Among all the families, the most angry and conflicted were the mothers of Chen Nianzhi's husband candidates.
Of course, they also don't like their husbands' concubines, maids, and illegitimate sons and daughters, not to mention their mistresses and their children. The probability of them being well-behaved is much smaller than that of their husbands' raised children.
However, no matter how much they dislike those illegitimate children or concubines' children who like to jump the gun, compete for favor, and divert the love and treatment their children deserve, or those who are more capable and pose a threat to their children, they will not openly say that they do not allow their husbands to have other women.
In their opinion, they have to hold their noses and endure this frustration, so why can't their daughters-in-law also hold their noses and endure it?
Especially when their sons take concubines or maids, they are the beneficiaries of the two benefits of "many sons and grandchildren" and "controlling daughters-in-law", instead of being the victims of their husbands taking concubines or maids like before.
People are selfish, so of course they support their sons in doing things that are good for themselves.
But Chen Nianzhi went so far as to emphasize that even if she couldn't have children, her future husband would never use this as an excuse to keep a concubine or mistress.
What does that mean? Whoever marries her will have no descendants?
Everyone was indignant, completely forgetting that Chen Nianzhi was just making an assumption and that she wasn't really unable to have children.
As for Chen Nianzhi continuing to be an official after marriage, everyone had no objection to this. After all, they were willing to ask for Chen Nianzhi to marry their children because they were impressed by her ability to be an official.
However, everyone collectively disagreed with Chen Nianzhi's statement that "she cannot be constrained by the same rules as those for ordinary women in the inner house", as well as her proposal to live alone after marriage and not live with her in-laws.
Among those who wanted to marry Chen Nianzhi into their family, except for Yu Zicheng who really liked her and had no intention of gaining benefits from her, the others, including Yu Zicheng's mother, Princess Zhenbei, were determined to make full use of Chen Nianzhi to gain benefits for their own family.
He couldn't restrain her with the same rules as for the women in the inner chambers, nor could he keep her under his own supervision, constantly suppressing her with filial piety. Most importantly, she deliberately lived under the emperor's nose! How could they extract as much benefit from her as possible for their children and grandchildren?
When raising this question, these people selectively forgot one thing, that is, if Chen Nianzhi really married into their family, then the children Chen Nianzhi gave birth to in the future would actually be their "own children and grandchildren."
Although they could not control Chen Nianzhi as they wished and fully exploit her value, the benefits they could get from Chen Nianzhi would definitely not be small.
However, most people want more after they have asked for it, and want even better things after they have already had it. What Chen Nianzhi is willing to give them obviously cannot satisfy their ambitions and is far from meeting their expectations.
As a result, those who had higher moral standards and were unwilling to treat the promise as nonsense, or those who were afraid of the empress Yu Zizhen, all backed down.
As for those stupid and evil ones, they made up their minds to agree to Chen Nianzhi's conditions first, and then coax her into their own bowl, and then slowly use all kinds of despicable means to make her face the reality and become honest and obedient.
This small group of people who were blinded by greed never dreamed that their empress had been using a baby voice system to monitor the entire capital city 24 hours a day.
The baby-voiced system immediately told Yu Zizhen all about their sinister plan.
Yu Zizhen was also not vague. She directly wrote down the names of these families on a piece of paper, and then gave some instructions, and sent Yaoguang to personally greet Chen Nianzhi.
Yaoguang married her deputy general at the beginning of the year. Not only did they have similar backgrounds - both were children picked up and raised by Yu Zizhen, and had very problematic families, they also had similar hobbies - both liked horse racing, martial arts and food, and they also had similar temperaments - both were cheerful and generous, and both were extremely loyal to Yu Zizhen.
In fact, Yu Zizhen had already made up her mind that if no one could see Yaoguang's strengths, truly love her and want to marry her, then she would support Yaoguang for the rest of her life. It was rare that this girl actually solved her lifelong issue on her own, so Yu Zizhen was so happy that she immediately rewarded her with a generous dowry.
The box was ridiculously large, and it was filled to the brim with sixty-four loads of dowry. I wonder how many people felt sad after seeing it.
Some jealous people murmured to their companions behind their backs, "She's just a female guard from a lowly family, and yet His Majesty generously gave her such a huge dowry. Look at the comprehensive dowry list, the heavy silver chest, and the stack of house deeds and land deeds so thick that you'd want to grab them."
"You forgot to mention one thing. Besides these dead things, His Majesty has also prepared capable internal and external officials and loyal servants for our Duke of Liang."
The onlookers who heard this conversation fell silent. Their Majesty's concern for the Duke of Liang's marriage was even greater than that of some parents marrying off their daughters. They were truly at a loss for words.
Yu Zizhen, who was criticized for not doing her job properly, said that she felt wronged. She was so worried because Yaoguang and her husband were both strong-limbed but simple-minded fighters who had no way of managing the mansion or running the business.
Yu Zizhen didn't want the wealth and property they gained through military merit and loyalty to eventually be pocketed by his subordinates in various ways.
Although the people she sent would be under the command and management of Yaoguang and others in the future, she could still monitor them.
Anyway, for her, this surveillance is just a matter of the baby voice system helping her to keep an eye on things from time to time, and Yu Zizhen will not have any extra workload because of it.
But with her acting as a deterrent, those stewards and servants who knew what Yaoguang meant to her would never dare to make any big or excessive plans in private.
This was her only option. If Yaoguang could be as smart as Yuheng, Yu Zizhen would not only be worried about her like a mother, but she would also be showing great mercy to her trusted subordinate by not giving part of her private property to the other party to take care of.
After getting the list from Yaoguang and listening to her solemnly retelling what Yu Zizhen had said, Chen Nianzhi immediately understood that her Majesty was worried about her marriage.
She thanked Yaoguang and asked her to convey her gratitude to Yu Zizhen.
Yaoguang nodded at her, then said goodbye and left.
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