FSC [QT] Chapter 98.2

In this case, the people who would take the initiative to greet her today would definitely not be from the stepmother’s side.

Apart from the stepmother and the second branch, the only one who could be called the master in the Marquis of Changping’s Mansion was the third branch.

Ah Wu looked at the group of people standing in the distance.

Her Third Uncle, Ling Yaoping, was seven years younger than her father. The old concubine who gave birth to him died five years ago. It was said that the old concubine was quite beautiful when she was young and was very much liked by her grandfather, so she was able to get pregnant under the control of the stepmother.

This was reflected vividly on the face of the Third Uncle. He was tall and the most handsome man she had ever seen.

Even though he was only wearing a simple frost-colored robe, he wore it in a kind of free, unrestrained, and elegant manner.

It was said that this Third Uncle usually had no ambitions. He guarded his own small family and never participated in the fights between the first and second branch.

This was consistent with the aloof temperament he displayed now.

The Third Aunt, Mrs. Xue, was the legitimate second daughter of the Minister of Personnel.

Although the Minister of Personnel was only a second-rank official, which was not comparable to the first-rank title of the Marquis of Changping, since ancient times, high-ranking families married off their daughters and the low-ranking families took in a wife¹嫁女, jiànǚ: to marry off a daughter

娶, qǔ: to take a wife / to marry (a woman)

In Chinese, how to say “to marry…” is gender specific. In other words, it depends on the gender of the person getting married. For women, the character used is 嫁. The left side is the 女 radical, meaning female and the right side of 嫁 is 家, which means family. Thus, 嫁 indicates that a woman will go to her husband’s family.  For a man, another character used is 娶. On the top, 取 means “to receive, to take”, and on the bottom part, 女 means female. The combination of 取 and 女 shows that the man will receive the woman into his family.

In a nutshell, if the subject is female, use 嫁. If the subject is male, use 娶. . The daughter of a second-rank official marrying the third son of a first-rank marquis was still a low-rank marriage.

(T/N: Well, I think that it means the high-ranking family will marry off their daughter to a low-ranking family, which is a low-rank marriage. 

However, although the Marquis is first-rank, which is higher ranking than second-rank of the Minister of Personnel, and this should be a high-ranking marriage for the Minister of Personnel, but, their daughter married the third ‘illegitimate’ son of the Marquis, so it still could be considered as low-rank marriage.)

Fortunately, Mrs. Xue had an older sister who was attracted by Ling Yaoping’s character and appearance. Besides, the difference between the two families was not too outrageous, so her parents agreed.

Mrs. Xue’s life was the most arbitrary among the three branches of the Marquis’s mansion.

Although Ling Yaodong now respected Mrs. Fan very much, he still embarrassed Mrs. Fan several times for a concubine when he was young.

The first branch also had illegitimate sons and daughters. Even if Mrs. Fan was generous, she would always be unhappy when she saw the children born by her husband and other women under her nose every day.

Not to mention the second branch. Although Mrs. Xiao Wu is Old Mrs. Wu’s niece, it does not mean that there were no common problems between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Most of the beauties around Ling Yaokang were sent to him by Old Mrs. Wu because she loved her son and was worried that her son would be won over by Mrs. Xiao Wu.

Speaking of women, they were really strange.

When Old Mrs. Wu was young, she was very cautious and couldn’t sleep for several days because the late Marquis gave birth to Ling Yaoping, an illegitimate son, from another woman.

But when she had her own son, she hoped that there would be more women around him. No matter whether the children were legitimate or illegitimate, they were all her descendants.

Fortunately, Mrs. Xiao Wu’s means were superb. Although Ling Yaokang had taken concubines constantly in recent years, he was able to give birth to not many children safely.

In addition to Mrs. Xiao Wu’s own legitimate daughters, Ling Ping and Ling Wei, and legitimate son Ling Zijian, there was only one concubine’s daughter Ling Ying.

There were a few concubine children, but unfortunately, they were weak and died of illness when they were one or two years old.

The second branch had a weak relationship. Ling Zijian, the legitimate son, was conceived by Mrs. Xiao Wu seven years after she gave birth to the second legitimate daughter. He is only five years old now.

He was not only the legitimate son, but he was also the only male child of the second branch. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was the apple of the second branch’s eye.

It was said that this child was spoiled and became domineering and arrogant at a young age. On the way home, Nanny Liu reminded Ah Wu several times not to mess with that little ancestor.

Although with her status and the pity that the Marquis showed to her at the moment, there was no need to worry about the child of her uncle who did not inherit the title, the mere thought of possible revenge by the stepmother and the Second Madam was enough to make people sick.

Compared with the first and second branches, the backyard of the third branch was much cleaner.

It didn’t know whether he had had enough of the grievances of being a concubine’s son, or because he was pitying his wife for marrying down, in the more than ten years since they got married, there had been no woman in the backyard of the third branch except Mrs. Xue.

The couple treated each other as an equal, which made people envious.

Standing next to the Third Aunt and the Third Uncle should be the two children that Nanny Liu mentioned.

The taller one should be the Third Cousin Ling Zifu, and the shorter one should be the Fourth Cousin Ling Zifeng.

It was said that Ling Zifeng had a twin, but his younger sister died shortly after she was born.

The Third Aunt was so sad that her vitality was severely damaged, and she never had a child again.

Children who died prematurely were not buried in the ancestral tomb, but the Third Uncle felt sorry for his daughter who had not yet opened her eyes to see the world, so he named her Ling Su. The grandfather also tacitly reserved a ranking for this granddaughter.

 

 

 

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