Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1735 The Country Girl Looked Down Upon 56
If the Prince of Ying goes too far, Linlang doesn't want him to live for very long. After all, although it would be good for her if the Prince of Ying lived a long time, she can't let him live indefinitely just because it's good for her, thus harming the interests of the Crown Prince. She's not that kind of person. Unless the Crown Prince does something bad to their family, she might not care about him. But as long as the Crown Prince's family doesn't do anything bad to her, she naturally won't do anything to harm the Crown Prince.

Speaking of which, the Crown Princess distributed the power of managing the household to several concubines. With Concubine Zhang in charge of managing the household, the second branch of the family's life in the mansion got better and better. Not to mention anything else, as Concubine Zhang had more and more money, she not only subsidized the second branch of the family, but also subsidized Li Yu.

Previously, Consort Zhang doted on Li Yu the most. When she didn't have much money, she would secretly give Li Yu money. Now that she has money, she gives Li Yu even more money. This is also why Linlang protects Consort Zhang from being harmed, because Consort Zhang's existence is very important to her and Li Yu's little family.

Because Consort Zhang would often provide financial assistance to Li Yu, the life of Linlang and her husband's little family became better and better.

This made Linlang feel that it was better for the King of England to be alive, because once the King of England passed away, her family would have to move out, and then they would have no more control over the household.

In fact, it wasn't just Linlang who wanted the Prince of Ying to live a little longer; the Crown Prince's family was also willing. This was because a prince's salary was much higher than that of a duke. They naturally hoped that the Prince of Ying would not die and would bring more wealth to their families. Otherwise, if the Prince of Ying died and the Crown Prince became a duke, not only would their family's status decrease, but their income would also drop significantly, which would be really bad.

This is similar to how some families today are reluctant to let their elderly relatives, who have substantial pensions, high social status, and extensive connections, pass away. They all hope that their elders will live long lives so that they can bring more benefits to the family.

The situation is the same when it comes to the King of England.

Moreover, besides salary, status is even more important.

There are too many princes in the capital. Things are valued for their rarity. Once someone becomes a prince, they are no longer rare and their status becomes ordinary.

Therefore, even for the heir apparent, the longer the Prince of Ying lived, the better. After all, as long as the Prince of Ying was alive, the Prince of Ying's mansion would still be a Prince's mansion, a top-tier residence in the capital. Otherwise, if the Prince of Ying died, their mansion would no longer be a Prince's mansion, but a County Prince's mansion, and it would no longer be a top-tier residence.

Since everyone hopes the King will live, Linlang will naturally allow him to live a little longer, as it would benefit everyone.

Fortunately, the King is still in good health and won't die anytime soon, so everyone can continue to live a good life with him in the capital.

Not to mention that Prince Ying's health is still good and he could live for another 10 or 20 years without any problem, it's just that while the Prince's mansion is quiet, their second branch of the family is not so quiet.

Now, Li Yu's father had one wife and two concubines, who had three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons were born to the principal wife, and the other son and two daughters were born to the two concubines.

One of the concubines, Concubine Cao, gave birth to a son and a daughter born out of wedlock.

This illegitimate son was a little younger than Li Yu, but a little older than Li Yu's other half-brother.

Because she was only slightly younger than Li Yu, she was engaged to the Princess of England before her death.

Just as they were preparing to marry, Princess Ying passed away, which greatly distressed Aunt Cao. She secretly cursed her maids countless times, saying that Princess Ying had to die at the very moment her son was about to get married, causing her son to be old in three years.

Now that the mourning period was finally over, Aunt Cao quickly welcomed her daughter-in-law into the family. Li Yu's mother, Zhao, did not interfere in Li Erlang's marriage because Aunt Cao had been whispering in Li Yu's father's ear, wanting to marry her niece to Li Erlang. Li Yu's father did not object, and the marriage was arranged without Zhao's involvement.

Zhao was happy to have some peace and quiet. After all, finding a wife for a concubine's son was no easy task. If you found a good wife, people wouldn't praise you; they would just think it was your duty. But if you found a bad wife, it would be troublesome. The other party would become suspicious and think you were trying to harm the concubine's son.

She didn't need to worry about such inconveniences, and Zhao was naturally happy to have some peace and quiet.

Linlang knew why Aunt Cao wanted her son to marry her nephew; it was because Aunt Cao was a siscon who doted on her brother and was a bloodsucker of her family.

Although Li Yu's father was the son of a prince, he was still an illegitimate son, so he only had the title of General of the State. Therefore, his concubines could not have had very good backgrounds. This Aunt Cao was promoted by his former maid.

The maidservant's family background was undoubtedly very poor; otherwise, they wouldn't have sold their daughter to a wealthy family to work as a maidservant.

When Aunt Cao was still a maid, she would give the money she had saved to her family—this is what she mentioned in private conversations with the nanny.

Later, after becoming a concubine, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to supporting her own family.

Now that her son is getting married, she also wants to benefit her family by bringing her niece into the family.

She also plans to find a nephew from her maternal family for her daughter's future marriage, so that her maternal family can completely turn their fortunes around.

After all, her daughter, being the illegitimate daughter of a general who governs the country, has the title of county magistrate. If she marries her nephew, who will become a member of the imperial ceremonial family and also hold a rank and title, their family will instantly transform from an ordinary commoner to a family with rank and salary. Wouldn't that be a complete turnaround?

As for whether her children were willing or not, she didn't care. After all, in this era, marriage was a matter of parental arrangement and matchmaker's word; what business was it of theirs?

So Li Erlang actually didn't want to marry Cao Shi, because his wife's family was from the countryside, and he was unwilling to marry her.

Although his elder brother also married a country girl, at least she is now the daughter of a duke, while his wife is just a country girl.

Although he is now considered a small local tycoon in the countryside thanks to his aunt's subsidies, she is still a country bumpkin. Marrying her wouldn't be of any help to him. Not to mention, the other third-generation members of the family married wives from families with good status, like his eldest brother, or from merchant families with large dowries. He, on the other hand, is marrying a village girl with no dowry and no status in her family. How could Li Erlang be satisfied with that?
Putting everything else aside, his elder brother's wife had a dowry of five thousand. Even if his rank was one level lower than his elder brother's, the legitimate son, and his wife's social status was one level lower, he should have had a dowry of two or three thousand. But he had nothing. How could Li Erlang be satisfied with that?

However, his father had already agreed to his birth mother's suggestion, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was just angry and resentful that his father had listened to his birth mother and not let his legal wife choose for him. If his legal wife had chosen for him, she would never have chosen such a bad one.

—This is all based on comparison. If Aunt Cao hadn't interfered, and the marriage had been entirely decided by Madam Zhao, he would have compared it with other families and felt that they weren't as good as others, so he would definitely have blamed Madam Zhao. That's how people are. So when Madam Zhao saw Aunt Cao interfering in Li Erlang's marriage, she was genuinely happy to have an easy time, so that she wouldn't end up helping someone and getting no credit, but instead being scolded for the rest of her life.