Chapter 212 The Child's Background

Chapter 212 The Child's Background

With Lao Hong and a group of guards volunteering to help watch over the shop, Xie Wanniang didn't need to go there every day. However, the child she bought at home as part of the deal, after being able to walk, unexpectedly gave her a huge shock.

He told Xie Wanniang that he was not five or six years old, but two months shy of eight. The reason he looked so thin and short was because after his birth mother was divorced, he began his life as a little cabbage with a vicious stepmother and a biased father.

As he spoke in a low voice, rambling on and on without clear logic, Xie Wanniang learned that his parents' marriage was arranged when the two of them were not yet ten years old. Later, his maternal grandparents' family was decimated by war, and their fortunes declined. However, his grandfather had made the right bet early on and rose rapidly through the ranks of officialdom.

The two families were in vastly different circumstances, but the child's grandfather was a man of his word. Even though his old friend had passed away and there were few descendants left, he still insisted on fulfilling the marriage agreement and marrying the daughter-in-law he had arranged long ago.

Although his wife grumbled a few words about her daughter-in-law's difficult situation, she was used to letting her husband make all the decisions, so her objections were limited to just a few grumbles.

Neither the couple knew that their son had long harbored the idea of ​​breaking off the engagement and marrying someone else, but he knew his parents' personalities and character well, so he never dared to bring it up in front of them.

He kept quiet, and since his parents didn't possess advanced skills like mind reading, they naturally couldn't see through his reluctance beneath his compliant exterior.

So, following the proper customs and etiquette, they married their daughter-in-law into the family.

While the elderly couple were alive, the child's father showed no abnormalities. Like most sons of officials in the world, he treated his wife with respect and took concubines to keep her company.

Because he not only had wives and concubines, but also children born of both principal and concubine, and was already an official, he was indeed very busy with official duties. Therefore, his parents and his first wife did not pay attention to his occasional excuses not to come home.

It wasn't until his mother and father passed away one after another, and he was no longer burdened by the mountain of his biological father, and became the true head of the family, that he revealed his true colors.

His wife, who had been observing mourning for his parents, was almost killed by him. After barely escaping with her life, she secretly sent a message to her brother, hoping to get help from her family so that she could take her eldest son and youngest daughter and divorce her heartless husband.

However, the child's father refused to comply. He only agreed to write a letter of divorce to his wife and refused to allow her to take their son with her.

Although two members of his wife's family had become officials, compared to him, this heartless scoundrel, their power and network of connections were insignificant.

If the new emperor hadn't valued the reputation and character of his officials so much, and if he hadn't wanted to continue his promotions, he wouldn't have even made the compromise of writing a letter of divorce to his wife and letting her take their daughter with her.

He would only let the other person die of illness. If he failed once, he would try twice. He refused to believe that he could let that annoying stupid woman escape death every time.

He wanted to protect his reputation and didn't want his affair to be public knowledge. His wife's family, on the other hand, were struggling to find concrete evidence that he had murdered his wife. After an unpleasant back-and-forth, the two families reluctantly reached an agreement.

The child's mother and sister were taken away by his uncle and aunt, while the child was left in his father's house, where his stepmother would soon move in.

His stepmother was his father's mistress, whose child was already five years old, and also the woman his father had chosen before their marriage.

After the child's parents got married, the other woman was married off by her family to another official's son whom they had chosen. However, not long after their marriage, that official's son accidentally fell into the water and died.

Later, the son of an official also died on the battlefield. His mother was so heartbroken that she fell ill and never recovered. His brother's family quickly escorted the coffin back to their hometown to observe mourning.

The young wife, unwilling to be a widow for the rest of her life, secretly took her valuables and returned to her parents' home the night before the departure date set by the eldest son's family.

Her father was a rigid man who believed she should stay in her husband's family to remain faithful to her deceased husband. When she refused, he simply called in servants to try to forcibly send her back.

She was terrified and immediately changed her mind, saying she would go back to her husband's house right now.

Of course, judging from her later behavior of having an affair with the child's father, she obviously did not really go back to her husband's family, but instead became the child's father's mistress for six or seven years.

It wasn't until the child's grandparents passed away that she changed her name and, with a completely new identity, was welcomed into the family by the child's father as his second wife.

She dared not resent the child's father for breaking their vows and causing her so much suffering in the past years, so she vented her resentment on the child and his father's concubines and illegitimate children.

Especially this child who bears the title of the eldest son, partly due to her twisted mentality and partly for her own benefit, she is always exceptionally ruthless when it comes to tormenting others.

Originally a chubby, lively, and adorable young master from an official family, he was quickly eroded into the refugee-like appearance that Xie Wanniang first saw him in, due to his seemingly kind but actually vicious stepmother and his father's selective blindness.

Xiao Mei, who was full of sympathy, kept wiping away tears as she listened. She didn't understand, "If this child's father didn't care about him at all, then why did he insist on keeping him in the first place?"

"It's all for face, isn't it?" Xie Wanniang sighed and patted the child's shoulder. "They think this child is their family's offspring, so even if he dies in their house, it's better than him being taken back to his parents' home by his first wife."

Xiaomei was so angry that her eyebrows stood on end and her eyes widened in fury. "What kind of person is this? Does someone like him even deserve to be called 'Dad'?"

Xie Wanniang pressed her hands down, signaling her to calm down. "There are plenty of parents in this world who are worse than animals. Why doesn't the government set a standard and conduct a qualification check before everyone has children?"

Xiaomei: ? ? ?

Xiao Mei was stunned by Xie Wan Niang's outlandish idea, "This, this..."

"I was just saying," Xie Wanniang sighed. "Even a thousand or two thousand years from now, the government...the government still won't do this kind of thing."

She looked at the child who was quietly listening to her and Xiaomei's discussion, "So, now your stepmother thinks she's been married in long enough to let you 'die of illness,' 'get lost,' 'be abducted,' or 'accidentally fall into the water'?"

Xiaomei turned her head sharply, her gaze fixed on the child.