I Became The Stepmother of My Ex-husband

You can take it easy and live in the Prince Yan Residence for as long as you want.

This sentence seemed to linger in her mind, and she stared blankly, rooted to the spot. When she came to her senses, she flatly denied, “No way.”

Gu Hui Yan’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes concealed a deeply hidden indescribable inquiry, “Why?”

No matter what Lin Wei Xi said, how could she tell him that his son was actually her husband in her past life, and that his soon to be daughter-in-law was her shu sister? She’d already been sufficiently tortured by these two people, and now she had to return again under another identity?

Lin Wei Xi refused without even having to think about it, “Prince Yan, this isn’t appropriate. I have no relations with the Prince Yan Residence. What would it look like if I lived in your residence without a good reason? Plus, your new daughter-in-law is about to marry into the household, would she not mind it if I, an outsider, stayed there?”

Gu Hui Yan looked at her with calm eyes and a faint smile, “If I say you can take it easy and live, then you can. My word is law, and if someone speaks out of turn, tell me about it no matter who they are.”

A chill ran down Lin Wei Xi’s back when she heard the phrase ‘no matter who they are.’ Prince Yan was referring to Gao Ran, right? Indeed, a lone orphan woman living in another person’s house naturally invited a lot of trouble. It was understandable for the mistress of the household to feel unhappy. Lin Wei Xi had been a daughter-in-law before, so she understood this. But if the person in charge was Prince Yan, his word was law and they would just have to endure.

Lin Wei Xi suddenly realized the irony of the situation. It seemed like not too long ago that she was painstakingly managing the Prince Yan Residence’s household duties, dealing with the two-faced servants and silently enduring all manner of insults. But in the blink of an eye, she went from being the tortured party to being the privileged party.

The world worked in mysterious ways and the root of all this was resolved with a single sentence from the person in front of her

Lin Wei Xi sighed and finally shook her head, “Your Highness Prince Yan, I appreciate your kindness. But I only wish to live peacefully; it’s enough for me to live my life with a sound mind and body. The Prince Yan Residence’s status is too high and I am unsuitable to go.”

“You’re unsuitable to go? Why do I get the feeling that you just don’t want to go?”

Lin Wei Xi felt an abrupt and unspeakable pressure. This was Prince Yan. When speaking to him, there was not a trace of the haughty manner of Prince Yan. His laugh was clear as water, like stepping in the shallow waters of a beach, like a refreshing spring breeze that put one’s mind at ease. But then you suddenly realize that you were bound by the deep ocean, the surface calm as before. However, when it was ready, it could set off terrifying waves. Lin Wei Xi was now the one being drowned by the water over and over again.

She internally scolded herself for being pig-headed. She’d already messed up once the day before, so how could she expose her weakness again today. She put on the act of a little miss from the countryside who was resisting staying at the residence of a high-ranking official, and deliberately said rudely, “I went to the capital when I was ten; there are so many carriages and people. The clothes that people casually wear on the street are comparable to what the village head’s family wears. However, at that time, I almost died from my illness. There were so many people on the street, but none of them stopped to inquire about my condition, and they even chased my father and I away. I don’t like that place. Besides, you’re Prince Yan. You’re talking so nicely to me now, but this definitely won’t be the case once you return to your residence. I can’t even live properly in my aunt’s house, not to mention the Prince Yan Residence.”

Gu Hui Yan ignored the little miss’s delicate and sensitive moods and controlled his imposing manner, gently saying, “Don’t be afraid, I will take you back, and what happened when you were ten won’t happen again. Moreover, there are few people in the residence and I only have one son. Although he’s immature, he’s unlikely to make things difficult for you. You can just focus on staying with us when we reach the capital. If you don’t like being disturbed by others, then I’ll find you a secluded courtyard in the residence. You have the final say in how the servants are managed. As for the expenses for daily necessities, you don’t need to worry about it. Your spending will be paid from my personal account. Buy whatever you want, no one will point their fingers at you.”

“Actually, it’s enough to find a simple and quiet town for me to live peacefully…”

“There is no such place in the face of profit. You are very young and wealthy. Nowhere is safe if you were to live alone by yourself. But as long as you come to the capital, whether you want to marry or live alone in the future, no one will bother you while you are in the Prince Yan Residence.”

“I…” Lin Wei Xi opened her mouth and found that Gu Hui Yan had said everything he needed to say. She couldn’t find a single reason to object. If she said that she didn’t want to rely on someone else’s charity, he would find a courtyard for her to live alone. If she was worried that she would clash with the new mistress, then Gu Hui Yan would let her use his private account. This way, no one could control her. Lin Wei Xi held it in for a long time and could only say, “This is too much trouble for you… “

“It’s no trouble.”

