Chapter 172 The hero's best mother (Fifty-nine)
Queen Mother Han was persuaded.
However, she still summoned Princess Nanping into the palace and carefully inquired about her wishes.
Han Jiaojiao staggered with every step, coughing as she spoke, and her palm-sized face was almost pale.
"The matter of marriage is entirely up to the saint and grandmother."
"I, ahem, I believe in my uncle and grandma."
Han Jiaojiao forced out a shy smile, her timid eyes filled with awe for the emperor and admiration for the empress dowager.
Queen Mother Han: ...What a good child.
"Okay! Don't worry! I will definitely find a good husband for you!"
The Zhao family is indeed a little shallow and not worthy of the daughter of the Han family.
Han Jiaojiao was shocked when she felt the change in Empress Dowager Han's mood.
She quickly coughed several times, covered her mouth with a handkerchief, and said faintly, "Actually, I would rather stay at home."
"...Ahem! With my current body, if I get married, I won't be able to take care of household chores, and I won't be able to have children. If I get married, I'll just be a nuisance to others."
At this point, tears welled up in Han Jiaojiao's eyes. "My grandma and uncle are also going to be in trouble because of me."
Queen Mother Han: ...Although these words may hurt your heart, they are the truth.
Alas, Jiaojiao is good in every way except that she is too weak and her character is too timid.
Even if you marry into your in-laws' family, you will inevitably suffer grievances.
For example, at the Han family or at Jiaojiao’s own home.
She herself had a noble status and was favored by the palace, but she was actually bullied by a step-wife and a concubine's daughter.
Queen Mother Han could indeed rely on her status to directly issue an imperial decree to grant the marriage.
It can also help Nanping to suppress her husband's family.
However, marriage is to bring two families together for good, not to create enmity.
If the mother-in-law has resentment, it will be like the wife of Duke Cheng'en and Princess Yongjia back then.
Princess Yongjia was a bright and strong-willed person. Didn't she suffer from the injustice of her mother-in-law and die early because of the anger of a concubine who was born a lowly maid? When Queen Mother Han thought of that lowly maid, she was filled with resentment.
The wife of Duke Cheng'en is her younger brother's sister-in-law, and Han Chong is her nephew, so Empress Dowager Han cannot blame them directly.
She simply blamed the slave girl for Princess Yongjia's death.
Back then, Queen Mother Han originally wanted to have Nanny Zhou and others strangle the slave girl to death, but unexpectedly, the slave girl became pregnant.
For the sake of the Han family's bloodline, Queen Mother Han had no choice but to "endure" it again.
She was so frustrated that she almost got internal injuries! She could not kill the slave girl, but she really did not have the slightest good feeling towards her and her children.
Among her niece’s daughters, Queen Mother Han only recognizes Han Jiaojiao.
But Jiaojiao, ah, it’s really hard to help her up.
I don't mean to compare her with others, but in terms of appearance, talent, interpersonal relationships, etc., Jiaojiao is indeed not as good as her half-sister.
In the capital, the concubine's reputation and popularity are greater than Jiaojiao's.
From her adopted daughter, her granddaughter and her niece's daughter, Queen Mother Han understood a truth:
Some things can't be forced by power! "Perhaps the emperor is right. In Jiaojiao's situation, it would be better for her to marry a poor scholar!"
Queen Mother Han looked at Han Jiaojiao's sickly and weak appearance and sighed secretly in her heart.
At worst, we can wait for the candidate to pass the imperial examination and let the emperor conduct more investigations to make sure that he has excellent character and a good family background before marrying Nanping off.
When she got married, she was given several maids and guards to serve her well and supervise and intimidate her in-laws.
With sufficient arrangements made, life in Nanping shouldn't be too bad.
As for the future, ah, with Nanping's dilapidated body, what future can she have? ...
After Queen Mother Han made her decision, some rumors began to leak out unknowingly.
Slowly, a piece of news came out from the palace——
"The Queen Mother and the Saint want to choose a husband for Princess Nanping from among the newly-appointed scholars!"
As soon as the news came out, all the unmarried young men of power and wealth in the capital who were of similar age to Princess Nanping, as well as their families, breathed a sigh of relief.
That’s great. I finally don’t have to worry about being “scammed” by Princess Nanping.
Many families were worried, what would they do if the Empress Dowager used her power to force her sons (grandsons) to marry Nanping for her sake?
Nanping is a notorious sickly place in Beijing.
I spend half a year recovering from illness.
As soon as he arrived in Beijing, he caused his stepmother to lose her housekeeper power.
After entering the palace once, the stepmother was simply sent to a nunnery on the outskirts of the city.
She is my stepmother, a legitimate elder.
He didn't do anything out of line, but he was punished repeatedly because of Nanping's poor health.
He had lost all his dignity and had long become a laughing stock in the capital.
Many noble ladies, while making fun of the Han family's stepmother, could not help but bring up their own identities -
If my son married such a sick daughter-in-law, what would he be facing? Want to act like a mother-in-law? Haha, Nanping's body was so shaky that if she stood up a little slowly when serving tea, she might faint on the spot.
Maybe he'll even spit out some blood.
Although everyone knew that Nanping was in poor health, if she was a mother-in-law, she would have "forced" her daughter-in-law to vomit blood.
This is not an easy thing to say.
And the husbands, being sons of rich families, always have one or two favored maids.
