Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1759 The Country Girl Looked Down Upon 80
When the emperor heard about this, he was greatly shocked. He never expected that in the capital, the most important place, right under his nose, a stepmother could harm a prince's heir. If he hadn't heard that the Prince of Jin was seriously ill, the emperor would have definitely given him a severe scolding. After all, a prince who doesn't seem to have anything to do all day long, how could he manage his household affairs and let such a thing happen?

Unable to reprimand Prince Jin, the emperor vented his anger on Princess Jin and her son. Princess Jin was sentenced to immediate execution for harming the royal family. In fact, based on what Princess Jin had done, she should have been sentenced to death by slow slicing, but the Empress Dowager was in poor health, and in order to accumulate good fortune for the old lady, he had hardly sentenced anyone to slow slicing in recent years. So, she was lucky to be sentenced to immediate execution. Her son, although not sentenced to death, was stripped of his title as heir apparent, became a commoner, and was imprisoned in the royal prison, Huai'en Palace.

The title of Prince of Jin was ultimately given to the son of the former heir. After all, the child was too unlucky. His father died early, and his mother, the former heir's wife, also died young due to these blows. He survived on his maternal family alone, so it was only right to give him a title.

His maternal family, who supported him, were also commended; it can be considered that good deeds are rewarded.

The son of the former prince was overjoyed to have finally avenged his parents and regained his title. However, he was wondering who had provided the evidence, but he couldn't find a way to find out.

Fortunately, the other party was clearly helping him, not trying to harm him. They just didn't want to expose their identity for various reasons. So the son of the former prince didn't insist on finding out who was behind it all and was secretly grateful.

Prince Jin witnessed this grand spectacle, and his already poor health naturally deteriorated even faster. Although the emperor did not summon him to the palace to reprimand him, the emperor's chief eunuch came to deliver a message saying that the emperor was very unhappy and angry that he had committed such a heinous crime that disregarded human ethics.

The Prince of Jin was already old and in poor health. He originally wanted to make a big deal out of it and then let it go, but the news spread and he was criticized by the emperor. People outside also said that he was muddle-headed, which made the Prince of Jin feel ashamed and embarrassed. His health deteriorated quickly, and he passed away soon after. His title was inherited by the son of the former crown prince.

After the death of the Prince of Jin, the new Prince of Jin, resenting his grandfather's lack of discipline in the inner palace which led to the tragedy in his family, naturally treated the women around the Prince of Jin with disdain. He sent all the women who had given birth to sons away with their sons; those who had not given birth to sons were sent to the family temple, ostensibly to pray for the grandfather, but in reality, they were resentful of his grandfather's immorality, which had implicated his family, and did not want to support the women he had taken advantage of.

Zhou Sanniang, who married the Prince of Jin, was naturally among them.

Zhou Sanniang had no desire to go to any family temple.

She felt that she had had a lot of bad luck all these years.

She initially tried every means to marry her second aunt's son, but that old hag bullied her so much that she couldn't stay in their house any longer and left.

Later, with great difficulty, she managed to marry into the Prince of Jin's mansion through her intelligence. She thought that the Princess of Jin was a good person and that she could live a good life in the mansion.

As a result, Prince Jin was unable to have children, which not only left her childless, but she was also constantly bullied in the Prince's mansion, making her life difficult.

She initially thought her misfortune was caused by the concubines, but after the Princess Consort of Jin was arrested, she confessed to many secrets. Only then did she realize that her misfortune was actually orchestrated by the Princess Consort of Jin behind the scenes. The Princess Consort felt that she had embarrassed her by seducing the Prince of Jin at the banquet in the Prince's mansion, so she had been making trouble for her.

Before she could recover from her resentment towards the Princess Consort of Jin, the Prince of Jin died, and the son of the former heir ascended the throne. Disgusted with the Prince of Jin, he sent all of them, his former concubines, to the family temple. Although the temple provided food, ensuring they wouldn't die, the temple was desolate. They ate vegetarian food every day and had to chant scriptures to pray for the Prince of Jin's well-being. Zhou San Niang was unwilling to accept this; after all, she was still young and couldn't bear such monotony and loneliness. So, she considered leaving again and remarrying, just like before.

Although she is nearly thirty years old now, she is now the true daughter of a duke—Master Zhou has already inherited the title—as long as she wants to marry, she can still marry someone with slightly worse conditions.

So she wrote a letter to her parents, Master Zhou and Madam Zhou, telling them that she wanted to come back.

But this time it will be difficult.

In fact, there was no rule in this dynasty that prohibited widows from remarrying. Even a widowed principal wife could remarry, let alone a concubine. So even though Zhou San Niang had Prince Jin register her status as a concubine in the government office, now that Prince Jin is dead, she is considered a widow and can remarry. Prince Jin doesn't need to write any document to release her from her position as a concubine. After all, Prince Jin is dead, she is a widow, and she can remarry whenever she wants.

But the problem now isn't whether she wants to remarry, but rather that her parents won't accept it.

In Master Zhou's view, it was normal for his daughter to run away after being mistreated during her first marriage to his second aunt's son. The second time, Prince Jin treated her fairly well, and now that he's dead, as a concubine, it's only right that she, as his concubine, should remain a widow. How could she possibly run away again? If he were to bring his widowed daughter back home and remarry her, what would people say about her?

Master Zhou had reservations, so he ignored Zhou San Niang's pleas for help. Instead, he wrote back to advise her to pray for Prince Jin at the temple and not to overthink things.

When Zhou Sanniang saw her parents' reply, she was so angry that she almost cursed them out. She thought to herself, "What kind of parents are these? Zhou Linlang is living a life of luxury in the Prince of Ying's mansion, while I'm eating bland vegetarian food every day in the ancestral temple of the Prince of Jin's mansion. What kind of people are they?"

It should be noted that there were other concubines in the ancestral temple who wanted to leave and remarry. Some of the concubines from poor families had their families agree to this, since these concubines were beautiful and their remarriages could bring in a dowry for their families. So, in the past few days, many of the younger concubines of the Prince of Jin have left and gone home to remarry.

Since the current dynasty did not stipulate that widows had to remain chaste, they only needed to inform the Prince of Jin's residence if they wanted to leave. The new Prince of Jin did not force them to stay, since one less person meant one less expense, so many concubines left the ancestral temple.

This is why Zhou Sanniang was tempted to leave, but her parents disagreed with her going back, which naturally made her angry.

But no matter how fiercely she cursed, it had no effect, because apart from the concubines of Prince Jin, there were only nuns here, so what good would cursing do?

She wanted to ignore the advice of Master Zhou and Madam Zhou and go straight home, but she was afraid that her parents would send her back, which would be extremely embarrassing. So, although she was furious, she could only stay in the family temple to pray for the Prince of Jin. It really made her furious.