The conversation that night turned out to be about questioning Ms. Lin's guilt, but at some point the topic went awry. Ms. Lin changed from a defendant to a plaintiff. The above-mentioned case inexplicably changed from investigating the cause of Aunt Wei's death to one in which the elder wife persecutes the younger wife. During the incident tracking and investigation, the process changed gradually, like an antelope hanging its horns, leaving no trace. The audience was unknowingly involved. In fact, it sounded like Ms. Lin had not accused Wang of any crime. But every word she said seemed to imply something. Even Yao Yiyi, a professional who was accustomed to going to court, felt as if Wang had framed her unjustly.
Ms. Lin's self-sacrifice quickly took effect. Comrade Sheng Hong suspended the punishment measures and went to Aunt Lin's room to sit for a while the next day. Aunt Lin dismissed everyone and scooped up a small multi-colored bell from the kiln for Sheng Hong to brew. A bowl of simmering Tieguanyin, just the way Sheng Hong usually likes it. Look at Aunt Lin, who is wearing a thin moon-white silk shirt, with only a small plain silver flower twisted silk hairpin inserted into her hair. She is really pitiful, as fragile as a flower. Even though she was full of anger when she came, it has been half gone.
"Yesterday at my wife's house, I saved you some face. According to what you said, you had nothing to do with Aunt Wei's death?" Sheng Hong said coldly. After all, he is someone who has been in the officialdom. At least he still remembers himself. What are you here for?
Aunt Lin's eyes sparkled with tears: "Master gave me face, how could I not have known that today he came alone to talk to me, and I simply spread my arms and said. That Aunt Wei was begged by my wife for me, and my wife had asked her one after another before. Everyone in the house understands the reason for bringing out Aunt Xiang and Aunt Ping. It's just that the master loves me and pities me, but the wife doesn't like it. I am a weak person in this house, so I am a weak person. There is no one to talk to in the day. If I don't have some capable and reliable people around me, and I don't know how to be abused by others, I don't have to worry about myself, but I can't let Brother Feng and Sister Mo suffer. This is the time to close the door. In order to keep myself safe, I kept my identity separate from myself and kept myself safe. When Aunt Wei had an accident that night, I did have selfish motives and didn't want to pay attention to her. But you could say that I had the intention to harm her life. This is really a mouthful. Hong Lang, Hong Lang, even if I am wrong in all kinds of ways, for the sake of Brother Feng and Sister Mo, Mr. Feng even praised Brother Feng for his good reading the day before yesterday."
Sheng Hong's heart moved, but without making a sound, she picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. Aunt Lin slowly came to sit next to him, her head resting on his shoulder, and she whispered: "Hong Lang, I know you well. When I fell in love, the master swore to me that he would never let anyone bully me, so he bought a real estate shop for me in the face of my wife’s mother-in-law’s family, so that I could stand up and be a good person in the house. Hong Lang treated me with great kindness, how could I not have known that if I did such a cruel thing, I would be punished by heaven and earth, and I would not be able to die a happy death."
Her voice was gentle and charming, even when she uttered a poisonous oath, it was like speaking of love. Sheng Hong couldn't help but relax his eyebrows. Just as he was about to put his arms around Aunt Lin and give her a warm hug, he suddenly remembered what he said to Mrs. Sheng that day, so he shrunk. He reached back and pushed Aunt Lin away.
Aunt Lin had always been able to control Sheng Hong's temper. She never wanted to be pushed away. She didn't reveal anything on her face, but looked at Sheng Hong with tearful eyes. Sheng Hong looked at Aunt Lin and said in a deep voice: "Aunt Wei's matter After this has been revealed, my wife and I will order no one in the house to mention it, but from today on, there are a few things I want to make clear to you."
