Chapter 397 Each Gets What They Need

Chapter 397 Each Gets What They Need

The girl managed to escape, and her parents and relatives quickly took her under their protection.

Yes, none of her family members were unaware of her affair with her cousin.

Unlike the wealthy and noble Marquis's family, the old lady of the Marquis's family came from an ordinary family.

Although they lived a relatively comfortable life by sponging off the Marquis's mansion, their lives were still worlds apart from those of the Marquis's mansion.

Human greed knows no bounds. In order to maintain their long-term ties with the Marquis's mansion and even gain more from it, they meticulously plotted to have their most outstanding daughters become lovers with the eldest grandson of the Marquis's mansion.

Now that the girl is pregnant, they felt the time was right, so they chose to confront the people of the Marquis's mansion.

The eldest grandson of the Marquis's family didn't mind taking his cousin as a concubine, but his mother, who was determined to marry him into a high-ranking family, couldn't accept her son taking a concubine before marriage, let alone one who had schemed against her son and was likely to give birth to an illegitimate son as soon as she entered the household.

She suggested that the girl have an abortion first, and that she would take the girl into her family a few months after her son got married.

This was already the result after she reluctantly made concessions, but the girl's family wanted more.

The two families failed to reach an agreement, and the other family was extremely arrogant, spewing a barrage of threats.

The Crown Prince's wife was not one to be trifled with. Seeing that they were truly insatiable, she decided to solve the problem at its root.

Unexpectedly, the girl was lucky enough to escape safely, and did not "accidentally" fall into the water and die as she had hoped.

She didn't know that the girl wasn't just lucky, but had received Xie Wanniang's secret help.

As luck would have it, while she was secretly investigating the people in the Marquis's mansion in an attempt to find a breakthrough, her people inadvertently discovered this readily available handle that could be used directly, saving Xie Wanniang the trouble of digging a pit for herself.

She didn't even deliberately stir things up; she simply had someone secretly lend a hand when the Crown Prince's wife planned to kill the girl.

Thanks to that family, Xie Wanniang didn't even have to get her hands dirty to successfully ruin the reputation of the Marquis's heir's wife and eldest grandson. In the future, if they want to climb the social ladder and marry a wife from a good family who can bring them help, it will be absolutely impossible for them to do so through normal channels.

As for whether they might have ulterior motives and use underhanded means to scheme against other people's good daughters, Xie Wanniang said that not to mention that she, being a petty and vengeful person, would not give them another chance to turn the tables, even without her interference, their reputation was already so great that families with daughters would definitely keep a close watch on them, making it impossible for their underhanded methods to succeed.

As Xie Wanniang had predicted, all the good families in the capital that the masters of the Marquis's mansion could fancy, even those that they considered second-best, were unwilling to marry their daughters to their eldest grandson.

The heads and wives of these families may not all be particularly fond of the girls in their households, but even from a purely pragmatic perspective, they do not consider the eldest grandson of the Marquis's mansion to be an ideal marriage partner.

There are plenty of fine young men in the capital, not to mention they can set their sights on the entire Great Wei.

Of course, the people in the Marquis's mansion were unwilling to let their eldest grandson lower himself to marry a woman and completely lose the great opportunity to gain benefits through marriage. However, the more they schemed, the less likely the families they needed to climb up would let them have their way so easily.

Those who genuinely cared for their daughters followed Xie Wanniang's example and launched a powerful counterattack against them.

In the end, the Marquis's family not only failed to gain any benefits from the marriage alliance, but also suffered considerable losses in the process of constantly causing trouble.

In order to salvage the precarious reputation of the Marquis's mansion, the old Marquis had no choice but to step in and stop the heir's wife from causing further trouble.

His deceased wife's niece was brought into the mansion and made a concubine for his eldest grandson, though just an ordinary concubine.

He chose a woman for his eldest grandson's wife. Although her family background was not as prestigious as that of a marquis, she was shrewd and capable, unlike the heir apparent's wife who made a series of foolish decisions.

