Before Fan Changyu could answer, he let out a low laugh. "Li Huaian, wasn't it?"
He had cut off one of the decree-announcing eunuch's ears, making the eunuch flee back to the capital in a panic without even unrolling the imperial decree.
The young emperor, concerned with his reputation, would surely suppress the matter.
Since the imperial decree was never announced, his so-called betrothal to the grand princess was nothing more than baseless rumor. The news had not even spread in the capital yet, but she, far away in the Northwest, knew about his betrothal. The only way was through Li Huaian.
Fan Changyu was taken aback for a moment by the ferocity emanating from him, then she looked him straight in the eye and said, "It has nothing to do with who told me. You already have a marriage agreement. You shouldn't have said those things to me. What do you take me for? And what do you take that 'past' you speak of for?"
She had always been slow when it came to matters of the heart, but as she spoke the last sentence, she felt a sharp, sorrowful pang in her chest, and a bitter sting rushed to her eyes.
In her heart, he had always been a good person. Even if the enmity between their fathers meant they had to go their separate ways, she still wished him a smooth life, to continue being admired by the masses, to remain the Wu'an Marquis with his glorious military achievements and a reputation that awed the world.
Even if things were no longer the same, she would not allow anyone to ruin those beautiful memories of the past.
Not even him!
Hearing Fan Changyu's questioning, the ferocity enveloping Xie Zheng stalled, and for a moment, he was lost in a daze.
As the sun rose higher, a sliver of morning light slanted through the mullioned window, casting a warm glow on one side of his jade-like profile. His long, dark lashes were half-lowered, and for an instant, he looked as pure as a child.
After a long while, he finally raised his head to look at Fan Changyu again. His eyes were bloodshot from a sleepless night. Though his face was placid, his calmness at that moment was all the more frightening.
When he stepped forward, Fan Changyu subconsciously took a step back. But she was already standing before the bed, and this retreat sent her back crashing into the bedpost.
All the alarm and momentary confusion in her eyes were captured by the man walking toward her against the light.
Xie Zheng's face still showed no trace of emotion. He only reached out a blood-stained hand to cup Fan Changyu's face, lowering his head slightly to meet her gaze. With eyes that seemed to be covered in a web of blood-red threads, he stared at her quietly. "Did that Li Huaian tell you that I cut off the decree-announcing eunuch's ear and sent him scrambling back to the capital before he could even announce the decree?"
Fan Changyu froze.
His blood-stained fingers gently caressed her cheek as he asked softly, "When we met again in Lucheng, you were distant with me at every turn. It was because of what Li Huaian told you, wasn't it?"
A lump in Fan Changyu's throat kept her from speaking. Only large teardrops rolled down from her eyes.
Xie Zheng wiped them away with his thumb, comforting her in a low voice, "Don't cry."
He was as gentle as he had always been.
Fan Changyu was so gripped by a heart-wrenching sorrow that she could barely breathe. Tears fell like pearls from a broken string. She looked at Xie Zheng, her voice almost pleading, "Don't be like this... Xie Zheng, please don't be like this..."
Her heart wasn't made of stone. She had spent a very, very long time healing the cracks in it, so that when she saw him again, she wouldn't be overwhelmed by a heart-rending grief.
She didn't want to tear open those wounds, the ones that pained her so much she trembled at night, in the face of his tenderness.
If the two of them were destined to have no future, with him shouldering a tragic burden and her a wrongful accusation, then she had to keep moving forward.
Even if she had to break her bones and crawl, she would crawl step by step toward that truth.
Seeing her like this, the crimson in Xie Zheng's eyes deepened.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, lowered his head to rest his forehead lightly against hers, and asked stubbornly, "Fan Changyu, let's go back to how we were before, all right?"
Go back to how we were before.
Those words once again leaped into Fan Changyu's ears. Besides heartache, she felt only a sense of powerlessness, as if she were being swept away by fate.
She desperately suppressed her emotions. "Do you no longer care about the truth of the Jinzhou case?"
As her words fell, a dead silence descended between them again.
Fan Changyu could feel the hand gripping her shoulder tighten, and the blood seeping from his fingertips stained her robe red.
They were too close. The scent of blood couldn't mask the clean, crisp fragrance of soap pods on him.
This was likely the closest she would ever be to him again.
Fan Changyu closed her eyes in sorrow, trying to control her trembling breath amidst his overwhelming presence.
Then, a hoarse voice sounded by her ear. "I don't care anymore."
It was weary and broken, a decision seemingly made while drenched in blood, containing a desperate, all-or-nothing ruthlessness that was chilling.
Fan Changyu's pupils trembled. Her vision was blurred by a flood of tears. She tried to open her eyes wide, to see the person before her clearly, and asked through her sobs, "Do you know what you're saying?"
Xie Zheng's blood-red eyes were also filled with pain. He suddenly pulled her fiercely into his embrace, his jaw resting against her temple as he rasped, "Then what do you want me to do?"
"Fan Changyu, you tell me, what can I do?"
He questioned her viciously, out of control, baring his ravaged self for her to see, like a cornered beast driven to desperation.
A tear rolled down from his jaw, wetting her temple and searing her skin.
"I tried to let you go. I used every method I could think of. I truly have no other way..."
He held her so tightly, yet his whole body couldn't stop trembling.
Like a drowning man clutching a life-saving piece of driftwood.
"It doesn't matter if you're Fan Changyu or Meng Changyu. It's not important anymore. Let's just be together, all right?"
Fan Changyu's vision was a blur of tears. Her heart was seized by a different kind of wrenching pain, forcing her to gasp for air. A choked sob escaped her throat.
