CH 4.1

"Hey, had you heard that the one in the Anyang Houfu was married."

Fanhualou, the largest restaurant in Shengjing, had a lot of customers every day, and was one of the favorite places of the people in Shengjing.

But it was not about how delicious the food and wine were in Fanhualou, but because they liked the gossip that spread from here.

They didn't know how many news came to Fanhualou every day, and how many news were passed out from Fanhualou. If you had nothing to do and squat at the gate of Fanhualou for a while, you would be able to chat with your neighbors about some heavy gossips for a long time after you went back.

But today, as soon as Fanhualou opened, the topic of the gossip was settled, and it was all about the eldest son of the Anyang Houfu.

Someone started, and someone immediately answered, "Who doesn't know about that, now everyone in Shengjing knows that the eldest son of Anyang Houfu who likes to seduce men had married General Wei as Chongxi instead of his younger sister."

"That scourge, it's a good thing to be married, at least he can calm down and doesn’t seduce men everywhere. It's a pity that General Wei, who devoted himself to defend the border for Dayue, and now he was seriously injured, had to marry a notorious man. It's a pity, it's a pity."

"It's just a chongxi. When General Wei wakes up, he will divorce him and marry again, not to mention that the man from the Anyang Houfu is not what he wants to marry."

At this level, someone quickly asked curiously , "What do you say?" 

“I heard that the man from the Anyang Houfu was forcibly tied to the sedan chair after being knocked out. Didn't that man's mother die since he was a child, and his father married a stepmother? This stepmother doesn't like him. She doesn't want his daughter to marry General Wei, and she doesn't want to leave this eldest son as an eyesore in the house, and competed with her two sons for the position of the eldest son, so she just married him off. I heard that, she didn’t give him any dowry, let the eldest son lose his life in the general’s mansion.”

"It's not just the dowry. I heard that she didn't even give him any clothes. It can be seen that the stepmother is also a vicious person."

Anyang Houfu

"Have you found out where the news came from?"

Fanhualou's hot news , the people in Shengjing knew it, and the Anyang Houfu naturally knew it too.

Zhao Qiuru, Mrs. Jiang of the Anyang Houfu sat on a chair with a cold face and asked the maid in front of her. There were fragments of teacups on the ground, obviously just out of breath.     

The maid answered cautiously, "It came from the General's Mansion."

"The General's Mansion?" Zhao Qiuru raised her voice, "It was passed on by that little bastard Jiang Lin?"

“When he offered the tea to the Wei family, he only accepted the gift and didn't return it, and it was passed on to the madam somehow."

"

idiot! It's clear that it's the trick of that little bastard. It's all right. How could the servants of the general's mansion go outside and say anything about the little bastard? The purpose of that little bastard is to attract people to me and Anyang Houfu!!" Zhao Qiuru glared and scolded the maid sharply.

"I think you are an idiot!" Just as Zhao Qiuru finished speaking, a voice suddenly sounded outside the door.

Zhao Qiuru raised her eyes and saw that it was the Anyang Hou who had returned from court.

"Master Hou..." Zhao Qiuru got up and greeted him.

The Anyang Hou didn't give Zhao Qiuru a good look, "Who asked you to use the dowry? Do you know how the colleagues asked me when they went to court today?"

"Ask the Anyang Houfu, change his daughter with his son to be chongxi, is it just to steal the dowry from the general's mansion?, and ask the Anyang Houfu if they can't even afford to give a piece of clothing, and let the married son pick up other people's old clothes, you, a stupid woman, had lost all of Anyang Houfu’s face."

Zhao Qiuru's expression turned embarrassing because of Anyang Hou's shameless words, but it only changed into a pitiful and aggrieved look for a moment, "Master Hou, is that why you don’t want this concubine?"

[妾qiè: concubine; I, your servant (deprecatory self-reference for women)]

Zhao Qiuru was only a few years younger than the Anyang Hou, but Zhao Qiuru had a good face, and she was still pretty after thirty, and because she had been a woman for many years, she was more charming and capable. Captivated the eyes of Anyang Hou.

The Anyang Hou liked Zhao Qiuru and she suit him the most. Seeing her like this, his attitude suddenly softened a lot, "I said that you did something wrong, and you had to deduct the dowry. This is all the face of the Anyang Hou, you go outside and listen to what those people are saying about our Houfu?"

"The dowry is originally prepared for Yue'er, and I thought that Lin'er is a man, so even if he gets married, he can't be treated like a woman, it's too humiliating. It’s just some money, and it’s not that the concubine didn’t give him the dowry.”

Anyang Hou: “Did you really give the dowry?”

“Does Master Hou not believe in concubine? For master Hou, concubine have given birth to children and presided over Zhongkui for the Houfu for so many years. Does master Hou not believe in concubine just because of a dowry? " Zhao Qiuru said while covering her eyes with a handkerchief, and cried.

[中 馈 Zhongkui: means all the things do to provide food at home]

After crying, Anyang Hou's heart was completely softened, and he quickly hugged her into his arms, "I believe you, how could I not believe you, but the words outside are not pleasant, so I asked." It still needed to be resolved. The general's mansion had a clear attitude. They deliberately let the servants spread the word, and what they spread was the truth. If the matter was not dealt with, the Anyang Houfu may make people laughed for a long time.

The most important thing was in the palace, letting Jiang Lin marry to replace his daughter was a violation of the imperial decree, although there was a reason for it, but if the emperor knew their attitude towards Jiang Lin, he was afraid that he would be unhappy.