Chapter 267 Sun Zhigao's Last Dance

Sun Zhigao didn't really believe Sheng Wei's threat that he would lose his reputation.

After all, if the noble man that Sheng Wei mentioned was a person who could strip someone of his fame and honor with a single word, then the county magistrate and the judge would probably not have warned him with words or attitude, but would have come to his house directly and forced him to sign the divorce agreement.

According to Sun Zhigao's judgment, it was nothing more than that the Sheng family got to know some big shot, the kind that even the county magistrate and the magistrate were not willing to offend. However, the two men were not unable to cope with him, so they just showed up to warn him.

Maybe there are some personal connections involved.

As for such a noble person, Sun Zhigao knew that he could not afford to offend him.

As for Sheng Wei's "fame is not secure"...

Sun Zhigao felt that he had not done anything wrong to deserve being stripped of his official title, so he was not afraid.

But at the same time, I am a little worried.

After all, there are always thieves who do things for a thousand days, so there is no reason to guard against thieves for a thousand days.

If I don't agree to the divorce now, I'm afraid that this big shot, whom I can't afford to offend, will be keeping an eye on me in the future.

The place where you sleep may be spied on at any time, and you may be caught by someone, and there may be a frame-up or something like that...

For a moment, Sun Zhigao felt uneasy.

"It seems that there is nothing good to be gained from this begging. The net is broken and the fish are dead. Others are just using a discarded net, while you are risking your life and future. It is really not worth it."

Although he had been a dissolute person for so many years, Sun Zhigao's reputation as a scholar was real. After analyzing the pros and cons and weighing the situation, he finally lowered his head.

"Anyway, she is just an unvirtuous and unfilial jealous woman. It's not worth it, not worth it..."

Seeing a hint of obedience in Sun Zhigao's eyes, Sheng Wei understood that his persuasion had worked.

That's right.

It would be great if they could settle the matter, so that they wouldn't have to argue and debate in front of everyone when they entered the main hall. Not only would it be embarrassing, but it would also ruin their family's reputation and would be detrimental to Shu'er's chance of finding a good family in the future.

It would be much better to resolve the dispute in advance.

Besides, I can't just let the women in my family fight with the Sun family while I, as the master, do nothing.

A truly responsible man will solve problems in advance.

Later in the main hall, there will naturally be a "good scene" where the couple are separated and then live in peace.

Coercion and inducement.

Now that the intimidation has been used, in order to make Sun Zhigao surrender at ease, Sheng Wei has to give Sun Zhigao a taste of the sweet dates.

As for the "reward" after the divorce, that is another matter.

At least for now, we still have to offer some inducements.

Then, Sheng Wei spoke to Sun Zhigao again:

"My dear nephew, you won't suffer any loss this time."

As he spoke, Sheng Wei raised the Hua Niang's birth certificate in his hand:
"If you help my family, then my family will naturally help you and keep the mother and child safe."

"What do you say?"

Sun Zhigao was silent for a while, then he slowly said:

"But your family has already sent servants to empty my house..."

"Hey, isn't it better to be prepared?"

There was no trace of embarrassment on Sheng Wei's face.

That’s right. After all, they were taking back their own things, so the ones who should be embarrassed are the Sun family.

However, seeing Sun Zhigao like this, Sheng Wei guessed that he probably didn't feel any shame, otherwise he wouldn't have said this in such a natural tone.

Since Sun Zhigao's idea has been relaxed, Sheng Wei saw the dawn of a perfect solution to Shulan's divorce, so he did not hesitate to spend some money and said:

"As long as you sign the divorce agreement later, apart from the servants and maids that came as a dowry from my family, half of the other dowries can be sent to your home."

Sheng Wei didn't say anything and gave all the dowry to the Sun family. After all, his family was the more powerful one at the moment, and Sun Zhigao was the weaker party.

If Sheng Wei wasn't really worried about the Sun family's character, and wanted to make up for his debt to Shulan so that she would no longer be entangled by the Sun family, he wouldn't want to give a penny.

He is not a kind-hearted person who does not bear grudges.

After years of doing business, he understood one truth most profoundly: there is no such thing as free lunch.

Whatever you have swallowed up over the years will have to be repaid in the future.

When Sun Zhigao heard that he could only keep half of Shulan's dowry, he immediately showed reluctance on his face and felt aggrieved. Not long ago, the Sheng family begged to give him the dowry...

But he took another look at the deed in Sheng Wei's hand and the judge Chen Hehe in the room not far away, and he finally lowered his head.

"Never mind. I have half of the dowry in my hand anyway, so it's not too little."

"Just follow what Mr. Sheng said!"

Sheng Wei was startled when he heard this, and then a smile spread across his face:
"Okay, it's settled. I'll turn around and ask the judge to write the document. I'll go to the main hall and sign my name later."

