Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 184 Throwing a Stone to Test the Water (asking for monthly tickets)

That afternoon, a special guest came to the Zhang family.

She was Zhang Luan's younger sister, Xu Zhang, Zhang Yanling's aunt. She came to Zhang Luan's mansion in the capital on the pretext of returning to her mother's home, and brought some women's things, saying that she wanted to make a wedding dress for Zhang Yu.

The brother and sister have not seen each other for many years, but after all, Xu Zhang is already married, and there are some things that Zhang Luan cannot get involved in.

After a brief greeting, Xu Zhang went into the inner courtyard to chat with Jin, leaving Zhang Luan in the front yard.

Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling stood at the door like two door gods, watching Zhang Luan wandering around the yard.

Zhang Heling asked hopefully, "Dad, my aunt came but she didn't say she would give me any New Year's money or anything like that. How about I go get some money and spend it later?"

“I just think about money.”

Zhang Luan shouted, "Didn't you go to do business with your second brother? Did you see the silver?"

"I didn't see the silver, but I heard about it... They said there were five thousand taels, but the silver wasn't delivered, and they also said I couldn't use it for other purposes. Dad, please take care of the second son."

When Zhang Heling mentioned this, he became even more dissatisfied.

After his eldest son reminded him, Zhang Luan remembered that his youngest son was resourceful and could help him with his advice. He immediately said with a stern face, "It's time to teach him a lesson... Second son, come in with me."

Then, under Zhang Heling's gloating eyes, Zhang Yanling was called into the main hall.

"Son, analyze this for me. What does your aunt mean by coming back to her parents' home? Your uncle didn't come himself, but asked your aunt to come. This is clearly a disrespect to our Zhang family... I wanted to talk to him about taking care of the officials in Hejian Prefecture. If he didn't come, do I have to tell your aunt?"

Zhang Luan looked confused.

Zhang Yanling said, "Xu Xueshi is an important official in the court. He knows that our family is going to have a crown princess. He is holding back and is unwilling to lower his status. You can't stop him."

Zhang Luan frowned and asked, "So he still looks down on us?"

"Dad, there is no such thing as being respectful or disrespectful in officialdom...face is a secondary issue. Don't always judge things based on face." Zhang Yanling said.

"Ugh!"

Zhang Luan sighed, "I was used to being looked down upon, and some habits are hard to change. But after what you said, I seem to understand... If your uncle really despised our family, he wouldn't have asked your aunt to come back to visit as soon as he arrived in Beijing. This is clearly a gesture of goodwill to me."

Zhang Yanling said, "Dad, now you understand, don't you? Maybe he wants to test the waters... He wants us to help him get on the right track with Minister Li and say something good to him!"

Zhang Luan asked curiously, "Can't he just go and pay his respects to Minister Li himself? Does he really need us to help pave the way?"

Zhang Yanling sighed, "Dad, this scholar Xu suffered a great setback because of his friendship with the rich and powerful. He was not promoted for several years. Even now, people still say that he is not decent and has no sense of shame because of his relationship with the eunuch Huang.

"Now that he has finally returned to the center after all the hardships, this is the time when he should be most careful about his reputation. How could he easily dare to provoke Li Zisheng, who was born as an alchemist?"

……

……

Xu Zhang met her sister-in-law in the inner room, and then came out to say goodbye to Zhang Luan.

Zhang Luan asked Xu Zhang to enter the main hall of his house and asked his two sons to stand aside. He probably wanted to talk to his sister about having more contact with Xu Qiong in the future.

Now, regardless of whether Xu Qiong asked him for help or not, he at least wanted to maintain a good relationship with Xu Qiong. After all, he was the only relative who was a high-ranking official in the court. The other party couldn't bring himself to do so, so he naturally had to do so with a smug look on his face.

"Brother, I'm not your sister. I'm not telling you..."

Xu Zhang spoke calmly and gracefully, "When we were in Yingtian, I heard that you still didn't do any work and always wanted to take the imperial examination to get promoted overnight. The people in the mansion looked down on our family and later even refused to lend us money... The more you acted like this, the more anxious I, your sister, became."

When Zhang Luan heard this, he thought, "What a nice sister, you came into my house just to teach me a lesson?"

"Isn't it all in the past? You can see that everything is fine at home now. Could you imagine it in the past? Isn't it all thanks to my hard work that we have everything today?"

Although Zhang Luan was unhappy, he still tried his best to defend himself.

Zhang Yanling was laughing secretly on the side.

The younger sister's words hit the nail on the head. It's no wonder that your aunt had to suffer for half her life as a concubine because of your Zhang Luan's opportunistic thinking.

Xu Zhang said, "You are still the same as before, always thinking about marrying your daughter into a wealthy family... There is no need to talk about the previous things. Now let's just talk about the girl. Marrying into the palace is not a good choice. The common people heard that the selection of the Crown Princess was not very competitive. The wealthy families even made marriage contracts for their girls early to prevent them from being coveted by the royal family... But you are so focused on getting in, and in the end you got what you wanted..."

Zhang Luan frowned and interrupted his sister, "Mingru, what do you mean by this? Are you trying to say that I made a mistake by marrying my daughter into the Eastern Palace?"

