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

Chapter 536 Birthday Banquet

Haijiao's plan to approach Tu Rong, the commander of Tongzhi, is still in progress, and the birthday of Mrs. Zhenguo's wife has arrived ahead of schedule.

Although the Zhen Guo Gong Mansion did not celebrate grandly, given the prestige of the Zhen Guo Gong and his wife in Chang'an, even a simple "family banquet" would not be much smaller.

Apart from the men, women, and children of the Zhou family, the only attendees of the birthday banquet were old relatives by marriage and former colleagues of Zhen Guo Gong and his son. The Hai family were invited in the name of their old subordinates. Xie Wenzai, Cao Gengyun, and Lu Bainian each received an invitation, but they were not given seats in the old department, but were treated as old friends and relatives. Even Jin Jiashu, a neighbor who lives in an alley, became a guest. He was arranged to sit with Zhou Yijun and his brothers, and was only said to be the child of a relative.

Emperor Deguang was the nominal son of Empress Dowager Zhou and the nominal grandson of the Zhenguo Palace. Jin Jiashu was now the "nephew" of Emperor Deguang's beloved concubine. How could he not be considered a child of a relative of the Zhenguo Palace? It's just that the relationship is a little distant.

The three survivors of the Wu family were also invited to attend the birthday party.

However, unlike Wu Ke and Wu Qiong, who were arranged in the boys' and girls' seats, Mrs. Gui's seat was quite far away from the main table where the host was sitting, in a small and inconspicuous small hall in the side courtyard. The people sitting with her are no longer the young ladies of the Zhenguo Palace or the imperial edicts of the heads of the Zhou family, but the wives of the descendants of the Zhou family's married women, that is, the Zhou family's grandsons, daughters-in-law, and nephews. Daughters-in-law.

In terms of real identity, Mrs. Gui was originally the daughter-in-law of Wu Zhou, the eldest sister of Duke Zhen Guo, and the nephew-in-law of Duke Zhen Guo. It's just that in the past, she was highly valued because of her status as a survivor of the Wu family. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Duke of Zhen Guo treated her as a guest of honor. At every banquet, they would arrange for her to sit at the same table with the Duke of Zhen Guo and entertain her in every possible way. Nowadays, no one is going out of their way to look down on her. They just restore her original identity and give her the treatment she deserves. However, she feels that she has been despised. From the moment she sat down, she put on a straight face and was sweating all over. It's so cold that people don't dare to come near.

If it were in the past, someone would definitely come up to her at this time and ask her what was wrong and whether she had encountered anything unpleasant?

But now, the grandsons and nephews of the Zhou family sitting with her are all about the same age as her and of the same generation. There are no aunts who care about the younger generation, and there are no gentle and kind-hearted young wives. Most of them were stationed in other places with their fathers, and they came back to Chang'an specifically to celebrate the birthday of Mrs. Gui. They had never seen Mrs. Gui before, and they didn't know her origins. They only assumed that she was of similar status to themselves. They finally returned to Chang'an, and they just wanted to spend more time with relatives and friends, and chat with acquaintances. If they could find ways to connect with their husbands and sons at home, so that they could be promoted or transferred to more promising positions, that would be It could not be better.

The birthday banquet time is limited, and they have to hurry up and get busy with their own affairs. Who has time to pay attention to the cold face of a stranger? At first, there were enthusiastic and cheerful female relatives who greeted Mrs. Gui, but when she saw that she was ignoring them, they turned and left. And after others saw her ignoring others, they would not come forward to ask for trouble.

Throughout the entire birthday party, Mrs. Gui had been left out in the cold. Her face became more and more ugly, but no one came to her to give her a step down. Even if she commented on the food at the table, no one would answer her. Even if she said something unpleasant, no one would come out to refute her. The taste of a one-man show was unpleasant, but she could only sit there, secretly complaining in her heart that the birthday banquet was not over yet.

