Not only was Yuan Shang stunned, but most of the people present only learned the whole story at this moment.
Including Liu He, and the mother and daughter Huan in the carriage.
After listening to Yuan Xi's words, the first thought that came to everyone's mind was.
absurd!
This is ridiculous!
He did not play by the rules at all, which completely broke everyone's perception of how the nobles behaved.
Most of the nobles care about face and reputation, but when a noble, or a top noble, throws away these shackles, to what extent they can do things, everyone has a full understanding until this moment.
Marriage between aristocratic families requires support from both families and mutual achievement, but Yuan Xi does not need that.
He was originally a descendant of the Yuan family, a prominent family. One more member of the Zhen family wouldn't make much difference, and one less member of the Zhen family wouldn't make much difference either. Besides, he had already moved out of the Zhen family.
Of course, Zhen Mi was nominally driven out of the Zhen family as a temporary measure. She might not be unable to return to her clan family in the future, but in order to have a legitimate status when she got married, Yuan Xi specially found a stepmother for her.
Zhen Mi recognized Huan as her adoptive mother, killing several birds with one stone.
Originally, Yuan Xi wanted to take Huan back from Cao Cao in the name of rescuing Bian Rang's widow, but he was slandered by people with ulterior motives as wanting to take both mother and daughter.
Later, Yuan Xi asked Cao Song to expel Huan family, which further confirmed the rumor and his reputation fell to the lowest point for a time.
But Yuan Xi easily resolved it with just one move.
Let Zhen Mi, who had not yet married into the family, recognize Huan as her adoptive mother and take advantage of the status of the Bian family.
This not only clarified Yuan Xi's motive for rescuing Huan, but also made Zhen Mi, whom he married, become the adopted daughter of Bian Rang's widow, which allowed Yuan Xi to occupy the moral high ground.
Because from now on, he was going to treat Huan as his adoptive mother.
In this way, he would most likely gain the support of the gentry who sympathized with Bian Rang, and thus inherit all of Bian Rang's political legacy!
Yuan Shang felt a chill down his spine. How could he come up with such an outrageous idea?
Inside the carriage, Huan hugged Cao Xian with mixed feelings.
Is it that Yuan Xi is such a righteous person?
Huan felt extremely ashamed for thinking that she was judging others by her own mean character.
What is even more puzzling to everyone is Zhang's courage.
In order to cooperate with Yuan Xi, he was willing to change his daughter's family background and give away all the property of the Zhen family. Why?
Isn't she afraid that the Zhen family's efforts will be in vain?
Zhang met Yuan Shang's gaze with a calm expression.
Since the Zhen family has been involved in the Yuan family affairs, it is impossible for them to remain immune and they can only choose to take sides.
On the surface, Yuan Shang, as the future ruler of Jizhou, is definitely much more promising than Yuan Xi.
But Zhang didn't think so.
After she learned that Zhen Rong had been deceived, she realized that Yuan Shang only treated the people around him as pawns to be used and discarded at will.
The power of the Zhen family is insignificant to Yuan Shang, so they may be abandoned at any time.
But Yuan Xi is different. He is in a rising period. Every investment in him is valuable and he may reap rich returns in the future.
Of course, there is a possibility of losing everything, but what business is without risks?
And the most important thing is that Yuan Xi made a solemn oath to Zhang.
According to the promise, Yuan Xi's fate in the future will be linked with Zhen Mi, and the Zhen family will never suffer any loss because of it.
Huan believed it without a doubt, because Yuan Xi swore an oath in the name of the Yuan family's descendants, which was the greatest guarantee.
Yuan Xi had sworn an oath before, and people who had heard it would not think there was anything wrong with it. Instead, they would think it was natural.
Unlike what some people in later generations believed, that only children like to swear, the Han Dynasty was an era where people liked to swear to express their ambitions and attached great importance to oaths.
The oaths sworn by the gentry, especially the children of the big families, must be obeyed absolutely. Not only does it bring disgrace upon the family, it is also a restriction on one's own reputation and morality.
Whether it is the words "I swear allegiance to the lord until death" said by subordinates when they surrender, or the words "I will never let you down" said by the lord to his subordinates, they will be taken seriously. If they betray him later, they will inevitably be cursed by the world.
So in this era, people are happy to swear an oath to let others believe it, and are also willing to defend this oath with their lives, such as Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang.
Of course, there are exceptions. In this era, there are also many people who, for various purposes and reasons, do not keep their promises.
For example, Lu Bu once promised Dong Zhuo that "we are willing to be father and son", which was also a vow. Later, he killed Dong Zhuo. Regardless of whether Dong Zhuo was good or bad, Lu Bu was despised by the gentry because of this.
For example, Liu Bei once broke his promise and deceived Liu Zhang in order to seize Yizhou. He felt resentful about it for the rest of his life and gave a warning before his death: "Don't do evil, no matter how small it is."
Although what Liu Bei did was not a big deal in the eyes of other heroes.
At this time, the world was in turmoil. As long as you were thick-skinned, your promises would be like farts and would be insignificant. For example, Sima Yi's oath at Luo River completely broke the bottom line among the gentry.
From then on, the evil consequences were sown, and the Sima family was cursed to never receive good retribution.
By the end of the Jin Dynasty, the imperial power had been weakened to the point where it was almost on par with the gentry, and the emperor was despised and exploited, which was not unrelated to Sima Yi's breach of promise.
But before Sima Yi did this, the gentry at the end of the Han Dynasty still had a moral bottom line in their hearts that was worth defending with their lives, and for this reason a large number of widely praised loyal and righteous figures emerged.
