Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

When Linlang heard Cao ask about this, she pretended not to know what she wanted to say and simply said, "Yes."

Then Cao immediately seized the opportunity and said, "The Empress only gave it to you, and the younger brothers and sisters didn't get any. You're eating and drinking well while the rest of us just watch. That's not right. If word gets out, people will say you're too heartless to your younger brothers and sisters. Even if you don't share it equally with us, you should at least give us some. After all, this is also something the Empress gave to our second branch."

This was the first time Linlang had ever seen such a direct and shameless person. She was speechless and said, "That was given to me by Consort Zhang, not to the second wife. I can spend it however I want. There's nothing wrong with it. I won't feel guilty at all, and I'm not afraid of being called heartless or cold-blooded. If you want it, go ask Consort Zhang for it."

Cao had assumed that these noble ladies would be proud, but Linlang was not. Thinking that the other party was originally a village girl, she couldn't help but purse her lips and thought to herself that as expected, those of low birth are shallow and not generous at all.

However, Linlang's words reminded her that she should indeed go and be filial to Consort Zhang. Consort Zhang is now in charge of the household and has plenty of money. As long as she pleases her, even a little bit of money slipping through her fingers will be enough for her.

But how could Consort Zhang possibly like her?

In fact, she had long disliked Aunt Cao and all the Cao family members.

Although she wasn't as good to Li Erlang as she was to Li Yu, Li Erlang was still her grandson. So, Aunt Cao gave all the money she had received, as well as Li Erlang's money—Li Erlang's monthly allowance and annual stipend when he was young—to her family. This left Li Erlang penniless when he grew up, and she herself had no savings to help the child. How could Consort Zhang possibly like her?

Both she and Zhao knew to give their savings to their children, but she gave it all to her own family.

Not only did she receive subsidies, but she also arranged for her son to marry her niece from her maternal family, without any dowry. She even took away the betrothal gifts that the Imperial Clan Court was supposed to provide for Li Erlang, only returning some worthless gifts. With such treatment of her grandson, no matter how much Cao tried to please Consort Zhang, Consort Zhang would never like her unless she returned the money she had taken from Consort Cao and Li Erlang over the years to Li Erlang. Only then would Consort Zhang look at her with any respect.

But it's impossible for Cao to have brought the money from her maternal family; otherwise, she wouldn't have left the betrothal gifts given by Li Erlang with her family.

Although she didn't subsidize her own family as lavishly as Aunt Cao, she, like Aunt Cao, believed that a woman should rely on her own family while in her husband's family, so naturally she should treat her own family well and would never do anything bad to her own family.

Since she wanted to be good to her family and thus harm Li Erlang's interests, Consort Zhang no longer liked her; she only felt disgust.

So when Consort Zhang saw Cao coming to curry favor with her, she didn't want to pay any attention to her at all. She immediately said to Cao, "I'm busy with affairs, so don't stand here. Just go back and be filial to your mother-in-law."

When Consort Zhang chased her away, Madam Cao was furious. But Consort Zhang was the big spender of the second branch of the family, so even if she was angry, she couldn't just throw a tantrum like she did in the countryside. Back then, with Consort Cao's support, her family was the strongest in the village, and she could scold whoever she wanted. Everyone knew that her family had a noble person from a prince's mansion, and no one dared to offend her.

—Indeed, don't let Cao's humble origins fool you. The Cao family has become a powerful force in the village, so Cao has a notoriously short temper. But here, she's nothing special, so even if she's angry, she has to suppress it and force a smile. Thinking about this, she grows increasingly resentful, feeling she's been cheated by marrying into this family. After all, her life isn't as good as back home. If it weren't for her husband's title, which would allow her to receive his stipend after the death of her superiors and the division of the family property, she truly couldn't stay in this royal residence.

Seeing that Consort Zhang was driving her away, Madam Cao could only swallow her anger and said with a forced smile, "I just saw that my sister-in-law is so filial to you, and I wanted to learn from her and be filial to you too, so that others wouldn't say that I'm not as filial as my sister-in-law."

Consort Zhang replied impatiently, "You don't need to be filial. You just need to be filial to your mother-in-law."

Seeing Consort Zhang's impatient expression, Cao almost fainted with anger. She thought to herself, "You're all smiles to Zhou Linlang, but you treat me like this? How awful, old woman! What have I done to offend you?"

Although she was furious, Cao Shi dared not offend Consort Zhang, so she immediately played the victim and said, "Your Majesty, the reason I came to see you today is because... because I'm short of money and was wondering if Your Majesty could help me out."

She's good at playing the victim; after all, that's how her parents, brother, and sister-in-law played the victim in front of her aunt and then swindled money from her aunt.

But she forgot that it was her aunt, who was an idiot, while Consort Zhang was not an idiot and could be easily tricked out of her money by playing the victim.

Consort Zhang could tolerate her complaining about being poor, but the moment she heard her complaining, she immediately thought of Aunt Cao and the Cao family's messy affairs. She said with disgust, "You, a granddaughter-in-law, have the nerve to ask me, your stepmother, for money? I've only ever heard of asking your parents for money, never your grandparents."

Hearing Consort Zhang say this, Madam Cao grew even angrier, thinking, "You can give Linlang so many gold and silver beans, but you can't give me any?" Of course, she didn't dare say that, so she just played the victim, putting on a pitiful look, and said, "I only wanted to share in the good fortune of the old matriarch because I saw that you gave my sister-in-law a box of gold and silver beans..."

When Consort Zhang heard this, she finally understood why the woman had come to her asking for money. She was both amused and annoyed, and said, "I only give Linlang a little money because she's a good masseuse and I like her massages. I call her over every now and then to give me a massage. She works really hard, so I give her a little money for her hard work. I didn't ask you to do anything, so why should I give you money?!"

"Besides, I didn't want to say this, but since you insist on comparing yourself to Linlang, I have to say something. Linlang brought back all the betrothal gifts from Dalang, and also brought five thousand taels of dowry. What did you bring? Nothing. Your family even withheld all the betrothal money and valuable clothes and jewelry from the betrothal gifts. So, how can you compare yourself to Linlang?"

“You say you don’t have money now? Why don’t you ask your aunt for some? She subsidizes the Cao family with so much money every year. If she had that money, wouldn’t she give it to you? Besides, if you hadn’t left all the valuables from your betrothal gifts at your parents’ home, you would have plenty of money now. Why would you be short of money?”

Consort Zhang had long observed and remembered Consort Cao's efforts to support her family, but she had never spoken of it before. After all, she wasn't one to meddle in other people's business. It was only because Consort Cao was now complaining about being poor and mentioning Linlang, trying to compare herself to Linlang, that Consort Zhang, who disliked her, brought it up. (End of Chapter)