Chapter 246 My biased mother wants me to adopt my younger brother’s son!
The next day, Si Yuan specifically asked the kitchen to put a few more candied haws on his stick.
When it was time to eat the candied haws, he ate them in front of Xiao Changqing, and while eating he did not forget to express his feelings about the taste of the candied haws.
Little Changqing, who loves candied haws, was so greedy that he was drooling.
But after what happened yesterday, Xiao Changqing knew that crying was useless. He could only endure his cravings and did not cry or shout like he did yesterday when he asked for the candied haws.
But my father is so mean. He told me not to eat candied haws in front of him, but my father still put the candied haws in front of him to tempt him QAQ
Seeing little Chang Qing pouting and trying to hold back tears, Si Yuan, who didn't want to tease the child too much, held up the remaining half of the candied haws and asked, "Chang Qing, do you want some?"
Xiao Changqing looked at him suspiciously, but looking at the red candied haws covered with tempting sugar coating, he swallowed his saliva and nodded frantically according to his true thoughts: "I want to eat it!"
Si Yuan said in embarrassment: "But your mother stipulated that you can only eat one candied haws a day. You gave your candied haws to your father yesterday, so you can't eat it today. What should I do?"
Xiao Changqing lowered his head in disappointment and whispered, "Then I won't eat today."
Si Yuan suddenly passed the half candied haws to his mouth and said with a smile: "But Daddy is very happy that Changqing is willing to share his favorite candied haws with Daddy, so today Daddy will also share his candied haws with you. Come, Changqing, take a bite."
Little Changqing looked up at Si Yuan in surprise. Under Si Yuan's smiling gaze, he stretched his neck, opened his mouth and took a bite of a candied haws in front of him. Then he bit the candied haws and pulled it forward, thus pulling the candied haws off the bamboo stick.
A red candied haws fruit covered with sugar was a little too big for little Changqing. It filled his small mouth and he could not even wrap his mouth around it. Little Changqing could only raise his hands to cover his mouth and chew slowly, fearing that the candied haws that accidentally entered his mouth would slip away.
Si Yuan looked at little Changqing chewing the candied haws like a little hamster, and the smile on his face deepened.
He glanced at the four candied haws on the bamboo stick in his hand, and quickly finished three of them without hesitation, leaving only the last one. At this time, Xiao Changqing was still chewing his candied haws slowly and cherishingly, and was reluctant to finish it immediately.
Si Yuan stuffed the last piece of candied haws on the bamboo stick into the little Changqing's hand and said to the stunned little Changqing: "I'll give you this one too, but after you finish eating, Changqing, you have to come to the study and study hard."
Little Changqing held the polished handle of the bamboo stick tightly in his little hand, and nodded seriously as if he was making a promise, "Yes, I will study hard, don't worry, Dad."
My father once said that he was not good at studying, he was not smart and was not good at studying, so he had to rely on his son to study hard to bring honor to him.
Little Changqing felt as if he had been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of being a man by his father, and he was very motivated in studying. After all, he was his father's pride, and of course he had to make his father proud!
In order not to delay his studies, little Changqing finished the candied haws in his mouth and asked the nanny who took care of him to put the remaining candied haws away for him so that he could eat it after he finished his studies.
Si Yuan just watched Xiao Changqing's plan without saying anything, letting him make the decision himself.
Even when the wet nurse wanted to tell her young master that the weather was hot and the sugar coating on the candied haws would melt if left for too long, Si Yuan stopped her with a look.
Verbal instruction is not as good as letting children experience it personally, so when it comes to small things that do not concern children's safety, Si Yuan always prefers to let children experience it personally.
Si Yuan took Xiao Changqing's hand and walked towards the study.
Now, the study room that was used as a decoration by the original owner has completely become the classroom for little Changqing's enlightenment classes.
Except for the large bookshelf, other places have changed a lot. Si Yuan brought a large blackboard into the study. Now there are some commonly used words written on the blackboard, which are used to help little Changqing learn to read. There is a small desk in front of the blackboard, and there are many literacy cards on the desk, which are used for little Changqing's classes.
