Chapter 228 For Mother
“Yuanzhu…”
Xie Qi gently nudged Chen Yuanzhu, looked down at the person with her hair hanging down, and helped her comb her hair neatly.
A slight blush appeared on Shen Yuanzhu's face, and he couldn't help but lower his head and sniff her neck again.
For a moment, Xie Qi inexplicably felt that he could smell a bitter grassy scent mixed with dye on her.
only……
How is that possible?
Xie Qi chuckled and sniffed himself, his brows and eyes relaxing.
He clung to Yuanzhu every day; this scent must have come from him and then reached her.
“Yuanzhu…”
He called Shen Yuanzhu a few more times, but seeing that she still did not wake up, Xie Qi took off his outer robe and went to fetch hot water in his moon-white inner robe.
He knelt down beside the bed and gently and carefully wiped her face and body. Afraid of waking her up with any sudden movements, Xie Qi didn't dare to breathe too loudly.
After a long while, he carefully cleaned Chen Yuanzhu's body and changed her clothes.
They thought she would wake up halfway through, but Shen Yuanzhu slept until dawn the next day.
When she woke up, Xie Qi had already gone to Jixia Manor. Madam Luo brought her some salt water to rinse her mouth. After seeing that Shen Yuanzhu was more awake, she said, "Madam Jiang sent you a message saying that if you are free today, she would like Miss to accompany her to the Xie family."
"To the Xie family?"
Shen Yuanzhu blinked her sleepy eyes: "What are we going to the Xie family for?"
"I don't know."
Madam Luo asked, "Does Miss wish to go?"
"Go ahead. If there's nothing else, Aunt Zhou won't come looking for me."
After saying that, Shen Yuanzhu got up, dressed, and went to the Jiang family.
When she arrived, Zhou He was already dressed and seemed to have been waiting for her for a long time. Shen Yuanzhu was a little surprised to see her: "But what happened to Xiaozao'er?"
Zhou He said, "Let's go outside and talk."
She pulled the person out of the courtyard and immediately got into the carriage, heading straight for the Xie family.
Inside the carriage, Zhou He said, "I also didn't know what to do, so I thought I'd ask you to help me think of a solution."
"Please don't rush, speak slowly."
Zhou He wiped away her tears and said with exasperation, "Do you know that Xie Jingyuan is going to the West?"
Shen Yuanzhu shook her head, and Zhou He shed tears: "He was determined to go to the West. Xie Boyu disagreed at first, but these past few days the Xie family has split up, and he can no longer control his two younger brothers, so he softened his stance."
"The Xie family splitting up?"
Shen Yuanzhu was genuinely surprised at this moment.
She wasn't surprised that Xie Jingyuan chose to go to the West. Perhaps it was because she had visited Zhiyunxuan before and seen the "Western sights" in Xie Jingyuan's room, and guessed that this person would eventually go out and see the world.
However, the Xie family splitting up was something she hadn't expected.
After a moment, Shen Yuanzhu asked, "Does the Xie family... still have anything to share?"
The Xie family's textile and dyeing garden is now just an empty garden, with most of the people gone. Neither Xie Boyu nor Xie Xuchuan has the ability to revive the Xie family.
Only Xie Jingyuan chose to go to sea.
In that case, there shouldn't be anything left to divide in the Xie family, right?
Unexpectedly, Zhou He said, "Yes, why wouldn't I?"
She sighed softly, "Isn't there still an old house? I heard from Xiaozao'er's letter that Xie Chengzhi insisted on rebuilding the entire courtyard of the second house with bricks and tiles, and opened a new gate."
"Now the Xie family of Suzhou Prefecture has been divided into two, namely the Greater Xie and the Lesser Xie."
"..."
Shen Yuanzhu listened, but didn't know what to say.
"That Xie Chengzhi is truly a scoundrel. He curses Jixia Manor every day, saying that Jixia Manor cheated him. Not only did he set a trap to frame the Xie family and swindle all of their craftsmen away, but he also harmed him."
Just as Shen Yuanzhu was about to nod and say that Jixia Manor was a scoundrel, Zhou He said, "In fact, Xie Chengzhi is an dishonest person. He made a scene at the funeral hall to seize the power of the steward, but then he turned around and sold the Xie family out."
"The owner of Jixia Manor, unaware that he was this kind of person, still agreed to partner with him to open a shop, investing a large sum of money..."
Zhou He said, "Cooperating with someone who doesn't even recognize his own brothers will likely lead to losses in the future."
Shen Yuanzhu remained silent for a moment, thinking to herself that Jixia Manor's ability to distort right and wrong was truly remarkable.
She casually asked, "How much silver did you pay?"
Zhou He was taken aback, then shook her head slightly: "I don't know, but that's what everyone's saying outside."
She waved her hand: "I don't care about these things. It's useless to talk to you about this. It's all because my mind is a mess."
"Are you worried that Xiaozao'er will go to the West with Xie Jingyuan?"
Zhou He nodded: "Yes and no."
She choked up as she said, "When I first heard that Xie Jingyuan was going to the West, I was worried about Jiang Zao's safety. I wondered if those barbaric and uncivilized places were inhabited by people who ate raw meat and drank blood."
"Therefore I was very worried and unwilling."
"But when I heard Jiang Zao say that he would not leave with Xie Jingyuan, I felt sad again."
She held Shen Yuanzhu's hand, her eyes filled with an intense, unyielding melancholy.
"You know my family situation better than anyone. The thing I regret most in my life is that I couldn't go with my father, Jiang Zao, when he was transferred to a post outside the capital."
“I think about it every day: if I had gone with him back then, would everything be different now?”
"My mother told me that if I served my parents-in-law at home and kept their hearts firmly in my own hands, even if my relationship with my husband faded in the future, there would be someone to support me and make decisions for me."
"But the truth is that even if my own child is not by my side for more than ten years, even if I check on him every morning and evening and stay by his side without taking off my clothes, I still can't compare to someone else's own son."
"When the woman and child weren't around, the two old people cursed every day, saying they would never share Jiang Zao's affections. But after they came back, everything changed."
Zhou He's eyes were empty: "She kept saying that the Jiang family only had one direct granddaughter, Jiang Zao, and that no one could surpass her. Later, she told me personally that both girls had Jiang family blood in them and that I should treat them equally and not harbor any jealousy."
"So Yuanzhu, all these years I have always regretted not leaving home with my husband."
"But I never imagined that Jiang Zao would follow the same path as me."
Zhou He pressed a handkerchief to her eyes and choked back tears, saying, "On the one hand, I don't want Jiang to follow in my footsteps, but on the other hand, I'm worried that she really went to the West with Xie Jingyuan..."
"Although her father went to a harsh and cold place back then, he was still within the territory of our dynasty, but the West..."
Zhou He tightened her grip on Shen Yuanzhu's hand slightly and said, "So I really have no other choice. I feel bad that Xiaozao'er is going with Xie Jingyuan. But I can't calm down if she doesn't go with him. Yuanzhu, what should I do?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
