Chapter 46: Suspicion (Three Updates Seeking Powder)

  Sheng Siyan, who was reading a book, blinked and said slowly: "Brother? Sister? - Father, Mother is not pregnant yet, where did my brother and sister come from?"

  Sheng Qiye smiled and gently tapped her head, "What nonsense are you talking about? Even if it's true, the child hasn't been born yet. It's a child born to your father and another woman, that is, your younger brother or sister."

  Sheng Siyan gazed at Sheng Qiye with a thoughtful expression, her chin resting on her hand. Sheng Qiye felt somewhat uncomfortable under her gaze and turned his head away, asking gruffly, "What's wrong? Why are you staring at your father like that?"

  Sheng Siyan immediately smiled and said: "So it's younger brother and sister! Are you born of a concubine?"

  "Heh heh, yeah, I told you last time," Sheng Qiye said with a smile, turning his head back. "It's not easy to remember, really."

  Sheng Siyan closed the book in her hand and stood up, saying: "Father, if so, why do you want me to go to the city gate to meet them?"

  "Why can't you accept?" Seventh Master Sheng asked back in surprise. In his view, regardless of whether they were born to a wife or a concubine, they were all his children and he should treat them equally. Moreover, Sheng Siyan was the eldest sister and should take care of her younger half-brothers and half-sisters...

  "According to the rules of our Great Xia Dynasty, the eldest son is revered, the younger son is inferior. The elder is revered, the younger is inferior. Whether it's about birth order or age, none of them are worthy for me to go and receive them." Sheng Siyan's voice was soft and gentle, but her words were not.

  Sheng Qiye was stunned for a moment, and after a while, he rubbed the back of his head and said: "This... this... you're right, but... but... we're all family, can't we just live together in harmony? You've never met your siblings before, so what's wrong with going to pick them up and fulfilling your responsibility as the eldest daughter?"

  "So I'd like to ask, Father, what is the responsibility of a legitimate eldest daughter?" Sheng Siyan became serious for the first time. This person was actually very easy-going and could get along peacefully with many people. However, she also had her own bottom line that couldn't be touched.

  Sheng Qiye stared at her, for a moment not understanding what the responsibility of being the eldest daughter was. He could only stare blankly at her with wide eyes.

  Wang heard, came over and gave Sheng Siyan a sideways glance, then turned to Sheng Qiye with a smile: "Seventh Master, let me have a good talk with Siyan about this matter. As for the day after tomorrow, General Zhou will be leading his troops out of the city, and there may be too many people at the city gate, won't that be a bit...?"

  Sheng Qiye slapped his thigh and said, "It's precisely because there are many people that we need to go pick them up! What if they get lost? They're all country folk who have never been in the city before."

  Sheng Siyan wanted to speak, but Wangshi nodded at her again, signaling her to calm down.

  Sheng Siyan shut her mouth.

  Wang said with a smile: "Seventh Master, why don't you take Siyan out to buy some things the day after tomorrow? You can pick them up at the same time, how about that?"

  Sheng Qiye didn't care whether he went specifically to pick him up or just happened to be passing by, as long as he went to pick him up.

  "Can't you let someone else go?" Sheng Siyan couldn't help but speak up.

  Sheng Qiye was shocked, "But the servants don't know them, only I recognize them."

  "Did you tell them the address?" Sheng Siyan asked, ignoring Wang Shi's gaze. She kept asking questions, but somehow she sensed something else from Sheng Qiye's attitude that made her feel uneasy, so she was a bit abnormal and kept arguing with Sheng Qiye again and again.

  "It's all said in the letter. But your second aunt wrote to say that she has never been to Beijing before. She's worried about getting lost, making a fool of herself and bringing shame to our Shengguo Gongfu, so she wants us to go pick them up personally."

  "Us?" Sheng Siyan asked back in doubt, "Who are we?"

  "Of course it's our whole family." Sheng Qiye was caught off guard and had his original words extracted by Sheng Siyan.

  That includes Wang. It seems that Sheng Qiye also felt it was inappropriate. So he absolutely refused to mention letting Wang follow him, and only urged Sheng Siyan to go with him to pick her up.

  "Originally a small concubine, she still wants the mistress to go to the city gate to pick her up. Hehe, what a big tone. — Dad, are you sure that our family will not have the situation of 'favoring the concubine and abandoning the wife', or 'replacing the legitimate with the illegitimate'? "

  Actually, since Sheng Qiye came back, the doubts in Sheng Siyan's heart have been growing more and more. Those things that used to seem natural and matter-of-course to her now seem to have some loopholes and can no longer be pieced together into a complete picture.

  Or rather, in that complete picture, some parts are missing, so it creates a lot of discordance.

  Wang Shi originally helped Sheng Qiye persuade Sheng Siyan to go with him to pick up his concubine and her family from the countryside, but after hearing Sheng Qiye's careless words, she also fell silent, though she restrained herself from speaking.

  Sheng Qiye let out a sigh, patted Sheng Siyan's head, and comforted her: "Don't think too much, it's nothing. In our household, how could there be a concubine who destroys the wife? Didn't I tell your mother to go pick her up? You can rest assured, I have everything under control. Listen, in two days, follow Father to the market to buy things. Father said he wants to add a set of hair accessories for you, look at your head, it's so bare, not even a single hairpin, really not like the eldest daughter of our Duke's manor."

  Wang Shi didn't wait for Siyan to open her mouth, and instead replied on her behalf, "Alright, Siyan will go with your father the day after tomorrow to buy hair accessories and meet someone at the city gate."

