Poor Family

"Fifth sister, why is that old man looking at you like that?"

"Because I look good, he thought he was shocked, and then he was stunned?"

Hearing this, Li Qilang and Li Erya rolled their eyes at the same time, looking at Li Wuya with their faces in their hands and smirking narcissistically, speechless.

The three siblings were not far from the carriage, and the old man heard what they said, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Jiang Sheng looked at Li Wuya, his heart was very uneasy, like, too similar, this little girl's eyebrows, the two dimples at the corners of her mouth, are too similar to the third girl when she was a child.

Thinking of the task that was sent out this time, Jiang Sheng calmed down, walked towards Li Erya and the third sibling with a kind smile on his face.

Seeing him approaching, Li Erya took a step forward to block Li Wuya and Li Qilang, and looked at Jiang Sheng warily: "What's the matter with you?"

Jiang Sheng saw the defense of the three people, and immediately said: "Don't be nervous, three friends. This old man is going to Dieling Pass to visit friends. He ran out of water on the way. He passed by the station and wanted to get some water. He is not a bad person. .”

After hearing this, Li Erya didn't relax her guard: "You just need to fetch water and enter the station." After saying that, she was about to pull Li Wuya and Li Qilang away.

Jiang Sheng quickly stopped the person: "Wait a minute."

Li Erya frowned: "Do you have anything else to do?"

Jiang Sheng tried his best to smile kindly: "I haven't been here for a long time, and I don't know much about the situation, so I want to ask three friends about the situation."

Li Wuya laughed and looked at Jiang Sheng: "Grandpa, if you want to inquire about the situation, you should go to the post station and ask the adults. We are still children and don't know anything."

Li Qilang nodded in agreement: "That's right, I have to ask your lord." He frowned and looked at Jiang Sheng who was smiling all over his face, "Don't laugh like that, you don't look like a good person when you smile like that. like like"

Li Wuya took the words: "It's like a human trafficker who abducts and sells children."

Li Qilang nodded sharply: "Yes, yes, just like a human trafficker."

The smile on Jiang Sheng's face froze: "The old man is really a good person." His tone was slightly pale.

Li Erya glared at her younger siblings: "Grandpa, my younger siblings are joking with you. If you want to ask someone for news, you should go to the post station. We have something to do, so we have to go home."

After finishing speaking, before Jiang Sheng could react, he dragged Li Wuya and Li Qilang away.

Looking at the backs of the three brothers and sisters going away, Jiang Sheng was a little silent. Seeing the guy at the gate of the station, he walked over with a smile: "Brother, whose family are those three children? You look really energetic."

The clerk glanced at Li Erya and the three, and said with a smile: "They belong to Li Changsen's family. Li Changsen is the head of the Pioneer Battalion at Dieling Pass. He gets a salary every month, so the child will naturally be healthy."

Hearing Li Changsen's name, Jiang Sheng's expression perked up. Seeing that the man was easy to talk to, he immediately made friends with him. It didn't take long for him to find out the situation of the Li family in Tianling Tun.

Rongcheng.

General Guangwei's mansion, Jiang's family.

Seeing his wife returning to the room with a tired face, Jiang Antai frowned and asked, "Is the second sibling still making trouble?"

Mrs. Jiang glanced at her husband, took a sip of the tea handed by the maid, and then said, "I finally calmed down, but master, you have to tell me the truth, does the second brother really have an illegitimate child?"

Hearing this, Jiang Antai's face turned angry: "What nonsense, don't you understand the second brother's personality? Is he the kind of person who raises an illegitimate child outside?"

Mrs. Jiang: "I don't want to believe it either, but the person I saw on the street with my second brother and sister looked too much like my second brother that day. Apart from an illegitimate child, I can't think of any other possibility."

Jiang Antai was silent.

Mrs. Jiang looked at her husband, thinking of her second younger brother and sister who had become haggard these days, she felt a little bit aggrieved about it: "The second younger brother has a bit of a temper, but she can be regarded as cold and warm enough to the second younger brother."

"Second brother lives in the military camp all year round. It is not easy for her to raise children and take care of housework alone. Even if second brother wants to take a concubine, why not just tell her? Why do you want to have an illegitimate child?"

"Look at that man, he's not much younger than Deming and the others. Isn't that slapping the second sibling in the face?"

Jiang Antai was irritated when he heard it: "I told you, that's not the second brother's illegitimate son."

Mrs. Jiang: "It's not the second brother's illegitimate son. Tell me, sir, who is that person?"

