Chapter 225 Wishful Thinking

Chapter 225 Wishful Thinking

The couple sat facing each other in silence for an unknown period of time. Jiang Tong, who had also previously held the prejudice that Jiang Yuan would only embarrass him and that it would be better for Jiang Yuan to have died outside, opened his mouth and uttered a series of hoarse and strange sounds.

"Don't tell anyone about this yet. I need to think carefully about what to do next."

Han nodded blankly. She didn't know what her husband was still considering. Given their past attitude towards Jiang Yuan, she didn't think Jiang Yuan would be willing to acknowledge his biological parents after achieving what he had today.

Of course, they could use filial piety and public opinion to coerce Jiang Yuan, but if they really did that, wouldn't Jiang Yuan resent them even more?

The Han family felt that it was best for them to keep to themselves and Jiang Yuan's distance.

But she didn't voice any opinions in front of her husband. Having lived with this man for so many years, she had come to realize very clearly that he had never treated women as "people" like himself.

Any intelligent, quick-witted, decisive, and opinionated woman would always be described by him as "frivolous, pretentious, and restless..."

Perhaps because he only had wives, concubines, children, and servants whose indentures he held in his hands, he never hesitated to show his true colors at home.

Therefore, no matter how much scheming his concubines plotted against each other in private, they all tacitly pretended to be stupid on the surface.

Han used to disdain such behavior, but her son's lack of ambition and her husband's persistent refusal to request the establishment of an heir forced her to restrain her sharp edges.

As a result, Jiang Tong's relationship with her improved considerably. At the very least, he was able to stop openly disrespecting his wife for the sake of favoring his concubine.

As for the fact that the Earl's Mansion has become increasingly unstable and has lost its reputation and future under his series of "wise" decisions, Jiang Tong has not yet realized it.

He was ennobled for his military achievements, and his family achieved a leap in social class from a low-ranking military officer to a nobleman of the new dynasty. His sense of accomplishment was overwhelming, and his self-confidence began to swell to an unprecedented level.

Having a fist doesn't equal having a brain, and being lucky in a war doesn't mean being lucky in handling family matters—these are two things he subconsciously ignored.

He looked down on Han's second son, thinking he was utterly hopeless and that if the title were handed to him, he might just squander it one day.

He wanted to appoint his third son, the eldest of his illegitimate sons, as the heir apparent, but the two mountains of imperial power and law, which left no room for negotiation, cut off his escape route.

Judging from the attitudes of the emperor and the crown prince, unless his nominal eldest son, who is actually the second eldest son, dies, becomes mentally unstable, goes mad, or is crippled, he will never have the chance to surpass him and pass the title to his third son born out of wedlock.

After long-term observation and a clear understanding of this point, Jiang Tong became extremely agitated.

Although he looked down on his good-for-nothing second son, he wasn't ruthless enough to create an "accident" that would disqualify him from inheriting the title.

He thought that fortunately he was still young and strong, so it wouldn't matter if the heir wasn't established for the time being. Since there was no good solution for the time being, he might as well just delay it.

Jiang Tong thought his delaying tactic was a perfect solution, but little did he know that his concubines and illegitimate sons, because he kept delaying in asking for the establishment of an heir, had long since developed other ideas.

They were like dogs that had been starving for ten or fifteen days and then suddenly had a large bowl of meat bones with a strong aroma thrown in front of them. They started to use all their skills to fight for the title.

With her status, interests, and even her son's life threatened, Han, like a lioness protecting her cubs, began her long war of defense and counterattack.

Before Jiang Yuan became famous for capturing the Tatar princess, the couple was either in a good mood every day, only occasionally worrying about the matter of succession, or they were constantly on edge, living in an increasingly intense and agonizing situation.

It was Jiang Yuan's sudden appearance that gave them a rare moment of emotional resonance.

But after that, Han quickly regained her composure and sobered up, actively dispelling her initial wavering.

She realized with absolute certainty that no matter how capable Jiang Yuan was, it was useless, because he must harbor deep resentment towards her and Jiang Tong.

This is a conclusion that Han reached by putting himself in Jiang Yuan's shoes and putting himself in Jiang Yuan's shoes.

But Jiang Tong was different from Han. Blindly confident, he suffered from a common problem among many fathers: they believed that simply saying "I am your father" was enough to solve all problems.

How can children resent their parents? Don't they know the saying, "There are no parents who are wrong"?

Considering the various benefits that recognizing Jiang Yuan might bring to the Earl's Mansion, Jiang Tong found it very difficult to give up as easily as Han Shi did.

Once he acknowledges Jiang Yuan, he will no longer have to worry about whether to establish a legitimate son or a son born out of wedlock. More importantly, he will be able to bring the Earl's Mansion an ever more prosperous and glamorous future to the family, thanks to Jiang Yuan, a promising young military general.

Jiang Tong became more and more tempted. He impatiently chased away the concubines who came to fawn over him, and then beckoned to one of his trusted attendants, "Arrange for a few people to guard the courtyard gate, and don't let the rest of the family come and disturb the Lord's thoughts."

After his attendant accepted the order and left, Jiang Tong stroked the pure gold paperweight on his desk while pondering how he could make a reasonable and respectable contact with Jiang Yuan.

Although he was blindly confident, believing that "I am your father" and the status and wealth represented by the Earl's Mansion were enough to make Jiang Yuan acknowledge his ancestors and return to the family according to his wishes, there was obviously a big difference between whether the other party was forced to return because of pursuing fame and interests or because he genuinely understood and accepted him, and therefore gladly chose to acknowledge his ancestors and return to the family.

What he wanted was not just to passively benefit from the situation and resolve the dilemma he faced in establishing a heir; his ideal scenario was for Jiang Yuan to be willing to dedicate his life to the Jiang family.

If Hao Yu, Jiang Yuan, and Xie Wanniang knew how shameless this bastard was, they would definitely use the most vicious words they knew to curse him, but Jiang Tong himself didn't think there was anything wrong with his idea.

After all, he had already decided to hand over the title to Jiang Yuan.

Of course, he wouldn't show this tendency at the beginning; after all, when fishing, you can't just dump buckets of bait into the water.