Zhēng Qì De Dà Fáng - 爭氣的大房
An Ziran went back to his room, but he didn't go there to take a rest. His mind wandered while thinking about the current situation of the An Family.
An Changfu passed away at only the age of 38 years old. His wife and concubine altogether had given birth to three female and two male children, which was considered not bad for this time. At least the size of the An Family was still maintained. Half of the children were given birth to by the principal wife, Liu MeiXiang. But when Liu MeiXiang was married to An Changfu, she wasn't able to give birth to the firstborn son.
During the first year of Liu MeiXiang's marriage to An Chengfu, her stomach was bereft of any stirrings to indicate pregnancy. Hence the reason why An Changfu married the Second Wife, Fang Junping, the very next year. They got married in less than two months. Fortunately for her, Fang Junping's stomach had happy tidings and it was announced that she was pregnant Her position in the An Family had even eclipsed that of Liu MeiXiang, the principal First Wife.
That year, An Changfu practically put all of his focus on Fang Junping. He gifted almost everything that he found to be good to her. Those days could be considered her most glorious.
Unfortunately, because Fang Junping was just an ordinary person and An Changfu pampered her too much, she ended up becoming overconfident. She forgot her place and brazenly acted as if she were the main wife of the head of the family. Strutting around with her big belly, she acted as though she had gotten herself a gold medal that could exempt her from death no matter what she did. Fang Junping even had the gall to show off in front of Liu Meixiang, ruffling her feathers as she pleased all the while acting as if she were proud of herself. And so, the resulting consequences were tragic.
Fang Junping's womb had disappointed her. She had given birth to a maiden for An Changfu, who was An Family's Eldest Miss, An Qiaoe. Although she was the Eldest Miss, many people in the An Family thought that she was nothing more than a concubine's child.
In the end, An Changfu, who had had high hopes of having a son, was so disappointed on learning that he didn't get one, that Fang Junping's life went like a roller coaster from heaven back to the hell. She turned back into the lowly concubine in the eyes of the crowd. Since she had acted all high and mighty when she was pregnant, she ended up offending a lot of people. After she had fallen into disfavor, many people in the An Family didn't like her anymore.
Two years later, An Changfu married the third wife, Zheng Bi.
Zheng Bi had beautiful facial features, but her personality was a little sly and toxic. After she came to know that Liu Meixiang had not been favored by An Changfu for over three years, she acted politely towards Liu Meixiang on the surface, but in actuality, she held a dagger in her every smile, with all of her words carrying hidden stingers.
Zheng Bi's situation was the same as Fang Junping's. She also became pregnant not long after she entered the An Family. But unfortunately for her, there was another person who became pregnant at the same time as her, the Main Wife, Liu Meixiang. And so, the both of them were equally spoiled by An Changfu.
Zheng Bi felt that her horoscope wasn't compatible with Liu Meixiang. During the whole time they were pregnant together, she kept picking on Liu MeiXiang. And as a result, her situation also became tragic.
After three years of disappointment, Liu MeiXiang's belly finally lived up to her expectation. It was as if her three years of waiting had been building up just for this moment. An Ziran was born under the expectant gaze of An Changfu. He was born three days earlier than Zheng Bi's child. Moreover, as the first child of Liu Meixiang, he was now considered the eldest son. Everyone knew what that meant in the An Family. From that day on, Liu MeiXiang's position as the Main Wife had become stronger than ever.
Unfortunately, Zheng Bi was unlucky compared to Liu Meixiang. She gave birth to a maiden, and named her An Kexin.
From that day on, Zheng Bi mostly wiggled her tail in front of Liu Meixiang.
Although her daughter had inherited her beauty, her spotlight had been overshadowed by the birth of An Ziran. His son had completely monopolized An Changfu's attention, and so An Kexin wasn't given any attention since the day she was born. Under the nurture of Zheng Bi, she turned into an overly pampered, capricious person, which disgusted An Changfu and made him even more indifferent to her.
One year later, An Ziran's little sister, An Yuzhi, was born.
Because An Ziran was born as the eldest son, An Changfu was still happy even though Liu Meixiang gave birth to a maiden child. 'The love for the house extends even to the crows perching on its roof,' An Changfu's love towards An Yuzhi far exceeded the little to no love he gave to his first two daughters.
By that time, An Qiaoe had begun to understand some things. She knew that she wasn't loved by her father, so she always kept a straight face. Her personality became stiff and constricting, just like that of her mother's.
As for the fourth wife, Wang Qinglan, she entered the An Family not longer than one year later. She had no indications of getting pregnant anytime soon, but she wasn't in a rush. She knew that she was beautiful, and had confidence because of that. It was why An Changfu had married her in the first place. She had thought that she had a lot of time to plan, but who knew that her plans couldn't keep up with the changing variables? She couldn't have expected that not long after she just entered the An family, Liu Meixiang became pregnant for the third time. And what's more shocking was that the third child was a boy. By the time she had finally become aware of the danger, An Changfu had already passed away. It was as if a thunderbolt had come out of the blue and shocked Wang Qinglan.
With the huge amount of properties that the An Family owned, surely the number of those who sought their assets could not be small.
Originally, it was a story about wives fighting among themselves. But because Liu Meixiang was too lucky, before the fighting had even started, the Second, Third and Fourth Wives had already completely lost. Now that An Changfu had passed away, the whole An Family now belonged to both An Ziran and his brother.
Sadly, Liu MeiXiang didn't have a long life either. She wasn't able to enjoy the secure blessing given to her two sons and passed away with An Changfu.
Both of them had passed away early. It wasn't planned nor was it a plot. The true reason involved An Ziran's little brother.
The birth of An Ziming exceeded the expectations of An Changfu. He had thought that he would only have An Ziran as his one son in this life, but in the end, God had given him another son when he was almost forty years old.
The fact that An Changfu was unable to get any sons until he was old surprised him, but in a good way. He was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth for days. Hence, when An Ziming was a full moon old, the husband and wife decided to go to the temple to thank the Buddha and return the after wishing for good fortune. But the result was that they met some bandits on their trip back. Both husband and wife died under the swords of bandits. Two rich lives had ended, just like that.
Soon, the news of them having passed away had spread to the An Family. The entire house was covered in a layer of gloom. With the exception of the three wives, there weren't many other people who were happy about this. Even some of the servants had heard that someone had lost their temper and crushed a lot of things on the floor. Some of the maids were beaten up which caused the other servants to keep their mouths shut. The atmosphere in the An Family was very depressing.
Although the entire An Family could be considered as belonging to the first wife and her sons....
An Ziran's face suddenly turned black. The things that happened to him three days ago was definitely not an accident.