Chapter 17: Dowry

Chapter 16

ToC

Chapter 18

Lin Wei Xi didn’t look good on her way back, and when she returned to her room, Wan Xing couldn’t hold back her excitement anymore. She quickly pulled on Lin Wei Xi’s sleeve and said, “Miss, you’re so amazing! That was your first time playing, but you crushed Shizi Fei until she couldn’t make a move at all.”

After she heard this, Lin Wei Xi’s expression improved, and she indifferently said, “It’s not that difficult. I may be at a disadvantage the first time because I don’t know the rules, but it’s actually very easy after familiarizing yourself with it, and is much simpler than playing proper chess. If you two like it, I can teach it to you.”

“Really? Thank you Miss!”

Wan Xing almost jumped for joy, while Wan Yue was more composed, but she smiled widely after hearing this. Lin Wei Xi looked at these two lively maids, who hadn’t had their humanity crushed by  the politics of high society, and smiled unconsciously.

Such simple happiness had been out of her reach for so long.

Lin Wei Xi remembered that in her past life, she could recite the Thousand Character Classics at the age of three, entered school earlier at the age of five, and began to learn the four arts at the age of six. A six year old child had difficulty sitting still, so one could imagine the outcome when forcing her to study all this. No less than a year later, Gao Ran’s temperament suddenly changed from her former quiet self. It wasn’t just her manner of speech, she also recognized words and learned the guqin much faster than Lin Wei Xi. Under such strong competition, Lin Wei Xi became more and more disliked by her peers. She became scared, so she began to study more seriously.

It was a pity that Lin Wei Xi, an actual child, could never measure up to the adult that was Gao Ran. In class, the teacher preferred Gao Ran and frequently praised her by name. Her grandmother, father, and brothers slowly but surely changed their attitude. That kind experience was truly terrifying. She watched as what had originally belonged to her was taken away, and her loved ones chose another over her, and she didn’t even know what she could do to stop it.

It seemed that overnight, the familial love and friendship that belonged to Gao Xi were taken away by Gao Ran, and the only thing that remained was her mother Wei Shi and her identity as the eldest granddaughter.

Of course she was afraid. Sometimes, people who looked tough on the outside were actually more fragile on the inside. Unfortunately, that was the kind of person she was. In order to take back the attention of her loved ones and to preserve her only remaining dignity as the eldest di sister, she began to desperately work harder in private. At school, Gao Ran could master new skills in a minute. Lin Wei Xi couldn’t do that. On the surface, she didn’t care, but after returning to her courtyard, she would desperately practise, spending double the time to bridge the gap. However, despite working so hard, she refused to let anyone know. Gao Ran could do it so easily, while she had to spend so much effort in private. How could such a thing be known?

She was too headstrong and would rather silently endure all the insults thrown at her than let other people know just how stressed she was.

When she was ten, her mother died because of an accidental miscarriage. In her rage, Princess Royal Shou Kang took her to the Princess Residence. From then on, she spent most of her time in the Princess Residence, finally escaping from Gao Ran’s shadow.

Ten year old Gao Xi truly regarded Gao Ran as an insurmountable advisory. It wasn’t until later, when she saw the heavenly book, that she finally understood that Gao Ran wasn’t naturally intelligent. She’d just taken on the body of a young child, and with the mind of a twenty six year old, she was like a fish in the water among six year old children. When they were six, Gao Ran was obviously advantaged, but when they turned sixteen or seventeen, the gap would’ve shrunk.

Lin Wei Xi had grown, but Gao Ran stagnated. Gao Ran was still immersed in the false prosperity brought about by her age advantage, while ignoring the time-honoured truth, that to stop moving forward is to fall behind. On the other hand, Gao Xi had worked harder than her peers because she had her powerful shu younger sister to spur her on.

As one rises, another falls. In her past life, Lin Wei Xi had learned gomoku and checkers in private, and could also remember Gao Ran’s novel song after listening to it once. On the other hand, Gao Ran hadn’t laid a solid foundation for her four arts.

For Lin Wei Xi, who had a solid foundation in chess, gomoku wasn’t difficult. She understood after secretly practising two games in private. But for Gao Ran, once deprived of the advantage brought by modern knowledge, she had nothing else.

