Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1697 The Country Girl Looked Down Upon 18
In the original world, Old Master Zhou suffered a stroke, and the Zhou family lacked any wise members. Furthermore, when the eldest master of the Zhou family went to the palace to express his gratitude, the emperor did not bestow any rewards upon him. People in the capital quickly understood the emperor's intentions, so few people respected the Zhou family. In addition, many people wanted to drive the Zhou family away, so many believed that the Zhou family's title would not last long.

Since their tenure was short-lived, few people were willing to pay them any attention.

So when the original owner's mother saw that she was getting old and wanted to marry her off, she spread the word that she was the daughter of a duke—because the old master Zhou had suffered a stroke, so the eldest master Zhou had inherited the title of duke ahead of schedule, so the original owner was the daughter of a duke—but very few people came to propose marriage. In the end, only a illegitimate son from a down-on-his-luck earl's family proposed marriage to her, probably because he wanted to take a gamble and hope that her family's title could be secured.

After the original owner married into the family, the other party looked down on her because she was from a village and committed a crime in the Zhou family. After the family was stripped of its title and its property was confiscated, the other party despised her and returned her to her original form. They no longer wanted her and divorced her.

After being divorced, the original owner of this body naturally lived a very bad life, even worse than before her family inherited the title. After all, her family had committed a crime and been exiled, so what good could possibly come of it?

Therefore, the original owner always felt very wronged. The title was given to their family by the emperor. If the emperor hadn't insisted on giving them the title, they would still be living a life of hard labor in the countryside. Although it was tough, it was at least better than being exiled.

Although her family was stripped of their title and their property confiscated because they had committed crimes, firstly, most of it was a setup, not something they wanted to do. After all, they wouldn't have been so bold as to knowingly break the law. Secondly, if they hadn't become dukes, they would still be in the countryside, toiling in the fields every day. They wouldn't have had the opportunity to commit crimes. Although they wouldn't have had a good life then, they wouldn't be in this situation, exiled to the northern frontier, living such a miserable life.

This is also why the original owner was willing to make a deal with Linlang. She didn't want the Zhou family to be schemed against and wanted the Zhou family to be well. If possible, she also hoped to live a happy life, instead of being looked down upon and divorced like in her world.

Just then, Linlang saw that several families had come to propose marriage to her. Among them was the Zhongyong Earl's family from her original world. However, in this world, Old Master Zhou had not suffered a stroke and was highly regarded by the emperor. Therefore, this family had raised their standards and was preparing to propose marriage to their second legitimate son, not their illegitimate son.

In fact, both sides were impoverished noble families, but one was a duke's mansion and the other was an earl's mansion. The duke's mansion was of a higher status. The eldest daughter of the duke's mansion should have been married to the eldest son of the earl's mansion and become the wife of the clan leader. However, it was clear that the other party still looked down on Linlang, so they did not send their eldest son. It was already quite good that they sent their eldest son to form a marriage alliance, which was better than the original world.

Of course, the other party had their reasons. They said that their eldest son was already engaged and would be getting married soon, while only their second son was still unmarried, so they came to propose marriage.

However, according to the principle of matching social status, the Marquis of Zhongyong should understand that sending their second son to marry the daughter of a duke when their eldest son is already engaged is an insult to the other party. In the capital, who would pay attention to them? After all, women should marry up and wives should marry down. Which duke's family would let their daughter marry into a marquis's family, let alone marry the second son of a duke? It's not a good match.

You look down on her for being from the countryside, thinking that a legitimate daughter of a noble family is only worthy of your own second legitimate son, or even a son born out of wedlock (in the original world). Did you ever consider that she might also look down on you, a down-on-your-luck earl's family? How dare you have the nerve to try and marry into a family of higher status?

In fact, the Marquis of Zhongyong's family had heard rumors that the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's family was getting old and they wanted to arrange her marriage as soon as possible. So they rushed over to try and take advantage of the situation. They hadn't expected that other families would also propose marriage for Linlang. They thought it was just them, since they assumed that the daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's family came from the countryside and no one would respect her. They thought that since their family was getting married, no one would be willing to arrange a marriage. They were wrong. So many people came.

Indeed, these people came to propose marriage because they heard the rumors spread by those behind the scenes. Those who wanted to drive Linlang away from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion spread the word that the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo was of marriageable age. Otherwise, why would they come to propose? After all, in this world, the original owner's mother wasn't as anxious as she was in the original world about arranging a marriage for her daughter. Instead, she was still listening to Old Master Zhou and learning etiquette. Since she was learning etiquette, she wouldn't dare to go out and socialize until she had mastered it, so why would she spread rumors in the capital?

Moreover, Linlang is appreciated by the old master and is obviously very outstanding. The old master thinks his daughter is excellent and there is no need to worry about marriage, so naturally he will not spread any rumors.

So when she saw that her family had only been in Beijing for a short time, so many people had come to propose marriage, and all of them were quite well-off—people her daughter could never find in the countryside before—she was both surprised and startled.

She didn't know much about the families in the capital, so she naturally didn't dare to make any promises. She only said that she would discuss it with her husband, and then sent those people away. Then she asked Linlang, "Among so many young men, does my daughter have any that she likes?"

In her view, those were all families with exceptionally good conditions, and any of them would be fine.

Linlang looked at the families who had come to propose marriage, and based on her understanding of the various families in the capital over the past two or three months, she finally pointed to the family of a general from the imperial clan who had been sent to pacify the country and said, "This one is alright."

The reason I say it's alright is due to a few considerations.

Firstly, at the level of Zhenguo General, the children of the imperial clan will all have titles (the imperial clan of this dynasty do not need to be granted titles through examinations; they will simply inherit titles at a lower rank), providing a guarantee of income regardless of circumstances. Other families, whether the sons of officials or the sons of noble families (there is no eldest son, probably because they still feel that Linlang is not worthy of being the wife of the imperial clan), have no guarantee for their children. If the children are successful in the future, that's fine, but if they are not, their descendants will quickly fall into a lower social class.

Secondly, as far as she knew, the father of this General Zhenguo was still alive and was a prince, so the family was currently living in the prince's mansion, where all their needs for food, clothing, and lodging were taken care of, and they were living a very good life.

Thirdly, since the prince is still alive, it's acceptable to say that she married into the prince's mansion, which sounds good. After all, one's status is self-imposed, just like the former steward's wife, who boasted about the marriages of the other ladies and aunts of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. In reality, the people they married were quite ordinary, but that didn't stop them from using their family's reputation to make a big fuss.

Fourthly, she had investigated this family before, and their family traditions were decent. As for the eldest son of the General Who Protects the Nation, although there were many people in the capital and she couldn't remember everyone's character, she had just checked the archives in her personal computer while they were chatting, and she knew that this family was not bad.

Since it was good in every way, Linlang naturally chose this one.