Chapter 7 Feudal Parents
"Master, was it the Heer from the Second House who came just now?"

In the main house of the Cui family, the mistress walked into Cui Zongji's study, holding a bowl of health-preserving soup.

Brother and sister are common names used by elders to address younger generations in this era.

However, "Madam", in this era, specifically refers to the legitimate wife of a wealthy family.

"Yes. In order to discuss the cancellation of the engagement for Sister Yun." Cui Zongji was able to rise to the top with a lot of help from the Yue family.

The mistress of the house is also a capable person.

With the combined efforts of the two, the Cui family will become more prosperous over the years.

Therefore, Cui Zongji would hardly hide anything from his wife.

"Break off the engagement for Sister Yun?" The eldest lady of the Cui family was puzzled.

You have to know that Cui Zongyan had fought hard to get Cui Shuyun's marriage.

Now, Cui Zongyan has just left, and Cui Zongyan’s legitimate son comes to me and asks me to cancel the engagement?
What is this operation?
"According to He'er, his sister didn't want to marry into the marquis's mansion. For this reason, she even jumped off the water!" Cui Zongji took a sip of soup and explained.

"Sister Yun, why is this?"

"I don't know. Maybe he has someone else he likes!" Cui Zongji could only make this guess.

"Sister Yun has someone in love? I haven't heard my younger sister and brother talk about it!"

"Maybe Zong Yan and the others are not satisfied with Yun Jie'er's ideal partner, or maybe Yun Jie'er has even kept it a secret from her parents! After all, apart from this, I really can't think of why Yun Jie'er is so strongly opposed to this marriage." Cui Zongji's guess was well-founded.

"That's right. At Yunjie's age, apart from love, there is nothing else that can make Yunjie disobey her parents' orders so fiercely!" The eldest lady also agreed with Cui Zongji's guess.

"However, He'er is really good to my sister! He is even willing to come to the master to discuss breaking off the engagement for my sister!" The eldest lady changed the subject and praised Cui Ronghe.

“This is indeed worthy of learning for Brother Jie.

The Jie Ge'er that Cui Zongji mentioned here refers to his eldest son, Cui Rongjie.

Cui Rongjie is the next generation successor carefully cultivated by Cui Zongji and his wife.

Ability, no problem.

That is, sometimes you are too rational and seem very calculating.

"Did the master agree?"

"I'm still thinking about it!"

"Consider it? It seems that my brother and I have convinced the master!" After being married for decades, the wife understands her husband very well.

"He Ge'er doesn't think highly of Marquis Fu'an and wants to use the tactic of canceling the engagement to get closer to the current crown prince!" Cui Zongji stated the reasons for his considerations.

"The Crown Prince?" The lady was stunned.

After thinking for a while, the lady continued, "He'er actually thought of this trick. He really put a lot of thought into it. No wonder he was able to convince the master."

“The Crown Prince is indeed a better choice. Fu’an, Fu’an… From the title, we can tell that the king does not want to hand over the throne to this Marquis Fu’an. However, once he breaks off the engagement and gets closer to the Crown Prince, he will be intervening too deeply in the fight for the throne…” Cui Zongji was very worried.

"Yes! It is too dangerous to get too involved in the fight for the throne. Twenty-seven years ago, when the previous marquis of Xuzhou failed in his fight for the throne, many big families in Jiangnan were implicated!" The eldest lady still had lingering fears when she thought of this.

Although following the dragon will bring wealth and honor, the consequences of failure are also extremely serious.

Everyone wants to follow the dragon, but it's just a survivor bias.

"Marquis Fu'an wants to marry the Cui family's daughter, but marriage does not mean taking sides, at least it does not mean that the Cui family will completely stand on the side of Marquis Fu'an. Even if Marquis Fu'an fights for the throne and fails in the future, as long as the Cui family does not get too involved, there will still be something to say. If they were to marry, they would inevitably be implicated, so how could any big family dare to marry into the royal family? But..."

