Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1796 My Aunt is the Empress 3
Because Qingcao was acting as Linlang's spy, the First Prince naturally learned that Linlang had gone to the royal garden with the Third Prince.

When the eldest prince saw that Linlang was unwilling to go shopping with him, but was willing to go to the royal garden with the third prince, his expression darkened, and he wanted to kill Linlang.

In his mind, if Zhou Linlang were gone, her half-sisters might be easier to control.

Since Zhou Linlang had already decided not to choose him, she might as well choose someone else. The Duke of Zhongguo's mansion doesn't only have Zhou Linlang as a daughter.

As for whether the replacement might also dislike him... that's better than Zhou Linlang not even considering choosing him, right? After all, others might still have a chance, but it seems like Zhou Linlang has no chance at all.

As for choosing Zhou Linlang's half-sister, he might not be able to get the support of Zhou Linlang's maternal family, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, which holds military power... but that's still better than him completely losing the Zhou family's support and then having the Zhou family support other princes.

The reason why Zhou Linlang had to be killed in order to choose Zhou Linlang's half-sister was naturally because he was afraid that if he didn't choose Zhou Linlang, the First Madam Zhou would be unhappy. If that happened, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion would not only not help him, but would also help other princes and hold him back. So it was best to get rid of Zhou Linlang.

Of course, this is the third step of the plan. If the second step succeeds and he marries Zhou Linlang, then he will spare Zhou Linlang for the time being and kill her after he takes power.

Looking at his sinister appearance, Linlang couldn't help but sneer. She thought to herself, "The Third Prince is indeed shameless, but at least he can say that he's doing this for the sake of the country. This First Prince is even worse than the Third Prince. He's willing to betray his promise just to get his white moonlight into the throne. Even if he becomes emperor, he'll be a foolish ruler."

After Linlang returned from her visit to the royal garden with the Third Prince, Master Zhou spoke with her, asking, "You declined the First Prince's invitation but not the Third Prince's. Did you already have a choice in mind?"

Linlang said innocently, "I'm only thirteen years old, still young, how could I have made a choice so quickly?"

Master Zhou asked, puzzled, "Since you hadn't made a choice, why did you refuse the First Prince's invitation and only accept the Third Prince's?"

Linlang feigned ignorance and said, "A prince told me that the eldest prince has someone he likes and is hiding in a manor in the suburbs. He always uses the excuse of going hunting in the suburbs to meet with that woman. They've even had two children. Since there are ten princes to choose from, why should I choose one who already has an eldest son? Besides, since he has someone he likes, his usual act of liking me is obviously an act. I don't like hypocritical people. If he can pretend to like me today, he can pretend to be good to our family in the future, hoping we will help him ascend the throne. But once he's in power, he won't have to pretend anymore, and who knows what he might do to our family."

When Master Zhou heard from Linlang that the eldest prince had actually had two sons born out of wedlock, he flew into a rage, slammed his fist on the table, and shouted, "How dare you, you brat!"

No wonder Master Zhou was so angry. You see, the First Prince had always shown his fondness for Linlang, and even patted his chest and said that after ascending to the throne, he would definitely share wealth and honor with the Zhou family.

But now, it's obvious that she's saying one thing and doing another. Otherwise, she wouldn't have kept it a secret from the Zhou family that she has someone she likes and has given birth to two illegitimate sons.

How powerful is the love of a beloved person? Just look at some famously affectionate emperors in history. Even if those emperors had to compromise temporarily in order to ascend to the throne, they would still kick the person who helped them to the top once they succeeded.

There are too many people in history who have been kicked out of power. The emperors who came to power in the past have already blocked the path for those who came after them, so that later people dare not support someone who has other women in his heart, for fear that they will also become the one who is kicked out and end up doing the work for someone else.

Although emperors will have multiple wives and concubines in the future, and it is impossible for them to have only one empress, having other women is different from having a beloved woman.

Master Zhou can accept that the eldest prince has other women around him, but he cannot accept that the prince has someone he loves. Just as his daughter said, there are ten princes to choose from, so there is no need to take the risk of choosing a prince who already has someone he loves.

So, Master Zhou immediately told Linlang that he would investigate the matter, and if it was true, he would abandon the eldest prince. Leaving aside Master Zhou accepting Linlang's explanation, Qingcao, who was standing nearby, was shocked upon hearing Linlang's words.

The King of Qi actually had someone he loved, and they even had two sons together...

Although Qingcao knew that she was just a lowly servant girl, and that the Crown Prince was so noble that he would have many women in the future, she could not possibly have the Crown Prince all to herself.

However, knowing that he has many women is a completely different feeling from knowing that he has someone he likes.

Even if women in this era accepted the rule of having multiple wives and concubines, human jealousy cannot be restrained by rules.

So when Qingcao heard that the Crown Prince had a woman he liked, and that woman had even given birth to two sons for him, it was impossible for her not to feel anything at all. Naturally, she felt very uncomfortable.

Originally, upon receiving this news, she should have immediately informed the eldest prince, lest Master Zhou discover that he had indeed done such a thing, and Master Zhou might refuse to marry the eldest daughter to him.

However, she was feeling upset at the moment, so she didn't send a message to the eldest prince immediately.

Linlang glanced at the restless Qingcao.

The reason she didn't dismiss everyone and let Qingcao hear about this was because she wanted Qingcao to tell the First Prince, so that the First Prince would know that they knew about all the despicable things he had done.

She wanted to know how the eldest prince would treat his beloved "white moonlight" when he discovered that the Zhou family had found out what he had done, all for the sake of the greater cause.

Men, ah, she knows them very well. When it comes to interests, love is worthless.

Because of Qingcao's hesitation, the eldest prince was a step too late. After receiving the news, he didn't have time to move the woman he liked away before Lord Zhou discovered her.

Once it was confirmed that what Linlang said was true, Master Zhou was naturally furious and quickly excluded the eldest prince from the list of people he was willing to support.

He felt his eldest daughter was right; there were nine other princes to choose from, so why should he choose one that was risky?

Although Master Zhou had decided not to choose the eldest prince, he was a cunning old fox and did not want to break ties with the eldest prince before things were settled. So, on the surface, he did not do anything to the eldest prince, but simply let Linlang stop associating with him.

When the eldest prince saw that Linlang was no longer associating with him, he knew that he might have been completely abandoned by the Duke of Zhongguo's mansion, which he naturally couldn't bear. So he asked Qingcao to ask Linlang which prince had told her that he had a woman he liked.

Clearly, the eldest prince felt that all of this was the fault of that other prince and wanted to find him and take revenge.