Originally, such a good girl would not have been available to his eldest grandson who already had a son born out of wedlock. After all, many wealthy families would be willing to marry such an outstanding girl for the sake of their descendants.

Unfortunately, the girl's biological mother died early, and her stepmother and biological father, who had become her stepfather, were both short-sighted and only cared about immediate gains.

The benefits offered by the Marquis's mansion were not only generous, but also truly touched the hearts of her stepfather and stepmother. Without a second thought or a question, they directly betrothed the girl to the eldest grandson of the Marquis's mansion.

No matter how clever and capable a girl is, in today's social environment, she still can't make her own decisions about her marriage.

Although she was intelligent and capable enough to try to break off the engagement, as a helpless and vulnerable woman, she knew that if she did, her heartless so-called parents might not be able to do anything to her, but the people in the Marquis's mansion would definitely make her pay a heavy price.

At that point, her marriage will no longer be as simple as marrying an ordinary man with a son born out of wedlock; she may very well face an even worse marriage.

The girl quickly weighed the pros and cons and made a compromise, but she did not completely compromise.

Her biological father and stepmother, who wanted to sell her for personal gain, only discovered after her marriage that the enormous benefits they had imagined were not as wonderful as they had expected.

The precious items sent by the Marquis's mansion were all secretly replaced with counterfeit goods by their spendthrift son less than a year after the girl's marriage.

But he didn't just become a thief in his own household; he sold all these things to a pawnshop at a low price.

He didn't use the money he earned to buy property; instead, he spent it all on eating, drinking, gambling, cockfighting, and horse racing.

In addition, the Marquis's mansion also promised to move the girl's father to a different position.

After the girl married into the family, the old Marquis of the Marquis's mansion did indeed, as previously stated, move her father's position, but he was changed from a powerful fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Works to a fourth-rank official, the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies.

Goodness, this relocation is worse than not moving it at all.

Feeling deceived, the newly appointed Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, relying on his current status as a legitimate relative by marriage to the Marquis's family, shamelessly went to their door.

Of course, he wasn't there to interrogate them, since the Marquis's family had already fulfilled every single promise they made.

Even if he was unhappy about being transferred to the Court of State Ceremonial, a relatively insignificant department, he couldn't say that the other party hadn't kept their promise.

In the end, he was blinded by his own joy and failed to notice the hidden trap in the words of the people from the Marquis's residence.

And then there's his unfilial son. All those precious treasures that the Marquis's mansion sent to his family as betrothal gifts, he actually secretly took them out and sold them like cabbages. His parents, who had always spoiled him, were so angry that they couldn't help but discipline him.

Of course, he only hit him a few times in the heat of the moment, and didn't even manage to knock the spendthrift brat out of bed.

What they didn't know was that their son's "clever" idea to replace those items with fakes and then secretly sell them to the pawnshop was entirely thanks to the girl they had sold.

She knew her place in the family all too well, so from the very beginning, she never expected her so-called parents to give her anything good as a dowry. But it was absolutely impossible for them to just sell her off like that.

It just so happens that her half-brother is a complete playboy with all sorts of vices. With just a little guidance, he will definitely fall for her foolishly.

If anyone else had done this, her so-called parents would have beaten that person so badly they'd never be able to get out of bed again. But if it were her mentally challenged brother, they would never have been so cruel to him.

They wouldn't even bother to investigate thoroughly or try to get the valuables back, because they were worried that if things got out of hand, their precious son would be disgraced.

Although the girl thought her good younger brother had no reputation since he was ten years old, his parents always considered him a treasure.

Thanks to the boundless love and care they showed her to her beloved younger brother, the girl easily obtained a large sum of money to support herself.

Yes, she didn't want those things because she didn't want to leave any hidden dangers for herself. But the person who cooperated with her to set up the scheme gave her a large sum of money, enough for her to live a life of luxury and comfort for the rest of her life.