At this moment, Sun Zhigao was led by the nose to agree to a divorce, and half of his family property was lost. He felt extremely upset. He did not speak to Sheng Wei and walked straight into the main hall.

main hall.

Sun Zhigao walked all the way inside.

Although he did not see the two adults, Sun Zhigao knew clearly that they were waiting for his result in the back hall.

However, before Sun Zhigao entered the house, he heard his mother's loud and angry curse.

"You, the Sheng family, actually dared to raid the scholar's house while my son was away. You really have no respect for the law and act recklessly! Those are all our Sun family's things. Come on, return my things to me!"

Facing the scolding from his mother, Sun Zhigao walked into the house.

He looked up into the house.

Sure enough, I saw that the originally spacious room was now half full of people.

In addition to the Sheng family, there were also elders from the Sun family, as well as several respected old seniors from Youyang.

"Sure enough, everything is ready, just waiting for us mother and son to jump in."

When Sun's mother saw Li, she was like an enemy meeting, with extremely jealous eyes. She regarded her as her mortal enemy who had robbed her of her property. She immediately jumped up and cursed at her, and even pulled her hair to vent her anger.

However, Sun's mother was immediately stopped by the maid next to her.

Even though Sun's mother was stopped, she was not discouraged at all. She didn't care about the presence of so many elders. She just kept staring at Li and pushing and shoving with the maids in front of her.

At this moment, they heard a "thump" sound. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw that Sun's mother tripped for some reason and fell to the ground.

"Puch~!"

Rulan and others, who were hiding in the cubicle and paying close attention to what was going on inside, couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Good, that's a great fall!" Pinlan felt very happy and cheered herself up with her fists clenched.

"Who? Who pushed me?"

Sun's mother suddenly fell down and sat on the ground. Her heavily made-up face was full of confusion. She questioned the maid in front of her, but all she got was bewildered stares and secret smiles.

Seeing no results, Sun's mother rolled her eyes, and then immediately wailed:
"Kill someone, kill someone!"

"The Sheng family couldn't convince us with reason, and they even instigated their servants to beat up my mother-in-law! Help! Help!"

Everyone present understood Sun's mother's temper, and they could also see that she had stumbled and fallen because she was not careful.

Now she was howling here, and everyone in the room was watching coldly.

Even the white-bearded head of the Sun family couldn't stand it anymore, thinking that Sun's mother's behavior had brought shame to their family. He happened to see Sun Zhigao walk in and immediately waved to him to help Sun's mother up.

He turned his head away and covered his face with his hands. "You were so obviously faking a fall in front of everyone, it's hard for us to help you even if we want to!"

Sun Zhigao happened to come in and saw this scene. He felt a little embarrassed, so he quickly stepped forward to help Sun's mother up.

When she saw Sun Zhigao, Mother Sun immediately seemed to have found a backer. She stood up and shouted loudly:

"Okay, okay, now that the scholar husband is here, if you bully me and don't help me, I will let my son take charge of the matter for me!"

Sun Zhigao had already reached an agreement with Sheng Wei outside, and was now just waiting for Sheng Wei to come in with the written divorce papers. Therefore, he did not respond to his mother's "request for help", but instead whispered to comfort his mother and told her to relax.

"How to decide?"

Li took Shulan's dowry deed from the maid beside her, snorted coldly, and said with a fake smile:
"The dowry list is all here! It's written clearly in black and white. The things my family brought back were all the dowry that my family gave to Shulan earlier. They are not your Sun family's property. But your Sun family has spent thousands of taels of silver and many jewelry from my Shulan's dowry over the years. How do you calculate this?"

After Li looked around at everyone in the room, he sneered:

"It's really ridiculous that a scholar like you has to use his daughter-in-law's dowry to pay for his household expenses. It's really out of your reach!"

Li had endured it for many years so that Shulan could live a good life in the Sun family. Now, she could finally vent the frustration in her heart, and she looked extremely refreshed.

"You fart!"

Sun Zhigao was a very proud person. Originally, he just wanted to wait for Sheng Wei to come in and then divorce her. But when he heard Li "slandering" him for embezzling his wife's dowry, if this news spread, he would probably become a laughing stock in the literati circle.

But reasoning didn't make sense, so he just yelled:
"She married into my family, so she will be a member of my Sun family in life and a ghost of my Sun family in death. Her things naturally belong to my Sun family. Whether it's yours or mine, all these things are surnamed Sun!"

"Oh? When you come to our house, isn't your favorite thing to say that you despise money?"

Li was on full fire today, and immediately said sarcastically:

"If you don't value money, then why are you holding on to our family's wealth and won't let go? Haven't you heard that seeing things reminds you of people? Or is it..."

"You are just saying nice things, but in your heart you value money more than anything else? Tsk tsk, I didn't expect you to be so vulgar."

