Chapter 175 Wan Family
"Yes, yes, you are the honest and upright official, and I am the unreasonable and ignorant woman!
"So, may I ask, Master Wan Da, when can I get back the money you lent me? I don't expect you to charge me any interest, so can you just give me back my principal?"
Meng's mouth felt like it had a knife in it, and she started to talk back at her husband.
"I know your family has been scholars for generations, and they value the righteousness of family and country, and the gentleman's covenant. I also know that you are grateful to the King of Qi for helping you, a small county magistrate, to your current position.
But no matter how grateful we are, we can't just live on, right? When you took all the melons and dates from our family to pay the military, did I say anything?
But how can you touch our daughter's dowry?"
As she spoke, the old mother's eyes turned red and her voice choked with sobs.
"We only have this one daughter, and she's had a miserable life. Her fiancé was snatched away by someone else. Now that Sister Ya has reached marriage age, her husband's family still hasn't figured out who she's going to marry. How can you still have the heart to covet her dowry?"
You have no conscience. If you dare to promise the King of Qi anything again, I will fight you!"
When talking about the sad things, Meng covered her face with a handkerchief and cried bitterly, and the prefect Wan, who felt guilty, tried to comfort her in a low voice.
"Stop crying! It's not proper for you to be crying like this in front of the children. The prince didn't ask me for money. He hasn't asked us for money in a long time."
Lao Wan moved closer to his wife and lowered his voice.
"This time, the prince has found a comfortable place to live. He's hooked up with the Duke of Lingguo's mansion. Don't you know that? As the old saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. So, even if the Duke of Lingguo's mansion is at its worst, isn't it much better than our impoverished family? His wife has money!"
Mrs. Wan's mouth twitched as she heard her master continue to chatter.
"Besides, if we really can't pay it back, hasn't the prince promised to find a good marriage for our daughter? Anyway, we won't lose out on either side, it's just a matter of time."
"Dad, face."
Wan Jingya's eldest brother, Wan Qusheng, felt his wife's resentful gaze and shook his shoulders guiltily. Chen, the eldest daughter-in-law, sighed as she touched her bulging belly.
"Dad, you're just like my dad, kicked into a pit too deep to get out. Your daughter-in-law's words are not pleasant to hear. If there is anything I said wrong, please forgive me."
As one of the first group of people who successfully evaded debts through matchmaking, Mrs. Wan said that she was quite experienced in guarding against the King of Qi.
"What truth can the King of Qi possibly tell? He can only bluff people like you and my father. He was the matchmaker for me back then, and he boasted about it to the heavens.
It is said that your son is unique in heaven and on earth. He can bring peace to the world with his writing and decide the fate of the world with his martial arts. He is simply the God of Literature who has descended to earth and possessed by the God of War.
What's the result?
Before I got married, the King of Qi cheated me out of my dowry. After I got married, he helped the King of Qi cheat me out of my dowry! I'm almost like my mother now. I only have a few melons and dates left.
If we take away my sister's dowry again this time, how will we make up for it when she gets married? We can't let my sister, a daughter of an official, go out empty-handed, can we? "
The Wan family father and son immediately felt guilty.
Although they knew they had done nothing wrong in standing on the side of national justice, after all, the soldiers were the gate gods guarding the border. If they let the soldiers starve to death, what would they do when the enemy invaded?
But from the perspective of husbands, it is not enough for them to live off the King of Qi, and they even bring the King of Qi along to eat with them. This is somewhat shameless.
"What my daughter-in-law said makes a lot of sense. I will give it more consideration."
Magistrate Wan also frowned and sighed, and then he would curse the previous emperor and the rest of the evildoers.
“Thinking back on my Dongling Prefecture, it was peaceful back then. It’s not like how it is now, where the people are desperately trying to make ends meet.
Damn the tyrant emperor, damn the Gu family! If they hadn't come here to harass us after their country was destroyed, how could our prosperous Dongling Mansion have fallen into such a miserable state? "
Although Wan Zhifu didn't have any great abilities, he was truly a good official who loved his people like his own children. When he was a county magistrate, he was nearly hacked to death by the remnants of the previous dynasty in order to protect the last bit of life-saving grain in the granary.
It was only thanks to His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi's timely arrival that they were able to save their father and son from the remnants of the evil. Furthermore, having been promoted all the way to the prefectural capital, and having witnessed how the Prince of Qi led his men to defend Dongling Prefecture, Prefect Wan had already been deeply loyal to him.
Although the truth is correct, but...
"Ahem, Sister Ya, you're going to the palace today. What exactly is the princess's intention? Can you find out?"
"Is it finally my turn to say a few more words?"
Wan Jingya blinked tiredly. She had only said two words since she stepped into the house, while the whole family was chattering non-stop.
After helping her mother sit down on the chair, the girl softly recounted what happened in Prince Qi's mansion. At the end, she felt very embarrassed and began to blame herself.
"I had originally suggested taking the IOU with me. If the Princess of Qi turned out to be of the same ilk as the Prince of Qi, I could still use the IOU to fend them off.
Thinking about it now, I feel really embarrassed.
The princess is not only good-looking but also has an even better temperament. Her beauty is only the most insignificant advantage. She is mainly of noble character, gentle and virtuous, honest and trustworthy, and is also very generous and amiable!
She wasn't angry when we, the ladies of the boudoir, came to her house. She even apologized to us. She said she took responsibility for the debt owed by the King of Qi and would find a way to collect her dowry and pay it off for her husband.
"Mother, sister-in-law, you really don't know how envious and jealous I was of the King of Qi at that moment! How did he get to marry such a beautiful woman? How did he get to marry such a beautiful woman?!"
"...Maybe, because his father is the emperor?"
The prefect's wife loved to speak the truth, but she felt something was amiss as soon as she finished speaking, and sure enough, her husband's old eyes glared at her. Meng coughed awkwardly and forced herself to change the subject.
"According to Sister Ya, this princess seems to be a pretty good person."
Anyone who doesn't covet her daughter's dowry is considered a good person in Meng's eyes.
"Mother, I heard that the princess doesn't seem to be from an aristocratic family. The Duke of Lingguo's Mansion is just a new noble family in the court. How can they prepare a very expensive dowry? Can she fill the bottomless pit of the Prince of Qi's Mansion?"
Chen was a little bit unconvinced, so her mother-in-law explained it to her.
“Although the Duke of Lingguo’s Mansion has no background, it doesn’t mean that the princess doesn’t have any support.
I heard that the wife of Duke Lingguo is a noble lady from a noble family in Gaoyang. Even if the Xu family is down and out now, there are still three pounds of nails in a broken ship. How could there be nothing at all?
The inheritance of an aristocratic family is not just about the gold, silver, and jewelry that are visible on the surface, there are other things as well."
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