As for her foolish husband who got together with his cousin before they were even engaged and even had a son born out of wedlock, the girl said that as long as you don't take men too seriously, they can't interfere with your mood or life.

To her, this eldest grandson of the Marquis's family was just an indispensable tool, responsible for helping her achieve upward social mobility on the one hand, and for making her give birth to children on the other.

He has already achieved the first point thanks to his good family background. The second point... since he is a normal man who can get his cousin pregnant, the girl thinks that he should also be able to give birth to legitimate sons and daughters for her, so that he can completely gain a foothold in this family.

Neither the old Marquis nor the heir was a fool. Although her mother-in-law looked down on her family for not being prominent, after her repeated attempts to help her son marry into a better family all ended in failure, she had no choice but to accept reality, no matter how dissatisfied she was with her family.

As long as she doesn't have any thoughts of replacing the girl, or occasionally set rules or introduce concubines, the girl will be left to her own devices.

She had no feelings or expectations for her husband, and she was wise and capable enough to deal with her mother-in-law.

Most importantly, she was still her husband's lawfully wedded wife, and even if her mother-in-law was only concerned with the reputation of the Marquis's mansion, she wouldn't dare to treat her too badly.

Compared to her, her husband's concubine was in a much more miserable situation.

Her mother-in-law, who was very good at finding fault with others in everything, didn't blame her son for being brainless, but blamed the cousin and her family for having bad intentions. Naturally, all her anger was directed at the cousin.

However, that cousin was no pushover either. She wasn't from a wealthy family or a maid, and she didn't have any of the rules and etiquette that could restrict her behavior.

Whenever the Crown Prince's wife made things difficult for her, she would hug her son and sing, recite, act, and cry, calling out for her deceased great-aunt.

Her great-aunt was the late Marquis's wife and the mother-in-law of the heir apparent. By bringing her up, everyone in the Marquis's mansion had to be careful.

Not to mention she also had a group of bloodsucking relatives who would come to the Marquis's mansion every now and then to "visit relatives" and see her and her eldest son born out of wedlock.

If this were an ordinary concubine, her family wouldn't be allowed into the Marquis's mansion. But this woman is the grandniece of the old lady of the Marquis's mansion, and the wife of the heir apparent. It's really not good to keep her mother-in-law's family out of the Marquis's mansion.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that these people are really shameless - the Crown Prince's wife once tried to prevent them from entering the gate, and then they made a scene at the entrance of the Marquis's mansion, which attracted the attention of the surrounding bystanders who gathered around and pointed at them.

They weren't afraid of losing face, but the Crown Prince's wife was. From that moment on, she never tried to lock them out again.

Because these people would come from time to time, the Crown Prince's wife dared not go too far. But the more they did, the more she loathed this family and the concubine her son had been forced to take in.

She even disliked her eldest grandson because of her hatred for her birth mother. After all, if it weren't for her and her mother, her son wouldn't have been forced to compromise and marry her current daughter-in-law, who came from a humble background.

With these people helping to draw attention away from the enemy, the girl lived a relatively peaceful life, especially after comparing herself to her family, which made her even happier.

Of the two things she received in exchange for selling herself, one has already been turned into money, most of which is now in her hands. The other thing, although she can't get it, is clearly not the ideal outcome her good father wanted.

Sure enough, the moment the transfer order was issued, her good father couldn't wait to come and see the old Marquis.

Hearing that her master had come to the Marquis's mansion, the young lady's maidservant was so angry that her face turned purple without even asking about her daughter.

She wasn't expecting her husband to have any fatherly affection for her daughter, but at least he should at least pretend, right? What was the difference between his current behavior and slapping her daughter across the face?

Unlike the maid, the girl was quite calm.

Her situation back in her maiden home was probably known even to the sweeping maids of the Marquis's mansion, so what did she have to hide? As for losing face, so be it; it wasn't the first time she had lost face because of her maiden home.