Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

However, even though the old Duchess of the State is in charge of Linlang's living expenses, the Duchess of Cheng'en is still blaming Linlang for using the family's money. After all, in her opinion, the old Duchess of the State's money is the Duke's money, and if Linlang spends the old lady's money, she is spending her money. So she keeps grumbling like this.

Of course, since it was the old Duchess who was in charge, even if the Duchess of Cheng'en grumbled, she only dared to grumble in private and did not dare to say it directly in front of Linlang.

Linlang naturally heard the Duchess of Chengen muttering to herself, but as long as the woman didn't come near her, she pretended not to know.

Anyway, this woman won't dance in front of her, because if the old Duchess heard her, she would definitely scold her.

Although the old Duchess dared not let her granddaughter be raised in the mansion because her eldest daughter in the palace had passed away and she had no one to support her, and she dared not mention having her daughter-in-law teach Linlang how to manage the household or marrying her granddaughter to her grandson, if the Duchess of Cheng'en scolded Linlang for eating her food, drinking her food, or wearing her food, the old Duchess would still scold her.

She has her own private savings, unlike ordinary families who rely on their sons and daughters-in-law for old age. Naturally, she can say whatever she wants. She doesn't allow her granddaughter to be raised in the household because she doesn't want to burden her daughter-in-law. It's because she is a kind-hearted mother-in-law. It doesn't mean that her daughter-in-law can complain about it after she raises her granddaughter.

Lady Cheng'en was quite envious of Linlang's large dowry, so she immediately instigated her daughter to pretend to be poor and envious of Linlang's wealth. She suggested Linlang ask for some money or a set of jewelry. If Linlang gave it to her, they would naturally benefit; if Linlang refused, they could say that Linlang had lived in the Cheng'en Duke's mansion for so many years and spent so much money, and now she couldn't even give them something small—what a stingy person! Then they could openly give her attitude.

A few years ago, when the Empress Dowager was alive and the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion was thriving, the Cheng'en Duke's wife certainly wouldn't have been envious of this little bit of money. After all, the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion was doing very well back then, not only receiving a lot of rewards from the palace, but also receiving gray income from tributes from officials from all sides. The Cheng'en Duke's Mansion had so much money that it couldn't possibly spend it all, and she didn't care about Linlang's little bit of money at all.

However, the people of the Chengen Duke's Mansion were too arrogant at that time. They had a lot of money but did not manage it properly, thinking that they would have plenty of money to spend in the future. So they spent all the money they earned today and did not acquire much land or estate to make money.

Who would have thought that the Empress Dowager would pass away in just a few years? Without her support, the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion immediately fell into decline. As a result, the Cheng'en Duke's wife began to be very calculating, and she even wanted Linlang's little bit of money.

Lady Chengen, having become more financially conscious of the household due to her role as steward, realized the family was running low on funds. However, her daughter, though also involved in household management, lacked a clear understanding of the family's situation. She was still basking in the glory days when Empress Dowager Song was still alive. So, when Lady Chengen asked her to ask Linlang for money and jewelry, her face immediately flushed, and she cried out in a low voice, "Mother! How could I possibly do such a thing! Where would I put my face if word got out? People would laugh at me for being a poor wretch."

Lady Cheng'en said, "The most important thing is to gain an advantage; what does face matter?"

Song Yuanniang said, "Then I won't go either. How can face not be important? If face isn't important, the mansion clearly doesn't have much money left, so why not lower the ostentation? You all care about face and are embarrassed to lower the ostentation, and so do I."

No matter how much Lady Chengen tried to persuade her, Song Yuanniang refused, and Lady Chengen had no choice but to give up.

It has to be said that Song Yuanniang hit the nail on the head. Indeed, even the people of the Chengen Duke's Mansion have to care about their reputation, so why should she be allowed to disregard it? Even if she envied Linlang's large dowry, she wouldn't go to her to ask for it. This was something that her pride as the daughter of a duke would not allow to happen.

It was thanks to Song Yuanniang's pride that she didn't come to Linlang asking for money or jewelry, saving Linlang the trouble of dealing with it. Actually, the Duchess of Cheng'en could have encouraged her illegitimate daughters to come and ask for them.

Firstly, those illegitimate daughters had to obey Madam Cheng'en, and secondly, they might not care about their reputation like Song Yuanniang, so they might come. However, Madam Cheng'en was afraid that if Linlang really gave the illegitimate daughters jewelry and money, the illegitimate daughters would benefit from it, which was not what she wanted to see. Therefore, Madam Cheng'en did not mention this matter.

Lady Cheng'en didn't want her illegitimate daughter to take advantage of her, and she also saved Linlang some trouble.

Soon, Linlang sorted out some jewelry she was going to sell, and finally sold it for five thousand taels. Adding another ten thousand taels of silver to her chest, she made a total of fifteen thousand taels. After some observation, she bought three houses that were easy to rent out and not too expensive, and rented them out.

These three houses can bring in about 1,500 taels of silver a year, which is much better than having jewelry and silver treasures lying around in the dowry.

Then Linlang went to ask the old Duchess what to do with the large number of old clothes left by the original owner's mother.

When her daughter got married, the old Duchess made many sets of clothes for all four seasons. Then, the original owner's mother also made a lot of clothes for all four seasons in her husband's family. So there are quite a few clothes in the dowry now.

Linlang could keep some of the clothes that her original mother hadn't worn yet; however, she didn't really want to wear other people's old clothes that her original mother had worn—unless they were particularly nice, in which case she might wear them. So Linlang came over to ask the old Duchess what to do with these clothes.

Actually, Linlang had a solution, but since she needed to maintain communication with the old Duchess and strengthen their relationship, she came to ask the old Duchess for advice.

Linlang said, "...The main problem is that there are too many. I will have my own clothes in the future, and I really can't wear them all. It would be a waste if they rotted after being stored for a long time."

Ancient fabrics were not durable and would easily rot if left for a long time, so keeping them in a cabinet was indeed a waste.

The old Duchess hadn't touched her daughter's clothes before, but now that Linlang brought it up, she agreed. Clothes aren't like silver that can be kept forever; they don't last long. So she immediately said, "It's very simple to deal with. If a servant does a good job, you can reward them instead of giving them silver. You can give them these old clothes as a reward. They can either wear them themselves or pawn them for money; that would be perfect."

After all, the original owner's mother's clothes were all made of fine silk and satin, and even old ones were quite valuable. Using them as a reward was indeed a good idea, and it saved Linlang the trouble of directly finding someone to take the old clothes away and sell them. Anyway, some rewards were necessary and couldn't be avoided, so using these old clothes as rewards would save some real money, which was indeed a good deal. (End of this chapter)