But Nanping's mother, Princess Yongjia, was angered to death because of her "jealousy".
From the mother's perspective, even if Nanping is not as strong-willed as Yongjia, but has inherited a little bit of that, she can still make her husband bear the stigma of "favoring his concubine and neglecting his wife" for no reason!
Of course, there is also the most important point - offspring! Who married a daughter-in-law for the purpose of having children? But Nanping was sick and weak. It was hard enough for her to live. Could she bear the pain of childbirth?
...There is only one daughter-in-law like this. She cannot be talked to or controlled. She has to be coaxed by her mother-in-law and supported by her husband. She cannot even have children.
What do you want to do when you marry her? To cause trouble to your family? Or to bring disaster to your family?!
But Nanping was favored by the supreme mother and son in the palace, and all the noble ladies were worried that they would be used as "sacrifices" by the saint or the queen mother.
Now, the Queen Mother and the Saint want to choose a son-in-law for Nanping from a humble family, so all these powerful families can escape.
While everyone was secretly rejoicing, they were also waiting to see the excitement in the Han family.
Hey, I wonder if Princess Nanping will fall ill from vomiting when she knows this news.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
In a sense, marrying down is a form of disrespect and even humiliation to women.
"Haha! Good! The Queen Mother is wise! The Saint is wise!"
In the nunnery, a middle-aged lady who looked a little haggard heard the rumors outside and laughed excitedly.
There was pleasure and a hint of madness in her eyes.
These past few years, she was almost suffocated to death.
Back then, she caused trouble for Princess Yongjia as a cousin.
Later, Yongjia's daughter became ill and added to her troubles.
The wife of the Crown Prince of a Duke's mansion has become a topic of joke among the common people over tea after dinner.
The stepmother's mind, which was not very broad to begin with, was directly distorted.
Her heart was filled with hatred.
The Queen Mother was so noble that she dared not bear grudge.
The stepmother blamed all the problems on Yongjia and his daughter.
During the three years in the nunnery, she cursed the statue of the Bodhisattva every day: Yongjia will not rest in peace after his death, and will never be reborn! Nanping will be plagued by illness and will not die a good death! The curse lasted for three years, and the stepmother also used figurines for three years.
Even though it was Princess Nanping Han Jiaojiao who pleaded for mercy and the stepmother was able to return to the Duke's Mansion, she did not feel any gratitude towards Han Jiaojiao.
She hated it even more: "This little bitch did it on purpose. She wanted to tell me that without her, I can't even come back to the capital!"
Han Jiaojiao: ...Isn’t this true?
It was indeed true, but the stepmother felt humiliated.
In front of Han Jiaojiao, she, the stepmother, seemed to have lost her dignity and respect! Han Jiaojiao: ... Pretentious! Han Jiaojiao didn't take the stepmother, a defeated opponent, seriously at all.
Han Jiaojiao paid back all the trouble she had caused her mother, plus interest.
Well, the grudges are settled! However, the stepmother didn't think so. She kept all the new and old grudges in her heart.
I just hate that God is unfair. The Queen Mother and the Saint both protect Han Jiaojiao.
The stepmother did not dare to provoke.
However, the stepmother can choose not to find fault, but she cannot stop her from "gloating over other people's misfortune."
"Oh, I want to go and congratulate our princess."
"What a good marriage! She comes from a poor farming family. My mother-in-law must be a great person. She raised my son with great difficulty and also provided for his education..."
The stepmother became more and more excited as she spoke.
After all, she was once the mistress of the Han family. She was well-informed and a scholar raised by a widowed mother. Wow, it just sounds "very interesting" to her.
In the past, when my stepmother was still my cousin, she heard a piece of gossip in the capital.
He was also a newly-minted scholar who was raised by a widowed mother and was taken to be the son-in-law of a certain earl's family.
As a result, the good daughter of the Bo family was worn down and turned into a maid.
This is not a big deal. After all, there is no mother-in-law in the world who doesn't torture her daughter-in-law.
The reason why this family's story became a famous "strange story" in Beijing is that the mother and son's words and deeds were too extraordinary.
Can you imagine that on the wedding night, the groom did not sleep with his wife, but went to sleep with his mother.
After the marriage, the couple finally consummated their marriage. When they went to bed, the mother-in-law was waiting outside the window.
As soon as the two of them got a little intimate, the mother-in-law started knocking on the window.
The next day, she pointed at her daughter-in-law and scolded her, "You little whore, you only know how to flirt with men." The daughter of the uncle's family was so ashamed that she wished she fainted!
It was clearly she who stopped her daughter-in-law from getting close to her son, and she even complained that her daughter-in-law was a hen that didn't lay eggs! Outsiders were shocked to hear this strange story.
This "magical" widow has single-handedly brought discredit to the group of widows and increased the difficulty for them to find a daughter-in-law.
In fact, this is only a very small number.
Most widowed mothers are pitiful and respectable.
But, precisely because it is rare, it becomes news and is discussed by people.
Gradually, people began to develop prejudices against widowed mothers.
In fact, the stepmother didn't know which poor boy the empress dowager had chosen.
It’s just that the story back then was so novel that whenever she heard about a scholar from a poor family, she would think of the magical widowed mother-in-law.
"I hope Han Jiaojiao can also meet such a 'good mother-in-law'!"
(End of this chapter)
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