Jiang Antai sighed heavily: "Haven't you heard that a nephew looks like an uncle?"

Mrs. Jiang was stunned: "Nephew looks like an uncle? Master, what do you mean? You mean that man is not the illegitimate son of the second brother, but the younger sister's?"

Seeing that his wife's words became more and more outrageous, Jiang Antai's face turned blue: "Can you stop thinking about your illegitimate child?"

Mrs. Jiang was really a little confused: "But, it's not an illegitimate child, so is it possible that it's still a biological son? Why are you still related to my younger sister, younger sister?"

Suddenly, Mrs. Jiang's expression was startled, and she looked at Jiang Antai in a daze: "When my father passed away, my younger sister came back to attend the funeral in pregnancy. It happened that Rongcheng was raided, and the frightened younger sister had to give birth early in the ruined temple."

"Later, I heard from my younger sister that when Zhengkun was born, a man came to ask for help with his wife who was about to give birth. The brother-in-law couldn't bear it, so he asked his family's servants to help the woman deliver the baby, could it be?"

Mrs. Jiang looked at Jiang Antai suddenly, her face was full of proofs: "Isn't it what I think?"

Jiang Antai leaned back on the chair with a headache: "I don't know what's going on now. I've sent Jiang Sheng to investigate. Let's talk about it when he comes back."

"How could such a ridiculous thing happen?"

Mrs. Jiang was completely dumbfounded. She thought it was her second younger brother's misbehavior, who made a mess of an illegitimate child outside, but she never thought that her sister-in-law would be involved.

"No wonder."

"No wonder what?"

Mrs. Jiang looked at Jiang Antai: "No wonder Zhengmao got married back then. When I went to the capital to attend the wedding, I felt that Zhengkun was a little different from other children. You forgot, I told you specifically when I came back."

Jiang Antai really couldn't remember, and quickly asked: "What are the differences?"

Mrs. Jiang immediately said: "Our Jiang family and the Shi family are all families of military generals. Most of the children in the family like to dance with spears and clubs, but Zheng Kun can't even draw a bow."

"Forget it, Zhengmao and others are tall and straight, but Zhengkun is half a head shorter than them."

"For this reason, the little girl blamed herself especially, thinking that Zheng Kun was frightened when she gave birth to him, which made Zheng Kun's body weaker, and she loved him a lot since she was a child."

Thinking of the tall, dark man she saw on the street that day, Mrs. Jiang's face was very complicated: "But looking at it now, it turns out that the child was hugged wrong?!"

Jiang Antai didn't speak, and said after a while: "We'll talk about everything when Jiang Sheng comes back."

A few days later, Jiang Sheng, the housekeeper of the Jiang family, came back.

As soon as he heard that he was back, Mrs. Jiang quickly put down what she was doing and came to Jiang Antai's study.

Jiang Sheng saluted Jiang Antai and Mrs. Jiang first, and then told them all the news he had inquired during this period.

"Master, madam, this old servant secretly went to look at that old man Li and Mrs. Li, the Fourth Master Zhengkun of the Shi family, there are shadows of both of them in his eyes and eyebrows."

Shi Zhengkun looks like the old couple of the Li family, and Li Changsen looks like the Jiang family, what does this mean? It shows that the child may have been hugged wrong at the beginning.

"By the way, there is also Li Changsen's little girl, who looks very much like the third girl when she was a child. She is a villain."

As soon as these words came out, Jiang Antai immediately remembered the little girl he saw in Xining City five years ago when he accompanied King Rong to search for the old man Tianchi.

Immediately, Jiang Sheng began to talk about how the Li family treated Li Changsen.

"The Li family treats Li Changsen very badly. Li Changsen joined the guard at the age of thirteen."

"Some time ago, the people at Dieling Pass thought that Li Changsen had died in the Gobi Desert, so they sent people to the Li family to report the funeral. On the same day, the Li family reported Li Changsen's eldest son, Li Sanlang, to the guard."

"The Li family also treated Li Changsen's four children very badly. They thought Li Changsen was gone, so they kicked them out of the house."

Following Jiang Sheng's detailed account of the Li family's harsh treatment of Li Changsen, both Jiang Antai and Mrs. Jiang were furious.

Because of the shock and premature birth, the whole Shi family loved Shi Zhengkun more, but the Li family actually abused Li Changsen and his wife and children like that.