Si Yuan may be a slacker, but he is only a slacker in his studies for the imperial examinations. After all, everyone knows the original owner's academic level. Isn't it suspicious that he suddenly turned from a poor student into a genius?
Si Yuan, who found a suitable excuse for his bad behavior, had a very convincing argument. He said that he did this to motivate his adopted son to work hard and make progress. After all, his son is cannon fodder. As a cannon fodder, he cannot compete with the male lead and the supporting actor by relying on his father, so shouldn't he work hard to make progress himself? Do you really intend to be like him and think that a boastful wild father will fall from the sky?
Si Yuan has been daydreaming about relying on his father for so long, but even a system has fallen from the sky, not even a pretentious wild father has fallen. So, the cannon fodder son should not count on this. It is better for people to be self-reliant. Relying on mountains will only make them fall and people will run away. Only relying on yourself is the most realistic.
Little Changqing's current enlightenment classes are taught by Si Yuan himself. Although the original owner failed to pass the imperial examination, he has been fooling around for so many years, so the original owner's cultural level is enough to teach a child.
When little Changqing has passed the enlightenment stage and is six or seven years old, it is time for him to take advantage of the educational resources of the Jingyuan Earl's Mansion and let little Changqing go to school with Li Chengyuan's son at the Jingyuan Earl's Mansion.
After all, children should go to primary school when they are six or seven years old and make friends in school. They can't always receive private education at home without even a good friend to play with. Si Yuan is really worried that his child will develop depression.
In addition to Si Yuan himself, Changqing's first teacher was his mother Yu Yan.
Yu Yan is also a lady from a scholarly family. She has read the Four Books and Five Classics before. She is not proficient in everything, but she knows a little about each of them. Her knowledge level is more than enough to enlighten a young child.
So Si Yuan simply asked Yu Yan to teach little Chang Qing together. As the saying goes, parents are the first teachers of their children, and of course neither of them can be absent.
Anyway, he can't do this maddening task of teaching children alone.
Little Changqing sat upright at his desk with a very standard posture, which was a strict requirement of Si Yuan. After all, in this era, if one had a hunchback or nearsightedness, it would be difficult to solve the problem.
Si Yuan gave little Changqing an enlightenment lesson following the rule of two quarters of an hour in class and two quarters of an hour in break.
In the original plot, Xiao Changqing was able to pass the imperial examination at a young age, and he was able to do so in that kind of family environment. He was really talented in studying.
During the time of teaching Xiao Changqing, Si Yuan also felt that although Xiao Changqing was far inferior to him in talent, and could neither remember everything he saw nor apply what he learned to other situations, Xiao Changqing could memorize something after reading it several times, and would not make the same mistake again for the same question.
Although Si Yuan is a gifted genius, he is definitely not the kind of genius who has no knowledge of ordinary people. He knows what the learning ability of ordinary people is like, so he can also judge that Xiao Changqing's learning ability is excellent among ordinary people.
After half an hour of class, Si Yuan asked Xiao Changqing to sit by the window and look at the green scenery outside to relieve his eye fatigue.
Xiao Changqing did as he was told. He observed the trees, flowers and plants planted outside the study. The window of the study faced the small garden outside, and the scenery was beautiful.
But after observing for a while, Xiao Changqing suddenly pointed at a big tree outside the window in surprise and asked, "Dad, why is that tree getting thinner?"
Si Yuan looked in the direction of his finger. It was a big tree with lush branches and leaves, and there were some small trees around it. Compared to the big tree he saw last time, this tree had indeed had a lot of branches and leaves cut off.
The flowers, plants and trees in the mansion were trimmed and managed by a special gardener, so Si Yuan didn't worry about it, but he knew the reason without asking the gardener.
