Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1823 My Aunt is the Empress 30
Perhaps because of their good family background, Zhou Si Niang's husband was extravagant, pleasure-seeking, lewd, and dissolute.

Spending money is a minor matter, after all, when Zhou Si Niang's father-in-law is a member of the cabinet, countless people come to their house to curry favor, and they have as much money as they want, so they don't have to worry about not having enough money.

At least she doesn't have to worry while her father-in-law is still an official. But if he stops being an official, or even passes away, things will get colder. If they don't know how to manage their finances and have saved more money beforehand, and bought more houses, shops, and land, what will they do when they have no money and her husband is still living a life of extravagance and can't make ends meet? She can't think that far ahead yet because she is more worried about her husband's lecherous and dissolute behavior.

Her husband's family was wealthy, so his extravagant lifestyle was somewhat acceptable, but his lustful and dissolute behavior was terrible and caused her distress.

Before Zhou Si Niang even entered the house, her husband's room was already full of people.

Once she entered the house, those people inside were elevated to the status of concubines, and soon the number of concubines exceeded ten.

What respectable young master would have more than ten concubines? But Zhou Si Niang's husband had just that many.

This only includes those who were promoted to concubine status; there were also those who were favored but not given official titles, and those who were merely given the status of maidservants—a whole bunch of them.

Faced with this situation, it's no wonder that Zhou Si Niang couldn't stand it. She immediately ran home and asked Master Zhou to make a decision for her.

The reason she didn't go to Madam Zhou was that she thought Madam Zhou wouldn't pay attention to her, so she didn't want to make a fool of herself. Instead, she went directly to Master Zhou.

But would Master Zhou stand up for her? Of course not. After listening to her complaints, Master Zhou didn't think she was right at all. He immediately criticized her, saying, "So what if your son-in-law has a few concubines? Why are you crying and wailing? Have you forgotten all the precepts for women?"

Master Zhou is a man, and a man with many concubines as well. How could he possibly side with Zhou Si Niang and think that it's a huge deal that her husband has many concubines and that he needs to support her? What if people ask him, "Don't you also have many concubines?" How would he answer? He would naturally criticize Zhou Si Niang.

When Zhou Si Niang saw that her father was not supportive at all when she cried to him, she felt even more aggrieved. She felt that since her aunt passed away, she had no one she could talk to.

Neither her own family nor her husband's family had a voice.

Thinking about how lucky Zhou Sanniang was, I heard that since she entered the household, her husband has only had one concubine, who was a maid who had always served him. She felt that the maid had worked hard and took the initiative to promote her. She did not take the initiative to promote her concubine, and her husband did not establish any concubines. The others were just people in the room, without any official status, so they could not affect her at all.

How did things turn out like this when it came to me?

This is quite normal, because when Madam Zhou was looking for a marriage partner for Zhou San Niang, she chose a family with a relatively upright character, not the kind where everyone in the household was corrupt and only the lions at the gate were considered clean.

So it's normal that Zhou Sanniang's husband, who was considered honest for his time, didn't mistreat her.

Men are driven by sensual desires, and it's common for them to lose control of their lower bodies. However, people are also influenced by their environment. In a good environment, they tend to control their desires and not act impulsively. Zhou Si Niang's husband, for example, clearly doesn't intend to control his desires and acts on impulse. Therefore, it's understandable that Zhou Si Niang suffers. It's all her fault for being so afraid that her marriage would fall into the hands of Madam Zhou and not wanting her to handle it. She was even happy that Master Zhou was handling it. Now, Master Zhou doesn't care about the man's character; he only cares about the benefits of the marriage, and this is how things have turned out.

She even envied Zhou Erniang's marriage.

Although her husband's family was much worse off than her own, at least her husband didn't have many concubines.

When Master Zhou was choosing a marriage partner for Zhou Erniang, he was looking for a family that would benefit his family. However, he didn't choose a family with particularly good conditions, but rather one with the strictest moral code, one that could keep Zhou Erniang from having any improper behavior and prevent her from being divorced and harming the Zhou family. So, Zhou Erniang's husband's family was of average means, but they were very strict with their moral code and kept her under tight control.

People who establish their families according to etiquette and morality, even if they have concubines, cannot do as they please as Zhou Siniang's family. So even though they have concubines, they are still much better off than Zhou Siniang's family.

So, in comparison, she was actually the one who married the worst among her sisters.

Of course, Zhou Erniang would definitely not agree, because she felt that she had married the worst. Her husband's family was poor, the atmosphere in the family was bad, and they controlled her very tightly every day. They wouldn't let her out of the house and she could only move around in the backyard, like she was in prison. She hated the marriage that Master Zhou had chosen for her.

In her opinion, her fourth sister's marriage was excellent. Her husband's family was so well-off. What did it matter if her husband had several concubines? One concubine had other women, and ten concubines also had other women. What difference did it make? It didn't matter. The key was that he wasn't strictly controlled, and there was endless money to spend. How wonderful was that?

Unlike her own family, her husband was not only very strict, but also extremely unfriendly to women because of the strong emphasis on etiquette and male chauvinism. She barely received any pocket money each month, making it impossible for her to ask someone to buy her anything. It infuriated her. She cursed her husband to die quickly so that she could go back to her parents' home and remarry. She was determined to marry a man with good conditions who was not so strict.

Leaving aside Zhou Erniang's dissatisfaction with her husband's family, let's just say that when Zhou Siniang was criticized by Master Zhou, she had no choice but to go back home.

Without her family's support, Zhou Si Niang's husband's lewd and lustful behavior did not stop but continued to escalate. He then took in even more concubines, making Zhou Si Niang afraid to share a room with him, fearing that he would have slept with her outside and contract a sexually transmitted disease.

But she couldn't live without a child, so she had to grit her teeth and sleep with him, each time with trepidation.

This is a story for later.

Meanwhile, because the emperor said he was observing mourning for the late emperor, he naturally had to put on a show. Therefore, the new emperor not only did not seek favor with the palace maids, but he also did not seek out Linlang. The main reason was that he was afraid that if they had sex, she might get pregnant. If he said he was observing mourning but actually got pregnant, it would be difficult to explain to the ministers.

Fortunately, Linlang had just given birth, and it wasn't appropriate for them to have sex right away. It would be good for Linlang to rest and recover.

Linlang was surprised to see that the Sixth Prince hadn't actually taken any of the palace maids for his favor and was preparing to observe mourning. You see, she had never thought that the Sixth Prince could do that. So, before the Sixth Prince ascended the throne, she didn't dare to have other women, for fear of affecting the Zhou family's support for him. So, she quickly got pregnant, thinking that once the Sixth Prince ascended the throne and had other women, she would not sleep with them. If necessary, she even planned to kill the father and keep the child, and then become the Empress Dowager and rule from behind the curtain.

She never expected that this man could actually be so averse to women. She had thought he was just pretending to please the Zhou family, like the Third Prince.