Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

In the original world, the Zhou family couldn't manage the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, and when they got angry, they even considered getting rid of all the servants in the mansion.

Initially, the Zhou family, greedy for bargains, planned to sell everyone and make a fortune.

Of course, it wasn't that they were greedy for cheap deals; rather, like the Zhou family in this world, they knew about the deficit in the manor and wanted to sell these people to recoup some of the losses.

—They are still too naive. They don't understand that selling these servants won't make them much money. Only by raiding the homes of these corrupt officials can they recoup their losses immediately.

Immediately, someone said to them, "Who is this lobbyist? Needless to say, he must have been sent by someone with vested interests. A powerful family cannot sell people out like this, otherwise they will be known as mean and ungrateful in the capital."

Fearing damage to their reputation, they listened to the man's advice and released him without hesitation.

They were released out of kindness. Although they wouldn't earn money, at least the household wouldn't have to support so many servants, which would save them money.

However, they hadn't done any proper preparation and rashly dismissed everyone in the entire government office, which made many things impossible to handle. In the end, they still had to invite these people back, which was a huge embarrassment.

Those people knew all along that the Zhou family couldn't do without them, so after being released, they didn't go to work for other people's homes. They stayed at home waiting for the Zhou family to come looking for them again. Now that they saw that the Zhou family had indeed invited them back, they naturally became even more arrogant.

So even if you want to get rid of everyone in the mansion, there still needs to be a transition period.

Of course, if Linlang were in charge of this mansion, she could easily get rid of all these people, since she could find new people to manage the Duke's mansion herself.

But the Zhou family doesn't have that ability, so we can't just send them away as soon as they arrive.

Although letting those people stay in the manor will only continue to bleed the manor dry, there's nothing that can be done about it.

At the same time, Linlang was learning etiquette from everyone in the mansion while investigating the situation of these people embezzling money from the mansion.

Only by finding out how much money these people have can we prevent them from taking away a large amount of money from their homes when their property is confiscated.

Linlang soon discovered the connection between the two aunts and the great-aunt.

Not only did they contact them, but they also contacted the concubines in the mansion, hoping that the servants and concubines would act as their spies, informing them of the Zhou family's every move so that they could target their personalities.

The reason these concubines cooperated with the aunt and others was either because they had been given leverage over each other during the previous internal strife and had no choice but to obey, or because they felt that the Zhou family was too stupid and could not defeat the aunt and others. When it came time to choose sides, they sided with the aunt and thought that the Zhou family would not stay in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion for long and that they still needed to rely on the aunt and others.

In short, for various reasons, we need to help Auntie and others.

Otherwise, given their status, they should have simply stayed in the backyard and retired peacefully; why bother getting involved in all this?

Linlang thought to herself that these concubines were courting death. If they weren't courting death, Linlang wouldn't mind taking care of them in their old age. After all, they were practically mistresses of the mansion. It wasn't right for them to drive away the concubines of the previous Duke of Zhenguo after inheriting the mansion.

But since they've chosen to die, they'll definitely have to be sent away eventually. Anyway, these people haven't had any children, so it's perfectly acceptable to say a word of mercy and let them go back to their parents' homes to marry freely.

If these people weren't considered half-masters of the manor, Linlang would have dealt with them directly for what they did, instead of just sending them away.

Just as Linlang was investigating these people, the manor encountered its first crisis—a loan had come due, with principal and interest due at three thousand taels. Where would the Duke of Zhenguo's manor get so much money to repay it? Although the emperor had indeed rewarded Old Master Zhou with a lot of gold and silver that day, that gold and silver was only worth about two thousand taels after conversion. Moreover, a lot of money had already been spent on making some decent clothes for them.

Furthermore, those people in the manor are bloodsuckers. One minute they're saying they want to do this or that, and then they come to ask Old Master Zhou for money. The next minute they're saying they want to do that or that, and then they come to ask Old Master Zhou for money again. How can this money possibly last?

To be honest, Old Master Zhou felt a little guilty about letting these old folks out of the mansion because the mansion was short of money. After all, they had lived in the mansion for generations, and he felt a bit ashamed to just let them go as soon as he arrived.

But after these days, these people kept asking for money, and Old Master Zhou's guilt disappeared. All that remained was his disgust for these people. He didn't even want to release them directly, but instead wanted to investigate how much money they had embezzled from the manor.

Old Master Zhou was a man of the world, and he knew that the servants of these wealthy families were bound to embezzle. Moreover, after falling on hard times and living among the common people for decades, he was not as ignorant of prices as the former masters and mistresses of this mansion. He knew them very well. Therefore, the prices these people reported for food, clothing, housing, and transportation were dozens or even hundreds of times higher. It's easy to imagine how much they embezzled. So it would be strange if Old Master Zhou still felt guilty about letting these people go.

When the steward delivered the news, the rest of the Zhou family were at a loss and extremely anxious. Zhou's youngest daughter-in-law, now Mrs. Zhou, complained, "They said they came here to enjoy wealth and luxury, but this is not as good as our family. At least our family was never in debt before."

Mr. Zhou also said, "That's right. I always thought that rich and powerful people must have mountains of gold and silver to enjoy life like that. But it turns out they have no money at all. They're heavily in debt. It turns out they're enjoying life by borrowing money. It's just that we country folk are honest and don't dare to borrow money. If we borrowed money like them, who wouldn't be able to afford to enjoy life?"

Old Master Zhou looked at the two fools and cursed, "They have money and power, so they dare to borrow and not pay back. Do you dare to borrow and not pay back in the countryside?"

Old Mrs. Zhou said worriedly, "Let's see how we can repay the three thousand taels we have now."

Old Master Zhou said, "Just handle it the same way the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion did before. We don't have any money."

Immediately, Old Master Zhou summoned the steward and inquired how the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion had handled this matter in the past.

Upon hearing the question, the steward replied, "Borrow another sum from them to pay off the old debt. If their bank refuses to lend, borrow from other banks to pay off this one."

In other words, it means borrowing new money to pay off old debts, or robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Old Master Zhou nodded, indicating that he understood, and said, "They say that debts are settled when a person dies. We are not descendants of the late Duke. Do we still have to repay the money they borrowed?"

As long as he doesn't have to repay the money, he can use the rewards he received from the palace for a few more days.

Upon hearing Old Master Zhou's words, the steward hurriedly said, "That won't do. These money shops are all run by powerful families in the capital. If our household dares not repay, I can't say what might happen in the future." (End of Chapter)