Si Yuan replied, "Because the big tree has too many branches and leaves, and it has grown too tall, it blocks the sunlight from the other trees around it, so that the other trees cannot get sunlight and cannot grow healthily. So the gardener cut off some of the branches and leaves of the big tree so that the other trees can also get sunlight."
Xiao Changqing nodded thoughtfully: "So that's how it is..." After a moment, he asked again, "But other trees don't grow taller and bigger quickly, why should we blame this big tree for growing too tall and too big? The sunlight is there, and other trees can't grab it, so should we blame it for stealing the sunlight from other trees?"
Little Changqing felt a little sorry for the tree: "It must be in so much pain to have its branches and leaves cut off innocently!"
Si Yuan didn't expect that little Chang Qing would think about the problem from this perspective. He stared at little Chang Qing for a while, suddenly laughed, and said, "You are right, survival of the fittest. The small trees around cannot compete with the big tree, so it is indeed not the big tree's fault that it is too tall. But Chang Qing has to consider the environment in which these trees grow. They grow in our house, and there are special gardeners to manage them. So this big tree can't bully other small trees just because it is strong. We have rules in our house, and even trees must grow according to the rules. But if it is in the wild where no one is managing it, then this big tree can grow however it wants, and it can be as tall and big as it wants..."
Xiao Changqing listened very carefully, and finally he summarized Si Yuan's words: "So the gardener is stronger than the big tree, so he can make the taller and bigger trees not bully the small trees. Then if I am stronger than the gardener, can I also make the gardener not cut the branches and leaves of the big tree?"
Si Yuan smiled and touched his little head, then confirmed what he said: "Of course."
Xiao Changqing said seriously: "Then I will eat more and grow up quickly, until I am stronger than the gardener, and then tell him not to cut down the tree."
Si Yuan told him, "You are my son, the young master of our house. The gardener is just a servant of our house. Even though you are younger and weaker than him, your status is higher than his. You can ask the gardener to stop cutting down the tree now."
Although Si Yuan had lived in a modern society where everyone is equal for decades, he lived for a hundred years in Tiancang Realm, a world of immortal cultivation where the strong are respected after he traveled through time, so the concept of the strong being respected left a deeper impression in his mind.
What's more, even in modern society, the so-called equality of all is only equality in personality, not equality in status. Classes still exist in modern society and are deeply rooted.
So Si Yuan began to teach Xiao Changqing about this society.
Ning Yucheng's way of finding faults to attract the attention of his colleagues will only make people dislike him more. After all, who would like someone who causes trouble for them and gives them orders?
So Ning Yucheng returned to his previous life of being deliberately targeted. It was useless for him to bring up the Marquis of Yong'an this time, because these colleagues didn't care about the Marquis of Yong'an, a lord with an empty title. Before, when he brought up the Marquis of Yong'an, they would stop targeting him because they thought targeting such a fool like him would lower their own status. Now they felt that if they didn't teach him a lesson, it would only bring trouble to themselves.
Ning Yucheng's life was not easy. When he returned home, he would often lose his temper with his wife and children, scolding Li for not managing the family well and scolding Ning Chi for not studying hard and not even being able to pass the imperial examination. Only Ning Rong could escape the disaster. After all, Ning Yucheng was still counting on Ning Rong to support him after she married into the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion.
As time passed, Ning Rong's marriage was approaching, but even if Ning Yucheng and Li tried their best, they could only buy her a dowry that was not too simple.
It was only when Ning Yucheng went to see Zhang in person and cried to her that he got another subsidy from her, which made Ning Rong's dowry a little richer.
The betrothal gift sent by the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion was also visibly simple.
After all, the financial situation of the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion is not very good. If Ning Yucheng's family had not been kicked out by Si Yuan, the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion might have prepared a decent betrothal gift for the sake of the Chengguo Mansion. But now they are carrying out this marriage reluctantly, and naturally they are not willing to give a too decent betrothal gift. The Yong'an Marquis and his wife just want to keep the good things for their second son to use when he gets married.
