護花近衛 - 第1641章 衛昭的分析 - 翰墨軒

That was why Wei Zhao had decided to make the trip with Tang Zhi. If it were only an ordinary birthday banquet, then he and Tang Zhi and the rest could simply go as ordinary people and join the celebration—no harm in that, just a bit of fun.

But if the Hidden Tang family had an ulterior motive this time, then all the more reason for Wei Zhao to go and see what was really going on. If they truly meant something by it, then whether Tang Zhi's family went or not, they would have a follow-up move prepared; better, then, for Wei Zhao to go and see for himself.

These past few days Tang Zhi's mother had been ready to burst with rage, grumbling at home: after all this time, a chance at last to return home in glory, and what does she get for bearing a daughter? A disobedient girl who moves into someone else's house and won't come back! Phone calls got her nothing but vague brush-offs, and there was not a thing she could do about it.

She harped on it to Tang Jucheng all day long, and he could only smile bitterly. He knew that his wife had not been like this when they first married—but time is a carving knife, and it had remorselessly reshaped her character.

Earlier, when they married and when Tang Zhi was born, they had gone to the Hidden Tang family to be entered in the rolls and been given the cold shoulder—but so be it; back then she had not thought much of it. As for a great house like the Hidden Tang family, she had assumed they could never expect any care from it.

But after Tang Jucheng's leg went bad, her character turned mercenary, petty, out for every advantage. Still, there was no help for it—she was one woman holding a whole household up, and Tang Jucheng understood that well.

Especially when she had begged help from the Hidden Tang family—her own kin on one side, her own younger sister on the other—and the letter had sunk like a stone in the sea. That she bore the Hidden Tang family a grudge was only natural.

Of course, that was because she did not know how hard her sister's own life was. Had she known that her sister was shut away in the "cold palace" day after day, she might not have thought that way at all; nothing would have been left but pity.

In the end, it came down to the pressure of life. Had she lived in silks and dined on delicacies, she would never have become what she was now.

So Wei Zhao mostly just laughed off her temper, and never took offense.

Tang Zhi might not yet understand how hard it had been for her mother to raise her alone, but one day, when she became a mother herself, she would understand what her mother had endured.

The two of them went together to the Tang family's new apartment. When Tang Zhi's mother saw that her daughter had finally brought Wei Zhao back, she was overjoyed, her eyes narrowing to slits. "Yun'er, Xiaoyi, you're here? What would you like to eat? I'll make it—barbecue?"

"No need, Auntie, we've just eaten." Wei Zhao smiled wryly. "I came this time mainly to look into this business of going to that Hidden Tang family of yours."

"Ah, good, good!" The moment she heard this, Tang Zhi's mother knew he had agreed, and she gave her daughter a thumbs-up. She thought Tang Zhi had put in a good word for her—when in fact Wei Zhao had wanted to come all along.

Tang Zhi's mother rambled on, telling Wei Zhao everything about the Hidden Tang family, including the cold looks she had been given and how little the rich cared for their own blood.

Wei Zhao listened quietly, never showing impatience. Some offhand remark of hers might well conceal a piece of information that mattered.

Tang Zhi felt rather helpless. Over this time she had matured a good deal, and had come to understand the tangle of feelings and resentment in her mother's heart. Whatever else, her mother might be greedy for gain, but she still loved her daughter; even that scheme to "give" her to Wei Zhao in exchange for money had rested on her mother's high opinion of Wei Zhao.