The next day was the day of banquet at Shen residence.
Since most of the male guests were officials, they were invited for dinner, and the women and children came over at noon.
Needless to say, Shen Li, Shen Zhu, and Shen Ying are all juniors in the clan, so they naturally come to support them. There are four main families here. In addition to the Qiao family, which Shen Rui pays a lot of attention to, there is also the He family. , Tian family and Yang family.
The second wife of the Shen family has settled in the capital for sixty years. When it comes to in-laws, these are definitely not the only ones. There are countless "relatives" who come around to fawn over these days. But when it comes to far and near, it is these four. Family is the closest.
Among them, the Qiao family is the eldest man's family, the second master's aunt's family and the second wife's natal family, the He family is the eldest master's brother-in-law's family, the Tian family is the third wife's natal family, and the Yang family is the family of several masters' brothers-in-law.
At that time, the third grandfather had three sons and three daughters. Among them, the eldest daughter and the second daughter died young. Only the three daughters grew up. They were the sisters of the eldest grandfather and the second grandfather.
When his daughter was old enough, the third prince married her to his student Yang Zhen.
However, this Sanniang did not live long. The third prince and the third old lady died a few years after giving birth. Both mother and son died, leaving only one daughter.
Yang Zhen, the eldest master, and the second master were brothers at first, and later became in-laws. They had a very close friendship. Even after Sanniang died of illness, the two families did not stop contacting each other. His subsequent wife was still chosen by Mrs. Yang back then.
Before the eldest daughter of the Yang family came out of the palace, she often visited her uncle's house with her stepmother.
In the spring of the twelfth year of Hongzhi's reign, the husband-in-law of the eldest lady of the Yang family won the top three awards and was sent to the county magistrate. The eldest lady of the Yang family followed her husband out of Beijing, and Shen Rui and others had never seen this cousin.
When Shen Rui was in Songjiang, there were no cousins in the fourth family, and there were no aunts who came out of the cabinet for several generations, so the only "cousins" were the Zhang family. Later, due to the breakup between the Zhang family and the Shen family, this relationship seemed to be broken. "Cousin", "cousin" and so on, no one mentioned it.
Even though Third Sister Zhang and Fourth Sister Zhang lived in the Shen family, Shen Juren did not let Shen Rui and Shen Jin call their cousins.
But today, among the guests coming to the Shen family, there are all cousins, cousins, cousins, and cousins.
The younger generations of the Qiao, He, Tian and Yang families are the cousins of Shen Rui and Shen Jue.
Shen Rui and Shen Jue were arranged by the Xu family. First they met an elder, and then came a cousin. The cousins saw the ceremony, and then the cousins were accompanied by their brothers. Then Sister Yu took her to the Flower Hall for tea.
Here, after greeting Mrs. Xu, Mrs. Xu, Mrs. Tian and the nieces and nephews of the Shen family stayed in the upper room to continue having tea. Naturally, the female relatives of the Qiao family went to the second room with the second wife; and the female relatives of the Tian family went with the third wife. Went to Sanfang to talk.
Although the second room had not officially served wine to announce Shen Rui and Shen Jue's heir status, none of the relatives knew that these two people were the candidates, and the second master returned to Songjiang for this reason.
Except for the He family, which has only one daughter and is still observing filial piety for Shen Luo for one year, the other three families do have their own little plans.
Among these families of in-laws, the other families are not as good as the Shen family, so naturally they hope that the younger generation will also get closer.
Shen Rui doesn't know yet that before the heir apparent between him and the brothers Shen Jue has been officially decided, some people are already concerned about the brothers marrying wives.
Among them, the Tian family and the Yang family did not have such high-minded ideas about Shen Rui because their masters were not of high rank, but they were concerned about Shen Jue.
It was no one else who was thinking about Shen Rui, it was the Qiao family that he paid attention to yesterday.
The female members of the Qiao family who came today are Mrs. Qiao and Mrs. Qiao’s mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Seeing the second wife lose weight, Mrs. Qiao was so distressed that she burst into tears.
The second wife's eyes turned red as she thought about the suffering of the past six months, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
"My dear daughter, I've suffered so much for you..." Old Mrs. Qiao didn't care that her eldest daughter-in-law was in front of her, so she hugged her second wife.
"Mother...mother..." The second wife exposed Old Mrs. Qiao and cried loudly. She was really sad.
Half a year after her son left, the family has completely changed. Thinking of the renovated east house, the honest attitude of the eldest man and his wife, and the coldness and alienation of her husband, the second wife felt that she was going to die of grievances.
Although Mrs. Qiao has three sons, she is the only daughter who is naturally doted on in every possible way. How could she be seen like this?
Mrs. Qiao's face showed a bit of solemnity: "You look depressed, but that Shen Jue is disobedient? Or is it something else? Tell your mother quickly, she will make the decision with you."
Other in-laws would naturally not be so confident, but Mrs. Qiao is not only the biological mother of the second wife, but also the biological aunt of several masters, so she is naturally qualified to teach them a lesson.
The second wife couldn't really like Shen Jue, but she also knew that having Shen Jue as his heir was better than the second master having a bastard son. These days, she was very attentive on the outside and polite on the outside.
She wiped her tears, shook her head and said, "Brother Jue is fine, it's none of Brother Jue's business..."
Old Mrs. Qiao's face dropped: "That's Mrs. Xu again? What else does she want? You've already lowered your head and gone to accompany the He family, right? Will she continue to do it forever?"
Mrs. Qiao knew that the second wife made a big fuss about the He family last year. Although she didn't agree with it, she didn't take it too seriously. In her opinion, her daughter was temporarily confused by the pain of losing her son, and she needed to be understood. time.
As a sister-in-law, Mrs. Xu should be happy to help the second wife, instead of helping her sister's family to scold the second wife.
