Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan 知否知否 应是绿肥红瘦

C166. Back to the Sheng Family (2)

Minglan said inwardly, 'This is the power of the family! The marriage alliance will always bring two families together. Among the nobility in the ancient times, there is no other power connection between two families which is stronger than the marriage alliance.' This might sound a bit ridiculous, but was actually the truth.

Family clan was the basic unit in the ancient laws. Normally, people only recommended the people of their own family to work in the essential position of the government. Because, when one of the family had committed a crime, he might implicate three generations of his family, sometimes even nine generations. Sometimes if that guilty person got really unlucky by encountering an emperor with a special character, even his disciples and teachers might be convicted too. Since the families were bound to suffer together, they would definitely choose to share fortunes with each other too. Therefore, as far as one's relatives were not that lame or even a bit talented, he would definitely be willing to offer his help. After all, helping a relative was equal to helping himself. The only thing to keep the prosperity of a family was the mutual help among the members.

The only reason that Jia, Shi, Wang, Xue families (T/N: Four prestigious families in the book A Dream in Red Mansion) had declined was that the fourth generation of those four families was not promising. At least, there was an imperial concubine from Jia family. And Wang family had this Wang Ziteng who was the Great General of several armies. The only scholar, Jia Zhu, had died at a young age. As for the rest members of the fourth generation, Jia She ruined other people's family because of a few folding fans. Xue Pan beat someone to death. Jia Baoyu seduced His Royal Highness's favorite boy. Those guys could compete the ability of stirring up troubles with each other.

A family without promising descendants would surely fall into decay sooner or later.

Minglan could understand Gu Tingye and her father's conversation, so she just waited there quietly. Meanwhile, Wang shi who couldn't understand that at all felt kind of bored there. She had planned to put on a show as a strict legal mother and criticize Minglan in front of her powerful son-in-law. However, Sheng Hong just talked about the destiny of the country and the future of the nation without a break. So Wang shi had no chance to chip in the whole time.

Fortunately, after a short while, the people who had been waiting outside in the main hall flowed over into the room. Yuan Wenshao and Changwu laughed in the crowd while claiming that the dishes were about to be cold. Sheng Hong also felt that there was nothing else to speak to Gu Tingye, so he followed everyone to eat the meal outside smilingly.

In the meantime, Minglan was dragged by the women to dine in the inner hall. The maids had already laid the Ruyi patterned round table in black paint. After all the dishes had been served, all the women were seated around the table to chat with each other while eating. Wang shi let Minglan sit beside her.

Everyone present were female. Looking at Minglan, they all had a clear idea of how Minglan was treated in Gu family. Someone admired Minglan, someone envied her, someone felt happy for her. Anyway, Minglan's presence made everyone there fall into a deep thought.

Molan stared enviously at Minglan. Minglan was wearing a bright red and wide sleeved formal dress of silk embroidered with phoenix patterns. Her gauzy Beizi (An item of traditional Chinese attire common to both men and women, a large loose coat), thin as onion skin, had flower clumps in golden threads. Her hair, combed into a Riyi style topknot, was anchored by a large gold hairpin with five phoenixes spreading the wings toward the sun. The ruby on the solid gold earrings with tassels on her ears was extremely dazzling. Before she went out of Commander Gu's mansion, Gu Tingye had also thrust six or seven rings of gold, jade or some other precious stones into her fingers, which made Minglan feel ashamed to show her hands.