If it had been before, she might have thrown up her sleeves and left the table. But this was the first time she was allowed to attend a public event after being under house arrest for several months, and she was able to come into contact with so many outsiders, many of whom were members of the high-ranking officials and generals she was keen to make friends with in the past. How could she be willing to leave like this? ! If she misses this time, she won't know when the next time she is allowed to come out to meet people will be.

She couldn't bear to leave, but she couldn't bear to take the initiative to get close to others to please others. Playing and drinking were boring, and the food was not to her liking. She was bored sitting at the table. She couldn't understand what the people around her were talking about. She just hated why her daughter couldn't stay with her. At this moment, she heard someone at the next table talking about the third room of the Zhou family: "The old lady's funeral has just passed away. Except for the people in the third room who closed the door to observe mourning, no one mentioned it. Think about it. Her past scenery is really touching.”

"What did you do to bring her up? Haven't you heard about what she did? It's really surprising! She seemed kind and kind, and she once used money to help the poor members of the clan. Who didn't say she was a good person in the past? What about people? Who knew she had done so many shameless bad things..."

"The money she used to support the poor tribesmen was not paid out of her own pocket, or was it taken from the third house's account? I heard that all of her own dowry money was spent on her daughter. In fact, even if she did not support the tribesmen, In this matter, the mother and grandmother of the old man Sanfang often helped the clan members during his lifetime. This was the old practice of Sanfang, but it was Ma's habit of inviting people to show off his good reputation, which was not the case. She was revealed..."

"Don't call her Ma anymore. I heard that the Ma family convened a meeting and decided to abolish her status as an adopted daughter of the Ma family, so that future generations would not be ashamed of her! She was originally from the clan, and her surname was Song. Just call her Song."

"She is said to be a member of the clan, but she was actually rejected by her parents and kicked out of the house. She has long been dead in the jade certificate of the clan, and the Song family may not be willing to recognize her. Calling her Ma, after all, has been called by dozens of people. Everyone is used to her name. If the Ma family wants to remove her name, I think it is a trivial matter for the descendants to be humiliated. The key is to get back the dowry and inheritance given to her by the old aunt of the Ma family. The Ma family is not as good as now. one Year……"

"They are all the same families who were tortured by her. The three families are almost impoverished, how could the Ma family be spared..."

"Who asked the Ma family to lure a wolf into the house and bring her to Chang'an? If the old aunt of the Ma family had not meddle in her own business, the Zhou family would not have encountered these things... It is really unreasonable! The old woman was expelled by her parents, and she should have been there The Qingdeng Ancient Buddha in the nunnery has only been rich for decades because of the Zhou family. She should be grateful! What did she do in the end? Not to mention collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, she even cheated and colluded with the Sun family. ! If I had known this, even marrying a widow to the third wife would have been better than incurring such a disaster! "

"Are the rumors true? The Sun family burned the queen and the prince to death. Is she really involved? What is she trying to do?!"

"She said she helped the Sun family get the kerosene, just because the Sun family agreed to help her daughter plan her husband's title... It's just such a small thing, what's the big deal? Her daughter wants to be a Marquis and ask men to compete for military glory! There was still a war more than ten years ago. With the support of the Zhou family and the Yingchuan Hou Mansion, her man was afraid that he would not have a chance to go to the battlefield! If he had to resort to such evil tricks, she would just die and let those innocent people be dragged away by her. What to do with the person who went into the water?! Old Wu Tou of the kerosene workshop was originally from the old man’s job. He believed in the old man’s widow so he didn’t become suspicious. He learned the truth a few days ago and heard that he vomited a lot of blood on the spot. Not at night! Unfortunately, he is almost eighty. His children and grandchildren originally planned to celebrate his birthday this year, and even booked a banquet, but now the happy event has turned into a funeral..."

"This Ma family...Song family...well, it doesn't matter what her family name is, in short, the second wife of this third-bedroom old man is really harmful to people..."

Mrs. Gui turned her head in confusion and looked in the direction of the next table, unable to believe what she heard.

(End of this chapter)