As he spoke, he stood in front of the Kang with his hands behind his back: "I have also experienced what happened today. I pity and love you more than you, and I forgot the words of the sage. As the saying goes, there is an order between elders and children, and there are differences between descendants. People like us don't learn from this. The merchant's family has a common wife to make it look embarrassing. No matter how bad the wife is, whether she is older or younger, you should be polite. From now on, if you remove the small kitchen, I will stop giving it to you. For your expenses, the maids and wives in your courtyard should be treated as the same as other people in the mansion. There should be no favors or favors. If you are willing to reward others, you can pay for them yourself. All matters must be done in accordance with the rules of the mansion. I think you have had a lot of care over the years, which is enough. From now on, you have to abide by the rules and greet your wife every day. If you feel unwell, you can go every other day. But in the future, ask the people in your courtyard to restrain themselves and don't do anything wrong. Madam, you are disrespectful and say some unruly nonsense. If I find out, I will kill you and sell you!"
Aunt Lin's beauty turned pale, and she felt cold in her heart. Just as she was about to defend herself, Sheng Hong continued, "I am not someone who doesn't know what happened. You and your wife have been at odds for a long time, and I will not think about you and her for a day." Sisters can be harmonious, but you should be soft first. I will not take back those properties from you. Those things will be returned to you, but you cannot assign the people in charge at will. Your two clansmen were in Quanzhou that day Drinking flowers and wine every day to entertain actors, the pomp is even greater than mine. From now on, I will have to look at the stewards you appoint and no longer recruit those unscrupulous talents. They will not ruin the reputation of my Sheng family!...Brother Feng Please stay with me and raise Sister Mo. If you really thought about your children, you wouldn't have done it this bad. Now just think more about those two children."
Aunt Lin had a lot to say, but she was speechless when she heard Sheng Hong's last words. She knew that this meant that Sheng Hong wanted to continue to be an official, and if he wanted to have a good official reputation, he could not allow others to grasp his personal ethics. What Sheng Hong just said was to make her a low-income child, but he didn't strip her of her property or separate her children. This is the bottom line. After all, she had a lot to do with Aunt Wei's death this time. , it is a great blessing to be able to solve the case like this. She is a smart person and knows when to give up when things are good. Even though she is unwilling to accept it, she can only grit her teeth and endure it, and instead gathers her energy to be gentle with Sheng Hong.
Sheng Hong lingered on Aunt Lin's soft jade for a long time, and then went straight to the Wang family's main room. There was still a tough battle to be fought.
When he came to Wang's room, he still dismissed the servants, leaving only the couple talking in the inner room. After he explained what he had just said to Aunt Lin, Wang's face was filled with anger: "Your darling, when will I If you dare to say anything, you can do whatever you want, how dare I not say anything!"
Sheng Hong took a deep breath: "Don't look at me. I don't know. I only want to ask you three questions. First, my uncle's family is free from illness and disaster. Why did you wait in the hospital if you didn't go early or late?" A few days before my aunt gave birth, she took me there? Secondly, there are four women in the house who know how to deliver babies, and three of them are from you. Who do they take orders from? You know better than me. Second Third, how could I come back home by such a coincidence and see Aunt Wei for the last time?"
Mrs. Wang was slightly startled, but she said calmly: "If you never do anything bad in your life, no one will come if you knock on the door in the middle of the night! When I left that day, I asked a doctor to check Aunt Wei's pulse. She was obviously fine. That doctor is Dr. Liao, whom I trust most. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him yourself. He said that Aunt Wei had been working all year round before she got married, and she was in good health. Even if she didn’t have a stable mother-in-law, she could have given birth on her own. But as soon as I left, However, Aunt Lin put some cold things into Aunt Wei's food every three days, which caused Aunt Wei's childbirth to be difficult. Aunt Lin has a lot of money, and she has all the people inside and outside, even if my dowry mother-in-law doesn't listen. Isn't there no one available to her? It's obvious that she is eloquent and the master listens to her. There are so many Wen Pos in Quanzhou City. It took her several hours to call her. Even if she wasn't She had the intention, but it was the indulgence of her subordinates! Huh, I stood up straight, even if there were some fancy tricks, I just wanted to see how Aunt Lin would deal with it. If she had no intention of harming others, Aunt Wei would be unstoppable. Of course, you can give birth to your baby safely just by staying in the courtyard."
