Lord Chu was very depressed these days. Now that the Ninth Prince had become the Crown Prince, the Second Prince and the Wang family had run away, making the situation in the court even clearer. The Third Prince's party could no longer stir up any big waves, and the Third Prince and Concubine Sun had also calmed down. But the Emperor did not do as he had promised. Once the Ninth Prince came to power, he would let Princess Rong Zhao, who had conspired with the Second Prince to plot against important officials in the court, go to the nunnery to practice...
Perhaps, if he wanted to completely get rid of Rong Zhao, he could only do so after the crown prince ascended the throne.
Although he couldn't get rid of Rong Zhao now, he didn't need to compromise without dignity like before. Especially to the Ma family of the Second Prince, neither he nor the Chu family would be polite.
Lord Chu paused, and then said, "The Ma family is an outside family, so it is impossible not to let Yan'er see them. You can come to the mansion to see them, but you can't let them take them back to the Ma family."
Chen Afu was very happy to hear Lord Chu's powerful words. With the support of the elders, she could refuse more easily. In fact, she had thought that even if the elders agreed to let the Ma family take the little girl home, she would find all kinds of reasons to prevent the little girl from going back. Not only was she angry that the Ma family had ignored the little girl and her daughter before, but also because the Ma family's character and family style were not very good.
Lord Chu added, "As for Yan'er's mother's dowry, I will have someone bring it back to the mansion tomorrow. Find someone to take care of it."
It seems not good for a stepmother to look after her stepdaughter's dowry. But Nanny Huang was sent by Mrs. Chu San, so she was asked to take care of it temporarily, and when Chu Lingxuan came back, she would ask him to find someone to help take care of it. Chen Ahfu nodded in agreement.
On the way back to Zhuxuan, the little girl asked in a low voice, "Mom, who wants to take me to his home to play? Why doesn't grandpa allow me to go with them?"
Under the starlight, the little girl pursed her lips tightly, her face extremely serious. Perhaps she had already guessed it.
Chen Ahfu squeezed her little hand hard and said, "I'll tell you slowly after we get back to Zhuxuan."
After returning to Zhuxuan, Chen Afu finished feeding Xiao Yuer and asked the two mothers to take the two little brothers to the side room to play with Zhuifeng's family. Then he pulled the little girl onto the kang in the east room and held her in his arms.
Said, "Yan'er, mother is not your biological mother, you should know this, right?"
The little girl sniffed, tears welled up in her eyes, and she choked up and said, "But I have always regarded mother as my own mother."
Chen Ahfu lowered his head and kissed her little face, saying, "Well, mother has always regarded Yan'er as her own daughter. But, you have a biological mother, and it was she who gave you life. Although she has passed away, you must always remember her."
The little girl wiped her tears with a handkerchief and nodded.
Chen Chen Ah Fu added, "Your biological mother's family is still there..."
The little girl was a little scared, and looked up and asked, "Then they will be like my brother... Oh, no, it's the Eleventh Prince." Every time she called her brother the Eleventh Prince, she felt uncomfortable. But she knew that she had to call him that even if it was uncomfortable. She continued, "Will they take me in to live with them like the Eleventh Prince's family did?"
Chen Afu said, "Of course not. The Eleventh Prince was taken back because his father, mother, and brother are still alive, and their home is also his home. But you are different, your father, mother, and brothers and sisters are all in this home, and this home is your real home..."
The little girl breathed a sigh of relief and smiled brightly with tears in her eyes, "That's good."
Seeing such a little girl, Chen Ahfu felt relieved and started to laugh. He said, "Someone from your maternal grandparents came today and said they wanted to take you to the Ma family to stay for two days. You heard that the elders didn't agree, and your mother didn't want you to have too much contact with them..."
Chen Afu was in a dilemma. If she said something bad about the Ma family, she would be suspected of trying to sow discord between her stepdaughter and her family. But if she didn't say it clearly, she was afraid that the girl would be coaxed into joining the Ma family. It would be better if Chu Lingxuan was here. Many things would be said by her biological father, rather than by her stepmother. Before, she had always treated the girl as her own daughter, but now that the Ma family appeared, she had to face up to the fact that she and the girl were in a relationship of stepmother and stepdaughter.
However, for the good of the little girl, the relationship between them must be stirred up, but it must be done skillfully.
Then the little girl pouted and said, "I have grown up so much, but I have never seen them. I have been in Dingzhou Prefecture for so many years. My aunts and uncles in the capital, as well as my cousins in Shizhou Prefecture, have all come to see me, but they don't come to see me. It was only today that I found out that I have such a relative. From what grandpa said, they don't really like me..."
As she spoke, tears welled up in the little girl's eyes again.
The little girl was smarter than he thought, and she could tell right from wrong. Chen Ahfu felt pity and comfort, and said, "There are so many people who really like Yan'er, and we don't care about those people's liking. In the future, if they come to see you in the mansion, we can't chase them away, after all, they are from your maternal family. But if you take you back to live in the Ma family, we will not agree."
The little girl nodded and said, "I understand, and I won't go with them. In my heart, my grandma, grandpa, and uncle in Dingzhou Prefecture are my in-laws, and they are all good to me."
Chen Afu smiled and said, "Just keep these words in your heart." If she said them out loud, others would not say that they were the little girl's true feelings, but would most likely say that they were instilled in her by her stepmother.
After the little girl went to rest in the West Courtyard, Chen Ahfu said to Huang Ma, "If someone from the Ma family comes in the future, don't let my sister be alone with them."
Nanny Huang nodded in agreement.
The next morning, Chen Afu had the west wing of the backyard cleaned up to store Ma's dowry. When the girl had her own yard, she would move there.
In the afternoon, more than a dozen carts of goods were pulled into the bamboo pavilion. The visitor presented the list again.
Chen Ahfu looked around and saw a lot of stuff, including various ornaments, fabrics, jewelry, medicinal herbs, two hundred acres of land, a farm, and a box of one thousand taels of silver. Even the silver converted from the annual output of the land was there, totaling three hundred and one taels of silver over the years. The total value of these things should be more than five thousand taels of silver.
After Ma's death, her dowry was managed by someone designated by the Marquis of Chu.
Huang and Li checked and found that the accounts and the items matched. Rong Zhao was extremely rich and powerful, and even if he was not rich enough, he would not bother to tamper with Ma's dowry. Therefore, Ma's dowry was preserved intact.
Ma's family was just a clan of the Ma family, and her father and brother were not very successful. She had such a large dowry, so I think it was the Ma family who helped her to buy it.
Chen Ahfu temporarily asked Huang Ma to take care of the accounts and Qi'er to take care of the storeroom keys. He then showed the little girl around and told her that these things were left by her biological mother and would be her dowry in the future.
The little girl had no impression of her biological mother, but she still shed tears when she saw these things.
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