Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

To be honest, it's a case of each side having their own version of the truth. If the heir of the Duke of Chengen really insists that Linlang tried to sleep with him, it will be very difficult for Linlang to prove that nothing like that happened. That's exactly what the heir and his wife of the Duke of Chengen are planning.

Linlang sneered, "Oh, so you say I seduced you? And you want me to prove I didn't do such a thing? You want me to prove it? Why should I prove it? It's clearly a lie you made up. If anyone should prove it, it should be you. Otherwise, what if I said you seduced a favorite concubine in the palace? Can you prove you didn't?"

When someone falsely accuses her of doing something, she won't prove herself; instead, she'll use the same method to falsely accuse them back, making the other person prove themselves as well.

Upon hearing Linlang's words, the heir of the Duke of Chengen panicked and stammered, "You...you mustn't talk nonsense! Talking nonsense like this could get our household killed!"

Linlang sneered, "You know you can get your head for saying things like that, so you're falsely accusing me, a young girl, of trying to get into your bed. Don't you know how serious the consequences are? You'll ruin my life! In severe cases, I might have to die to prove my innocence! You can spout nonsense when you want to kill someone else, but when it comes to your own, you start to panic. If you don't want to die, don't talk nonsense. If I hear such rumors outside, don't blame me for being ruthless! Anyway, if the rumors get out, I won't be able to live either, so fine, let's all die together."

After Linlang threatened to spread rumors that he had an affair with a favorite concubine in the palace, neither Lady Chengen nor the heir of Chengen dared to say anything.

Madam Song the Second and the old Duchess of the State couldn't help but look at Linlang with a completely new perspective.

They had thought Linlang was timid and cowardly, but she surprised them by showing a completely different side today, leaving them all astonished.

Fortunately, after the incident escalated, Lady Chengen, fearing that things would get out of control, dismissed the servants. Otherwise, if others had overheard Linlang's words and spread the word, the Chengen Duke's mansion would have been in serious trouble.

Then they heard Linlang deliver the final blow to the heir of the Duke of Chengen. Linlang looked the heir up and down and said, "How dare you spread rumors that I slept with you? I only like people my own age, not old men who are so much older than me! You're being too presumptuous. Spreading such rumors about me."

The original owner of this body is not yet thirteen years old, while the heir of the Duke of Chengen is eighteen years old and is about to marry Liu Siniang. So he is five or six years older than the original owner. According to age, he is not an old man, but if we consider that he is much older than the original owner, then it is reasonable to say that he is an old man.

Upon hearing this, Madam Song couldn't help but burst out laughing.

How could she not know that her niece was so sharp-tongued? Look how angry she made her nephew and sister-in-law turn black.

Seeing that the matter had been resolved satisfactorily, the old Duchess sighed, shook her head, and left.

If the eldest son's wife is so unreliable, what will become of her in the future?

Well, she's too old to care anymore. Let them do whatever they want in the future.

Having falsely accused Linlang, she was furious to receive such a slap in the face. Determined to retaliate, she immediately arranged for Linlang to meet a young man, according to Linlang's preferences. She claimed to have found a particularly good young man, one she liked, as an apology. In reality, however, the young man was a carefully chosen, seemingly respectable family, but actually quite wicked, intended to trick Linlang into marrying into and ruining her life. Linlang remained silent, but obediently went to the arranged marriage.

Logically, she shouldn't have gone since she had already broken ties with Madam Chengen. The reason she went was because she discovered that Chu Yue hadn't given up and was having people investigate her. Madam Chengen had arranged for her to go on a blind date, intending to ask him in front of her why he hadn't replied to her letters.

Chu Yue's investigation is quite thorough; she might discover where Chu Yue is arranging a marriage. If she does, she can rush over and expose the shameful deeds of the Duchess of Cheng'en.

This time, the Duchess of Cheng'en has managed to smear herself and then shift the blame to her son, claiming that her son said it and that she didn't know the truth, so she was wronged. Now that she stopped Chu Yue from proposing marriage to her and refused to hand over the letter Chu Yue wrote to her, she can't find any excuse to deny it.

Not to mention, the person that the Duchess of Cheng'en found to apologize to her, at least on the surface, was indeed innocuous.

It was a noble family, a marquis's mansion—even if she wanted to trick Linlang, the Duchess of Cheng'en would still choose a family a level below her own, for fear of letting Linlang get away with it—on the surface, this marquis's mansion seemed to live a very glamorous life, but Linlang could easily find out with a little investigation that this family had been living beyond their means for a long time, and if she were to marry into the family, she would starve. They were only tricking her because they thought she was a young girl and couldn't possibly know the truth.

Linlang then went with Lady Chengen to the teahouse to meet the young master of the Marquis's mansion.

Although it's called a matchmaking meeting, it's not like a modern blind date. What could the man and woman talk about? It's also impossible for them to talk alone like in modern times, since it's absolutely unacceptable for a man and woman to be alone together in ancient times. Instead, the elders of both sides would talk while the younger generation would just stand by and stare blankly, at most glancing at each other's appearance.

However, this is already much better than looking at a portrait.

Some families with strict social norms don't arrange for their children to be introduced to potential partners or attend banquets to meet and socialize with men and women of the same age. They simply choose someone based on their portrait.

Even in modern times, photos can be misleading; how much more so in ancient times? These portraits led to many people being misled into arranged marriages.

In other words, people in the countryside may have more freedom—they marry people from the same village, most of whom they have known since childhood and know what kind of person the other is. As long as the person is smart and discerning, they won't marry an unreliable one.

The lady of the house who arranged the marriage for Linlang was clearly satisfied with her. She had overheard the wife of the Duke of Cheng'en secretly telling her that Linlang had a dowry of tens of thousands of taels of silver. Since their household was short of money, marrying this woman would be a good idea. She had previously planned to marry a merchant's daughter, but that would be too undignified. If she could marry a daughter of an official with an equally generous dowry, that would be the best outcome.

So the Lady Hou was very affectionate towards Linlang, but the young master was lukewarm towards her. He probably thought that Linlang was an orphan who had lost both her parents and didn't have a powerful in-law family to bring him any benefits, so he looked down on her.

He looked down on Linlang, and Linlang looked down on him too. This young master of the Marquis's mansion, just as the Lady of Cheng'en had said, was only three years older than her, fifteen this year, but he was already as fat as a ball. Who would like someone like that? She was a sucker for good looks; she could tolerate a poor family background, but she truly couldn't stand someone who was ugly. (End of Chapter)