usatvline Chapter 205 The Pit of Fire 8
Chapter 205 The Pit of Fire 8
Fan Mude, the Minister of Works, was forty-seven years old. He married Fan Linshi at the age of seventeen. The following year, they had their eldest son, who was the same man who looked like a pig-headed fat man who had forcibly taken a woman during the day.
Unfortunately, after giving birth, Fan Linshi was severely weakened and passed away just two years later.
The year after Fan Linshi's death, Fan Mude married Fan Zhuangshi. The reason was simply that Zhuangshi came from the Zhuang family in Jiangnan, a wealthy and powerful family.
Fan Mude came from a poor farming family. After passing the imperial examination, he worked in the Ministry of Works. When he was still a nobody in the Ministry of Works, his wife, Lin, was just the daughter of another colleague.
Her family was a little better off than his, but not extremely wealthy.
However, back then, Fan Mude had not yet been tainted by the power and interests of officialdom. He had not thought of anything else, nor did he ever think of getting rich through his wife. He still had the pride of a scholar and was unwilling to rely on his wife. He believed that as a grown man, he should earn money to support his family.
During the period after our marriage, we enjoyed a very comfortable time.
But all of this changed after his wife gave birth to their eldest son.
His wife has been bedridden for a long time, and his child is young and frail. The cost of medical treatment and medication alone is a considerable expense.
In addition, both his wife and his newborn child needed constant care, and over time, they couldn't even afford the medicine, making their financial situation more and more strained.
Until his wife passed away, leaving behind a young child who was not yet two years old, and the warehouse was almost empty, Fan Mude held his young and weak child, feeling lost and helpless.
After that, Van Mude changed.
He learned to flatter and fawn, to claim credit and shift blame, and to pursue personal gain...
The year after Lin's death, his superiors, who thought highly of him, arranged a marriage for him, and Fan Mude married his second wife, Zhuang.
Although Zhuang was only the eldest daughter of a concubine in the Zhuang family of Jiangnan, she was still quite favored in the family because the matriarch of the Zhuang family only gave birth to one son.
After Zhuang married Fan Mude, she brought a generous dowry, as well as a considerable amount of silver notes that the Zhuang family gave to Fan Mude separately.
After Fan Mude became financially well-off, he lavishly entertained guests, gave them money and gifts, flattered and fawned over his superiors, and changed his tune with the wind. He began to abuse his power and embezzle public funds...
His official position rose step by step until he was forty years old and became the Minister of Works, wielding great power. The Ministry of Works was practically his personal fiefdom.
Over the years, he has embezzled and accepted bribes, with the amount embezzled reaching as high as 800,000 taels of silver. This is only in cash and does not include other lavish gifts he received.
Not only did he sell official positions and bestow titles, but he also accepted money to settle cases, allowing criminals to escape legal punishment and leaving those who were wronged or aggrieved with nowhere to turn for help, forced to swallow their grievances.
Because he directly or indirectly caused the deaths of more than 40 people.
In addition, his eldest son, the son born to his first wife, was born to him at a young age. He always doted on this son because he lost his mother at a young age. When he was little, he always gave him the best of everything, and sent the best food, drinks, and medicines to this son's courtyard.
This led to dissatisfaction from his second wife, Zhuang. However, as a businessman, she had seen all sorts of people since childhood, and her family would tell her about business matters.
Because her family was specifically training her to become a proper wife after marriage, she had to learn how to manage and run the dowry shop.
Because of her status as an illegitimate daughter, although she couldn't marry into a wealthy family, she was still selective about who she married.
Although Fan Mude's family background was not very good and his official position was not high, the superior who was on good terms with his family thought highly of him. After meeting him, his father considered it and was quite satisfied, so he agreed to her marriage.
As for the child born to the deceased Lin, he was sickly and still young, so she couldn't easily control him.
She was confident that she could handle children under four years old.
After she married into the family, who would have thought that Fan Mude would care so much about the child left behind by his first wife?
He gets all the good things.
She was angry for a moment, but she quickly came to her senses.
It's just about being nice to him, it's easy.
The clothes were delivered by the box, and they were all made of the best materials.
The food consisted of large amounts of meat and fish, and they were given all kinds of nutritious foods. They drank chicken soup and nourishing soup every day.
We also provided him with good medicinal herbs, which he ate every day to nourish his body.
In addition, he had servants entertain him every day, as long as he was happy.
The servant was secretly one of her people. However, even when the servant was guiding her, his behavior was quite subtle, so it wouldn't seem like he was the one guiding her. Rather, it was the young master's own bad temper; he would yell loudly at the drop of a hat.
He gets angry at the slightest thing, his temper is unpredictable, and all he thinks about is playing. He can't concentrate on his studies at all.
The kind of person who falls asleep as soon as they see a book.
Over the years, the deficiencies from being in the womb have long been made up. She is in great health, has a great appetite, and has become a big, round, chubby little ball of flesh, with such a round, plump face that her eyes are almost invisible.
The key issue is that just eating doesn't help with brain development. By the time he was twelve, he hadn't even finished learning the most basic primers for children, such as the Three Character Classic or the Thousand Character Classic.
Fan Mude was also helpless. He found that his child was really not cut out for it. He could not read books as if they were written in heaven, and he would fall asleep as soon as he started reading.
He wanted to be ruthless, but the child was the only one left by his first wife, and during his most difficult time, the only thing he cared about and thought about.
Then I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Oh well, with him around, he'll have his share of good days. We'll find him a virtuous wife to take care of him.
But everyone knows that his eldest son is a big fat ball, pig-brained and extremely ugly. Moreover, he can't even be described as being incompetent in academics or martial arts; he's just good at nothing except eating.
I'm almost twenty, and I haven't even finished learning the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic yet.
The phrase "stupid as a pig" is not even appropriate to describe him.
He has a particularly bad temper, often beating his servants, and is also a womanizer. What decent family would let their daughter marry such a person? It would be a living hell!
Especially those in officialdom, even those who wanted to curry favor with or get to know Lord Fan Mude, wouldn't dare marry their daughters to him.
Marriage with the eldest son is not an option, but the second son is. The second son is the son of the current legal wife, Lady Zhuang, and he has already achieved the title of Juren (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations) at a young age.
Unfortunately, Lord Fan's second son was already engaged at a young age. Lady Zhuang had carefully selected a perfect marriage for her son.
She understood the principle of choosing a virtuous wife. Although the girl's family background was not illustrious, it was better than most but not the worst either.
The young lady has a good upbringing, a good personality, is well-read, and has many talents. She will definitely be a good wife and a good mother in the future.
To avoid being snatched away by Fan Mude for his precious eldest son, she arranged a marriage for her son early on.
For other families, if they were to marry their daughters to Fan Baokang, the eldest son of Lord Fan, wouldn't that be tantamount to confirming that they didn't care about their daughters' lives?
Even tigers don't eat their cubs. If you push your daughter into a fire pit, who will want to be close to you or work well with you in the future?
Wouldn't people laugh their heads off?
Even if they don't say it to your face, who knows how people will talk behind your back?
People live for appearances; everyone is a figure in society, and who doesn't care about saving face?
Some people even value their reputation more than anything else.