Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

But Second Madam Chu didn't consider that Consort Li was now the consort of Prince Zhou. To put it bluntly, even if she wasn't favored, she was still a consort of a prince. Let alone speaking to her like that, even if she spoke to her parents like that, her parents wouldn't dare ask Prince Zhou to punish her, because her family only held a nominal title and had no powerful connections in the court. They had no right to ask Prince Zhou, a prince, to do anything. As long as Prince Zhou wasn't angry with Consort Li, Consort Li could speak to her parents like that without any consequences, let alone her.

Now that she's married into the Prince's mansion, Consort Li is nominally her elder. What's wrong with an elder speaking to her like that? Second Madam Chu still dares to look down on Consort Li. Luckily, she didn't say it out loud, otherwise the Crown Prince's wife would have scolded her for being disrespectful.

Grandma Chu was forced into a corner and had no choice but to go back and think of a solution.

What other options could she possibly have? Having nothing left, all she could do was ask her husband and his biological mother for help, since they were her family. Asking others for help wouldn't work anyway.

People like Grandma Chu and Shen Linlang are rich, but they're stingy and unwilling to lend her money. She knows she won't get any, so she doesn't waste her time.

But would her husband and his mother help her? Of course not! Don't forget, Chu Erlang used all the money from the Imperial Clan Court and the public treasury to buy her a dowry. Not only did her family not give her a dowry, but they didn't even return the dowry. This had already angered Chu Erlang to death. Since she married into the family, he had never paid any attention to her and had always stayed with the concubines.

Chu Erlang's birth mother, Consort Han, was just as angry with her. After all, her son had spent over ten thousand taels of silver from the Imperial Clan Court and the public funds to prepare the dowry, giving Chu Er's wife plenty of face. However, not only did Chu Er's wife's family not provide a dowry, they also withheld all the valuable items from the betrothal gifts, including the jewelry. They probably thought that since Chu Er's wife was marrying into the royal family, the public funds would provide jewelry, so they didn't need to give her any. Therefore, they withheld all of Chu Er's wife's jewelry and made some gold-plated copper pieces as substitutes. If it weren't for the fact that it would be unseemly for Chu Er's wife to marry without jewelry, they probably wouldn't have even made the gold-plated copper pieces.

The reason I knew that Second Madam Chu's jewelry was fake was because her family had come to borrow money for their son's gambling. Second Madam Chu had also tried to borrow from Consort Han, but Consort Han ignored her and said, "Don't you have jewelry? If you really want to help your family, sell your jewelry and do it."

In order to borrow money, Second Madam Chu told the truth, saying that the remaining two or three sets of jewelry were not real, but gold-plated copper, and could not be sold for a good price.

When Consort Han heard this, she was almost furious. It was no wonder she would lend money to Second Madam Chu.

Logically, since her stepmother-in-law, Consort Han, and her husband, Chu Erlang, were both so angry with Second Madam Chu, she shouldn't have asked them for help. But, since she couldn't find anyone else to help, she had no choice but to ask Chu Erlang and Consort Han for assistance.

As a result, she couldn't find Chu Erlang at all; he wasn't in the manor. Having no other option, she went to find Consort Han.

When Consort Han heard that Consort Li had asked her to repay a debt, and that she had no money and had come to her to borrow it, her expression immediately changed. She spat at her and said, "Shameless thing, you dare to come to me to borrow money? If I lend you money, isn't that like throwing a meat bun to a dog—gone forever? I know you too well. In your heart, I am the birth mother of Erlang, and my money is your money. You use your own money, so why would you repay it? I'd be a fool to give you the money. Wouldn't it be better to use my money for my son?"

Second Madam Chu already knew that Consort Han was angry with her and would definitely not want to lend money, so she was prepared for this. She immediately said, "But Consort Li is still waiting for Madam. If I don't pay it back, she won't let me off the hook. What will we do if Madam makes our whole family pay it back?" Second Madam Chu was using the name of the Prince Zhou's Crown Princess to put pressure on Consort Han, but would Consort Han fall for her trick? Impossible.

Consort Han coldly replied, "It's you who owes her money, not me. I don't care whether you can pay it back or not. I believe Madam won't force me to pay it back."

When Second Madam Chu saw that Consort Han was unmoved, she became anxious because she really didn't want her to repay the money. After all, even if she had money in the future, she would still need to help her brother make a profit. So she said, "If I can't repay it, Consort Li will keep making a fuss, and our whole family will lose face."

Consort Han was speechless when she saw that Consort Han was threatening her. She said, "I'm not afraid of losing face. Get as far away from me as possible!"

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the household funds wouldn't cover a second wedding, and that this woman had drained their family of all their money, leaving them unable to afford a new wife, and that divorcing her so soon after marriage wouldn't be proper, Consort Han would have insisted that her son divorce this woman and marry another. This woman was a menace; if they didn't divorce her, there would be more trouble later. After all, it was clear from how she constantly supported her gambling-addicted brother. If they ever had any money, she would use it to support her brother. How could their family possibly prosper under such circumstances?

So even though they and their son are currently broke and unable to divorce her and marry someone new, Consort Han is already saving money. Once she has saved enough, she will divorce this woman and let her son marry someone better.

Thinking of this, Consort Han couldn't help but regret having urged her son to use all the money for the betrothal gifts. At the time, she thought that the Crown Princess wanted her son to keep the money and not use it all for the betrothal gifts in order to humiliate their family. So she was furious and tried her best to urge her son to oppose the Crown Princess's actions. If they had listened to the Crown Princess back then, they would have the money now and could have immediately divorced that trash and married someone else.

In fact, having the Crown Princess use all the money to prepare the betrothal gifts would have allowed her to profit from it. On the contrary, not preparing betrothal gifts and letting the money go into her own son's hands would have been a real benefit. How could she have been so foolish as to refuse the Crown Princess's suggestion for the sake of face?

—Actually, she always felt that the principal wife wouldn't have any good intentions towards concubines and illegitimate sons, so she didn't need to think about her suggestions; she could just do the opposite.

She had always thought this way, and she had always acted this way. So when the Crown Princess of Zhou was preparing betrothal gifts for her son, unlike with others, she suggested not using public funds for the betrothal gifts. She subconsciously felt that the Crown Princess wanted to do something bad to her son, so she naturally disagreed.

Who knew she would fall for such a thief's trick? If she had known that Second Grandma Chu's family was like that, she would definitely have agreed.

—Actually, she knew, because the Crown Prince's Consort had reminded her, but it wasn't that she didn't believe the Crown Prince's Consort's words. (End of Chapter)