We Must Claim This Money
Then, she asked, puzzled, "Why are you asking this?"
Since the Wei Family was exiled, they couldn't inherit the Wei Family's property. However, Lady Wei's dowry might be inherited by her children.
"Since the family wasn't well-off, Lady Wei must have had very little money when she married in; the second master doesn't manage the household and spends a lot outside, so he probably didn't have much money either. So how much money did Lady Wei give the midwife to make her take such a risk? Where did that money come from?"
Xu Xi originally didn't want to say these words, but when Zhao Yuanxun and the First Madam went to investigate the midwife, they learned that Lady Wei had given her three thousand taels of silver and that the Duke had secretly given silver to his two illegitimate sons, which naturally exposed the truth.
But she hadn't heard the First Madam mention this matter, and the family division was scheduled for tomorrow. Xu Xi was a woman and couldn't participate in the division. She worried that if she didn't speak up, Zhao Yuanxun and the First Madam wouldn't know, and the First Branch would suffer losses during the division.
Upon hearing this, the First Madam's expression immediately turned serious.
She was the eldest sister-in-law, the wife of the heir of the Duke's mansion at the time. She and the old lady jointly arranged the wedding of Lady Wei and Zhao Yuanliang. No one knew better than her about Lady Wei's dowry and the poverty of the Wei Residence back then.
When Lady Wei married into the family, her dowry was neither too many nor too few, seemingly no less than others. However, the dowry was filled with worthless items. Since only her wet nurse and a maidservant accompanied her, the First Madam assigned a matron and two maidservants to serve her. With them, the First Madam could not hide the silver hidden in Lady Wei's dowry from her.
The Wei Family was worried that it was too meager, so they spent all their money on the dowry and didn't give her any money to keep as a dowry.
The old lady was very wary of her two sons born out of wedlock and kept them under strict control. Apart from their monthly allowance of fifty taels of silver, she wouldn't give them a single extra penny. They also had no private property of their own. Zhao Yuankun was better off, as his wife, Lady Su, was a merchant's daughter with a generous dowry, which provided him with money. However, Zhao Yuanliang, the son from the second wife's family, had no extra money at all, as Lady Wei herself was also poor.
Lady Wei was vain, loved to dress up, and enjoyed comparing herself to others. Not only could her food, clothing, and daily necessities not be inferior to her two sisters-in-law in the household, but her sisters-in-law and brothers' wives in the Wei Residence could not compare to her either.
Therefore, the second wife's monthly allowance was always spent in full. If it weren't for the old lady forbidding them from buying on credit, they might have accumulated a huge debt.
It wasn't until Wei Qiu's official position rose higher and higher that the Wei Family's financial situation improved significantly. Mother Wei was willing to support her daughter and even gave her two shops as part of her dowry. Only then did Lady Wei have some cash on hand and become much more financially secure.
Upon reflection, the First Madam sensed something amiss.
But Lady Wei is already imprisoned and will soon be beheaded. Even if they find out how much money she gave to the midwife, what good will it do? Can she ask Lady Wei for money back?
Thinking about it this way, the First Madam asked Xu Xi, "What are your thoughts?"
She knew that her daughter was always resourceful; otherwise, they wouldn't have discovered the baby had been switched, and even if they had, they would have been forced to endure the humiliation of Lady Wei's arrangement of marrying Xu Xi into the Wei Residence. Looking back, the way things had developed was entirely thanks to Xu Xi's guidance.
Xu Xi was surprised that Zhao Yuanxun hadn't investigated the matter.
Since things had come to this, she had no choice but to play the Zhuge Liang once again.
"The midwife isn't stupid. She has a large family to support, and she wouldn't risk everything for a pittance. Without sufficient benefit, she wouldn't dare to alter the bloodline of the Duke's mansion—that's a capital offense. So I think Lady Wei must have given her at least one or two thousand taels of silver."
Xu Xi spoke, she looked at the First Madam and said, "Do you think it's possible that Grandfather gave money to Second Uncle and Third Uncle before he died? Otherwise, where would Lady Wei have gotten so much money to give to the midwives?"
The First Madam nodded repeatedly, praising, "What you said makes a lot of sense."
When the Duke was still alive, he valued his two sons born out of wedlock very much. Especially Zhao Yuankun, whom the Duke felt resembled him the most. And since he was the youngest son, the Duke doted on him even more. It's quite possible that he secretly slipped them some money before his death.
The first wife recalled the scene after her father-in-law passed away, when her mother-in-law went to clean his room but found nothing of value.
"No, I have to tell your father about this." The First Madam got out of bed.
During the few days Xu Xi stayed at Fragrant Orchid Courtyard, everyone was busy and didn't see each other. Worried about being overheard, she didn't ask Xu Xi to change her address. But in her heart, she had already considered Xu Xi her daughter since she first suspected the matter. So, changing her address now was remarkably smooth.
"There's a curfew outside now. Even if you tell... Father, he can't investigate this matter. It will only disturb his rest. Why don't we discuss it tomorrow morning? Anyway, the division of the family isn't urgent. It's fine to postpone it until the day after tomorrow." Xu Xi quickly reassured her.
Matron Zhou also advised, "Yes, what the young lady said makes sense. Let's go again tomorrow."
The First Madam had no choice but to give up and looked at Xu Xi, saying, "Then you should go back and rest. If anything happens, I'll have someone inform you."
She was itching to have Xu Xi call her "Mother," but she felt that such a casual change of address would be too disrespectful to the child.
Once the clan members have written her name into the family genealogy, and then in front of them she is asked to change how she addresses them, and her husband and she give her a new gift, that would be true love for the child.
"Okay, sure." Xu Xi had already called him "father," so calling him "mother" was no problem for her. "Then you should rest early, Mother. I'm going back now." She waved her hand and turned to leave gracefully.
The First Madam felt both heartache and relief because of that one word, "Mother."
She lay back down on the bed, thinking about the money the Duke of Sui might leave to his illegitimate son. She tossed and turned for a while before finally drifting off to sleep.
Before dawn the next day, the First Madam sent someone to find Zhao Yuanxun and told him about Xu Xi's guess.
"This is something I overlooked," Zhao Yuanxun said in a deep voice.
When he went to Gusu with Zhu Heyu, he was only focused on finding out the identities of Xu Xi and Zhao Jingli, and didn't think about anything else. Later, when the midwife turned herself in, he didn't see her confession at the yamen and didn't know how Lady Wei had bribed the midwife.
Looking back now, that was indeed a problem.
Zhao Yuanxun wasn't too concerned about money. What he cared about was the meaning behind his father's action.
This shows how much distrust one has of their mother.
My mother went to great lengths to find renowned doctors for his illness. The family had already spent a lot of money on his father's foolish actions, leaving them destitute. Yet, during the years my father was ill, they never stopped using expensive medicines, practically exhausting their wealth. But what did my father do? He only cared about his two illegitimate sons.
Over the years, it wasn't that Mother didn't want to separate the family. She saw how much trouble the two families in the concubine's branch had caused. But because the Zhao Family only had so much land and property, separating the family would truly reduce them to a small household. So she preferred to endure Lady Wei's arrogance and Zhao Yuankun's coldness rather than separate the family.
It's all because of money.
Now that the family is dividing up the property, he can't be so high and mighty as to disregard the money his father gave his two younger brothers. Otherwise, he'd be letting his mother down.