Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

In fact, Princess Qingyang had no concept of these things and would not have thought about helping her younger brother to accumulate more wealth. She felt that they were members of the imperial family and received stipends every year, so there was no need to worry about it. Therefore, she did not agree with her mother's idea of ​​finding a way to save some money for her brother.

But that day, her mother took her to visit her second uncle's family and other families who had moved out of the mansion to see how they were living. She discovered that their family was really living a miserable life.

Her mother went there under the guise of visiting her second uncle. She brought some snacks with her, just ordinary snacks distributed by the mansion. If her second uncle's family had lived in the mansion before, they probably wouldn't have even bothered to look at them. As for eating them, they probably would have gotten tired of them and wouldn't have eaten much of them. In the end, they would have given them to the servants as rewards.

But this time, when they took the snacks distributed by the manor to visit their second uncle's family, good heavens, their second aunt was much more enthusiastic when they came to visit than before when they were in the manor. You know, before, they were nobody in the manor and had a low status, so their second uncle's family didn't look up to them much. But now, they were so enthusiastic that even Princess Qingyang was completely flattered.

After that, I heard my second aunt and cousins ​​complaining that since leaving the Prince's Mansion, the money they were given had been spent very quickly. They had to pawn the women's jewelry to cover household expenses, otherwise they would starve.

He also mentioned that his cousin was supposed to get married, but the family is short of money and they can only hold the wedding when the family receives their annual salary at the end of the year.

Then the second aunt said she wouldn't let them stay for lunch, and took them to the kitchen to see the food. She said it was worse than what the third-class maids in the Prince's mansion ate, and that with such a standard of living, they shouldn't suffer, and should go back to the mansion to eat better.

Seeing that the second wife's family and others were all like this, they naturally returned without having lunch.

On the way, her mother, Consort Cai, said that her second aunt and the others asked them to come home for dinner. One reason was that they were afraid the second aunt would not be used to their poor food, and the other was that they could not afford to entertain them with such poor food, and they were afraid that if the second aunt ate, it would be an extra burden on their health.

Princess Qingyang was completely stunned.

She grew up in the wealthy Prince's Mansion and never imagined that any family could be so poor. In fact, there were even poorer families in the countryside who couldn't even afford to eat. Even if the second wife's family was in poor condition, they still had a comfortable standard of living.

Then her mother brought it up again, saying that they should see how poor the families of the second branch of the family were living, and that they should save some money for her brother. She nodded, because she didn't want her brother's family to live like that in the future.

As for herself, as the illegitimate daughter of a prince's heir, she wouldn't marry into a bad family or live such a miserable life, so she wasn't afraid.

That's why Princess Qingyang was willing to cooperate with her mother's actions at this time, because she saw how miserable the people who had left their original residences were.

Actually, she hadn't thought that if the second wife's family hadn't been so bad at managing their finances, spending two thousand taels of silver in just two months, they could have lived a very comfortable life with two hundred taels a month. For ordinary families, twenty taels a year was enough to live a good life, so two hundred taels a month would have been a truly wealthy life.

However, the second branch of the family, having separated and taken charge of their own household, became reckless. They quickly squandered the two thousand taels of silver – mainly because the men of the second branch, feeling unrestrained and in charge, indulged in extravagant spending. Running out of money naturally led to hardship, not because the second branch lacked private funds for support. If her younger brother were to follow the same reckless path as the second branch, even her mother's vast private savings wouldn't be enough to cover his expenses. Because once her brother felt he had someone to back him up, he could easily squander any amount of money; saving money is difficult, but squandering it is easy.

The key is to educate her younger brother well, so that he doesn't squander money like the second wife. If he is well-educated, he will not only have enough money, but he can even save some. With enough savings, he can buy land and shops and live a better life.

It should be noted that when the old Prince Zhou left his residence, he only had 20,000 taels of silver. If it were a reckless person, they could have spent it all in two months. How could he have accumulated such a large fortune?

So in the end, she was still fooled by her mother.

Leaving aside the fact that Princess Qingyang was tricked by Consort Cai into agreeing to help her, let's just say that at that moment, seeing that her mother was still unable to succeed, Princess Qingyang rolled her eyes and suddenly cried out "Ouch!" clutching her stomach, looking like she was in pain.

The people sent by the Crown Prince's wife immediately asked with concern, "What's wrong, Princess?"

Princess Qingyang then said, "My stomach hurts. Please send someone to find me a doctor."

Princess Qingyang was clearly trying to get one person away so that she could pretend to be in pain and attract the rest of the people to her side to take care of her. That way, her mother could steal jewelry or other valuables.

The Crown Princess of Zhou is very busy right now, so she can't send too many people to take her to look at jewelry. So, she's being watched by a head maid and two nannies. If she goes to find a doctor now, she'll have to leave at least one nanny behind, leaving only the head maid and the other nanny. She can easily have these two support her and then call Shen Linlang's dull-witted sister-in-law—because Linlang hasn't shown any remarkable abilities since entering the mansion, everyone thinks she's dull and looks young and easy to fool—to pour her a glass of water. Wouldn't that get everyone away from her?
Princess Qingyang was shrewd, but unfortunately she ran into a snag with Linlang. Linlang immediately adopted a straightforward demeanor and said, "That won't do. I'll pour you some water. What if Consort Cai steals the jewelry or gold ingots? If something goes missing, we won't be able to explain ourselves."

Linlang wasn't going to waste words with them. She directly exposed their little scheme. Upon hearing Linlang's words, the Princess of Qingyang's face turned pale and then red. She roared, "My stomach is hurting so badly, and you won't even pour me a glass of water. Yet you still make such malicious assumptions about my mother and me?"

Consort Cai, standing to the side, also looked indignant and said, "How can you be such a wife, making such assumptions about your sister-in-law!"

Linlang looked innocent and said, "Aren't you enough people taking care of you? Let them both, one to support you and the other to pour you water. Anyway, I can't leave Consort Cai's side. Otherwise, if something happens, Mother will say that I can't even do the smallest thing. That won't do."

Upon hearing Linlang's words, the two old women who were supporting Princess Qingyang also said, "The two of us can take care of you. You don't need Fourth Madam's (Chu Yue is the fourth among the eldest brothers) help."

One of the stronger men supported the feigning illness of Princess Qingyang, while the thinner man went to pour her water. (End of Chapter)