I Became The Stepmother of My Ex-husband

Wan Yue had left to keep Lin Wei Xi’s cloak, and when she heard this sentence upon returning, she replied, “Miss started coughing again today, but thanks to her, Shizi and Shizi Fei managed to avoid an embarrassing situation.”

“What happened?”

Wan Yue recounted what happened over dinner, and Wan Xing sighed, praising “Miss is so kind. Shizi Fei purposely had her wet nurse scold Miss, but Miss helped them get out of trouble.”

Who helped them? Lin Wei Xi replied angrily in her mind. They were in the residence, and Gao Ran was the daughter-in-law of Prince Yan. Wan Xing and Wan Yue didn’t have much to say, so they dropped the subject. Wan Yue continued, “Exactly, the Prince’s anger today was really scary, so scary that I didn’t dare raise my head. The Prince is only easier to talk to when he’s talking to Miss. He’s extremely strict with Shizi, and will reprimand him in front of so many people without  hesitation.”

“Why did he do that?”

“It’s because of Princess Royal Shou Kang. I didn’t expect that although Prince Yan seems unreasonable, he is filial to the Princess.”

Lin Wei Xi lightly added at this point, “It’s not that he is filial to Princess Royal Shou Kang. Although Princess Royal is Prince Yan’s paternal aunt, how many princesses do you think there are in the royal family? With so many uncles, nephews and aunts, I don’t see him being close to any of them. The one Prince Yan is really filial to is the previous Prince Yan. Back then, when the previous Prince Yan hadn’t yet moved to his fief, the then Emperor was suspicious of him. It was because Princess Royal Shou Kang vouched for him, that he could smoothly leave the capital. It’s because of this that Prince Yan treats the Princess Royal Shou Kang Residence extremely courteously. Gu Cheng Yao grew up in the fief and was born when the Prince Yan Residence was at the peak of its power. Everything he did went smooth sailing, so how can he understand the hardships of the previous generation?”

“So that’s the origin of their relationship.” After listening, Wan Xing inadvertently asked, “Miss, how do you know about what happened with the Emperor?”

The hand holding the teacup immediately paused. Lin Wei Xi  naturally knew this because of what Princess Royal Shou Kang had said herself. But Lin Wei Xi, a lone weak woman, shouldn’t know about it. She was inwardly alarmed, but she casually replied, “When I was ten years old, my dad brought me to the capital to see a doctor. I stayed in the capital for almost half a year and happened to hear what an old man in the alleys said.”

Wan Yue and Wan Xing both joined Lin Wei Xi halfway and knew nothing about her past, so they believed her explanation. Seeing that she managed to fool the two maids, she felt relieved, but she also warned herself not to be so careless.

If the person who heard this was Prince Yan, it would be over.

Wan Yue and Wan Xing were both in the capital for the first time, and they were also in a Prince’s Residence, so they were curious to no end. The two were different from Lin Wei Xi’s former maids, and they chattered lively. Lin Wei Xi’s identity was no longer the same as before, so she couldn’t be too critical of the two maidservants. Wan Xing and Wan Yue were full of curiosity about the renowned Prince Yan Residence, and it was even more amazing now that the both of them were actually living with Lin Wei Xi in that place. They lowered their voices and said that this was only the tip of the iceberg of the Prince Yan Residence, but it was already an entertaining enough family affair, “I heard that the current Shizi Fei is the second wife, and that the lady before her is also surnamed Gao, who was actually Shizi Fei’s older sister!”

Wan Yue covered her mouth in bewilderment, “Her older sister?”

“Yes.”

Wan Yue looked surprised, “Shizi looks very young, but it seems like he has already married a second wife.”

“The Prince looks like he’s only in his twenties. If you didn’t already know, you wouldn’t have guessed that his son is already seventeen.”

“That’s true. Shizi is only seventeen, so he’s the one who married early.”

“It’s not that he married early, it’s the former Shizi Fei who died too quickly.” Lin Wei Xi took over the conversation, and even smiled, “they married in the first month that year, but she died at the end of the year. In the second month the next year, Shizi brought the younger sister into the household without delay.”

Wan Xing and Wan Yue didn’t expect Lin Wei Xi to suddenly join the conversation. They didn’t think too much, but sighed, “The previous Shizi Fei was so pitiful.”

