Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Of course, the main reason was that Second Madam Chu's family kept it a secret very tightly—they were afraid that if word got out that there was a gambler in the family, it would affect the marriage prospects of the girls of marriageable age, and they wouldn't be able to make any money. That's why they kept it a secret. Outsiders didn't know that her brother was a gambler; at most, they thought that their family was short of money. But that didn't matter. Many wealthy families in the capital lived beyond their means and were already living a life of luxury. That's why she didn't heed the warning from the Crown Prince's wife and insisted on going against her.

Now that she's fallen into such a predicament, Consort Han naturally won't pay any attention to Second Madam Chu's demands, lest she end up losing even more money.

Seeing that Consort Han wouldn't help her no matter what, Second Madam Chu had no choice but to go back and tell Consort Li and the Crown Prince's wife about it.

"...I have no money myself. I wanted to ask my husband and Consort Han for help to see if I could borrow some money from them, but my husband is not in the mansion, and Consort Han is unwilling to help. I have no other choice."

Then he said to Consort Li, who was about to get angry, "Why don't you take a look at the things in my betrothal gifts? Is there anything you like that you can use to pay off the debt?"

Second Madam Chu had two purposes in saying this: if Consort Li was willing to use the items from her betrothal gifts to pay off the debt, that would be best, and her debt problem would be solved; if Consort Li didn't care about the items from her betrothal gifts and insisted on money, then she would show that she had done her best. If she didn't have money, she would let the Crown Prince's wife and Consort Li go to Second Prince Chu and Consort Han to ask for the money. After all, they were family. Even if she didn't have money, it was impossible for Second Prince Chu and Consort Han to hide and not pay back the money, since they were family.
Consort Li indeed looked down on her betrothal gifts. Of course, she didn't want people to say that she had taken the betrothal gifts from Second Madam Chu, so she simply said, "I don't care what your family is like. I just want the money. Give it back to me now."

Madam Chu immediately seized the opportunity, spreading her hands to indicate her helplessness, and said, "I will give you the betrothal gifts to pay off the debt. If you are not willing, then I have no choice. Go ask my husband or my birth mother for the money."

Consort Li was naturally not fooled by this little trick of shifting blame. After all, if she didn't ask Second Madam Chu for money, but instead asked Second Prince Chu or Consort Han, they would just say it wasn't their debt and why should they give her money. She would be helpless. So, Consort Li immediately started to cry to the Crown Prince's wife, saying, "Your Highness, you must do me justice."

The Crown Prince's wife was also troubled by this matter.

Although Consort Li is old and no longer favored by Prince Zhou, she still has a daughter. No matter how much she is out of favor, her daughter is still Prince Zhou's daughter. If Consort Li tells her daughter, and her daughter goes back to the palace and tells her father that someone owes her birth mother money and hasn't paid it back, Prince Zhou will investigate and find out that it was their eldest son who owed the money. At that time, he will probably blame Prince Zhou's heir.

Thinking of this, the Crown Princess decided to leave the matter to the Crown Prince of Zhou to handle. After all, this was his son, and if he didn't handle it, who would?

It just so happened that the Prince of Zhou's heir was not out today, but was playing chess with his guests at home. When he heard that the Princess Consort of Zhou had sent someone to call him, he came over and asked her what was wrong.

The Crown Prince's wife then explained the general situation and said to the Crown Prince, "...I can't handle this matter. You should decide what to do. It might be necessary to deal with it, otherwise, if this matter reaches Father, he might blame you because you are our child."

Even if she wanted Consort Han to return the money, she would let the Prince of Zhou give the order. She didn't want to go through that trouble, lest Consort Han be unhappy if she ordered her to give the money.

Why did she have to settle these matters for Second Grandma Chu, only to become disliked by others?

Upon hearing his wife's words, the Crown Prince of Zhou felt an immediate aversion to Second Madam Chu. In fact, he hadn't liked this second wife before, because when Second Madam Chu entered the family, not only did she not bring a dowry, but her in-laws also withheld most of the betrothal gifts. Consort Han had complained to him, saying that Second Madam Chu's family had gone too far.

Although he didn't call his second son's wife over to scold her at the time, since she was a new wife and he, as a father-in-law, couldn't say anything about it, the thought of her family taking advantage of the Prince's mansion and bullying his son made the Prince of Zhou dislike her.

Now that he heard that she had only been in the manor for a short time, and had borrowed such a large sum of money for her brother's sake, the Prince of Zhou was not just displeased, but disgusted.

The Crown Prince frowned and said, “I can’t handle this. She lent that money to her brother in her maternal family for gambling. If I were to pay it back for her, how would I explain it to the other children? Besides, if I cover for her once, it will only make her think that I will always cover for her, and she will become even more arrogant. So we can’t open that door. …However, we can’t leave Consort Li’s money unpaid. Otherwise, if Father finds out and scolds us, we will still have to pay it back, and we will get a scolding. That would be too much of a loss for us. …How about this, let her take the items from the betrothal gifts and pawn them to pay back the money.”

Although most of the betrothal gifts were withheld by Grandma Chu's family, there were still some things left. Otherwise, it wouldn't look right if there was nothing when the dowry was displayed for a wedding. Although her family did something shameless, they still wanted to maintain some decorum, so some things were brought back.

Those things may not be worth much, but they can always be sold for a little money.

In fact, the fact that Second Madam Chu had to sell these things to pay off her brother's gambling debts meant that her family had withheld even more of the dowry from the mansion. This made the Prince of Zhou even more disgusted with Second Madam Chu. He immediately said to the Prince of Zhou's wife, "This wife is a bottomless pit. We can't keep her. Please take some time to find another wife for Second Prince."

The Crown Prince's wife said, "The second prince has his own opinions, and I'm afraid he won't want the wife I find. You or he should find one himself."

Having learned her lesson from last time, she would no longer interfere in her second son's family affairs. Let that unreliable mother and son do whatever they want.

"Besides, even if we're going to look for someone, we should at least wait until the second son and his wife separate. Otherwise, how can he look for someone when he still has a wife?"

The Prince of Zhou nodded and said, "I understand this principle. I will mention this to the Second Prince and urge him to get rid of his wife as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will have to sell betrothal gifts every now and then, and our manor will suffer huge losses."

Now that the marriage is over, at least the remaining betrothal gifts can be kept. Giving them to the next family is not appropriate, but they can be sold for some money to prepare betrothal gifts for the next family.

According to the regulations of this dynasty, after a man and woman separate, the woman may take her dowry back, but she may not take the betrothal gifts with her.

Since the Prince of Zhou no longer wanted this daughter-in-law, it would be better to divorce her as soon as possible, lest she squander their family's dowry. (End of Chapter)