To catch somebody off guard was a powerful strategy to win, but a general who could only rely on surprise attacks would sooner or later die from his laziness and complacency. Gao Ran focused too much on superficial skills, and neglected to cultivate true ability. Like what happened today, even if Gao Ran tried to the best of her ability, she could never beat Lin Wei Xi, who had already mastered gomoku.

Before the game, Lin Wei Xi didn’t expect that she would win three rounds in a row, completely crushing her opponent. It was also while she was holding the white jade chess piece, that she suddenly realized that the insurmountable peak that had brought her endless stress at the age of ten, had collapsed. Gao Ran could no longer beat her, except when it came to affairs between men and women.

Gu Cheng Yao was simply the biggest wound in her heart. She had loved, hated, resented and even abandoned herself out of despair before she was reborn, but he just didn’t love her, so what could she do? On the way to the capital, for the first time in her life, Lin Wei Xi had lived together with a male outside her family for a long period of time. Zhou Mao Cheng and the other taciturn soldiers were there to quietly take care of her. Lin Wei Xi felt that perhaps it wasn’t her who was bad, but maybe it was Gu Cheng Yao who was blind.

When she looked at him now, the love and hatred that she’d felt when she was first reborn already disappeared. Now she just wanted to see him have a bad time. If possible, she would also like to step on him a few times herself.

Today, Lin Wei Xi looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar Prince Yan Residence, and Jingdan Garden, which looked almost exactly the same as the courtyard from her previous marriage, and realized that she had finally reconciled with her past. From then on, Lin Wei Xi and Gao Xi had truly become the same person.

Wan Xing and Wan Yue chattered on and found that Lin Wei Xi hadn’t spoken for a while. The two of them asked, “Miss, what’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing.” Lin Wei Xi stood and walked to the window, pushing open the finely carved vermilion lacquered window frame. She looked at the vibrant spring outside and smiled lightly, “I’m just thinking, maybe it’s time to request to move in with the Princess Royal.”

Although she was somewhat unreconciled, in the end she still needed to move on. The Prince Yan Residence was in her past, and her ex-husband Gu Cheng Yao and shu younger sister Gao Ran could go and repeat their love story over and over again. Lin Wei Xi should start her life anew.

Wan Xing was very surprised when she heard this, “Miss Lin, you want to move out? Did someone bully you? Miss, if you feel wronged, let’s go to Prince Yan. How can you move out?”

“No.” Lin Wei Xi said, “I have no relations with the Prince Yan Residence, and I have no justification to live here in the long run. Prince Yan is polite and values loyalty, bringing us to the residence to take care of us, but we can’t take it for granted.”

Wan Xing still wanted to say something, but was held back by Wan Yue. Wan Yue said, “Miss, this worried slave understands. It’s just that… Miss only met the Princess Royal for the first time not too long ago. Isn’t it a bit too impudent to ask to live in the Princess Residence?”

Lin Wei Xi was startled by the words. She almost forgot that her surname was Lin now. She still regarded Princess Royal Shou Kang as her grandmother in her mind, but to Princess Royal Shou Kang, Lin Wei Xi was just a junior who shared a little bit of fate with her. It was too rude of her to hurriedly move into the Princess Residence when they had barely met.

Lin Wei Xi rubbed her temples with a headache, “Forget it, I still need to reconsider this issue. Keep what we said today to yourselves and don’t let it leave the room, understood?”

Wan Xing and Wan Yue hurriedly nodded, “Yes.”

Lin Wei Xi had to abandon her plan to move to her grandmother’s place, and she could only continue living in the Prince Yan Residence. Lin Wei Xi even thought of ​​buying a house in the capital. It didn’t need to be big. A small three courtyard one was good enough. Lin Wei Xi was still considering this, and after a few days on the other side, Gao Ran’s mysterious headache also got better. What happened that day was slowly forgotten, and Gao Ran returned to being the kind and generous Shizi Fei.

Lin Wei Xi had already decided to let Gao Ran go, but Gao Ran refused. Her animosity towards Lin Wei Xi grew stronger because Lin Wei Xi had embarrassed her; she couldn’t let go of this affront to her reputation, so she had to find other ways to make up for it.

One morning, Gao Ran invited Lin Wei Xi to her courtyard again. Lin Wei Xi was beyond fed up, but she decided to give Gu Hui Yan face and not start a fight with his daughter-in-law in Prince Yan Residence, so she pushed down her disgust and left for Gao Ran’s courtyard.