Lin Wei Xi was completely speechless. She saw how unflappable Prince Yan was and suddenly had a strange feeling.

Why did she feel like Prince Yan had deliberately led her to express her objections, and then blocked her arguments one by one? Prince Yan looked easy-going, but once he made up his mind, there was no room for leeway. In actuality, he was a very high-handed person.

Gu Hui Yan noticed Lin Wei Xi secretly sizing him up. He smiled without a care and instead asked, “What’s the matter? You can’t bear to leave your hometown, so you don’t want to go?”

In fact, Lin Wei Xi really wanted to use this excuse. Unfortunately, in order to rely on Prince Yan a few days ago, she’d personally cut off this ‘hometown’ reason, which was her most powerful escape route. She felt tired to the bones. Sighing, her entire body drooped, “Fine, I will do as Prince Yan says.”

Lin Wei Xi couldn’t say for sure what kind of feelings she held for the capital. She grew up there and all her relatives lived in that magnificent city, but all her nightmares had also happened there. If she could, she didn’t want to return to the capital. So what if she was running away, so what if she was deceiving herself. It wasn’t easy for her to be reborn and she didn’t want to see Gu Cheng Yao and Gao Ran again. So long as she didn’t have to see them, Lin Wei Xi could continue to deceive herself that she wasn’t a failure, that she could also find a small town and live a secure and affluent life. She just can’t see her relatives, friends, and husband; she could convince herself that they hadn’t abandoned her like throwing out a worn out shoe.

But when Gu Hui Yan said the phrase “return to the Residence ”, after her initial strong rejection, she suddenly calmed down after realizing that there wasn’t any room to salvage the situation. Actually, she didn’t feel reconciled.

Even regarding Princess Royal Shou Kang and no one else, Lin Wei Xi wanted to go back to see her grandmother again. She was her mother’s only child and her mother Wei Shi was also Princess Shou Kang’s only daughter. Wei Shi passed away early, and Lin Wei Xi was now Princess Shou Kang’s only remaining bloodline. Furthermore, the relationship between her grandmother and her grandmother’s husband wasn’t very good. Every time she thought about how there wasn’t a single junior to serve her grandmother, it tore her up inside. She had to go back, even if it was only for her grandmother.

Lin Wei Xi’s mind gradually calmed down. When Gu Hui Yan saw that she’d thought it through, he looked at her with satisfaction, then continued to flip through the letter, casually saying to her, “Lin Yong’s imperial decree for his title conferment, the Honorary Deed Medallion, as well as the land deeds awarded by the imperial court are all with me. If you have nothing to do in the next two days, you can take inventory of the ceremonial objects in the gift list. Can you read the gift list?”

“I can.” Lin Wei Xi had shadowed Princess Shou Kang in arranging banquets and preparing New Year’s gifts since a young age. Last year, the Prince Yan Residence’s tribute to the palace had even been personally prepared by herself. If she’d known what would happen, why bother painstakingly managing the family business in the first place, she should’ve just let all of the Prince Yan Residence’s businesses go into debt.

“Then you can go play with the inventory first. After reaching the capital, I’ll exchange the title deeds for those around the capital, for your dowry in the future.”

Lin Yong’s posthumous title had been greatly embezzled. The Marquis’s special set of ceremonial objects was unique so no one dared to touch it. But other than that, the land deeds, silk and silver had all been snatched away. Gu Hui Yan knew that corruption among the officials was severe, but he didn’t expect it to be serious to this extent. If he hadn’t made a temporary detour to Shunde District, he was afraid that this issue wouldn’t have been addressed. Today, the county magistrate had carefully absolved himself of his involvement for fear that Gu Hui Yan would condemn him, but with Gu Hui Yan’s status, why would he get angry with a few low-ranking officials. He wrote a letter directly to Zhang Xiao Lian. He didn’t care how Grand Secretary Zhang dealt with his subordinates as long as he got results from him in the end.

It was good that he could just control these shameless acts, and Lin Wei Xi didn’t need to know. The land deeds that the imperial court gave to Lin Yong were mostly just padding, many of which were land in name only, and none of these had been received by Lin Wei Xi. Gu Hui Yan would exchange these deeds for land near the capital. She couldn’t do such things, but it was nothing if he did it under his name.

Lin Wei Xi converted it in her mind, and suddenly became interested, “Your Highness Prince Yan, how will this be converted? How much can one acre be exchanged for the land in the capital?”

Gu Hui Yan couldn’t help but laugh, his eyes smiling as he looked at her with helpless amusement, “Don’t worry, I won’t take advantage of you. Naturally, one acre will be exchanged for one acre and it will be a one-to-one conversion.”

