The First Phoenix

Shi Anxia's seemingly casual words deeply touched the heart of Old Madam Shi.

She is the stepmother of the Hou family. She has only one son, Chengxuan, and two other daughters.

In the Marquis's Mansion, the old Marquis has four sons.

The eldest son, Shi Chengyi, was born to my first wife, the second son was Shi Chengxuan, and the third and fourth sons were both born to concubines.

In his early years, the old marquis wanted to ask for the title of Crown Prince for his eldest son so that he could inherit the title naturally.

The old lady was anxious at that time, so she thought of a way to make him fall ill before he could even enter the palace to ask for the title, and he was bedridden for more than half a year.

For more than half a year, Mrs. Shi stayed by the bedside in undressed clothes, and Shi Chengxuan also behaved actively.

Old Madam Shi kept nagging the old marquis, saying that his eldest son Shi Chengyi was always out drinking and eating meat, spending his days in luxury and never coming home, and she didn't care about his life or death at all.

After the old Marquis recovered from his illness, he became disheartened and stopped mentioning the matter of inviting the crown prince.

Madam Shi had been planning for more than twenty years, wasn't it just to make Shi Chengxuan the heir apparent to inherit the Hou Mansion?

Now the Marquis is very old and bedridden. He spends seven or eight days out of ten in a daze and doesn't care about worldly affairs.

A few days ago, when the Marquis heard that his grandson had died, his eyes rolled back and he fainted. He is still sometimes lucid and sometimes confused, and he doesn't know if he will die one day.

Old Madam Shi must let her son Shi Chengxuan take the throne of the Crown Prince while the Marquis is still alive.

However, the reality is just as Shi Anxia said, Shi Chengxuan is simply unable to support the wall, and he only misses the things in the back house all day long. There are seven or eight concubines in the same room, and sometimes they have to wander around several courtyards in one night.

But didn't Mr. Yang Xuan say yesterday that her son's career would be smooth and he would soar to the sky and become a very powerful minister. Then she thought about it, could it be that the private incense altar had really ruined her son's career, leaving no trace of good luck behind?

At the same time, I felt happy and sad, and felt terrified inside. I thought I would definitely ask Mr. Yang Xuan to resolve the issue, no matter how much money I spent.

Mrs. Shi put down the tea cup, picked up Shi Anxia's hand and caressed it carefully, "Sister Xia, it's hard for you to worry about family affairs at a young age. Grandma knows that you are a good child and will definitely choose a good job for you in the future. Family marriage. Having said that, although the position of Crown Prince is just a virtual one, it will definitely be helpful to your future marriage. Grandma is getting old, and her biggest wish is just to wish you well. "

"Grandma, what do you mean, we have to fight for our father?" Shi Anxia opened her innocent and bright eyes, soft and caring.

Mrs. Shi nodded, "Grandma has already made up her mind. When your brother gets older, she will directly... But God's plan is not as good as God's, so he left like this." As she spoke, tears instantly filled her eyes. , flowing down the cheeks.

This was true, after all, Shi Yunxing had a sweet mouth and always made her happy.

That guy was used to being two-faced and was shameless when he was outside. When he returned home, he looked full of knowledge and ambition. Not only did he deceive Mrs. Tang, but also Mrs. Shi was also kept in the dark.

Shi Anxia was about to tear off this fig leaf. "My mother doted on my brother too much. The servants she chose for him were all wicked and led him to do things that were not his proper business. My granddaughter has checked, and my brother has long been rejected by all the major academies. No teacher is willing to teach him."

"What?" Mrs. Shi couldn't accept it for a moment.

Although her grandson is gone, in her heart, she is still a talented young man full of knowledge, and she even placed the important responsibility of prospering the prince's family on this grandson.

Now tell her that this is an ignorant idiot who doesn't do his job properly?

Shi Anxia sighed deeply, lowering his eyebrows and lowering his eyes, "Not only that, last year my brother also got into a life lawsuit, and it took eight hundred taels to settle it."

Mrs. Shi's heart skipped a beat, "Eight hundred taels?"

Aunt Wen's expression suddenly changed as she stood aside.

Shi Anxia pretended not to see it and continued to talk to himself, "Well, my brother fell in love with a newly married bride. The bride was loyal and would not obey her until death. As a result, my brother teamed up with a bunch of gangsters and soiled the bride's innocence. The bride was so ashamed and angry that she threw herself into a well the next day. The bride's husband took the jade pendant left behind by his brother and went to the government office to sue his brother. Finally, the brother settled the matter with eight hundred taels of silver."

In the last life, the bride's husband knew that the powerful were protecting each other and could not avenge his wife, so he took the eight hundred taels of silver and quickly left the capital, and finally worked hard to become an imperial merchant.

Eight years later, when Shi Anxia was walking on thin ice in the palace, he was framed by this man and his concubine, and he almost died in the cold palace.

I also heard that every one of the gangsters who had insulted the bride with Shi Yunxing died miserably.

In this life, she was too late to save the poor bride, but she did not want to become a mortal enemy of this powerful future imperial merchant.

Injustice has its owner, debt has its owner, and whoever commits the sin will bear it.

Shi Anxia asked sincerely, "Grandma, did you pay for this money? My mother said that she never gave me this money."

The old lady felt a toothache whenever she mentioned the eight hundred taels of silver, as this came from her private treasury.

Didn’t you say that you should worship the great Confucian as your teacher? Why is the lawsuit settled?

Last year, when Aunt Wen asked Mrs. Shi for money, she said that Brother Xing wanted to become a disciple of a great Confucian, and she needed to buy a famous painting as a gift from him.

The great scholar was Fang Yuchu, who was once the emperor's enlightenment teacher. Later, due to old age and lack of energy, he resigned and stayed at home to entertain his children and grandchildren and take care of himself.

Mrs. Shi was elated by the name "Fang Yuchu", thinking that if her grandson could worship the great scholar as his teacher, it would be much easier to ask him to be crowned prince in the future.

She had originally intended to ask Tang to pay the money, but Aunt Wen said that Tang couldn't know about this because Fang Yuchu had a personal grudge against the Duke of Huguo. She had to resort to many favors to persuade the great scholar to soften his tone.

Mrs. Shi believed it somehow, and reluctantly took out her private money to subsidize her grandson.

At that time, her good grandson promised that he would work hard, succeed in the future, and honor his grandmother.

But I never expected that the truth would be so unbearable.

Mrs. Shi was so angry that she wanted to smash Aunt Wen's head with a tea cup. She looked at the tea in the cup, and forced herself to hold back. She only asked in a deep voice, "Say! Did the eight hundred taels of silver go to settle the lawsuit?"

Aunt Wen was so frightened that her legs went weak. She knelt before Old Madam Shi and cried, "Aunt, Xing'er made a mistake and didn't dare to go find his mother. Instead, he came to me. Could I just watch him die without helping him? I was afraid of scaring you, so I made up this story to comfort you."

Shi Anxia glanced at Aunt Wen, with no wavering in her eyes, and stood up to leave, "Grandma, please talk to Aunt Wen. Your granddaughter has to go see her mother's body, so don't be sad." After saying this, I was blessed. Ready to leave.

Walking to the curtain, she suddenly seemed to remember something and turned around again, "By the way, my grandson has called all the brothers in the family to Haitang Courtyard. She wants them to spend more time with her mother, and then we can meet again." Choose a suitable one from among them and raise him in his mother's name to fulfill his filial piety. We, the second wife of the Marquis Mansion, can't afford not to have a legitimate son, don't you think so?"