Chapter Forty-Six: Meeting in Court
This is absolutely ridiculous!
No matter where this matter goes, Meng Dongyuan and the Sun family will always be seen as unreasonable and shameless.
How can one secretly misappropriate his deceased wife's dowry to subsidize the children he had with his second wife, while neglecting his deceased wife's biological daughter?
Meng Dongyuan's face turned pale and then red as he was ridiculed by his eldest daughter. However, as an elder who cared about his reputation, how could he admit that he was wrong or shameless in front of his junior?
He stuck out his neck, his voice strong despite his lack of conviction: "I am your father, an elder. Can't I make decisions for you? Fine, let's do it this way. If this is true, your mother will apologize to you, and your younger siblings will be grateful to you when they get married in the future. Don't be so unreasonable."
"Father is unreasonable yet still insists on arguing, but I am in the right, so why should I forgive him?" Meng Jinyao said coldly, not giving an inch. "Father, have you forgotten? Our dynasty has laws that clearly stipulate that after a woman's death, her dowry is inherited by her biological children. If she has no children, it should be returned to her maternal family. Her husband's family has no right to dispose of it."
Meng Dongyuan's face froze, unable to refute it. Indeed, our dynasty has such a law.
Meng Jinyao glanced at him and continued, "My mother has me as her own daughter, so naturally I will inherit her property. My property is not for my father to give to whomever he wants. As for Sun Shi, as her second wife, she has even less right to suppress my mother's dowry." After saying that, she slightly raised the corners of her mouth and looked at Sun Shi with a half-smile, her sarcasm undisguised.
Sun's face was pale, her heart filled with resentment.
Meng Dongyuan had a terrible headache, but for the sake of the family's reputation, he had to suppress the matter. He took a deep breath and used filial piety to pressure her: "Ayao, if your mother really did such a thing, do you really want to make a big fuss about it? She took good care of you when you were still an infant. Can you bear to let her become the laughing stock of the entire capital?"
He paused slightly, quickly gathered his thoughts, and continued, "Furthermore, since there was a mistake in the dowry, why didn't you say so before the wedding? Saying it now is clearly putting your mother in a difficult position. You've already married into the family, are you going to give her a dowry afterward? What kind of behavior is that? Even if this dowry is kept, it will be passed on to your younger siblings, not to anyone else."
Meng Jinyao was so angry she laughed: "I only received the dowry list on my wedding day. I was never shown this list before the wedding. You can't expect me to check the list before leaving the house on my wedding day, can you? If I really had to count my dowry before leaving the house on my wedding day, wouldn't that be a laughing stock?"
"..."
Meng Dongyuan was speechless; he hadn't expected this.
Meng Jinyao spoke sharply, and questioned with a smile: "Just now, I heard Father say that you were taking advantage of the fact that Sun had embezzled my mother's dowry, and then, to save face, you didn't return it, so you could rightfully seize my mother's dowry? All men in the world consider it shameful to use their wife's dowry, and to fight with your children over your deceased wife's dowry is a shameless act. Does Father want to be that shameless person?"
What a good father he is!
She wanted to shift the blame for embezzling her mother's dowry onto Sun to absolve herself of any responsibility, while also helping Sun to mitigate her punishment by claiming she had "no choice." In the end, she blamed Sun for being unreasonable and for bringing shame upon her family by asking for the dowry back.
Upon hearing this, Meng Dongyuan felt as if someone had stepped on his tail, and his face immediately turned red. He retorted, "What nonsense are you talking about? How could your father be such a shameless person? I just don't want you and your mother to make such a fuss."
Meng Jinyao replied, "Since Father is not that kind of person, please return my mother's dowry. Since my maternal grandfather has prepared sufficient evidence for me, he certainly does not want my mother's dowry to fall into the hands of others."
Seeing that she brought up Old Master Zhou, Meng Dongyuan was at a loss. He could only give his wife a look and said helplessly, "Madam, Ayao insists that you did not add the dowry to her dowry list. I'll ask you one more time, is it really true?"
Seeing that her husband was helpless, Sun felt extremely humiliated, but she still bowed her head to her stepdaughter in front of her children. Even if her husband and mother-in-law were in the know, there was no evidence to prove that they were also involved. Now that all the evidence pointed to her, she had no choice but to admit it.
When she looked at Meng Jinyao, she had a look of deep regret and said apologetically, "Ayao, it was your mother's fault. Don't blame your father. He didn't know anything. If you have to blame someone, blame your mother for not daring to admit her mistake earlier. Your mother just thought that since you married into the Changxing Marquis's mansion, you would enjoy endless wealth and honor."
Halfway through her sentence, Madam Sun's eyes reddened. She quickly wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief and continued in a choked voice, "Our Meng family was squandered so much wealth by your good-for-nothing second uncle in the past few years. We haven't been able to recover in all these years. In the future, your younger brother and sister won't have decent betrothal gifts and dowries when they get married. That's why he had such crooked ideas."
Upon hearing this, Meng Dongyuan feigned shock: "Madam, you...you really did this?"
When Meng Jinyu and Meng Chengxing saw that their mother had admitted it, they were shocked and a little flustered. If this got out, their Meng family would be laughed at to death, especially the siblings. They were their mother's own children, and they would probably be laughed at for being like mother and daughter.
“Husband, given our family’s situation, and with our children getting married in a few years, I have no other choice.” As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. “Ayao, don’t worry, your father and I will make it up to you in other ways. Please forgive your mother this time, and also for the sake of your three younger brothers and sisters.”
After watching them put on this act for so long, and hearing their implication that they had no intention of returning the dowry, Meng Jinyao completely lost her patience and said in an unquestionable tone, "You've been arguing with me about all this nonsense, without mentioning the return of the dowry. So you're trying to seize my mother's dowry and don't want to return it? Since that's the case, there's no point in saying more. We'll see you in court in three days. I believe you'll get justice there."
After she finished speaking, she stood up and started to leave.
Upon hearing this, Meng Dongyuan immediately became anxious, his voice tinged with exasperation: "You rebellious daughter, you stop right there!"
Meng Jinyao turned her head to look at him: "Is there anything else, Father?"
Meng Dongyuan was so angry that his face turned red and his neck bulged. He questioned, "Are you really going to take your own elders to court?"
"Father, you're mistaken." Meng Jinyao curled her lips and said with a smile, "It's you who don't want to return it. I'm just using legitimate means to take back what belongs to me. How has that become my fault?"
Meng Dongyuan gritted his teeth and said, "That's your mother! If we take the dowry back now, what will others think of our Yongchang Marquis's Mansion? Your sister is of marriageable age. If your mother is ridiculed, how will Ayu find a husband?"
Meng Jinyao calmly corrected, "My mother's surname is Zhou, not Sun." She paused, then glanced at Sun, "As a mother, she is not upright and clearly has not considered her children. So why should I consider her children?"
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