I Became The Stepmother of My Ex-husband

The busy period passed in a flash and New Year’s Eve arrived in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Lin Wei Xi was lifted from the bed by Gu Hui Yan first thing at dawn so that she couldn’t continue sleeping, “it’s fine for you to be lazy on a normal day, but the juniors are coming to give their New Year’s greetings today. You don’t want to be laughed at by them.”

A red candle burned inside the Babu bed. Lin Wei Xi couldn’t tell what time it was, but judging by the light outside the canopy, it seemed quite early. She lazily retreated to the edge of the bed, hugged her knees, and tried to reach for the blanket, “any junior who dares to give their New Year’s greeting at this time won’t be getting any money^◇.”

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Gu Hui Yan looked helplessly at Lin Wei Xi, who was on the bed and refusing to get up. His finger held down a corner of the quilt. She pulled hard on it but it wouldn’t budge. As the saying goes “never give up, for there is always a way” Lin Wei Xi wriggled her way over and bundled herself in the blanket.

Gu Hui Yan looked away and chuckled before fishing her up from beneath the blankets, “that’s how it is when you’re an elder. Let’s see how much face you lose when the juniors find out that the Prince Yan Consort is still in bed.”

“I won’t.” Lin Wei Xi leaned her forehead against Gu Hui Yan’s strong arms and partially covered her mouth as she yawned, her eyes misting over, “no one would know aside from you”

Gu Hui Yan suddenly felt pleased by her words. That’s right, other than him, no man in the world would be able to see how coquettish and charming Lin Wei Xi was when getting out of bed. He sighed lightly and shook her again when he saw her leaning against his arm with no sign of movement, “there’s no use acting coy. Wake up.”

After a difficult struggle, Lin Wei Xi finally called in a maid to help her get dressed. Today, she wore a scarlet top with gold embroidery on the sleeves, the cuffs and collars embroidered with large bouquets of peony flowers. She paired it with a silvery red Zhuang Hua Duan six piece skirt^◇ and it glittered subtly under the light. Today was New Year’s Eve, and the maids mustered all their skills as they vowed to dress up this delicate and unrivalled Princess Consort into a fairy. Once the torment was over, Lin Wei Xi stood up to find Gu Hui Yan, “my Prince.”

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Gu Hui Yan looked up and his vision filled with light; it felt as if she lit up the entire room. Lin Wei Xi also thought that the body she possessed was very pretty. She spread her arms and gave a twirl before Gu Hui Yan. The layers of her magnificent skirt parted like a flower. After tuning a circle, she ended up exactly by his side. He smiled as he supported her. She raised her chin slightly, her eyes sparkling, “my Prince, what do you think?”

“Your brilliance blinds me.” Gu Hui Yan rarely praised women, but his words were full of sincere admiration. Lin Wei Xi smiled proudly and took his arm with practised ease, “as long as you’re satisfied my Prince.”

The entire residence was beyond recognition today. The servants wore new clothes and everyone beamed with joy. This kind of large celebration would never let the servants feel dispirited. The moment Lin Wei Xi and Gu Hui Yan appeared, everyone gathered around them to greet them with auspicious words.

Gao Ran and Gu Cheng Yao also wore formal clothes and had arrived early to pay their respect to their parents. Hearing the greetings from outside the room, Gao Ran quickly readied herself. But despite that, when the door curtain lifted and she saw Lin Wei Xi, her eyes widened.

Lin Wei Xi was the pinnacle of beauty. On a normal day, dressing up a little was enough to render one unable to look away. Now that she was dressed so splendidly, she was simply too beautiful to be true. Today, Gu Hui Yan wore black clothing that reflected his status as Qin Wang. His posture was tall and straight, his years of military service all the more moulding him as stiff as a clothing rack. It had been a rite since the first emperor of the Qin dynasty to revere the colour black, and his top had ferocious golden dragon coiled on the front. The contrasting black and gold looked honourable and domineering. Gu Hui Yan was not overshadowed by the richness of the colour and instead appeared more handsome, powerful, cold and dignified.

Lin Wei Xi was dressed in a bright and pretty red. With Gu Hui Yan looking so handsome and cold, it was hard to look directly at them. Standing side by side, calling them resplendent wouldn’t be an exaggeration, and all those who came across them gasped in wonder. Even when they were far away, there were people who couldn’t resist craning their necks to look at them.

Gao Ran quickly hid her surprise and stepped forward to pay her respects to Lin Wei Xi and Gu Hui Yan. Gu Cheng Yao politely paid his respects as well, “Greetings Father, Mother.”