“But if the Cui family agreed to Marquis Fu’an’s marriage proposal and then regretted it, and sided with the crown prince, then they would have greatly offended Marquis Fu’an and would have been completely standing against him. If Marquis Fu’an succeeded in seizing the throne and took revenge on the Cui family, then it would not be outrageous, but reasonable, and no one would be able to say anything.” The eldest lady added to what Cui Zongji had not said.

"There is also a greater possibility that Marquis Fu'an and the successor king will make peace with each other and become grandmasters, becoming the foundation of the Zhu family! By then, the Cui family will be in trouble both inside and outside..."

"Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is exactly what the current king is planning!"

Cui Zongji and his wife looked at each other and made a tacit decision in their hearts.

……

"The Cui family is a large family. As the head of the Cui family, my primary task is not to take the Cui family to a higher level, but to pass on the Cui family stably!"

After a moment of silence, Cui Zongji said this.

This is also human nature!
Generally, those who dare to fight are barefoot or are very dissatisfied with the current situation.

People who wear shoes and are satisfied with the current situation usually think about maintaining the current situation first and passing down the shoes forever so that their descendants will have shoes to wear.

"It's good that the master has made a decision." The lady said softly while cleaning up the cup that Cui Zongji had finished drinking.

"This time, Marquis Fu'an is asking to marry the Cui family's daughter. He wants to marry my daughter. Although Zhen'er is already married and Yan'er has been engaged, it is not impossible to do it. First, cancel the engagement for Yan'er, and then register Yan'er under your name. That way, she will also be a legitimate daughter."

"Although Marquis Fu'an tried his best to conceal it, their goal is too obvious. It is impossible to conceal it completely. They just want the fire lotus that our Cui family accidentally obtained from overseas!"

"Marquis Fu'an is a well-known martial arts fanatic in the Zhu family. Even if he knew that Yan'er was a concubine's daughter, he would probably accept her for the sake of Huo Lian!"

"But if we do that, the signal to the outside world will be too obvious!"

"And the probability of Marquis Fu'an succeeding in seizing the throne is not high."

"In order not to anger Marquis Fu'an, offend the Zhu family and the Zhao family, I swallowed my anger and promised to give away the rare treasure of heaven and earth; in order not to be completely tied to the chariot by Marquis Fu'an, I gave up the opportunity to become the father-in-law of the emperor. As for the so-called condition of training three first-class masters for the Cui family, with the wealth of my Cui family, do we need three first-class masters?"

"The Cui family has given up too much! Now, we are asked to intervene deeply in the fight for the throne just for Sister Yun... Impossible!"

There is no such thing as a fool to become the head of a clan. He just saw through everything but didn't say it out loud. "In the final analysis, it was Cui's fault for not keeping things secret. Marquis Fu'an knew that Cui had the rare treasure of heaven and earth - Fire Lotus!" At this point, the lady's tone was a little emotional.

Because before Marquis Fu'an proposed to marry Cui's daughter and explicitly asked for Huo Lian as a dowry, even she didn't know about Huo Lian.

"This is what puzzles me the most. The matter of Fire Lotus should not be leaked!" Cui Zongji couldn't help but filter the few people who knew the truth in his mind again.

But no matter what Cui Zongji thought, those people should not betray him.

"However, in the final analysis, the Cui family does not have its own clan guardian master, otherwise how could Marquis Fu'an dare to force them like this!"

"Yes! Grandmaster!"

Grandmaster is the eternal hope of Cui Zongji and his wife.

If the Cui family had its own master, coupled with the Cui family's current wealth, the Cui family would be able to become a truly top family.

That fire lotus can be saved.

And a fire lotus may create the next grandmaster...

In this world, martial arts is a topic that can never be avoided.

Don't think that Zhao Xinghan thinks that Zhu Chengwu's practice of martial arts is a waste of time and putting the cart before the horse.

