of widows has been regarded as a political consideration and calculated into the scope of official promotion inspections.
The Wang family is also a family of scholars, and what's more, Prince Wang's father is a moderate official. Now that the daughter-in-law has completed her filial piety, how can she still be forced to stay in her husband's house? It would be fine if the daughter-in-law wanted to do it herself, but anyone who was treated like that would want to get out of that den of tigers and wolves as soon as possible.
——In the final analysis, it was because the girl did not have the support of her mother-in-law that the Wang family dared to do this.
Zhijin sighed when she saw the old lady. Although she didn't know where the old lady was thinking, her intuition was not good. Glancing at the lady sitting next to him from the corner of his eyes, Brocade received the signal and continued, "The Wang family is the chief registrar of Yu County and has been in charge of the county government for decades. The Wang family is a respectable family in the local area."
It's not just decent, it's simply arrogant!
After all, the county magistrate is a smooth man and the chief bookkeeper is an ironclad one. Although Master Wang is not a native of Yu County, he has been operating in Yu County for decades and has become a local snake. Uncle Qi and Aunt Qi, who were sent by Zhou Baolu before, were not taken seriously by the Wang family at all, and they were not received even though they came in with greeting cards many times. Seeing that the Wang family was determined to fight to the death and not allow the cousin to return home, Uncle Qi had no choice but to use the name of the third master of the Wu'an Hou Mansion.
The third master of Wu'anhou's mansion is not a great person, but his eldest brother Wu'anhou, who is a compatriot from the same mother, is a powerful, majestic and important minister of the emperor.
The Marquis of Wu'an holds the Dali Temple. Dali Temple, the Ministry of Punishment and the Supervisory Office formed the Three Law Departments. The Ministry of Punishment accepts criminal cases all over the country, the Procuratorate inspects them, and the Dali Temple refutes them.
Marquis Wu'an was only thirty years old, but he already held great power, not only because he was in the emperor's heart, but also because he was disciplined and disciplined, fair-minded, rigorous and selfless. Any illegal crime will not be treated lightly by him. Even if a prince or grandson breaks the law, his sentence will not be reduced. It can be said that he is really a tough nut on the judiciary, making all officials respect and fear him, and wish they could stay away from him.
Master Wang was also in awe of Marquis Wu An. It would be fine if he himself was clean, but he was not...
Maybe he didn't want to make the matter a big deal and alert people he didn't want to alert. The king's chief secretary insisted on suppressing the chief secretary's wife and agreed to release Sang Nianyue.