Mrs. Qiao has always looked down upon Mrs. Xu, her eldest nephew-in-law.
What do you mean by a lady who was born in the prime minister's house? In fact, her natal family has long been in decline, but she still pretends to be a virtuous and noble daughter and coaxes the entire Shen family into obedience.
I don't have any respect for her as my aunt, and I don't show any sincere respect.
My daughter is a pampered one, and with such a powerful sister-in-law, her life has not been easy these years. Fortunately, the second master is kind and knows how to care for others, so the old lady has no regrets about robbing this nephew to be his wife. son in law.
Thirty years ago, it was Mrs. Qiao who single-handedly promoted the marriage between Shen Qiao's family.
Ms. Qiao was only twelve or three years old at the time, and she was innocent and innocent. If no one coaxed her, how could she have any thoughts of a lady?
The second master is a disciple of Confucius and Mencius, and our young master is not a frivolous and dissolute person. If Mrs. Qiao often calls her nephew over and deliberately arranges it, how would the second master and the second wife have a chance to get along?
In the final analysis, it was Mrs. Qiao who pampered her daughter and was reluctant to marry her to someone else to suffer hardship, so she set her sights on her sister's nephew.
The eldest nephew is eight years older than Mr. Qiao and is already married, so naturally he is not considered. The second nephew is three years older than Mr. Qiao and is a talented young man with a promising future. Isn’t he the best candidate?
She knew that her second nephew was already engaged, but she also knew the identity of the Sun family, so she didn't take it seriously.
Because of the marriage contract between Shen and Sun's family, the three old ladies often complained to Mrs. Qiao, their biological sister.
It was just because of the Third Master's prestige and the Third Mrs.'s always "taking her husband as the top priority" that even though she disliked Sun's low birth, she never had the thought of regretting the marriage.
It was Mrs. Qiao who bribed her sister's wife. She often talked to the three old ladies about "whose son-in-law got the promotion of his father-in-law's family", "whose son-in-law got a daughter-in-law from a small family and was embarrassed in social relations", "whose daughter-in-law married a merchant's daughter-in-law"
Words like "being laughed at for being greedy for money" made the third old lady less and less optimistic about the marriage between her second son and Sun.
When the affair between the second master and Mr. Qiao came out, the third old lady accepted the matter even though she knew her husband was unhappy.
Later, the Shen family and the Sun family broke off their engagement, and the second master and Shunli got married to the second wife. Mrs. Qiao was happy as she wished.
But then there was a bolt from the blue. The second master and his wife were separated directly, and the Shen family was far away from the Qiao family.
Not only did the Shen family's fortunes take a turn for the worse, within a few years the third grandfather and the three old ladies died of illness one after another; the Qiao family's life was not easy either.
Mr. Qiao was misjudged during a "Beijing inspection" and was deprived of his noble job as a wine-offering in the Imperial College. He was demoted two levels and released from Beijing. He never climbed up again until his death. When the next generation, the eldest master, the third generation
Although the old master joined the officialdom, it was difficult to get promoted, and the second old master could only live as a supervisor.
Now Mrs. Qiao's children and grandchildren's future depends on the Shen family again.
But the eldest master and the eldest wife of the Shen family are not close to the Qiao family, and they are polite to her aunt but not close to her.
When Shen Luo was not engaged, Mrs. Qiao originally planned to marry the two families and give the eldest daughter's granddaughter to Shen Luo. However, the second wife looked down on her brother's family background and was unwilling to marry her mother's niece, so she took the initiative to choose the He family.
.
Because of this matter, Mrs. Qiao once complained about her daughter, and there was a rift between mother and daughter.
But when Shen Luo had an accident, Mrs. Qiao was still the one who felt most sorry for her daughter, so why was she still willing to complain? The mother and daughter got back together, and they were closer than before.
When she heard that the Shen family was going to adopt a step-heir, Mrs. Qiao didn't think of "kissing and kissing" her. The old man was so strong and had been rejected by his daughter, so how could he have the nerve to mention this?
But after meeting Shen Rui and Shen Jue brothers today, Mrs. Qiao couldn't help but think a little more.
When others saw the three Shen brothers living together, they thought the Shen family had not been separated, but Mrs. Qiao knew that.
The eldest son of this family is the head of the family, and he is and will be in the future.
My son-in-law is only from the fifth rank, and there is no news of promotion this year, but the eldest master is now the minister.
The purpose of adopting an heir is to carry on the family line. At Shen Rui's age, he will definitely get married early. Will his daughter be forced to make a living in the hands of her niece-in-law?
As for the separation of the second master and his wife, Mrs. Qiao thought about it in her mind and decided against it.
With the back of a big tree to enjoy the shade, and the second wife in Shangshu Mansion, it became more legitimate for the Qiao family to walk around here.
While feeling sorry for her daughter, Mrs. Qiao had to make plans for her children and grandchildren.
Before hearing about the Shen family's heir selection, Old Mrs. Qiao had thought carefully about choosing a grandchild to marry Sister Yu after Shen Luo's anniversary.
Although a family like the Shen family would not marry anyone, the uncle could only love Sister Yu more and more for the last bit of flesh and blood left in these houses. Other people are like "water thrown away by a married daughter", but the Shen family is not.
In this way, it can be seen from the good relationship between the Shen and Yang families.
When a young heir is adopted in the future, even if he is raised, he may not be able to pass over his daughter to his niece.
Who would have thought that less than half a year after Shen Luo passed away, the Shen family had already decided on an heir, and the one they chose was not a young heir, but a teenager.
Compared with the two legitimate heirs, Sister Yu, the concubine of the second wife, does not show any weight. In addition, the third wife is pregnant, whether it is a boy or a girl, a legitimate child is more valuable than the concubine of Sister Yu...