Sheng Hong did not refute, but nodded repeatedly: "I have already found out what happened inside. The Lin family has a lot to do with this matter, but if she really wants to kill someone, it doesn't matter. I can only say that Wei My aunt is very unlucky, so I got it right by chance. Those dowry wives of yours have always been at odds with the Lin family, and they didn’t mean to delay it. The matter has come to this, but if it doesn’t work out, can I really kill Aunt Lin to save my life? Then? If two children are resentful, how can the family be peaceful?"
Wang was angry, turned away and ignored Sheng Hong, angrily picked up the handkerchief and twisted it.
Sheng Hong sat next to Mrs. Wang and persuaded softly: "I have made my wife wronged in the past few years. Don't worry, madam. From now on, I will no longer indulge Aunt Lin. You are older and she is younger. You She is the wife whom I, the Ming matchmaker, hired with three letters and six gifts. She will share the incense of the ancestral hall with me in a hundred years. She, Mrs. Lin, will never be able to get past you even if the world is turned upside down. She should send you my greetings. Fetch water and serve.”
Mrs. Wang was overjoyed and turned around with a smile: "Are you willing to part with it?"
Sheng Hong simply put his arms around Wang's waist and stroked her gently: "There is nothing to be reluctant to do. Everything should be done with the Sheng family in mind. No matter how serious Aunt Lin is, can she put more emphasis on the dignity of the whole family? Madam, you should set out everyone's rules. , you also have to remember your own rules. If you don’t stand upright first, how can you make others obey? The old lady..."
Wang's body was half soft after being touched by him a few times. She hadn't been so close to Sheng Hong for a long time, and her heart was full of tenderness: "I know I have shortcomings, don't worry, as long as she abides by the rules, I will do it myself." I won’t bully her, and I won’t make her temperamental and angry with the master anymore. The children are so old, am I still jealous of her?”
Sheng Hong touched Mrs. Wang and his tone softened a lot, so he kept up his efforts, hugging Mrs. Wang and blowing gently in her ear. The teasing Ms. Wang's face turned red and her breath was hot: "My good wife, you are our lady. , we know that the family tradition is not stable, but now we should look forward. Sister Hua is about to get her haircut. This means that the marriage is just around the corner. If something bad happens in our family, what will happen? Didn't I implicate Sister Hua? Hua'er is my first-born daughter, and she is a legitimate child. I am still thinking of finding a good son-in-law for her, so that I can show off the majesty of my father-in-law."
Mrs. Wang smiled brightly when she heard this, and became more and more obedient: "What the master said is true, and I will listen to the master."
Classmate Yao Yiyi was lying in the cubicle. She finally drank a bowl of fragrant shredded chicken and japonica rice porridge yesterday for the first time. She was somewhat energetic today. She lay on the soft couch and couldn't sleep. She was embarrassed again because she heard everything the couple said.
Well, how do you say this?
The chaos in the Sheng Mansion stems from the rise of Aunt Lin. It cannot but be said that Aunt Lin gave up being a wife outside and preferred to be an aunt because she saw the right people and served them food. She was not the confused Second Sister You. She found Sheng Hong because she knew that he was an independent man who was not controlled by his wife. She also knew about Sheng Hong's miserable life as a concubine in his early years, and used this as an entry point to win an undefeated position for herself in the Sheng Mansion. place.
