Do you know that my grandfather was entitled to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple?

Chapter 56 Questioning

People value integrity, and even if someone scoffs at it in their heart, they won't show it.

On the contrary, they will criticize similar things to highlight themselves.

Regardless of whether the Sheng family was trying to climb the social ladder by marrying into the Yuan family, since the Earl of Zhongqin promised to personally come to propose marriage but failed to do so, he had broken his promise.

The Yuan family broke their promise first, and then only sent a junior member, which is an insult to the Sheng family.

People sympathize with the weak. So what if the Yuan family has a noble title?

In reality, they had no power, much less the ability, to retaliate against them in Yangzhou.

Although doing this will make the Sheng family lose face to some extent.

The best approach is to drag the Yuan family down with them and force them to abandon their schemes, since we don't know what they're planning.

Moreover, if the Sheng family pretends not to know and compromises, shouldn't they at least avoid losing face?

Since compromising would not only lead to humiliation but also expose us to other schemes by the Yuan family, why bother compromising at all?

As for simply overturning the table and canceling the marriage, Old Madam Sheng dismissed the idea after a moment's thought.

If this were to be done, not only would the Sheng and Yuan families become mortal enemies, but Hua Lan would also face endless criticism in the future.

For Hualan's sake, this marriage must go ahead.

"My son understands."

Seeing his mother get angry, Sheng Hong hurriedly said, "I'll arrange for someone to spread the news right away."

"Mother, you must stand up for Hua'er!"

Madam Wang wiped away her tears and said, "If I had known it would turn out this way, I would have preferred to marry Hua'er into the Duke of Ling's mansion."

"Alright."

Grandma Sheng said with some disdain, "If we cancel the engagement now, Hualan will only be able to marry into a wealthy family. Are you willing to accept that?"

It's not that Hualan will never be able to marry again after breaking off the engagement, but it's basically hopeless for her to marry into a family of even slightly better social standing.

Marrying into an ordinary wealthy family wouldn't be a problem.

Rulan often talks about legitimate and illegitimate children, largely influenced by Madam Wang.

It is evident that Granny Wang placed great importance on social status and the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children.

If it were really up to Old Madam Sheng to choose, she would rather cancel the marriage and find a good family for Hualan instead.

Even if she comes from a humble background or a poor family, as long as her future husband is ambitious, that's enough.

But she knew very well that Madam Wang simply couldn't accept these things.

This is also why she didn't want to say much about Hualan's marriage.

"I…"

Madam Wang opened her mouth, but was speechless for a moment.

"Alright, you can go now."

Grandma Sheng waved her hand and said, "Take good care of your sister-in-law and nephews and nieces. Don't neglect them because of these matters."

"Yes!" Madam Wang stood up, bowed, and slunk away.

…………

"Second brother, take me to play with Sister Minglan."

The next morning, Feng left the task of taking care of the child to Wang You and went to talk to Madam Wang.

As soon as Madam Feng left, Mu Jie'er pestered Wang You, wanting to go and play with Minglan.

"Why do you want to go visit Minglan?" Wang You asked curiously.

It's said that Mu Jie'er and Minglan had only a brief encounter yesterday, but judging from Mu Jie'er's expression, she not only remembered it but also seemed to really like Minglan.

Mu Jie'er blinked and said, "I just want to play with Sister Minglan."

Well, it was a wasted question.

That's true, a little girl who's only four years old wouldn't have such complicated thoughts.

"That's the backyard. It's inconvenient for you to go there, brother. Let Xiangcao take you there," Wang You said.

Mu Jie'er felt a little reluctant upon hearing this. She wanted to go play with Minglan, but she was also reluctant to part with Wang You.

Just then, Xia He walked in and bowed, saying, "Young Master, Young Master Biao has arrived."

"I see."

Wang You nodded and said to Mu Jie'er, "Your older cousin is here. I can't leave right now. Are you going to wait for me here, or go play with your sister Minglan first?"

"I want to go play with Sister Minglan," Mu Jie'er said hurriedly.

Sheng Changbai is mature beyond his years and looks very serious.

Although they had only met a few times, Mu Jie'er was somewhat afraid of this older cousin.

Upon hearing that her older cousin had arrived, she stopped clinging to Wang You.

Wang You was unaware of these things, and upon hearing this, he took Mu Jie'er and went out.

"Cousin!"

Wang Youchao and others outside bowed to Sheng Changbai.

"Congratulations to my cousin on getting what he wanted."

Sheng Changbai returned the greeting and said, "I've come today to hear about my cousin's experience in the imperial examination. May I disturb you?"

"do not bother."

Wang You smiled and said, "Sister Mu wants to go play with Sixth Sister, that's good, I'm free too."

Upon hearing this, Sheng Changbai immediately instructed Sansheng to find a maid to take Mu Jie'er away.

After Mu Jie'er left, Wang You invited Sheng Changbai inside.

After the maidservant served tea, Wang You recounted the questions from the palace examination and his approach to answering them.

After listening for a moment, Sheng Changbai asked, "Why did you answer from this angle, cousin?"

"Does my cousin also think that the Emperor has no intention of reforming the laws?" Wang You asked rhetorically.

Sheng Changbai was taken aback, then suddenly realized that if the emperor truly had no intention of reforming, Wang You would not have been appointed as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy.

Since the Emperor has already shown his attitude by rewarding Wang You so handsomely, his previous statement was somewhat superfluous.

However, after figuring all this out, Sheng Changbai had another question in his mind.

"Since the Emperor intends to implement reforms, why not take the opportunity to transfer Minister Fan to the capital, instead of appointing him as the Prefect of Yingzhou?"

"Whether or not to reform is the same as whether or not to reform."

Wang You explained: "The Emperor must be conflicted. He knows that the Song Dynasty cannot remain unchanged, but the current situation is not suitable for reform."

Perhaps that's why they favored my articles.

He certainly couldn't say that he was guessing what the officials were thinking when he was answering the questions.

We can only speak in this speculative tone.

After careful consideration, Sheng Changbai realized that although Wang Youwen's article leaned towards reform, it was essentially a compromise.

So it seems that Wang You's guess was not wrong.

Sheng Changbai did not continue discussing these matters, but instead inquired about Wang You's experiences in Bianjing.

Wang You recounted his observations and experiences in Bianjing, including the four lines of poetry by Hengqu that he had copied.

Although Ouyang Xiu told him to keep the news a secret for now, he still had to tell his family.

Otherwise, when it becomes public in the future, the family members will have some reservations.

After listening, Sheng Changbai remained silent for a long time, then said with admiration, "These four sentences could probably serve as a warning to scholars."

"Don't you think these four lines are a bit pretentious and empty, cousin?" Wang You asked with a smile.

Sheng Changbai looked at Wang You with surprise and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Over the years of reading, I've found that the doctrines of the various schools of thought in ancient China were more or less pretentious and empty. The ideas put forward by those sages were things that even they themselves couldn't put into practice," Wang You said.

Confucius advocated education for all, yet among his three thousand disciples, almost none were ordinary people.

Even after the Han Dynasty established Confucianism as the sole state ideology, education was still monopolized by powerful families.

The poor families whom ancient emperors wanted to appoint to important positions were not the ordinary people that most people think they were.

It actually refers to those once-powerful families that have fallen on hard times.

Ordinary people don't even qualify as poor.

Even though the imperial examination system was introduced during the Sui and Tang dynasties, those who became officials were mainly from aristocratic families or from humble backgrounds.

Officials who truly came from humble backgrounds were extremely rare.