Time Travel: The Noble Family

Chapter 127: Chapter 55: Ma Peng’s Marriage_3

Yueyao was embarrassed, “Mom, I was wrong.” She had indeed been influenced; otherwise, she wouldn’t have thought so deeply.

What Yueyao didn’t know was that it wasn’t the Eldest Young Master Zhuang who was really interested in Ma Peng, but the Eldest Miss Zhuang, Zhuang Ruolan.

Eldest Miss Zhuang said to her gloomy brother, “You may dislike the chaos of the Ma Family’s Inner Courtyard, but that’s exactly what I am interested in.”

Facing her brother’s puzzled expression, Zhuang Ruolan said with a smile, “You, as a man, do not know the hardships of being a daughter-in-law, nor the pains of serving a mother-in-law. If the mother-in-law is decent, life is bearable; but if she is difficult, what does it matter if one comes from a noble family? One is still crushed under the weight of filial piety. They say a daughter-in-law turns into a mother-in-law after ten years; I do not wish to endure for ten years to become one. I would rather not marry at all.” Eldest Miss Zhuang was speaking from experience. Her mother came from a noble family and married the father, who was a Top Scholar. They were considered a perfect match. However, her grandmother originally favored her own niece and was prepared to marry her as the daughter-in-law, but her father married her mother instead, disrupting the grandmother’s plans.

The grandmother was convinced that her mother had interfered, always giving her mother grief, even going as far as to push other women into her father’s room after she was born, while her father, priding himself on his filial piety, only asked her mother to endure quietly. To out of spite, her mother conceived her brother within a year, and giving birth to him ruined her health, leading to her early demise. After observing a year of mourning, her father then married Madam Bao.

Zhuang Changhe couldn’t understand his sister’s thoughts, “The Ma Family is a mess, and Lady Cheng in the Capital City is famously undisciplined; sister, you would suffer if you married into that family.”

Zhuang Ruolan said with a laugh, “You are really naïve. If everyone praised Lady Cheng, I would rather not marry her. Lady Cheng is a stepmother and even plotted against the Eldest Young Master Ma previously; she can no longer interfere in his affairs. Besides, for Lady Cheng to have such a bad reputation shows she is foolish. Brother, our stepmother is a clever woman; years of struggling against her have exhausted me, and I no longer wish to fight.”

After their mother passed away, their maternal grandmother was furious and took the siblings to Duke Mansion to live for eight years. During those eight years, their father was away on official duties, with Madam Bao by his side, and she bore him one daughter and two sons. So, when he returned, he was somewhat distant from them. The brother was fine, being the legitimate eldest son, smart, diligent, and studious, and was well-loved and carefully cultivated by their father. However, he didn’t favor her as much, the legitimate eldest daughter who resembled his late wife, especially since she had gone against Madam Bao multiple times, even openly defying her, driving him to disregard her even more. Hence, he left her marriage arrangements to Madam Bao.

Madam Bao wanted to betroth her to her maternal nephew, an idea vigorously supported by their grandmother back in their hometown, who even wrote a letter to their father to approve the marriage. When the father disagreed, the grandmother simply sent the potential groom to the Capital City.

When she heard that this cousin hadn’t even achieved the rank of Scholar, she lost interest. A sixteen-year-old who couldn’t pass the Scholar’s examinations was either idle or dumb. Madam Bao’s intentions of making her marry this so-called cousin were merely to humiliate her; her grandmother’s hope of her marrying the cousin was actually motivated by her substantial dowry, intending to use it to support the Bao Family.

She and Madam Bao had maintained a delicate balance over the years, neither able to gain the upper hand. Previously, she mainly guarded against Madam Bao corrupting her brother, but now that he had grown up, she wasn’t worried. She didn’t really want to continue fighting with Madam Bao, but Madam Bao just couldn’t let go of her, even bringing this man to disgust her, creating plenty of opportunities for him.

Madam Bao actually thought she hadn’t seen men before, imagining that a man who boasted of being charming and eloquent could win her heart—it was utterly ridiculous. Yet, Madam Bao’s actions had disgusted her to the extreme.

If Madam Bao acted at the beginning of the month, she would retaliate mid-month. Remaining silent was never her style; she preferred to pay back others in their own coin. If Madam Bao talked about cousins marrying to reinforce their closeness, then she would fulfill Madam Bao’s wish, making the cousin relationship even closer.

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To facilitate this, she sacrificed two important pawns placed among Madam Bao and her “lovely sister.” However, watching Madam Bao tear off her mask of pretense, exposing her hysterical side, was worth losing two covert pieces.

Madam Bao wanted to marry her to her nephew as a way to humiliate her. She knew exactly what kind of man her nephew was; how could she let her daughter marry such an incompetent man? Naturally, she stubbornly denied the idea, but after making such a grand stance, she couldn’t let Madam Bao back out.