Climbing on the Sparrow Branch – CH 034

Chapter 34: The Traitor

As soon as An Zhi finished speaking, a maid came back with Pei Yu’s indenture, saying that Pei Yu had signed it and asked what arrangements would be made for Pei Yu next.

“Since he has signed a ten-year contract, he is a servant of our An family… no, of me, An Zhi. He can live the same way as the gatehouse’s servants. There is no need for special treatment. I will go to the Pei family tomorrow and make arrangements for him.” After An Zhi finished speaking, she yawned.

She still had to go to the Pei family. Meng Jie had come to complain, so she had to lay everything out.

At this moment, the Pei family was sighing continuously.

Madam Li knelt in the hall and said, “Father, I only have this one son. Since he has come back to the capital after recognizing his mistakes, shall we take him back?”

Madam Li loved her son dearly, and her previous restraint was her last act of tolerance towards this matter. But now Pei Yu had returned to the capital, how could she possibly be willing to see her son suffer again?

Prime Minister Pei was facing his daughter-in-law, so he couldn’t scold her. He glanced at his eldest son sitting next to him and slapped the table. “Eldest, why don’t you help your wife up?”

Pei Zheng sighed and knelt down with Madam Li, “Father, please relax and let Yu’er come back.”

Pei Zheng’s family only had Pei Yu and a young legitimate daughter, and they didn’t even have any illegitimate sons or daughters. The couple put all their efforts on Pei Yu.

“Stupid!” Prime Minister Pei snorted, “Do you really think he knows his mistake and has a clear understanding of himself?”

Madam Li was still crying, “Now that An Rong has abandoned him for someone else, if he hasn’t let it go, how could he return to the capital?”

In reality, the position of head of the family should be reserved for the eldest son. Prime Minister Pei had thought so in his early years, but after several years of careful training, he discovered that the fourth son could understand a problem in a quarter of an hour while it would take the eldest son a month to figure out. It was simply because one was too mediocre and the other too intelligent that he made a different choice.

Prime Minister Pei sighed and said earnestly, “If he had let it go, he would have regarded his bet with An Zhi as a joke and would have returned to kneel in the ancestral hall instead of going to the An family out of spite to sign the indenture. If he knew he was wrong, he would have understood that filial piety is the most important virtue and should have kowtowed to you who raised him with such hardship. If he truly wanted to repent, he wouldn’t have knelt in front of the An family’s door in public and slapped our Pei family in the face!”

Three reasons in a row slapped Pei Zheng and his wife in the face, waking them up from their dreams.

Pei Zheng: “But we can’t let Yu’er really sign a contract with An Zhi. Once he becomes a slave, he will be a slave forever!”

“Even if he’s a lowly person, so what?” Prime Minister Pei coughed a few times, his voice not as strong as before. “It’s because you only let him study since he was young, and ignored human ethics. It’s just right for An Zhi to teach him a lesson. Since he has left our Pei family, if he wants to come back, he must stand higher. Yu’er is a good seedling, I hope he can have a good fortune this time. Don’t kneel, even if I nod to let him come back, he won’t come back. He is useless and proud. If you don’t believe me, just try it yourself.”

Prime Minister Pei said he was tired and asked Pei Zheng and his wife to think about it themselves, and then he left first.

When he returned to his room, he found Pei Que waiting for him.

“What are you doing here?” Prime Minister Pei asked with a look of disdain.

“I came to see if my father is okay.” Pei Que smiled and served tea to Prime Minister Pei.

“He’s not going to die yet.” Prime Minister Pei took a sip of tea and sighed with regret. “If Yu’er had been more discerning from the beginning, with An Zhi being such a strategic woman, and the two of them supporting each other, he might not be worse off than you in the future. It’s just that your eldest brother and his wife protected him so well that he didn’t know the dangers of the world.”

Pei Que: “An Zhi is indeed good, it’s Pei Yu who just hasn’t had that kind of luck in this life.”

“You don’t either!” Prime Minister Pei put down the teacup heavily, “I’m putting this on the table. If you want to marry An Zhi, wait until I’m dead.”

Pei Que’s expression remained unchanged, and he continued to smile. He did not take Prime Minister Pei’s threats seriously. “Father, please worry less about my marriage. If you disagree, I am willing to leave the Pei family. By then, you will have to live for another twenty years and train a successor.”

“Rebellious son!” Prime Minister Pei raised his hand, about to hit Pei Que, but seeing Pei Que looking at him with a smile, he couldn’t continue. “Forget it, forget it. You’re grown up now, I can’t control you anymore. In the future, you’ll have to deal with your elder brother and sister-in-law on your own. I’m old, and I can’t do anything about it.”

Pei Que smiled and agreed, saying that as long as his father did not interfere, he would be able to do things freely in the future.

When Pei Que came out from Prime Minister Pei, Pei Zheng and his wife had just left the study.

Pei Que looked at their backs, his eyes gradually darkening.

~

After An Zhi got up, she asked someone to send a visiting card to the Pei family, but Madam Li replied that she was ill and could not see the guests, and also wrote a letter back to An Zhi.

“Miss, what did Madam Pei say in the letter?” Binglu was very nervous, fearing that Madam Pei was writing to blame them.

“The letter said that Pei Yu is no longer a member of the Pei family. Whatever Pei Yu does or doesn’t do in the future has nothing to do with the Pei family. But as a mother, she hopes that I can do it for her sake and not make things too difficult for Pei Yu.” An Zhi sighed after she finished speaking.

She could understand Madam Li’s thoughts, and it was very rare for Madam Li to do so.

An Zhi: “Go and bring Pei Yu here.”

Binglu took the message and went out, bringing Pei Yu in half an hour later.

Pei Yu was dressed in a coarse cotton coat, the same as the servants of the An family. Even though he looked skinny now, his aura did not make him look like a servant.

An Zhi asked Binglu to show Pei Yu the letter from Madam Li. “They say filial piety is the most important virtue. Your parents gave birth to you and raised you, spending so much effort, yet you abandoned them and hurt them for a blind love. Pei Yu, when I asked you yesterday if you’d been home, it wasn’t because I wanted you to go back and be Young Master Pei, but to fulfill your moral obligation.”

Seeing Pei Yu’s eyes redden, she added, “Pei Yu, after reading this letter, I’ll ask you again, do you know what mistakes you made in your relationship with An Rong?”

“I shouldn’t have trusted An Rong so easily.” Pei Yu replied.

“This is one of them. What else?” An Zhi looked at Pei Yu.

“I shouldn’t have disobeyed my parents.” Pei Yu replied again.

“That’s not entirely wrong.” An Zhi used to think Pei Yu was a gentle and elegant man, a mortal immortal, and thought everything about him was good. But now, she felt that Pei Yu was bad at everything. “Think about it carefully. There’s no need to rush. I have plenty of time.”