Chapter 249 My biased mother wants me to adopt my younger brother’s son!
Ning Rong would take Zhang's mood and physical condition into consideration, but Li would not. She pretended to be sad and sighed deeply, and said to Zhang: "Rong'er, you don't have to hide it. How can a little girl like you hide it from your grandmother's sharp eyes?"
Zhang was slightly startled, looked at Ning Rong, and asked, "Rong'er, is Yong'an Marquis' Mansion treating you badly? If you are wronged, you don't have to endure it. Tell grandma, and grandma will sacrifice her old face to make the decision for you."
Ning Rong hesitated for a long time at Li's signal, but finally couldn't stand the fact that the wife of Marquis Yong'an was thinking about her dowry, so she stammered, "Grandma, it's my mother-in-law..." She carefully told Zhang about it.
Zhang remained calm when she heard this. After all, she had seen all kinds of storms over the years, and it was just a mother-in-law who was worried about her daughter-in-law's dowry. It wasn't something that would frighten her greatly.
Zhang frowned slightly and said in a serious tone: "If this is true, it means that the financial situation of Yong'an Marquis's Mansion is not very good. Otherwise, with the wealth of the Marquis's Mansion, why would they be so concerned about their daughter-in-law's dowry? If this gets out, the entire Yong'an Marquis's Mansion will be embarrassed."
Being embarrassed in this way is not just a simple loss of face, but more importantly, you will be excluded from the upper class society, which is a huge loss.
Therefore, generally speaking, wealthy families attach great importance to their reputation. No matter how many dirty secrets there are, they will keep it under wraps and never let it out.
But who can guarantee that those whose interests are damaged in the mansion will not expose the matter to the public at the cost of their lives? Therefore, if there is no need to do something like forcing her daughter-in-law to use her dowry to fill the public treasury, Lady Yong'an Marquis should not take the risk of forcing her.
But the wife of the Yong'an Marquis is almost bringing the matter to light, which can only mean that the financial situation of the Yong'an Marquisate is really bad, and they may already be living beyond their means.
Ning Rong said helplessly, "Grandma, I really don't know what to do. I can't really put all my dowry into this bottomless pit."
Li also complained on behalf of Ning Rong: "Mother, Rong'er is marrying the prince, so won't Rong'er be responsible for all the mess in Yong'an Marquis' Mansion in the future?"
Zhang didn't look kindly at Li, and said sullenly, "If you had known this would happen, why did you marry Rong'er to this den of tigers and wolves?"
Li was also confident: "If Rong'er is not married to a family with a title, will she marry a second son and become the wife of a lowly official in the future, without even an imperial decree. When she goes out and sees her former friend, she won't even dare to raise her head."
What Li said was all based on her experience. After all, she herself married a low-ranking official who couldn't even get an imperial edict.
One of Li's former close friends married the eldest son of a noble family and inherited a title. After she became the lady of the house, she had an imperial decree and could enjoy the benefits of her ancestors even if her husband was incompetent.
Therefore, when she was choosing a husband for her daughter Ning Rong, her first choice was the eldest son who could inherit the title.
As for the so-called ambitious candidates, the poor scholars, the favored second sons... none of these candidates were within the range of Li's choice of son-in-law.
Li has come to realize over the years that no matter how much potential a man has, it is still just potential. Whether this potential can be realized is still a question. Before she married Ning Yucheng, she was attracted by how talented and capable Ning Yucheng was praised for, and believed that he would definitely make a great career in the future.
What's the result? You are still just relying on your parents!
It can be seen that marrying an incompetent second son is worse than marrying an eldest son who can inherit the title.
However, Li had never imagined that the Yong'an Marquisate she had chosen for her daughter would be a family that favored the second-born son, putting her daughter in an awkward situation.
However, they did not regret it too much. After all, no matter how much the Yong'an Marquis and his wife favored the second legitimate son, they could not violate the court's inheritance law and give the title to the second legitimate son, right?
Even though Zhang was so partial to Ning Yucheng back then, she still couldn't accomplish this task. Li felt that if Ning Rong could hold on for a few more years until the son of Marquis Yong'an inherited the title and became Marquis Yong'an, she would have finally succeeded.
Seeing that Li did not show much regret, Zhang could guess what Li was thinking. She sighed deeply, turned to look at Ning Rong, and said, "I will hold a flower viewing banquet in a few days. I will invite the wife of Yong'an Marquis to come, and I will help you to persuade her."
Ning Rong was delighted and stood up to salute: "Thank you, Grandma!"
Zhang's face showed fatigue. Ning Rong glanced at Li, and Li also stood up and bowed to take her leave: "Mother, the daughter-in-law and Rong'er will take their leave. You should have a good rest and don't worry anymore."
Ning Rong also continued, "Grandma, please take good care of yourself. Rong'er will come to visit you next time you return home."
Zhang's health had been deteriorating these days, and she was indeed a little restless, so she nodded and said, "Okay, it's enough that you have this filial piety, go ahead."
