Chapter 159 The Meng Family Haunted
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao's eyes widened in shock: "He is the heir of the Marquis of Wu'an?"
Princess Jingning, seeing this, was somewhat puzzled. She glanced at her with a confused look, then nodded and replied, "Yes, he is the heir of the Marquis of Wu'an. What's wrong?"
Meng Jinyao frowned. Her mother-in-law had told her sister-in-law before that the Wu'an Marquis's family was a complicated place, and no normal young lady from a respectable family wanted to marry into it and suffer because of all the troubles. Judging from her sister-in-law's reaction that day, she had completely given up on the idea of marrying into the Wu'an Marquis's family. How could Gu Xuanyi be boating on the lake with the Wu'an Marquis's heir? Could it be that Gu Xuanyi and the Wu'an Marquis's heir had taken a liking to each other and were seeing each other in private?
Seeing that something was wrong with her, Song Xinning thought something had happened and asked with concern, "Ayao, what's wrong?"
Hearing this, Meng Jinyao came back to her senses and shook her head slightly. After all, it was a family matter, which concerned a young lady's reputation. Even with her best friend, it was not appropriate to spread it around. So she said, "It's nothing. I just suddenly remembered a family matter. Where were we? Let's continue our conversation."
Seeing that she was unwilling to talk about it, Song Xinning did not ask any further questions. After all, it was her family matter, and it was inconvenient to tell her friends. It must be something important that could not be said to outsiders.
Princess Jingning then asked, "Is it related to your maternal family?"
Meng Jinyao smiled and said, "No, I don't care about my family's affairs. Except for my second brother, they can do whatever they want. Anyway, they won't listen to what I say."
If it's not her parents' home, then it must be her husband's home.
Song Xinning and Princess Jingning exchanged knowing glances. It was even more inconvenient to talk about her husband's family matters to outsiders, otherwise, if she offended her husband's family and her own family was unreliable, Ayao's future days would be very difficult.
Song Xinning suddenly said, "Ayao, speaking of your family, I just remembered something. I wonder if you know about it?"
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao suddenly remembered what she had asked Granny Qiao and Chan'er to do. She narrowed her eyes slightly, but pretended not to know anything on the surface: "My family's affairs? What happened? I haven't paid attention to them for a long time."
Song Xinning replied, "I heard that the Yongchang Marquis's mansion is haunted. Your stepmother, Madam Sun, invited a Taoist priest back to perform a ritual. The priest performed the ritual at the mansion yesterday."
Meng Jinyao knew about this, but she couldn't make it public. Not only were two close friends present, but also several maids. Even without the maids, it was best not to reveal it until it was done; the fewer people who knew the secret, the safer it was. It wasn't that she didn't trust her friends, but it was inevitable that she would accidentally let something slip.
She feigned surprise: "Is my family home haunted?"
Song Xinning nodded repeatedly: "Yes, it came from the Yongchang Marquis's mansion. I heard that several people saw a ghost, and it was a female ghost. Your stepmother also saw it and was very frightened, so she invited a Taoist priest to exorcise the ghost."
Meng Jinyao was taken aback: "I didn't know about this."
Princess Jingning suddenly became excited and asked with great curiosity, "Are there really ghosts? Do ghosts really exist in this world?"
Song Xinning pondered for a moment, then replied with a hint of certainty, "Whether ghosts exist or not is hard to say, but judging from the state of the Yongchang Marquis's mansion, it's probably true. If one person sees a ghost, it might be an illusion, but if several people see a ghost, it can't all be an illusion."
Princess Jingning nodded in agreement, looked at Meng Jinyao, and said with great relief, "That was really creepy. Luckily, Ayao got married, otherwise living in a haunted house would have been terrifying."
"If you don't do anything wrong, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking at your door in the middle of the night." Meng Jinyao's lips curled up, her smile bright, and she said unhurriedly, "I haven't done anything wrong, so I'm not afraid of these things. But my stepmother, I don't know if she did something wrong, which is why she attracted ghosts."
Princess Jingning nodded again: "That's right. Our Ayao is upright and honest, so she's not afraid of ghosts and monsters. If ghosts and monsters want to harm people, they're only harming the bad people who have wronged them, and they're seeking revenge on the bad people."
Song Xinning added, "I wonder how powerful that sorcerer is, and whether he can drive away the ghost."
Meng Jinyao's smile deepened as she slowly said, "He must have some skill, otherwise he wouldn't have accepted money to do this. Whether he can completely eliminate the ghosts depends on the skill of the mage. If his skill is insufficient, the exorcism will only be temporary."
“Then I hope the sorcerer’s power is insufficient.” Song Xinning said, chuckling softly, “It seems a bit immoral of me to say this, but for someone like the Sun family, it’s better to let ghosts and monsters scare them a bit more.”
Meng Jinyao gave her a reproachful look: "You, but I like it."
Song Xinning chuckled, and after a moment said, "Oh, right, there's one more thing, also about your family."
Meng Jinyao asked, "What is it?"
Song Xinning said with a gloating expression and a light tone, "Your father took a beautiful concubine. She was extremely beautiful and was very much loved by your father. Because your stepmother was seeing ghosts, he stopped spending nights with her and stayed in that concubine's room every night. This made your stepmother very angry, and she sold the concubine, saying that she was a vixen. One day, your father came home and found that the concubine had been sold. He was furious and had a fight with your stepmother, saying that she was jealous."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao was slightly taken aback. She hadn't paid attention to her father's affairs. Chan'er had mentioned it briefly, but she wasn't interested, so Chan'er didn't say much more. She was focused on revenge and only paid attention to whether Granny Qiao was doing her job diligently.
Song Xinning clicked her tongue twice: "I really didn't expect this. Although your father has concubines, he cares most about your stepmother. Now he's actually arguing with your stepmother over a concubine."
Meng Jinyao curled her lips into a mocking smile: "Perhaps he truly liked her when he was young, but as he gets older, his beauty fades and his love wanes. He'll definitely prefer a gentle, attentive, young, and beautiful concubine. Besides, the fact that my father made my stepmother pawn her dowry to return my birth mother's dowry money to me shows that he didn't love my stepmother much; he only loved himself."
Now that my stepmother has no dowry to rely on, she can only depend on my father and can't stand up for herself. My father won't care much either, because in the end, it will definitely be my stepmother who tries to reconcile. Otherwise, if my father doesn't like her, he might just cut off her monthly allowance.
Upon hearing this, Song Xinning and Princess Jingning fell silent.
For a married woman, her dowry is her source of confidence. Without it, she cannot stand up for herself in her husband's family. If her husband loves her and her parents-in-law are kind, that's fine. Otherwise, she will only be able to live off her husband's family and will not be able to buy jewelry whenever she wants. Without this confidence, and without her dowry to supplement her daily expenses, Sun's life will be much more difficult when she and her husband are at odds.
Therefore, parents who love their daughters will try their best to prepare more dowry for them. Firstly, it will give them face in their husband's family, and secondly, it will provide their daughters with a livelihood. Even if they don't rely on their husband's family, they won't starve. After all, if they only rely on their husband's family, they won't even have money to bribe the servants when they fall out of favor, let alone live a life of luxury.
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