After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 148 The Ma Family’s Dilemma

Ma is not optimistic about her eldest sister's plan.

There are many flaws in Zhou Ma's ideas, and it is easy for others to discover the truth. By then, she will be the traitor of the third room of the Zhou family.

But even so, Mrs. Ma and Zhou Shigong and his son were just scolding.Zhou Ma has been scolded a lot over the years, so the problem is not that big.

This matter was originally caused by Madam Ma, Zhou Shigong and Zhou Jinpu being unreasonable.It is unreasonable to seize the wife's marriage property, and it is even more unreasonable to exploit the corner of the border army without telling the whole family.Even if the Zhou Ma family causes trouble in the clan, she will not be the one to be blamed.If she goes to make trouble now, the Zhou clan members will appease her.It's just that she still has illusions about her husband and doesn't want to see his disappointed expression, so she uses this sneaky way to sabotage the plan of building a three-bedroom workshop.

The third brother of the Zhou family had no shame in using this incident as an excuse to punish or abandon Zhou Ma, so Ma left it to her eldest sister to do whatever she wanted.If something really happened, and the eldest brother and sister-in-law were afraid of the power of the Zhou family and did not dare to protect the eldest sister, she would also come forward as a sister from her mother's family to seek justice for the eldest sister.

Ma changed the topic.

She put a small box she had prepared in advance in front of Zhou Ma: "Take it. I don't know how much money you and your elder brother spent to renovate the front study. If you want to come here, you only need more. If you have more, I will give it to you." You make pocket money.”

Zhou Ma opened the box and took a look. Inside were two neat rows of small gold ingots. The golden ingots were so cute that she immediately beamed: "That's enough, that's enough. It's just an old gold necklace on the bottom of the box." Come on, I pawned more than 100 taels of silver, but only used 200. Nowadays, gold is expensive, and it is worth at least [-] taels here. Sister, thank you for your thoughtfulness."

She carefully closed the small box and tied it tightly with a handkerchief, as if she was afraid that the small gold ingot would fall out. She also very solemnly stuffed it into her clothes and hid it close to her body, looking like a treasure.

Seeing this, Ma remembered that when her eldest sister was still at home, in order to dress decently when seeing each other, she spent 300 taels of silver on making new clothes and new jewelry without batting an eyelid. Compare it with the current situation. , how can one not feel sad?

The eldest sister obviously married high!She now has children, a daughter, a royal family, and a grandson!

Ma sighed and asked in a low voice: "Do you really have such a difficult time in the Zhou family? Since money is tight, why did you pay for this money in the first place? Our family can still live in such a big house with just a few rooms! "

Mr. Zhou Ma laughed dryly: "I'm not as poor as you think. It's just that if people know that I have money, there will be people to plot against me. It's better to pretend to be poor and save trouble and effort. This house of yours, It burned down and it really didn’t look good. After you move back and rebuild the new house, your family will not be able to live safely. It is better to finish the construction early. It is only three study rooms and two degenerate rooms. It was built in less than a month, but the doors and windows Detailed work such as furniture takes more effort.”

After saying this, Mrs. Zhou Ma couldn't help but file a lawsuit against Mrs. Jiang, her eldest sister-in-law: "Stingy and mean! The lion opened his mouth! The person who rented your house was a relative of an official, and he was very generous. I rented it for several years and subsidized my sister-in-law a lot of money. But when the study became a fire, she ran to the door to make trouble regardless of her feelings and asked for 500 taels! It was because she was scared of her that she stopped renewing the lease and gave her money. So they moved away. My sister-in-law took the money, but didn't mention the reconstruction, and didn't even bother to clean up the ruins after the fire. Those who wanted to rent a house would not come after seeing it. My sister-in-law just used the money to do it. The bride price is to hire the only daughter of a large merchant family as a wife for her precious grandson! In fact, she doesn’t want to take advantage of the family’s extreme wealth?!” Ma was a little surprised.This is not what Hai Changan said before.But maybe the child was considerate of her mother and could not speak out about the excessive words and deeds of her mother's family.

Ma ignored the matter and only asked: "Which grandson is my sister-in-law looking for a wife for? In the past, she didn't even look down on officials of the seventh or eighth rank. How come she can still like a merchant girl now?"

