Chapter 166 Grandmother
for keppra+
That old lady was the old lady Chen Afu had seen at the Yuqilin Silver Building in Dingzhou - Chen Shiying's mother.
The day before yesterday, Chen Afu specially pulled shopkeeper Luo to talk for a while, asking about Chen Shiying's family. Her reason is that only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you take precautions.
Manager Luo felt the same way, so he told everything he knew about the Chen family without reservation.
Chen Shiying had a wife and two concubines. His wife was Jiang, and they had a daughter and a son. The second daughter is born, her maiden name is Chen Yuqing, she is thirteen years old. Son Chen Yulan, eleven years old, is also Chen Shiying’s only son. Tang is a noble concubine who has a daughter named Chen Yuhui. There is another concubine, Aunt Lu, who was once a girl of the Jiang family. She has a daughter who is only seven years old this year, named Chen Yuxia.
Back then, it was Aunt Tang's father who took a fancy to Chen Shiying. When Chen Shiying was still in Shi'an Mansion, the provincial capital, he found Chen Shiying's younger brother, who is now Zhao Lizheng.
I don’t know what Father Tang and Zhao Li told Mrs. Chen, nor how they forced Mrs. Wang to agree to return to her parents’ home. After returning to her parents' home, her stepmother Ding forced Wang to get married within half a decade. Not only did Wang agree, but she also took the initiative to choose Chen Ming, who was about to die... Fortunately, Wang chose Chen Ming, because Ding had already found the next house. If no one wanted Wang anymore, she would sell her. To a foot trader from Lingnan...
I don’t know how much money the Tang family gave to Zhao Lizheng and Ding. Anyway, within the next year, the Zhao Lizheng family purchased 200 acres of land and successfully deposed Yuan Lizheng, who became Lizheng. Ding not only purchased ten acres of land, but also renovated the thatched house into a large tile-roofed house...
More than half a month later, when Chen Shiying returned to her hometown, she learned that Chen's mother had driven away the Wang family and had orally married the Tang family. She was furious. I ran to Wang's parents' house to take her back, but by then Wang had already married another woman. Chen Shiying didn't want to do anything to her mother, but she angered the Tang family and was determined not to marry the Tang family. Chen's mother also threatened her son with death, forcing her son to marry the Tang family.
At this time, Mr. Jiang, who was then the magistrate of Xiangzhou, Hu'an Province, asked Mr. Wu, who was the magistrate of Sanqing County in the same year, to arrange a marriage for his second daughter, Jiang Xiaoyu. When Chen's mother heard that she was the daughter of the magistrate, she was overjoyed. Instead of forcing her son to marry the Tang family, she agreed to marry a girl from the Jiang family instead.
After weighing the pros and cons, Chen Shiying also felt that marrying a daughter from the Jiang family would be of great help to his career. Besides, Wang was already married to someone else, so she agreed to marry the Jiang family.
Perhaps Chen's mother had done something that the Tang family had figured out, and Chen Shiying finally agreed to take the Tang family's daughter as a concubine. The Tang family knew that they were a merchant family and could not compete with the official family, so they settled for the next best thing and agreed that their daughter should be a concubine, but she must be a noble concubine.
Therefore, the Chen family used the sudden extra money to buy a four-bedroom house in Sanqing County. Three months later, the beautiful wives and concubines entered the Chen family one after another... After that, Chen Shiying went to the capital to take the exam, and unexpectedly became a blockbuster and was appointed by the Holy Emperor as the Tanhua Lang...
Chen Afu said in disbelief, "Chen Shiying was just a poor man at that time. How could Mr. Jiang tolerate him taking a concubine at the same time?"
Manager Luo added, "I heard that Mr. Jiang's second daughter, who is now Mrs. Chen, killed two fiancés before. In addition, she is mediocre in appearance and has not been hired out at the age of seventeen. The whole family is very worried. Anxious. When Mr. Chen was taking the imperial examination in Shi'an Mansion, Mr. Jiang happened to be in Shi'an Mansion. After meeting him, Mr. Jiang asked Mr. Wang, his colleague, to find out if Chen Juren was not married and his character was good. Just help me talk it over..."
He also said that Mrs. Chen's reputation was not bad. Although she was plain in appearance, she was dignified and virtuous. She was on par with the handsome and handsome Chen Tanhua. Because the Chen family had few heirs, they even took the initiative to give their own girl as an aunt to Mr. Chen...
Mrs. Chen's father, Mr. Jiang, is also considered to have a prosperous official career, and is now serving as a third-rank Taipusi minister in the capital.
…
Chen Afu gathered his wandering thoughts and walked towards the house.
Old Mrs. Chen wears a dark brown jacquard brocade long cotton robe, a pea green skirt, a pair of jasper hairpins on her off-white hair, and a pine flower-colored beaded forehead. Her thin lips pursed into a thin line, making her nasolabial folds appear deeper and more serious and powerful.
Sitting next to her was a girl about fourteen years old, whom she had also seen at the Silver Tower. She should be the eldest daughter of the Chen family, the fourteen-year-old Chen Yuhui, the daughter of Aunt Tang.
Below Chen Yuhui, sat a woman with a head full of pearls. This woman is about thirty years old and should be Aunt Tang.
Aunt Tang is not ugly, and can be said to be quite pretty. However, Chen Yuhui inherited it from another generation and did not inherit the good looks of his parents, especially Mrs. Chen. She has a long face, small triangular eyes slightly raised upward, and the corners of her mouth are droopy. Even if she wears makeup and looks very glamorous, she can still be considered a middle-aged person.
There were two people standing behind the old lady, one was a woman in her forties and the other was a teenage girl.
Chen Afu ignored the few people standing there and asked Chen Mingdao directly, "Dad, are you okay?"
Chen Ming stood up and walked to Chen Afu and whispered, "Dad is fine, um..."
An extremely majestic voice sounded, it was Mrs. Chen. She frowned and said, "Afu, you don't know how to salute when you see me. Then how did Wang teach you?"
Chen Afu ignored the old lady and whispered to Chen Ming, "Dad, don't be nervous. My daughter is here and everything is fine." Then he asked softly in his ear, "Where is my mother?"
Chen Ming glanced in the direction of the bedroom, which meant that Wang was in the bedroom.
Chen Afu nodded, she was not willing to let Mrs. Wang be humiliated by Mrs. Chen in front of her.
After that, Chen Afu turned his head to the old lady and said, "My parents taught me very well. Others praised me for my talent and beauty, and my kindness and good character."
The others all curled their lips when they heard this.
The old lady was so angry that she choked and wanted to curse, but when she thought of the purpose of today, she suppressed her anger. She said, "Afu, do you know who I am?"
Chen Afu said, "This is the first time I see you, how can I know who you are."
The old lady said again, "No wonder you don't know, this is the first time we meet. I am the mother of Chen Shiying, the governor of Dingzhou, and your grandmother. Afu, you should call me grandma." After saying this, the expression on her face became charitable.
In her opinion, a girl from a poor family would be overjoyed when she first knew her origin, and would kowtow to her immediately to acknowledge her ancestors... When she saw the little girl who came in, she was also surprised that her appearance was 80% similar to her son. I was too impatient at the beginning. If such a good-looking girl had been paired with a peasant, it would have been a waste of such a good piece.