Chapter 34, Mother and Son Talk
Yan Zhigao stepped into Old Lady Yan's room angrily. As soon as he entered, he found that the room was very quiet. Except for the old lady and the servant Sun Ma, no one else was there.
When Sun Ma saw Yan Zhigao come in, she bowed to him and then quietly left the room. After leaving, she carefully closed the door.
Seeing this, Yan Zhigao was stunned.
"Where are you from?" Old Mrs. Yan's voice sounded, unable to tell whether she was happy or angry.
Yan Zhigao raised his eyes and glanced at the old lady. Seeing that she was not looking at him, he was a little unsure of what she meant, so he said, "My son just came back from the government office."
Old Lady Yan glanced at her eldest son, who was still furious, and asked, "Why do you look like this since you just left the yamen? Is there something you haven't resolved there?"
Yan Zhigao shook his head and walked over to the chair below the old lady and sat down. "It's not about the government office. My son got angry because he heard that Daohua openly contradicted Master Qin and made him so angry that he couldn't even teach."
Old Lady Yan: "Who told you that?"
"It was Lin who told her son."
Yan Zhigao said it without thinking much, but as soon as he said it, he felt that something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, with a "bang", Old Lady Yan slapped the table hard.
"Okay, now you're going to deceive even your own mother for a concubine?"
Hearing this, Yan Zhigao looked panicked: "Mother, how can you say that? How dare a son lie to you?"
Old Madam Yan sneered: "Don't dare? Then when I asked you where you were from just now, why didn't you say you came from the Lin family?"
Yan Zhigao: "Son, I am thinking that you have some problems with the Lin family, so..."
Hearing this, Old Lady Yan became even angrier: "So in your eyes, I am such a narrow-minded villain. You concealed it for Lin. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that I will hit her, or that I will scold her?"
Yan Zhigao was anxious: "Mom, that's not what I meant."
Old Madam Yan glanced at Yan Zhigao with some disappointment: "You only know that I have a problem with Lin, but have you ever thought about why?"
Yan Zhigao glanced at the old lady, and he was also confused.
Lin is well-educated, virtuous and kind. Logically, she should be liked by the old lady, but the reality is that after being here for so long, the old lady has never given Lin a good face.
He didn't want to ask his mother about this matter in person, nor did he want to say too much good things about Aunt Lin, for fear of counterproductive effect, so he remained silent.
There was a brief silence in the room.
Yan Zhigao felt the atmosphere was strange and had to find another topic: "Mom, dinner is almost here, why hasn't anyone come yet?"
Old Madam Yan snorted coldly, "You knew that everyone would come to my place for dinner at this time, yet you still rushed over to find Daohua with an angry face. Let me ask you, what do you want to do? Do you want to scold her harshly in front of everyone again?"
"You can hide it from me for the sake of your Aunt Lin, but why don't you think about Daohua? You scolded her in front of so many people. You want her to be too embarrassed to stay in this family in the future, right?"
Yan Zhigao looked helpless. "Mom, it's not that I want to scold Daohua. It's just that Daohua has gone too far this time. She openly contradicted the teacher and showed no respect for the rules. I can't just ignore it."
Old Lady Yan's expression turned grim: "I raised Daohua. You said she was unruly. Are you blaming me?"
Yan Zhigao felt a bit of a headache: "Mom, please stop being so unreasonable. Let's talk about what we have to say, okay?"
"Bang!"
Old Lady Yan slammed the table again: "Am I being unreasonable, or are you just listening to one side and believing it?"
Yan Zhigao moved his lips and wanted to refute, but looking at the old lady's ashen face, he could only lower his head and remain silent.
Old Madam Yan sneered, "I'm not senile yet. After all these days here, I've finally come to understand that the mother and her two children from Shuangxinyuan are your dearest. Let me ask you, you only know that Daohua contradicted the teacher, but have you ever asked why?"
Yan Zhigao muttered, "No matter what the reason is, you shouldn't contradict your commander."
Old Lady Yan glanced at her eldest son and told him everything Daohua had experienced in class. "You are the county magistrate, and you are used to judging cases. Can you tell me whether Master Qin has fulfilled his duties as a teacher?"
Yan Zhigao was surprised. He hadn't expected Master Qin to target his eldest daughter in class. He asked tentatively, "Could it be a mistake?"
Old Lady Yan snorted coldly: "There are so many people in the class. If you don't believe it, you can go ask others."
