“Mother Consort, Father has already passed. You must take care of your health. You still have us!” Fu Xuanzhao tightly supported her mother Jiang Wanwen’s arm, fearing that her mother might collapse again.
Kneeling behind them, Fu Xuanming watched his mother kneeling at the front with concerned eyes. He subtly shifted his kneeling position closer to her, ready to serve as a human shield should any situation arise.
Jiang Wanwen, who remained kneeling, didn’t immediately respond to her daughter. Instead, she waited until she had burned all the Yuanbao in her hands before rising with her daughter’s support.
After standing up, Jiang Wanwen noticed her daughter’s trembling hands. She patted Fu Xuanzhao’s hand reassuringly.
Only when she saw her daughter’s emotions had stabilized did Jiang Wanwen allow her chief maids Ruhua and Ruyue to help her move to the side.
Standing beside the grave, Jiang Wanwen gazed at Prince Pingwu’s tombstone, countless thoughts swirling in her mind – though most were worries about their future.
According to the book’s plot, their eldest son Fu Xuanrui had already started a rebellion in his fiefdom. The news of Fu Xuanrui’s rebellion would reach Shengyang in about a month.
Despite this, Jiang Wanwen still deeply admired her nominal husband. Everyone who died on the battlefield defending the nation was a hero worthy of her respect.
She just wondered whether Prince Pingwu’s resting place would remain peaceful after they all departed and their eldest son rebelled.
Lost in these thoughts, Jiang Wanwen momentarily spaced out.
To her three children watching from the side, their mother’s distant expression appeared as reluctance to part with their father.
With keen perception, Fu Xuanming and his siblings continued burning Yuanbao in their hands, silently respecting their mother’s final farewell to their father.
When Jiang Wanwen regained her composure, she solemnly instructed her three children: “You three should kowtow to bid farewell to your father.”
The fourteen-year-old Fu Xuanming, ten-year-old Fu Xuanchen, and ten-year-old Fu Xuanzhao obeyed their mother’s instruction. Facing the erected tombstone, they respectfully kowtowed, saying in unison: “Your son/daughter bids farewell to Father.”
Looking at the tombstone and her bowing children, Jiang Wanwen made a silent vow in her heart: ‘Rest assured, we will remain safe.’
The current Jiang Wanwen was no longer the original owner of this body. When Prince Pingwu Fu Qingyun’s body was brought back to the residence, the original host had panicked and rushed toward the coffin, failing to notice her third son Fu Xuanchen’s mischievously outstretched foot.
This caused the original host to fall directly onto Prince Pingwu’s coffin, hitting her head and immediately bleeding profusely.
That very night, the original host died from high fever.
The current Jiang Wanwen had transmigrated at that moment to take over the original host’s body.
In truth, Jiang Wanwen had gotten the better end of the deal. The current Jiang Wanwen shared the same name with the original host but was actually a seventy-year-old retired agricultural professor from the 21st century, who also worked as a rural food streamer.
Since the original host was only thirty-five, Jiang Wanwen had instantly become thirty years younger – how could this not be considered a gain!
Jiang Wanwen speculated that she must have died in her previous life. She had been filming while climbing a locust tree to pick locust flowers for making locust flower pancakes when she accidentally fell from the tree.
That tree was quite tall, and she had been certain she would die. Never did she expect to open her eyes again and become the vicious supporting female character Jiang Wanwen from the novel “I Accompany My Husband to Conquer the World.”
She hadn’t read this novel before, but it was later adapted into a TV series, which she had watched with her husband, leaving a deep impression on her.
After all, both she and her husband had sympathized with the character who shared her name and had discussed it multiple times.
In the book, the male and female leads were the original host’s eldest son, Fu Xuanrui, and his wife, Xiao Jiaru.
Although the original host in the book didn’t die early, she was poisoned by her daughter-in-law just before her eldest son successfully rebelled and was about to appoint her as Empress Dowager.
As for the original host’s “viciousness,” it was because when news of the male lead Fu Xuanrui’s rebellion arrived, she fled overnight in fear, leaving behind her unlikable youngest son and her two-year-old eldest grandson, and later made things difficult for Xiao Jiaru.
