Chapter 292 He's got a screw loose

Chapter 292 He's got a screw loose

Those little tricks they usually used to compete for favor now seem to have lost their magical surface, revealing their ugly truth.

The sudden turn of events left Jiang Tong's concubines and illegitimate sons at a loss. They didn't know what they could do to make Jiang Tong smile.

No one in the group wanted to be cannon fodder and die; everyone wanted to stay behind others and observe silently. So, naturally, they began all sorts of underhanded schemes and power struggles.

Madam Han was well aware of their underhanded tactics; after all, she had long been accustomed to their various tricks over the past twenty years.

She didn't try to control them, but there was one rule: no matter what they did in private, when it was their turn to serve Jiang Tong, they had to obediently appear in the room where Jiang Tong was recuperating.

Jiang Tong's concubines and illegitimate sons could feign illness, but they lacked the ruthlessness to actually harm themselves. Moreover, they absolutely could not let Jiang Tong feel that they disliked them or did not want to serve him. Therefore, no matter how unwilling they were, they still had to obediently follow Han's requirements and serve Jiang Tong on time.

In other words, all those fights they had with Jiang Tong's other concubines and illegitimate sons in private were pointless.

As for the accusation that Madam Han favored her own biological son.

They and their children would only take turns attending to Jiang Tong when he was ill every few days, while Han's second son was busy helping his mother with everything inside and outside the home every day.

Regardless of whether they actually did any work, at least they made a show of it. Even if they want to find fault with them or say they are unfilial, they have to see if they can control public opinion.

As for raising objections with Madam Han, demanding that she treat everyone equally.

She is the matriarch of the household, the lawfully wedded wife, and her children are both legitimate and eldest. If they dare to make such a request out of folly, Madam Han can immediately have them punished according to family law on the grounds of disrupting the proper order of things.

They didn't want to hand over a handle to the Han family, giving them a reason to use family discipline against them.

Helpless, they could only continue to obediently serve Jiang Tong, whose temper was unpredictable.

The problem is that while Jiang Tong's concubines might still be able to put on their usual professional smiles and continue to be obsequious and attentive to him, their illegitimate sons were far from having this ability.

Firstly, they were all quite young. Even the oldest of all the illegitimate sons was only seventeen years old this year. Secondly, they had always been favored by Jiang Tong. Both Jiang Tong and their own mother had been very indulgent towards them. These illegitimate sons were well protected, so they naturally had no opportunity to learn the "smiling on the surface but cursing inwardly" kind of thing.

Jiang Tong suddenly became exceptionally strict with them, frequently showing disdain and often losing his temper. It was very difficult for them to continue to show the same admiration and respect for Jiang Tong as before.

However, Jiang Tong was not the kind of person who was oblivious to his sons' changes in attitude. He noticed them immediately.

This change did not make him reflect on his recent bad attitude; instead, it made him even more dissatisfied with the timidity and mediocrity of his illegitimate sons.

It's one thing to be incapable of contributing to the family, but now he can't even hide his true emotions from him and maintain a harmonious father-son relationship to please him. How did he manage to raise such a useless person happily for so many years?

Jiang Tong's mood worsened as a result, and he closed his eyes with a heart full of anxiety and sorrow.

He was ill for almost half a year, and it wasn't until the spring of the following year that he slowly recovered.

During this period, due to the long and painful process of caring for Jiang Tong, his two favorite concubines and three illegitimate sons also fell seriously ill one after another. Although they were able to stay away from Jiang Tong temporarily because of their illness, the feeling of almost dying was undoubtedly more unbearable than caring for Jiang Tong.

They suffered greatly, while the other caregivers who were fortunate enough not to fall ill benefited greatly as a result.

Perhaps fearing that he would drive all his concubines and illegitimate sons to their deaths, Jiang Tong finally curbed his fiery temper somewhat after they fell ill one after another.

When he could no longer tolerate the stupidity of his concubines and illegitimate sons, he would no longer lose his temper directly, but would wave them away.

Madam Han, the eldest daughter-in-law, watched coldly from the sidelines, secretly laughing countless times out of a sense of great pleasure.

She even arranged a marriage for her son during this period, ostensibly to use the joyous atmosphere to dispel Jiang Tong's illness and help him recover his health as soon as possible.

Of course, the family background of the girl who was about to marry into her family was far inferior to that of the Earl's family.

Even in the eyes of Madam Han, she was practically useless except for her beauty and fiery temper.

As for why Lady Han listed her fiery temper as a virtue, it's simple: she herself couldn't bear to discipline her son, so she transferred this important task to her daughter-in-law.

She hoped that her future daughter-in-law could win over her son's heart and stop him from constantly going to gambling dens and brothels.

She believed that as long as her son could change his bad habits, the position of the heir of the Marquis of Anping would definitely belong to him.

Putting aside how outrageous her act of shifting the responsibility from her mother to her wife is, just look at her son, a guy who's completely rotten to the core. Even if you helped him marry a hundred beautiful wives, it wouldn't stop him from going out to find new excitement.

After all, marriage is not a panacea for all ailments.

At this time, Han was unaware that her future daughter-in-law was even more shrewish than she had heard.

After marrying into the family, although she failed to reform Han's beloved second son through marriage as Han had hoped, she showed Han and her beloved second son what it meant to be a "barefoot and fearless shrew" when they tried to bully her.

Every time they tried to cause trouble, the mother and son were met with a swift and decisive counterattack. Because of Han's initial lapse in judgment, their lives have been filled with misery ever since.

Of course, that's a story for another time.

Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan learned the good news in mid-February of the following year that Jiang Tong and his concubines and illegitimate sons were ill, and that they had been seriously ill at one point. Xie Wanniang did not know what Jiang Yuan thought, but she herself felt somewhat regretful that Jiang Tong had not died directly from his illness.

It wasn't that she was narrow-minded to curse someone like Jiang Yuan, with whom she had unilaterally severed ties. It was just that Jiang Tong was out of his mind. After his condition improved slightly, he actually started writing letters and sending things to Jiang Yuan as if he were his father.