Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1729 The Country Girl Looked Down Upon 50
When the Second Aunt's son heard from Prince Jin that Zhou Sanniang was in love with him, he felt he couldn't betray such a devoted girl and therefore couldn't give her to him. Hearing this, the Second Aunt's son was furious, but he didn't dare to do anything to Prince Jin, after all, Prince Jin's status was far superior to his. He had only dared to ask Prince Jin for a woman before because he was instigated by someone who wanted to annoy Zhou Sanniang. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to ask Prince Jin for a woman, given Prince Jin's status. Moreover, it wasn't Zhou Sanniang who took the concubine from him; she was a free woman who went to Prince Jin's residence from her own home. For him to come and ask for her was, in fact, illogical. If Prince Jin was willing to give her to him, it was because Prince Jin was a good person; if he wasn't willing, he had no reason to ask him for her.

So, seeing that the Prince of Jin refused to hand over the man, the second aunt's son could only return with a forced smile.

As soon as he left the manor, he could no longer laugh. He spat at the Prince Jin's manor and thought that Zhou Sanniang's liking for the Prince Jin was simply because she was afraid that if he took her back to the Yonghe Prince's manor, she would be tortured, so she dared not leave. Only that old lecher Prince Jin would believe that.

His confidant, seeing that he had not gotten Zhou Sanniang back, urged him to continue trying. However, due to the Prince of Jin's refusal, the second aunt's son dared not go any further and had to give up for the time being, wanting to see what the Princess of Jin would say next.

Meanwhile, Zhou Sanniang, disgusted by her second aunt's son after this incident, pleaded and begged the Prince of Jin to register her at the yamen. Once registered, she would be the Prince of Jin's true concubine. If the second aunt's son dared to come and demand her again, it would be without any justification. In the official view, she was a free woman, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, and later the Prince of Jin's concubine. She had never had any relationship with the second aunt's son. If the second aunt's son dared to claim that she was his concubine and want to take her back, it would be completely untenable.

If the second aunt's son tries to argue that he didn't register her marriage at the time, so Zhou San Niang was a free woman, she would retort: ​​"Who told him not to register her marriage? If she wasn't registered, she wouldn't be his concubine. She can marry whomever she wants. What right does he have to stop her?"
So the second aunt's son was completely helpless against Zhou Sanniang, and the matter between the two ended there.

Of course, when Zhou Sanniang saw that her second aunt's son was causing her trouble, he decided to stop bothering her. But Zhou Sanniang was disgusted by his behavior and naturally wanted to retaliate. Now it was her turn to cause trouble for her second aunt's son.

So when Zhou San Niang told Madam Zhou and Master Zhou about how the Second Aunt's son had caused trouble at the Prince of Jin's mansion.

When Madam Zhou and Master Zhou heard that the son of their second aunt had gone to the Prince of Jin's mansion to demand their daughter, they were furious. They felt that the second aunt and her son wanted to ruin their daughter's good marriage and wealth. They immediately told Old Master Zhou about this and said that they wanted to punish the mother and son. They wanted Old Master Zhou to expel the second aunt from the clan as punishment for her.

For people in ancient times, being expelled from a clan meant losing the support of the family in the future, which was a severe punishment.

After the Zhou family took over the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion, Old Master Zhou naturally became the clan head of this branch of the Zhou family due to the change in his status. If he wanted to expel Second Aunt from the clan, it was just a matter of Old Master Zhou saying a word.

But the matter itself is easy to handle; the problem lies in finding a reason. We can't just exterminate someone's entire clan without a proper justification, can we?
If the second aunt were to cry and complain outside, saying that not only had Zhou San Niang paralyzed her, but Old Master Zhou had also expelled her from the clan, claiming that they had bullied her, then things would be in trouble.

So Old Master Zhou naturally refused, saying, "Their mother and son went to the Prince of Jin's mansion to cause trouble, which was indeed disgusting to our family. I understand that you want revenge, but it is not appropriate to expel Second Aunt from the clan. People will say that our daughter married into their family, caused her mother-in-law to become paralyzed, and then ran away. Now we want to expel her from the clan, which is bullying others by taking advantage of our power."

In fact, what Old Master Zhou said was true. It was indeed their daughter who paralyzed Second Aunt. Also, it was Zhou San Niang who insisted on marrying Second Aunt's son, but ran away when she saw that life was not good. If this had happened in an ordinary commoner's family, Zhou San Niang would not have been able to escape at all; she would definitely have been caught and taken back as a runaway concubine.

That is, the son of the second aunt of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion could not be captured, which allowed Zhou Sanniang to escape back and then remarry.

If outsiders were to judge this matter, they would undoubtedly say that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion was unreasonable. Even if the Duke of Zhenguo's family claimed that their daughter was a free woman and not a concubine of the second aunt's son, others would only think they were making excuses. After all, in this era, most people, for the sake of convenience, did not register their concubines—this was quite normal. Even in modern society, many people consider themselves husband and wife after attending a wedding banquet without obtaining a marriage certificate. Moreover, in ancient times, it was common for concubines to not be registered with the authorities; those who did were a very small minority. Because they weren't registered, the concubines could run away whenever they wanted, which would harm the interests of so many people. So who would stand on their side? They would definitely stand on the side of the second aunt's son, saying that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion was being unreasonable and bullying. So under these circumstances, when Zhou Sanniang ran back to remarry, people already felt that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion was unreasonable. The second aunt's son was really in trouble—after all, his mother had been crippled by the concubine, and the concubine had run away on her own. He was really in trouble. If they were to expel the second aunt from the clan, people would definitely say that they were too wicked.

Master Zhou said, "If this doesn't work, how else can we deal with that mother and son? Third Sister is truly disgusted by them. To be honest, it's not Third Sister's fault. If her mother hadn't kept causing trouble for her, Third Sister wouldn't have stood up to her. Her mother is paralyzed, it was all a mistake, but they still bullied Third Sister even more. It's normal for Third Sister to run away because she couldn't take it anymore. In the end, it's their own fault. If Second Aunt hadn't insisted on tormenting Third Sister, none of that would have happened. After all, my Third Sister was happy to marry her son, hoping to be with him for a long time. Who knew she was so vicious, bullying her every day? She bears a lot of responsibility for what happened afterward. Now that Third Sister has remarried, that mother and son are still causing trouble. It's infuriating."

Actually, what Master Zhou said is not wrong. If it weren't for Second Aunt's constant troublemaking, none of the subsequent events would have happened. The culprit is indeed Second Aunt. Of course, Second Aunt will not admit it. She must think that it was Zhou San Niang's fault. If Zhou San Niang hadn't insisted on marrying her son, none of the subsequent events would have occurred.

It's true, everyone has their own reasons.