Pitiful? Lin Wei Xi smiled, “Perhaps. But Prince Yan is right. People only look at the results and don’t ask for the reason. I’m afraid she only has herself to blame for living her life like this. Shizi and the new Shizi Fei are deeply in love with each other. It’s good to make way for her early.”

Wan Yue and Wan Xing looked at each other, not knowing why Miss Lin was suddenly so pessimistic. Wan Xing was a lively person, and after only one day’s work, she’d already gathered a lot of information from the servants in the residence, “actually, it’s not necessarily the previous Shizi Fei’s fault. Today, this slave heard people say that the previous Shizi Fei was extremely strict in managing the residence at that time. The rules were clean cut, no gossiping, no laziness, and no pilfering the kitchen. The Prince Yan Consort passed away many years ago, and Prince Yan spends all year round on war campaigns. It was inevitable that many rules in the residence became slack. When the previous Shizi Fei just arrived, she made a decisive overhaul with good intentions, but it unfortunately offended many people.”

Wan Yue and Wan Xing were third party observers, so they could objectively evaluate the situation in the Prince Yan Residence. However, for the old servants who were deeply rooted in the Prince Yan Residence, Gao Xi’s actions had uprooted their territory. So to these people, Gao Xi was, of course, no good at all. And after Gao Xi had finally dealt with the years of accumulated bad practices, she herself collapsed from exhaustion. Afterwards, Gao Ran entered the household, and with the foundation already laid, taking over the reins was naturally as easy as cutting through butter. Gao Ran only had to run the household on the surface, and she had the benefit of relaxing the rules a little bit. Compared to Gao Xi’s strictness, Gao Ran immediately became the gentle and kind new mistress, the whole residence agreeing that she was good.

This led to the current situation. Wan Xing and Wan Yue, as newly recruited servants, could say “it’s good that the previous Shizi Fei was diligent”, but Gu Cheng Yao, who was blinded by the old servants, couldn’t see it.

Lin Wei Xi didn’t expect to hear such words from these two girls. She laughed self-deprecatingly. It was rare for someone to see her kindness. She didn’t want to talk about such depressing things anymore. She was getting real tired of seeing Gu Cheng Yao and Gao Ran act so intimately, and even worse, Gao Ran’s dowry maid was proudly advocating it. God knows these servants previously didn’t even dare lift their heads in front of her, but now they were actually so unrestrained.

She stood up and said faintly, “This is their family affair after all. It’s not good to talk about their private affairs behind their back, so don’t bring this up again.”

Wan Yue and Wan Xing looked at each other and noticed the contradiction in her words. Miss Lin obviously relied on Prince Yan a lot, but was uncharacteristically indifferent when talking about his family. One ought to embrace everything about the other person, so why did Miss Lin have such a conflicting attitude? Wan Yue and Wan Xing didn’t know why and so they didn’t bring it up again. Instead, they carefully served Lin Wei Xi in changing her clothes, “Miss, Prince Yan was angry with Shizi today because of what happened with Princess Royal Shou Kang, and said that he will take Shizi to visit her in a few days to apologize. Is this true?”

“Why would it not be true?” Lin Wei Xi sneered, sarcasm filling her voice, “how dare they look down on the Princess Royal Residence because it doesn’t have an heir? Where did they find the guts to do that? Even if the Princess Residence really has no successor, as long as the Princess is still around, no one in the capital could possibly ignore it. Even Prince Yan still wants to call Princess Royal Shou Kang aunt. A shu daughter like her is anxious to climb up, thinking that she can behave atrociously in the Princess’s domain. What a joke.”

“Miss… “

Lin Wei Xi realized she was being emotional. She took a deep breath and said, “Prepare my clothes for the next few days. I am going to visit the Princess Royal Residence with Prince Yan.”

Wan Yue was stunned. Lin Wei Xi was still observing her filial mourning and usually locked herself in her room. Why did she want to go to the Princess Royal Residence? But it wasn’t her place as a maid to worry about such things. Wan Yue softly responded and went to prepare Lin Wei Xi’s clothes for the visitation.

Gu Hui Yan didn’t say anything after learning about it, and only nodded his head in consent. When he finally freed up some time in his schedule, he personally took everyone from the Prince Yan Residence to pay a visit to Princess Royal Shou Kang.

