Chapter 277 Ugly Faces

Chapter 277 Ugly Faces

Princess Nanyang had managed their household for over twenty years. Before she came to the capital, she knew even more about the wealth of the Prince's mansion than the Prince of Nanyang himself.

Not to mention her mother-in-law, the former Princess of Nanyang, who also possessed a personal fortune that was unimaginable to most people.

That old woman not only received a considerable dowry from her family when she got married, but she also took advantage of the chaos to amass wealth while her husband's eldest son was conquering the country.

Even though she was mindful of the eldest son's branch of the family and toned down her methods, without resorting to any truly unethical tactics, she still managed to make a fortune by buying low and selling high within reasonable limits.

The mother and son were clearly not short of money, yet they insisted on using her, the princess's, private savings to subsidize a mere concubine. How could the Princess of Nanyang not understand the implications of this?

Saving themselves a large sum of money was never the main goal of that mother and son. They wanted to use this method to elevate the status of Tong Shi and the child in her womb.

After all, even she, the princess, was utterly defeated when she faced the Tong family. What right did the other concubines and mistresses have to make things difficult for the Tong family?

If they were sensible and obediently avoided Madam Tong, behaving subserviently in her presence, the mother and son might still treat them with some courtesy. However, if they were not satisfied and insisted on competing with Madam Tong, or even risked everything to harm Madam Tong and the child in her womb, then the mother and son would definitely make their end extremely tragic.

In other words, she, the dignified Princess of Nanyang, was now seen by that mother and son as nothing more than a chicken they used to "make an example of."

In the past, when her family was powerful, they never dared to humiliate her like this. Now that her family has lost power, they are all trembling with arrogance, not even realizing that she has never been the type to be bullied by others!

Rubbing her temples, the Princess of Nanyang spoke to the kneeling servants in a calm tone that none of her servants expected: "Get up, all of you. I have something I need you to do."

She did not pursue the matter of these people's incompetence. Just as the old woman explained to herself when she was complaining in her heart, they were just a few maids and old women. How could they possibly stand up against the dignified Prince of Nanyang?

It's only because they were sensible enough, otherwise their corpses would probably be almost rotten by now, and they wouldn't be able to wait for her, their master, to return before they started gossiping and reporting to her.

Like them, she was also incapable of confronting the Prince of Nanyang, who commanded the vast majority of the guards in his mansion, head-on. Even if she harbored a lot of resentment, she had to put on a submissive and sensible demeanor.

After giving these instructions, the Princess of Nanyang returned to her bedroom to lie down. Her servants, following her orders, went off to attend to their tasks.

The Prince of Nanyang and his wife were well aware of what they had done, so after the Princess of Nanyang left the small Buddhist hall and returned to her own courtyard, they kept people watching for her reaction.

Originally, the Prince of Nanyang and the old Princess thought that the Princess of Nanyang would not be able to return until after the New Year at the earliest. By then, Tong's child would have been born two or three months ago, and it would be much easier for them to guard against the Princess of Nanyang causing trouble. However, the Princess of Nanyang did not think that she had done anything wrong, but her actions made it seem as if she had deeply reflected on her mistakes.

Because of her good behavior, the clansmen in charge of supervising her did not insist on keeping her in the capital until the end of her punishment period, but instead decided to release her back to the Prince of Nanyang's residence ahead of schedule.

The sudden return of the Princess of Nanyang caught the mother and son off guard. They did not want her to harm Tong Shi as she had done to Xie Wanniang, but they could not keep her locked up and prevent her from going out after she had already been punished by the imperial clan.

Firstly, such an approach would make people think they were dissatisfied with the decisions of the imperial family, which could easily offend those old men with influence. Secondly, they were also worried that outsiders would link their treatment of the Princess Consort of Nanyang with Lady Tong and impeach the Prince of Nanyang in court for favoring his concubine over his wife.

In a moment of desperation, the old Princess Consort of Nanyang chose to have the Princess Consort of Nanyang copy scriptures in the small Buddhist hall in her courtyard for a month. This would buy them some time, allowing them and their son to quickly arrange manpower and better protect Lady Tong, while also preventing the Prince of Nanyang from being criticized for favoring his concubine over his wife due to excessive punishment of the Princess Consort of Nanyang.

As for whether the Princess Consort of Nanyang would be furious and do something irrational after learning that her private treasury was half empty after being released, and that the items had been taken away by the Prince of Nanyang himself and sent to the Tong family, the mother and son were not worried.

Or rather, they all secretly hoped that the Princess of Nanyang would be blinded by rage, because only in this way could they seize the opportunity to fabricate a plausible reason.

With this reason, they could continue to keep the Princess of Nanyang under house arrest to prevent her from secretly harming the Tong family.

From this perspective, Princess Nanyang did indeed understand Prince Nanyang and his heartless mother. In order to prevent her situation from getting worse, although she was so angry that her blood was boiling and her throat tasted metallic, she still managed to control herself and not act rashly with the last bit of reason.

First, she had someone send all the valuable and portable items from the remaining half of her private savings, as well as most of her hidden gold and silver, to her brother. Then she began to collect the shops, estates, and mansions from her dowry to see if the mother and son had interfered with these things.

After all, compared to the things in her private treasury, her shops, estates, and mansions were the things that truly allowed her to make a living.

As it turned out, she wasn't being petty at all; her utterly shameless mother-in-law actually did try to take advantage of her businesses.

Although the shameless old hag couldn't take over her properties because she held the red contract, she still managed to drain almost all the money from her shops' accounts.

Not to mention they even used the name of the Prince's Mansion to take a lot of things from her shop for free.

They sold all the grain, pigs, chickens, and other produce from her farms on the spot and pocketed the money.

The more the Princess Consort of Nanyang learned, the angrier she became, but she couldn't immediately break ties with the Prince of Nanyang and his mother.

Faced with the anxious shopkeeper and estate manager, she not only couldn't lose her temper, but also had to reassure them so that they could continue to be patient and manage the shops and estates.