Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

This Second Master Jiang worked very hard, so he did very well in the exam and was granted the highest title a concubine's son could receive: Duke of the State. This title was two ranks higher than that of Third Master Jiang, the younger brother of Prince Qinghe. If one couldn't get into Prince Qinghe's bed, getting into Second Master Jiang's bed would be good too. In the future, when his children take the imperial examinations, as a concubine's son, although he wouldn't get a guaranteed title, as long as he passed, he would have the title of General of the State. It was quite easy for members of the imperial family to take the imperial examinations. Even if their own children didn't do exceptionally well, just passing should be enough to get a title. That way, they would have status when they and their sons moved out of the family. That was naturally better than marrying a servant and being a servant for generations. And if he had a daughter, a concubine's daughter could also have the title of Lady of the Township. How wonderful was that?

Therefore, Linlang noticed that the maidservant beside Prince Qinghe was making a move to seduce Master Jiang.

There's nothing wrong with flirting; after all, who doesn't want to climb the ladder?

However, if they harbor ulterior motives and intend to harm the lineage of the Prince of Qinghe, then that's a different story.

Meanwhile, Consort Wu, the birth mother of Second Master Jiang, had long been envious of Consort Qinghe, who used her power as the head of the household to siphon money into her own private coffers. She often complained to Second Master Jiang that Consort Qinghe had taken all the money in the household, and that they were pitiful because the prince had died early and no one was there to support them, so they couldn't get any money.

Seeing that some of the maids around Prince Qinghe were trying to seduce Second Master Jiang, he immediately got an idea. He hinted to the maids that her son was a good person and that as long as they made some contributions, he would definitely take them as concubines in the future and let them have children. The premise was that they had to find a way to steal some things from the public funds so that their family could save more money in the future. He said that this was also for the good of their future children.

The reason why these maids were allowed to steal things was naturally because the senior maids around Prince Qinghe had high status and access to these storerooms. After all, when Prince Qinghe needed something, he would sometimes have his maids take it from the storeroom.

The thought of becoming family with Second Master Jiang in the future, and that stealing things from the Qinghe Prince's Mansion into the Second Branch would be like making money for themselves, genuinely moved these maids. So they started helping Consort Wu steal things from the Second Branch.

Did Master Jiang know about this? How could he not know? After all, his mother would definitely consult him before making any decisions and wouldn't dare to act on her own. However, since this matter was beneficial to him, he pretended not to know and let the maids think that it was all because of his mother's instigation. That way, if he didn't want to take these maids as concubines in the future, he could renege on the agreement.

Furthermore, if they were discovered, his mother could take all the blame, and he could absolve himself of responsibility by claiming ignorance. Therefore, he didn't show any involvement when he let the two maids steal; it was all his mother's doing. At most, he would get closer to the two maids, making them think that he liked them, so that they would work even harder for their family.

This mother and son, along with the two maids, were plundering the Qinghe Prince's mansion's treasury. Naturally, Linlang didn't want to see this. After all, the Qinghe Dowager Consort was the Qinghe Prince's mother, and she could tolerate her taking money. But the Consort Wu and Second Master Jiang weren't even family, yet they were also taking money from their family. Linlang naturally didn't want to tolerate it. After all, if the Qinghe Prince was alright, she would be staying in this mansion for a long time; it was her home. Naturally, she didn't want to see her family's things being taken away by outsiders.

Don't say the two are brothers. When the old prince died, the property had already been divided. Now, Second Master Jiang is still in the mansion, but it's just a case of separating the family but not leaving. He plans to leave the mansion after he gets married. In fact, the two families have already had their separate meals. Consort Wu has also been living in the same courtyard of the mansion with her son for a long time. Their food, clothing, and housing are separate from the mansion. So Consort Wu's resentment towards Consort Qinghe for making money only harms the interests of Prince Qinghe. It has nothing to do with her. The reason she is resentful is simply because she is jealous that Consort Qinghe can't get any benefits.

Since the family had already separated, when Consort Wu asked two maids from Prince Qinghe's side to give her things from the Prince's mansion, it was actually stealing from the Prince's mansion. Naturally, Linlang would not tolerate thieves.

So Linlang then revealed the matter to the Dowager Princess of Qinghe and the Prince of Qinghe.

The main reason was that Linlang was afraid the Prince of Qinghe wouldn't handle the matter, so she exposed it to the Dowager Consort of Qinghe. Although the Dowager Consort of Qinghe was taking things from her own private possessions, in her view, it was just transferring things from one hand to the other, and it didn't matter since they were all her own things. But if outsiders dared to take her things, she would definitely jump three feet high.

Sure enough, Consort Qinghe received an anonymous tip-off, saying that two maids in her son's room, Lichun and Guyu, had gotten involved with Second Master Jiang. Consort Wu and Second Master Jiang then ordered them to steal things from the storeroom for the second branch of the family, and listed the items they had stolen.

When the Dowager Consort Qinghe went to check the storeroom, she found that the items were indeed missing. Enraged, she immediately led a group to search the home of the Consort Wu. Sure enough, they found the items from the storeroom.

She immediately forced Consort Wu to hand over two thousand taels of silver to settle the matter, otherwise she would send her to the Imperial Clan Court to utterly humiliate her.

Consort Wu was a respectable person, so she dared not let the matter be exposed. Therefore, she could only swallow her anger and give Consort Qinghe two thousand taels of silver to settle the matter privately.

She was furious, wondering how the matter had been exposed. They had done it quite discreetly; it must have been those two maids who were clumsy and hadn't done it properly. She was immediately very dissatisfied with those two maids.

Now look what happened! Not only did she not get any benefit from the Prince of Qinghe's mansion, she even lost two thousand yuan. It's infuriating!

The Dowager Princess Qinghe felt that she could no longer keep the mother and son in the mansion, so she quickly arranged for Second Master Jiang to get married and kicked the mother and son out.

As for the Beginning of Spring and Grain Rain, Consort Qinghe also sent them to the second branch of the household. After all, if they were sent to the Imperial Clan Court for investigation, the matter would be exposed and would no longer be considered a private settlement. However, Consort Qinghe did not want to let them get away with it so easily. If she sold them off directly, outsiders would not know the truth and would think that she had sold her son's head maid for no reason, making her seem heartless as a mistress. So she sent them to the second branch of the household, saying that the two of them wanted to go there. In this way, her sending them there could be called fulfilling their wishes.

The reason the Dowager Consort Qinghe sent the two away was naturally because she knew they wouldn't have a good ending. After all, they hadn't successfully completed the task entrusted to them by Consort Wu and Second Master Jiang; they'd been caught stealing, causing Consort Wu and Second Master Jiang to not only fail to gain anything but also lose two thousand taels of silver. The mother and son were probably furious. Now that the Beginning of Spring and Grain Rain had passed, what good could they possibly expect? They were bound to be unlucky. Consort Wu might even sell them off to recoup some of their losses, since these two were quite handsome and could fetch a good price.

If Consort Wu really does that, then the bad reputation will fall on her.

If Consort Wu doesn't get rid of the two, then looking at them will be unpleasant. In any case, it's time to deal with these people.

Linlang was quite satisfied with the handling of the Qinghe Dowager, thinking that this was good enough. (End of Chapter)