Chapter 9: A Clean Break
No matter how high this person's status in the Cui family is, the fact that she is a member of the Cui family and her surname is Cui can give Cui's political enemies countless opportunities to maneuver.
At this moment, Cui Zha was really grateful to Madam Liang. If it weren't for her, once Cui Jin's family confirmed the matter, if there was any mistake when the person got promoted in the future, he would also have to suffer the consequences.
The Liang County Magistrate and his wife were a pair of shrewd people. They glanced at each other without leaving any trace.
If Cui Zha had only wanted to scold Cui Jin and make a big deal out of a small matter before, now Cui Zha wanted to handle the matter strictly and use this incident to tighten the screws on the Cui family branch in Qinghe.
Suppressing his anger, Cui Zha stroked his beard and looked at Cui Qingyi, the victim of this incident, and asked, "Since you are the victim, then tell me, how do you want to deal with this matter?"
Cui Qingyi loosened her hands tucked in her sleeves, knowing that what she had asked for today had been accomplished.
Cui Qingyi knelt down in front of Cui Zha and bowed three times earnestly. Then she raised her head and looked directly at Cui Zha:
"Qingyi has no other requests, but please, Mr. Wu, allow Qingyi to break off all ties with the Linshui Cui family from now on. From now on, Qingyi is just Qingyi. I hope Mr. Cui will do this."
As soon as Cui Qingyi finished speaking, the study fell into a brief silence. Cui Zha had never expected that Cui Qingyi would make such a request.
As the saying goes, there are no perfect parents in the world. Cui Qingyi's suing her parents was already an unorthodox act, and now she even proposed to break off all ties with the Cui family.
No matter how fair Cui Zha was, he still disagreed.
Therefore, his tone was a little colder: "Are you sure? No matter how many faults your parents have, they still raised you. You are being unfilial by doing this."
Cui Qingyi didn't want to explain too much. Since she had done such a thing today, she had already thought about the possibility of being scolded in the future. She didn't answer but asked:
"Sir, may I ask if you have a daughter?"
Cui Zha replied: "Of course there is."
Cui Qingyi asked again: "Was your daughter married off right after she came of age? Did you and your wife know that the man had flaws in character and had an affair with him without a matchmaker before marriage? But you still forced your daughter to marry him for the sake of his family background and status?
Will you reject your daughter after she is divorced by her husband's family, and even covet the private property in her hands to support herself? Will you send your broken daughter to be abused by others just to pave the way for your son?
Sir, the White Deer Grotto Academy is world-renowned for teaching men the ways of a gentleman. Is there such a principle in the books of sages that one must step on women to climb up the social ladder?
Cui Qingyi's eyes were red, and it was obvious that she was in extreme pain, but she was trying hard not to cry. This stubborn look made Cui Zha shudder all over.
Women in the Jin Dynasty generally reached the age of fifteen and married at seventeen. The Cui family had no precedent of marrying off their daughters at the age of fifteen.
Cui Zha was also a respected teacher in the White Deer Grotto Academy, and no one had ever dared to question him loudly in front of him. But after Cui Qingyi said this, everything he said seemed wrong.
Cui Jin on the side looked at his daughter, but seemed not to recognize her. In his impression, Cui Qingyi was well-educated and well-mannered under the guidance of Yuan, and was always thinking about Yuan and Cui Wenxu. How could this girl in front of him be his daughter?
But apart from the fact that her face had grown, it was no different from when she got married at the age of fifteen.
In the silence, a very light sigh was heard.
Madam Liang's face was filled with sadness and pity: "It's not easy to be born as a woman. Now that you've been married once, you've fulfilled your obligations to your parents.
Mr. Wu, the Cui Jin couple are really not fit to be parents. Cui Qingyi is divorced. If she doesn't want to return to the Cui family to live, then she is a free person. Why not just fulfill her wish?
As for her future after leaving the Cui family, it all depends on her luck."
After Mrs. Liang finished speaking, Lord Liang nodded in agreement.
Cui Jin wanted to say something, but swallowed it back when he saw Cui Zha's cold face.
"Then it will be as you wish. However, after leaving the Cui family, you can no longer identify yourself as a member of the Cui clan. As for Cui Jin, I will make the decision today. I will allow Cui Qingyi to leave the Cui family and from now on, she will have no connection with your Linshui Cui family. Do you agree?"
Cui Jin certainly didn't want to acknowledge them. How could a child in this world voluntarily disown their parents? But just as he was about to open his mouth to refute, he heard Cui Zha continue, "If you don't want to, our Cui clan doesn't have a member like you who disobeys our ancestral teachings and acts recklessly. You can take your family and ask to leave the clan. From now on, you will have nothing to do with our Cui clan."
When Cui Jin heard that he was going to be expelled from the Cui family, he immediately shut up.
Things became much simpler afterwards. Witnessed by the magistrate of Liang County, Cui Jin personally wrote a document signed and sealed by all three parties before handing it to Cui Qingyi.
From then on, Cui Qingyi completely drew a line between herself and her natal family, the Cui family.
After leaving the county government office, Cui Qingyi felt a long-lost sense of relaxation. The matter that he had been planning for so long was finally resolved, and Cui Qingyi felt so light that he seemed to be flying.
Konjac, who followed Cui Qingyi, felt that the road ahead was uncertain. There were widows in this world, and there were women who lived alone after divorce, but the prerequisite was that they had money. She and the young lady had nothing, and they were paupers.
Konjac has already started to consider whether he should go out and find some work like laundry to earn some money.
On the other side, Cui's mother hurried back to the Cui Mansion and asked the doorman, who said that he had not seen the eldest daughter come back. She stamped her feet and hurried back to report to Yuan.
Just as Yuan was about to send all the servants out to look for him, a skinny young man rushed in crying.
"Wow, wow, wow, mother, mother, your son doesn't want to go to the academy anymore."
The person who came was Yuan's beloved son, Cui Wenxu, who was fifteen years old this year.
I don’t know if it was because he didn’t get enough nutrition in the womb, but Cui Wenxu was as thin as a kitten when he was born. Yuan Shi took great pains to raise him for so many years, but the child is still skinny and hasn’t grown much in height.
Because he was thin and had a somewhat pointed face, he looked completely different from his two half-brothers.
But Yuan didn't care at all. As the saying goes, a son is the apple of his mother's eye. Yuan wanted to cut off some of her own flesh to feed Cui Wenxu as a tonic.
Seeing her precious son crying like this, Yuan didn't bother to ask why he ran back home before his day off. "Tell me who bullied you. I will definitely help you."
Some of the fifteen-year-old boys in Dajin had become successful candidates in the imperial examinations, but Cui Wenxu was still crying like a child, but no one in the family noticed anything was wrong.
"Someone in the academy called me a conscienceless bastard for selling my sister for fame. Even the teacher asked me if this was true. Mother, didn't my sister marry in Qinghe? How could she be someone's concubine? This can't be true, right?"
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