... It was also a summer like this. The young Jiang Jingheng stood behind the door in ignorance, watching his biological mother Cao and a group of aunts being escorted to kneel in the yard.
From the time he could remember, he had never seen his biological mother with such a humble posture and fearful expression - the one who always had a beautiful smile and bright eyes in front of his father Jiang Yadan; who was arrogant and domineering in front of his aunt, Xiao Tao, as if she was the real one The biological mother of the owner of the backyard collapsed to the ground for a moment after hearing Chang's mother's indifferent announcement. The look on her face at that time was just like Princess Jingjun's at that moment!
Then-
Jiang Jingheng couldn't remember what happened next.
He only remembered that when he was shaken awake by his wet nurse sobbing, his pants were already soaked through. Cao and others were also gone. The usually bustling yard was so cold that it was scary.
The wet nurse took him from his infancy, and there was some affection for him. Even though Mrs. Cao died, she did not leave him alone, and took very careful care of the sleepy Jiang Jingheng.
Thanks to his carefree background since childhood, he finally came to his senses a few days later and wanted to ask what happened, but when he opened his mouth, he was horrified to find that he couldn't make any sound!
This frightened the wet nurse, and she quickly looked for someone to try to find medical treatment for him.
However, at that time, little Tao had already died of dystocia, Chu Yitong had not yet passed away, and there was no leader in the backyard. The most important thing was that Mrs. Zhuang's Crown Princess at the time had not even gone to Northern Xinjiang in Beijing. She knew that she hated concubines and did not like concubines. , which manager dares to get involved in this matter? !
Even after Jiang Jinghu's accidental death, Jiang Jingheng was already Jiang Yadan's de facto eldest son, but the stewards who were more afraid of angering the mothers of the four houses found various reasons to reject the wet nurse's pleas again and again!
The wet nurse could only place her hope on Jiang Yadan.
But when he heard that his mother had executed many concubines in his backyard, Jiang Yadan was afraid that he would not be able to get a favor, so he stayed outside the house for a few days before cautiously going home to hear the news... Finally looking forward to his return to the yard, the wet nurse His request for an audience was blocked by the steward. The reason was that Jiang Yadan had been ordered by his mother to cultivate his moral character in the past few days, so people in the backyard should not disturb him!
Actually—
One summer morning several years later, when Jiang Jingheng was walking alone through the lush garden, behind the dense flowers, he heard two servants muttering about his loss of voice: "Steward Lin is really brave! Mr. Tenth Grandson. Why is he the son of the Eighth Young Master? Even if he is a concubine, he is from the Jiang family! He can't talk about such a big matter, but he dares to stop reporting it to the Eighth Young Master - if it had been reported to the Eighth Young Master in time, how could the Eighth Young Master not send him away? If you go to the doctor and treat the problem in this way, maybe the tenth grandson will not be mute?"
"Hey! What do you know?! After the ninth grandson passed away, the tenth grandson was actually the eldest son! But the first eight young ladies had a hard life and finally left a legitimate son. According to the rules of our family, then The fourteenth grandson will be the head of the eighth son's branch!"
"What does this have to do with the 10th grandson? The 14th grandson was raised by the 19th grandson. The 19th young lady is so fierce. Is it possible that the 10th grandson dares to come to her to find the 14th grandson now that he is able to speak? trouble?!"
"Do you think that Young Master Fourteenth is the only legitimate son of the Eighth Young Master? He is also the legitimate son of his first wife, but he is not the eldest! And because of his fate, he cannot be raised in front of our Young Master! We have not seen each other for a long time, even if we are our biological father and son , how much love is left? When Aunt Cao was still there, the tenth grandson was the favorite of the eighth son, and the tenth grandson was more than ten years older than the fourteenth grandson. In the future, the tenth grandson would grow up. You can take charge of your own business, the Fourteenth Grandson is still a child - if the Tenth Grandson is capable again, do you think he can be a threat to the Fourteenth Grandson in the future?"
"How is it possible?! Our family is most different from the legitimate concubine! Moreover, the old lady loved the fourteenth grandson so much that she even personally executed Aunt Cao and the others... Now the nineteenth son and the nineteenth young lady who raised the fourteenth grandson, could it be that Is he easy to mess with? Didn’t he have a fight over the dowry of the Eighth Grandson before? Why should the Fourteenth Grandson be afraid of the Tenth Grandson when he grows up? For all the grievances the young lady has suffered, shall she come to him to settle the accounts?"