Sun Zhigao was blocked by Li's words and was unable to speak for a moment.

If you agree to this, you won’t be able to get back even half of your dowry.

If I don't accept it, I'm afraid my reputation in Youyang and even in Jinling will be ruined.

After all, literati value the reputation of being noble the most.

No matter how much you love money behind people's backs, you must still maintain the "literary character" in front of others.

Even if it's just pretending.

Even others know you are pretending.

Just when Sun Zhigao was in trouble, Sheng Wei came in with a divorce letter, followed by the judge Chen Hehe in plain clothes.

For a moment, Sun Zhigao seemed to see the dawn of hope.

'Since the outcome is already decided, maybe we can take this opportunity to spread a good reputation for being unmoved by worldly things.'

So Sun Zhigao immediately stood up straight, straightened his back, looked at everyone in the room with disdainful eyes, and said loudly:
"Okay! Today I will let you know how noble I, Sun Zhigao, am!"

"Let's divorce, my Sun family doesn't want your family's wealth!"

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Shengda and Mrs. Li at the table were both stunned.

"You agreed so readily?"

At this time, Sheng Wei had a general idea of ​​what was going on, so he followed Sun Zhigao's stage and continued to perform.

"Hey! We also understand the difficulties your Sun family is facing. After all, it is rare to have an heir..."

Sheng Wei pretended to be in deep thought, then said:
"Then why don't we both take a step back? If you agree to divorce, my family will give you half of the dowry. This will also complete the marriage between the two families and will not hurt the harmony in the future. What do you think?"

In order not to regret his character setting, Sun Zhigao just paused and pretended to think, and at this time Sun's mother made an excellent assist:

"No! How can this be possible! You can't keep any of the dowry, you have to return it all to me!"

Sun Zhigao was delighted when he saw this.

So he quickly pulled the grandson's mother's sleeve and tried to persuade her earnestly, saying things like "people like us don't like worldly goods" and "it's good to have no worldly possessions, so that you can study hard in the future"...

After this long speech, even Sun's mother was a little confused.

Is this still the son I have raised for so many years?

How come you become like a different person after just a while?

Sun Zhigao continued to talk, and after Sun's mother calmed down (bewildered), he immediately said:

"Okay! Half and half. Although I don't value money, I can't let my old mother live on laundry!"

Only then did Sun's mother react.

However, since her son had already made such a big promise and seemed to be determined to reform himself and study hard, Sun's mother couldn't say anything else. In the end, she could only turn her attention to the dowry list in Li's hand.

Losses are inevitable, and at the moment I just want to pick some good things and suffer less losses.

Sun Zhigao also saw his mother's plan.

The so-called ferrying to the shore, the show must also have a beginning and an end, not to mention that the county magistrate and the judge were both present at the moment.

So Sun Zhigao took the lead, took the dowry list from Li's hand, and tore it in half without even looking at it.

He handed half to Sun's mother and threw the other half back with disdain.

It fully demonstrates the character of literati.

If the Sheng family and Sun Zhigao had not been dealing with each other for so many years and knew him inside and out, they would have been intimidated by his behavior.

Li took out a few banknotes from his sleeve and said:
"The servants who were married off to your family were all born in our family. Now that we have divorced, we are two families, so it would be inappropriate to separate their flesh and blood. In this way..."

At this moment, Sun Zhigao couldn't help but secretly congratulate himself for his foresight again.

He immediately raised his head, without even looking at the denomination of the banknote in Li's hand, and said arrogantly:

"Even people like you can't bear it, how can I bear it? Don't use money to humiliate me, take it back!"

Li was stunned again.

She looked at the several hundred taels of silver in her hand, then looked at Sun Zhigao who was lying on his back, and his mother who seemed to be hesitant to speak beside him.

'what happened? ’

Sheng Wei was hiding his achievements and fame at this moment. He just smiled faintly, asked Li to take the banknote back, and then placed the written divorce documents on the desk.

The judge glanced at both sides.

"Come, now that we have discussed it, please sign the agreement."

Sun Zhigao was naturally the first to sign.

He wrote beautiful characters in a vigorous and graceful manner, with much of the calmness and ease he had when he passed the imperial examination, and his writing was as if inspired by god.

Finally, he pressed another fingerprint.

"Where is your daughter?" The judge turned and looked at Li.

Li naturally didn't want Shulan to meet Sun Zhigao again. It would be best if the two of them were separated from each other and never met again, so she hurriedly said:
"My little girl is not feeling well, so I, as her mother, will take care of her."

Just at this time.

There was a sudden crashing sound from the next compartment.

Looking closely, it was Shulan who suddenly walked out, with a determined look on her bitter face.

"Shulan, what are you doing out here?" Li hurried forward and pushed Shulan back.

"Mother, please let your daughter write the divorce papers herself!"

(End of this chapter)