Prince Yan was of course regarded as a distinguished guest and immediately welcomed into the residence. When Princess Royal Shou Kang heard that he had visited her, she had her maids support her right away so she could greet him herself.

When Gu Hui Yan saw her, he quickly got up to support her arm, “Aunt, this son is stubborn and has let you down even after all your painstaking efforts. And now I’ve even troubled you to come out in person. This is all my fault.”

“Don’t say that. You are now a Prince that the emperor heavily relies on. How can I, an old lady who already has one foot on the grave, accept your apology.”

When Gu Hui Yan heard this, he also couldn’t say anything, and looked pointedly at Gu Cheng Yao for a moment. Gu Cheng Yao understood his father’s meaning, and could only reluctantly walk up to salute Princess Royal Shou Kang, “This junior was confused a few days ago and offended grandaunt. Please forgive this junior.”

Gu Cheng Yao was the son of Prince Yan. Even if Princess Royal Shou Kang hated his negligence of Xi’er, she couldn’t ignore Prince Yan’s face. Prince Yan had taken his son to apologize in person, so no matter be it from the perspective of etiquette or morals, Prince Yan had sufficiently expressed his sincerity. Princess Royal Shou Kang could only nod her head and say in a lukewarm manner, “There is no prolonged hatred amongst family. It’s good that you understand. Get up quickly.”

Gu Cheng Yao got up, and Gao Ran followed and saluted, “Maternal grandmother.”

Princess Royal Shou Kang snorted coldly, not even looking at her. Gao Ran looked wronged and Gu Cheng Yao felt torn, but Gu Hui Yan was still sitting calmly. Even if Gu Cheng Yao was angry, he didn’t dare make the slightest move.

It was also at this time that Princess Royal Shou Kang realized there was one more person. She looked at the girl, who looked like she’d walked out of an exquisite New Year’s painting, and was slightly stunned, “This is… “

Lin Wei Xi stepped forward and kowtowed three times to Princess Royal Shou Kang, “This girl is Lin Wei Xi, paying my respect to Princess Royal.”

Princess Royal Shou Kang looked at the girl on the ground, her eyes unconsciously widened. Gu Hui Yan saw this and explained, “When suppressing the Northwest rebellion, I was careless. It was her father who died in battle as he shielded me. You should have an impression of Marquis Zhongyong from before. After the Northwest rebellion was suppressed, I met this young girl who’d lost her mother as a child, and now she’s also lost her father. It’s not a good idea to wander around alone, so I took her to the capital. Today, I brought the juniors to greet you, and she also tagged along.”

After Princess Royal Shou Kang listened to this, the inexplicable beating of her heart became more and more obvious. She had someone help Lin Wei Xi up to move her closer, and after carefully examining her for a while, she warmly covered the back of Lin Wei Xi’s hand with her rough ones and asked, “Your name is Lin Wei Xi, what is your nickname?”

“This girl lost her mother at a young age and didn’t have a pet name as a child. Everyone in the family called me Xi’er.”

“Xi’er.” Even her name was exactly the same. Princess Royal Shou Kang’s eyes suddenly turned moist, “Okay, let’s call you Xi’er. When were you born?”

“On the fifteenth of the first lunar month, at 5-7 am.”

Hearing the hour, Gao Ran’s eyes widened and Gu Cheng Yao also had a strange look on his face. When Gu Hui Yan saw this,  he raised his eyebrows and calmly asked, “What’s the matter?”

Gao Ran and Gu Cheng Yao didn’t speak, but an old woman of the Princess Residence wiped her tears and said, “Replying to Prince Yan, our eldest miss was born on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, but it was at 5-7 pm.”

Gao Xi had been close to her maternal family since childhood, so the people of the Princess Royal Residence called her eldest miss.

Gu Hui Yan was also surprised to hear this, “what a coincidence.”

The same nickname, the same syllable, and even the same birthday. That strange feeling came back. Gu Cheng Yao looked at Lin Wei Xi, who was standing up front, and suddenly went into a trance.

For a split second, Gu Cheng Yao almost felt like the person standing in front of him was his deceased first wife, and the cause of his unhappy marriage, Gao Xi.