Chapter 99 - Read The Law
" What - what do you mean ? I raised her ! I"m her father of course , I can still be the owner of this restaurant ? " Su Bai didn"t want to retreat , Lin Yan was his son in law and as his son in law how can he talk to his father in law like this ? So what if the dowry belonged to Shen Shui ? Has anyone thought about how much he had to silently endure trying to woo that woman ? When he was young , his heart was already set on Chu Yin his current wife , The young Chu Yin liked him too . Both of them wanted to get married but Father Chu wanted a betrothal gift of thirty taels , in his eyes Chu Yin was smart and beautiful and she was quite skilled in home skills like embroidery and cooking , so thirty taels were must but Su Bai who was young and poor had no money , but he also didn"t want to give up on Chu Yin .
Later on , his mother helped him - she told him that a new Shen girl just came to town and she was the sister of the Shen brothers who were from decent background back then , if he could woo her he might be able to collect enough money to marry Chu Yin once Shen Shui brings her dowry . The plot was full of dirty schemes but Su Bai who wanted to pursue Chu Yin like a mad man agreed .
He wooed Shen Shui even though she held him in contempt at first , even her brothers looked down on him . At first Su Bai only pursued her because he wanted the money but later on he took it on his self respect , when he saw that Shen Shui dared to turn her nose at him , his ego received a serious blow - Su Bai was a handsome young man of his time and if not for his poor background , many girls would have thought of him as a husband material back then , so when Shen Shui didn"t give him the desired response that he wanted , he was enraged .
He pursued her madly , and finally Shen Shui accepted his affections and married him . Just as his mother and he planned , she also brought a lot of dowry with her because Su Bai "s living conditions were not that good and her brothers didn"t want her to suffer .
Of course that was what Su Bai thought but Shen Shui actually brought that much dowry with her because she wanted Su Bai to have a good life . Shen Shui was a strong and iron clad woman, if she didn"t like someone she didn"t like them at all but if she liked them , she liked them to death - so , back then the reason for her large dowry wasn"t to show off in front of Su Bai but to aid in his troubles but who would have thought that Shen Shui "s good intentions will be taken for granted by Su Bai , after she married him , Su Bai took a huge chunk of her dowry and proposed to Chu Yin .
Together the two of them tormented Shen Shui so much that she couldn"t even take a glance at her new born baby girl and pa.s.sed away because of her weekend mind and body and even if she wasn"t? tortured like that Because of Su Bai "s betrayal Shen Shui no longer had a will to survive .
So even if Su Bai didn"t drive in the knife physically , he did wedged it in metaphorically. Of course Su Bai never thought that he had a hand in Shen Shui "s death instead he thought and believed it firmly that death suited such an arrogant woman the best .
" so what if you raised Wan Wan ?" Said Lin Yan with a sneer " what"s the point of aiming to become a top scholar "s father when you don"t even know the basic laws ! Its clearly stated in the edict pa.s.sed ten years ago that its the responsibility of the parents to raise their children - raising Su Wan was your responsibility and She doesn"t owe you anything if you have something against it you better go and ask you Su Cheng whether or not such a law exists "
The current emperor suffered a lot under the neglect of his father who knew nothing else but frolicking with his concubines every day and night , this was the reason why when the previous emperor was dethroned , his head was hung on the city wall for seven days and six night by the current emperor .
However , even after becoming an Emperor , the current Emperor was worried that he will make the same mistakes just like his father and often overlook his children , so he pa.s.sed the verdict that whether concubines or mistress all the kids belonging to the same father will have the right to be taken care of , the father need to raise his kids no matter what and which situation was he is - yet Su Bai actually sold his daughter , if Su Wan wanted she could have thrown him in the prison for a week .
Su Wan who had no idea that such a law existed was shocked , how come she didn"t know ? Of course she had no idea about such a law because the previous Su Wan never went out of the village and never saw the world., she had no idea that she could actually sue her father but even if she did with her filial and scared personality she wouldn"t have dared to do so . But the Su Wan of now couldn"t be bothered with it , if she knew about it first she would have first married her husbands and then thrown this Su Bai into the prison !
When Su Bai heard Lin Yan reciting the law , his face turned pale and subconsciously he licked his lips , he didn"t think he was in the wrong - after all Su Wan was still healthy and alive what was wrong if he targeted her a bit because of his resentment with her mother ? ( Su Wan : alive and healthy ? You sure have a beautiful imagination )
" you mean to say that I can sue him for not taking care of me ?" Asked Su Wan
Hearing the word " sue " Su Bai jumped , and shouted " what sue ? What sue ! Embarra.s.sing your father is not enough that you need to sue me as well ? Aren"t you afraid that you will be called? unfilial ? "
Su Wan was flabbergasted at Su Bai"s shamelessness , you actually have such a thick skin ? You didn"t give a fart a.s.s to the law pa.s.sed by the emperor , but you still dare to call me unfilial ? " I don"t know about being unfilIal what I know is that you sold me for ten taels to my husbands and because of your lack of? care and neglect my mother died an early death ! Her dowry is rightfully mine , it"s acceptable to the Emperor and the heavens by law then why can"t you accept it ? Do you think that you are above the law ? Above the emperor ? I have given these shops to my husbands to take care of and now you actually came here and stole from him - all the money that you took came from my husband who worked day and night to test new ingredients and dishes and now you did this ? Father - you call yourself my father ? Then have you forgotten that my kids will be named as Lin not Su ? Stealing money from the restaurant when its my husband who worked hard to earn it ? Aren"t you trying to push me to death ?Was pushing my mother to her death wasn"t enough that you want me to die as well ?"