Xinglin Hutong is not as chaotic as everyone imagines.
Except for the male servant on duty at the gate, all the others in the outer courtyard had disappeared. The maids and old women on duty in the inner courtyard all hid in the corners. In the study room of the inner courtyard, Cheng Xu and Yuan stood facing each other, one with a cold face and the other with cold eyes. The atmosphere was like a dark cloud covering the sky and was very depressing.
There was wind blowing outside the yard, and the white magnolia planted at the door rustled. The crystal clear petals swayed in the wind, and the spring was in full swing.
Yuan threw the ruler in her hand with a snap, tears rolling down her cheeks: "What a sin I have committed! I carried you for ten months and brought you up with great difficulty. I finally passed the imperial examination and became the first in the imperial examination. Now, at the most important step, you passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. Aren't you trying to kill me? But you are my son, what can I do? Fine, I will bear it. Instead of studying hard at home and passing the imperial examination, you actually told me that you would not participate in the imperial examination. Pull? Are you worthy of me? Are you worthy of the Cheng family's cultivation of you? Are you worthy of your grandmother's expectations of you? Are you worthy of your father's expectations of you? I just have a cat or a dog, and it knows to bark at my bedside when I feel uncomfortable? What about you? For so many years, what have you done besides competing with me and making me angry? If I had known this would happen, why would I seek medical treatment or ask for medicine? I might as well have strangled you to death from the beginning! It would have saved me from being embarrassed today and not being able to go out with shame!"
Cheng Xu said nothing, but knelt down slowly in front of Yuan, whispering, "Mother, I am sorry for bringing shame to you. Just pretend that you have never given birth to a son like me! I have already been to the Minister of Personnel, Wang, and he promised to help me find a job outside the capital after the examination for the title of Scholar-in-Chief..."
"Shut up!" Yuan looked around and picked up the ruler, but she still wanted Cheng Xu to change his mind, so she didn't hit him like she did before. "Are you trying to kill me?"
Cheng Xu, however, pretended not to see it, lowered his eyelids, and spoke to himself: "Mother is in good health now, and father is also in a successful period of his career. It just so happens that my second sister will be in Beijing to accompany my second brother-in-law to study in the next few years. After I am sent out, there will be someone to take care of mother and father. In a few years, when I am old, you and father will also be old, I will take you two elders to reunite with me and show my filial piety to you..."
Yuan jumped up.
It’s not too hard, and it’s not too soft!
What on earth is he going to do
"You unfilial son! If you don't take the examination for the title of Shujishi, I will sue you for disobedience!" Yuan said angrily, and spoke without thinking.
Cheng Xu heard a flash of sadness in his eyes and whispered, "Mom, you are always like this. From childhood to adulthood, whenever I don't listen to you, you either threaten me that you will tell my father and let him teach me a lesson; or coax me into buying the pens, inkstones, and even kites and double sixes I want. Haven't you ever thought about listening to me and telling me what I want to do? Or don't threaten or coax me, and talk to me properly?"
Yuan looked at Cheng Xu in astonishment.
Cheng Xu lowered her voice even more, and said, "It was like this when you asked me to study, it was like this when you asked me to take the first place in the exams and the top scorer in the exams, and it was like this when I got married... You are my mother, how can a son not listen to his mother? Can't you talk to me properly and stop shouting about fighting and killing all the time?"
Yuan looked at Cheng Xu in shock, as if she saw him for the first time, and murmured, "You are blaming me! You didn't pass the exam and you are blaming me..."
"Mom!" Cheng Xu said helplessly, "I don't blame you! It's my fault that I didn't pass the exam to become the top scholar. What does it have to do with you? How could I blame you? I just don't want you to always use this and that as excuses. In the end, you just want me to win the top three places and bring honor to you. It's nothing. It's also a respectable thing for a son to bring honor to his mother..."
Yuan simply couldn't listen and shouted, "If you don't blame me, why don't you take the exam for the Imperial College?" At this point, she grabbed Cheng Xu's hand and said humbly, "Jia Xi, please listen to me this time, okay? As long as you pass the Imperial College exam, I will never interfere in your affairs again, okay? I will keep my word..."
Cheng Xu closed his eyes in pain.
I promised you this time, and there will be a next time.
I say this every time.
In fact, he would never rest until he fulfilled his mother's wishes.
Only this time, his mother hit him.
Is it because he knows that words no longer have any effect on him
Is it just like what my fourth uncle said, if you pass the imperial examination, you can do a lot of things.
He didn't want to stay in the capital anymore.
From time to time, I see Zhou Shaojin's bright smiling face filled with happiness.
The cautiousness and vigilance I felt when I was with him were like two different people.
It hurt his heart deeply.
He felt that the air in the capital was depressing.
He wanted to leave here and never think about all that love, hate, and vengeance again.
Like a man, be a local official and work for the welfare of the people.
Maybe, he can slowly vent all the pain in his heart.
He calmed down.
"Mom!" Cheng Xu stopped her, "Please stop talking. I have made up my mind. I will not participate in the selection of Shujishi and will be sent out to serve as an official. Please listen to me this time..."
