Chapter 44 Correct and Objective
Seeing that Pei didn't respond, Yao Ran asked softly, "Mother, are you feeling unwell?"
Pei seemed to be trying hard to suppress some emotions. She remained silent and just closed her eyes.
The depressing atmosphere made the originally spacious carriage suddenly shrink into an extremely narrow and cramped one. Yao Ran felt like he couldn't breathe, and cold sweat broke out in the palms of his hands that were holding the handkerchief.
She really didn't know what to do to ease the suffocating atmosphere, and could only say helplessly: "If mother really doesn't like this kind of occasion, then don't come here in the future..."
Hearing this, Pei suddenly opened her eyes and said word by word: "If it wasn't for your business, do you think I was willing to come? Do you think I was willing to face those shallow people from humble families?"
Upon hearing this, Yao Ran clutched her handkerchief tightly and whispered, "My daughter knows how much your mother means to you, but I heard that Minister Wei is too arrogant, and he seemed to be uninterested in meeting the wife of Duke Zheng today... In my daughter's opinion, there is no need to waste time on this matter..."
"Who allowed you to be so self-deprecating!" Pei interrupted her coldly, "You have our Pei blood in your bones! Your grandfather is the head of the Pei family, and I am the eldest daughter of the Pei family. Who dares to look down on you!"
"Even though the Wei family seems to be prominent at the moment, they are just a newly-risen upstart. If we talk about their background, how can they be compared with our great Pei family?"
"If my daughter is willing to marry into their family, they will be marrying up and will bring honor to the Wei family!" Pei's words were not to be questioned: "Just like when I married into the Yao family... If it weren't for the help of my Pei family, how could your father be here today!"
Hearing this last sentence, Yao Ran bit his lip slightly and said, "But father is obviously also a Jinshi, and he has his own talents. He has not relied on his grandparents' family for many years... On the contrary, Uncle Pei was involved in a money and grain case before, and it was brought to the emperor. Mother asked father to mediate several times, and he almost lost his official position..."
"How dare you!" Pei raised her hand and slapped Yao Ran hard on the face.
The girl turned her face away after being slapped, looking dazed.
Pei was furious: "You are just like your father, an ungrateful, heartless person!"
"If I hadn't broken off the engagement with the Jin family by mistake, I wouldn't have married into your Yao family. I wouldn't have given birth to a heartless thing like you. And because of the illness I got after giving birth, I can no longer have children... I ended up being laughed at by others today!"
"No one laughed at my mother..." Yao Ran's eyes were red, "My father never laughed at me..."
"Of course he shouldn't and can't look down on me because of this!" Pei's neck was tense due to excitement, and the veins on it were bulging: "...He owes this to our Pei family and to me! Do you think he dares to divorce me because of this!"
"But father has done nothing wrong. Why must mother treat him like an enemy?" Yao Ran shed tears and mustered up the courage to speak out what was in his mind: "Just because mother is infertile, father has not even had a concubine's son until now...Hasn't father done enough over the years?"
"Of course not!" Pei said sternly, "He still has no illegitimate son. That sounds good... Do you really think he doesn't want to have one?"
When Yao Ran heard this, his eyelashes trembled, as if he had fallen into an icy cave.
So, those rumors she heard secretly were true?
There were only two concubines in the mansion. One had been in the mansion for many years but there was no news of her pregnancy, and the other died of a difficult childbirth in her early years...
"Besides, his heart has never been with you and me!" Following the slap, Pei seemed to be unable to suppress the resentment in her heart: "He has always had someone else in his heart!"
Meeting those eyes that were so gloomy that one dared not look directly into them, Yao Ran's breath was choked.
She had known that her mother was different in front of others and behind their backs, but this was the first time she saw her mother with such a terrifying look.
Was it because of what she overheard that day, or because she learned about the existence of Chang's wife, that the resentment that had accumulated over the years was completely out of control? Yao Ran's fingers were cold, and she trembled as she turned her eyes away, not daring to look at those eyes again.
"Madam..." the maid beside her said with a reminder.
Pei realized that she had said something wrong in front of her daughter, so she gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and calmed herself down.
"Don't ask too much about the elders' affairs." The maid's voice sounded gentle: "You just need to know one thing, you are the only one in the madam's family, and everything she does is for your future consideration. You should understand the madam's painstaking efforts... hurry up and apologize to the madam."
Yao Ran sniffed lightly and lowered her eyes: "It was because of my daughter's talkativeness and disobedience that I made my mother angry... Please punish me, mother."
It was unknown how long the silence lasted before Pei slowly opened his eyes and looked at the girl in front of him.
The excitement she had just revealed was gone from her eyes. When she looked at her only daughter, she looked helpless after feeling resentment, and like a person floating in an endless sea of suffering trying to grab the last piece of driftwood.
"Don't let me down again."
"Yes...my daughter will remember this."
There was no sound along the way, only the muffled sound of the wheels rolling.
After returning to the Yao family, Pei went back to her courtyard. As soon as she sat down in the inner room, a maid brought her warm tea.
Pei raised her sleeves and waved them down, her face as gloomy as water: "Get out!"
