Chapter 223 My biased mother wants me to adopt my younger brother’s son!
Si Yuan looked at the boy lying on the bed, his face gloomy and full of grief. He asked in a deep voice, "How did Yuangeer fall into the water?"
The woman who had fallen beside her son's body finally came to her senses. She reached out and grabbed Si Yuan's clothes with great sorrow, saying in sorrow, "Master, Yuan'er's death was definitely not an accident. Master must avenge Yuan'er!"
Si Yuan reached out and held the woman's hand, sighed softly, and said, "Madam, don't worry, I won't let the murderer who killed Yuan Ge'er go."
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door, and a graceful and wealthy old lady walked in with her maid's hand. She didn't even look at Yuan Ge'er's body lying on the bed, and a superficial sadness appeared on her face. She said to Si Yuan: "Boss, please accept my condolences. Now that Yuan Ge'er is gone, you have no son, only Fu Jie'er as a daughter. The thing that I mentioned to you before..."
Si Yuan looked at the old lady in front of him. She was the original owner's biological mother, Zhang, the old lady of Chengguo Mansion.
Since the original owner got married, she has lost several sons, and there is no telling how many fetuses have not been born.
It’s not that the original owner hadn’t investigated before, but every time he got halfway through the investigation, the clues were cleared away by someone else, and he couldn’t find the real culprit behind the scenes.
But Si Yuan, standing in the perspective of God, saw the original plot and of course knew who was the culprit who caused the original owner to be childless till now - his brother's wife Li.
The previous Duke Cheng and his wife, Mrs. Zhang, had two legitimate sons in total. Mrs. Zhang had a very strict control over the Duke Cheng's backyard. Apart from the two legitimate sons she gave birth to, no other illegitimate children could be born. Even so, Mrs. Zhang could still act virtuous and build a good reputation. It is conceivable how scheming Mrs. Zhang was.
However, Zhang was also partial to her. Because her eldest son was raised by his mother-in-law and not by her personally, she was extremely partial to her second son Ning Yucheng, whom she raised herself.
However, Zhang rarely showed her favoritism in public, because she knew that according to the system of primogeniture, her eldest son would have to inherit the Chengguo Mansion in the future. Unless the eldest son died, it would not be the turn of her beloved second son.
No matter how partial Zhang was, she would not kill her own son, so when she knew that the title would be inherited by the eldest son, she would of course try to win him over.
However, Zhang was able to hide her favoritism between her two sons in secret, but in front of her daughters-in-law, she made no secret of her favoritism towards the second daughter-in-law. After all, she could just say that she didn't like the eldest daughter-in-law herself. One of the two daughters-in-law pleased her, while the other didn't. Couldn't she show her favoritism?
So Zhang secretly subsidized the second wife under the pretext of preferring her second daughter-in-law, Li.
The original owner foolishly thought that his wife was not liked by his mother, and he was also dissatisfied with his wife Cheng.
The relationship between the original owner and his wife Cheng had become strained. Except for the good relationship during the early days of their marriage when they gave birth to a legitimate daughter, Ningfu, Cheng never gave birth again.
However, many of the original owner's concubines gave birth to children. Although they were illegitimate children, if they inherited the family business and title in the future, they would inevitably be criticized for their background and their titles would be demoted by the emperor.
At this time, Li, the wife of the original owner's younger brother Ning Yucheng, had been raised with the favoritism of her mother-in-law Zhang, and felt that her eldest brother had no legitimate son. Rather than letting the illegitimate son inherit the title and having the title of Duke of Chengguo downgraded in the future, it would be better to let her son be adopted by the original owner to inherit the title.
Although the adopted sons became uncle and aunt and nephew to the second branch in name, the blood relationship could not be severed. In this way, Li did not have to worry about being driven out of the Chengguo Mansion after his nephew inherited the title in the future.
In order to seize the title, Li secretly killed the original owner's illegitimate son.
Because Zhang favored Li, she gave the housekeeping power of Chengguo Mansion to her second daughter-in-law Li instead of letting Cheng, the wife of the Duke, be the housekeeper. This gave Li a great convenience and allowed her to reach into the backyard of the original owner.
But even so, the real owner of the Chengguo Mansion is the original owner. If the original owner really wants to investigate, Li's tricks may not be hidden from the original owner.
But there was a biased person named Zhang behind Li. Zhang was afraid that after the behavior of the second daughter-in-law Li was exposed, the eldest son would hate the second son and drive him out of the Chengguo Mansion, so she secretly helped Li clean up the mess.
The Zhang family has controlled the Chengguo Mansion for decades. In terms of the depth of their power, even the original owner, the current Chengguo Duke, cannot match them.
After all, as a man, the original owner focused more of his attention and energy on the front yard and the court, rather than on the backyard. Moreover, as a typical ancient feudal man, the original owner had a kind of contempt for women in his bones. He did not think that women could accomplish anything, and he did not care about the backyard.
He had no idea that his backyard was not only controlled by his brother's wife, but also by his own mother.
