webnovelfull Chapter 893 The Scholar Who Abandoned His Husband and Children 3
Chapter 893 The Scholar Who Abandoned His Husband and Children 3
As for clans, sometimes clans are even more eager to exploit those who have no descendants than outsiders. As long as they write a letter stating that they want to marry into an official family and will not return, and give their family's land and property to the clan, the clan can help settle accounts with the husband and his family.
As for hiring someone to kill and silence witnesses, as depicted in novels and TV dramas, those are much more difficult to execute and carry greater risks.
Even with inconvenient transportation and imperfect laws at that time, murder was a serious matter, let alone the extermination of an entire clan.
For someone to hire someone to pretend to be a bandit and wipe out an entire family, that family must be quite powerful. And those pretending to be bandits must be private soldiers or assassins, otherwise they would be easily exposed.
Once exposed, it's not just a matter of impersonation; it will lead to endless troubles.
She did it to showcase her talents and gain official position, not to end up in prison and have her entire family implicated. Deceiving the emperor is always a serious crime.
Therefore, if a peaceful resolution is possible, it should definitely be resolved peacefully, especially since her family is just an ordinary family and simply doesn't have the ability to do so.
The best approach was the one the mother and son devised: they would inform the original owner's clan that they were going to marry into the family, so their children wouldn't be able to bring honor to the family. The clan would benefit from this arrangement and wouldn't hold a grudge; in fact, they would help clean up the mess. Why not do it?
Of course, that was exactly what the original owner's clan wanted to do, so the other side succeeded. In the end, only the original owner died, and the world of her husband and son was achieved.
The original owner's husband did not believe that the original owner would abandon him and his son. After all, they were a couple they had fallen for and had a good relationship. After the deaths of their grandparents and parents, the two of them and their son could be said to depend on each other for survival.
Although he only had one son, the original owner of the body loved him very much and named him Shun'an, hoping that his son would have a smooth and healthy life.
But what good was disbelief? After receiving the letter, the father and son were placed under guard by the clan to prevent them from going to the capital to find someone.
The two were ultimately weaker and could not fight against the powerful. After being imprisoned for more than two years, the Xiao clan finally sent them back to their maternal home after seeing that the father and son had accepted their fate.
The original owner's husband's parents had also passed away, his older brother had married out, and his three older sisters had also separated from their families and each had their own small households.
He couldn't very well take the child to any other family to stay with, since he had been abandoned and was afraid of bringing trouble to his sister's son.
Fortunately, his three older sisters were kind-hearted. This younger brother was the youngest in the family, and they loved him. Even though they couldn't bring him home, they didn't let the father and son suffer in the wind and rain outside.
The three sisters' family contributed some money to buy him a piece of land and build him a thatched house.
The original owner's husband was usually in good health and was very capable both at home and outside. He would watch over or help with the farming when others were hired to cultivate the land, so he was perfectly capable of supporting himself by farming.
However, being abandoned without cause left him deeply resentful, and given the limited medical resources of ancient times, a simple cold was enough to take his life.
At that time, the original owner's child was only eight years old. Although he was already able to support himself, the three aunts were not at ease letting him live alone in that house. However, they were afraid that the family members of any of the three families would object if he moved in, so they simply decided to let the child be raised by the three families in rotation.
The children weren't hungry or cold, but you can imagine how they felt. At such a young age, they learned to read people's expressions and lived cautiously.
His three aunts were already quite good, and they tried their best to find him a good family when he grew up. However, his father had passed away, and his mother had abandoned her husband and children. Generally, good families would not want to marry a man like that.
Although his mother may have become an official, he has been abandoned after all. Going to his wife's family would not bring him any benefits. On the contrary, he might offend the family his mother married into. Putting himself in their shoes, no one would like the child from the previous marriage.
So she searched and searched but couldn't find a good family. In the end, she married a hunter whose parents were both dead and who had no land, only two thatched huts at the foot of the mountain. It's easy to imagine that his life wouldn't be easy.
Like his father, the child was consumed by resentment and died before reaching the age of forty.
These are all things that the original owner saw after she died and became a wandering soul. So she was very resentful, feeling that the person had stolen her life and mistreated her family, causing her husband and son to die young.
Therefore, the original owner's wish was for Xiao Yun to avenge her, treat her husband well, and raise her son well.
As for those people in her clan, she already knew what kind of people they were. When her grandparents died, things were fine, but when her parents died, some people wanted to adopt her. Their intentions were self-evident.
