Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1798 My Aunt is the Empress 5
When Qingcao heard that the eldest prince had been placed under house arrest, she was filled with fear.

She didn't know how things had suddenly developed to this point.

The situation was clearly very favorable before. The Zhou family felt that although the eldest prince was not the legitimate son, he was still the eldest son. If there was a legitimate son, he should be chosen; if not, the eldest son should be chosen. Therefore, she could see that the Zhou family actually had their eye on the eldest prince. Even the eldest daughter thought so and thought the eldest prince was good and was willing to marry him. How come in the blink of an eye, the eldest prince was scolded by the emperor and put in confinement, and the eldest daughter no longer wanted to marry the eldest prince?

Although she was inexperienced and didn't think that the First Prince was truly doomed just because the Emperor had scolded him, she knew that this situation was unfavorable to the First Prince. So, she couldn't help but hate the Third Prince as much as the First Prince did—she had received news from the First Prince that the Third Prince was behind this.

She wondered what she would do if the eldest prince failed to ascend to the throne.

Although the eldest prince, being a prince, could take her as a concubine, she was blinded by the promise of wealth and honor he had promised her. She wanted to be a royal consort, not a prince's concubine.

After all, if a concubine is lucky, she might even become the Empress Dowager, second only to the emperor.

Don't think that just because she was a servant, she had no hope. There are historical precedents of this: a concubine of low status later became an empress dowager.

This was her only chance in her life to achieve a significant leap in social class, so naturally she didn't want to give it up.

—Look, people's hearts are always greedy. Ordinary people might think that being a prince's concubine is not bad, but once they feel that they may have a better future, being a prince's concubine is no longer appealing, and they want to be an imperial concubine. So now, when Qingcao sees that her dream of becoming an imperial concubine may be lost, she naturally gets anxious.

She hesitated for a moment before saying to Linlang, "Miss, I heard that after the First Prince was scolded by His Majesty, he sent that girl away. That should be a change of heart, right? So, when the First Prince comes out in three months, will you still associate with him? I think that if there is a legitimate heir, the eldest son should be chosen; if there is no legitimate heir, the eldest son should be chosen. The First Prince has the best chance of becoming the heir. You can't miss this opportunity, Miss."

The reason Qingcao said this was probably because she thought she might be able to persuade her young lady to marry the eldest prince. As long as the young lady married him, the eldest prince would have the support of the Zhou family and the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, and he could still ascend to the throne.

She hadn't considered that if the Zhou family and the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion thought the eldest prince had someone he loved and wasn't worth investing in, even if Linlang got married, it wouldn't matter. They just thought that if they could win Linlang over, everything would be done.

Of course, it's possible that she wasn't that foolish, but rather that she had no other choice, so she grasped at this last straw and wanted to give it a try.

Linlang sneered after hearing Qingcao's words: "He only sent her away because he was afraid of affecting his ascension to the throne. Once he becomes emperor, he will bring that girl back immediately. Moreover, feeling guilty for mistreating her all these years, he will retaliate by showering her with affection, even more so than he could have, to prove that he was right to secretly be with her back then, and that the world was wrong. Even if he can become emperor, I wouldn't dare marry such a person. Let the bolder women have him."

Moreover, the eldest prince will definitely not ascend to the throne. After all, in the original life, the third prince was chosen, and it was the third prince who ascended to the throne, not the eldest prince. This shows that the Zhou family and the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion are still very powerful. Whichever prince they want to support to ascend the throne is more likely to do so.

In fact, the eldest prince is already in his twenties. It's normal for a nobleman's son to have women at that age. It's also normal for him to openly establish several concubines and reserve the position of principal wife for a suitable person.

But he desperately wanted women, yet feared having other women. Plus, he was getting older, and the original owner of this body had lost interest in him. So, he secretly kept several women, even fathering several children—besides his white moonlight's child, other women also had children, which was normal; there were no contraceptives in this world, so sleeping together naturally led to pregnancy. This was a classic case of wanting both ways, which is why the emperor only scolded him for being foolish, not for having women. Because at his age, having women wasn't wrong, just foolish. Indeed, the eldest prince didn't only have that white moonlight as a woman; it was just that she was his favorite, just like Qingcao was also one of the eldest prince's women.

Besides the grass, there are other women as well.

The eldest prince felt that as a prince, he was noble and could not possibly mistreat himself.

They just did it secretly, without making it public.

Upon hearing Linlang's words, Qingcao realized that her young mistress truly did not want to be with the First Prince anymore. She became anxious, but dared not directly tell her mistress to marry the First Prince, as that would make her seem too eager and arouse her mistress's suspicion.

Once the young lady finds out about her affair with the eldest prince, and that she has already gotten there before her, wouldn't she be green with envy? Her life would be in danger then, so Qingcao naturally dared not show any eagerness.

—If Linlang knew that Qingcao thought she and the First Prince had an affair without any matchmaker and slept together, she would be jealous and probably laugh herself to death. After all, who would want the trash she picked up? Trash, and she treats it like a treasure.

Although Qingcao was anxious at the moment, she thought that since the eldest prince was going to be confined for three months, she still had time to think about it slowly and was not in a hurry. So she did not continue to make any small moves or schemes to get Linlang together with the eldest prince.

But she already had this idea.

She had also heard the eldest prince reveal that if he couldn't marry Zhou Linlang smoothly, he would have to start the second plan, which was to arrange for him to have an affair with Zhou Linlang, and then be discovered, forcing the Zhou family to marry Zhou Linlang to him.

Qingcao felt that since the young lady was unwilling to choose the eldest prince, this was the only method they could use.

What Qingcao didn't know was that the eldest prince had a third plan: to kill Linlang, then get close to Linlang's half-sister and be with her.

However, the First Prince was afraid that if Qingcao knew about this plan, she would be worried that he would marry a concubine's daughter instead of her own daughter, and that she would not marry him because she would lose her usefulness, which would bring bad consequences. Therefore, the First Prince did not tell Qingcao about the third plan, so Qingcao did not know about the First Prince's third plan, and only knew about the first and second plans.

Now that she knows the Crown Prince's first and second plans, and since the first plan (that is, to marry her young lady openly and legitimately) can no longer proceed, Qingcao naturally has to help the Crown Prince prepare the second plan.

The eldest prince has placed her under house arrest, but she's still outside. Once she's prepared everything, the eldest prince will be able to use her preparations when he comes out. He'll definitely like her even more, and when he ascends the throne, he'll surely bestow upon her a better rank.