Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

The return gifts for the three festivals and two birthdays, along with the increased income from the farmland, naturally made Aunt Zhou's family's life much better than before.

Although it's much better, it still can't compare to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.

On the surface, the annual salary of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion is only one thousand taels, which doesn't seem like much—although it's a lot of money for country folk, it's really not much for those families in the capital who spend tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands a year. But there are also various gray incomes, such as various gifts of ice and charcoal, and merchants who invest in the company with shares. In a year, even though no one in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion holds an official position in the court, and the Zhou family has just come from the countryside, they can still earn several thousand taels.

In addition, after dealing with the corrupt officials in the mansion, he had extracted a considerable amount of wealth. After paying off the external debts, he used the rest to buy land, which could generate several thousand taels of income each year.

All of these combined would amount to an income of ten to twenty thousand taels a year, which, while not comparable to the Prince of England's mansion, was still quite good.

It's normal that it can't compare to the Prince Ying's Mansion. After all, the Prince Ying's Mansion is a prince's mansion, and there are only a few in the capital. The Duke Zhenguo's Mansion is just a duke's mansion, so it's not normal that it can't compare.

With an annual income of ten to twenty thousand taels, the Zhenguo Duke's mansion naturally had a living standard that Zhou Dagu, living in the countryside, could not compare to.

So every time Aunt Zhou returned to her parents' home, seeing how good their family's conditions were, her feelings were extremely complicated. She thought how wonderful it would have been if her family had received a title before she was even engaged. For example, her eldest niece was not young at the time, but she was very lucky. Before the Duke's mansion received a title, she was engaged to some country bumpkin and married into the Prince's mansion.

If her family had received a noble title before she was betrothed in her youth, she probably could have married into the royal family.

She had met her niece's husband; he was incredibly handsome. The thought of marrying someone like him, instead of someone like her husband, filled Aunt Zhou with mixed feelings.

Zhou Ergu, who was much younger than her and the youngest child of Old Master Zhou and Old Madam Zhou, had even more complicated feelings when she saw Li Yu. She felt that when she was only in her early twenties, if Old Master Zhou hadn't insisted on her divorce, she might have been able to marry such a handsome husband.

Leaving aside Li Yu, even Li Erniang, the second daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's family who was in a worse situation, married well. She was good-looking and came from a good family. But Li Erniang, who was only ten years older than them, had a completely different fate. How could she adjust her mindset? Naturally, she always wanted to divorce and remarry.

Unfortunately, Old Master Zhou didn't die, and as long as he was alive, he wouldn't agree to her getting a divorce.

Even if he were to die, it wouldn't matter if Master Zhou were still alive, because Master Zhou shared the same idea as Old Master Zhou: that the daughters in the family shouldn't be materialistic and abandon their husbands to marry other men once the family became wealthy.

So, the only solution is to kill Master Zhou and let the second brother take over. At least the second brother won't object to her getting a divorce and remarrying.

As long as her second brother doesn't object, she's willing to get a divorce, even after so many years and she's over thirty. She knows that her second brother is right; with her status as the daughter of a duke, even if she remarries in her thirties, her new husband won't be worse off than her current husband, because her current husband is already the worst he can be, and it's impossible for him to be worse off.

This is why Aunt Zhou was willing to help Master Zhou, because she knew that once they succeeded, her life would only get better and better, not worse and worse.

In contrast to the complex feelings of the two aunts of the Zhou family, the feelings of their husbands and children were quite different. The eldest aunt's family knew that their eldest aunt was getting old, and that so many years had passed that she even had grandchildren who couldn't run away anymore. Therefore, every time they came to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, they were not only amazed by its grandeur, but also remained very calm.

But Zhou Ergu's husband and children were not calm. After all, Zhou Ergu was impatient with them and her desire to run away was written all over her face.

At home, Aunt Zhou has long since stopped doing any housework and often throws tantrums at them.

They understood that Zhou Ergu was deliberately making a scene to annoy her family and force them to divorce her. In that case, she wouldn't become a discarded wife, but would be able to return to her parents' home and remarry smoothly.

After all, the Zhou family forbade her to divorce and remarry, lest it bring shame to the family, but they didn't say that if her husband's family divorced her, she couldn't go back.

So no matter how much trouble Zhou Ergu caused at her husband's house, her husband's family silently endured it, and no one dared to jump up and beat or scold her—for fear that Zhou Ergu would show off the beatings and scoldings she was being beaten and scolded everywhere, and that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion would feel sorry for her and agree to her divorce and return home—as for divorcing her, that was something no one dared to do.

After all, once Zhou Ergu is divorced, she can openly return to her parents' home, and the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion will definitely dislike them and stop associating with them. In that case, they will lose their connection with the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion and will no longer be able to visit it.

Let alone Zhou Ergu's children, who are the grandchildren of Old Master Zhou and others, once Zhou Ergu is divorced by them and the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion severs ties with them, even if they are the grandchildren of Old Master Zhou, Old Master Zhou can simply ignore them.

Therefore, they cannot divorce Zhou Ergu and let her get her way, causing them huge losses. So no matter how much trouble Zhou Ergu causes at home, her in-laws can just pretend they don't see it and ignore her. Zhou Ergu wants to get rid of them openly and honestly through this method and then go to enjoy a good life. No way.

When the two aunts and their families arrived, Madam Zhou arranged for them to stay, and then went to visit Old Master Zhou.

Over the years, both Old Master Zhou and Old Madam Zhou have grown quite old. As a result, Old Master Zhou has gradually stopped interfering in the affairs of the mansion. Except for some major matters, his opinion is sought. Other matters are discussed by the eldest son of the Zhou family, along with the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhou family. The management of the Zhenguo Duke's mansion has also been handed over to the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhou family, since the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhou family is already very old and can no longer handle the numerous affairs of the Duke's mansion.

In fact, Madam Zhou is not young anymore, and in the past two years she has become increasingly unable to manage things, so many things at home are now being managed by Madam Zhou.

As a woman from a royal family, Madam Zhou managed things very well, which pleased the people of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. They thought it was a lucky thing to have married Madam Zhou.

At this moment, Aunt Zhou and Aunt Zhou saw Old Master Zhou and couldn't help but burst into tears.

Aunt Zhou was truly in tears, because once Old Master Zhou passed away, it was hard to say how much benefit she could get from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. After all, it was not as good as having parents in charge of the household as having brothers. So she was reluctant to see Old Master Zhou pass away.

But Aunt Zhou's tears had another reason—she was thinking maliciously in her heart that the old bastard was finally dead, and she now had hope of marrying into a family with better prospects. (End of Chapter)