Her eldest grandson, Fu Zhuoxu, was only two years old, and Jiang Wanwen couldn’t discern much about him. But her ten-year-old youngest son, Fu Xuanchen, was truly an ungrateful wretch.
Fu Xuanchen had tripped the original host, and Jiang Wanwen didn’t see a trace of remorse in him. He acted as if nothing had happened, going about his business as usual, still behaving self-righteously in front of her.
Jiang Wanwen decided that when she planned her escape, she didn’t want to bring along this ungrateful youngest son either.
Jiang Wanwen didn’t have many attachments to her previous life; the only one she cared about was her husband.
But thinking about how her husband had substantial savings and wouldn’t have to worry about their ungrateful children failing to care for him, she felt at ease.
Mainly, there was no other choice—when Jiang Wanwen first woke up, she had even forced herself to sleep for two days but still couldn’t return.
Before Jiang Wanwen and her husband relied on their fixed salaries and hadn’t retired to earn income through food-related ventures, they barely saw their children once a year.
After Fu Xuanming and his siblings respectfully finished kowtowing, they looked up to see their mother still staring blankly at their father’s tombstone.
Fu Xuanming frowned, worried that his mother might faint again, and said with concern, “Mother, Father has already been buried. Let’s return.”
Fu Xuanzhao quickly stood up as well, walked to her mother’s side, and tightly held Jiang Wanwen’s hand.
Fu Xuanzhao was extremely anxious inside; she had already lost her father and didn’t want anything to happen to her mother.
Jiang Wanwen had merely been lost in thought—she wasn’t the original host and certainly wouldn’t grieve to the point of life and death over this husband.
Coming back to her senses, Jiang Wanwen called for Fu Xuanming and Fu Xuanzhao to leave.
Throughout, she didn’t spare a single glance for her third son, who had followed on his own.
When Jiang Wanwen and her group returned to the mansion, she followed the procedures from the original host’s memory (Jiang Wanwen had the original host’s memories; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to arrange Prince Pingwu’s funeral so well during such chaotic times). After handling some matters in the mansion, she took the three children back to Cuihe Courtyard.
This was where the original host lived. The courtyard was cultivated with Bowl Lotuses, and behind it was a well-maintained grove of emerald bamboo. The name had been given by the original host herself.
The current Jiang Wanwen also quite liked this courtyard, but they wouldn’t be able to stay for long—they would soon have to flee as refugees.
Upon entering the room, Jiang Wanwen sat in the main seat and gestured for her second son and youngest daughter to sit nearby.
Ruhua and Ruyue promptly instructed the servants to bring snacks and tea for their masters to tide them over before dinner was served.
They had been up since early morning dealing with the affairs, and it was almost evening. Jiang Wanwen was starving, let alone the growing Fu Xuanming and Fu Xuanzhao.
As soon as the snacks and tea were served, Fu Xuanming and Fu Xuanzhao began devouring them ravenously.
Only the youngest son, Fu Xuanchen, frowned at the pastries before him. Among the three plates, not a single one contained his usual favorites.
In fact, each plate precisely featured flavors he disliked.
Fu Xuanchen stared at the pastries, unwilling to tolerate it any longer. “Mother Consort, the servants in your courtyard grow increasingly undisciplined. How dare they serve their master something he dislikes?”
Jiang Wanwen didn’t even glance at him, her tone calm as she replied, “If you don’t like it, get out.”
Fu Xuanchen shot to his feet at once, his face a mix of grievance and resentment. “Mother Consort, you’re too vindictive! Yes, I tripped you, but only because you refused to let me withdraw five hundred taels of silver from the accounts the day before. I was angry and made a mistake—and besides, nothing happened to you, did you? Is it really necessary to hold such a grudge?”
No sooner had Fu Xuanchen spoken than Fu Xuanming lunged at him, fists flying as he pummeled his younger brother. “You scoundrel! How dare you trip Mother Consort? I’ll beat you to death today!”
Fearing her second son might come to harm, Jiang Wanwen immediately signaled her youngest daughter to step in and assist.
Logically, her second son, Fu Xuanming, being four years older than his younger twin brother, shouldn’t have been a concern.
But unfortunately, Fu Xuanming had drawn the short straw: of the four children, only he took after his father in lacking the extraordinary strength inherited from their mother.