Chapter 97 Entanglement
Meng Sanlang spent the night outside, and when he got up, his mistress insisted that they go to Taixing Restaurant for a meal before he returned home.
"Mother, did you have something to ask me yesterday?" Meng Sanlang thought of the person his mother had sent to see him last night, which he had dismissed. Now that he was back at the manor, he wanted to make a good impression on his mother.
"It's all over now. The Jiang family came to break off the engagement, and I agreed. From now on, don't say anything about not wanting to marry anyone else. I gave you a chance yesterday, but you didn't live up to it. You can't blame anyone else."
After a night's rest, Mencius' mother had already adjusted her mindset. Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Anyway, her son Sanlang already had children. Even if he didn't marry, his lineage wouldn't end. So she let him be.
"Impossible! How could the Jiang family break off the engagement? Didn't Mother say she would go and explain to Qiuyue on my behalf?" Meng Sanlang's smiling face instantly turned pale.
“Don’t look at me, I’m your mother. I’ve done everything I can to help you. It’s just that you’re not up to the task and always try to avoid trouble. Jiang Qiuyue isn’t someone you can easily fool. I thought that after a few days of ignoring the Jiang family, they would eventually have no choice but to bow down to the Meng family. But who knew they would come to break off the engagement yesterday? I also sent someone to call you. You’ve been bewitched by that mistress, and I have no face to keep her here. So let’s just let it go.”
“How can we let it go! I’ve waited for her for three years! How could she be so heartless! Mother, let’s go to the Jiang family again, and I’ll explain everything to her,” Meng Sanlang pleaded, his eyes red.
“My son, you can’t force matters of the heart. You and Jiang Qiuyue are destined to be apart, so why make things so ugly? In a few days, I will arrange for you to bring that woman into the family.”
Mencius' mother understood her son. It was not necessarily true that he loved Jiang Qiuyue very much. However, he was raised to be proud and arrogant from a young age. After being rejected by Jiang Qiuyue, it became an obsession. If he were truly devoted, how could he not let go of the other woman?
Just a few days after the Jiang family broke off the engagement with the Meng family, news spread that Meng Sanlang had brought his mistress into the family.
"Pah! I knew the Meng family was two-faced. They've only been broken off the engagement for a few days, and they're already eager to bring her in. Luckily, I didn't listen to their nonsense back then," Madam Lin cursed a few more times after hearing the news.
"Now that we have nothing to do with the Meng family, why bother with them and let it affect our mood for no reason?" Jiang Qiuyue didn't care about the news about the Meng family.
"You, as a mother, are not as insightful as Qiuyue. You have to be able to let go. Since the engagement has been broken off, there's no point in still thinking about the Meng family."
Grandma Xue initially wanted to matchmake Jiang Qiuyue and Xue Huai'an because she saw that the girl had a good heart. Although the matchmaking failed, the love and care she had shown over the years was genuine.
"Grandma knows me well. That's just how I am. I worry about everything. Now, Qiuyue's marriage is really giving me a headache," Madam Lin said with a helpless bitter smile.
"A girl like Qiuyue, why would she worry about not having suitors? It's just that you're being picky. I'll ask around for you later, and if that doesn't work, we can also inquire in the prefectural city," Madam Xue comforted her when she saw her anxious, and offered to help Jiang Qiuyue find a suitable candidate.
Song Yushu has been seeing Jiang Qiuyue every few days lately, and whenever he has free time, he goes upstairs to talk to her, which means he has less time to spend with Xue Huai'an.
"You care more about others than I do," Xue Huai'an couldn't help but say when Song Yushu only spoke a few words to him before going to talk to Jiang Qiuyue.
"Master Xue, you're so old, why are you still jealous of young girls?" Song Yushu said helplessly.
"If it were just a day or two, it would be fine, but you haven't spoken to me properly for almost half a month now. Is it really because you're getting old and no longer appreciated?"
Song Yushu was surprised by Xue Huai'an's words. Realizing that he hadn't spoken to Xue Huai'an much lately, he felt he had gone too far and spent some more time with him.
"You can't say this to my mother anymore. If she finds out, she'll definitely scold me for being ungrateful and neglecting Master Xue," Song Yushu felt that in Wei's mother's heart now, Xue Huai'an was ranked ahead of her.
"Am I that kind of person?" Xue Huai'an, having achieved his goal, returned to his serious demeanor.
However, he did take the matter of Xue's mother asking him to help introduce a few talented young men to her seriously. If Jiang Qiuyue didn't get married, she would always come to Song Yushu in the future, and in the end, he would be the one suffering. It would be better to help her find a suitable husband as soon as possible.
Some time had passed since the Zhou family caused trouble, and they hadn't made any further moves. Song Yushu had thought they had given up on recognizing Zhou Chengyu, but unexpectedly, Old Madam Zhou still had the nerve to come knocking on their door this time. She was accompanied by several clan elders and bypassed Song Yushu to go directly to the academy.
When Song Yushu received the message and went there, they had already been taken to the county government office by Xue Huai'an.
"Your Honor! This Zhou Chengyu is my own grandson! It was Wei who insisted on taking our two children away, which is why we lost contact with her. Now she won't even let us acknowledge him back. How can such a thing be!" The old lady Zhou knelt down in the hall, complaining to Magistrate Gu, which garnered a lot of sympathy.
"You two are elders of the Zhou family, why don't you tell the truth! There must be no falsehoods!" Gu Cheng did not believe the old lady Zhou's one-sided story and questioned the other two elders present.
"My lord, when Wei was divorcing the Zhou family, she was very firm in her stance, which is why the Zhou family agreed to sign the severance agreement. We thought that since we were connected by blood, the severance agreement was nothing. If we had known that Wei would be so heartless, we would never have agreed to let them sign the severance agreement!"
The two elders were both shrewd and experienced. They originally planned to bypass Song Yushu and go to Zhou Chengyu in public. Zhou Chengyu was thin-skinned and young, so they thought they could win him over by saying a few nice words and playing the victim. But a meddlesome teacher took them to the courtroom, and they had no choice but to explain.
"My lord! These two elders of the Zhou family are lying! When they signed that severance agreement, it clearly stated that the Zhou family would sever ties with Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Chengzhu after receiving the money. How did it become that I was being aggressive? I didn't see you showing the slightest reluctance when you received the money."
Song Yushu was fed up with the Zhou family's repeated entanglements and wanted to resolve the matter once and for all, so he brought a letter severing ties with them.
After reading the letter severing ties, Gu Cheng found it to be true, as Song Yushu had said. However, for ordinary people, blood ties are more important. It would not be easy for Zhou Chengyu to break free from the Zhou family. If this situation were not handled properly, it would damage his reputation.
Even Gu Cheng had to admit that the move by Old Madam Zhou and the Zhou family elders was indeed brilliant. By making a big fuss, even if Song Yushu could produce a letter of severance, some people would still think that severing ties was an extremely inappropriate act. If they encountered someone more conservative, they might directly regard severing ties as an act of filial impiety.
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