"What you said is really ignorant! At this old age, how long will it take for the old lady to love the fourteenth grandson? To put it bluntly, when the eighth young lady was here, didn't the old lady love her? ? But who said that the old lady is the stepmother? Our eighth son is not as close to the old lady as the nineteenth son - the old lady can reach out to us? Besides, madam, in order to prevent the master from taking concubines, the madam is so old. They are still in Northern Xinjiang, out of reach! Even if the Nineteenth Young Master and the Nineteenth Young Lady are the younger brother and sister-in-law of the Eighth Young Master, they are not his elder brother and sister-in-law. No matter how partial they are to the Fourteenth Grandson, they cannot be too obvious. ? What’s more, the tenth grandson is also of the eighth son’s blood!”
"Then... Manager Lin?"
"Are you stupid? Manager Lin's cousin is the Queen Mother Lin's female official. Who doesn't know that the Queen Mother loves the Nineteenth Young Master, and the Fourteenth Grandson also has a good life and is loved by his wife to death!"
"So, the tenth grandson is pitiful and is hated all over the house?"
"Then what can be done? Who told him that he had a bad fate and was born in his aunt's belly? But speaking of it, he is not completely unjust - if his biological mother, Aunt Cao, was not alive, she relied on her favor and bullied the eighth young lady in front of her too much. , even the Eighth Young Master's dowry was not spared, so how could the lady be so angry that she would not care about their contribution to the Jiang family's heirs, and directly ordered all of them to be executed! If you use concubines to deceive your wife, it would be a long time ago for a decent family to do so? Just drag him out and beat him to death. How can he survive until his wife returns to Beijing?"
"That's true... But Aunt Cao doesn't abide by the rules. After all, the tenth grandson is a bit innocent. So what does the tenth grandson know? Isn't it taught by Aunt Cao?"
"Don't worry about these sesame seeds and rotten millet. No matter how innocent you are, it's not our turn to be pitiful. Besides, after the Lin family was stupid and killed Ms. Lin, Manager Lin was also implicated, which is tantamount to suffering retribution... Today's Young Madam She is young and beautiful, but she is not as talkative as the young lady in front of her in the backyard... It is said that the young lady likes to drink flower dew. It is rare that the maid in front of her is lazy, so she has to collect it and send it to us. Maybe you can reward us with something?"
The servants collected flower dew and went away, leaving Jiang Jingheng standing behind the flowers for a long time - vaguely remembering that the wet nurse, after asking to see Jiang Yadan several times to no avail, took out the body that Cao gave her before, thinking He seemed to be blocked from inviting a doctor from outside the mansion. The reason was that how could the dignified Duke's mansion let random people in without the owner's permission
The wet nurse wanted to take him out of the house to seek medical treatment, but she was rejected of course: after all, he was a bloodline of the Duke's house, how could a servant carry him out just because he was asked to do so? !
In the end, the wet nurse had no choice but to kneel at the feet of Steward Lin and beg hard: "No matter what, it is the blood of the Eighth Young Master... If it is true that we will be unable to speak in the future, how can we explain it?!"
"Aunt Cao just died, after all, she was the one who gave birth to her, so how can she not have any trace of her soul?" Manager Lin's eyes were joking, and he said high-sounding words in a leisurely manner, "In that case, the tenth grandson is too heartless, isn't he?! In my opinion, isn't Young Master Tenth doing well? He can eat, drink and sleep, but he is a little quieter than before. It's nice to be quiet! It's easier for you to take care of him now that he's quiet - don't forget that Aunt Cao always instigated Young Master Tenth. Deliberately making noise in front of the young lady, if she hadn't done this too many times, how could she have made the madam so angry this time? After all, it was Aunt Cao's own fault. The reason why the tenth grandson is so quiet now is for him. The biological mother must pay off the debt so that Aunt Cao will not be able to be reborn for eight hundred years, right?"
"You... how can you say such a thing?! When Aunt Cao was here, she never shortchanged your benefits!" The wet nurse was so angry that her whole body trembled, "Do you have a conscience?! Aunt Cao will never disrespect the lost young lady, You are innocent, young lady, if you were here, you would never agree to deal with the tenth grandson like this!"