The maid was so frightened that she knelt down and kowtowed to admit her mistake. At the signal of the maid beside Pei, she quickly picked up the broken pieces of the tea bowl and walked out with her head down.
"Did you see that? That little bitch...really looks exactly like the woman in the painting he hid in the study!"
"Earlier, you thought I was too suspicious and shouldn't have minded the past events before I married him... Little did you know that not only had they been having an affair for a long time, but that woman had even secretly given birth to his illegitimate child!"
"He's been looking for it for so many years, and now he finally found it!"
"The next step is to bring the person back... so that the father and daughter can recognize each other and reunite, right?"
"Then what have Ran'er and I become? What has our Pei family become... the laughing stock of the entire capital!"
The maidservant hastily tried to comfort her, "Madam, please calm down. In my opinion, the master may not intend to recognize his relatives. He still has to consider his reputation and the Pei family..."
"Even if he doesn't admit it for the time being, he will admit it sooner or later! After all these years, don't I know him well? He seems kind and easy-going, but in fact he is self-righteous! Now that he has established a firm foothold in the officialdom and has grown strong, I'm afraid he can't wait to find an opportunity to embarrass me and the Pei family to show that he can stand on his own and no longer needs to rely on our Pei family!"
"But why...why did I marry him and live like a half-human for so many years, and now I have to suffer such humiliation?"
"Am I going to just sit there and wait for him to bring that bastard over to humiliate me?"
The determination made from the beginning made Pei grit her teeth: "It's just a little bastard. Even if he really knows, what can he do to me?"
"The couple is separated..." She asked and answered herself, laughing sadly and sarcastically: "When has he ever given his heart to me--"
"Since he never thinks of me, I can only think of myself!"
…
On the other side, not long after the mother and daughter of the Yao family left, a group of palace maids came to the flower party at the Zhengguo Mansion.
The leader was a young female official. She smiled and said to the wife of Duke Zheng: "Not long ago, the emperor sent people to Luoyang to find a purple peony of excellent quality. It has been nurtured in the palace for half a month. Today, he specially ordered us to deliver it to you. It will add some interest to your flower festival."
Looking at the purple peony brought by the palace maid, which had never been seen in the capital, exclamations arose all around.
Purple peonies are rare, but what is more precious is the saint’s intention.
All the ladies looked at Lady Duan, the wife of Duke Zheng, who was bowing and expressing her gratitude, and they were all envious and moved.
"Speaking of which, the Duan family is really lucky..." Several women who were farther away sighed in a low voice: "The Duan family is not a wealthy family. In terms of family background, it is not as good as you and me. But when the palace was selecting a companion for Princess Chongyue, the princess chose the Duan family who was three years older than her..."
"Yes, I was lucky enough to be the princess's tutor. Later, the princess's brother was appointed as the crown prince... In this way, when the time comes to discuss marriage, I can marry into the Duke of Zheng's mansion."
"She got a good marriage, gave birth to a good son, held an important position at a young age, and was highly regarded by the saints... How can anyone find justice for such a good fate?"
"Come to think of it, when Princess Chongyue was selecting a study partner, weren't you also there, Madam Liang? In terms of family background and intelligence...how did you lose to the Duan family?"
The woman who was asked mentioned this matter after many years, and still gritted her teeth and said: "...The princess said that she wanted a pleasant company, who would make her feel good."
The two women who had asked the question heard this answer and looked at Duan, who was surrounded by the crowd, with mixed feelings. They then quietly looked at the person beside them...
Okay...it's indeed somewhat convincing.
One of them couldn't help but say, "So... our Princess Chongyue, who has a heart of justice, is actually a person who only cares about looks?"
Not far away, Chang Suining, who had sharp ears, heard this conversation and nodded in agreement - yes, correct, objective, pertinent, and to the point.
"Girl?" Xier looked at Chang Suining who was nodding with a little doubt.
Chang Suining relied on his "brain broken and fearless" confidence and did not intend to explain any unusual behavior. He calmly asked, "What is the identity of that female official?"
She looked at this person from afar, feeling a strange feeling that she couldn't describe.
"That's the Princess of Gu'an County." Xi'er whispered to her daughter, "But nowadays most people call her the Lady of Ming Dynasty—"
Chang Suining looked over and asked, "Is she a member of the Ming family?"
"Yes, Ms. Ming is the niece of the current saint." Xier was always familiar with some rumors in the capital, and whispered: "It is said that this Ms. Ming was born as a concubine's daughter in the family. She was not favored at first, and no one cared about her in the Ming family's backyard. It was only because she met the saint when she was ten years old that her fate was completely different..."
Chang Suining asked subconsciously: "What do you mean?"
Thank you for your support yesterday!! The list of thanks will be sorted out during the day~ Today I will be posting a recommendation that requires assessment. Please leave a lot of comments and votes. Thank you very much! In addition, in the Easter egg chapter posted yesterday, a video of a cat and dog fighting, some people asked if they would get hurt. Don't worry, they won't... It's just some fitness activities! (This chapter has 3,000 words, and the second update will be at the usual time during the day. Good night (づ￣3￣)づ╭)
(End of this chapter)
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