Mo Lan raised an eyebrow as she listened to Zhao Ziyun's tone. "I saw that your group came to Huatuo Temple to offer incense. Your aunt is the leader. If something happens to you, she will be held responsible."
"Ha, that's true. At most, my aunt will be scolded by my grandmother and confined to her quarters for a month, but there will be no other punishment. The family will also try their best to smooth things over and cover up the scandal. My aunt will punish me for a while, but ruin my life. No matter how you look at it, she won't lose out."
Even if things fall apart, at most she'll be punished for negligence. Besides, I'm not a three-year-old. As long as she insists that she sneaked out, I can clear myself of all charges.
Even if her mother intervened on her behalf, her grandparents would punish her for her lack of virtue. When the Wei family came to break off the engagement, she would have to spend the rest of her life in the family temple.
Mo Lan listened to Zhao Ziyun's explanation and remained silent for a moment. It was true that there was a lot of trouble in the big mansion. Even the family that prided itself on being a scholarly family had its share of problems.
“You’re all surnamed Zhao. What good will it do her to ruin you? As far as I know, as long as the family hasn’t split up, it’s a matter of shared prosperity and shared ruin.”
"Heh~, Sister Molan, you don't know, but our second branch has been suppressing the first branch all these years, and our aunt has long disliked us."
"To be honest, we can't really blame our second branch. Historically, the family line has always been passed down to the eldest son. By the time of my grandfather's generation, the direct line had four uncles and two aunts, so it can be said that the family had many descendants."
"But my eldest uncle was weak-willed, lacked talent, and was indecisive. My grandfather said that if the family were handed over to him, it would only fail. So when my grandfather passed on the family business, he directly overruled the objections and advocated for the virtuous to succeed the eldest son, thus putting my father in the position of head of the family."
“From then on, there was a rift between our second and first branches of the family. In addition, last year I got engaged to the eldest son of the Wei family, the prefectural magistrate, which made my aunt even more uncomfortable. She went to my grandmother several times to complain that the marriage should have been arranged for my eldest cousin and that my mother was biased.”
"But what she didn't know was that the matriarch of the Wei family and my mother had a very good personal relationship. It was with her tacit approval that my mother came back and told her. A large part of the reason why Aunt Wei didn't take a liking to my eldest cousin was because of my eldest uncle and aunt. No matter how my mother explained, she wouldn't listen. She insisted that the children's engagements must be in order of seniority, otherwise, outsiders would think that my eldest cousin had some kind of hidden illness that made her overlooked."
Hearing Zhao Ziyun's explanation, Mo Lan nodded in understanding. No wonder.
Families with a rich history and deep roots place great importance on inheritance. When handed over to those with both virtue and talent, the family can not only expand but also continue to thrive. When handed over to mediocre individuals, it is difficult to even preserve the family's foundation.
From the perspective of the family's rise and fall, Old Master Zhao's ability to set aside worldly concerns and choose a virtuous and capable son to establish the family was indeed a sign of great wisdom.
However, this practice of bypassing the eldest son did cause him some trouble. As the eldest son, not being able to stand as the head of the household was somewhat humiliating in terms of face.
But there's nothing we can do about it; if you're mediocre and unproductive, you'll just be abandoned.
It's just a difference in perspective.
It's really not a matter of right or wrong.
In matters of engagement, it's only natural that no mother would not favor her own child.
That Madam Zhao kept making a fuss, wasn't it all for her daughter's sake?
Therefore, there is no absolute fairness in this world.
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