"This..." Yan Zhigao wondered, "No, why is that?"
He couldn't understand why Master Qin did this.
Daohua is his eldest daughter. Targeting her is not giving him face.
Old Lady Yan looked at her eldest son and sighed, "Zhi Gao, you've been a good student since you were young, and you have strong ability to handle affairs, but when it comes to dealing with people, you're still far behind."
"I know you despise Li's merchant background, but ask yourself, if Li hadn't helped you take care of the housework over the years, would you have been able to work in the front yard with peace of mind?"
Yan Zhigao weakly retorted, "Mother, after Wenxiu and Wenkai were born, I no longer despise the Li family."
Among the four classes of people, merchants have the lowest status. When he was young and frivolous, he really looked down on merchants who reeked of money.
But now that Li had given him two sons and a daughter, he no longer cared much about her merchant background.
Old Lady Yan: "Then why did you marry Lin? Wasn't it because she had a scholar father, she was well-educated, and could be your companion, chatting with you by candlelight at night?"
Yan Zhigao felt a little uncomfortable with what Old Lady Yan said, so he lowered his head and said nothing.
Old Lady Yan said, "I don't care about what's going on in your room. You can favor your concubine, but you must never neglect your wife and her children. You must know that if you are too partial, it will cause chaos in your family."
At this point, Yan Zhigao couldn't help but ask, "Mother, when did I ignore Li and Wenxiu?"
Old Lady Yan glanced at him sideways and said, "I'm not blind. You know clearly whether you are right or wrong. Think about how you treated Wenbin and Yishuang, and how you treated Wenxiu, Wenkai, and Daohua."
"Li's family background is indeed not high, but she has helped you manage the household tightly over the years. Even if she has no merits, she has worked hard. And what has your concubine done for you?"
"Zhi Gao, this person must not forget his roots. If I hadn't stopped you today, you would have scolded Daohua without asking any questions, right?"
"I don't know about your other children, but Daohua is a hot-tempered girl. She was wronged in the classroom. If you scold her without knowing the truth, be careful that she will become alienated from you."
Yan Zhigao frowned, "Mom, you're spoiling Daohua too much. Yes, I was wrong for not finding out what happened in class today, but Daohua contradicted the teacher, no matter what the reason, it was wrong."
Old Madam Yan: "Without your concubine's instigation, could such a thing have happened?"
Yan Zhigao was helpless: "Mom, weren't we talking about the rice flowers? Why did we bring up the Lin family again?"
Old Madam Yan snorted coldly, "Doesn't this have anything to do with her? Master Qin dared to treat Daohua like this because she was backing him up. Go tell Mrs. Lin to behave herself. She's both a master and a younger brother. Does she treat the Yan family like her own?"
Yan Zhigao: "Mother, if Li had been able to hire a teacher, I would not have adopted Lin's suggestion and let Qin come to our house to teach. As for Lin's younger brother, he is quite knowledgeable and can really help my son."
Hearing this, Old Lady Yan sighed inwardly.
A woman's status in her husband's family is directly related to her natal family, but Li's natal family is indeed much inferior to Lin's. Just one Mr. Lin is able to surpass all of Li's brothers who are businessmen.
"No matter what, you should tell Lin to behave herself. She's just a concubine, so don't try to interfere with the girls' upbringing. And you, you're a father, but children have their own ideas, especially Daohua. She wasn't raised by you, so she's already a little unfamiliar. If you start scolding her when she encounters a problem, you'll only push her further away."
Yan Zhigao was speechless: "Aren't you worried that she's pushing me further away?"
Old Lady Yan: "If that's the case, then that's what you should do."
Yan Zhigao was speechless: "Mom, I finally see that Daohua is the apple of your eye."
Old Madam Yan glared at him and said, “Your eyesight is really not good, I just noticed it!”
“.”
Yan Zhigao was completely defeated.
Old Lady Yan got angry when she saw him and waved her hand: "Go away, I'll let everyone eat in their rooms tonight, you can go wherever you want."
"Son, I'm leaving!"
Yan Zhigao walked out of Songhe Courtyard with a headache, and instinctively walked towards Shuangxin Courtyard. When he was about to step into the courtyard gate, he thought of what his mother said, turned around, and went to the main courtyard.
As soon as I stepped into the main courtyard, I heard happy laughter coming from the main house.
(End of this chapter)
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