In a hurry, Zhang Luan directly called out his sister's maiden name.

This also let Zhang Yanling know that this aunt was called Zhang Mingru before she left the Zhang family. Xu Zhang shook her head and said, "How dare I, as your sister, say anything about your affairs? Just make sure you feel good about it."

Zhang Luan felt so uncomfortable that he scratched his ears and cheeks, his face full of embarrassment and shame.

He had wanted to have a good talk with his sister about the social gathering with Xu Qiong, but now that his sister had said so much, he certainly couldn't say anything more.

"The two little ones are quite clever. I wonder how their studies are going. Are they preparing for the county exam?" Zhang Mingru then turned his gaze to the Zhang brothers.

Zhang Heling was more realistic and asked, "Auntie, what is the county exam?"

Zhang Mingru rolled his eyes upon hearing this, then glanced at his brother and said disdainfully, "You passed the exam and didn't benefit your family, but why didn't you teach your two children well? They say that academic matters are like roots, and without a solid foundation, you can't do anything... It seems that they haven't learned anything good from you."

"Enough is enough!"

Zhang Luan was so angry that he was shaking all over. He stood up and shouted, "I haven't seen you for many years. You finally came back to your mother's house. I have to listen to your constant criticism and accusations against me... Do you look down on me now that you are so proud of yourself? Although your man is already the Minister of Personnel, wasn't he promoted by Li Zisheng, who has a bad reputation outside?

"Do you know why Li Zisheng chose him over others? Wasn't it me, your brother, who was behind the scenes planning this? What's there to be proud of?"

Zhang Yanling was laughing secretly again.

This aunt, whom he had never met before, had fully unleashed her sharp tongue. Before she had even said a few words, she had already crushed Zhang Luan's self-esteem to pieces, and then all the things that should and shouldn't be said came out at once.

Zhang Mingru said: "I don't want to get involved in official affairs. I just want my children to study hard and not follow the old path of our Zhang family in the future.

"I originally planned to bring the child over to see you, but the child just arrived in the capital and became a disciple of a prestigious teacher, so I can't leave for the time being... Humph, seeing you like this, I might as well not come back to my parents' home."

Zhang Luan said angrily, "You've been married for so many years, but you're still so talkative. No wonder you're not living as well as your sister."

Zhang Yanling hurriedly tried to reconcile: "Dad, how can you say that about Aunt? In fact, you often tell us about Aunt's kindness. You also say that we are one family and don't have different opinions... Now that Aunt is here, let's get closer to her. In the future, we will all be in the capital, so it will be convenient for us to travel back and forth, and I think we will be able to keep in touch more closely."

"Um!?"

Zhang Mingru originally looked down on Zhang Yanling, perhaps because he felt that if there were any problems at home, it should be the eldest brother Zhang Heling who should come forward to support the family.

So when he found out that Zhang Heling was not a good material, he no longer looked at the second son of the Zhang family.

Now after listening to Zhang Yanling's words, she became more attentive.

Zhang Luan said angrily: "A daughter who is married off is like water spilled out. Your aunt has no relationship with our family any longer. Yanling, you must remember our Zhang family's ancestral motto!"

Zhang Yanling was stunned. Does our Zhang family have ancestral precepts?
Dad, you didn’t make this up on the spur of the moment, did you?

But Zhang Luan said seriously: "Father despises those ungrateful people the most!"

Zhang Mingru laughed when he heard this, and he stood up and asked loudly: "What favor? What righteousness? Yes, our father passed away early, but how many years did you, as an elder brother, raise us? Didn't we rely on the family property left by our father to support the family at that time?

"At that time, the Zhang family relied on the reputation of the family mansion, so they were not considered small families, right? I could have been someone's legal wife, but you insisted on making me marry into a wealthy family as a concubine! That man was old enough to be my father at that time, did you know that?"

Perhaps Zhang Mingru had suffered a lot after becoming Xu Qiong's concubine, and now that she finally had the opportunity to return to her parents' home to visit her relatives, she would definitely want to vent her anger to this profit-oriented elder brother.

Zhang Luan was completely stumped by Zhang Mingru's sudden outburst. He felt a little sorry for his sister, so he could only argue: "I let you marry into a wealthy family so that you can fly up to the tree and become a phoenix, so that you don't have to suffer... Poor couples have many sorrows, do you want to be a chicken for the rest of your life?"

Zhang Mingru said with a determined look: "I'd rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix."

Zhang Luan was suddenly speechless.

The brother and sister sat down again, but it seemed that there was no room for them to calmly discuss cooperation matters.

Zhang Yanling simply changed the subject: "It's getting late, aunt, do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Don't eat."

Zhang Mingru said, "I'm so angry... Besides, if I go back too late, I don't know how people will talk about me. Yanling, take my aunt out."

"I?"

Zhang Yanling pointed at himself.

Zhang Luan waved his hand and said, "Go, go, send him away. I may not have time to receive him next time he comes."

Those decisive words seemed as if he wanted to completely sever ties with his sister.

(I am writing this while sick, and sincerely ask for your monthly ticket support! Thank you!)
(End of this chapter)