Chapter 291 Chiang's Breathing Disease
Watching Jiang Yuan rise step by step, those of them who were connected to him by blood could not benefit from it at all. Whether it was Marquis Anping Jiang Tong or his wife Han, it felt as if a hundred cat claws were constantly scratching at their hearts, making them extremely anxious and their tempers soaring.
Unbeknownst to him, Marquis Jiang Tong of Anping had increased the frequency and intensity of his reprimands to his sons. His wife, Lady Han, harbored great resentment towards him because he had driven her sons to spend more and more time away from home and to frequent brothels.
In the past, she might not have directly argued with Marquis Anping Jiang Tong, but in the last two years she has been overwhelmed with worries about her son's marriage, and she has accumulated a lot of anger in her heart.
As mentioned earlier, her second son was a hopeless wastrel who couldn't be helped. His already notorious bad reputation, along with the vacant position of heir of the Anping Marquis's mansion, were double debuffs superimposed on him.
Let alone those nobles and officials above and in the same social circle as the Marquis of Anping, even ordinary officials in the capital who are one or two circles below the Marquis of Anping would never want to marry their daughters into the Marquis of Anping's household.
After all... there's really no profit to be made.
Well, saying there's no profit to be made is actually being polite and euphemistic; saying it's harmful and useless is the objective statement.
The Earl of Anping had never cared much about his second son, and now, because of Jiang Yuan's occasional appearances, he was even more critical of him.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with scolding and punishing his son; he even felt that he was doing it to correct his good-for-nothing second son and for his son's own good.
However, if you don't teach your child when they are young, their temperament, character, habits... will have already been completely formed. When you belatedly realize that you have a responsibility to educate them, it has to be said that this hindsight is far too late.
His second son didn't think his father was doing this for his own good at all; he only felt that his father was picking on him again because of those bastards.
He was afraid and disgusted, but because he had no ability, he could only passively avoid it.
So he tried to spend as much time as possible away from home and to have as little contact with his father as possible.
However, he forgot that no respectable young man would spend his time frequenting brothels.
His reputation worsened, and the few minor official families that were originally willing to form a marriage alliance with him quietly chose to change their partners in order to avoid being drowned in the spittle of others or being publicly executed by the censors in the court.
Everyone thought, "Forget it, this high branch isn't very reliable anyway. With his increasingly arrogant and disdainful behavior, he has a 99% chance of not getting the position of heir."
If he loses his position as heir apparent, why would they needlessly sacrifice their daughters' future?
After all, even if they were to sell their daughters, nieces, and grandnieces, they would still have to sell them for a reasonable price.
After receiving repeated messages from the woman reneging on her promise, Madam Han, the last string in her mind snapped. She could no longer suppress her anger and, for the first time, disregarded her image and had a fierce argument with Marquis Jiang Tong of Anping, who had always ignored her words.
Of course, Marquis Anping Jiang Tong would not tolerate a mere woman from the inner quarters offending the dignity of his master. He not only smashed a teacup in front of Lady Han, the wife of the Marquis, but also did not go to her courtyard for several months.
Because of her "ungratefulness," Marquis Anping Jiang Tong even abandoned his second legitimate son.
This abandonment was not only reflected in discipline, but also directly excluded his second son from the list of candidates for heir.
As for his illegitimate sons, it was certainly a good thing that he placed high hopes on them, but the "excellence" that their birth mother had fabricated through the art of language quickly turned into illusions and mirages after Marquis Anping Jiang Tong began to take them seriously.
It was only at this moment that Marquis Anping, Jiang Tong, belatedly realized that his illegitimate sons were not "less outstanding than Jiang Yuan" as he had previously thought. Rather, even if they were not compared with Jiang Yuan, but only with other peers in the capital, they would appear quite mediocre compared to the majority of the sons of officials in the capital.
If we really had to categorize them, they would probably only be in the second-to-last tier, which is the category of parasites who, while not wasteful or spoiled, are also incapable of doing anything for their families.
Forced to confront reality, Anping Earl Jiang Tong felt as if dazzling stars were flashing before his eyes one after another.
His title, the foundation of his Jiang family, and his grand vision that his family could take another step or even two steps further in his lifetime—it is now basically certain that all of these will become nothing but a mirage.
Jiang Tong, deeply affected by the blow, fell ill. He was very ill. Although Madam Han, the mistress of the household, was in a cold war with Jiang Tong, she still had to take responsibility and ask for doctors and medicine for him.
However, Marquis Anping Jiang Tong did not appreciate her efforts. Perhaps his physical discomfort reduced his ability to control his emotions. During the time when his wives, concubines, and sons were taking care of him, everyone was attacked indiscriminately by him.
Madam Han and her second legitimate son, along with several concubines and their illegitimate sons, were all scolded by Jiang Tong for various trivial matters.
Only Jiang Tong's several illegitimate daughters, whom he originally regarded only as pawns in a marriage alliance, were fortunate enough to escape his scolding or reprimand.
Han had argued with him, and although she was surprised by his taking advantage of her illness, she quickly accepted it. She only ordered her son to run errands for her, such as taking servants to fetch doctors and buy tonics, and watching Jiang Tong's trusted subordinates help him get medicine and brew it.
These tasks were actually all done by the servants. Her second son was only there as the head of the household to show that he was indeed busy for his sick father and was not the kind of heartless, unfilial son who only cared about his own enjoyment.
On the contrary, Jiang Tong's concubines and their illegitimate sons were all forced by Han to take turns serving as the main force in "attending to Jiang Tong's illness".
Although for families like theirs, the so-called "attending to the sick" usually only requires them to lend a little help to the servants, and they don't really need to do everything themselves, burning the midnight oil, Jiang Tong is still quite difficult to serve these days.
Normally, his concubines and illegitimate sons would have rushed to him, even if Han didn't give them a schedule, they would still eagerly crowd around Jiang Tong so that he could see their care and respect for him.
But the current situation is very different from the normal situation. No matter how carefully they try to please Jiang Tong, they still get cold faces, rebukes and even curses.
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