Chapter 1203: Chapter 1209: An Old Friend Arrives (2)
Xiang Yun pursed her lips and muttered, “What’s so great about that? I don’t even care about it. At worst, I could just divorce him!”
At the ntion of ‘Divorce,’ Madam Wu exploded, suddenly standing up and exclaiming, “Have you lost your mind? What kind of madness are you spouting? In a family like ours, there’s no such thing as divorce. Do you think our house from the Mansion of Marquis Jian’an has been too glorious these years and want to disgrace us? To make it such that your parents, your elder brother, and younger brothers have to face people without any dignity, and cause your younger sisters to have their engagents broken off?”
Xiang Yun responded anxiously, “Mother, why are you shouting? Keep your voice down. I’m just discussing this with you. I haven’t actually proceeded with a divorce!”
Madam Wu retorted, “Discuss what? Discuss nothing! There’s nothing to discuss. Look around; which affluent family doesn’t have three wives and four concubines? But when it cos to you, it’s not acceptable? Lady Du is just a concubine, a trifle, like a cat or a dog, sothing for n to play with. Why bother with her? No matter how favored she might beco, she still can’t shake your status. Why are you seriously contending with her? If I had been as confused as you, I’d have been driven to my death by your father’s seven or eight concubines and over ten mistresses!”
Xiang Yun said, “Mother, you have been firmly seated as the Madam for years, but, have you been happy? Watching Dad constantly taking concubines and mistresses, can you truly remain indifferent and not feel the slightest bit of pain in your heart?”
Her daughter’s words choked Madam Wu. Married to the Marquis of Jian’an for over twenty years, was she happy? Watching the husband she entrusted her life to, the man she wanted to spend her life with constantly take concubines and favor other won, could she truly remain indifferent, her heart not feeling any pain at all?
The answer, of course not!
Won are emotional beings. Which woman wouldn’t wish for her husband to stay faithful to her alone, to live through thick and thin together, to grow old side by side? Which one could be indifferent upon seeing her own husband doting on another woman? They would feel pain, just like her, experiencing heart-wrenching agony, sleepless nights, tornting themselves until they looked a decade older than they actually were, until one day, when the pain had numbed their soul, they could no longer feel it—only then could it be considered over.
But this was how people of the world had always lived, and unable to change it, she had no choice but to adapt.
When she initially learned that the Mo Family’s younger generation never took concubines, she was ecstatic for her daughter for several years, thinking that her daughter would have a different life than hers. But unexpectedly, her daughter had it even worse. Initially, she allowed the concubines to get pregnant only after bearing the eldest son. Yet her daughter had no sign of pregnancy, while her son-in-law’s concubine in the outer house was already expecting and had entered their ho. She was heartbroken and felt wretched for her daughter, wishing she could confront them to seek justice for her.
But after calming down, she told herself, what good would confronting them do? The concubine was already pregnant; even if she made a scene, the child would still be born, and her daughter would have to continue living her life. If she caused a commotion and relationships were torn apart, her daughter would have a hard ti standing her ground in her mother-in-law’s house.
Born into such a family, they could only be resigned to their fate; divorce was not an option. Society did not permit a woman to divorce; it was a highly shaful matter, as disgraceful as being repudiated by the mother-in-law’s house under the seven legitimate grounds for divorce. Looking across the Great Jin Nation, there had been so few cases of divorce in a hundred years that they could be counted on one hand. Moreover, no woman who divorced ever ended well, either being executed by their family clan or turned into a Buddhist nun, spending their life under an ancient Buddha with a green lantern.
Therefore, many won, when driven to desperation, would rather hang themselves with a rope than divorce and bring sha to their families. If her daughter truly divorced, unless they all hid away in the mansion and never faced anyone again, the spit of the masses would be enough to drown them!
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