Ning Yucheng and Li looked at the betrothal gifts sent by Yong'an Marquis' Mansion, which were so flashy and impractical, and their faces turned ugly. However, they did not have the courage to question the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion, let alone the courage to cancel the engagement and say they would not marry, so they could only hold their noses and endure it.
Fortunately, the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion was very concerned about their reputation, so in order to make the betrothal gift look good, the box containing the betrothal gift was made large, covered, and tied with a big red flower, so outsiders could not see what was in the box. Even if the box was not even half full, others could not tell unless they opened it.
Ning Yucheng and Li, for the sake of their own face, pretended that the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion had filled the betrothal gift boxes to the brim. They acted proud that their daughter had married well and did not want to be laughed at in public.
However, the behavior of the Yong'an Marquisate also inspired Ning Yucheng and the Li couple.
They stuffed all these into Ning Rong's dowry, but even so, Ning Rong's dowry was not as good as Ning Fu's dowry. For this reason, Ning Yucheng and Li deliberately put some more cotton cloth under Ning Rong's dowry box, occupying half of the bottom of the box with the padding, and then put the real dowry on it. As long as the dowry items on top were not pulled apart to check, you would not be able to see that there was padding underneath. In this way, it seemed that the box was stuffed full of dowry, and when the dowry was delivered or dried, people would not see that Ning Rong's dowry was not enough.
After Ning Rong learned that her dowry was put together in this way, she looked at the two dowry lists in her hands. One was a fake dowry list that was forged to save face and vanity, and the other was the real dowry list. Looking at the stark contrast between the two dowry lists, she felt particularly uncomfortable.
But she also knew that her parents had given her the best they could and there was nothing they could do.
If she wasn't lying, her dowry would have seemed too shabby compared to that of a nymph.
But it could be fake... Ning Rong felt a little uneasy. If someone saw through her dowry when she was displaying it, wouldn't she be so embarrassed?
Li was sitting opposite Ning Rong and saw the anxiety and worry on her face. She comforted her softly, "There is a secret compartment at the bottom of the box. The box looks large from the outside, but in fact the space inside is not that big. Although the padding is a bit thick, it is not very obvious. Even if someone sees it, they will not be able to find it unless they compare the dowry list with the actual item one by one." When the dowry is displayed, the dowry box will be opened for everyone to see, and it will soon be put into the warehouse. It is impossible for outsiders to touch the bride's dowry.
Ning Rong's heart was finally half relieved, but she would have to wait until the wedding was successfully concluded before she could completely let go of the rest.
The wedding date soon arrived. On the wedding day, the bride's uncle Si Yuan did not come, only her aunt Cheng came.
However, Cheng came to the wedding mainly to see how much of Ning Rong's dowry was subsidized by Zhang. She couldn't let her daughter suffer any loss.
No matter how much Zhang subsidized Ning Rong, she would double it and ask Zhang for a share for Ning Fu.
Ning Yucheng and Li both knew that Cheng actually came with bad intentions, but for the sake of face, they still had to pretend to be very welcoming to her. After all, Cheng was also here on behalf of Duke Cheng's Mansion.
Although Si Yuan, the Duke of Chengguo, did not come, Cheng, the wife of the Duke of Chengguo, did, which was proof to the outside world that the two Ning brothers had not yet completely fallen out.
Only then was Ning Yucheng willing to swallow his anger and warmly entertain his sister-in-law Cheng.
However, Cheng was not willing to give this face to the second house. She even returned the dowry that Li had given to Ning Fu when she got married.
The disdain revealed in this made Li blush.
Fortunately, not many of the guests that Ning Yucheng, Li, and the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion could invite overlapped with the guests invited when Ning Fu got married. Therefore, few people knew that the jewelry that Cheng gave Ning Rong as makeup today was the same jewelry that Li gave Ning Fu as makeup when she got married that day.
When it came to the part of displaying the dowry, Cheng actively ran to check Ning Rong's dowry.
