[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son":3,"chapter-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-2":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Am the Xu Family's Son",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2307780,4510,"Chapter 2: Night Talk in the Marquis","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-2",2,"\u003Cp>“Hahaha”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man laughed heartily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Xu Zaijing was lifted by a pair of large hands; before him stood a tall man still wearing his silk military robe, and from months of observation, Xu Zaijing knew this was his father in this life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Minghua looked at his infant’s dark eyes and the dimples on his cheeks, so like those of his wife, and couldn’t help smiling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Our Jing’er was woken up by his sister and didn’t cry—rare indeed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, he didn’t notice the diaper covering his son had slipped, exposing Xu Zaijing’s tiny dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Holding the child, he glanced at his wife using her hands to warm their younger daughter’s face, while the elder daughter poked the baby’s forehead with her finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He asked casually:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How was today at the Ningyuan Marquis’s residence?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I was fine, but the Marquis’s household—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Shi recounted to her husband what she had seen and heard at the Marquis’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Regardless, the Ningyuan Marquis’s household has passed this crisis—they’re no longer in danger of losing their title or being imprisoned. Did none of the Bai family relatives come?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Sun Shi could answer, a warm stream surged into Xu Minghua’s palm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Madam, quick—Jing’er has wet himself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing their husband and lord’s flustered expression, the three women of the Xu household burst into laughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master, Lady, dinner is ready,” said Xiao Zhu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good, have Duan Ge and Zhang Ge bring their lessons.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Husband,” Sun Shi said with a troubled expression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment’s pause,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaijing, now changed into a fresh diaper, nestled in Cui Mama’s arms, wide-eyed, watching his two elder brothers, who had just eaten bamboo stir-fried with pork before dinner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching his two brothers, eyes brimming with tears, beg pitifully as they were beaten, Xu Zaijing couldn’t help laughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside him, Sun Shi tapped her youngest son’s forehead with her finger:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You don’t seem like a quiet child at all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The infant in Cui Mama’s arms laughed out loud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two Xu girls laughed too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zai’s eldest, Xu Zaiduan, blew on his palms as he looked at his sister,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You two are still laughing? Father has already found you a female tutor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zaizhang nodded beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two girls’ expressions changed: “Father really means it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, she’ll come to the house tomorrow.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The laughter didn’t vanish—it simply shifted to Sun Shi’s face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After dinner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After washing up, Xu Zaijing had been placed by his nurse on the large bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The couple and their infant lay together on the bed,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Husband, at the banquet today, I learned that Sheng’s aunt’s son, Hong Ge, has had another boy—heard his name is Changbai.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm? Who told you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lady Wang of the Kang family—she’s the biological sister of Hong Ge’s wife. Says the baby’s already three months old.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, her—she’s from the Wang family whose ancestors are enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple! It’s good news that the Sheng household now has a legitimate heir.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Husband, our family received no word.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Shi waited for her husband to respond, but he said nothing—only the sound of breathing filled the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Husband?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You know well what happened with your aunt. She was doted on since childhood, entered the palace at seven or eight to serve Empress Jing’an, and when she returned home, she set her heart on that third-place imperial scholar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grandfather treated your aunt extremely well.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course—the Yongyi Marquis’s household had saved the empire; military titles couldn’t be raised too high, so they compensated with gold and silver. When your aunt married, they dared not overstep—the dowry list was only half of what they truly gave.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I heard as a child that the third-place scholar was as handsome as Pan An, and the Marquis’s daughter’s dowry stretched endlessly—how many envied her. But after I married in, I no longer envied her.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Madam—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I won’t speak ill of elders, but it’s too biased. The Marquis’s household is immensely wealthy, and nine-tenths of it went to your aunt as dowry. When our generation’s two aunts married, there was no such lavish dowry left.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, Father was adopted after all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few years ago, your in-laws tried to marry off a concubine-born daughter from their hometown in Dai Prefecture, hoping to secure a dowry for their own daughter; your aunt refused, leaving your in-laws humiliated, and your mother flew into such a rage that day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Minghua sighed, his voice low: “I once resented your aunt, but after our child came, I finally understood Grandfather. If we had only Pingmei as a daughter, how much dowry would you give her?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ping’er is such a thoughtful, good girl—I’d give her as much as I possibly could.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. She’s the Marquis’s only heavenly jewel, with no blood siblings—how could her nature be like daughters from humble families with many sisters?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Naturally, she’s willful, treats gold as dirt, follows her own heart entirely—everything in the Marquis’s household is hers by right.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes,” Xu Minghua sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Husband, after all that, did my father’s call to you today confirm your posting?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Confirmed. Your father used connections with the Cao family to secure me the post of Deputy Commander of the Western Army. Come spring, we’ll take the household to assume the post.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good. It seems the Cao family still remembers my grandfather’s favor. Real authority abroad is better for reputation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thinking about it, though I was adopted, Grandfather still cared for his descendants—otherwise he wouldn’t have sent my father to the Sun family to propose, and I wouldn’t have gotten such a fine wife.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmph, your mother looked down on me from the start.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Back then, at the polo match, I saw the Sun family’s tenth daughter your grandfather spoke of—I knew then, my life belonged to no one but you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Listening to his parents’ playful banter, Xu Zaijing realized he was truly in the world of Zhi Fou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet he harbored a question: why did people say his father’s marriage to his mother was part of the old Yongyi Marquis’s—Sheng Laotai’s father’s—plan for his descendants?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the two on the bed had begun whispering sweet nothings,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing their voices grow increasingly blush-inducing, Xu Zaijing let out a sudden, wailing cry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This boy—really!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Xu Zaijing was carried by his nurse to a side chamber, where he fell asleep in her arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next morning, Xu Zaijing saw his parents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Minghua’s face glowed; Sun Shi’s skin was flushed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the table, Xu Zai’s two elder brothers, Xu Zaiduan and Xu Zaizhang, exchanged glances—then the more spirited younger brother, Xu Zaizhang, spoke up:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mother, you look beautiful today.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two elder sisters, Xu Anmei and Xu Pingmei, nodded in agreement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Shi shot her husband a look and said sternly: “Eat your meal without talking.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(*▽*)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1133,"2026-06-20T10:32:38.675Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","16b335ea0d23052e06c373b6216a540b98cf29f195141642a1a23be7f8cceb9a","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-3","i-am-the-xu-family-s-son-chapter-1",790,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-am-the-xu-family-s-son-cover.jpg"]