Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

The heir of the Duke of Chengen pointed to the injury on his face and told Liu Siniang that someone had put a sack over his head and beaten him that day. Although they hadn't found out who did it, he guessed that Chu Yue had hired someone to do it. So he dared not continue to slander Linlang, for fear that Chu Yue might break his legs in the future.

Hearing what the heir of the Duke of Chengen said, Liu Si Niang had no choice but to give up in frustration. Unlike in her original world, she didn't continue to smear Lin Lang and incite the heir of the Duke of Chengen to cause trouble for Lin Lang.

Liu Si Niang initially thought that the Crown Prince of Cheng'en's claim that Linlang was engaged to the Prince of Zhou was just a ruse to deceive her, as he was fond of Linlang. However, not long after, news actually came that Shen Linlang was engaged to Chu Yue. This left Liu Si Niang unable to calm down for a long time, completely unable to accept it. She talked to herself in her room for a long time, which made Linlang realize that this woman was a transmigrator. Was their world actually a book? The male lead was the Crown Prince of Cheng'en, and the female lead was the original body. The transmigrator took a liking to the male lead and wanted to marry him, thus ruining their marriage.

But... given that the Crown Prince of Chengen has such terrible character, is he really the male lead?

That's true. Novels are novels, and the characters in novel worlds are characters in novel worlds. You can't tell a person's character when things are going smoothly; you can only see a person's character in adversity.

No wonder the heir of the Duke of Chengen is quite handsome, and he can even give a charmingly wicked smile from time to time. So he's the male lead. His appearance is certainly not bad.

No wonder Liu Si Niang always looks like a lovesick fool when she sees the charming smile of the Duke of Chengen. It turns out she's a fan of the male lead and can't stand the female lead, so she wants to kick her out and become the female lead herself.

That's quite normal. I don't know how many people want to break up Darcy and Elizabeth and take their place. In her previous world, she had seen many transmigrated women break up the original male and female leads and take their place. There were too many such people. Some even slandered the original female lead.

Leaving aside Liu Si Niang's regret at not being able to deal with Lin Lang, Lin Lang, after seeing her performance, sneered inwardly, thinking, "You still regret not being able to deal with me? I'll deal with you soon enough."

However, she will not take action for the time being. She will wait until Liu Siniang marries the heir of the Duke of Chengen before she makes her move. Otherwise, if she deals with the heir and wife of the Duke of Chengen and the Duke of Chengen's mansion is in trouble, Liu Siniang will look down on the Duke of Chengen's mansion and refuse to marry into it. In that case, she will not be able to deal with her together, and she will have to deal with her separately, which is too troublesome.

Of course, the main reason was that the old Duchess was still alive. Linlang didn't want the old lady who doted on the original owner to watch the Chengen Duke's Mansion decline, so she planned to deal with the Chengen Duke's heir and others after the old lady passed away.

Of course, it will take some time to completely deal with these people, but for now, it's acceptable to let them suffer a little.

At present, Chu Yue and Lin Lang are engaged, and Chu Yue has sent quite a lot of betrothal gifts.

It just so happens that the eldest son of the Crown Prince's wife has just gotten married, so whatever amount was given to the eldest son, the youngest son should naturally receive the same amount.

Especially since the eldest son will inherit the title of prince and live a much better life than the younger son, the wedding must be extravagant to avoid a significant disparity between the younger and older sons in their future lives.

Therefore, the betrothal gifts arranged by the Crown Prince's wife for her youngest son were also quite substantial.

In addition to the 10,000 taels from the public covenant, the Imperial Clan Court provided items according to the regulations for a Prince of the Second Rank, and the Prince Zhou's Crown Princess also gave 10,000 taels of private funds, totaling approximately 25,000 taels as betrothal gifts.

There was also one when the eldest son got married; it wasn't just the youngest son who had one.

She knew she had to treat her two children equally to avoid complaints, so whatever her eldest son had, her younger son would certainly have too. A dowry of 25,000 taels wasn't the highest in the capital, after all, the capital was never short of wealthy and powerful people; 25,000 taels was nothing to them. Some powerful families could easily offer over 50,000 taels.

The reason there are so many betrothal gifts is that some of them are used as an opportunity to divide the family property when the son gets married. So the money from the division of property is displayed as betrothal gifts. Anyway, there are wealthy and respectable families in the capital, and these betrothal gifts will be brought back. No family will withhold the betrothal gifts and make themselves a laughing stock.

Since they would be brought back, in families with many sons, the matriarch would naturally want to take this opportunity to separate her son from the family.

Therefore, the betrothal gifts that the Crown Prince's wife prepared for her son were just as substantial as the dowry that the old Duke and his wife gave to the original owner's mother.

Some poor families, in order to save face, inflate the dowry amount, saying it's 10,000, when in reality the actual value of the items is not that much.

When it comes to the Crown Prince's wife, she will mark down the price of everything she gives to her son. For example, the jewelry she makes for her daughter-in-law is worth 200 taels, but she will mark it down to 150 taels or even 100 taels. So, on the surface, it is said to be a dowry of 25,000 taels, but the actual value is more than that.

It's no wonder she did it this way. Anyway, if the money in the public treasury isn't spent on her own son, it will be spent on other women's sons. Even a fool knows that you should try to spend it on your own son.

Seeing that the Zhou Prince's Mansion gave Linlang a betrothal gift of 25,000 taels and then sealed it all in the storeroom of Linlang's courtyard instead of putting it in the public storeroom, it was clear that they were keeping it from her and were afraid that she would embezzle her betrothal gift. The Duchess of Cheng'en was furious when she saw this.

—Of course she should put it in her own storeroom. Given the malice shown to her by the Duchess of Cheng'en, how could she possibly put her things in the public storeroom? What if the Duchess of Cheng'en took them away? She would have nowhere to cry.

However, because of the rumors that Linlang had slept with someone else and the interference in Linlang's marriage, Linlang had completely broken ties with the Lady of Chengen, so she couldn't say anything about what Linlang did.

Lady Cheng'en now particularly dislikes Linlang and wants to get Linlang out of the Cheng'en Mansion, saying that this is her home, but... firstly, the old Duchess is not dead yet, and Linlang is not her child, so she has no right to tell Linlang to leave; secondly, if she wants to get Linlang out, Linlang will not only have her as an aunt, but Lady Song will definitely take Linlang over, so she will be left empty-handed.

If Linlang had nowhere else to go but here, she could have taken control of her. But Linlang is clever; she made friends with Madam Song early on. Now, she has a way out and isn't afraid of being kicked out. So no matter how angry Madam Chengen is, she can't do anything about Linlang who has a way out.

If Lady Cheng'en was merely angry, then Song Yuanniang's reaction to Linlang having so many betrothal gifts was one of envy, jealousy, and resentment.

Originally, she thought that as the daughter of a duke, she would definitely marry better than Shen Linlang, but Shen Linlang's marriage was so good that she couldn't count on that.

Later, she thought that the royal family didn't have much money, so Shen Linlang's betrothal gifts might not be much. However, the Zhou Prince's Mansion gave her a lot of betrothal gifts, which made Song Yuanniang feel very unbalanced. After all, why should Shen Linlang get so much?

What troubled her even more was that after news of her mother's actions spread throughout the capital, she found it difficult to find a suitable husband. (End of Chapter)