Chapter 276 The Upheaval at the Prince's Mansion

Chapter 276 The Upheaval at the Prince's Mansion

As for the fact that the Prince of Nanyang and his mother ignored her while she was being questioned, the Princess of Nanyang was heartbroken and angry, but due to the circumstances, she could only temporarily hide her dissatisfaction.

Furthermore, she even had to humble herself before her mother-in-law and husband for a short period of time because of the damage she had caused to the reputation of the Prince's Mansion.

She was mentally prepared for all of this, so even when the old Princess of Nanyang scolded her and punished her by making her kneel in the Buddhist hall, she always obediently let the other party do as she pleased.

Having finally escaped the torment from her mother-in-law, the Princess of Nanyang, now free and back in her original residence, couldn't wait to do something.

Of course, the plot to trap Xie Wanniang doesn't count. That was something she had planned long ago and had arranged for people to carry it out secretly before returning to the manor.

The first thing she wanted to do after her punishment ended was to have someone send more money to her own brother's family, who had been implicated in her case, so that they could live more comfortably.

However, she soon discovered that about half of the gold, silver and valuables she had kept in her private vault had mysteriously disappeared.

The maid who was in charge of guarding her private treasury immediately told her the real reason why the money had disappeared, but the Princess of Nanyang could not accept this reason at all.

It turned out that her "good" husband not only did not lend her a helping hand, but also took advantage of the time she was detained and punished in the capital to forcefully open her private vault.

The reason for opening it was quite simple. The maid in charge of guarding her private treasury revealed the secret with a frustrated expression: "The one in Xuexi Garden is pregnant. Recently, the Prince and the Old Princess have been spoiling her rotten."

The so-called "that one in Xuexi Garden" actually refers to Lady Tong, a concubine whom the Prince of Nanyang took as a new concubine after arriving in his fiefdom.

Tong came from a poor family. Although her father and brothers were educated, they unfortunately failed to pass the imperial examinations and became scholars. To this day, one of them remains an old scholar and the other a junior scholar.

Before Tong was chosen by the old princess for her son as a concubine because of her appearance and the fact that her birth chart indicated she would have many children, the Tong family's income came from the rent from their twenty acres of land and the hard-earned money she and her mother made from spinning and weaving.

It wasn't until the old princess followed the "master's" guidance and found the Tong family, who were the most likely to bear an heir for her son, that the Tong family's life became more comfortable.

Knowing full well that the problem lay with the Prince of Nanyang, the Princess Consort of Nanyang initially disapproved of the old Princess Consort's desperate attempt to find a cure.

After all, any normal person knows that if a man cannot conceive, no matter how "fertile" a woman is, it will be of no use. It's like if you plant a cooked seed in the soil, no matter how fertile the soil is, the seed will never take root, sprout, or grow tender leaves.

But who can tell her how that little slut actually got pregnant just from her trip to the capital? It can't be that her husband, who was impotent when he was young, suddenly became virile and could impregnate women, can it?

She took a deep breath, trying to suppress the overwhelming anger that had arisen from the unauthorized opening of her private treasury and the taking of half of her wealth. "Where are the others? Consort Zhang, Consort Liu, and the other concubines and maids in the mansion, are any of them pregnant?"

The head maid kneeling at the feet of the Princess of Nanyang shook her head vigorously, "No, only the one in Xuexi Garden is pregnant."

She paused for a moment and then added, "However, ever since she was diagnosed with pregnancy, the prince has indeed rarely gone to other people's courtyards."

After all, the King of Nanyang has never been without beautiful women. Whether it was his mother, his wife, or himself, they all tried to seduce him for the sake of offspring or reputation.

In the Prince of Nanyang's harem, apart from the powerful and influential Princess Nanyang, Consort Zhang, and Consort Liu, the other beauties could not stay for long. If they did not give birth to a child for the Prince of Nanyang within three years, the old princess would arrange for a new batch of women to be given to her son.

As a result, the concubines and maids of the Prince of Nanyang were like the chives in the field, constantly being replaced.

As for that Lady Tong, in terms of appearance, she was not particularly outstanding. Not to mention the concubines and maids carefully selected by the old princess and the Prince of Nanyang, even the Princess of Nanyang, who did not regard appearance as an asset, was much prettier than Lady Tong when she was young.

But no matter how beautiful a woman is, she can't compare to the fervent desire and obsession of the Prince of Nanyang and his wife to continue their family line.

Sure enough, two years after entering the manor, Lady Tong suddenly brought good news, and the old princess and the Prince of Nanyang were overjoyed.

Not only could she freely take whatever was in the Prince's mansion, but they even opened the private treasury of the Princess Consort of Nanyang, the principal wife, and took about half of the good stuff to subsidize Tong Shi.

Not to mention that His Majesty is extremely strict about rules and etiquette and would never allow nobles or officials to favor concubines over their wives, even in the previous dynasty or during times of war, very few people in prominent families would do such a shameless thing.

If any family produces such a clueless and irresponsible person, even without outsiders saying anything, his own family and clansmen will first try every means to suppress this brain-dead bastard because it is too shameful.

However, now, within the grand residence of a prince, her good husband and mother-in-law have brazenly committed shameless acts that are rarely seen even in the homes of ordinary nobles and officials.

"Heh, heh..." Princess Nanyang let out a strange laugh that was hard to decipher, which frightened the head maid so much that she immediately lowered her head even further.

She was actually very angry, but she was just a high-ranking servant who lived in the inner quarters and had no strength to even kill a chicken. Any of the servants around the Prince of Nanyang could easily suppress her.

The other maids and servants left by the Princess of Nanyang to look after the courtyard were the same. No matter how resentful they were or how much they wanted to help their mistress protect her private property, the Prince of Nanyang still had a way to easily suppress them all.

Forget about stopping the Prince of Nanyang from having his things moved; they didn't even get a chance to send out a message so that the Princess of Nanyang could prepare herself mentally before being placed under house arrest in this courtyard.

Otherwise, Princess Nanyang wouldn't have only found out, after being released by the old princess, that half of her most prized possessions had been taken by her "good" husband to his concubine.

Having long seen through the cold-hearted nature of her husband and mother-in-law, Princess Nanyang was no longer angry because of their special treatment of Lady Tong. However, she could not tolerate them using her things to subsidize Lady Tong.