Before Mrs. Feng finished her words and the grievance came to Sheng Weiqiao"s mind, Mrs. Zhan got impatient first and rolled her sleeves to clutch her big daughter, snapping, "What are you saying!"
"Stop messing up, mother!" Mrs. Feng dodged with irritation and hit the table, "I"ll tell the truth. My sister has no son. No matter how nice Weiqiao is, she"ll marry someone else—now Sheng Lanci didn"t grumble or have other concubines but only bring back a son of a mistress. He didn"t even bring the mistress! Anyone who"s asked to make judgments on this case would persuade us to forgive!"
"But Sheng Lanci, when he proposed to Yinlu, made such big vow that he wouldn"t drift from her in any case!" Mrs. Zhan wasn"t convinced, "If he didn"t say that, even if he brought back a son of a mistress or that he had a concubine, I would say nothing though I feel sorry for my daughter and granddaughter! But he made the vow and he broke it, so why can"t we question that?"
She added, "At least, Yinlu hasn"t entered her age of incapacity to give birth! Even if she can"t have a son in the future, the second son and third son in Sheng Family do have sons. He adopts one and he"ll have a son himself, right?! To say the worse, get our Weiqiao an adopted husband, and let Weiqiao"s son be named after Sheng. Doesn"t it work?!"
"Even for poor families, is there anyone with some pride in heart willing to be adopted? Just for the succession of blood, you"ll make do with Weiqiao"s marriage? Even Sheng Lanci won"t do that! But who doesn"t want to leave his heritage to his own children?" Mrs. Feng said, untouched, "Especially that Family Sheng is totally built by Sheng Lanci alone. He resigned his position and came back to take on the business of his ancestors and after so many years of hard work he"ll confer all this to other people. If you were him, mother, would you be happy?"
Mrs. Zhan fell silent.
Sheng Lanci was a decent former candidate Jinshi in the imperial examination and he once entered the National Academy. He was supposed to make accomplishments in the imperial court. But Old Mr. Sheng was badly ill in bed. He was too worried, so he asked the absence to return and fulfill his duties as a son. Seeing that the stepmother, brothers, and sisters too incapable and messed up their family business, which also vexed a lot Old Mr. Sheng in bed, he resigned.
From then on, he took care of Old Mr. Sheng and attended to their family business.
In about twenty years, he expanded the originally ordinary rich Sheng Family to one of the three most powerful families in Nanfeng County.
Such great commitment, unless he had no son, or who"d love to transfer it to a nephew?
"But he"s in the wrong..." Mrs. Zhan"s displeased words were interrupted lightly by Mrs. Feng, "He"s in the wrong, but mother, do you want my sister to continue living with Sheng Lanci? If you want a divorce, our two families could get people to create havoc at Sheng Family and insult him as all we can. Even if we collaborate to oppress Sheng Family, it"s reasonable."
"But if you still want my little sister to be the wife of Sheng Family, you please yourself and make a big scene, but how would Yinlu and Weiqiao live in Sheng Family later on?"
Her countering made Mrs. Zhan mute. Seeing her granddaughter also stunned over there, she felt a sudden sorrow, held her into the arms and cried, "My poor Weiqiao!"
Mrs. Yue and Mrs. Wu seeing that, all cried with their mother-in-law, "Why is our Weiqiao so pitiful..."
"Sheng Lanci never disobey Yinlu. But this time, before the son of a mistress entered the house, she"d already pack up baggage and come back. For more, she stayed until now!" Mrs. Feng bided for a moment, seeing that they were not to stop, and she could only raise her voice to catch their attention, "In this case, Sheng Shuihe still entered the house, right? So if you, Weiqiao, get angry now, what else do you think you"ll get except for others" mocking that you"ve lost your father"s love?"
Her words frustrated Weiqiao. She wept and said, "So according to you, I"ll have to live my life catering to the mood of a mistress"s son? What"s the fun of living such a life? I"d rather die now!"
"Sweetheart, don"t make it difficult for yourself!" Mrs. Feng heard that, and her face was frightened to pale. She held Weiqiao, cradling and sobbing, "So heartless your father is! He"s raised you up, treating you as the only baby, so how could he abandon you so easily?!"
