Consort Liang's so-called engagement was merely a verbal agreement.

Although she was Ye Jingyu's biological mother, she actually had no say in Ye Jingyu's marriage.

She wasn't unaware of this principle; however, she believed that although she couldn't decide Ye Jingyu's marriage, she could control Ye Jingyu's life.

What was presented to the emperor's desk, besides the fiancé's misdeeds, was their plan.

Consort Liang's maternal family is an earldom, but this title can only be passed down to her father's generation. Once her father dies, the title will be taken back by the court, and everything they currently possess will also be taken back.

So, the Earl's household came up with a brilliant idea—to marry the princess.

As long as the princess marries into their earldom, and as long as the princess is willing to plead for their earldom before the emperor, the earldom's title will certainly not be taken back, and may even change from a three-generation hereditary title to an indefinite hereditary title.

The emperor would certainly not allow the princess to marry into a declining earldom, but if the princess herself was willing and had already lost her virginity to her verbally betrothed, then even for the sake of the royal family's reputation, the emperor would definitely marry the princess.

The princess only had this one choice left.

In this era, a woman's chastity was of paramount importance. Even a princess who lost her virginity before marriage would become a laughingstock, and no noble family would be willing to marry her!

This scheme was undeniably vicious, yet Consort Liang, as the princess's mother, had already agreed to it and was preparing to carry it out.

Ye Jingyu knew about their plan, so she deliberately provoked Consort Liang by mentioning the study tour, inducing her to take an extreme action and mention the verbal marriage agreement.

Once this verbal marriage agreement is exposed, the emperor will inevitably conduct a thorough investigation of the Earl's Mansion, and then the Emperor will learn of the Earl's Mansion and Consort Liang's conspiracy.

All of this was planned by Ye Jingyu.

She could have kept her study abroad plans a secret from Consort Liang and left quietly, but after learning of this disgusting plan targeting her, she didn't want to let the Earl's mansion off so easily.

Ye Jingyu always remembered that from the time when she was young, not particularly beautiful and not talkative, whenever the women of the Earl's Mansion entered the palace, they would try to persuade Consort Liang.

"Although the princess is of noble birth, she is too plain-looking. She will definitely be disliked by her husband's family after she gets married!"

"Although the princess is of noble birth, she is dull and not likable. She will definitely not win the favor of her husband and in-laws in the future!"

"The Earl's family is the princess's maternal family, and they are all her relatives. They will definitely not look down on her and will love her as their own daughter!"

"If the princess marries into the Earl's family, the Earl's title will be preserved. In this way, both the Empress and the princess will have the Earl's family as their backing. It's a win-win situation!"

......

Ye Jingyu had heard similar things since she was a child.

She never believed these things, but she knew her mother had long believed them.

Although her appearance was less striking compared to her sisters, she was not as ordinary as they claimed. It was they who, for ten years, kept telling their mother and her that she was plain-looking, trying to make her feel inferior and cause their mother anxiety.

They were halfway to success, because their mother was indeed very anxious about it, but she did not feel inferior because of her ordinariness, especially after she went to study at the Wenhua Hall.

She believes that God is fair; although He did not give her a beautiful appearance, He did give her the ability to learn and observe.

She had considered changing her mother's mind, but she found that her mother trusted her maternal grandmother and aunt far more than she did, and all her advice was regarded as disobedience and unfilial piety by her mother.

She couldn't save her mother, so she could only choose to save herself, because she was the victim, the sacrifice.

The first step to self-rescue is to choose a suitable husband for yourself.

In the Wenhua Hall, there are the best choices, or rather, three, because they are the Emperor's choices, and the Emperor's choices cannot be wrong.

So she had been silently observing them and analyzing their advantages and disadvantages, but before she could take the initiative, her second sister presented her with an opportunity.

She chose the most outstanding young man in Dayuan to be her husband, but she did not tell her mother about it because she was afraid that her mother and the Earl's Mansion would ruin her plans.

As it turned out, her choice was right. Her mother disregarded her reputation in order to marry her off to the Earl's family. What wouldn't she do?

Since they want to drive her to the brink of despair, why should she show them any mercy?

Upon seeing the information uncovered by the Imperial Guards, the emperor flew into a rage.

All the criminals from the Earl's mansion were imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice, especially Consort Liang's nephew, who was involved in a murder case and, according to the laws of Dayuan, was sentenced to be executed in the autumn.

As for the other members of the Earl's mansion, those who committed crimes were directly tried according to the law. Under the Emperor's strict investigation, in the vast Earl's mansion, apart from the children, there were very few truly innocent people.

It seems that only the stone lions at the entrance of the Earl's mansion are clean!

As for Consort Liang, out of consideration for her being Ye Jingyu's birth mother, the emperor punished her by confining her to Yingyue Palace for three years!

The destruction of the Earl's mansion brought a period of quiet to the capital.

The powerful and noble families have all noticed that in the past year or two, almost all the powerful and noble families that have been personally dealt with by the emperor have wanted to marry into the emperor's family.

Marrying a prince or princess is certainly glamorous, but if it means risking one's family and one's own life, then the risk is far too great.

The emperor was unaware of the change, but Consort Chen clearly sensed it.

In order to select a noble lady from a high-ranking family who could benefit Ye Jingming as his princess consort, Consort Chen has been using her connections outside the palace to investigate since her confinement was lifted.

After finally settling on a few candidates, she sent out invitations to the matriarchs of various mansions to come to the palace for a reunion, but they were all turned down and refused; none of them were willing to come.

Consort Chen was unaware of the reason behind this, and only assumed that the other party disliked Ye Jingming's background, and thus held a grudge against those families.

However, a daughter-in-law still had to be chosen, so Consort Chen had to lower her requirements.

The imperial city appears calm on the surface, but undercurrents are surging beneath.

Originally, the selection of a prince's consort, or even a princess's husband, was not just about the prince or princess choosing a suitable marriage partner; more importantly, it was about noble families choosing their own stances!

However, after the emperor's crackdown, no one dared to act rashly, for fear of becoming the next victim.

This was a situation that Ye Jingchen was happy to see.

In the original novel, the reason why the seven princes fought for the throne was due not only to the maternal clans of the princes stirring up trouble, but also to the families of their wives.

Ye Jingchen really wanted to know if, excluding all external factors, these little brats who had grown up together since childhood and received his careful guidance would still have such great ambitions.