Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Previously, Linlang had been wronged at the Chengen Duke's mansion. Although Chu Yue had put the Chengen Duke's heir in a sack and beaten him up, he couldn't treat the Chengen Duke's wife like that, so the Chengen Duke's wife continued to live freely, which made him very unhappy.

Although his mother, the Crown Princess of Zhou, said she had investigated and there was no need to pay any attention to the Duchess of Chengen, since the Chengen family was out of money and would go bankrupt anyway, so she didn't bother to deal with her and told Chu Yue to just wait and see what happened to the Chengen family, Chu Yue still felt uneasy about not dealing with the Duchess of Chengen. He kept thinking about how he would deal with her himself since his mother wouldn't help him. He had recently come up with some plans, so when he saw the Duchess of Chengen daring to glare at Linlang, he was naturally unhappy. He thought to himself that his plan could be put into action. Heaven knows that he had previously hesitated to do this because she was Linlang's aunt, but now he thought, what aunt? Of course, he had to deal with her.

Without mentioning that the Duchess of Cheng'en was unaware of Chu Yue's plans to deal with her, Linlang only said that she had seen the old Duchess and did not return, because as a skilled physician, she could tell that the old lady might not live much longer.

Sure enough, after keeping vigil all night, the old lady passed away in the early hours of the morning.

Linlang presented the funeral gifts, kowtowed to the old lady, and then went back. After all, she was not a member of the Chengen Duke's Mansion and it was not appropriate for her to stay there indefinitely.

Although Lady Cheng'en was furious that Linlang had taken two sets of jewelry from the old Duchess, feeling that these belonged to the Song family and that she, as a married woman, had no right to take them, the household was in chaos due to the recent funeral, and she didn't have time to dwell on the matter. She could only wait until the funeral was over before asking Shen Linlang for them. So, when Linlang wanted to leave, she didn't say anything for the time being and let Linlang go.

Not long after the funeral ended, and before the mourning period was over, Madam Song and her family hurriedly moved out of the Chengen Duke's Mansion.

Firstly, the manor was short of money, and Madam Chengen couldn't stand the second branch of the family living off public funds, so she drove them away. Secondly, Madam Song also wanted to move out on her own initiative. She had already realized that the Chengen manor was short of money and was planning to separate her own household to live in her own small family, so as not to let Madam Chengen try to borrow money from her.

Previously, she had a salary, but she didn't hand it over to the public funds, which made the Duchess of Cheng'en unhappy. Now that the manor is out of money, the other party might covet her private savings and ask her for a loan, thinking that she has accumulated a lot of salary over the years. In reality, she would take the money and not pay it back.

Madam Song the Second was naturally unwilling to subsidize the eldest son's family. After all, everyone knew that the wife of the Duke of Cheng'en had saved a lot of money. Back when Empress Dowager Song was alive, the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion lived a life of extravagance, with more money than they could spend. The wife of the Duke of Cheng'en took advantage of that opportunity to amass a considerable amount of private wealth.

The Duchess of Cheng'en has embezzled the public funds of the manor and is unwilling to use them for expenses. Why should she be expected to use them for expenses? So, Madam Song the Second hurriedly left.

The old Duchess passed away at this time, and Song Yuanniang was the one most affected.

She hadn't even had a chance to get engaged when the old Duchess passed away. She had finally found a family that was interested and whose conditions she thought were acceptable—although not as good as Shen Linlang's marriage, it was still alright, after all, it was a ducal family. But when they saw that she had to observe three years of mourning before she could marry into the family, they immediately stopped contacting her and had no intention of getting engaged.

She's almost fifteen, and if she's not engaged yet, she'll be eighteen in three years. By then, all the eligible men in the capital will have already gotten engaged and married, so there won't be a chance for her. That's why Song Yuanniang is so anxious.

Unlike in the original world, Song Yuanniang couldn't find a suitable marriage right away. In the original world, the reputation of the Duchess of Cheng'en was not damaged, so Song Yuanniang found a marriage smoothly when she reached marriageable age.

Now that things have turned out this way, it can be said that it's all her mother's fault, and she can't blame anyone else.

Leaving aside Song Yuanniang's anxiety about marriage, of course, the Duchess of Chengen was also anxious that her daughter had not yet married. It is said that now that Linlang saw that the old lady had passed away and the Second Madam Song had left the Chengen Mansion, she began to deal with the Duchess of Chengen, Liu Siniang, and the Heir of Chengen.

Leaving aside Linlang's secret arrangements, let's just talk about the matter of Second Madam Chu borrowing money in the Zhou Prince's Mansion. Before long, it eventually escalated into a big scandal.

The reason was that Grandma Chu's brother was short of money and started gambling. His gambling addiction flared up, but the family had no money for him to gamble. So he smashed things up at home and threatened to kill himself to force the family to raise money for his gambling. In the end, Grandma Chu's mother had no choice but to ask Grandma Chu for help. Grandma Chu borrowed money from everyone she knew and finally managed to get some. This money calmed down her gambling-addicted brother, who would go crazy when he had no money to gamble. She just hoped that her brother would have good luck this time and win a lot of money so that he could pay back the money she borrowed. Then she could repay the lender and everything would be fine.

But she didn't realize that with her family being such easy targets, who else would the gambling den target if not her family? Families like hers who were good at gambling were naturally the fattest sheep for the gambling den to fleece. So when her brother took the money she borrowed and entered the gambling den, it was like throwing a stone into the sea; he quickly lost it all.

Forget about paying her back the money he borrowed; he lost it all and went crazy when he came back, demanding his principal back to win it all back. Not only did he not pay her back, he even wanted to borrow more money from her. He probably realized that his family was broke, but the Zhou Prince's Mansion had plenty of money, so he ran to his sister's place to borrow more money.

When he met Second Madam Chu, he was extremely humble, praising her a thousand times over. He said that Second Madam Chu was his best sister and that she must support him. He said that he had originally made a profit, but due to a careless mistake, he gambled too much and lost everything. He promised that he would be careful this time and not gamble too much, and that he would definitely make money. He said that this was the last time he would borrow money from her, and begged her to help him, saying that they were close relatives and that his family had no money, so only she could find a way.

Despite all the sweet talk, Second Madam Chu was foolish. At first, she was angry when she heard that her brother had lost money again and came to borrow money from her. But after her brother praised her for a long time, she became confused and even believed the words of a gambling addict. She softened and prepared to borrow money for her brother again.

However, there weren't many fools in the Zhou Prince's mansion, and it was quite an achievement that someone had lent her a loan last time. So this time, she tried to borrow from everyone she could find, but to no avail. In the end, she could only ask the same person she had borrowed from last time for help, hoping that she could borrow from them again this time.

But how could that be! I haven't even paid back the loan from last time, and I want to borrow again.

Grandma Chu's brother, being wicked, gave her a suggestion: promise the other party high interest rates to lure them into lending money. He told her he was going to recoup his losses, and the interest was nothing to worry about; he could promise that, even have them write an IOU. That way, the other party would surely be willing to lend the money. (End of Chapter)