Mysterious Tang Dynasty

Chapter 351 Dissatisfaction
Although there is not much news about Mrs. Pei, mother and son, Madam Lu has still heard some.

For example, she has a dignified and beautiful appearance, is proficient in poetry and calligraphy, and is especially good at calligraphy and painting; another example is that her son is 14 years old this year, and he is also a young talent who is familiar with scriptures, and his poems are also famous; another example is her daughter This year is ten years old, She is slender and beautiful, with a gentle and quiet temperament.After their mother and son returned to Beijing, they visited several palaces and princess palaces, and all of them were highly praised.Also because of their excellent reputation, it made the Zheng family look bad.If it wasn't for the Zheng family being bad, how could there be such a big conflict with Mrs. Pei that she decided to return home with her children after her husband died?The fact that the Zheng family didn't stop them seemed to mean that the Zheng family knew they were wrong.

Nanny Lu inquired about the reasons for the conflict between Mrs. Pei and her husband's family, and felt it was an eye-opener.

Li Lijun blinked, thoughtfully.Mother Cui was impatient, and hurriedly asked: "What is the reason? The Zheng family in Xingyang is also a famous family, so it should be very well-behaved."

Nanny Lu shook her head: "The branch that Mrs. Pei married, although it is also the blood of the Zheng family in Xingyang, is actually a branch. Before Mrs. Pei married, their branch declined a bit. Her late husband Zheng Qilang's My grandfather used to be a governor, but the next two generations only had minor officials of the seventh or eighth rank. Among the huge Zheng family in Xingyang, it is really not outstanding."

Although not outstanding, the family background of this branch of the Zheng family is quite rich, which can support the whole family to live a prosperous life in their hometown. Coupled with the influence of the entire Zheng family in Xingyang, Zheng Qilang's father and several All his elder brothers have successfully become officials and married wives from famous families.In the eyes of outsiders who don't know the inside story, such a family background is decent enough.

Zheng Qilang was the youngest son. He was weak and sick since he was a child. When he was [-] or [-] years old, his condition worsened. His family thought it was impossible for him to grow up safely enough to marry a wife and have children.Mother Zheng was worried that her youngest son would die young and would not be able to enter the ancestral grave, and that there would be no one to worship after his death, so she wanted to give him an adoptive heir.But her older sons were still young at that time, and they were either childless or had only one seedling, and married wives who were all young ladies, so it was impossible to easily agree to the only son's succession, so she had to find another way.

She picked a beautiful, healthy and fertile girl among her tenants, and asked her to be a concubine for her youngest son.Although Zheng Qilang is in poor health and taking concubines at a young age is not good for his health, but when his family members believe that he will not live to adulthood, it seems that leaving offspring is more important.Zheng Qilang also liked this concubine very much, and soon made her pregnant.When Zheng Qilang turned 15, he also became the father of a baby boy at the same time.

After the baby boy was born, Zheng Qilang's health gradually improved, and three years later he was no different from ordinary people.He was only eighteen years old that year, handsome, familiar with poetry and books, and communicated with people a lot, spreading the reputation of a talented man, and he had new ideas for the future.He decided to pass the imperial examination, entered Chang'an the next year and took the Jinshi examination, and successfully became an official, with a higher starting point than his brothers.

He was originally from a noble family, talented and handsome, and even became an official, so he naturally attracted the attention of the high-ranking clan in Chang'an City.After seeing him, an elder of the Pei family admired him quite a lot, and wanted to recruit him as his son-in-law. Unfortunately, his daughter was still young, so he simply set up a matchmaking match for his niece, Mrs. Pei.

Although Mrs. Pei's father was exiled, her mother is the eldest princess, and her family is the Pei clan of Hedong, which is very prominent.The two quickly agreed on a marriage, and the wedding was held the following year.

