Chapter 2

Lin Wei Xi finally woke up from her nightmare, suddenly breaking free from the dream. She opened her eyes to see the worn bed canopy, with her limbs stiff and her heart beating fast.

She had another dream about her past life. Her failed marriage, the despair and abandonment when she died, and the weird celestial book in her dream. When she woke up in Lin Wei Xi’s body, she felt an overwhelming sense of panic and gratitude.

Gao Xi had already passed away and there would no longer be a Gao Xi in the world from then on. The eldest di granddaughter of Duke Ying had been buried as Prince Yan Residence’s Shizi Fei and her body had long turned cold. Gao Xi was dead. Her identity and status, resentment and disappointment, had nothing to do with Lin Wei Xi.

Returning from death was already Heaven’s kindness. She was Lin Wei Xi and she would never be tricked again by those bitches in her previous life. It was only right that she start her life anew.

Thinking about this, Lin Wei Xi slowly recovered from the horror of the nightmare. She sat up, lightly moved her wrists, then walked quietly on the ground.

Lin Wei Xi had already been here for a month. This one month was neither too long nor too short, but it was enough for her to get a feel for Lin Wei Xi’s situation.

Speaking of the original host, they actually had some ties. Back when she was still Gao Xi, at eleven years old, she had come back from the Princess Royal Residence and met a pair of father and daughter at the gate of the Duke Ying Residence. She had never seen this kind of situation before; the carriage driver was afraid that she would be angry, and hastily chased them away.

Gao Xi happened to lift the curtain and saw a beggar standing in front of the gate. He looked furious because he’d been humiliated by the bystanders, but he looked back at his timid daughter and continued to endure his anger.

amicably begged the gatekeeper to give him a chance. He was strong enough to be a guard, he said. Even if they didn’t ask him to do manual labour, he would still work hard.

The man whispered, and the frail little girl coughed intermittently, her small hands clung tightly on the man’s clothes. Gao Xi suddenly felt very moved. Since she was a child, she was not very close with her father. No matter what she did, Duke Ying Shizi would non-committally say “Oh”, then happily turn around to play with his concubine’s children.

The Duke Ying Shizi complained that she had been raised into an ungrateful brat, only close to her mother and Princess Royal Shou Kang. But who would’ve thought that the arrogant Miss Gao Xi also craved her father’s love.

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Gao Xi dropped the curtain and instructed her personal servant with a few words. The servant looked at Gao Xi in surprise, but still obediently jumped out of the carriage to give the father and daughter twenty taels of silver.

Gao Xi guessed that the man was trying to raise medical expenses for his daughter. Because of this, he was so anxious that he did not hesitate to beg for money. A man with no money is no man at all, and it wasn’t easy for anyone to live. Twenty taels of silver did not mean much to Gao Xi. If she could help them, then she would just regard it as her childhood longing for fatherly love.

Gao Xi didn’t know what happened afterwards. She didn’t show up to ask the father and daughter for their name, nor did she tell them who she was. If this was Gao Ran, she would definitely have revealed it by accident, particularly letting others know that she did a virtuous deed, but Gao Xi would not.

What she did was her own business; this was her style of doing things. There was no need to use others’ hardships to boost her own reputation.

She had completely forgotten about this chance meeting after it happened. Later on, when Bu Guifei caused chaos and endangered everyone in the capital, she wasn’t in the mood to think about this matter.

But who knew that the father and daughter she rescued that year had another stroke of good luck. The man was Lin Yong, and the sick girl was Lin Wei Xi. Lin Yong had used the twenty taels of silver to cure his daughter’s illness, managing to save his daughter’s life.

It just so happened that, at that time, Prince Yan entered the capital to rescue the emperor. Lin Yong was born with extraordinary strength, and he became Prince Yan’s subordinate. He then sent his daughter back to his hometown and wholeheartedly followed Prince Yan in order to save a dowry for his daughter.

Emperor Mu Zong died in the thirteenth year of Jianzhao, and appointed Prince Yan as one of the three Regent Ministers while on his deathbed. Prince Yan could only stay in the capital to assist the deceased emperor’s eldest son succeed the throne.

One year later, there was more trouble at the border. Prince Yan left the capital in the second month that year with his troops, travelling there to subdue the uprising.

It was inevitable that a lot of manpower was needed to suppress the rebellion, support the new emperor and kill enemies at the border.

Lin Yong took this opportunity to establish himself under Prince Yan, gradually making some accomplishments, which fortunately earned Prince Yan’s recognition.

