Chapter 247 My biased mother wants me to adopt my younger brother’s son!
Although Ning Rong didn't know why the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an allowed her to be the housekeeper soon after making things difficult for her, it was a good thing after all to be able to get the right to be the housekeeper in the Marquis of Yong'an's mansion.
Even Ning Rong's husband, the prince of Yong'an Marquis, was very happy when he saw that the wife of Yong'an Marquis took the initiative to let Ning Rong be the housekeeper. He felt that this showed his mother's appreciation for him and that she was willing to give up power to her wife.
After Ning Rong agreed, Lady Yong'an Marquis asked her to come back to receive housekeeping training after she returned home.
On the way back to his room with Ning Rong, Yong'an Marquis' son secretly reminded her: "You must learn well from your mother. When you were served tea today, your mother was not making things difficult for you, but testing you. After the test, won't your mother be willing to take you in as the housekeeper?"
When Ning Rong heard this, it seemed to make sense and she became excited.
During the first three days of the wedding, the Yong'an Marquis and his wife did not cause any trouble, which made Ning Rong's married life pretty good. Her relationship with her husband, the Yong'an Marquis's son, also became increasingly sweet.
So when she returned home, Li saw the rosy smile on Ning Rong's face and knew that she was living a good life.
However, Li still showed concern and pulled Ning Rong into the room to ask privately, "Are your husband and mother-in-law treating you well?"
Ning Rong whispered to Li, suppressing her shyness, about her life in Yong'an Marquis's Mansion during these days, including how the Yong'an Marquis's wife embarrassed her on the day of the tea ceremony, and her plan to let her learn how to be a housekeeper afterwards.
Li guessed, "The tea offering is probably a way for your mother-in-law to show you power. It is reasonable for her to let you manage the household. After all, you are the eldest daughter-in-law, the wife of the Crown Prince, and the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion will belong to you two in the future."
Even though Li married the second eldest son and was the second eldest daughter-in-law, she had been taking over the job of housekeeping on behalf of her eldest sister-in-law Cheng under the favoritism of her mother-in-law Zhang over the years, and seemed to be living a very glorious life.
In fact, Li also had a knot in her heart. She envied Cheng's status as the eldest daughter-in-law. She was not managing the household properly and could only let Zhang be a figurehead while she actually held power. However, she still did not dare to say in public that she was the housekeeper's wife of Duke Cheng's Mansion.
Li had an obsession in her heart, which was why she wanted to marry her daughter to the son of the Marquis of Yong'an. Now she also kept telling Ning Rong that the eldest daughter-in-law was the rightful housekeeper.
Of course Ning Rong took her mother's words to heart.
But things are not that simple. After returning home, Ning Rong began to learn how to be a housekeeper from the wife of Marquis Yong'an. Then she realized that this so-called housekeeper was not a delegation of power from the wife of Marquis Yong'an. The wife of Marquis Yong'an simply treated her as a housekeeper and maid, and assigned all the thankless chores to her.
At first, Ning Rong thought that Lady Yong'an was using small matters to train her, so she handled them very seriously and did a good job. However, she found that Lady Yong'an was not very happy about her good management of the household, and never praised her. Gradually, she was only given those trivial matters that did not bring any power or money, as well as those matters that required money.
It was okay to deal with trivial matters, as at most they would just take up a little more energy and time, but for those things that required money, Lady Yong'an Marquis also handed them over to her and didn't even allocate any money, leaving her to figure it out on her own.
Ning Rong quickly understood what Lady Yong'an meant - she wanted to use her dowry to fill the gap in the public treasury.
This made Ning Rong's heart sink. She knew very well how extravagant her dowry was. If she really used her dowry to fill the public treasury, it would not take long for her to use up all of her dowry.
After her parents and grandmother went through great pains to prepare the dowry for her, Ning Rong was no longer the aloof young lady who regarded money as dirt. She knew clearly that the dowry was her capital for survival. If the dowry was used up, she would have a hard time making a living in the Yong'an Marquis Mansion.
After all, the servants in the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion are all snobbish. If they want to order one more dish or change a dish during a meal, they have to pay money.
Therefore, Ning Rong was determined not to be the scapegoat and spend her dowry to fill the public treasury. Ning Rong also did not dare to break up with the wife of Marquis Yong'an directly, so she waited for the return of the Marquis Yong'an's son and told her husband about the matter in private.
After hearing what Ning Rong said, Yong'an Marquis's son frowned and said, "Is this a small matter worth telling me? Mother must have forgotten to give you money. Why bother her? Just make up for it yourself. It's not much money."
Ning Rong looked at the Prince of Yong'an and felt a chill in her heart. She seemed to see the shadow of her father in her husband.
She didn't want to be like her mother, who had to compromise herself for the sake of so-called respectability and harmony, so she asked directly: "Then my husband, give me the silver and I will make up for it."