This wasn’t an equal conversion. Lin Yong’s fief was in Shunde. How could the land in Shunde be comparable to the land in the capital? When Lin Wei Xi heard this, she quickly saluted Prince Yan with thanks, afraid that he might regret it, “Thank you Your Highness Prince Yan.”

With one hand on the table, Gu Hui Yan smiled at Lin Wei Xi, “You’re so opposed to getting married that I thought you wouldn’t want to hear even a mention of your dowry.”

“How are they the same?” Lin Wei Xi had been managing the household since young so she understood all too well the benefits of owning private property. She certainly didn’t want to marry again, but if they were talking about preparing a dowry for her, then it wasn’t a problem and there was no need to worry about trampling her ego.

Gu Hui Yan was amused, and he even laughed softly. If Zhou Mao Cheng or any other of the older soldiers had been standing there, their jaws would’ve dropped from shock at the sight. However, Lin Wei Xi truly didn’t understand how rare it was to see him laugh and she was now anxious to find an opportunity to retire. Her palms were itching now that she’d finally gotten her hands on Lin Yong’s title.

Gu Hui Yan could see Lin Wei Xi’s eagerness so he didn’t make things difficult for her and pointed to the box beside her, saying, “This is your father’s land deed and that maid’s slave contract, take them together. It’s not convenient to bring too many maids on our travels. I only found one for you, so the rest will be supplemented when we reach the capital.”

Without further prompting, she nimbly stepped forward to pick up the items from their spot next to him. She hugged the wooden box and bowed to him. Just as she was about to withdraw, she suddenly heard Gu Hui Yan unintentionally say, “If you are treated unjustly in the future, just come and find me. There is no need to compromise.”

Lin Wei Xi froze for a moment, a startling conjecture floated into her mind. Her pupils expanded unconsciously, her shock clear on her face, “How do you know?”

Gu Hui Yan didn’t speak as he spread out the writing paper and took a writing brush from it’s stand, appearing to plan his response to Zhang Xiao Lian. She didn’t say a word as she silently ground the ink for him, before quietly retreating.

After exiting the study, a chilly wind blew at her face, highlighting the presence of the unwieldy wooden box in her hands, and Lin Wei Xi was suddenly hit by reality.

She was already so old, but for the first time in her life, someone said to her, “You don’t have to compromise.” Her previous father, paternal grandmother, and even the teachers in the Duke Ying Residence all told her over and over again that she was the eldest di granddaughter, that she had to have the demeanour of an older sister and give in to her younger sister.

Lin Wei Xi’s eyes were a little moist for some reason. It turned out that Prince Yan had gone out today for her. Not only had he dealt with Aunt Lin and Li Da, he’d also retrieved Lin Yong’s reward from the county magistrate for her.

This was the first time she knew how it felt like to be cared for by others. In the past, Gao Ran could get the attention of the Duke Ying Shizi, the brothers in the family, and even the male cousins without lifting a finger. She’d dismissed it at the time. It’s not like she didn’t have hands; she could contend for such things herself, so why use them to look good? But Lin Wei Xi finally knew now that it was different.

It wasn’t something she could get by herself just by contending for it through intentions alone, even if it was the same thing.

Prince Yan didn’t stay for long in the county town. Once everything was more or less ready for the journey, he ordered them to set off for the capital. He’d originally intended to make a trip to Shunde District, and after burying Lin Yong’s remains, hurriedly chase after the main troops on his victorious return to the capital. However, Lin Wei Xi had been added to the team at the last minute, and the plan to catch up with the troops had naturally been abandoned. Gu Hui Yan separating from the army couldn’t be concealed. In that case, he simply wrote a letter to the capital explaining that he would be late, before slowly bringing Lin Wei Xi to the capital.

From Gu Hui Yan’s perspective, this was a deliberately slow route, but for Lin Wei Xi, who’d never travelled long distances and wasn’t in good health, such a schedule was still too rushed.

She was still able to hold on for the first few days, but when they stopped at one of the relay stations, she couldn’t hold on any longer. She had a high fever that night, and couldn’t get up.

Because Lin Wei Xi fell ill during the journey, Prince Yan’s progress was greatly delayed, and it was already the third month when they finally returned to the capital.

One month had already passed since Gu Cheng Yao and Gao Ran’s wedding.

Weak from sickness, she leaned against the carriage wall as she heard someone greet her from outside, “Miss Lin, we’ve arrived at the Prince Yan Residence.”

With the support of her maid, Lin Wei Xi cautiously stepped out of the carriage and once again stood in front of this magnificent official’s residence.

Prince Yan Residence, she was back.