alliance
Tan Linshuang wrote: If one suffers, all suffer!
Tan Moxiang seemed not to understand, and the hand holding the pen hesitated.
"Madam Qiu, the tea is cold." Tan Linshuang suddenly turned to Madam Qiu.
Tan Moxiang immediately agreed: "Please prepare more water for making tea. Lin'er and I want to discuss the art of pool painting."
"Yes!" Nanny Qiu responded and left.
"What secrets are hidden in the bamboo forest?"
As soon as she left, Tan Moxiang couldn't wait to ask Tan Linshuang in a low voice.
Tan Linshuang took a deep breath. Whenever she recalled this incident, it was as if she was using a knife to open a wound that had just healed, and it always hurt her heart.
However, this is both his wound and a weapon to deal with Tan Mozhu!
"My mother... was once murdered by Tan Mozhu there..."
“Beast!”
Before he finished speaking, Tan Moxiang had already guessed what had happened and became furious.
Tan Linshuang continued, "That attempt failed, but my parents still couldn't escape his clutches not long after."
"You mean your parents fell off the cliff... because of him?" Tan Moxiang was stunned.
She knew that Tan Mozhu was a bad person at heart, but she never thought that he would harm his own brother.
Tan Linshuang nodded heavily, then closed her eyes. Before Nanny Qiu came back, she told Tan Moxiang again what she had told Zhao Mingyan last night.
After listening to this, Tan Moxiang did not speak for a long time, with his eyes lowered, as if in deep thought.
"It seems that my mother's sudden and bizarre death, as well as the deaths of my other siblings due to illness, were all caused by that mother and son."
After a long while, she raised her head, tears glistening in her eyes, but she didn't cry. Instead, she calmly reminded Tan Linshuang, "Even if Tan Mozhu is brought to justice, or made to pay some other price, the power of the Tan family will still be in your grandmother's hands. Even if the Tan family is already in decline by then, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and I still won't be free."
"Not only that, you will also stand against her and become another me."
"Of course, you are her grandson, so your fate is naturally better than mine, but it's not much better."
Tan Linshuang nodded: "Aunt, you are right."
"Over the years, I have been trying to protect myself while secretly building up my strength, even feigning illness. This caused me to lose the opportunity to manage the business from my grandmother."
"The power of the trading company is so complex and intertwined that the downfall of one Tan Mozhu will not damage the foundation of the trading company. Grandmother can still control the fate of you and me."
"So, we must make both overt and covert moves to drain the Tan family's assets and shake their foundation, only then can we escape from Grandmother's control."
Tan Moxiang looked at him intently, "Are you planning to start your own business?"
Tan Linshuang did not answer, but the image of Zhao Mingyan talking about business emerged in her mind. She was so energetic and beautiful in a unique way.
"aunt."
He came back to his senses and pointed out the window. "I promise, I will make you as free as the bird outside the window."
Tan Moxiang also looked out the window and smiled, "I believe you."
"It's just that I'm trapped here, and there's not much I can do to help you. I can only do my best to help out in the mansion."
She turned to look at Tan Linshuang and emphasized seriously, "We have never been in a hostile relationship."
Tan Linshuang nodded with a smile.
Tan Moxiang added: "And outside the mansion, there are many people who can help you."
"For example, your former aunt."
…
"Is the young mistress still sleeping?"
It was already noon when Ah Tao saw Xiao Zhu coming out alone, so she asked curiously.
Xiao Zhu stretched lazily and nodded, "Young lady has become sleepy these past few days. My wife said she was the same when she was pregnant with you."
"Sleepy, not wanting to move, no appetite."
“Pregnancy is such a hassle!”
She wrinkled her nose.
"That's why you need to share the burden!" A Tao said with a smile.
Facing her meaningful smile, Xiaozhu was puzzled: "Share what? If the young lady becomes unable to move around later, the uncle will ask you to come and help."
"That's when we'll need you to share the chores in our house."
"Are you really confused or are you pretending?" Ah Tao looked at her and rolled her eyes slightly.
"Ah?" Xiaozhu was confused.
Seeing that she was really confused, Ah Tao took a step closer and whispered in her ear, "You are the young mistress's maidservant. She is pregnant, so naturally you are asked to serve my young master."
"I did serve my brother-in-law!" Xiaozhu said blankly.
Ah Tao looked up at the sky and was speechless. "The service I'm talking about is warming his bed. Usually at times like this, they would send their trusted maids to serve their husbands."
"What?" Xiaozhu was stunned, his eyes wide as copper bells.
Before her young lady got married, she never said that she wanted her to be her brother-in-law's concubine!
"No! My young lady will never let me serve my brother-in-law." She shook her head vigorously, and the hairpin on her bun swayed back and forth like a rattle.
When Ayun came over, he saw this scene.
My sister looked at the candle that was shaking like a rattle with a complicated expression, and asked curiously, "What interesting things are you talking about?"
They both turned their heads at the same time.
When Xiaozhu and Ayun looked at each other from a distance, her face turned red, and then she ran away, brushing past Ayun.
“Eh…”
Ah Yun looked at Xiao Zhu, who was running away in panic, with her hands and feet trembling. She caught a glimpse of her sister, whose expression was still complicated, and turned to ask her, "What are you guys talking about?"