Prince Yan felt that Lin Yong indeed had potential, so he ordered Lin Yong to follow him. This time, the Dughlat tribe  from the northwestern border took the opportunity to make trouble. The terrain was complicated and the climate was bitterly cold. Prince Yan put in considerable work before he gradually gained the upper hand.

During a small-scale siege, Lin Yong died while saving Prince Yan during an ambush. Lin Yong had an unrelenting personality. Even when there were three arrows buried in his back, he still desperately escorted Prince Yan through.

But it was a pity that Lin Yong’s injuries were too severe; he ran out of strength and was unable to push through.

The Dughlat tribe lost in that instant. Humiliation turned into anger, so they let out all their anger onto Lin Yong, not letting him off even after he’d died. Two to three days later, Lin Yong’s head was chopped off and hung from the city gate as a demonstration to Prince Yan.

Prince Yan fought the Dughlat tribe for a year and they were almost exterminated. All the men and boys were killed, leaving only the elderly, the women and the children.

The following year, Prince Yan supported a new regime, and took over the women and property of the fallen Dughlat tribe, consequently forming checks and balances with the other two tribes in the north. Once the situation in the north-west was cleaned up, Prince Yan took Lin Yong’s remains and returned to the capital with his troops.

Everyone in the capital rejoiced when they received news of Prince Yan’s victory.

Following the instructions of Grand Secretary Zhang, the little emperor acted like a grown-up and wrote a letter to Prince Yan asking him what reward he wanted.

Prince Yan already owned an estate that housed tens of thousands of families and he also had authority as Regent Minister. There was nothing he couldn’t have in this world.

If one had to say, it was that his Wangfei died ten years ago, so perhaps what he lacked was a new wife.

However, the reward that Prince Yan asked for was beyond everyone’s expectations. He didn’t ask for money or an official position for his only son.

Instead, he requested for the emperor to confer a noble title to Lin Yong as a martyr who died for his country. It was nothing more than an honorary title. But it was much easier than giving the Prince Yan Residence a reward, and doing this also boosted the reputation of the imperial court, so Grand Secretary Zhang agreed to Prince Yan’s request without hesitation.

After the whole affair, the war hero Lin Yong was conferred the title of Marquis Zhongyong.

Lin Yong’s wife had died of illness many years ago and left behind only one daughter.

The title of Marquis Zhongyong had reached its end and Lin Wei Xi could use nothing more than the reward and reputation that her father had exchanged his life for.

In the second year of the Yuanjia reign, Prince Yan sent word of Lin Yong’s tragic sacrifice to  the Lin household. It wasn’t until the tenth month of the fourth year of the Yuanjia reign, when Lin Wei Xi had almost finished observing three years of filial mourning to her father, that the imperial court conferred Lin Yong as Marquis Zhongyong.

The original host had a weak body and her mother died from the difficult labour right after giving birth to her. Over the years, the father and daughter could only rely on each other.

The only reason the original host held out until now was to wait for Prince Yan to send Lin Yong’s remains back to their hometown.

Thinking back to one month ago, the timid little original host had suddenly appeared in her dream with a smile and said that she was leaving to find her father. By then, Lin Yong’s soul had presumably already entered the afterlife.

From the perspective of the original host, the reputation of being Marquis Zhongyong’s orphan daughter and the large amount of land bestowed by the imperial court were not as important as her father’s remains.

Hence, the original host waited for her father before leaving without a worry, and gave Gao Xi, who had a good relationship with the Lin family, another chance at life.

It was currently the first month of the fifth year of the Yuanjia reign; Gao Xi had passed away in the twelfth month the previous year. It had been a month since the original host left to follow Lin Yong.

Gao Xi was Lin Wei Xi’s past life. Following that, Lin Wei Xi sighed for a while, fetched some water, and clumsily tidied herself up.

This was almost unthinkable in Lin Wei Xi’s previous life. Even a second-class servant girl in the Duke Ying Residence didn’t have to do such rough work like sweeping the floor.

Since Lin Wei Xi was born, even when washing her hands, all she needed to do was to spread her fingers and the servants would wipe it for her. Now, she had to learn how to wash her face, comb her hair, and even wash her clothes by herself.

In fact, Lin Yong had already been conferred as Marquis Zhongyong by the imperial court. Even if he couldn’t be compared to the wealthy families in the capital, but in a small countryside, it was enough for Lin Wei Xi to live comfortably without worrying about food or clothing.

Lin Wei Xi now needed to do everything by herself, but she actually started doing this from the day the reward was given to her.

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