Most guests would not look at the bride's dowry so carefully. At most, they would just glance at it casually, and then just listen to the person who calls out the names of the guests loudly reading out the dowry list.
However, this kind of dowry list reported in public is of course relatively brief. For example: one box of gold, silver and jewellery, five boxes of cloth...the specific gold, silver and jewellery, how many pieces there are, how many pieces of cloth there are, will not be reported in detail.
So just by listening to the dowry list, the guests thought that Ning Rong's dowry was very affordable and generous.
Only Cheng, who had carefully examined the dowries, could see that there was something fishy about the way the dowries were packed. It didn't look like they were actually filled to the box.
After all, Cheng had personally presided over her own daughter's wedding, and she was the one who oversaw the packing of Ningfu's dowry. She knew exactly what the dowry looked like when it was filled up in the boxes.
After Cheng saw the trick behind Ning Rong's dowry, she almost laughed out loud.
Forget about filling the box. It would be good if the dowry could be half filled. About half of the box was empty, with only the surface layer filled with gorgeous dowry items.
If Cheng had not considered that exposing this matter would bring shame to the entire Ning family, she would have almost been unable to resist exposing it in front of all the guests.
However, except for Cheng, no one else noticed it. Even the people in Yong'an Marquis' Mansion were deceived by the apparent richness of the dowry.
The wife of Marquis Yong'an was quite satisfied. Although the eldest daughter-in-law's family background was ordinary, the dowry was still very generous.
She had already started thinking about how to make Ning Rong the housekeeper of the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion after she got married.
The power of housekeeping must be in the hands of the mother-in-law herself, but she can give all matters that require spending money to the daughter-in-law Ning Rong. What should she do if she has no money to do the work? Then she can use her own dowry to make up for it. Anyway, her dowry as a daughter-in-law is very generous.
After the wedding, Cheng returned to the Duke of Cheng's Mansion and told Si Yuan about this joke: "The second house is really cunning. They even falsified their own daughter's dowry. They are not afraid that the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion will find out and cause trouble."
Si Yuan said calmly: "The people in Yong'an Marquis' Mansion are not smart people either."
If he were really smart, he would not have done such a serious favoritism, nurturing the second son's greed and squeezing the eldest son's living space. But he did not have the ability to depose the eldest son and make the second son the crown prince. He was biased but too proud to let outsiders know that he was biased. The situation in Yong'an Marquis' Mansion was no worse than that of the original owner and his mother's brother.
Sometimes smart people know how to judge the situation and will not do anything too drastic. Only those who are stupid but like to be smart, and who are actually a little clever, can be really destructive when they do stupid things.
The second branch of the Ning family has such people, and so do the people in the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion.
Now that the two families have become in-laws, I'm sure there will be a lot of fun to watch.
However, watching the show will not affect Si Yuan's plan to solve the problem of Ning Yucheng and his wife without bloodshed.
After Ning Rong married into the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion, she felt relieved to see her wedding go smoothly and looked forward to her future married life.
But on her wedding day, she was poured a bucket of cold water because her husband, the prince of Yong'an, did not even smile when he lifted her veil.
This made Ning Rong feel unhappy. Wasn't her husband willing to marry her?
This made Ning Rong feel a little nervous. The next day, when she went to offer tea to her parents-in-law, she was given a warning by her mother-in-law, the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an. She felt depressed, knowing that her life in her husband's family would probably not be easy.
Especially when she was embarrassed by her mother-in-law when serving tea, and her husband said nothing, stayed out of it, and seemed indifferent, Ning Rong was heartbroken.
Ning Rong was very smart and resolved the dilemma faced by the wife of Marquis Yong'an, and the first hurdle was passed.
Then the wife of Marquis Yong'an brought up the topic of asking her to help manage the household.
This surprised Ning Rong a little. She thought it would take her a long time to get the power of housekeeper, but she didn't expect that the wife of Marquis Yong'an would be willing to let her take part in the housekeeping so quickly.
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