Yao Yiyi felt that there was no need to blame Father Sheng Hong. She could only say that a man's forgiveness of his lover was unprincipled, but his respect for his wife who had no love was conditional. Although an educated feudal scholar-official like Sheng Hong abided by etiquette and law, , but as a pursuing and educated young bureaucrat, he still has a need for emotions after all. For him, Wang's marriage can be regarded as an arranged marriage, but if two people manage it carefully after the marriage, an arranged marriage can also give birth to a deeply affectionate couple. The beloved couple came, but it was a pity that Wang made some mistakes in this. But to Sheng Hong, Aunt Lin was the result of free love. Without everyone knowing, the two of them were secretive and secretive, and the more suppressed they became. The stronger the emotion, the more likely Sheng Hong was sincerely moved at that time.
Xu Zhimo's affectionate treatment of Lin Huiyin and Lu Xiaoman, and his cold and cruel treatment of Zhang Youyi, I can't believe that they are the same person. Compared with Xu Dacaizi, Sheng Hong is quite restrained.
It should be that Aunt Lin has good vision and even better luck. Sheng Hong is not a cowardly and dim Jia Lian. He has risen from a concubine to his current status. He knows very well that there are only two areas where concubines are bullied by the main wife, daily life and child support. , so he did nothing but give Aunt Lin an independent source of income. Once he had money, the rocker was naturally straightened, and he took the lead in breaking the rules and insisted on letting Aunt Lin raise the children by herself.
But in this way, the rules disappeared. As time went by, Aunt Lin gave birth to children, and Mrs. Wang could not emotionally bring her husband back. Aunt Lin's status became more and more stable, and she began to cultivate her own The cronies gradually began to compete with the Wang family. From the inside to the outside of the Sheng Mansion, two factions gradually formed, and the war became more and more intense. Yao Yiyi's current biological mother, Aunt Wei, was in this situation of confrontation between wives and concubines. Innocent cannon fodder.
"Gu Liang Zhuan" says: Don't be a concubine or a wife. That is to say, a concubine is not qualified to be a wife. A man who has a concubine but no wife can still be considered unmarried. And if the legitimate wife dies, even if the husband has a house full of concubines , he is also a widower without a wife and wants to find another good family to marry his legitimate wife.
But rules are dead and people are alive. Moreover, these are just rules, not laws, so it is not that there are no fish that slip through the net. For example, there are lucky concubines like Jiao Xing who were corrected. Although there are not many such examples, Not without.
Yao Yiyi studied law. She knew that, in essence, the laws of feudal society protected the rights and interests of men. Once all the interests of men were attributed to women other than the main wife, the main wife would always abdicate in favor of a worthy person. This happened, which is very sad, but not much better. The unlucky classmate Chen Shimei was hit by Grandpa Bao, not because he stopped his wife and remarried, but because he committed a homicide. Men who commit bigamy will not be beheaded. Of course, in ancient times when ethics were strict, if someone like Sheng Hong wanted to advance to a higher level in his official career, he could not lose his reputation because of this.
In the first few years, Sheng Hong ignored Aunt Lin and was deeply in love with Aunt Lin, unwilling to go ashore. However, after all, he was a rational feudal scholar-official, not a poet of the Republic of China whose mission was to break through the shackles of feudalism. His enthusiasm for Aunt Lin would eventually come to an end. It subsided, and the intervention of Wang's natal family accelerated this speed.
The Wang family worked hard and came up with a honey trap. This trick is not new, but it is effective. From ancient times to the present, it has been tried and tested by the court and the people. But I did not expect that Aunt Lin was extremely powerful in combat, and she was beaten by several very powerful people in succession. Even though the pretty girl showed off her face, she couldn't win Sheng Hong back. After all, Aunt Lin was from an official family and had a beautiful face. When she and Sheng Hong talked about poems and songs, even the Wang family couldn't get in the conversation, let alone a few of them. Girl.
So Wang took a different approach and found Wei, a commoner woman who was in trouble. Although she did not have a good literary education, she had the most direct and immediately visible advantage of any woman, beauty.
