My wife wants a divorce; if she ruins my life, I'll leave.

Although Song Chen'an didn't believe the rumors, he still had doubts in his heart, and when he faced Shen Yunlan again, he inevitably revealed some flaws in his words.

Even though Shen Yunlan guessed his thoughts, she could not admit the child's true parentage unless absolutely necessary.

Previously, Ma had bribed the midwife and doctor to reveal the baby's true month of gestation, but the midwife and doctor had already received enough silver from Shen Yunlan, so they naturally looked down on Ma's ten taels of silver.

Both parents agreed that the baby was only eight months old, but was just growing stronger.

Ms. Ma, not getting what she wanted, impatiently sent the two away.

The midwife turned around and made an excuse to go to Shen Yunlan, telling her everything Madam Ma had said. She then received a reward of twenty taels of silver before leaving the mansion.

As Shen Yunlan watched the midwife's departing figure, a sudden surge of ruthlessness rose in her heart.

Then she shook her head and sighed, "Never mind, I'd better do some good deeds."

Days passed slowly like this. During the month that Shen Yunlan was in postpartum confinement, Song Chen'an rarely came over, and he was full of conflict when he saw the baby.

But how can you tell who a baby who is less than a month old looks like? So he subconsciously reduced the number of times he came over.

He couldn't let go of Shen Yunlan after all. Even though he rarely came over, he didn't think about finding out the truth, because he knew that if it was proven that the child wasn't his, Shen Yunlan would have nowhere to go.

That's settled then. He'll give Shen Yunlan the identity of Second Madam Song, and he won't insist on anything else.

Shen Yunlan didn't care about him. Anyway, if she didn't admit it, no one could prove that the child was Lu Yun's. As for the old doctor, he was kind-hearted and tight-lipped, so he would definitely keep her secret.

Moreover, with her maternal uncles still alive, Madam Ma and Song Chen'an cannot openly bully her.

On the day of the full moon celebration, Madam Ma used the excuse that the mansion was not yet ready and it was not appropriate to hold a grand celebration. Shen Yunlan just sneered after hearing this, "Whatever."

She gave birth to the second wife's nominal grandson, but they didn't even hold a full-month celebration for him. To outsiders, it seemed either that they didn't value the grandson, or that the second wife's family had completely declined and couldn't even afford a full-month celebration.

Shen Yunlan didn't care about these empty titles. As long as her child had a proper lineage, that was enough. As for Song Chen'an, she wouldn't interfere with his taking concubines or maids in the future, as long as the position of the legitimate son belonged to her son.

The farce at the Song family mansion ended quietly. On the surface, it was just a matter of the eldest and second branches of the family dividing their residences, but in reality, the two branches were clearly separated. From then on, unless it was necessary, the eldest branch rarely interacted with the second branch.

Ma rarely went out, and now that Song Chang had been suspended from his post, she felt ashamed and stayed home even less, so she didn't know much about what was happening outside.

After some time, when she thought about arranging a marriage for Song Tian again, she found that the families she had been close to before were all very polite to her. They were fine when chatting casually, but when it came to marriage, they made all sorts of excuses to refuse.

Ma thought everyone disliked Song Tian because she was divorced, but it was not appropriate to talk about the fact that Song Tian had not consummated her marriage with Wang Yuanzhi in public.

What Song Tian didn't expect was that she couldn't marry into a high-ranking noble family, and even ordinary officials of the fifth or sixth rank were unwilling to marry her. In the end, she wasted five or six years at home, and finally married a widower when she was in her twenties. Fortunately, the widower was not yet thirty years old and was a seventh-rank judge of the Court of Judicial Review, which was considered a low-ranking official family.

Her marriage did not go smoothly, but Song Xi got married smoothly under Song Chang's arrangement.

Song Xi cherished this marriage. While preventing Aunt Sun from making demands of Song Chang, she also prepared for her dowry by doing needlework. Finally, she was successfully married off at the end of April.

Madam Ma only prepared a hasty dowry for her, loosely packed into twenty-four loads, which was nothing compared to Song Tian's.

Enraged, Aunt Sun went to Song Chang to complain, but Madam Ma wouldn't listen to him at all, and even pocketed half of the money Song Chang had given her.

Although Aunt Sun was Song Xi's biological mother, her status prevented her from preparing a dowry for Song Xi, so she had no choice but to swallow her anger.

Song Chang had no choice but to take out his collection of calligraphy, paintings, and ancient books, along with a few brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and pack them into a box. Although it didn't seem like much, this box of things was equivalent to what Ma had prepared.

Song Xi was very grateful and said she would keep it safe.

Song Chang sighed, "If... we can sell them, but don't sell them cheaply. Each of these items is worth two or three hundred taels of silver."

Song Xi immediately felt that this box was too valuable. It contained sixteen items, which must be worth three or four thousand taels of silver.

"Don't make a fuss. Keep it with your books, so no one will notice," Song Chang instructed again, still worried.

Song Xi quickly replied, "Father, don't worry."

Although Song Chang had no grand ambitions, he genuinely cared for his children, and he felt even more pity for Song Xi, who was struggling to make a living under Madam Ma's care at such a young age.

As for Song Chen'an and Song Tian, ​​he couldn't argue with Madam Ma, so he had no choice but to let them be disciplined by Madam Ma.

Despite Song Chang's best efforts in arranging the marriage, it was still far inferior to Song Tian's. However, Song Xi did not complain at all. The Zhou family, being a family of good manners, did not express their dissatisfaction directly, even if they had some.

After the three-day homecoming, Zhou Han focused on reading at home, while Song Xi managed their small courtyard meticulously. Although Madam Zhou's attitude towards her wasn't very good, Song Xi always accepted Madam Zhou's guidance without complaint, which gradually changed the Zhou family's attitude.

In the second year of the imperial examination, Zhou Han ranked third. The Zhou family used their connections to secure him a position as magistrate of a county under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, and Song Xi went with him to take up the post.

Meanwhile, life in the second branch of the Song family became increasingly chaotic. Madam Ma and Song Chen'an both suspected that Shen Yunlan's child was not from the Song family, so they didn't like her or her child very much and never took the initiative to visit the child.

Although Song Chen'an had some suspicions, he didn't have the heart to investigate thoroughly, so Shen Yunlan was able to continue living in the Song family. However, because Madam Ma disliked her, the servants didn't respect her enough, especially Lü Ningshuang, who often went over to provoke her.

When Song Chen'an found out, he only scolded her a couple of times, which had no deterrent effect whatsoever. He often avoided seeing Shen Yunlan and rarely went to Shen Yunlan's courtyard.

His attitude emboldened others to go even further.

Shen Yunlan had no choice but to swallow her anger in order to have a place to stay. Anyway, she didn't have any expectations for Song Chen'an, so she wasn't too disappointed by what happened.

Song Chen'an didn't go, and she didn't look for him either. The two acted like strangers. Even when they met at home, they were polite to each other, behaving like complete strangers.

Only Song Chang still felt a sliver of pity for Shen Yunlan, and often asked people to take extra care of her.

After Shen Yunlan recovered, she began to think of ways to make money. She abandoned those unrealistic ideas and used the fresh and novel ideas from her previous life to make some tea and fruit drinks to supply to restaurants, and slowly she made some money.

Nothing can be relied upon except money!