After two months and seven days, she once again allowed herself to cry wantonly in this embrace.
Warm sunlight streamed through the carved window lattice, and dust motes danced in the light.
The woman, her back pressed against the bedframe, was seized by the waist by the man before her. He captured her chin and kissed her deeply, inch by inch. The entwined-lotus-patterned bed curtains hanging on golden hooks were pulled loose. All her struggles were in vain, and even her sobs became disjointed.
An autumn rain came suddenly. Bean-sized raindrops pattered down, turning the yellow earth of the official road into a muddy mess.
A merchant caravan struggled forward in the downpour. Spotting a ruined temple ahead where they could take shelter, the caravan's carts and horses hurried toward it.
The servants used a dilapidated door panel from inside the temple to start a fire. They cleared a patch of ground and, without bothering to dry their own soaked clothes, took out stools from the carriage and set them up. Only then did someone go to carefully help the person inside the carriage out.
The wide brim of a large oil-paper umbrella hid the face of the man who alighted, but his dark blue, cloud-patterned brocade robe was exceptionally luxurious. Though it was only the ninth month, a thick cloak was already draped over his shoulders, suggesting a frail constitution.
A man in a snow-blue scholar's robe emerged from the carriage behind. He was elegant and gentle. Before entering the ruined temple to shelter from the rain, he paused and looked back down the road for a while, then finally stepped inside.
The servants and guards all stood watch outside. By the fire in the ruined temple, there was only the cloaked man and a deaf-mute servant who attended to him personally.
Li Huaian said, "Your Highness, please rest for a moment. We must continue on our way as soon as the rain lessens. The Li family's Martial Assassins have suffered heavy casualties to temporarily shake off the Wu'an Marquis's Blood-Clad Cavalry. If they catch up to us again, I'm afraid it will be troublesome."
Qi Min's face was dark as he looked at the handsome young scholar before him. "My people must be brought back to me."
After impersonating Sui Yuanhuai for over a decade and now having shed his shell like a golden cicada, he was no longer the disfigured waste of the Changxin Prince Manor, forced to hide away in the rear courtyard. Soon, he would become the master of this world.
Li Huaian cupped his hands respectfully. "The Li family will do everything in its power to rescue the imperial great-grandson and his birth mother. But right now, Your Highness's safety is of the utmost importance."
The deaf-mute servant boiled hot tea over the fire, steeped it, and served it to Qi Min, only to have him sweep it violently to the ground.
The porcelain shattered, and scalding tea splashed everywhere. A few drops even spattered onto Li Huaian's shoes.
The commotion alerted the guards outside, but Qi Min's own contingent of imperial Shadow Guards stood firm at the temple entrance. Even if the Li family's guards were worried about Li Huaian, they dared not act rashly.
Li Huaian knelt calmly on the dust-covered ground. "Your Highness, please quell your anger."
Qi Min stared at him coldly. "It was your Li family who sent word to me, saying you had already lured Xie Zheng to Bieyue Mountain Villa and that I should set out for the capital as soon as possible. But what was waiting for me on the road? It was the several hundred Blood-Clad Cavalry under Xie Zheng's command and that madman, Sui Yuanqing!"
The Blood-Clad Cavalry was already a force that struck fear into the hearts of all in the Great Yin. And Sui Yuanqing, bent on avenging his mother's murder, was like a god of slaughter incarnate, vowing to take his head.
Qi Min's imperial Shadow Guards were nearly halved, and the experts sent by the Li family were almost completely wiped out, managing to break through the encirclement with only him. Yu Qianqian and Yu Bao'er, however, had fallen into the hands of the Blood-Clad Cavalry.
Upon learning that Xie Zheng had not fallen for the trick, Li Huaian had set off from Lucheng that very night.
The Wu'an Marquis had the authority to mobilize the entire military force of the Northwest. Once the Blood-Clad Cavalry returned with the imperial great-grandson and his mother, he would never have another chance to leave.
Now, listening to Qi Min's reprimand, Li Huaian merely cupped his hands in a calm, almost numb bow. "This matter is your humble servant's fault for failing to realize that the Wu'an Marquis was turning our own plan against us, thereby putting Your Highness in peril."
The game had already progressed to this stage. Every decision he made from now on was simply carrying out the Li family's original plan. He had become too numb to dwell on the rights and wrongs of it all.
The more he displayed such an expression, the more Qi Min's anger grew. He suddenly leaned down and grabbed Li Huaian by the collar.
Though he was a man long afflicted by illness, with fingers paler than a normal person's, his grip possessed a strength no less than that of a healthy adult male.
Perhaps only those imperial Shadow Guards knew that Qi Min had been secretly studying martial arts with them to overcome his frail body.
Besides those imperial Shadow Guards, he trusted no one, including Lan Shi and her son, who had served him for many years.
Qi Min's voice was terrifyingly cold. "Do you think that as long as I reach the capital safely, the Li family has already won? Xie Zheng doesn't dare to rebel in the Northwest on his own, but now that he has that child, let's see if he still dares not to!"
In Li Huaian's calm, placid eyes, other emotions finally stirred.
Qi Min released his collar and ordered coldly, "I don't care what methods your Li family uses. Either bring my people back unharmed, or... kill that child and bring his birth mother back."
Just then, a clap of thunder exploded outside the ruined temple. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, making even the smiling Buddha statue in its niche seem cold and eerie.
Li Huaian's heart jolted. A cold wind blew in through the dilapidated doorway, and only then did he realize he was chilled to the bone.
He slowly bowed his head. "Your humble servant obeys."
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