Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Old Master Zhou explained that the introduction to the situation in the mansion would be given by the former head steward and his wife. The head steward would speak for the men, and the head steward's wife would speak for the women. After understanding the situation, both sides would then verify that what they said was true. If it weren't for the strict distinction between men and women in a large family, otherwise, in the countryside, only the head steward would need to give the introduction.

The reason for doing this was to prevent the stewards of the mansion from giving everyone a one-on-one introduction to the situation there. They worried that if the people in the mansion were to pull some tricks, everyone would hear different things.

Hearing that the new master wanted to know about the current situation in the manor, the head steward and his wife, regardless of what they were thinking, naturally gave him a warm introduction.

Linlang and the others then heard the head housekeeper, with a beaming smile, introduce them: "Currently, there are more than a dozen masters and mistresses in the manor..."

Linlang's younger sister was surprised to hear this and said, "Didn't they say that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion had no heir? How come there's still a master?"

Although she was the youngest child in the main branch, she was still twelve years old. She could understand what "extinction of the lineage" meant. Didn't it mean that everyone had died? Why did the master suddenly appear now?

Needless to say, she wasn't the only one who thought this way; everyone else did too, and they all looked at the headmistress with puzzlement.

The steward's wife, hearing everyone's questions, felt contempt in her heart, but her face remained expressionless. Her expression stiffened for only a moment before returning to normal, and she smiled and said, "It's the concubines of the late Duke and the previous Duke. Although the late Duke had not yet married, he had concubines in his household; although the previous Duke and Duchess had passed away, some of their concubines were still alive."

Actually, according to age, the concubines from the previous generation are still alive. However, after the Duke of the previous generation passed away, they were sent away by the Duchess of that time. So now, only the concubines of the previous Duke and the late Duke remain in the mansion.

Only then did everyone realize how their master had come to be.

Linlang also knew from the original owner's memories that these concubines were not well-behaved. She planned to ask Old Master Zhou to order some of them to either be sent home or sent to the family temple to pray for their husbands. It was up to them to choose, but they couldn't be left in the mansion to cause trouble.

There's nothing we can do. These people are all those who caused trouble in the manor before and survived. Each of them is more cunning than a lotus root. If they were left in the manor, the Zhou family would be ruined by them.

Then the head maid continued, "Besides the dozen or so masters in the mansion, there are also two aunts and one grand aunt outside the mansion. The grand aunt is the elder sister of the late Duke, and is now married into the Duke of Ying's mansion; the grand aunt is the aunt of the late Duke, and one of them is now married into the Wang family in the capital, where the current head of the family is a third-rank official; the other is married into the Yonghe Prince's mansion as a princess."

The head housekeeper looked on with satisfaction at the astonished expressions of the Zhou family members, especially their reverent demeanor upon hearing that there was a princess in the family. She felt a surge of pride.

She only described the superficial situation of the family, without mentioning that the family had previously wanted to find someone to adopt, which was handled by the two aunts and the great-aunt.

Although these three women were all born out of wedlock, not to the previous or even the previous Duchess, they were still concerned about the succession of the Duke's mansion. They thought that if they found someone to adopt, that person would definitely be close to them, and their maternal families could support them. But if the emperor designated someone to inherit the Duke's mansion, what would that have to do with them? And if something happened to their husbands in the future, it was uncertain whether their husbands would help them.

Although the head housekeeper spoke with an air of superiority about how well the other ladies had married, it was clear that in that era, if one lacked ability and their family wasn't supportive, they were easily bullied in their husband's family. After all, not everyone was like Linlang, who could go anywhere unscathed. More importantly, these three women were born out of wedlock, and the men of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion were incompetent and had fallen on hard times, so the families they married into weren't as good as the head housekeeper made them out to be.

First of all, the sister of the last male member of the family, that is, the aunt, married into the Duke of Yingguo's family. She did not marry the Duke of Yingguo's heir, but rather the Duke of Yingguo's illegitimate son. This is quite normal, after all, she was the illegitimate daughter of a fallen nobleman, and he was the illegitimate son of a fallen nobleman. Isn't that a good match?

As for illegitimate sons, once the Duke of Yingguo passes away and the family separates, they will quickly disappear from the upper echelons of the capital.

If her maternal family, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, were the ones she had helped rise to power, then she could rely on the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion to support her and live a better life in the future. This is why that aunt wanted to choose her own successor.

Then, the two aunts from the previous generation married into the Wang family, a high-ranking official of the third rank. They didn't marry the head of the family, but rather his younger brother. It was just that the Wang family lived together as a clan, so the head housekeeper said that. Actually, the eldest aunt's husband's conditions were very ordinary, which was quite normal. She was a concubine's daughter at the time, and it was already very good that she could marry the legitimate son of such a large family as the Wang family. If her husband had been successful and had become a high-ranking official like his older brother, then she would have made a name for herself. But unfortunately, her husband was not successful, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

The so-called Yonghe Prince's Mansion that the second aunt married into was even less what the steward mother described.

It is called a prince's mansion, but it depends on what kind of prince's mansion it is. This Yonghe Prince's mansion is not only the mansion of a county prince, but also the mansion of a distant county prince. Except for the occasional festival when they go to the palace to pay homage, they have no contact with the royal family at other times.

Even so, the position of princess was not something that a concubine's daughter like the second aunt could achieve. Therefore, when the second aunt married into the family, she became a secondary consort, a secondary consort of a distant and impoverished prince. Her status was just average, far from the high position that the head maid had made up.

The head maid concealed the fact that the concubine was a princess, only saying that she was a princess. If the Zhou family went to the Yonghe Prince's Mansion in the future and made a mistake, and the concubine turned out to be the real Princess Yonghe, they would definitely be unhappy.

If they go back and blame the head maid for not explaining clearly, the head maid will definitely pretend to be innocent and say that the concubine is also called a princess, and that she did not make a mistake.

The Zhou family members are all masters, so why would the head maid dare to deceive them like this? It's because many of the servants in the mansion have been won over by these three illegitimate daughters. They want to lead the Zhou family members astray so that the emperor will be displeased and strip them of their titles, and then choose someone else to inherit them. That way, they will have another chance.

They weren't afraid that doing this would cause the Duke of Zhenguo's title to be lost. That was impossible, because the first emperor had said that their family's title was hereditary and could not be changed. If they committed a crime, someone else could inherit it, and their title would not be taken away.

This is also why this group of people would harm the Zhou family.

And surprisingly, in their original world, they actually managed to pull it off. (End of Chapter)