In order to compensate her fault and redeem her mother-in-law"s good feelings about her, Mrs. Wu cried even louder than her mother-in-law, "Mr. Sheng even gave the son of a mistress a courtesy name, Hengshu, which exactly indicates that he"s always special for him, isn"t it? The b.a.s.t.a.r.d doesn"t deserve that! Our poor Weiqiao, why she gets such a father!"
"..." Seeing the four crying into another mess, Mrs. Feng kept expressionless for a moment, suddenly rolled her sleeves and smashed on the table!
The abrupt noise disturbed the four, and they stopped sobbing, staring at her in blankness.
"Mother! We"re thinking up solutions for Yinlu and Weiqiao! Even if you"re regretful for Weiqiao, cry after I finish my words, alright?!" Mrs. Feng said irritably, "And you, Weiqiao—You"re thirteen already, and several years later you"ll be married. You know that we care about you, and you still say words like go die in front of us. Aren"t you putting us heartbroken on purpose?! If you keep being so immature, even if your mother allows that, I"ll scold you!"
Seeing Sheng Weiqiao about to cry once again when hearing her words, Mrs. Feng restrained her heartache and got straight to the point, "Your father must be truly-hearted to your mother! Or he doesn"t need the help of Feng Family and Xuanyu Family. Why has Sheng Shuihe not been brought back until now? The biggest problem, for now, is not the admitted son of a mistress, but the mistress who hasn"t shown up until now!"
"Counting the age of the son of a mistress, we can see he"s born around when your father married your mother. Mother, do you remember how much he was fancied by Yinlu?"
Mrs. Zhan pondered, "He was thinking about her all the time. They were already engaged, but coming over eight times a day still seemed not enough for him. I was worried that Yinlu couldn"t control herself and was tricked by him to do something before getting married..."
"That"s it!" Mrs. Feng held back her impulse to angry and interrupted her with a high voice, "At that time Sheng Lanci was dreaming about Yinlu day and night! Under that condition, mother, do you think he would hook up with other women or even have Sheng Shuihe with her?"
"Oh... Yes!" Mrs. Zhan and others exchanged eyesight, "Then where did Sheng Shuihe come from?"
Mrs. Feng mocked coldly, "Is any explanation needed? It"s naturally because of his mother"s good scheme! Sheng Lanci isn"t a generous person. When he decides to be ruthless, everyone in the Nanfeng County would draw back. Even if we"re his relatives, we didn"t have an easy time with him when we made an alliance to suppress him in order to stop him from rising to the same level as us!"
"Sheng Shuihe"s mother could conceive his child when he was most attracted by Yinlu, gave birth to him, raise him to a grown-up and let Sheng Lanci bring him back to Family Sheng—Such a personage, even I felt astounded. Leave alone that you mother and daughter didn"t realize that before, you"re now holding grudge against Sheng Shuihe! See how stupid you are?!"
"Master is still partial to Madam and Second Miss." Seeing Sheng Weiqiao"s face turn pale when hearing those words, her maid Lvqi felt sympathetic and plucked up her courage to interrupt, "Just now Mater said when splitting the family business, he"ll let Second Miss make her choice first. Then what she doesn"t want will be left to young master!"
"Advancing by receding, I"ve seen too much of that!" Mrs. Zhan had hardly put on a cheerful face when Mrs. Feng smirked coldly without raising her eyes, "Weiqiao and Yinlu come back to their original family, crying and stirring. While on the other side, he stays calm and wise, never mentions his unfair situation, and keeps being sympathetic! As time goes on, for whom do you think Sheng Lanci will feel sorrier?"
Mrs. Zhan was so angry, and beat the table, "Then think up a solution! What are you saying all those ironic words for!"
"I"ll designate some capable people to investigate the origin of the mistress, and how she had Sheng Shuihe with Sheng Lanci!" Mrs. Feng made a response and couldn"t hold back blaming her sister and niece for being silly, "For so many years I"ve never heard that Sheng Lanci has a mistress—And a 17-year-old son appeared all in a sudden. Stupid as you, you didn"t check anything and you cause such a big scene!"
"It"s mean to say that, but what if your father gets cheated, and he"s not your brother at all? Then do you think it"s worthy of such a mess?!"
Mrs. Feng also doubted. When she got the time, she should examine whether Feng Yinlu was her real sister born by the same parents or not?!
Since she was insightful, her sister shouldn"t be so stupid!