On the contrary, his original wife, Cheng, was not attentive to him because of the discord between the couple, which resulted in Cheng having insufficient control over the backyard. She could only manage her own main courtyard and simply ignored everything else.
As the illegitimate children in the backyard died one after another, the original owner became more angry at his wife Cheng for not taking good care of the children as a legitimate mother, and the relationship between the couple became even worse.
Zhang was very angry when she first learned that Li had attacked her own grandson, but Li was getting bolder and bolder. After all, she knew that even if her mother-in-law was angry, she would help her clean up the mess for the sake of her husband and son. Why should she care about her mother-in-law's verbal warning?
Moreover, Li expressed to Zhang her wish to adopt her son to her eldest uncle, so that the second son would inherit the title of Duke, which deeply touched Zhang's heart.
Zhang was extremely partial to her second legitimate son and the second wife, and she valued legitimate children over illegitimate children. What she cared about and liked the most were the legitimate grandchildren born to her second legitimate son. The illegitimate grandchildren born to her disliked eldest legitimate son did not have much weight in her heart, otherwise she would not have protected Li so much and only gave verbal warnings to Li's repeated attempts to murder illegitimate grandchildren.
With Zhang's control over the backyard of Duke Cheng's Mansion, if she really wanted to save her eldest son's illegitimate sons from Li, she could have done it, but she did nothing except giving a verbal warning.
Obviously, she also hoped that Li's idea would come true.
After all, Zhang knew clearly that the second branch could still live in the Chengguo Mansion and enjoy its current dignity only because she, the old woman, was still alive. Once she died, the two brothers would definitely separate. Her beloved second son would be just an ordinary fourth-rank official, which was nothing in the capital. Her beloved grandchildren would be reduced to the sons of fourth-rank officials. What good future could they have in the future?
If the legitimate son of the second wife is adopted by the first wife and will inherit the title of Duke Chengguo in the future, then she won't have to worry about the second wife being driven out after her death. After all, although it is adopted, the blood relationship is there. There is no way that the new Duke Chengguo will drive his own parents out of the house, right?
Zhang acquiesced to Li's actions time and time again, and she also secretly cleaned up for Li time and time again. In order to better cover up Li's behavior, she even secretly led her eldest son to suspect that it was Cheng who was responsible.
After all, as the legitimate wife, Cheng did not want the title to be inherited by illegitimate sons in the future. She also had to consider the illegitimate sons' moods, so it was normal for her to get rid of those illegitimate sons.
The original owner was provoked in this way.
The original owner's estrangement from Cheng became even deeper, but her thoughts were different from what Zhang expected.
Zhang thought that the original owner would hate Cheng because of this and the couple would completely break up.
But the original owner suspected that Cheng and hated Cheng, but he suddenly had the idea of having a legitimate son with Cheng.
After all, Cheng's family was not weak either. Even for the sake of his eldest daughter Ning Fu, he could not divorce her. He could not find any evidence that Cheng had murdered his illegitimate son. He suddenly had an idea: if he and Cheng had a legitimate son and it was confirmed that the legitimate son would inherit the title, then Cheng should not do anything to the illegitimate son again, right?
So the original owner endured his disgust and went to the main courtyard often. As for whether it would be dangerous for Cheng to get pregnant and have a child at this time, the original owner, who did not love his wife, did not care about Cheng's life or death. He just wanted a legitimate son.
Cheng was in good health and soon became pregnant. She gave birth to her son Yuan Ge'er as she wished.
Not only was Cheng very happy, but the original owner was also extremely happy. After all, who would care about a bastard's son when there was a legitimate son? The legitimate son inherits the title, but he can inherit it as the original title.
The birth of Yuan Ge'er, the legitimate son, was good news for the first wife, but bad news for the second wife. After all, with Yuan Ge'er, the second wife would have no chance to adopt a son to occupy the title of the first wife.
Li was not reconciled and found another opportunity to attack Yuanger. This time it was Li who caused Yuanger to drown.
Although Zhang cared more about her legitimate grandchildren, and valued Yuan Ge'er more than those illegitimate grandchildren, he still could not hold as high a status in her heart as the legitimate grandchildren born to Ning Yucheng and Li.
Zhang then continued to clean up for Li.
The real culprit behind the death of the legitimate son Yuanger was never found, but the original owner dispelled his suspicion of Cheng. After all, Cheng might murder the illegitimate son, but it was impossible for her to murder her own son, right?
The original owner included all his political enemies in the suspect list, but never suspected his own mother and brother and sister-in-law.
After all, in the eyes of the original owner, they are all relatives. How could relatives harm his son?
Later, as he grew older, the original owner no longer hoped to have another son. After all, he was too old to wait until his son reached adulthood. So he agreed to his mother's suggestion and adopted his second brother's second son, Ning Chi.
Later, just as Li and Zhang had hoped, even though Ning Chi was adopted into the first house, he still missed his biological parents in his heart. The original owner and Cheng were always uncle and aunt in Ning Chi's heart, and were outsiders.
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