If she hadn't passed the imperial examination and become a scholar right after the mourning period ended, she might have been controlled by the clan. Stealing family property, helping the imposter clean up the mess, driving away her husband and son—none of these things made her worthy of bringing them any glory in the future.
Don't say you didn't know; she doesn't believe no one in the clan suspected anything. They just let it go because it didn't concern them.
From now on, let's keep our separate paths. Since we're already beyond the fifth degree of kinship, according to the laws of this dynasty, we can completely separate our clans and even create a separate genealogy.
Even if one passed the imperial examination and became an official, they would have no connection with their clan anymore.
Xiao Yun said that these wishes are quite easy to fulfill. As long as they don't involve her going to cause trouble for the female lead or building her own empire, she is happy to help her fulfill them quickly.
Although those things weren't impossible for her, she really had no ambition or interest in them. Perhaps that's the difference between men and women.
If a male transmigrator were to encounter such a world, he would either join forces with the protagonist or clash with him. Even if he didn't become an emperor, he would become a mountain king. Just look at Yao Yao and Fang Xi to see that.
Rather than struggling and fighting for power, and ultimately having to govern the world herself, she preferred to stay in the shadows, watch the tigers fight, and live her own quiet life.
Aside from her original enemies, she generally ignores others unless they come directly in front of her.
“Scholar Xiao, Zhengjia Village is just ahead. It’s the largest village around here. Every time I’m escorting your wife to the capital for the imperial examinations, we stay there to stay overnight.”
The best-off family in Zhengjia Village was Zheng Zhuo's. Their house was at most a large brick and tile structure, and their meals were exquisite; it was said they had hired a private cook.
Xiao Yun: "Then let's go to her house. Thank you, Sister Li."
Li Gui: "Alright, let's go to her house then. She has a big courtyard, so we can park the carriage there and save ourselves the trouble of loading and unloading our luggage."
Unlike in later generations, people now prefer to travel light, carrying only money, as they can buy almost anything outside. Driving on the road, there are service areas every so often along highways.
Nowadays, when you go out, you have to prepare everything yourself. Even if you stay overnight in someone else's house, you have to have your own bedding, because many ordinary families don't have extra bedding, especially in winter.
Furthermore, one must be careful not to miss the lodging, as not only will one have to stay in a carriage, but one will also have to cook one's own meals. Therefore, one must bring not only books, writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, clothes, and bedding, but also pots, pans, and even a small clay stove.
Don't assume that the original owner of this body can lie down and rest whenever she wants. Putting aside whether the road is smooth or not, the wheels of this carriage are made of wood and don't provide any shock absorption.
Even if you have multiple layers of cushions underneath you, you won't be able to fall asleep while lying on them. Unless you enter a deep coma, you'll be jolted awake even if you've passed out.
The carriage soon arrived at the boundary marker of Zhengjia Village. Li Gui drove the carriage off the official road and onto a small path.
Don't assume that being next to the main road means building houses by the roadside like in later times; that's impossible.
Not only would the imperial court not allow it, but even if it did, the locals wouldn't do it. All sorts of people travel on the official road, and soldiers often pass by when changing shifts.
The soldiers at this time were not the sons of the Dragon Kingdom; most of them were conscripts who couldn't afford to eat or had committed crimes. Hence the saying that bandits were like combs and soldiers were like hairpins.
Therefore, even the villages closest to the official road would be separated by a forest or wasteland, and they dared not plant crops by the roadside, otherwise they would not be able to harvest.
Zhengjia Village is just across a stretch of wasteland; you can see the village from the official road, it's about three or four hundred meters away.
This is already the closest one; if there are any war refugees, this village will be the first to suffer.
Actually, there was a teahouse a little in front of the boundary marker, built of wood and thatch, but it was empty now. They had encountered it before, and Li Gui said that the teahouse was only open in the summer to receive guests who came and went to drink tea, rest, and cool off. It was closed in the winter.
Not to mention that customers wouldn't sit outside drinking water on such a cold day, the tea sellers couldn't stand it either.
This place is no longer considered the south. We've already traveled halfway. This is the central region of Fengming Kingdom, where the four seasons are already quite distinct. However, the winter temperatures aren't as low as in the north, and it only snows occasionally.
The original owner was quite lucky; she didn't encounter any wind, frost, rain, or snow on her way from home, and the weather was always fine.
The carriage soon arrived at Zheng Zhuo's house. Her house was the first one in the village, and the gate was wide open. There was an oxcart parked in the yard, but the frame of the cart was still attached, so it didn't seem to belong to Zheng. Presumably, it was also heading to the capital ahead of time, just like the original owner of this body.