Chapter 7: Like Meng Lang a Little More

“From the moment I met you until now, half of what you’ve mentioned in your words has been about your daughter. Did you come to see me sincerely, or are you using me to get close to her?”

He turned around and pointed at Wen Zhaoyin, who was sitting in the main seat drinking tea.

Meng’s mother hurriedly stood up and went forward to lower Meng Huan’s hand, apologizing to Wen Zhaoyin, “Official Wen, my son is used to not following rules at home. We’ve greatly offended you, greatly offended you.”

Wen Zhaoyin’s face had a smile just a second ago, but after hearing this, she put down her teacup on the table, and her expression immediately darkened.

“He is indeed undisciplined, daring to point at his wife-master like this, and speaking so disrespectfully in the main hall. Pei Lan, take him back to Qingzhu Garden to reflect!”

Pei Lan knew well that the head of the family wasn’t angered even when her name was called the day before yesterday, so how could she be angry just because of a pointing finger? She just pretended to escort Meng Huan out.

Meanwhile, Wen Zhaoyin didn’t wait for Meng’s mother to react and left the main hall herself, her sleeves swishing.

As soon as she walked out the door, four guards came in and politely escorted Meng’s mother out of the Wen family home, not giving her a chance to say a word.

After leaving the Wen family, she still believed that she was implicated because Meng Huan had angered Wen Zhaoyin, completely fooled by their acting.

——

As soon as Meng Huan returned to his small courtyard, Wen Zhaoyin followed closely behind.

“I saw that you were displeased earlier, so I put on that act. After all, if you openly quarrel with your mother, it’s easy to spread a reputation of being unfilial.” For men of the court, reputation was sometimes more important than life itself.

She cared about him, even carefully protecting his reputation, showing how thoughtful she was. If Meng Huan were replaced by any other man, he would probably have been moved to tears by now.

But Meng Huan lacked the ‘matriarchal’ mindset. He only felt that Wen Zhaoyin’s impromptu performance earlier was particularly good, and he felt no gratitude beyond that.

He only said, “Thank you for helping me resolve a matter of concern.”

He had originally planned to escape and find the original owner’s family, after all, since he was borrowing someone else’s body, it was only right to take care of their parents.

Now Wen Zhaoyin had helped him find them in advance, and let him take the opportunity to understand the family situation. This saved him the trouble of going out later.

Wen Zhaoyin thought he was still thinking about what had just happened, and didn’t mind his insincere thanks. Instead, she comforted him, “Many families are like this, distinguishing between the legitimate and the illegitimate, and a mother’s love also varies in degree.”

“Don’t be sad about what happened before. From now on in the Wen family, I will never let you suffer any grievances.”

Her words were firm, sounding not like casual talk, but like a promise being made.

Meng Huan blinked, feeling that her words sounded as if she was speaking from experience. “Are you also born of a concubine?”

Wen Zhaoyin was stunned by his question. She looked through the window at the lush ginkgo in the courtyard, then turned back with a smile and shook her head, “I’m not.”

“Then why do you…”

Seeing the conversation going in the wrong direction, Pei Lan quickly came forward with a book, saying, “Young master, this is the dish menu you asked for earlier. All the dishes that the cook can make are in this book.”

Meng Huan didn’t pursue his question further, his attention fully drawn to this book. He quickly reached out to take it, flipping through the pages from right to left, looking to see what delicacies were available.

The text here was similar to traditional Chinese characters, and the menu was written neatly. He could understand half by guessing.

Yesterday when he asked for a menu to order dishes, the head chef directly replied that there wasn’t one, saying that the young master could just order whatever he wanted to eat. The tone was quite domineering.

But he didn’t know what dishes were available here. He couldn’t just say he wanted to eat fried chicken, steak, or lamb spine, could he? The chef would probably lament how bumpy their career path was after hearing that.

So he had Wen Xi find Pei Lan, gave a rough description, and that resulted in this thick menu that arrived today.

He chose several meat dishes, and very politely asked Wen Zhaoyin what she wanted to eat. She only ordered two vegetable dishes before saying she had matters to attend to and left.

He didn’t try to keep her, nor did he ask if she was coming for dinner. A grown man shouldn’t act like a little wife, asking this and that.

If she comes, she comes. If not, he’ll just eat by himself.

As Wen Zhaoyin passed by the ginkgo tree outside, she didn’t stop. Instead, it was Pei Lan who looked back, then turned and advised with concern.

“Just now, you shouldn’t take it to heart…”

Wen Zhaoyin waved her hand to interrupt, not letting her continue. “Two years ago, I still often dreamed of him. A year ago, I dreamed of him less. In the past half month, I haven’t dreamed of him even once.”

With her hands behind her back, her steps were still steady, but her voice trembled slightly, “Pei Lan, do you think Huan Huan thinks I’m a fickle person and doesn’t want to see me anymore?”

Pei Lan didn’t dare agree with this statement even if she had a hundred guts. She waved both her head and hands hurriedly, “No, no, that’s impossible.”

“It’s precisely because the Late Husband loved you so much that he entrusted Meng Lang to your side for companionship after he passed away. He couldn’t bear to see you lonely!”

The head of the family hadn’t taken a husband or concubine for three years after the Late Husband passed away due to illness. Now that she had finally brought someone back, Pei Lan felt that if she said anything about the Late Husband being jealous and not accepting Meng Huan, she would definitely become the sinner who affected the Wen family’s lineage.

Let alone Zu Jun not forgiving her, she wouldn’t even forgive herself!

“The Late Husband had a kind nature. He must want you to like Meng Lang a little more, to be a little happier, that’s why he’s unwilling to appear.”

Wen Zhaoyin finally stopped walking. She wiped her face with her hand, her expression already back to normal. “You’re right. Huan Huan has always been the most considerate of me.”