As soon as Li and Ning Rong left Zhang's yard, Si Yuan saw the servant who came to report the news. The servant who came to report the news imitated clearly what Li and Ning Rong said to Zhang and even what actions they made.
After watching this lifelike imitation of movements and sounds, Si Yuan knew why Li and Ning Rong came to Zhang.
The bomb in Yong'an Marquis Mansion exploded, forcing Ning Rong to come to Zhang for help.
But this marriage was originally planned by Si Yuan. How could he allow Zhang to rely on his power to stand up for the second branch?
So when Zhang said she wanted to hold a flower-viewing banquet and invite relatives from the Duke of Cheng's mansion to attend, Si Yuan rejected it outright: "Mother is not in good health, so she should not work too hard. If you really want to hold a flower-viewing banquet, let Madam do it for you."
Si Yuan looked at Cheng, who nodded knowingly and said, "Yes, mother, just take good care of yourself. Your daughter-in-law will take care of these things." But there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
Zhang looked at Si Yuan and saw that Si Yuan was unmoved by Cheng's sarcastic tone. He didn't show any reaction, not even a reprimand. Zhang was very disappointed. She knew that she couldn't go against Si Yuan's wishes, so she covered her forehead and said as if she was about to faint, "I feel dizzy. I'm going to go back and rest. You don't have to come to see me again."
These words were neither soft nor hard, obviously expressing his dissatisfaction.
But Si Yuan was too stingy to even say a word of concern to her. He stood up and said, "If mother is not feeling well, just take a good rest. Don't always think of using the reputation of the Chengguo Mansion to support this person or that person."
Zhang, who was pretending to be uncomfortable, twitched her face. She was extremely embarrassed, as if Si Yuan had peeled off her entire face.
Originally, Cheng didn't know what was going on and was just used to cooperating with Si Yuan. After hearing Si Yuan's words to warn Zhang, she finally understood vaguely that Zhang held the flower-viewing banquet probably to save face and support the second house.
Cheng's expression suddenly fell. She did not hide her dissatisfaction at all and said sarcastically, "If mother had paid more attention to the master, she wouldn't have ended up like this."
Si Yuan had already walked away. Cheng took the opportunity to mock Zhang again, and then followed Si Yuan's footsteps and left, leaving Zhang sitting there with an extremely embarrassed look on her face, her expression changing from gloomy to happy.
The hope of holding a flower-viewing banquet was shattered. Zhang was rejected by Si Yuan and Cheng, and she was too embarrassed to tell Li and Ning Rong about it. She just kept silent and only said to others that she was sick and recuperating in bed.
Li and Ning Rong did not live in the Chengguo Mansion, so they were naturally not well-informed. They were still waiting with great anticipation. After waiting for more than two months, there was no movement from Zhang. Li could not help but go to her house to ask, but found that Zhang closed the door and refused to see her. Then she realized that Zhang had messed up. She left cursing in her heart.
Zhang is unreliable, and no one in the second house can be trusted either.
Li's own family is still counting on her for support, so how can she support her and Ning Rong?
Ning Rong could only endure it alone in the Yong'an Marquis's Mansion. Facing the relentless pressure from the Yong'an Marquis's wife, she would play dumb as long as the Yong'an Marquis's wife didn't explicitly tell her to use her dowry to subsidize the entire mansion. When the Yong'an Marquis's son blamed her for her poor performance and was disliked by the Yong'an Marquis's wife, she pretended to be in a difficult situation and sought the Yong'an Marquis's son's help, asking him to help her do what the Yong'an Marquis's wife had asked her to do.
When the Yong'an Marquis's son helped him twice and his own private money was almost emptied, he stopped saying anything and pretended to be ignorant of the matter. The Yong'an Marquis's son and the Ning Rong couple were both better at pretending to be ignorant than the other, which made the Yong'an Marquis's wife feel like a dog biting a hedgehog, not knowing where to start.
Because Lady Yong'an couldn't just lose face and say to Ning Rong: Our family is so poor that we can't even pay the monthly salary. My daughter-in-law, you have a lot of dowry, so use it to support the whole family.
If she said this, her reputation would be ruined and she would lose face. She would never say this even if she was beaten to death.
But if she didn't say it clearly, Ning Rong would play dumb and even push away the housekeeper position that was given to her.
The wife of the Marquis of Yong'an was so angry that she often used her mother-in-law's airs to set rules for Ning Rong, but Ning Rong endured it. After all, her surname was Ning, and even if the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an tormented her, she would not dare to go too far. Everything must have a legitimate reason, and when a mother-in-law teaches her daughter-in-law rules, she must find fault within the rules and cannot appear to be deliberately making things difficult for her daughter-in-law.
No matter how hard it was for Ning Rong, she gritted her teeth and endured it, countering every move she made, and making the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an suffer a lot of losses.
Marquis Yong'an found that as a mother-in-law, she had to personally fight with the eldest daughter-in-law. Although she had the upper hand most of the time, her fundamental goal was not achieved. So she wanted to marry a daughter-in-law from a high-class family for her beloved second son as soon as possible, so that she could sit on the mountain and watch the fight while her two daughters-in-law fought each other.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com