  Sheng Siyan pouted and lowered her head, not refuting him, which was equivalent to admitting it.

  After Sheng Qiye left, Wang sat down under the lamp and sighed.

  "Mother, what's going on with Father? Has he gone mad in the temple?" He looked very unsociable and didn't understand human emotions or worldly affairs, except for his medical skills.

  Wang sighed and said, "You also know. Your dad entered the temple at the age of three and returned to secular life at eighteen, spending fifteen years in the temple. It's strange if he doesn't understand these worldly affairs! Even the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children is something he learned by observing other families. If it were just our family... Alas..." Wang shook his head again.

  Sheng Siyan fell silent. She knew that Sheng Qiye was a secular person 15 years ago when the Sheng family was beheaded, and he was 18 years old at that time. An 18-year-old man, his three views were already formed in the temple, so after coming out, he didn't quite fit in with the people of this world.

  But she still had doubts.

  Sheng Siyan carefully considered for a while, sorting out her doubts one by one, and began to ask Wang Shi in a roundabout way.

  "Mother, you just said that Father entered the temple at the age of three and returned to secular life at eighteen, spending a total of fifteen years in the temple. Then where did he learn his medical skills?" This was Sheng Siyan's biggest question, so she asked it first. Sheng Qiye's medical skills were much stronger than those of Wang Shi. And in Sheng Siyan's eyes, Wang Shi was already very formidable.

  This was a question that Wang could answer. She pulled Sheng Siyan to sit beside her and said softly, "These things, mother originally wanted to tell you."

  Sheng Siyan listened very attentively.

  "This matter, your father also told me after we got married. He asked me not to tell anyone else, but you're not an outsider, you're the only daughter of my mother's generation, you must know about this. Maybe it'll be useful for you in the future." Madam Wang patted Xing Siyan's hand.

  "Mother, Father is back! You're just over thirty, you can still have more children."

  Wang smiled and said, "Let's not talk about that, let's talk about your father." After a pause, he continued: "Your mother told you secretly the other day that the medical skills of the Sheng family are 'passed down to sons and daughters-in-law, but not to daughters'."

  Sheng Siyan nodded, pouting her mouth in discontent, saying: "Yes. Mother's medical skills were taught by Father, and my medical skills were taught by Mother. However, because of the Sheng family rules, what Mother taught me goes against the ancestral teachings, so I couldn't let Father know."

  Sheng Siyan had been studying medicine with Wang for five years and she also loved learning this stuff, hoping to have a skill to rely on.

  But since Sheng Qiye returned, Wang Shi told her not to mention this matter in front of him. At first, she taught her medical skills as a precautionary measure because she didn't know if Sheng Qiye was still alive, just like he didn't know if they were still alive either. He had taken another concubine outside and had several children with her.

  One is for the inheritance of medical skills, and the other is for the continuation of incense. Both are done out of urgency and helplessness.

  So Sheng Qiye, although he knew that Wang would pass on the Sheng family's medical skills to Sheng Siyan, turned a blind eye. Because he didn't know how much longer he himself could live. Moreover, his two sons by his concubine were very foolish and no matter how he taught them, they couldn't learn. He had lost all hope and didn't want to teach anymore.

  Sheng Siyan was exceptionally intelligent, especially in medical skills, and was a master of the subject. Sheng Qiye actually wanted to personally teach Sheng Siyan the Sheng family's medical techniques, but due to ancestral teachings, he didn't dare to do so openly.

  He didn't discuss this matter with Wang, and they both misunderstood each other.

  Sheng Siyan didn't know that her father intentionally passed on the Sheng family's medical skills to her, and she curiously asked: "But Grandfather accepted Zheng Dà Niáng as a closed-door disciple, what about that?"

  If even the Sheng family's daughter can't inherit the Sheng family's medical skills, why should they be passed down to Zheng Dainai, an outsider? This doesn't make sense!

  "Your father told me that your grandfather didn't actually pass on the medical skills of the Zheng family to Grandma Zheng. What he taught her was all superficial knowledge!" Wang said in a low voice, pausing for a moment before continuing with a puzzled tone: "However, Grandma Zheng's medical skills are indeed remarkable, I don't know where she learned them from. Your father even whispered to me the other day that based on how Grandma Zheng diagnoses illnesses, her methods are extremely unusual and not at all similar to those of the Zheng family."

  Got it, asked a question and led to more questions. Sheng Siyan was speechless, she rubbed her cheeks and sighed: "But Zheng Dà Niáng said that her medical skills were all learned from her grandfather, and no one seemed to have doubted the truth."

  "How can others know the truth? Only those who have learned the Sheng family's medical skills, the Sheng family themselves, would know." Wang said calmly, "Forget it, let's not mention her. Let's talk about your father instead. Your father was sent to the temple at the age of three, but your grandfather actually went to the temple where your father was living every year and taught him medical skills until fifteen years later when the Sheng family was exterminated."

  Sheng Siyan was shocked and asked in a daze, "Why did grandfather do this?" It's as if he had foreseen the danger of the Sheng family being exterminated and intentionally left behind his own bloodline!

  The first update is delivered. Seeking everyone's guaranteed pink votes, today there are still three updates. The second update at 2 pm, the third update at 7 pm.

  ……

  ps：

  Thank you for the peace talismans that everyone gave me yesterday. Today, I'm still asking for everyone's guaranteed pink votes in three updates. Can the readers who are nurturing my work set up an automatic subscription? (⊙o⊙)?