"Jiashan, Jiashan!" Yuan begged Cheng Xu bitterly, "You can't do this! Do you know that if you don't pass the exam to become a scholar, you can't enter the Hanlin Academy, you can't observe politics in the six ministries, no matter how capable you are, no matter how powerful you are, you can't become a university scholar. Just like your fourth uncle, such a smart and capable person, in the end he could only work in the Censorate, and finally became a second-rank left and right governor's historian. You can't make the same mistake as him!"
Even so, what's wrong with that
Cheng Xu said secretly in his heart.
Having a gentle and lovely wife and a smart and clever son, is there anything better in the world than this
Cheng Xu remained unmoved.
Seeing his indifferent look, Yuan became furious and asked, "What do you mean?"
Cheng Xu begged her: "I'm already grown up, please don't interfere in my affairs!"
"Are you resenting my control over you?" Yuan's eyes widened, looking at her son's expression which was both sad and shocked. "But if it weren't for me, would you be where you are today? As soon as you could speak, I started to teach you how to recognize words. As soon as you could hold chopsticks, I taught you how to write. When you took the prefectural examination, I waited outside the door for you to come out; when you took the provincial examination, I traveled all the way from the capital to get you contemporary essays. But you, on the other hand, gave me a cold shoulder, got angry with me, and distanced yourself from me just because of Zhou Shaojin, and what happened in the end? Not only did you lose the title of Sanyuan Jidi, but you even had to be exiled? Did a donkey kick your brain? No, are you still thinking about that Zhou Shaojin..."
"Mom! Have you had enough of this?" Cheng Xu was slightly angry. "You're talking about me, why mention others? We should all live our own lives. Do you think it's fun to say this? Don't you think this family is messy enough?"
His words angered Yuan.
"Okay! I knew you were still thinking about her!" The anger that had been suppressed in her heart since Zhou Shaojin married Cheng Chi erupted like a volcano. She said bitterly, "No wonder you didn't listen to me? No wonder you hate me? It turns out it's all because of her! Since we have come to this point today, I will tell you the truth. From the beginning to the end, I never planned to let Zhou Shaojin be my daughter-in-law. The reason why I promised you that as long as you take the provincial examination well, I would help you marry Zhou Shaojin as you wished was just to steady you and let you take the provincial examination well. She is a woman who brings bad luck to her father and mother. Don't even think about being my daughter-in-law..."
Cheng Xu thought of the time when he fell down as a child and was gently held in his mother's arms to comfort him, the time when his mother sat beside him with a smile and watched him trace his homework, the time when he woke up in the middle of the night and saw his mother correcting his homework under the lamp... He covered his chest in pain.
It's not that he didn't have doubts at first, and it's not that he didn't want to question his mother, but as his grandmother said, things have come to this point, if he continues to make a fuss, it will only cause the Cheng and Min families to turn against each other, and make it difficult for Zhou Shaojin to live. Besides, seriously speaking, this matter is all his fault. If he wasn't so self-righteous, if he wasn't so cowardly, how could he and Zhou Shaojin be so incompatible
But he didn't expect that when his mother said this, he still felt pain as if he was being cut by a knife.
"Mom, please stop talking!" Cheng Xu said with a pale face, "Are you trying to ruin the reputation of the Cheng family? Are you trying to force me to death? Are you trying to get the censors to impeach my father? Do you think that letting this matter spread all over the streets will satisfy your wishes?"
Yuan wanted to say something but stopped.
Min Jia turned around with a look of horror, pulled his wet nurse and hurried out of the main courtyard. He stopped under the pomegranate tree behind the house before his legs went weak and he sat on the stone bench under the tree.
It turned out that... Yuan had deceived Cheng Xu. On one hand, she said that as long as Cheng Xu could pass the imperial examination, she would help him to marry Zhou Shaojin. On the other hand, she sent people to the Min family in Fujian to propose marriage!
Her face suddenly turned red, and she couldn't tell whether it was more out of shame or anger.
How can you be so shameless!
Not only did it harm her, it also harmed Zhou Shaojin and Cheng Xu!
If it weren't for the fact that the servants around Yuan didn't dare to get close to her and asked her to go and see if she could help to mediate, she probably wouldn't have known what had happened in her life!
How did she end up with such a mother-in-law
Min Jia was flustered and it took her a long time to calm down. Once she calmed down, she repeatedly and seriously warned her nurse: "You must not let a single word of this happen, otherwise the Cheng family will be finished, the master will be finished, and we will be finished too!"
My nephew and my aunt are having an affair... No family can afford such a scandal!
Her nurse was also in a state of shock and swore: "If I let out a single sound, I will be struck by lightning and my whole family will die miserably!"
Only then did Min Jia feel certain.
I suddenly felt some sympathy for Cheng Xu.
With a mother like this, no matter how good your future is, it will be ruined!
At first, she was angry at Cheng Xu for not being sensible, so when the maids came to ask her to do something, she was really prepared to persuade him. Now it seems that it is better to be sent away, so as not to be killed by her unreasonable mother-in-law.
※
Hey guys, today's update.
O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)