This is an era of decline and an era of moral deterioration. It is an era of the collapse of rituals and music, conspiracy and intrigue, massacre and slaughter, and a wilderness of thousands of miles of bones.
But there is also a group of people who use their lives to protect the ideals and morals in their hearts. That is why this turbulent era is so highly praised by later generations.
The more Yuan Xi understood the thoughts of people in this world, the more he realized how shallow and ignorant his previous understanding of human nature and dignity was.
Of course, when Yuan Shang designed to frame Zhen Rong, he also made a promise to him.
It was precisely because of the special oath of the nobles that Zhen Rong easily believed Yuan Shang and fell into the trap.
But later, Yuan Shang suffered a backlash. He deceived Zhen Rong about Gao Lan's life and death, and thus lost his credibility, causing the Zhen family to no longer dare to trust him.
Afterwards, Yuan Xi's private actions completely bound himself to the Zhen family. Even if Zhang wanted to turn back, it was too late.
Part of the plan included intentionally meeting Zhen Mi so that people would see him and spread rumors.
Zhang sighed inwardly, she could also guess some clues from it.
What Yuan Xi is going to do in the future is not easy, so he wants to separate the Zhen family, which is actually a kind of protection for the Zhen family.
But from now on, Zhen Mi's honor, disgrace, life and death would be completely entrusted to Yuan Xi.
Now that everyone has figured out the whole story, their hearts are filled with surprise, admiration, sighs and joy.
Only someone like Yuan Xi could have such a unique idea. It seemed that he broke the unspoken rules among the gentry, but it did not touch the bottom line. He even maintained the rules among the gentry in this peculiar way.
Guo Jia had different ideas from everyone else.
He guessed that by doing this, Yuan Xi was actually undermining his wife's family!
As a local lord, he did not seek support from his wife's family, but did the opposite. A large part of the reason might be because Empress Lü relied on her family to monopolize power.
But the question is, why should Yuan Xi consider Liu Bang's position?
Guo Jia's eyes were filled with excitement, mixed with a hint of ambition.
Yuan Shang found that things were completely beyond his imagination.
Now the Zhenfang card in his hand has become completely ineffective!
He snorted coldly and said, "In that case, congratulations to Master Xian Yi!"
He didn't want to stay any longer, so he turned around and walked out of Zhen's house.
Yuan Xi said, "Master Xianfu, don't you want to watch an adoption ceremony? It must be exciting."
Yuan Shang stumbled and almost fell. He gritted his teeth and said, "No need!"
After saying that, he quickened his pace and stormed out the door.
When Zhen Fang saw this, he panicked and hurriedly followed. Before leaving, he turned around to look at Zhang and others, but found that they were all ignoring him, so he had to walk out in shame.
Yuan Xi said from behind: "Master, walk slowly."
Zhen Fang turned around and was met with Yuan Xi's ambiguous smile, and his heart suddenly tightened for no reason.
He had offended Yuan Xi so much that he could only surrender to Yuan Shang and seek his protection!
He ran out of the house, feeling resentful in his heart. "Don't look down on me. I am also the head of the Zhen family now. Once I am awarded an official position, I will squeeze every ounce of the Zhen family's wealth out of it!"
Seeing Yuan Shang about to board the carriage and leave, he hurried over and shouted, "Master, wait for me!"
Yuan Shang stopped and sneered, "What are you going to do?"
Zhen Fang was stunned and said hesitantly, "Sir, I am about to be promoted to an official position..."
Yuan Shang was so angry that he laughed: "Zhen Fang, you really are shameless."
"Tell me, what use are you now?"
"A loser, yet he wants to be a high-ranking official?"
"Before I lose my temper, go back to Wuji County and be an idler!"
Zhen Fang stared at Yuan Shang blankly, ignoring him. He closed the door, and the carriage turned around and left. He felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.
His dream of becoming the head of the Zhen family and inheriting a high-ranking official position was shattered just like that?
He suddenly remembered the meaningful smile Yuan Xi gave him when he left, and Yuan Shang's cold and murderous look just now, and he couldn't help but shudder.
He suddenly became frightened and quickly ran back to the house where he was staying and packed his luggage in a panic.
Looking at the bundle of tattered clothes and rotten bedding, he felt like crying but had no tears. He had thought of coming to Yecheng to make a fortune, but in the end, his efforts were in vain!
But if he doesn't leave, sooner or later someone will come to find him. Now that he has been abandoned, neither Yuan Xi nor the Zhen family can resist.
Thinking of this, he hurriedly carried his bag and walked out of the city.
At that time, there were a lot of people entering and exiting the city gate. The crowd was bustling and crowded in and out. Zhen Fang was squeezed to the point of being unable to breathe. He wanted to push away the people around him, but was hit by the people next to him and almost suffocated.
He was afraid that the night would be long and he didn't dare to argue with anyone. He had to swallow his anger and leave the city gate towards Wuji County.
He was afraid that someone would chase him, so he chose a secluded path and walked for more than ten miles before he felt a little relieved.
As soon as he relaxed, he felt a dull pain in his side abdomen. He thought he had a stitch in the side, so he pressed it hard, but it felt slippery to the touch.
When he raised his hands, he found they were covered in blood.
Zhen Fang lowered his head tremblingly and saw that a large area of his clothes on his side was soaked with blood.
His vision went dark and he felt his strength gradually disappearing. He finally realized that he still couldn't escape!
He stumbled a few steps and fell into the weeds, making a rumbling sound in his mouth.
He looked up at the sky and felt his eyelids growing heavier and the sky growing darker. Finally, in regret and unwillingness, he closed his eyes.