The Prince of Yong'an looked at her in surprise, he didn't expect Ning Rong to actually ask him for money. He thought that a rich lady like her with a generous dowry would not ask for such a small amount of money, it was too embarrassing.
Ning Rong saw what the Yong'an Marquis meant, and she felt a little anxious, but she still pretended to be calm and looked back, pretending to be surprised and asked, "What's wrong with my husband?"
If she wasn't afraid that the Prince of Yong'an would get angry and embarrassed, she couldn't help but ask back, "Are you thinking about asking me to fill the gap with my dowry?" What good man would think about his wife's dowry?
The Prince of Yong'an was still concerned about his reputation, so he didn't say what he was thinking and gave Ning Rong the money.
But he took the money reluctantly. After all, the Prince of Yong'an kept saying that it was just a small amount of money, but in fact it was not too little. Moreover, he was not favored by his parents, had no subsidies or rewards from his parents, and had little private property, so he didn't have much money to take out.
Ning Rong took the money from the Yong'an Marquis's son and went to do the work. However, she was also smart. After spending the money and finishing the work, she did not forget to praise the Yong'an Marquis's son in front of Yong'an Marquis's wife: "It was the son who paid for this matter. The son did not want to disturb his mother, so he said that he would make up for the money as a filial piety to his mother..."
The wife of the Marquis of Yong'an did not look very happy. She deliberately did not allocate money to Ning Rong in order to force Ning Rong to use her dowry to fill the public treasury and save money for the Marquis of Yong'an's Mansion. She did not expect that Ning Rong would let her son pay for it.
Although Lady Yong'an was extremely partial to her two sons, if she had to choose between the Yong'an Marquis's eldest son and her daughter-in-law Ning Rong, she would definitely choose her son without hesitation.
She wanted to cheat her daughter-in-law of her dowry but failed, and instead cheated her own son's private money. Naturally, she felt bad.
At the same time, she was also somewhat angry with the eldest son, the Prince of Yong'an Marquis, thinking that he helped Ning Rong with the money because he felt sorry for his wife, and that it was not at all filial piety towards her as a mother.
Ning Rong could see that the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an was unhappy, but she didn't care. She had already noticed that the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an was coveting her dowry, so she was naturally on guard against her.
Ning Rong did a good job of saving face. No matter how unhappy the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an was, she had to follow her words and praise the Marquis of Yong'an's son: "This child is thoughtful and filial."
Ning Rong smiled and told the Yong'an Marquis' son when she returned: "When I reported to my mother today, I specifically told her that this money was for your filial piety. My mother also praised you for your filial piety."
The Prince of Yong'an was originally a little unhappy because he was forced by Ning Rong to pay the money and had to save money and expenses outside. However, when he heard Ning Rong's words, he felt much more relieved and a smile appeared on his face. The money was not wasted.
Ning Rong felt even gloomier when she saw the Yong'an Marquis's son was so happy because of the compliments from the Yong'an Marquis's wife that she relayed to her. This was because she saw the shadow of her former uncle in the Yong'an Marquis's son at that moment.
My great uncle was so foolishly filial to my grandmother that he even turned a blind eye to the fact that my great aunt suffered all kinds of grievances at the hands of my grandmother and was suppressed by her mother to the point that she had to hide in the big house.
But today, Ning Rong saw in her husband the shadow of her great uncle's foolish filial piety towards her grandmother, and she also felt sad that she might end up in the same situation as her great aunt in the future...
After all, the housekeeper had been with the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an for these days, and had seen her favoritism towards the second son unconsciously. The wife of the Marquis of Yong'an herself had no idea that she was biased at all.
As a bystander, Ning Rong saw it clearly and found it shocking.
Ning Rong was heartbroken. Mother, oh mother, you thought that when I married into the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion, my husband would be the prince and the heir to the Yong'an Marquis' Mansion, but you didn't know that I would most likely have to live the life that my great aunt once lived!
Now her life could barely maintain a superficial peace and decency, only because the second son of the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion had not yet married, and as a "Cheng", she had not yet encountered the "Li" who suppressed her to the point where she could not raise her head.
However, the second son of the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion is only four years younger than the Yong'an Marquis's eldest son. In two years, the second brother's wife should also marry into the family.
Ning Rong really wanted to save herself, but she didn't know what to do. Her parents-in-law were partial to her, and her husband was a foolishly filial man. As a daughter-in-law, her relationship with her husband was not deep enough to shake his foolish filial piety towards his parents. It seemed that she was at the mercy of others.
Ning Rong asked the Yong'an Marquis' son tentatively, "My husband, what if mother asks me to do something again and still forgets to give me money?"
Yong'an Hou's son subconsciously retorted: "How is it possible? How could mother always forget?"
Ning Rong smiled bitterly. Of course, she didn't always forget, she just didn't want to spend the money on purpose.
The Prince of Yong'an was actually not clueless in his heart. After all, his parents had been partial to him too many times over the years, so many times that he couldn't even deceive himself.
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