"What you said is really ridiculous. Although Aunt Cao has given me many benefits, when have I not helped her? I didn't get her for nothing! On the contrary, many of the benefits she gave me were for nothing from the young lady. Are you here? Madam, she is too soft-hearted, so she is always bullied by slaves like you!" Manager Lin leaned down slowly, looked at the wet nurse in her prime, and said with ill intentions, "Since you If you say I have no conscience, then I will have a conscience for once - according to the rules when Aunt Cao was still here, you can hire a doctor for the tenth grandson, but what benefit will you give me? "
The wet nurse subconsciously took out the package behind her: "Aunt Cao left it for me..."
Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Manager Lin: "Mother Chang didn't even take anything away when she led a team to search the house. Why are you sending me away with such junk!?"
The wet nurse hesitated: "I still have some savings outside the house..." After saying this, she screamed - Manager Lin pinched her chin frivolously and said with narrowed eyes: "Savings? I don't care about it!"
... In the end, the wet nurse turned pale and turned to call Jiang Jingheng, who was lying on the doorstep at a loss. "Master Tenth, please go back to the house first! My slave... I'm going to have a chat with Manager Lin!"
After several "talks" between the wet nurse and Manager Lin, Jiang Jingheng finally received the doctor's diagnosis, but by this time everything was too late...
Maybe it's still too late. After all, the doctor was invited by Manager Lin. Who knows whether what he said is true or false
In short, after consulting the doctor, everyone knew that the tenth grandson would never be able to speak again!
Jiang Yadan finally knew the news, and he didn't know whether it was guilt or sadness. He called him to him, comforted him with Wen Yan for a while, and rewarded him with a bunch of things - but such a warm time did not last long, "Yin Chun Tower" The newly favored oiran posted a message, and he soon left his son behind.
After seeing beauties one after another, Jiang Yadan quickly forgot about the Cao family, and even more about the son that the Cao family left behind.
The speechless Jiang Jingheng grew lonely, like the neglected plants in the corner of the garden, withering and flourishing without anyone noticing.
He is also used to this kind of neglect, growing up step by step, getting married step by step. If he hadn't been involved in the crisis this time, he would have given birth to children step by step. Like all the mediocre and underappreciated children of nobles, he would spend his time doing nothing for food and clothing. A worry-free life.
But at this moment—
The scene of Princess Jingjun falling heavily to the ground with splashes of blood caused countless familiar scenes to flash across his eyes like lightning:
The memory of that summer afternoon;
The tragedy that caused him to go from being loved to being ignored;
The wet nurse asked him to be healed again and again, but after being rejected, he went back to his room and cried helplessly;
The phrase "The tenth grandson is good, I will come back after saying a few words to Manager Lin" that he could not hear when he was a child but only realized it when he became an adult; it contained love, loyalty and bitterness and humiliation;
The scene where the wet nurse collapsed on the ground after the doctor said, "I beg your pardon for my lack of talent and lack of knowledge";
The understatement drifted over from behind the flowers, "The fourteenth grandson is loved all over the house, the tenth grandson...";
It was like a seed breaking out of the shell, like an invisible shackle being broken - Jiang Jingheng felt that all the blood in his body burned into a raging fire in an instant!
This kind of flame is called hatred!
Wrapped in such flames, his eyes that had always been blank and dull turned red, but his mind was surprisingly clear!
While everyone gathered around Princess Jingjun and urged the imperial doctor to come forward quickly to check, no one noticed that he quietly walked around behind his aunt's mother, and silently and quickly stepped onto Danqi from the side!
After all, in the passing years since he lost his voice, everyone has become accustomed to ignoring him, and it can even be said that he is ignored!
Although she was still at the top, the Crown Princess, who also frowned and paid attention to the situation of Princess Jingjun, noticed that someone was approaching her. Jiang Jingheng was already close at hand. The Crown Princess had followed the Crown Prince in Northern Xinjiang for a long time. Although she had not experienced the battlefield in person, she had Even though he was alert, he knew something was wrong just by looking at the concubine's distorted expression. He quickly stood up and backed away, shouting in a mixture of shock and anger: "Evil! What do you want to do?!"
It's just that although the Crown Princess has been with her husband in northern Xinjiang for many years and is used to seeing wars and wars, she is still a real noble lady. Now the eldest grandson has reached the time to have children. She is older and her legs and feet are not as good as when she was young. Flexible; especially when Chang’s mother had been ordered by her to go down to Danchi to check on Princess Jingjun, there was no one around her at the moment!
So after running for two steps, everyone at Danqi turned around when they heard the sound, and saw a scene that frightened them -