Chapter 226 My biased mother wants me to adopt my younger brother’s son!
Because Cheng knew Si Yuan's plan, she agreed to Si Yuan's suggestion to bring Yun Ge'er from the second wife to raise as soon as possible.
To the outside world, she acted as if she had agreed to the task only with reluctance for the sake of her daughter Nyfu, and did not arouse anyone's suspicion at all.
When Ning Yucheng and Li heard Zhang say that Si Yuan had agreed to adopt the second wife's son as his heir, they were very happy.
Especially Li, who had been planning for more than ten years and had so many children's lives on her hands. Wasn't her purpose to make the title of Duke Chengguo fall on her own son? Seeing that her dream was about to come true, she could hardly hide the ecstasy on her face.
Si Yuan and Cheng were sitting together. Seeing the joy on Li's face, he sneered in his heart: Go ahead and laugh, but soon you won't be able to laugh anymore.
Si Yuan said to Zhang and Ning Yucheng, "Mother, second brother, I plan to adopt your youngest son, Yun Ge'er, and raise him in my and my wife's care for a while. Once Yun Ge'er has established himself, we will open a family tree and formally adopt him."
"What?" Before Zhang and Ning Yucheng could say anything, Li was the first to jump out and shout in disbelief, "Brother Yun is just a bastard. How could the Duke adopt a bastard as his heir?"
Li felt that the most ideal thing was to adopt her eldest son Ning Chi. After all, Ning Chi was already sixteen years old and was about to get married. If the first wife adopted him, he would definitely not be able to be brought up well, and he would definitely be closer to her, his biological mother.
Even if Ning Chi is not adopted, it would be fine to adopt her second son Ning Ji. Ning Ji is ten years old and is sensible and remembers things. He must remember who his biological parents are.
She never thought that the first wife would actually adopt Ning Yun's illegitimate son! She had worked hard for more than ten years, how could she bear to let a mere bastard reap the benefits!
Cheng's hands were tightly clenched under the handkerchief. The pain from her nails digging into her palms reminded her not to lose her composure. She could only smile faintly at Li, the enemy who killed her son. "Since he is adopted by me and the master, then Yun'er is no longer the illegitimate son of the second wife, but the legitimate son of the first wife. Naturally, he is the most honorable."
Cheng looked at Li's ugly expression with a twisted heart, full of the pleasure of revenge, and continued, "Besides, Yun'er is still young. If he is raised in my care, he can be taken care of for a while and ease my pain of losing a son." The meaning was very clear. She felt that the second wife's legitimate son was too old to be tamed, so she wanted to pick a younger one who was easier to tamed.
Both Zhang and Ning Yucheng could understand. They were not like Li who insisted on adopting a legitimate son. After all, for Zhang, the illegitimate son of the second wife was also the son of her most beloved second son. For Ning Yucheng, the illegitimate son was also his biological son.
No matter whether he is a concubine's son or a legitimate son, he is always the son of the second wife. If he is adopted by the first wife and inherits the title, they can achieve their desired goals.
But it was a different story for Li. Was there any need to choose between her biological son and her illegitimate son who was not born from her womb?
When Li saw Zhang and Ning Yucheng agreeing to Si Yuan and Cheng's adoption of Yun Ge'er, her heart went cold. She knew that her last ally was gone.
A cold light flashed in Li's eyes. She originally thought that the age gap between the illegitimate son and her legitimate son was too big, and he would not pose a threat to her child. In the future, she would just give one-tenth of the second house's property to the illegitimate son. She felt that her legitimate son would inherit the Duke's Mansion in the future, so she didn't care about this tiny benefit, and was happy to exchange it for a reputation for being virtuous.
But now that the bastard has threatened her son's interests and status, she will never allow it!
Since she dared to harm even the eldest son of the wife, why wouldn't she dare to harm her own illegitimate son?
Li quickly put on her usual gentle and virtuous smile, without any trace of her previous loss of composure.
Ning Yucheng was so immersed in the joy that his eldest brother's title would be inherited by his son in the future that he didn't notice his wife's expression at all.
Zhang, on the other hand, noticed something strange about her second daughter-in-law, so when Si Yuan and Ning Yucheng were about to leave, Zhang asked Li to stay: "Second daughter-in-law, you gave me a headband before, and I noticed that the stitching on the headband is a little special. You should stay and tell me about it."
Li bowed and said, "Yes, mother."
Si Yuan and Cheng knew that Zhang was trying to warn Li, so they looked at each other, said nothing, and left.
If Li had been scolded by Zhang, she would have given up the evil thoughts in her heart, and then the children of the eldest wife would not have died, leaving only Ningfu as a daughter.
Ning Yucheng never imagined that his mother kept his wife behind to punish her. He was accustomed to his mother's preference for his wife, and thought that today was no different. He returned to his backyard with joy to see Ning Yun, his youngest son who was about to become successful.
Zhang asked the servants to leave, leaving only her and Li in the room. She then said to Li, "Yun'er's aunt died of complications during childbirth. He is your child and has to call you mother. In the future, he will be adopted by the first wife, and his blood relationship with the second wife cannot be severed..."