Because there were nearly 30 grand masters in the Ming Dynasty, but there was only one Ming King.

But in fact, the Grand Master can often look down on kings and princes and support a great force.

When the Ming Dynasty was just established, a carefree master appeared in the world - Wudang Taoist Sanfeng. His Jiazi demon-slaying skills made all the people in the world and the aristocratic families know how terrifying a carefree master can be.

It was not until Taoist Sanfeng founded his own sect in Wudang, accepted disciples and taught them, and had a connection with them, that the martial arts world and the imperial court gradually dared to talk to Taoist Sanfeng about the rules.

If a top grandmaster like Taoist Sanfeng cannot represent all grandmasters, then the deeds of the Demon Sect's Dugu Sheng, the Sword Demon Dugu Qiubai, the Heavenly Master Murong Qiudi, etc. are also vivid in our memory.

Whether a force has a grandmaster in charge is the real standard for evaluating whether a force is a top force.

Because as long as the master is alive, no one dares to push him too far.

Otherwise, if the Grandmaster is free from worries and goes crazy, almost no force will be able to withstand his shameless and crazy revenge.

Of course, the premise is not to really anger Zhu.

The Demon Cult was once so rampant, running rampant in the martial arts world and fearless. The Demon Cult's leader Dugu Sheng had almost no rivals among the masters. At the same time, the Demon Cult's grand elder was also a master of the master level, a sect with two masters.

But they were too rampant, and even wanted to change the world and overthrow the Zhu family's rule.

In the end, the three great masters of the Zhu clan's Dazongzhengyuan led the charge, assisted by the masters of the palace and the Jinyiwei, and cooperated with the army to encircle and suppress the rebellion.

The evil cult that had been rampant in the martial world became history.

Although it is said that the Zhu family also suffered heavy losses in this battle, and the three great national masters also suffered casualties.

But no one can confirm the authenticity of the news, whether Zhu is fishing or whether Zhu has any other tricks up his sleeve.

Even if there is an 80% chance of success, no aristocratic family would dare to take the risk.

Because they are already rich enough.

The Fire Lotus is a rare treasure of heaven and earth, and it can help first-rate masters break through to the Grandmaster level.

This was the background that the Cui family had tried every means to hide.

It has always been passed on by word of mouth among a limited number of people.

Unexpectedly, Marquis Fu'an found out about it.

It was also explicitly requested as a dowry for Cui's daughter.

No one understood Cui Zongji's panic at that time.

But since the Cui family did not have a master, it would be difficult to preserve the exposed Fire Lotus, so Cui Zongji had no choice but to agree.

The fact that Cui Ronghe was able to persuade Cui Zongji just now might have been because Cui Zongji was resentful towards Marquis Fu'an.

But Cui Zongji is Cui Zongji after all.

I quickly got over my emotions.

"Cui has already exposed Huo Lian, and I have given up the opportunity to become the father-in-law of the emperor. Now we cannot allow any trouble to arise because of a daughter of the second wife!"

"Whether Sister Yun is dead or alive, we, the Cui family, cannot cancel this marriage."

"Even if Sister Yun died, it would be nothing more than replacing her with a legitimate daughter of the Cui family! If the first and second wives are not suitable, there are still the third and fourth wives... They might be hoping for some unexpected things to happen!"

Cui Zongji's words fully revealed the style and ruthlessness of a feudal lord.

This is the real patriarch of the Cui family - Cui Zongji.

"Zong Yan has only this one daughter. If Jun Jie'er continues to go to extremes, can he bear it?" The lady was a little worried.

After all, Cui Zongyan was well-known in the Cui family for his doting on his daughter.

"He fought for the marriage with Marquis Fu'an himself. No one forced him. It's his own fault that he couldn't manage his daughter. He had to be patient!" Even if Cui Zongyan was an official appointed by the court, so what? He, Cui Zongji, was the patriarch of the Cui family.

(End of this chapter)