Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

If Duke Chengen knew that his wife thought he was weak and incompetent, he would also feel wronged.

He was born into a family of minor officials. Although they were minor officials, he was still a young master, so unlike his father, who was poor when he was young and had to take the imperial examinations and suffer hardships, he grew up in a pampered and privileged environment.

Later, when he got older, married and had children, his sister's son was made crown prince, and the family's life got better and better.

Later, his nephew became emperor and his sister became empress dowager. He thought that with such two powerful backers, what was there to fear? So he lived a life of extravagance and could spend as much money as he wanted.

Little did he know that his sister would pass away before she turned fifty, and then he would lose his biggest support. After all, the emperor was a different level of influence, unlike his sister who would give him rewards every now and then. The emperor could not possibly be so good to his uncle.

However, his family had become accustomed to a comfortable life during the years his sister was alive, making it difficult for them to lower their living standards.

But no matter how much I don't want to, I'm out of money now, so I have no choice but to harden my heart and lower my standards a bit.

At that moment, Lady Chengen dismissed one servant from each master's side. For those masters with more servants, she dismissed more than one. For example, Lady Laoguodu took the lead and dismissed four people, and Lady Chengen also took the lead and dismissed three people.

Those who were laid off were not wasted; they were released on a gracious note and sold to human traffickers for a profit. Of course, those with money also supported redeeming themselves, as long as it was more expensive than selling to human traffickers, Lady Cheng'en was naturally willing.

In ordinary wealthy families, people would be released as a favor. People like them who were sold for profit would be laughed at. The Duchess of Cheng'en did not want others to laugh at her, so the layoffs were all carried out quietly.

Don't be fooled by the fact that laying off about fifty people will save a lot of money in the future, and you might even make a few hundred taels of silver by selling them. But the expenses of the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion are huge, and this is just a drop in the bucket. The expenses of the servants are actually not that big; it is the masters of the house who have the biggest expenses.

Unable to lower her spending and unwilling to use her personal savings to support her family, Lady Cheng'en began lending money given to her by the old lady at exorbitant interest rates. After all, she was the emperor's maternal uncle, and her daughter-in-law was the empress's sister. What was wrong with lending money at exorbitant interest rates? What could anyone do to them?

Linlang wasn't surprised to see the Duchess of Chengen doing this, because in the original world, the Duchess of Chengen had done the same thing after spending all of the original owner's dowry in no time.

Of course, no matter how short of money she was, Madam Chengen never allowed Liu Siniang to use her dowry. Because Liu Siniang's money was her son's money, she naturally couldn't let her son's money be used for the whole family's expenses, especially to support her husband's concubines and illegitimate children.

It's normal for an old lady to take out her money to use, because she won't keep all of it; it might also go to her husband's illegitimate children. Since she can't have it all herself, she might as well use it.

But Liu Si Niang's money is different; it belongs to her daughter-in-law, and it's her family's money, so of course she can't use it.

Leaving aside the fact that Lady Cheng'en started courting disaster by lending money at exorbitant interest rates, let's talk about how Liu Siniang married the man she loved after entering the household. Naturally, she was satisfied, but seeing Linlang still made her feel uncomfortable.

Because Shen Linlang is the female lead in the book, the thought of Linlang's past with her husband makes her extremely jealous and unable to tolerate Linlang in any way. However, Linlang is already engaged to Chu Yue of the Zhou Prince's Mansion. She can't even manage to frame Linlang for liking the heir of the Cheng'en Duke as she did in her original world. So, she wants to find someone to smear Linlang's reputation, ruin her, and prevent her from marrying the better-off Chu Yue, making her suffer terribly, only then can she feel a little better.

Look, some people not only stole the female lead's man, but also think the original female lead was a mistress, feel cheated on, can't stand it, and want to deal with the original female lead.

From a normal perspective, it's like she stole someone else's man, became the wife, and then trampled on the original wife, sending her to the deepest hell—that's incredibly vicious.

Judging from Liu Si Niang's mentality, she probably shares the same language as those who look for reasons to smear Elizabeth.

Although the Zhou Prince's Mansion had warned the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion and even sent two strong and capable nannies to protect Linlang, with the Zhou Prince's Mansion paying for it, Liu Si Niang was not afraid at all. She was the Empress's sister and the Emperor's sister-in-law. Who could do anything to her? She could do whatever she wanted, and no one could do anything to her.

Yes, it's great to have this transmigrated identity.

Linlang looked at Liu Siniang's abacus and couldn't help but find it amusing.

Not to mention that the Prince Zhou's mansion had assigned two more experienced matrons to protect her, even Linlang herself couldn't be harmed by her.

Linlang had originally planned to use this as an opportunity to expose Liu Siniang's intentions and deal with her, but she was too well protected. Liu Siniang was out there causing trouble and couldn't get close to her at all.

Not only did she have two nannies from the Zhou Prince's Mansion protecting her, but the old Duchess also sent capable people to protect Linlang after she learned that the Duchess of Cheng'en wanted to harm her. In addition, Linlang herself had loyal servants brought from her hometown. Who could possibly harm her?

If someone were to poison her, regardless of who was protecting her, they would find a way to prevent the poison from reaching Linlang before it even reached her. They might try to push her into the water, only to have her rescued by some servant, thus ruining her reputation… Even if she were mistakenly pushed into the water, given the large number of people protecting her, many of her entourage could easily swim and rescue her immediately. Why would a servant even need to approach? With enough people around her to save her and prevent a servant from getting close, what kind of trouble could Liu Si Niang possibly cause?

On the contrary, many of her little tricks had already been exposed, which scared her so much that she quickly ordered the nanny around her to kill those servants who had been exposed, cutting off the source and tracing it back to her. This saved her from being exposed; otherwise, she would have failed in her mission and been exposed herself.

Although she was the Empress's sister and the Emperor's sister-in-law, and was not afraid of what others could do to her, she cared about her reputation and did not want people to know that she wanted to ruin Linlang's innocence.

So Linlang still went out to play every day. Today she went out with Madam Song, tomorrow she went out with the old lady, and the day after she went out with Chu Yue. Only Liu Si Niang was left running around and jumping around, unable to get a single hand on her, which was not very satisfying.

If Linlang hadn't wanted to make things too difficult for Liu Siniang before her marriage, which would cost a lot of money and the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion wouldn't have to ask her for it, Linlang would have already given her a powerful bad luck charm, making her suffer a lot of bad luck and then dragging the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion down with her. For now, Linlang hasn't taken action against her yet.

Fortunately, she's getting married soon, so settling things down in the Cheng'en Duke's mansion will be quick. (End of Chapter)