Xu Zhi looked at the man sitting in front of her with his head down with a pang of heartache. He was at the age when he should be full of vigor, but he was like a person who was about to die. He had no vitality, only a sense of weariness, and he quietly spoke of what was probably the deepest pain in his heart.
With red eyes, Zheng Yuanyuan said, "But you didn't want to be born, you didn't want to be their illegitimate children."
Zong Chengping raised his head, looked at Zheng Yuanyuan with heartache, and continued, "Yes, it's not what we wanted. The Duke's Mansion is a prestigious family in the eyes of outsiders. Their way of sitting, lying, and walking is different from ordinary people. But they are all show and no substance. How could I bear to drag someone else into such a place with me?"
Xu Zhi shook her head, while Zheng Yuanyuan looked at Zong Chengping anxiously, as if she wanted to say something. Xu Zhi gave her a look, and Zheng Yuanyuan turned her head away, her eyes red and her lips bitten.
Xu Zhi asked, "Young Master Zong, rules are set by people. How do you know it won't work if you haven't even tried?"
Zong Chengping gave a bitter smile and said, "Over the years, do you think I haven't tried? My birth mother died early, and I have no more ties to the Duke's mansion. I originally thought that I would just leave that place and go far away. Even if I found a small village, bought a few acres of land, farmed it myself, married a village woman, and lived a good life, I could do it. But it's not possible. My father found out about my thoughts first, and that's when I learned that my daily whereabouts are regularly reported to my parents by the people around me, just so that we wouldn't do anything to disgrace the family. Madam Zheng, it's too difficult to leave."
What Zong Chengping didn't explicitly say was that even if they left, they would be caught and dealt with by the Duke's mansion if they were found in the future. The Duke's mansion would not allow such a traitor to exist. There had been such people before, all with the same idea as Zong Chengping, and what was the result? They would find a place to live in seclusion, but after being found and brought back by the Duke's mansion, their families would be destroyed and they would die. Those who betrayed the family would be imprisoned in the mansion's private dungeon until the last moment of their lives.
Large families have their advantages, but they also have their disadvantages. This is probably to prevent the members of the family from betraying the family. Managing a large family is not easy, especially in families where there are children born of different parents who are inherently at odds. In order for the large family to continue to develop and prosper, some sacrifices will be made.
This Duke Chengguo's mansion is not without brilliant and talented illegitimate children, but because they are suppressed, their talents are slowly extinguished, and many die in despair. Zong Chengping does not want to be like those people, but he is powerless to do so, because his father made it very clear to him that the mansion will not tolerate the existence of such people.
Xu Zhi couldn't help but sigh. In this capital city, no one knew what kind of filth was hidden beneath the surface of glamour. Yet, these were the bad habits left over from many families over the years. Xu Zhi knew that not every family could be like the Yongning Marquis's Mansion, where the old lady's iron-fisted rule left no room for such filth to exist. The old lady herself had been hurt by these bad habits, but because she didn't want her descendants to continue experiencing her sorrow, she became the villain and eradicated those things that others considered normal from the root.
If you don't want illegitimate children, as long as you control your lower body, you can always prevent these illegitimate children from being born and getting in your way. But if you want to enjoy yourself but don't want these sins you've created to hinder the path of the legitimate children in your family, then you can only say that such a person is truly despicable.
Xu Zhi looked at the man with a pained expression and asked him, "In all these years, has no one from your Chengguo Duke's Mansion been able to break free from the family?"
Zong Chengping shook his head and said, "No, not a single one. I once heard from my family that there was an elder in the clan who was born out of wedlock. He wanted to break away from the clan and gave up the family's ancestral property. He was beaten dozens of times in the ancestral hall. In the end, he died because his injuries were too severe and he didn't have the money to treat him. He was just going to suffer in that family, and he would die if he left anyway, so no one thought of doing such useless things anymore."
Zheng Yuanyuan wanted to say that she wasn't afraid to go into that quagmire with him, but then she thought that it would bring shame to her brother and sister-in-law. Although the Zheng family was no longer a marquisate, her brother was a young general guarding a region, and her sister-in-law came from a prestigious family. As a girl in the family, if she insisted on marrying Zong Chengping, people in the capital would definitely laugh at the Zheng family.
Zheng Yuanyuan bit her lip, tears streaming down her face. Xu Zhi felt a tightness in her chest, a feeling that was hard to swallow. When they were leaving Luzhou to return to the capital, she had told Zheng Boyuan that as long as Yuanyuan liked someone, family background didn't matter, as long as the person had good character. But what happened? She had chosen someone whose background wasn't so great, and whose family was in dire straits. Most importantly, even if she and Zheng Boyuan were willing, they didn't even consider whether the Duke of Cheng's family was willing. Now that the First and Third Princes had left the stage of history, there were still several princes left. The Second Prince spent his days with a group of so-called literati, holding poetry gatherings and banquets, all to gain a reputation for being learned and talented. The previously inconspicuous Fifth and Sixth Princes are now stirring up trouble. The power of the First and Third Princes is slowly shifting towards these princes. The situation in the capital is chaotic, and even the usually astute Marquis Xu cannot understand some of the events. Therefore, Xu Zhi dares not stand up for Zong Chengping at this time.
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