Chapter 156: Marriage (Part 1)
After a few days of snow in the Ding capital, the weather finally cleared up.
Shen Miao was in the courtyard airing some books. They were all the military books that Shen Qiu brought over and one feared that molds would grow after being placed in the room for this period of time thus they were exposing it to the sun. Jing Zhe and Gu Yu were sun-drying the beddings as Jing Zhe spoke, “One heard that the Chen and Shen families’ lawsuit was very lively and many people are watching it. Now that it had dragged on for so long, one do not know what would the final result be.”
“What other result can there be? It is strenuous and unrewarding for both sides.” Gu Yu said in disdained, “To bring matters of the family up in court is a ridicule. Fortunately Master and Furen had separated earlier on from them, else one fear that it would be one would be implicated in it.”
Chen Rou Qiu’s maiden family and the Shen family were fighting in a lawsuit.
Then Chen Master was an old man that was very stubborn and one who cared about his face a lot and was unwilling to lose. He would content to get out of the predicament and would not let himself to be the losing side.
Only when ghost filled the air, could the spiritual master come in. Even though Chen Rou QIu was married, Chen Master had to protect Chen Rou Qiu’s reputation, not because he doted on Chen Rou Qiu but because he did not allow the Shen family belittle the Chen family like this. Chen Rou Qiu’s mother however was a powerful one. As she doted on Chen Rou Qiu, she convinced Chen Master with a few words and wanted to fight with the Shen family a lawsuit.
The Chen family believed that Chen Rou Qiu was conscientious after marrying into the Shen family and helped Shen Wan managed the family. She even brought in concubine for Shen Wan but he himself declined. Chen Rou Qiu had married into the Shen residence for so many years and everyone outside knew that she was educated, reasonable, gentle and graceful. Now with a sudden appearance of a female of dubious background, Shen Wan then wanted to divorce his wife, this was just spoiling the concubine too much and neglected one’s wife.
The Shen family’s theory was that even though Chen Rou Qiu was the matriarch of the family, she was unable to give birth to sons and did not think of bringing in a few concubines to spread out the branches. Now that the husband had brought someone in, she still blocked it, one was really very jealous.
One said the mother-in-law was merciless, the other said that the daughter-in-law was not filial. This was just a huge stage of farce that made everyone in Ding capital watch in relish.
At the end the law suit was brought to the government offices but there were rarely such kind of lawsuit that they handled. Moreover this lawsuit was not a big deal but the Master of Chen family was a document official of the administrative division and Shen Wan’s rank was not low either, thus one could not offend either side and the matter could only be dragged on.
For Shen Wan and Chen Rou Qiu to be in court, the husband and wife relationship could be regarded as the end. First it was because Shen Wan was after all an official and to be a lawsuit due to family matters, those censors who did not have much to do would definitely not let it off, thus Shen Wan’s career would be affected by this. Second was because Cang Zai Qin was currently pregnant.
It was timely that Cang Zai Qing was pregnant at this time because for her to be pregnant at this juncture, it was as good as pushing Chen Rou Qiu out. Even though Shen Wan had been affectionate with Chen Rou Qiu for so many years, it did not meant that he really did not have expectation for a son. If Cang Zai Qing was really carrying a son then he would have an heir to carry down the ancestral line. Because of that when he sees Cang Zai Qing, he felt that it was good and did not even take a look at the thrown away rotten cloth.