Sure enough, a thousand pounds of true love is not worth four ounces of breasts. Sheng Hong was fascinated as soon as he saw Mr. Wei. She can't read, it doesn't matter, he will teach her. She doesn't know poetry, calligraphy and painting, it doesn't matter, he will teach her, and her ears and temples will be rubbed with red sleeves to add fragrance. , which is not a happy thing; coupled with Wei's gentle and kind temperament, Sheng Hong really fell in love with her.
Aunt Lin was anxious now. All she relied on was Sheng Hong's favor. How could she allow others to snore on the side of the bed? She would never allow anyone to step into her territory. She wanted to torment Aunt Wei, but she didn't want to at first. She just wanted to kill the fetus, and it would be better to destroy her body as well.
But Aunt Wei was so careful that she died immediately.
The death of Aunt Wei made Sheng Hong suddenly wake up. Even though he did not have the same affection for Aunt Lin, he was still the woman he had slept with. Seeing her die in a pool of blood, Sheng Hong finally realized the conflicts within the family. It has been intensified. As an official who has always allowed his faults to go unchecked, how could Sheng Hong not understand that Aunt Wei's death was actually the result of the corruption of the rules in the mansion.
The fierce struggle between wives and concubines made Sheng Hong shudder, so he made up his mind to rectify the situation. To restore good family hierarchy rules, he had to give up his excessive preference for Aunt Lin, climb out of the sea of love, and stand upright and fair from the perspective of the patriarch. Management in the family.
But even so, he still didn't dare to leave Aunt Lin and her child completely in Wang's hands. He knew that the rift between the two women might not be smoothed over in a day or two.
Wang basically got what she wanted this time. Even if she still couldn't compete with Aunt Lin in love, she at least gained the status of the only mistress in the family. The first wife was always wary of concubines, especially those who When facing the concubine, I feel even more critical. Just like Daiyu said, either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east wind.
Baoyu's mother's indifferent attitude towards Aunt Zhao is based on the huge disparity in strength between the two. One is the noble Wang family, and the other is a slave whose entire family is not even a free person. She is still the son of the family.
The reason why Wang Xifeng is so afraid of Second Sister You but does not take Qiu Tong seriously is because Second Sister You is a concubine, and she has been married for many years and has not given birth to a son even in her twenties. It was a crime of seven, and there was no reason not to take concubines. It was just because of the support of her mother's family that no one talked about her. Once the second sister You gave birth to a son, not only would he replace her, but at least her status would be jeopardized, so of course As soon as Wang Xifeng heard about Sister You, she immediately took out her sword.
The dispute between wives and concubines is a very complicated proposition, involving wisdom, perseverance, courage, family background, personal character, and of course luck. Various factors play a role in it. It can only be said that the advantage is basically on the side of the wife, concubine. Even if there is room for the second wife's grandmother in the room, the possibility of breaking out of the siege and being rescued is still not high.
There are so many unlucky women in the entire Dream of Red Mansions, but only one Jiao Xing has such good luck. It is unclear whether Ping'er and Xiang Ling were corrected later. Even if they were corrected, Xue Pan and Jia Lian were in ruins. Doesn't it count? What a great thing.
And this poor Aunt Wei was just one of many unlucky concubines. Her death was like a tiny wave in the sea. Although it caused some commotion, it was eventually silenced. After that, Sheng For the sake of family dignity, the Hong and Wang family changed the servants and servants in the house one by one, but of course Aunt Lin herself would not mention it. Gradually, no one in the Sheng family mentioned the death of Aunt Wei anymore, and few people even knew about the beautiful woman who died tragically. A timid woman.
When Yao Yiyi thought of this, she no longer had the will to live. She neither had a powerful aunt to be her biological mother, nor was she a legitimate mother. Her status in the Sheng Mansion would be very delicate in the future. Her reincarnation this time was really worthless and inferior.
It's better than good, but it's worse than good. It's very inadequate compared to the previous one, but not much more than the inferior one.
How can we live well in this world? Sheng Minglan, who was five and almost six years old, began to think seriously about survival issues.