Bai Youran entered to see her mother sitting on the sofa with a frown. She asked, “Mother, what happened?”
Zheng Min sighed softly when she saw that her darling daughter was back.
She did not discuss it in the living room but helped Bai Youran back to her bedroom and helped her lie down to rest before she said, “Madam Mo has taken a fancy on you and wants you to be her daughter-in-law.”
Bai Youran paused. She did not know how to feel.
There was some joy, intermingled with smugness and a little reluctance.
The Mo family!
Mo Yunhao was the Mo family’s eldest grandson. If she married him, she would be the eldest daughter-in-law, and in the future, she would be the mistress of the Mo household!
Jiang Hongying’s proposal affirmed her.
A pity that she liked Mo Beihan, but his status was too lowly.
Bai Youran felt terribly conflicted. She thought, if only Mo Beihan had Mo Yunhao’s status. Then she would marry him without hesitation.
“Mother, surely you haven’t agreed?”
Mo Beihan was the one she liked. Besides his background, Mo Yunhao was inferior to Mo Beihan in every way.
Zheng Min nodded. “I did not reject her outright, but I made my meaning clear. I don’t want you to marry Mo Yunhao. At least, not now.
“But I also cannot reject her outright. You are still young. We’ll wait a while and see how things develop in the Mo family. Youran, you are the Bai family’s only young lady. Even if you want to marry into the Mo family, you must marry the Mo family’s successor.”
Bai Youran was surprised. “Isn’t Mo Yunhao the successor?”
Only then did Zheng Min recall that her daughter had been severely ill and had not paid attention to external events, so she said to Bai Youran, “I forgot to tell you that something has happened in the Mo family lately. Another eldest grandson appeared, and he brought four children with him.”
Bai Youran’s eyes widened. “What? And he brought four children?”
What a juicy piece of gossip!
Zheng Min said, “They’re not his children, but they are the Mo family’s great-grandsons. I heard that he has an elder brother who has passed away, and the four children belong to this elder brother.
“I heard Old Master and Old Madam Mo gave Mo Wei a severe beating over this matter. Now they dote on these children. They grew up in the countryside and suffered many hardships.
“The new eldest grandson may not actually be the eldest, but since his elder brother has passed away, that essentially makes him the eldest grandson. And he has four great-grandsons to back him up. If Old Master Mo shows a little favoritism, then no one knows who the Mo family’s successor will be!”
Bai Youran smiled somewhat disdainfully.
“How capable can he be if he grew up in a village? He probably didn’t even have enough to eat. I wonder what he will be like after arriving in the Mo family! Our social circle has plenty of illegitimate sons from the countryside. They’re all alike.”
A person’s ability and resources were determined from childhood by his environment and education. There were many illegitimate sons among Beijing’s upper class. Many of them were even born to first wives who had remained in their hometown. But so what?
Having grown up in the countryside, they suffered from cold and hunger and were uneducated. They acted like clowns when they arrived in the capital.
So Bai Youran did not take the matter to heart.
Zheng Min said, “That may be so, but this one from the Mo family seems different. I heard he is particularly capable at work, and Old Master Mo is supporting and grooming him so that he will be even more capable.
“So! I want to wait and see what the Mo family’s future is like. Jiang Hongying is now looking everywhere for a match for her son. It must be because she is hoping to increase her son’s chances of being the successor!”
