Marrying the Crown Prince

Zhong Xu's words made Zhou Rong feel as if she had fallen into an ice cave, her whole body chilled to the bone.

Her body stiffened. "What did you say?"

"Isn't that right?" Zhong Xu put his hands on his hips and looked Zhou Rong up and down. "If you hadn't been constantly pestering my mother, why would she have forced me to marry you?"

"Didn't you act quite well before?"

"What? Can't keep up the act anymore?"

Overwhelmed by the amount of information, Zhou Rong could barely stand, and she screamed hoarsely, "You, you are shameless!"

"I'm shameless? Hahahaha!" Zhong Xu threw his head back and laughed loudly. "How noble do you think you are?"

In this argument, no one knows who started it. All that is known is that Zhong Xu's sweetheart also stepped forward to stop him, but was pushed to the ground by Zhong Xu, who was furious.

The moment he saw his beloved fall to the ground, Zhong Xu decided to give Zhou Rong no more face and slapped her across the face. Just then, the Countess, who had rushed over after receiving the news, witnessed the slap.

Afterwards, Zhou Rong was coaxed back to the Earl's mansion, and Zhong Xu was forced by the Countess to apologize to Zhou Rong.

However, Zhou Rong harbored resentment, and being young, she didn't know that some things require careful consideration, and that sometimes one should accept a way out once offered one's opportunity.

So, after trying to appease Zhou Rong for half a month without success, Zhong Xu exploded once again.

This outburst unexpectedly caused Zhou Rong to bleed – it turned out she was already more than a month pregnant.

But just as she learned of the child's existence, the child was gone.

Seeing this, the Countess couldn't be bothered to care anymore, and even complained to Zhou Rong, "You can't even win over the man, and you can't even protect the child. I really don't know how I ever chose you?"

"What bad luck!"

The countess spat and left.

The servants in the manor were used to fawning on the powerful and bullying the weak, and seeing that Zhou Rong had fallen out of favor, they didn't take her seriously.

After this incident, Zhou Rong was disheartened and gradually began to think about giving up. As a result, she became depressed and her illness did not improve for a long time.

As the year drew to a close, Wang suddenly decided to visit the Earl's mansion to see her daughter, but was refused by the Countess with various excuses.

Wang sensed something was wrong and forced her way in, only to find Zhou Rong lying on the bed, emaciated and pale.

Upon seeing her mother arrive, Zhou Rong's tears welled up instantly, and she sobbed as she recounted the various misdeeds committed in the Jingwen Earl's mansion.

The Countess's gaze toward Zhou Rong grew increasingly cold, directly interrupting the mother and daughter's conversation.

“Mother-in-law, Rong’er miscarried half a year ago and developed hysteria. Don’t believe her nonsense.” The Countess raised her eyes, and immediately two old women forcibly “supported” Wang Shi and took her out.

Wang, who had been forcibly removed from the room, trembled with anger. "Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

“Mother-in-law,” the Countess’s smile remained warm, but her words sent a chill down Wang’s spine, “How is Father-in-law’s business in the west of the city?”

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? Perhaps the mother-in-law should go back and ask the father-in-law?"

Having said that, the Countess was too lazy to say anything more to Wang Shi. With a wave of her hand, she said, "My mother-in-law and Rong'er haven't seen each other for many days, so she's too emotional and unwell. I won't keep you for dinner."

"Come here, see the guests off!"

Inside Ping Shuo Hall, Wang was sobbing uncontrollably as she spoke of her sorrows. She covered her face with her hands but could not stop her grief, and tears streamed through her fingers.

The old lady was also furious. She swept the teacups off the table and shattered them. Just like Zhou Rong's broken marriage, "This is too much! This is simply too much!"

Zhang was much calmer and grasped the key point of the question: "Has your wife informed your brother about this?"

Before Wang could answer, the old Marquis, radiating anger, pushed open the door and entered, followed by Zhou Laoda and Zhou Laosan. Judging from Zhou Laosan's appearance, he had probably already been scolded by the old Marquis.

Seeing that there was more than one person in his wife's room, including two daughters-in-law, the old marquis instantly understood, and his anger subsided somewhat. "You know everything?"

"Hmph!" The old lady sneered. "I don't know what business our family has that needs the Jingwen Earl's family to take care of. Old man, you should tell me about it."

The old marquis felt embarrassed and quickly coaxed the old lady in a low voice, "The children are all here, we can talk about it later."

Seeing that he was quite remorseful, the old lady turned her attention to Zhou Laosan, her disdain undisguised, and her words were even more hurtful: "Don't you know that my Yongjing Mansion is starving or poor, that you have to sell your son and daughter to demean your own daughter like this!"

Zhou Laosan felt a bitter taste in his mouth; he had no idea beforehand that the Jingwen Earl's mansion was such a deep pit.

But what's the point of saying it now?

Even if you lower your stance, you might still not get help from your stepmother.

After thinking it over, Zhou Laosan knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down his face, "It's my fault for being a bad son, I don't deserve to be a father, but Rong'er is still young, she can't stay in that deep pit any longer, please, Mother, save Rong'er."

If the family were to be divided into separate rooms, the old lady would naturally not want to get involved in this mess. But now she is faced with the fact that the whole family is in the same boat, and she cannot ignore it.

If the people in the Jingwen Marquis's mansion were to really wear down Zhou Rong, and the Yongjing Marquis's mansion didn't dare to utter a sound, they would probably be ridiculed by the entire capital.

That little bastard...

The old lady gritted her teeth, suppressing her disgust and resentment, and said, "I'm willing to help, but how your business in the west of the city turns out is none of our business."

At this point, the old Marquis also made his statement, "Sell the cloth shop in the east of the city to make up for the deficit in the west of the city. After you've made up for it, sell this shop as well, so you won't be schemed against again."

They were about to lose their most valuable cloth shop, and the shops in the west of the city would definitely generate revenue as long as they could hold out for a while...

Thinking about all this, Zhou Laosan's heart was bleeding.

Wang rushed over, pleading, "Third Master, that's our only daughter..."

Zhou Laosan gritted his teeth and said, "Your son will obey."

What followed was much simpler: the gentlemen of the Yongjing Marquis's mansion went to find the gentlemen of the Jingwen Earl's mansion, while Madam Zhang led a group to find the Jingwen Earl's wife.

Of course, it wasn't just their elders who went. After all, they were Zhou Rong's juniors, so they also invited Zhou Zhou and Zhou Heng, who were of the same generation as her. They would say that the younger sisters missed their older sister, so that they could save face for each other.

Zhang hesitated about this, not wanting Zhou Heng to be exposed to such sordid matters too early. Then, the old lady reminded her, "Once the New Year is over, Heng'er and Zhouzhou will be getting engaged, right?"

Zhang sighed silently and agreed to let Zhou Heng go with her, but she did not tell her the whole truth. She only said that Zhou Rong had miscarried and was not feeling well. She told the sisters to take good care of her when they met.

Seeing that everyone had taken action, Zhou Heng guessed that things were not simple and automatically imagined the story of Zhong Xu favoring his concubine over his wife, which led to Zhou Rong's miscarriage.