Li sneered in her heart. Ning Yun is related to Ning Yucheng by blood, but what is the blood relationship between him and her? After being adopted, she could no longer use her status as Ning Yun's biological mother to control him, after all, she could only be considered Ning Yun's aunt.
Zhang advised Li to acknowledge the matter. After all, among the children of the second wife, the two legitimate sons were too old to be adopted, so she asked her to be more open-minded.
Li agreed respectfully, but she was actually thinking indifferently: Only the illegitimate son is of the right age? Then all the illegitimate sons of the right age have died, so even if the age is not right, the eldest wife can only adopt her legitimate son! The Chengguo Mansion must belong to her son, and no one can take it away!
Li pretended to be very nice in front of Zhang, but after returning, she turned around and prepared to attack Ning Yun.
However, she didn't expect that Zhang had been on guard against her all the time, and directly replaced all the servants serving Ning Yun with Zhang's people, preventing Li from interfering.
Li was filled with hatred, old hag! He actually protects that bastard so much! She really shouldn't have allowed those bitches to give birth to these evil creatures!
Li was furious. Seeing that Ning Yun was well protected, she had no chance to attack him for the time being. She said to her trusted maid who was already prepared, "Since Yun Ge'er doesn't have the blessing to enjoy these, let Zhen Ge'er enjoy them instead of his brother."
After hearing the reasons given by Si Yuan and Cheng for choosing Ning Yun as the illegitimate son, Li had already made up her mind to get rid of Ning Zhen and Ning Yun.
Only by getting rid of the two young and easy-to-tame illegitimate sons could she adopt a legitimate son.
Otherwise, if they just got rid of the four-year-old Ning Yun, the first wife could still choose the six-year-old Ning Zhen.
Now Ning Yun is protected by Zhang's people. She can't find an opportunity to take action for the time being, so she plans to get rid of Ning Zhen who has no one to protect her first. As for Ning Yun, there is still a long time to come. There are many chances for the child to die prematurely. Zhang's people will eventually make a mistake in their precautions, so she can afford to wait.
So Li suppressed his murderous intent towards Ning Yun and did not take action. Zhang thought that Li really listened to her advice and felt very relieved.
In addition, Li acted like a good legitimate mother, which made Zhang gradually relax her vigilance towards Li.
Ning Yun was soon sent to the main house by Ning Yucheng and Li.
Li acted like a good mother and handed Ning Yun over to Cheng reluctantly. Cheng felt disgusted at the sight, but she had to pretend that the sisters-in-law were in harmony.
Li deliberately did not tell Cheng that the servants serving Ning Yun were all assigned by Zhang. She wanted to wait for Cheng to replace everyone around Ning Yun so that she could take the opportunity to take action.
Does Cheng know? Of course she knows.
After she learned that Zhang had replaced everyone around Ning Yun, she hated Zhang to the core.
It turns out that Zhang can be a good grandmother and can send people to protect her grandson from that vicious woman Li!
It is only limited to the grandchildren of the second branch.
Cheng looked at the servants serving Ning Yun and felt so angry that her heart was bleeding. Without saying a word, she replaced them all and replaced them with servants she had carefully selected.
The replaced servants were of course unwilling to leave Ning Yun, who was about to become the heir to the Chengguo Mansion. They kept shouting that they were sent by the old lady to serve Yun Ge'er.
Cheng remained unmoved and said coldly, "No matter who you belong to, Yun Ge'er will be my son in the future. Of course, I have to personally arrange people around Yun Ge'er to prevent Yun Ge'er from being instigated by malicious servants and becoming alienated from me, his mother."
Zhang was very angry about Cheng's lack of face. What did this mean? The servants arranged by her as the mother-in-law were meant to sow discord between them?
But it was not easy to get the eldest son to agree to adoption, and it was not easy to get Cheng to give in. In addition, Yuan'er's death made Zhang feel guilty. And Yun'er was still being raised in the first house and had not been formally adopted. The matter had not been finalized, so Zhang did not want to force Cheng too much and had to pretend that she didn't know about it.
Li learned that Cheng had replaced all the servants that Zhang had sent to protect Ning Yun, and that among the new servants, two were people she had bribed. She was immediately overjoyed.
Li secretly thought with joy: She is worthy of being my good sister-in-law. She really cooperates with me and helps me a lot!
Li immediately arranged for her confidant to contact the two maids and prepare to take action against Ning Yun.
Late at night, with the lights on, Cheng sat blankly by the bed holding her son's clothes, missing her son who died young.
Her dowry maid tiptoed to her side and whispered, "Madam, the one from the second house has sent someone to contact Xiao Xing and Xiao Ju."
Cheng blinked a little too slowly, and recovered from the emotion of missing her deceased son. A ray of light shone in her eyes: "Oh, that vicious woman used this method to kill Yuan'er, right? Now I want to see if my good mother-in-law will protect her again!"
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