The Zheng family of the Yong'an Marquisate was granted a title during the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The current Marquis, Zheng Qiu's biological father, is the fourth generation.
At that time, the title was conferred for five generations. In other words, if the Zheng family did not receive any further titles after the son of Marquis Zheng inherited the title, then the title would be lost.
Starting with Zheng Qiu's grandfather, the old Marquis, their family had already shown signs of decline. They were neither good at literature nor martial arts. The old Marquis had four sons and one daughter, one legitimate son and one legitimate daughter, while the other three were illegitimate sons. Zheng Qiu's father, Marquis Zheng, was the eldest legitimate son and rightfully inherited the title. Zheng Qiu's aunt, who was born of the same mother as Marquis Zheng, had already married and married the Prince of Qi. She was now the Princess of Qi and was living a good life.
The old Marquis has passed away, and the matriarch of the household is still alive. However, she does not manage the inner quarters and mostly spends her time in the small Buddhist hall eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist scriptures. She only comes out to meet with her children and grandchildren when the Princess Consort of Qi returns to her parents' home every year.
The Yong'an Marquis's Mansion did not split up, meaning that Lord Zheng's three half-brothers still lived in the mansion.
Like the old Marquis, the four brothers had a fondness for beautiful women, so they had many wives and concubines in their household.
Lord Zheng had only five children: Zheng Qiu and his two siblings, and his second wife's son and daughter.
However, Lord Zheng's three half-brothers had an enormous number of children. Because they hadn't separated their households, the Yong'an Marquis's residence was almost overflowing with people.
The gossip that Gu Si was going to tell Gu Xin was about the third branch of the family, who were born out of wedlock.
Gu Xin was quite interested in this.
Zheng Qiu rarely mentioned family matters to Gu Xin. Out of respect for Zheng Qiu's decision, Gu Xin only took care of Zheng Qiu's older and younger brothers and didn't have time to care about the other people in the Yong'an Marquis's mansion, so she didn't know anything about it.
But Gu Si now has other girlfriends, so how can she not listen to gossip?
The gossip she knew came from her other girlfriends.
Of the three branches of the Yong'an Marquis's family, each had only one son, while the rest were all daughters, totaling more than twenty. If Zheng Qiu were included in the birth order, then in terms of the ranking of the daughters alone, the youngest daughter of the Zheng family would be Zheng Twenty-Nine.
Besides Zheng Wei, four other sisters got married, and the remaining fifteen were between the ages of thirteen and sixteen.
Gu Xin was quite surprised just hearing Gu Si mention this huge number. With so many people, why didn't their family split up?
Gu Xin voiced her question.
Gu Sidao said, "With parents alive, the family doesn't separate. Every time Xiaoqiu's stepmother brings up separating the family, the other three branches of the family work together to make an issue of it. Xiaoqiu's stepmother manages the inner quarters, and with so many people, their income is barely enough to cover their expenses. She's very annoyed! Every time she brings up separating the family, the other three branches of the family are unwilling, and the old lady doesn't interfere, so the matter is left unresolved."
Gu Xin remained silent.
Xiao Qiu's stepmother isn't very good at managing the household either!
Gu Si continued, "She was actually a bit insecure. She was promoted from a concubine to the principal wife, and the other three wives looked down on her and sometimes even bullied her. But what could she do? Lord Zheng wanted to go out drinking and needed his company, so she had a lot of worries! In May, she went to Taizhou with Lord Zheng, and things got a bit chaotic in the Zheng family's inner quarters. The ones causing the trouble were Xiao Qiu's three aunts and a few cousins. Of course, these things didn't get out, otherwise you, Third Sister, would know."
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