Next was the old lady's funeral banquet. The two young masters who were studying at Bailu Academy had been invited back, and the three masters also rushed back to the Qiu residence after receiving the letter.
The old lady's wish was to keep the death a secret.
The laws of Da Ye state that if an official has lost his parents, he must observe a two-year mourning period during which he is prohibited from drinking, feasting, or engaging in entertainment, and is not required to participate in government affairs.
If the grandmother dies, grandchildren of the right age only need to observe three months of mourning. After three months, they can discuss marriage or study for the imperial examinations.
In other words, the reason why the old lady requested the Qiu family to keep the death a secret was so as not to affect her eldest son's career.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jiayu went to find his maternal aunt, Madam Zhu.
She got straight to the point: "Aunt, we can't keep the death a secret."
Madam Zhu was discussing the arrangements for the old lady's funeral with her two sisters-in-law when she heard Zhu Jiayu's words. She paused for a moment and said, "Ayu, you're still young. You don't need to worry about these things. You should go back first."
She rubbed her temples. She hadn't slept a wink since the old lady passed away, and she was utterly exhausted after a whole day.
But now, faced with Zhu Jiayu's unreasonable behavior, she still maintained her usual gentle demeanor and did not lose her temper.
Zhu Jiayu said, "Aunt, you might as well listen to my reasons before making a decision."
Seeing this, the second wife pulled the third wife up and said, "Since Ayu has something to say to her sister-in-law, why don't my sister-in-law and I go to the kitchen to see if there's anything to eat? She's been working hard all day, and she won't be able to hold on if she doesn't eat something soon."
Zhu Jiayu nodded, greeted her two aunts, and watched them leave. Then she looked at Madam Zhu and said, "I think you know why my maternal grandmother asked us to keep the death a secret. But have you thought about how my eldest uncle would handle things if the truth came out one day?"
“My eldest uncle won’t remain a fifth-rank official in Xingchuan Prefecture forever. If he rises to a higher position in the future, and someone with ulterior motives discovers that he kept his mother’s death a secret, it could be a fatal blow to his career. Compared to such a dangerous situation, it seems that it is a better choice to openly and honestly arrange my grandmother’s funeral now and let my eldest uncle observe mourning at home for two years.”
"My aunt should also know the principle that one should never lose sight of the bigger picture for the sake of small gains."
After Zhu Jiayu finished speaking, she looked at Madam Zhu and earnestly advised, "Too many people already know about Grandmother's passing. This matter can be kept secret for a while, but not forever..."
Zhu waved her hand and sat down in the chair anxiously, murmuring, "Let me think about it."
Since marrying into the Qiu family, she had always obeyed her mother-in-law's orders and never overstepped her bounds or acted on her own initiative. Now that her mother-in-law had passed away, asking her to disobey her mother-in-law's last instructions was nothing short of rebellion for her, something she had never considered in her twenty years as a daughter-in-law of the Qiu family.
Despite her wavering, she couldn't make a decision immediately.
Zhu Jiayu pursed her lips, stood in front of her, and waited silently for her to speak.
Meanwhile, the Third Madam, Madam Ji, who had already gone to the kitchen, dismissed the servants, closed the door, looked at the Second Madam, Madam Liu, and said in a light tone:
"Second sister-in-law, the old lady was a noble lady from a prominent family in Yujing. Even though the Lin family was in decline back then, as the saying goes, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The inheritance she left behind should be more than just the manor, land and her dowry, right?"
"What do you want to say?" Liu's gaze swept over the cupboard, not readily responding to Ji's words. After all, the third branch was born of a concubine, and even if the old lady had left behind something extraordinary, it should be the second and first branches of the family who discussed how to distribute it.
Madam Ji smiled and said, "It's nothing. I just thought that the old lady has an outstanding background. Back in Yujing, there must have been many families who were on good terms with the Lin family. Putting aside everything else, just this network of connections would be of great benefit to our Qiu family. Moreover... Songdao is not engaged yet, is he? If he could marry a young lady from Yujing, wouldn't Second Sister-in-law be honored?"
Hearing this, Madam Liu finally understood what she was up to: her concern for the old lady's inheritance was a pretense, her true intention was to covet the Lin family's connections; her concern for Songdao's marriage was a pretense, her true intention was to help her two daughters marry into wealth.
Moreover, she was quite ambitious. Heling could no longer tolerate her, and she even wanted to marry her two daughters off to Yujing.
Leaving aside whether the Lin family's connections are still useful at this point, just considering her two daughters, Liu couldn't help but want to throw cold water on her hopes:
"Third sister-in-law, do you not know that noble families from Yujing would never agree to their children marrying outside the capital? After all, Yujing is a place of outstanding natural beauty and talent, and such families would naturally look for a suitable match in terms of social standing if they were to discuss marriage."
"We're just a small, insignificant family, far away in Heling. To them, we're probably quite lowly. I wouldn't dare have such fanciful thoughts, lest I be ridiculed for no reason..."
She paused, turned around, looked at Madam Ji, and asked in surprise, "Could it be that you are my third sister-in-law?"
She stopped speaking halfway through her sentence, seemingly realizing that asking such a question would offend people. However, this behavior only made Ji feel more uncomfortable.
She naturally wanted her daughter to marry into a higher social class. Since she was able to marry from the Ji family to the Qiu family and achieve a class leap from a merchant's daughter to an official's wife, why couldn't her daughter marry from an official family in Heling to an official family in Yujing?
Moreover, her two daughters, one exceptionally talented and the other gentle and kind, were both very popular with the ladies of Heling.
But since Liu had already said that, if she were to reveal her true thoughts, wouldn't it make her seem like she was indeed being unrealistic?
She hesitated for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Of course not. I just think that given Songdao's character, learning, and appearance, wouldn't it be a bit unfair to let him marry a daughter of an official from Heling?"
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com