Gao Ran also gave her New Year’s greetings. She was also dressed in red today, but the quality of her clothes couldn’t exceed her position. Out of all the noble ladies, Gao Ran’s appearance was roughly a six out of ten. Be it her clothing or Gao Ran herself, she could never compare to Lin Wei Xi. This was hard to tell when Lin Wei Xi and Gu Hui Yan hadn’t arrived yet. But now with Lin Wei Xi outshining her, the red dress on Gao Ran immediately felt cliché, and even a little pompous.

The Prince Yan Residence was very busy today. Soon after Gao Ran and Gu Cheng Yao gave their New Year’s greetings to Lin Wei Xi and Gu Hui Yan, he quickly left for the front yard. There was an endless stream of people, some of whom had been waiting since dawn, who came to give their New Year’s greetings to him today. As soon as Gu Hui Yan left, Lin Wei Xi engrossed herself with her own business. The officials, from minor ones to important ones, gave their New Year’s greetings to Prince Yan, and many Ladies and Madams came to give their New Year’s greetings to Lin Wei Xi, the Prince Yan Consort, as well.

When Gu Hui Yan left, Gu Cheng Yao naturally followed. Now only Lin Wei Xi and Gao Ran remained in the room. Lin Wei Xi was too lazy to act out the compassionate mother-in-law to Gao Ran’s filial daughter-in-law. She called the servants who had been on standby since earlier to bring out the New Year gifts for every family, and immediately threw herself into sorting and counting the return gifts.

Lin Wei Xi sat on the warm heated seat, quickly finishing up the routine work that came with the New Year’s. Wan Yue stood to the side and helped her with the gift list. She came across a name and asked, “Princess Consort, Shen Han Lin also gifted a fruit bowl. Do you want to return the gift?”

“Shen Han Lin?” Lin Wei Xi repeated. It suddenly clicked, “was it Shen Ming Da’s wife, Liu Su Niang, who sent it?”

“Yes, it was Lady Liu.”

Although Han Lin was known as the person everyone had to get through if they wanted to enter the cabinet, he hadn’t made a name for himself yet. Today, the Prince Yan Residence received countless gifts from high ranking officials who’d already made numerous contributions. Shen Ming Da’s New Year gift had been mixed among his superiors’ and was very inconspicuous.

But Lin Wei Xi acted out of character and said, “Bring me the fruit bowl Lady Liu gifted.”

The maids were all dumbfounded. Only after Wan Yue pushed her from behind did Wan Xing suddenly realise what was going on and hurry out to retrieve the fruit bowl. After a while, she came back with a red lacquered box in her arms, “Princess Consort, this is the fruit bowl sent by the Shen Residence.”

Lin Wei Xi opened it and took a look. It contained normal dried fruits, melons and dates that symbolised reunion. It wasn’t difficult to understand that although Liu Su Niang had a small encounter with Lin Wei Xi at the Dragon Boat Festival, things were very different now. Lin Wei Xi was now the Princess Consort. Even if Liu Su Niang was grateful to her, she most likely didn’t dare get too close. Although Liu Su Niang had sent a New Year’s gift to the Prince Yan Residence, neither she nor Shen Ming Da had any expectation that Lin Wei Xi would return the gift. Hence, it was better to play safe and send a fruit bowl as their gift for their high ranking superior, the Prince Yan Residence. The best outcome for them would be to not draw attention to themselves.

Lin Wei Xi understood the situation when she saw the fruit bowl.  She said to Wan Yue, “Send a return gift to Lord Shen and his family. No need to make any special preparations. Just send a regular gift.”

Even if Shen Ming Da was going to become the Grand Secretary, that was far in the future. Right now the best she could do was to send a regular return gift. If she was too impatient, it would instead be easy to shoot herself in the foot.

Everyone was surprised, and even Gao Ran found it unexpected. Lin Wei Xi was afraid of rousing suspicion, so she pretended to be casual and explained, “Liu Su Niang and I are acquaintances. It would be rude not to reciprocate. Since she sent a New Year’s gift, our Prince Yan Residence has no reason to ignore it. Wan Yue, have a dependable young servant send it to Lord Shen’s house.”

Wan Xing and Wan Yue understood when Lin Wei Xi said that. They’d followed her to the palace during the Dragon Boat Festival and Wan Yue remembered that Lin Wei Xi had even saved Liu Su Niang before. Although it was the Princess Consort who had helped the Shen family, since the Shen Residence had remembered her benevolence after all this time and specially gifted the fruit bowl, there was no reason for the Prince Yan Residence to avoid it. A noble’s magnanimity was in treating everyone equally and kindly.