"Today is different from the past." Zhou Ma sighed, "You have not been in Chang'an these years, and you don't know that the life of my eldest brother and sister-in-law has become more and more difficult. My eldest brother has been ill for several years, and it cost a lot of money to see the doctor and take medicine. His two sons Being an official also requires money to manage. Many of the properties left behind by my father were sold and failed, leaving only one village and two shops. My sister-in-law is afraid of making people laugh, so she will make a fool of herself every New Year. , spend money to maintain the ostentation, eat the food of the Mao year in the Yin year, and secretly pawn things every new year. Now let alone marrying an official of the seventh or eighth grade, what if you marry a merchant? As long as you can Earn a generous dowry and restore the dignity of the Ma family, my sister-in-law is willing to do anything!"

As for the grandson that Mrs. Uncle Ma took out to marry into the merchant's family, even though he was not the eldest son and legitimate grandson, he was still her darling.Of her two sons, the eldest son married an independent daughter-in-law. The in-laws refused to help the son-in-law and were only willing to promote their direct grandson. She was so angry that she hated the eldest daughter-in-law for not being considerate and filial and unwilling to spend money to help the eldest son manage his official career and seek promotion.She learned the lessons from her eldest daughter-in-law and specially married her second daughter-in-law, who had a gentle personality.It's a pity that this good daughter-in-law, who has a gentle temperament and is willing to do her best for her husband and son, does not have a prominent and wealthy family, so the help she can provide is limited.She could only find a wealthy daughter-in-law for her grandson, so that she could raise enough money to help her second son get an official promotion, and then find a good job for her grandson in the army.

Mr. Zhou Ma was not very optimistic about his sister-in-law's plan: "When our eldest nephew Lu Yuan married his son, he listened to his in-laws' advice and settled on a girl from the priest's family. The dowry was relatively small, but the wife was knowledgeable about books and etiquette, and she was a good woman. A sensible person can be a good family. The elder sister-in-law thinks that this eldest grandson-in-law is too poor and insists on marrying a rich man. She wants to make a huge fortune. But the girl she is interested in is not a fuel-efficient lamp! I’ve heard rumors about that family, but they may not be able to like her grandson!”

Ma asked: "Which family is it? Do you recognize it?"

Zhou Ma shook his head: "How do you recognize the merchant who came to Chang'an a few years ago? I heard that he came from Shuzhong. The couple only had one daughter at their knees, and they raised her like a baby. The girl was quite beautiful. She just acted frivolously, always liked to go out and wander around, and made jewelry and made new clothes every three days. She didn't seem to be living a normal life. There were many young people in the city who wanted to marry her, but few of them seriously came to propose marriage. . Even if my sister-in-law is confused, she doesn’t want to think about it. With the current situation of our Ma family, how can we find a girl who can spend money like this?!"

When Mrs. Ma heard that her sister-in-law had not been able to confirm her grandson's relationship, she didn't ask any more questions.If other people have money, they can spend it however they like. What does that have to do with her?
She was only worried about her brother's illness: "What kind of disease does eldest brother have? From the way eldest sister said it, he has been ill for many years?"

"Actually, it's an old problem left over from that year when I was in the army." When Zhou Ma talked about this, he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed on his face.

When she married into the Zhou family, she thought she could help her brother. Unexpectedly, her husband Zhou Shigong didn't even nod his head several times.That year, when the old marshal of the Zhou family was going to take a group of young generals to the battlefield to fight the Hu people, and the border army needed to recruit a group of civilian officials to accompany the army to be responsible for allocating money, food and supplies, Zhou Shigong ordered her brother.

Although my brother did not encounter any danger in that battle and was successfully promoted afterwards, he suffered from the root cause of his illness due to marching in the bitter cold weather.It's okay when you're young, but as you get older, your condition gets worse year by year.On weekdays, he only needs a cane to walk, but when it comes to rain, snow, or cold winter, he becomes too sick to get out of bed.

Affected by his illness, his elder brother's performance in office was mediocre and it was difficult for him to be promoted. However, he did not dare to take up the job for fear that after he retired, his two mediocre sons would not be able to support the family.But he has been unable to take a good rest, and his illness will only get worse and worse. Until this winter, he finally can't hold on any longer and must make up his mind to become an official.

(End of this chapter)