"This Li family is really hateful!" Mrs. Jiang looked angry. If her son was wronged and treated so harshly by the Li family, she would really collapse.

Jiang Sheng also agreed with his face: "Isn't it, when the old servant heard this, he was really angry and blocked."

Mrs. Jiang suddenly frowned: "No, how could the Li family treat their son so harshly? Even if it is partial, it shouldn't be so excessive!"

As he spoke, he looked at Jiang Antai suddenly.

"Did they already know that Li Changsen was not their son? Then did the child make a mistake and hug the wrong child, or was he replaced on purpose?"

Jiang Antai frowned, and remained silent without speaking.

The more Mrs. Jiang thought about it, the angrier she became: "Master, what should we do now? Do we want to recognize that child?"

Jiang Antai glanced at his wife, and said after a long time: "There is no rush for this matter."

Mrs. Jiang also thought about it, and nodded repeatedly: "You can't be in a hurry, you have to inform my younger sister and brother-in-law about this matter first, and ask their opinions."

Jiang Antai: "...don't tell my little sister yet."

Hearing this, Mrs. Jiang and Jiang Sheng were all surprised.

"why?"

Jiang Antai raised his hand and rubbed his swollen temples. In front of his wife and the old housekeeper, he didn't hide anything, and directly expressed his thoughts:

"Last year, the emperor added Enke, and Zhengkun passed the top three Jinshi examinations, and now he has entered the Imperial Academy."

Mrs. Jiang and Jiang Sheng immediately understood what Jiang Antai meant, and they looked at each other, but they were both a little silent.

Jiang Antai looked at the two of them, and continued: "Since the new governor came to the Northwest, he helped many people get up, and our family is becoming more and more speechless. If this continues, the Jiang family will completely decline in a short time. gone."

Hearing this, Mrs. Jiang and Jiang Sheng were also a little worried.

Jiang Antai sighed: "Our family doesn't have any strong support in the capital, we can only rely on the Shi family. And the Shi family."

"Because of the Prince Regent's case, the Shi family has always been treated coldly, and with the generation of brother-in-law, the Earl's title will be revoked. If we don't plan for the future, in the capital where power is intertwined, the Shi family will be more powerful than Jiang. Homes don’t fall faster.”

"Now that the new emperor has succeeded to the throne and has chosen Zheng Kun, it can be seen that he is not clinging to the past. This is an opportunity for the Shi family!"

"If it is now revealed that Zheng Kun is not a child of the Shi family at all, all the resources the family spent on him at that time will be in vain."

"Whether it's the Shi family or the Jiang family, we all need someone to speak for us in court. Zheng Kun has entered the Imperial Academy, and he is our hope."

Listening to these words, Mrs. Jiang and Jiang Sheng were very silent.

After a long time, Mrs. Jiang finally said, "Then what about Li Changsen?"

Jiang Antai sighed: "Don't blame me for being cruel, even if you recognize him, the family is just a few low-grade generals, but is there any shortage of low-grade generals in our family?"

Mrs. Jiang completely understood what her husband meant when she said this. Although she couldn't bear it in her heart, she didn't speak anymore considering the situation of the Jiang family.

Jiang Antai looked at Jiang Sheng: "When you went to inquire about the news, didn't you disturb them?"

Jiang Sheng shook his head quickly: "No."

"That's good." Jiang Antai nodded: "Maybe they will never know the truth, it is best for them. Go out for more than half a month, thank you for your hard work, go down and rest."

When Jiang Sheng thought about the situation of Li Changsen's family, he was a little bit aggrieved by it, but the master had made a decision. He was a slave, so he couldn't say anything, so he bowed and retreated.

When he was about to reach the door, Jiang Antai spoke again: "I remember Dielingguan Qin Shouwei has some friendship with our family. I will write a letter later and you send it over. Let him take care of Li Changsen."

Jiang Sheng immediately responded with a smile.

As soon as he left, Jiang Antai looked at Madam Jiang: "Do you think Ma'am is cruel?"

Mrs. Jiang: "I understand that the master is all for the future of the Jiang family and the Shi family." As she spoke, she sighed, "It's just that the child will suffer."

Jiang Antai was a little silent: "You can't let the second brother know about this. You know the temperament of the second brother. If he finds out about this, he has to tell the little sister. Please comfort the second brother and sister, don't let her bring it up again. .”

Mrs. Jiang showed hesitation: "Are you really not going to tell my little sister about this?"

Jiang Antai didn't answer immediately, but said after a while: "Let's do this first!"