allonlinenovel Chapter 261: Cleaning up the Zhong Family
Chapter 261: Cleaning up the Zhong Family
Ever since Song Qingwan appeared at the Zhong family's birthday banquet, Chunya and Arong returned to Prince Huai's Mansion to start cleaning up. Now that the master has returned, the mansion naturally cannot be left alone.
After nearly a month of renovation, Prince Huai's Mansion finally returned to its former appearance, and Song Qingwan returned to her home after being welcomed by Arong and Chunya.
As soon as she entered the door, Song Qingwan was surprised to find that her mother had also returned with Youan. Little Youan is now over one year old, and is white and plump. He walks clumsily, like a little penguin.
"Mother concubine."
Youan stumbled into Song Qingwan's arms. Song Qingwan hugged her son tightly, and tears immediately filled her eyes.
"My dear son, I miss you so much."
Seeing this scene, Chunya couldn't stop crying. Their young lady had suffered so much that she couldn't even raise her own son by her side. Fortunately, she finally got her reward after all the hardships and could bring the young master back home.
Pang Lingyan came back today specifically to send Youan back. Although she was reluctant, she didn't want to see her daughter and grandson separated.
"Wan'er, You'an is really smart. I haven't met you many times in the past year, but I can always recognize you at a glance."
"Mother has taken such good care of this child. I am very grateful to her."
"Silly boy, you are my daughter, isn't it my duty to take care of your child?"
Ever since Xiaoan came into the family, Arong has been watching him with open eyes. Arong always felt that the child was chubby, like the lucky doll in the New Year pictures.
Chunya patted him on the side, and Arong immediately came back to his senses, pouting and muttering.
"I just think that the young prince doesn't look like the prince. He was fatter than Changbai when he was a child."
"What do you know? The son looks like his mother, and the young master should look like our young lady."
"If the master has another daughter, won't she look like the prince?"
Chunya immediately went up and grabbed Arong's ears and started pulling them, cursing as she did so.
"You stinky boy, my lady doesn't want to have any more children! Let your prince have them!"
"Ouch, ouch, I won't say anything more, Sister Chunya, please let me go!"
Song Qingwan looked at the couple speechlessly at the sky. She remembered that A Jin had said before that he would let them get married when they grew up, but now it seems that forget it.
A group of people were playing and fighting, and Prince Huai's Mansion seemed to have returned to its former lively scene.
After sending You'an home, Pang Lingyan returned to the Pang family. Now, she is the only one who is struggling to support the Pang family.
Since the death of Grand Tutor Pang, the Pang family seems to have become more low-key. Now in the capital, only a few major families such as the Zhong family are remembered. Who still remembers the once glorious Pang family?
However, Pang Lingyan did not seem to care about these false reputations. Her daughter was already married, and her life would get better soon. All she had to do was to support her daughter.
The Pang family has no descendants, and she doesn't want to put the Pang family in the storm anymore. She just wants to spend the rest of her life in peace guarding the only remaining foundation of the Pang family.
However, Song Qingwan took her mother's affairs to heart. She came from the modern era and was very supportive of her mother's remarriage. She had mentioned it to Pang Lingyan several times, but she was rejected every time.
Song Qingwan knew that Pang Lingyan didn't want someone to accompany her, but she was scared of being hurt by Song Chengfeng and was afraid of meeting such a man with ulterior motives who would drain the Pang family of everything that was left.
But my mother is less than 40 years old this year. Is she really going to spend the rest of her life alone like this?
Song Qingwan stared at her mother's receding back with some heartache. How she wished that such a good woman would have someone to cherish her.
But fate is something that can only be encountered by chance, and Song Qingwan cannot rush it. Besides, the most urgent task is to solve the problem of the Zhong family.
After Minister Zhong was punished by the princess, a series of problems were uncovered, the first of which was the flood in the south of the Yangtze River.
At first, the emperor wanted to take advantage of Shangshu Zhong, but he suddenly fell into a coma and the matter was shelved. The crown prince came to power and took the initiative to open the national treasury to replenish the surplus grain for Jiangnan, and only then was the matter barely settled.
But now the treasury is empty and there is not enough food left, so the princess will naturally be held accountable.
Then an imperial decree was issued, ordering the Zhong family to hand over grain to fill the granary. Shangshu Zhong knelt down and listened to the eunuch's announcement of the decree, his body shaking badly.
Song Changwei hurried forward to support him, and then reluctantly thanked him.
After the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict left, Shangshu Zhong angrily threw the imperial edict on the ground and stomped on it several times.
"This Zhao Jiayi is actually bringing up old grievances at this time. Is he trying to put my Zhong family to death?"
Song Changwei remained silent. He had expected this day to come. If the emperor had not suddenly fallen into a coma, the imperial edict would have been issued long ago.
It was the act of distributing grain and porridge during that period that caused the Zhong family's reputation to rise rapidly, which led to Shangshu Zhong completely losing himself and making a series of subsequent actions.
Now that the prince has fallen, naturally no one will protect him anymore. It is only a matter of time before the Zhong family is dealt with.
Minister Zhong closed his eyes tightly, counted with his fingers, and asked uncertainly.
"But it's been ten days since the letter was sent?"
"Yes, father. According to the progress, it will take about five days to deliver it to the northern border."
"Well, that's good. Go to the farm and collect some food to hand it over in the next two days. First shut up the princess."
"Yes, father."
Song Changwei calmly turned around and left the study, pretending to go out of the Zhong family to do some business.
Why raise food? Song Changwei knew exactly how much property the Zhong family had.
In order to gain fame a while ago, the Zhong family’s surplus grain had almost been distributed. Now it is not the autumn harvest season and naturally there is no new grain harvested. How much surplus grain can there be?
But Song Changwei is only responsible for doing things, and he is not responsible for anything else.
So in two days, the Zhong family only managed to gather a few hundred stones of grain and handed it to the eldest princess. The eldest princess flew into a rage and shouted angrily.
"What a great Zhong family! They are still hoarding grains when the country is in crisis! Go back and tell your masters that I have accepted the grains."
"Yes, Your Royal Highness."
Not to mention the eldest princess, even the servants who came to deliver food were secretly complaining that this master was too stingy. How much food did he give away for free during that period?
The grain was accepted, but the humiliation was not so easy to swallow, so the second imperial edict was sent to the Zhong family.
This time, Shangshu Zhong's position was directly promoted to Grand Tutor. In this way, Grand Tutor Zhong became the youngest Grand Tutor in the history of the Great Sage Dynasty.
"Master Zhong, why are you still standing there? Accept the decree! This is a great favor from heaven."
"Yes, Wei Chen accepts the order."
Grace? What the hell! Who wants this kind of position? He just turned fifty and needs to retire? Isn't this a joke?
However, Minister Zhong knew that the eldest princess was not entirely to blame for this incident. The amount of grain that the Zhong family had contributed was indeed too little. He called Song Changwei to discuss whether they could contribute more.
"Without my father, our Zhong family can't even produce one stone of grain."