"Judging from your aunt's attitude, she probably won't let this go easily. You're caught in the middle of this power struggle between adults, which is indeed a difficult situation for you."
That Madam Zhao looks like a mean-spirited person. Such people are not easy to get along with. Fortunately, she is not the head of the household, otherwise the Zhao family would definitely have fallen under her rule.
"Thank you for reminding me, sister. This is also my predicament. My aunt couldn't argue with my mother, so she turned her attention to me."
Ultimately, Auntie was just trying to save face, but this also blinded her to the bigger picture. The Wei family chose her not only because the matriarch of the Wei family had a very good personal relationship with her mother, but also because of her own status; there's a difference between the daughter of the family head and the niece of the family head.
As the prefectural judge of Jiang County, the Wei family was in charge of grain and water conservancy. Therefore, when choosing a marriage partner, matching social status was the first priority.
Even if her aunt ruined her, the Wei family would choose her eldest cousin... etc. She could think of it, and her aunt should understand it too... This was done with the intention of "better to die than live in dishonor."
Upon realizing this, Zhao Ziyun's expression darkened; it turned out she had planned this all along.
Thinking about it this way, she understood. She thought to herself, "Why is there an old woman who doesn't know any better and is gossiping beside me while I'm embroidering in the pavilion, disturbing my peace and quiet? She's saying that there's a wintersweet tree on the left side of the temple that's about to bloom, with lots of purple buds hanging on it."
Given the current temperature, it will take at least another half month for the wintersweet tree to bud. She was curious and couldn't resist going to see it, but she never expected to fall into her aunt's trap.
Listening to Zhao Ziyun's account, Mo Lan finally understood that it was ultimately a power struggle between Madam Zhao and Madam Zhao, which had only affected their children.
"Even if your reputation is ruined, at most the engagement will be called off. In that case, your aunt probably won't benefit much either, right?" It's like hurting the enemy a thousand while hurting yourself eight hundred. They're all surnamed Zhao. Spreading scandals of infighting will only implicate the entire mansion.
“Sister, you don’t know this, but it’s not that Mother doesn’t care about my eldest cousin’s marriage. It’s that my aunt is too suspicious. She always thought that my mother would harm my cousin.” Zhao Ziyun said, picking up her teacup and taking a sip. Thinking of how hard her mother worked for the whole mansion and sometimes even had to contribute to her own dowry, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
As the matriarch of the household, she had to consider everything, especially maintaining the face of the mansion. In terms of spending, she always exceeded the budget. The Zhao family was a family with a literary tradition, but they lacked business acumen. Most of the shops in the mansion were rented out. Although the estate produced a considerable amount of produce, it was mostly agricultural products. Apart from supplying the mansion with food, clothing and other necessities, there was almost nothing left.
If it weren't for the fact that my mother had several dowry shops that she managed well with the help of my uncle, the mansion would have been in deficit long ago.
My father knew about this, and my grandparents probably knew as well, but for the sake of face, no one ever said it out loud.
As a family steeped in scholarship, if people were to find out that the entire mansion relied heavily on the bride's dowry for financial support, the family members would be too ashamed to go out in public.
However, my aunt, who is not in charge of the household, doesn't know the cost of living and is always complaining about unfairness, which is really annoying.
She was destined to be the matriarch of the Wei family, so she began learning how to manage household affairs from her mother at a young age. Otherwise, her mother wouldn't have told her.
Thinking of this, Zhao Ziyun sighed softly. If it weren't for etiquette, she would have gone crazy. "My mother has it so hard. No matter what she does, she never gets any praise. I feel exhausted just thinking about her."
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