Gao Ran remembered who Liu Su Niang was when she heard this. She’d thought that Lin Wei Xi’s behaviour was unusual, but stopped worrying and no longer paid attention when she realised that it was just a minor official’s wife.

The New Year’s gifting was a very formal form of diplomacy between the various Residences. During the New Year, every Residence prepared festive dishes and sent it to the families they were friends with as a sign of etiquette. Since it involved food, every household had to prepare different things. This was a test of the mistress’ skills. It truly required depth of knowledge to reliably and cleverly prepare the repetitive New Year food.

Gao Ran stood and watched Lin Wei Xi handle the formal inner courtyard diplomacy and couldn’t help feeling bitter. She and Lin Wei Xi were clearly around the same age, but Lin Wei Xi was now the one in charge while Gao Ran could only stand and watch. When would it be her turn to be the mistress of the household?

Time passed quickly as Lin Wei Xi dealt with the incoming and outgoing courtesy gifts while receiving a few Ladies who came to give their New Year’s greetings. Before she knew it, the sky was growing dark.

The reunion dinner^◇ was the highlight of that evening. Lin Wei Xi was sitting in the warm pavilion questioning the maids and grannies when footsteps suddenly sounded outside and a greeting followed, “Greetings Prince, greetings Shizi.”

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Lin Wei Xi and Gao Ran looked up at the door to see Gu Hui Yan and Gu Cheng Yao return. Both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law headed to the door to welcome them. In just a few steps, the curtain to the inner room lifted.

“My Prince.” Lin Wei Xi walked towards Gu Hui Yan and he smoothly caught her as she bowed. They were husband and wife, but Gao Ran couldn’t be as shameless as Lin Wei Xi. She could only give Gu Cheng Yao a wanfu across the crowd of people before returning to her position behind Lin Wei Xi.

Gu Cheng Yao also merely glanced at Gao Ran before looking away. He was composed and seemed noble and solemn, like a gentleman. But inside, he couldn’t stop thinking about how Lin Wei Xi looked as she smiled and welcomed them when he first entered the room. She was dressed very beautifully today, the dazzling red matching her snowy white skin, her beauty hard to resist. When she stood up from the inner room that was decorated in red and came to welcome her husband, almost no man on earth would say no to that kind of temptation. But she only had eyes for his father, and she only smiled for his father.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated by the whole country and the New Year’s Eve dinner was an important family reunion. Speaking from etiquette, Lin Wei Xi, Gu Cheng Yao, and Gao Ran were a family. Therefore, on a major day like New Year’s Eve, she had to accompany Gu Hui Yan as well as Gu Cheng Yao and Gao Ran to eat together, stay up for the New Year together, and welcome the New Year together.

New Year’s Eve was a big festival. It used to be lively and bustling when the previous emperor was still alive. His Majesty often threw a banquet on the New Year’s Eve and called the ministers into the palace to accompany him through the festivities. But the current emperor was young and the positions of the empress and the four imperial concubines were all empty. The only woman in the palace was superstitious of gods and wasn’t even His Majesty’s biological mother, the Empress Dowager. There really wasn’t anything lively happening. Moreover, if the Emperor held a banquet, he would have to invite the Grand Secretary, his teacher, Zhang Xiao Lian. Based on the Emperor’s childish temperament, he most likely wouldn’t want to see Master Zhang’s face on New Year’s Day.

And that was why the palace banquet had been cancelled. Gu Hui Yan didn’t need to enter the palace and was able to spend a rare reunion dinner in the Residence. In a normal family, the few generations usually gathered together for the New Years and it would be quite lively as they laughed and talked. Even in a small family, they wouldn’t feel awkward saying affectionate things to each other. But in the Prince Yan Residence, when the four only masters sat down, no one spoke.

The four of them were usually busy, so they really didn’t have much to talk about when sitting down with each other. The maids had just changed the hot tea and pastries, and Lin Wei Xi was slowly picking out the tea amidst silence, when urgent footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the room. Gu Ming Da then quickly walked in and kneeled to greet Gu Hui Yan from the other side of the engraved folding screen, “my Prince, His Majesty is here.”

Lin Wei Xi was so startled she stood up. It was New Year’s Eve, and it was time for the reunion dinner. The little Emperor actually came to the Prince Yan Residence?