Chapter 204 Xie Zhenghuai

He asked Shen Jinyu to go back to the Shen family to find out the situation.

But they only said that these were found by Shen Yu from other places, and nothing else was found out.

Nor did they give the Xie family the opportunity to cooperate.

Later, someone reported that Anping County was growing foreign taro and sweet potatoes, which caused an uproar in the court.

Because other places were also trying to grow it, but no one succeeded.

Now, Anping County has grown it and the yield is very high. The emperor has paid close attention to it and personally sent people to Anping County, bringing back tens of thousands of kilograms of sweet potatoes.

He asked Lord Han and learned that the county magistrate of Anping County was his son Xie Yan.

Those are Xie Yan’s merits.

At that time, the look in Lord Han's eyes was clearly mocking.

It seems to be saying that as a father, he doesn't even care where his own son works.

It made him very embarrassed.

Not to mention that Xie Yan also discovered the waterwheel and thresher. Although they were not made by Xie Yan, they happened in Anping County and were also Xie Yan's achievements.

The emperor summoned him alone for this and praised him for his good parenting, but he felt mixed emotions.

The son who had been neglected and looked down upon by him since childhood showed his talent to everyone time and time again.

He devoted all his energy and efforts to his eldest son, but he has achieved nothing so far. He only passed the imperial examination and became a juren, but not even a jinshi.

So those praises seemed like ridicule to him.

Therefore, he treated Shen Jinyu even colder, and Shen Jinyu tried even harder to please him and his eldest son and ignored Xie Yan.

Now that Shen Xiuwen has been promoted to the position of Shangshu, it is probably related to the Shen family's efforts to curry favor with others some time ago.

But the Shen family got the benefits and forgot about the Xie family, even though they are in-laws.

Just as he was thinking about it, Lord Han walked up to Xie Zhenghuai and said, "Congratulations, Lord Xie."

"Thank you very much."

Lord Han stepped forward and said, "Thank you, Lord. Your second son has really brought honor to your family."

"What does Lord Han mean by this?"

"Master Xie knows this well, right? There are three candidates for the position of Junior Minister of the Imperial Household. Among the three, your qualifications and experience are not enough for this position.

It's because of the contributions your son Xie Yan made to the court. He not only grew high-yield crops, but also discovered agricultural tools that benefit the people. He also cooperated with Xu Zhifu's men to suppress bandits, punish corrupt officials, and collect hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

The emperor is happy and thinks you have taught your son well, so naturally these honors will also benefit you. It's a pity that if he had stayed in the capital, his achievements would definitely be higher now."

At this time, Shen Xiuwen also walked up to the two of them and said expressionlessly: "The emperor still wants to reward A Yan, but it's a pity that such a good thing will end up in your house. It seems that I have to persuade the emperor to send the reward directly to Anping County."

After saying that, he just left.

Xie Zhenghuai was so angry that his face turned blue, and everyone spoke to him in a sarcastic manner.

He quickly got into the carriage and returned home.

Shen Jinyu saw that Xie Zhenghuai looked unhappy and asked, "What happened?"

"What's wrong?" Xie Zhenghuai said with a fake smile: "You gave birth to a good son, I'm happy."

After all, the two of them had lived together for so many years and they understood that he was not really happy.

Chen Jinyu advised: "Master, A Yan has left the capital and will no longer be with Qi Er. Can you be more tolerant to him? We already owe him..."

"What do I owe him? He has been disobedient since he was young. He has contradicted me many times and always gone against Qi'er. He is so unfilial and unruly. If he is not punished, he will definitely cause trouble when he grows up.

Besides, no one in the mansion wanted him to leave, he just insisted on leaving. As a son, he doesn't know how to be filial to his parents. I didn't say he was unfilial, which was already lenient to him."

The nanny beside Shen Jinyu sighed in her heart, thinking that her young lady was too stupid. She didn't listen to her family and insisted on marrying her son-in-law as his second wife.

In order to please her son-in-law, she has been taking care of the original wife's son wholeheartedly since she entered the house, and often neglects her own son. Every time the two young masters have a conflict, she cares about the eldest young master first and always puts Young Master Yan behind. Young Master Yan has suffered so much grievance.

Even so, they only treated each other with respect, and it was completely impossible to see how deep the affection between the son-in-law and the young lady was.

Poor Master Yan, he has such great talent. If he had stayed in Beijing, with his talent and the help of his maternal family, he would definitely have achieved great things.

But he resolutely left. How disappointed must he be with his family to choose to leave the capital and go to other places.

Fortunately, he still has the master, the mistress and Young Master Yu by his side. Without all the worries at home, he should be able to live a better life.

Shen Jinyu also felt bad. It was not that she didn't care about her own flesh and blood. It was just that Qi'er had been weak since childhood, had lost her mother, and was Zhenghuai's only child.

Before Yan'er was born, she took care of him wholeheartedly for nearly two years, so there was a mother-son bond between them.

Yan'er is in good health and a little naughty, so she prefers Qi'er.

But she didn't know when it started, but Yan'er needed her less and less, and he rarely appeared in front of her, and was not as close to her as Qi'er.

Later, when he was going to school, he lived directly in the Imperial College and did not go home for a long time. Even if she wanted to make up for it, she could not find anyone, so she could only ask people to send him some clothes and food frequently.

Thinking about it, she sighed again and took out a letter: "Master, this is a letter from Yan'er, take a look."

"What's his business?"

"He said he had met someone he liked and wanted to propose to her. He wrote to us to let us know and asked me to send someone to deliver the engagement letter to him."

Xie Zhenghuai was puzzled: "The one you like? Which official's daughter?"

Shen Jinyu hesitated and said, "It's... a farm girl."

She was too embarrassed to say it out loud. She wondered if it was because Yan'er had stayed in the remote countryside for too long that his taste became worse, otherwise how could he be attracted to a country girl.

The gap in social status was so huge that she wasn't even qualified to be his concubine, yet he wanted to marry her.

Xie Zhenghuai frowned, "What? A peasant girl? Is there something wrong with his brain? He wants to marry anyone? Tell him that I have set my sights on Su Yuyan, the granddaughter of Su Taifu. When he passed the imperial examination and became the third-place winner, Su Yuyan was only thirteen years old, not yet of marriageable age. Su Taifu mentioned it to me in a tactful way, and he came to me again a few days ago, but I haven't had the chance to tell you yet.

The granddaughter of Su Taifu is both talented and beautiful, a true noble lady from an aristocratic family, and she has frequent contacts with our Shuyan. If the two of them were to marry, it would be a great help to his career."

In fact, it was not just Master Su. There were many people who wanted to marry Xie Yan at that time, but they were rejected by him.

Originally, he wanted to arrange a marriage between Su Yuyan and Qi'er, but the daughter of the Su family didn't like Qi'er.

How could he allow Xie Yan to marry a wife whose status exceeded that of his eldest son?

I didn’t expect that Master Su’s granddaughter hasn’t given up yet.

He really didn't know what was so good about that rebellious son. He was such a sightless guy that he actually fell in love with a peasant girl.

However, marrying Master Su would be a great help to his career, so he could use his marriage to help the Xie family.