Chapter Forty-Three: The Ultimate Scumbag Father
Upon hearing this, Madam Sun frowned slightly, inwardly cursing: What kind of trouble is this little slut trying to cause now?
She looked up at Meng Jinyao and saw Meng Jinyao looking at her with a half-smile. She had a bad feeling and reached out to take the form that Meng Jinyao handed her.
Unfolding the form revealed a long sheet, folded like a memorial to the throne, with elegant, delicate calligraphy that was pleasing to the eye. However, there were so many words that the entire long sheet was filled.
There were too many words, and she had limited patience, so she didn't want to read the contents.
Therefore, Madam Sun only glanced at it before looking away, and asked softly with a smile, "Ayao, what is this?"
Meng Jinyao was unusually patient today, and said with a smile, "Mother, you'll know once you take a look. Do you recognize what's written on it?"
Madam Sun nodded with a smile, her tone carrying a hint of indulgence: "Alright, Mother will take a look first."
Meng Dongyuan frowned and glanced disapprovingly at his eldest daughter. He had disliked this eldest daughter since birth. She was a jinx, born to kill her mother. He didn't know who she took after in terms of personality. She was born rebellious and often spoke with barbs to her mother. If it weren't for Madam Sun's magnanimity in not arguing with her, she would have no good life.
As Sun looked at the contents of the list, her expression changed drastically. The smile on her face vanished, and her eyes were fixed on the words on it. She felt a chill run down her spine.
The dowry list from the Zhou family was in her hands after she married into the family. She also dismissed the people left behind by the Zhou family. Only Ningdong and Qingqiu were given by Meng Jinyao's maternal grandparents, who said they were bought to be Meng Jinyao's playmates. Their indentures were in Meng Jinyao's hands, and she could do nothing about it.
But how could Meng Jinyao have a dowry list that is described in detail?
Everyone around her was trustworthy; it was impossible for anyone to steal that dowry list and make a copy for Meng Jinyao. How could Meng Jinyao have such a thing? If word got out that she had misappropriated her stepmother's dowry, how could she ever face anyone again?
Seeing that her expression had changed, Meng Jinyao, still smiling, asked, "Mother, are the things up there familiar?"
Sun calmed herself down, feigning nonchalance with a smile, and replied, "There are many good things recorded on it, but Mother has no recollection of these things. Where did Ayao get the list?"
Don't you remember?
Meng Jinyao stared at Sun Shi for a couple of moments, then instantly wiped the smile off her face. Her indifferent tone carried an undeniable anger: "This is my biological mother's dowry list. After my mother passed away, you married into the Meng family, and this dowry list fell into your hands. You once said that I was still young, and that you would keep these things for me until I got married, and then give them to me intact, adding them to my dowry."
However, when I examined the dowry you prepared for me, I found almost nothing of what my mother left me. It was almost entirely made up of cheap or useless items, a shoddy substitute. Is this what you meant by not misappropriating the dowry left by my stepdaughter's mother?
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyu, Meng Chengzhang, and Meng Chengxing, who were unaware of the situation, were all stunned and looked at Madam Sun.
Meng Dongyuan was shocked. He hadn't expected his eldest daughter to know something her birth mother had left behind, and he wondered who had secretly told her.
Ten years ago, my second brother became addicted to gambling. My mother felt sorry for her youngest son and indulged him, causing him to lose a lot of the family fortune. Later, my second brother got drunk and fell into a lake and drowned. Fortunately, he did not leave any children, so we did not have to give up any of the family fortune. My second brother's wife remarried after his death.
Because the second brother squandered part of the family fortune, and the Yongchang Marquis's Mansion has declined over the years, the current Yongchang Marquis's Mansion is not like the Yongchang Marquis's Mansion of more than ten years ago, and can only barely maintain a superficial appearance.
Fortunately, Zhou left behind a dowry, which would make the Yongchang Marquis's mansion much more financially secure. Two-thirds of this dowry would be used to help Chengxing get married in the future, and as a dowry for Ayu. This way, the marriages of the two children would be much more respectable. As for Chengzhang, he was an illegitimate son, and illegitimate sons were not as noble as legitimate sons and daughters, so they could just settle for someone else.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with doing so. The birth of that rebellious daughter, A Yao, had caused Zhou's death. He believed that Zhou would not want her dowry to fall into the hands of this jinx. This jinx would have plenty of wealth and honor if she married into the Changxing Marquis's mansion. Zhou's dowry could be considered as helping her younger siblings. They were all her own brothers and sisters, so there was no need to be so calculating.
Just as Sun was rendered speechless by the questioning, Meng Dongyuan spoke up to ease his wife's embarrassment: "Ayao, how could your mother have kept your birth mother's dowry? Your birth mother died in childbirth, and after she married into the family, she took you in and raised you. Over the years, you have been unruly and disobedient, and it was your mother who pleaded for you in front of your grandmother. Don't listen to rumors and misunderstand your mother, and hurt her feelings."
Sun's tense mood calmed down, and she echoed, "Yes, Ayao, the dowry your birth mother left you has all been added to your dowry list. Did someone say something to you, and just give you some random thing to fool you, causing you to misunderstand your mother?"
"Misunderstand?"
Meng Jinyao chuckled as if she had heard a hilarious joke, looking at the couple with a mocking gaze, and asked with a smile, "Father, Mother, how can you say such things without feeling guilty?"
That mocking smile and disdainful gaze, as if they had seen through everything, enraged Meng Dongyuan, who shouted, "Insolence!"
Then, with a stern face, she glared at her eldest daughter and reprimanded her in a deep voice, "Ayao, how dare you speak to your parents like that? Do you think you're so great just because you married into the Marquis's family and climbed the social ladder? Do you want to come back to your parents' home and act tough?"
Meng Jinyao's smile deepened. She spoke slowly and deliberately, her tone laced with sarcasm: "My father must know how much dowry my biological mother had. Yet he didn't even glance at it before saying I misunderstood her. Isn't that unfair? Or does my father already know the truth and is one of the instigators, so he wants to use his position as my father to suppress me and cover up the truth?"
These words seemed to have stepped on Meng Dongyuan's tail, and his anger intensified: "What nonsense are you talking about? I want to know who is spreading rumors in front of you. As for the so-called dowry list you mentioned, I will take a look at it for you so that you can give up on it."
After he finished speaking, he reached out and snatched the long list from Sun's hand, glancing down at it.
It would have been better if I hadn't looked at it, because once I did, I was shocked. The contents of this list were exactly the same as those of the first wife, Zhou. Zhou's dowry list was clearly in Sun's hands, and the eldest daughter had never seen it. So how did the eldest daughter get this?
etc!
The handwriting on this list is new, and the paper is not old; it is not an old item from seventeen years ago, which means that this dowry list is not the original.
Unless it's the original, and you can't produce the original, there's no way to prove it. Who knows if what's written on this list is true?
Thinking of this, Meng Dongyuan finally felt relieved and looked up at his eldest daughter, shaking his head helplessly: "Ayao, this is obviously newly written, even the paper is brand new. How could it be your birth mother's dowry list? Who gave you this to make you misunderstand your mother?"
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