Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1876 Cousin 47
Actually, it wasn't that Chu Erlang didn't want to divorce Chu Ernai, but rather that if he divorced two wives in such a short time, it would be very difficult to find a third. Even if he could marry one, the conditions would be very poor. After all, who with good conditions would marry someone who divorced two wives in such a short time? That's why he didn't divorce her. If it didn't affect him at all, considering Chu Ernai's low social status and the fact that she had promised to give him money but never showed up, which was considered fraud, he would definitely divorce her.

When Second Madam Chu saw that Second Brother Chu was frightened by her father and grandfather and dared not help, she was annoyed by his incompetence. He was unwilling to do something that could transfer money from the mansion to their small family. However, since Second Brother Chu refused to help, she could only regretfully tell her family about it and ask them to find a way to resolve the family's debts.

What else could her family do? They simply ran away.

That's right, running away. Before Second Madam Chu was betrothed to Second Master Chu, her family had already considered running away because they realized they were about to default on their debts.

Later, when Consort Han returned to her parents' home and mentioned that her son was getting married, they felt that if they were to form a marriage alliance with the Prince's Mansion, there might be a chance for things to change. So they didn't run away for the time being and told their creditors.

When the creditors heard that their daughter was going to marry into the royal family, they thought there was a chance, so they didn't pressure them at the time and decided to wait until their daughter entered the royal family.

If the creditors hadn't pressured them to repay the debts, her family wouldn't have even been able to wait for Second Madam Chu to enter the family; they would have been sued by the creditors for not being able to pay off their debts.

In this ancient era, just like in modern times, as long as the lending procedures of creditors are compliant, such as the maximum interest rate not exceeding the standard stipulated by the dynasty and the presence of IOUs, they are also protected by law.

If a person fails to repay a debt, the creditor will take the matter to the yamen (government office), whereby the yamen will seize the debtor's property and return the property to the creditor at a discounted price. If the debt is not enough to repay, and a certain period of time has passed, the debtor may be punished by being flogged, or made to work as a servant of the creditor to repay the debt, and so on.

Of course, because Grandma Chu's family owed too much money and couldn't make ends meet, those families with low interest rates had already found out that their situation was not good and were unwilling to lend to them. Those who were willing to lend were all loan sharks.

However, like some modern usurious loans, these loans were all predatory loans in order to be legal. The IOUs stated how much was borrowed and the interest rate, all of which were legal and compliant. But the amount that Grandma Chu's family received was not that much, which is why it became usury.

However, in the eyes of the government, this usurious loan was legal, and it was something that Second Madam Chu's family had to repay.

In fact, this was exactly what Lady Chengen had done back then. After all, if it wasn't legal, people would simply refuse to pay, and Lady Chengen would have no way to deal with them. She would just force them to pay, and if they presented the IOU, they would say that the IOU was illegal, and then they wouldn't have to pay it back.

The reason why the Duchess of Cheng'en did not take legal action against the borrower to the authorities, but instead resorted to violent collection, was because she knew that the person who borrowed from her had no money left. If she took the matter to the authorities, they would seize the borrower's property, but she would not be able to collect any money. As for beating the borrower and ordering him to become her servant... that was not what she wanted. What she wanted was money. That's why she used violent collection to force the borrower to find a way to repay the money.

Then, after killing so many people, Chu Yue investigated and reported it to the higher-ups, which led to the downfall of Lady Cheng'en.

After all, although Lady Cheng'en had made the IOUs legal and compliant, everyone knows that this kind of predatory lending is illegal, and violent debt collection is even more illegal, especially since it resulted in so many deaths. How could she escape the punishment of the law? Lady Cheng'en's debtors were all penniless, but Second Madam Chu's family was not. They could still sell some of their property to pay off the debts. Therefore, if Second Madam Chu's family couldn't continue operating, the creditors' first action wouldn't be violent debt collection, but rather to sue in court, asking the court to seize Second Madam Chu's family's assets to offset part of the debt. If that wasn't enough, Second Madam Chu's family would have to find another way.

This is also why, after losing their jobs at the Prince's Mansion, Second Madam Chu's family planned to flee. They still had some things at home that they could sell to make a fortune, then escape, live under assumed names in a wealthy place, and eventually find a way to make a comeback.

When Grandma Chu received a message from her family saying that she had lost her job and had to sell her belongings and run away, and that if she couldn't sell the items immediately, they would rent a warehouse to store them, and asked Grandma Chu to help look after them, she readily agreed.

She wasn't afraid of creditors coming after her, since she was a married-out woman. In this era, although children are supposed to be responsible for their fathers' debts, they wouldn't come after married-out women.

Perhaps ordinary commoners who marry out of the family can't escape it, but she is the granddaughter-in-law of a prince's mansion. Who dares to touch her? As long as she doesn't leave the house, no one can do anything to her.

Grandma Chu's plan was correct. Her family sold everything they could, then stored the unsellable items in a warehouse before fleeing the entire family.

By the time the creditors realized what was happening and tried to collect the debt, the person was already gone.

Unable to find Chu Ernai's family, these creditors wanted to seek redress from her, but the Zhou Prince's Mansion was not so easy to enter. Chu Ernai refused to see them, citing her pregnancy and poor health as reasons. Thus, these creditors had no way to get through.

Although these people have powerful backers and hold high positions, the Zhou Prince's Mansion is equally powerful. Because of the matter concerning Second Madam Chu's family, the powerful backers cannot go to the Zhou Prince's Mansion to personally ask Second Madam Chu for money. After all, Second Madam Chu is a married-out woman, and no family in the capital would ask a married-out woman for debts.

In this era, sons inherit property and are responsible for old age, so debts are naturally inherited by sons, not by married daughters.

Of course, they just wanted to ask Second Grandma Chu for money, but Second Grandma Chu is currently pregnant and won't be seeing anyone.

She was pregnant and refused to see anyone, so no one could say anything about her. However, if the lender insisted on seeing Second Madam Chu and wanted her to repay the money, then it would be the lender's fault. Therefore, the owner behind the lender was unhappy because Second Madam Chu's family had run away and he had lost a lot of money, but he had no way to get it back from Second Madam Chu.

Although they couldn't get the money back from Second Madam Chu, the other party naturally didn't want to let it go so easily. They planned to wait until Second Madam Chu gave birth and started socializing, and then find fault with her.

Unless Grandma Chu's family returns and pays back the money, they will definitely find someone to vent their anger on. Don't think that married women don't bear debts; they won't care about such things until they've vented their anger.