IBTSOME Chapter 69 Part 1

I BECAME THE STEPMOTHER OF MY EX-HUSBAND

 

Chapter 69 Part 1: Adultery

 

^^

 

Willow branches sprout with furry green fine buds. The mansion’s garden paid attention to flowers in all seasons. When the spring comes, magnolia, Chinese rose, peaches and plums would compete with each other to bloom, and the garden would become more vibrant. When walking on the corridor of Yan Wang Mansion, bright and gentle flowers and green leaves were scattered around, as far as eyes could see were the deep blossoms and nothing more beautiful could be imagined.

 

As usual, Gao Ran packed up early in the morning and took the maid to Lin Wei Xi's courtyard. The scenery on the way to the main courtyard was particularly good. Jingcheng Courtyard was full of busy and orderly vitality. The maidservants in the corridor were busy but not chaotic. The girl sweeping in the garden saw Gao Ran, and quickly put down the broom to salute: "Shizi Consort."

 

Gao Ran gave a faint "um" and continued walking inside. Wan Xing saw Gao Ran outside, opened the curtain on the door, increased her voice and shouted inside: "Shizi Consort is here."

 

When winter returns to spring, the door curtain of the main house was also replaced with light and bright colored glass beads. Gao Ran bowed her head slightly and entered the room, behind her came a clanging sound. The colorful glass beads collided together, and the sound was clear and pleasant.

 

"Mother."

 

Lin Wei Xi was standing in front of the window cutting flowers. Hearing the sound, she glanced back casually: "Shizi Consort is here."

 

Gao Ran answered, and then squatted down to greet Lin Wei Xi. Lin Wei Xi clipped the scissors a few more times and looked around, finally satisfied. Wan Yue, who was standing at the side, immediately took the vase and placed it in front of the screen between the central room and the west room. Lin Wei Xi put down the scissors, handed the knives and remaining branches to the maid to clean up, and walked toward the hall by herself: "You don't have to be polite, Shizi Consort should get up."

 

Gao Ran stood up and slowly followed Lin Wei Xi's back. Lin Wei Xi sat on the armchair in the hall, the maid brought warm water, half kneeling in front of Lin Wei Xi so Lin Wei Xi could wash her hands. Lin Wei Xi carefully soaked the mud-stained fingers in the water. She was about to take out her hand from the water, and Gao Ran had already taken the maid's job and handed the white kerchief to Lin Wei Xi's hand.

 

Gao Ran's vision for serving people was as good as ever. Lin Wei Xi wiped her hands dry and said, "There are also a lot of things in Qingsong Garden. If Shizi Consort is too busy, you don't have to come to pay respect to me every day, just send someone over to say the words to me."

 

"I don’t dare." Gao Ran said with her eyes down, "It is an honor for daughter-in-law to serve her mother-in-law. How can this daughter-in-law be absent?

 

Lin Wei Xi gently ticked her lower lip, and said nothing about it. In fact, Lin Wei Xi had mentioned this a few times, but Gao Ran still had to come over and acted out a filial child. Since she was willing to find trouble for herself, then let her be.

 

Anyway, the person who stood all day was not Lin Wei Xi.

 

Gao Ran followed Lin Wei Xi as usual. What Lin Wei Xi needed, she sometimes took it before the maid. After a while, Lin Wei Xi talked about making new clothes for the servants of the palace. Ning Fu took advantage of the gap and said: "Speaking of cutting new clothes, actually it will be Shizi Consort’s birthday in a few days."

 

"Oh?" Wan Xing answered in surprise, "Shizi Consort’s birthday is coming?"

 

"Yes, it's on the 30th of the third month."

 

After Ning Fu finished speaking, Gao Ran glanced at her reproachfully: "Ning Fu, don’t talk nonsense."

 

Lin Wei Xi actually knew Gao Ran's birthday, but she should say something courteously: "It turned out to be on the thirtieth, so it's very close to today, and there are not many days left."

 

The maids had to ask how Gao Ran would celebrate, after all, with Lin Wei Xi this outstanding person at the front, they should also said something about Gao Ran's birthday. Gao Ran said: "No need to cause trouble for everyone. Anyway, it's not a big birthday. If a lot of people make a big fuss, it will make me feel bad."

 

"How can this work?" Lin Wei Xi said, "Birthdays are only once a year. Even if everything is simple, there must be a degree to the simplicity. You juniors have fun, I won't mix things up. Also I will get Shizi Consort one hundred taels of silver from the public fund, and another hundred taels from my private fund. How Shizi Consort plans to set up the banquet, you can arrange it yourself."

 

Lin Wei Xi was not interested with how Gao Ran spend her birthday, and now she has a higher status than Gao Ran, she even didn’t have to care about face, if she said she won't go then she won’t. Gao Ran declined a few times before bowing to comply.

 

The public fund was only responsible for three meals a day for everyone in the mansion. The masters, half masters, and even the maids of each courtyard had their own rules, and what kind of status corresponds to what kind of food they got. If they want to add extra dishes, or set up a banquet, they had to pay for it themselves and send it to the big kitchen to ask the kitchen mama to make it. Shizi Consort’s birthday was a big event in Qingsong Garden. Gao Ran had always cared about her image. At this time, of course she excused everyone's duties, so that people had the opportunity to sit and have a good meal. On the 30^th of the third month, everyone in Qingsong Garden was joyful and praised Shizi Consort for her kindness and compassion.

 

Yun Hui brought in the teapot from outside, and as soon as she entered the door she slammed the thing on the table. The sound of pouring cold tea and washing tea stains was very loud. The other maid in the room saw it and smiled awkwardly: "What's the matter with you, why are you so angry?"

 

"What's the matter, is it not because of that one. Mouth said virtuous and kind words, in fact, her method was disgusting."

 

Yun Hui was talking about Shizi Consort... After the maid realized this, her wording became more careful: "Today is Shizi Consort’s birthday, a great day, why did you say that?"

 

"I don't want to make trouble, but you can see what she did." Yun Hui got angry when she talked about this. She slammed down the tea set and complained bitterly. "Before, Shizi already said that he want to lift me to become a concubine, let me go back to offer tea to Shizi Consort. But you see how she did it, she said that she treats me as a sister, so in the future I can serve Shizi well, but when it comes to serving tea, she made all kind of excuses, either with a headache today or a cough tomorrow. Anyway, she doesn't have time to drink my cup of tea."

 

The maid helplessly forced a smile when she heard this. Yun Hui had become Shizi’s woman. During this period of time, she was spreading it around and walked with her chin up, but Yun Hui's status was hard to determine. There were two types of women around a master, one was a formal concubine who had a marriage certificate, and the other was a tongfang maidservant. Although Shizi’s concubine could not be compare with Shizi Consort, but she still had a status and grade, but if it was a tongfang, she had no status at all. A tongfang girl served people on normal days like usual, and was sent to the master at night. It was clear that she was just a tool for the men to vent their desires. This kind of identity was faintly despised by many maids in the inner house.

 

The world of women was only this one square inch of the inner house, so women in the world would struggle and struggle, it was all for their status. The official family’s young ladies cared about wives and concubines, the slave girls cared about being respectable. This was related to the survival plan for the future, how could Yun Hui not worry.

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