A Tao told the truth, and A Yun's face turned black on the spot.
"Miss!"
Xiaozhu rushed into Zhao Mingyan's room and saw that she was awake and still lying in bed. She threw herself beside the bed and cried, "Miss, I don't want to warm your bed for me..."
"Huh?" Zhao Mingyan was still half awake when she heard her words. She turned her head slowly and looked at her. "Warm the bed? Why would I ask you to warm Tan Linshuang's bed?"
Xiaozhu sobbed and said, "Am I not your maidservant who came with your dowry? Now that you are pregnant, you can't have sex with your son-in-law, so naturally someone has to be arranged to replace you... Am I not the best candidate? But I don't want to... Miss, I don't want to..."
Zhao Mingyan suddenly came to her senses and felt unhappy.
"It's not like there are no other people in this house."
After calming herself down, she slowly sat up.
"A Tao? She will definitely not agree. Besides, I think the son-in-law treats her as a sister and has no intention of taking her into the room." Xiao Zhu said.
Zhao Mingyan said quietly, "Didn't Tan Linshuang bring back two girls from the orphanage last year? Although they haven't reached the age of marriage yet, they'll be there soon."
"Are you talking about apricots and plums?" Xiaozhu reacted.
A Tao is teaching these two people the rules step by step, and has not assigned them any work yet. I wonder whether they will come to serve their own young lady in the future or be responsible for the affairs of the outer courtyard.
After all, there are few maids in the North Courtyard and no servants. Two more maids do not mean that they will be sent to the male master's bed.
"Xingzi seems to be fourteen this year, and Meizi is one year younger." Xiaozhu thought for a while and said.
Zhao Mingyan still spoke in a quiet tone: "Thirteen or fourteen is just right. The people in the room need to be nurtured from a young age, so that they can be considerate and sensible."
"Miss..." Xiaozhu sensed her dejected mood, reached out and held her hand, frowning and saying, "If you don't want to, then don't arrange it. Anyway, the son-in-law listens to you now."
Zhao Mingyan smiled bitterly, "Didn't my father listen to my mother back then? But when my mother was pregnant with me, didn't she still let Nanny Li take care of my father?"
"Both my father back then and Tan Linshuang now are in their prime. If they could be patient, they could endure it for a year or two, but why bother? With more bed-warmers, maybe we can even have a few more children."
"If you raise me like this, I'm still my child, isn't it?"
"Wife, wife, doesn't it mean wife and children?"
"It's nothing like the word 'husband'. He is the master of the family and a woman's heaven."
As she spoke, she suddenly thought of Xu Qiaolian, and felt that the two titles were full of irony.
"Miss, won't you be sad? I finally see you and your brother-in-law develop feelings for each other." Xiaozhu tightened her hand.
Hearing this, Zhao Mingyan immediately thought of the affection between the two of them last night, and her eyes flashed slightly.
But then, his pupils became deep again. "Tan Linshuang and I are not only husband and wife, but also allies. We are on good terms with each other to continue the incense of our two families and make the Zhao and Tan families even stronger."
"Love between children only exists in bed. Spending time under the moonlight is but a fleeting moment of pleasure. My ancestral heritage and an heir are what I strive for all my life, and they are the purpose of my marriage to him."
…
"Come with me out of the mansion. We won't use the carriage. Tell others that I'm going out to buy some snacks for Mingyan."
Just as Zhao Mingyan got up from bed, Tan Linshuang had already come out of the south house, preparing to leave the house to visit his former aunt.
After giving Ayun his instructions, seeing that he didn't move and seemed to have something to say to her, Tan Linshuang asked directly, "What's wrong?"
Ah Yun hesitated: "Next, should we prepare a separate room for you, young master?"
"Huh?" Tan Linshuang was confused by his question.
Ayun lowered his head and said, "Prepare another room for you and your concubine to use."
Tan Linshuang's eyes suddenly narrowed, and she gave him a good beating. "Who told you to ask me? My grandmother?"
"No!" Ayun shook his head quickly.
He stammered, "I heard Ah Tao and Xiao Zhu talking about this earlier."
"Did Mingyan ask you to ask?" Tan Linshuang felt a tightness on his back.
"Not really! It's...I was talking too much..." Ayun said in a low voice.
Tan Linshuang's eyes narrowed into two slits, "You are hiding something from me."
Ayun lowered his head even lower. He didn't dare to hide it. "Master, I like Xiaozhu. Please don't take Xiaozhu into the room."
"A-choo! A-choo!"
Xiaozhu sneezed twice, then blew away the peach blossoms that were falling in front of her nose, muttering to herself, "I hate peach blossoms the most. They fly everywhere when the wind blows."
"Why didn't I see you complaining about the peach blossoms when you were eating peaches?" Zhao Mingyan laughed. She reached out and brushed away the peach petals on her head. "It's strange. Why are the peach blossoms always flying towards you today, but not bothering me?"
Xiaozhu rubbed his nose and said casually: "You have already produced fruits in your belly, so the flowers will naturally not bother you anymore."
"Oh, I understand." Zhao Mingyan followed up on her words and teased, "The flowers are bothering you, but you're about to bear fruit."
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