Not long after Lin Wei Xi sat down, she saw Ning Fu bring in a gilded rabbit shaped incense burner. The carving was exquisite and delicate, and the base was even inlaid with tiny rubies.

Be it the materials or craftsmanship, it was an unparalleled treasure.

Lin Wei Xi’s eyes hurt when she saw this rabbit-shaped incense burner. Gao Ran put the incense burner on the table, deliberately slowly lifting the lid and lighting the incense, before saying to Lin Wei Xi, “I’m used to using light fragrances at home and am not accustomed to the smell of agar wood in the residence. This Qianbu incense was sent from a shop under my name and is the latest fragrance this year. Are you alright with the smell, Miss Lin?”

Lin Wei Xi didn’t even look at it, and said coldly, “The guest follows the host. Burn it if you want.”

At this time, Granny Tao came out from the inner room holding an intricately carved lacquer box in her hand, her expression anxious, “Where did Shizi Fei’s golden filigree sapphire hair ornament go? It’s a complete set of sapphire head ornaments, so why is this one missing?”

Inside and outside the courtyard, the maids responded one after another. After some chaos, the gorgeous hair ornament was finally found, and Lin Wei Xi personally watched them put it back into the lacquer box. The dazzling gems and inlaid mother-of-pearl on the box reflected off each other, hurting one’s eyes.

Lin Wei Xi simply didn’t know what to say. If Gao Ran wished to scare her away with her family background, she should’ve calmly swapped out a fine porcelain tea set for another. What could showing off her jewellery achieve?

But Granny Tao was still incessantly chattering by her ear, talking about how this set of head ornaments had been especially given to Gao Ran by the Duke Ying Lady, how much Shizi and the old Lady valued Gao Ran and so on and so forth. Lin Wei Xi couldn’t bear it, and asked offhandedly, “Since the Duke Residence thinks that Shizi Fei is so important, why haven’t I seen your madam come and talk to Shizi Fei in the past few days?”

Granny Tao’s endless chattering stopped in an instant, and even Gao Ran’s expression stiffened.

Madam and Grandma were common forms of address in large families. The grandchildren and daughter-in-laws usually used grandma, while the mother-in-laws usually used madam. Only titled households could use Lady.

But obviously, no matter if it was madam or Lady, these titles had nothing to do with the concubines.

Lin Wei Xi didn’t plan to wait for an answer. She looked at the rabbit-shaped incense burner that was releasing incense, and delivered a second blow, “This incense burner in the shape of a rabbit is quite a novelty. Were you born in the year of the rabbit?”

Gao Ran was obviously embarrassed. She was born in the year of the dragon, one year younger than Gao Xi. The rabbit was Gao Xi, so it was obviously catered for Gao Xi when it was created.

Everyone in the room became silent at once. Lin Wei Xi felt very satisfied. With a smile on her lips, she issued a third blow, “I really envy Shizi Fei for having ready-made gold and silver. In the future, I will need to melt and forge new jewellery. Although my dad left me all his land, the Honorary Deed Medallion, and the rewards conferred by the imperial court, these gold and silver items were made under the supervision of the Ministry of Rites and have a special marking on them. If I want to use gold items, I can only buy it outside.”

Gao Ran had inherited part of Gao Xi’s dowry, followed by additions from her father and grandmother. Her family was indeed rich, but could a dowry from the Duke Residence compare to inheriting the entirety of the Marquis Residence’s property?

Lin Wei Xi was satisfied to see these people shut up. Did they actually want to compare how wealthy they were with her?

Originally, she didn’t want to care about these people, but they had forced her to call them out. Were these people looking for a scolding?

Of course, Gao Ran couldn’t sit still anymore. Lin Wei Xi mockingly returned to her courtyard, but as soon as she sat down, the expression on her face changed.

“Miss?”

Lin Wei Xi called Wan Xing over and whispered in her ear, “Go out and ask about Gao Ran’s dowry. You don’t have to specifically ask about it, just casually bring it up while making small talk.”

Wan Xing quickly left after receiving her orders. Lin Wei Xi looked at the exquisite and intricate white porcelain vase on the pear wood table, still angry beyond words.

No, Lin Wei Xi was still a normal human being. She was definitely determined to move on and restart her life, but seeing Gao Ran righteously occupy her property made her angry enough to want to poison Gao Ran.

Enough was enough, what had happened to her dowry in the end?

Chapter 16

ToC

Chapter 18