During the whole process, Zheng Qilang and his family never mentioned that he had taken a concubine and gave birth to the eldest son.Even after Mrs. Pei followed her husband back to Xingyang to worship the ancestors, the concubine and the eldest son never appeared in front of her.And after Zheng Qilang married her, not only his own official career went smoothly, but his brothers were also quickly promoted, and two of them were directly promoted to the capital. Since then, no one has mentioned this matter to Mrs. Pei.

Zheng Qilang has been an official in Beijing for many years after his marriage, and Mrs. Pei has also stayed in Beijing. Occasionally, he will go back to his hometown with his husband to visit relatives, but only for a few days.She gave birth to a son and a daughter for Zheng Qilang. Not long after the youngest daughter was born, Zheng Qilang suddenly fell ill and resigned to return to his hometown.

It was only when she lived in her hometown that she discovered the existence of the concubine and the eldest son.

Because of this, Mrs. Pei was very dissatisfied with her husband's family who concealed the truth, but the couple were considered harmonious. Her husband was seriously ill and begged hard, but she couldn't bear to refuse, so she had to tolerate the existence of the concubine and the eldest son.

And the eldest son of the concubine has always grown up in front of his grandparents, and is quite doted on. He usually lives and studies with his cousins ​​and clan brothers.He was also regarded as a lucky star by his grandmother, who believed that his birth brought blessings to his father, which made his father's health better.Although he is a concubine, he is obviously more valued at home.On the contrary, Mrs. Pei's son fell behind her elder brother everywhere, and was accused by her family of disrespecting her elder brother at the slightest protest, which made Mrs. Pei very angry.

When the eldest son of the concubine wanted to discuss marriage, Mother Zheng didn't mention that he was a concubine in order to let her beloved grandson marry a famous lady.When the wife of the well-known family she wanted to get married with ran into Mrs. Pei outside and kindly praised the latter for his good teaching, Mrs. Pei told the other party very frankly that he was not her own son, but a concubine brought up by her mother-in-law. Well, it was her mother-in-law who taught Sun Youfang.The lady's face immediately changed, and she refused to discuss marriage with Zheng's family after that. Several families who had made friends with each other revealed that they were very dissatisfied with Zheng's concealment of the marriage of their descendants and concubines.

Mother Zheng was furious because of this, and fell out with her youngest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Pei.Among them, some people who are emotionally inclined to the eldest son accused Mrs. Pei of being unkind to her mother, and some people who valued etiquette thought that Zheng Qilang's mother was acting biased.Soon after, Zheng Qilang died of illness.At the funeral, Zheng's mother wanted his eldest son to take on important responsibilities and suppress his grandson. Mrs. Pei unceremoniously argued with her on the spot. Afterwards, she directly asked the family to return with her son. In order to raise the concubine grandson by her side, suppress her legitimate son.

After Nanny Lu told the whole story, the audience present were all sobbing.

Cui Nanny shook her head again and again: "How many years has the Zheng family of Xingyang been a powerful family? Why did such a breach of etiquette happen? If it was said that Zheng Qilang left an heir because he was worried about his youth's death, then When marrying the Pei family, you should make it clear. Since their family has benefited from Princess Huo and the Pei family, and concealed the truth for many years for their own self-interest, why did they make a joke of suppressing their grandchildren for the sake of their grandsons? Zheng Qilang The mother is too confused. No matter how much she favors the grandson, is it possible that the older sons are not her own? She is not afraid that the Pei family will take back all the benefits they gave to their family in a fit of anger? !"

Nanny Lu curled her lips and said: "Probably because the elders of Pei's family who were matchmakers have passed away, and Princess Huo's family is mediocre, Mrs. Pei's father is also dead, and the elders have low official positions. If you get benefits, you will change your face, right?"

Mother Cui disagrees: "The Pei family is still in full swing! Even if they don't love Mrs. Pei, they will not let others slap the Pei family in the face! Now that Mrs. Pei is back, her past must be heard in the sky. I don't know if the saint will How to deal with the Zheng family?"

Li Lijun didn't care about this, she was only curious about one thing: "How did Nanny Lu find out these details?"

(End of this chapter)