Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We were too late.

The Xie family had already left the prison.

My brother and I hurried after them.

The Xie Residence in the capital was still under seizure, so the Xie family had to hire carriages to reach their estate in the suburbs. With the whole household in tow, any little thing could turn into another setback.

Fortunately, they had not gone far.

I saw several older Xie brothers arguing heatedly with the men from the carriage agency.

A few young ladies clutched one another’s hands and hid behind them, but passersby were still eyeing them with open hostility.

“They’re relatives of that corrupt official Xie Qingzheng.”

“Pah! If it were me, I wouldn’t lend carriages to a filthy official’s family.”

“How did they get released? Why didn’t they execute that corrupt official’s entire household? That would have been satisfying!”

“You people!” The young Xie Jiulang could not hold back. He clenched his fists in fury.

“Hongyuan,” Xie Huaiyu said, stopping him. “There is no use arguing. The innocent need no defense.”

He had grown even thinner. Exhaustion hid beneath his eyes as he held up his eldest brother, Xie Pingzhi, with all his strength.

My brother and I immediately whipped our horses forward.

“Silence. His Majesty personally decreed their release. How dare you gossip so freely?” I raised my voice. “Lord Xie managed flood control for years and rendered service in disaster relief year after year. If he truly wished to embezzle funds, why would he take only three hundred taels of silver? Clearly, someone framed him and deliberately humiliated him!”

The passersby all fell silent.

Xie Huaiyu abruptly lifted his head and met my eyes.

His gaze was as if he had just seen a beam of light.

He stared at my face, the tight furrow between his brows slowly easing. Then he immediately lowered his head deeply.

When Xie Pingzhi saw me, his eyes brightened, but after taking medicine, his body was still gravely ill, and he could not stand.

We cupped our hands to them in greeting, then helped the women and the sick into the carriages we had prepared.

Several carriages were soon packed with baggage, and the servants stood to the side, blocking the reproaches from the crowd.

Once everything had been settled, I had just taken my leave of Madam Xie and was stepping down from the carriage when I saw Xie Huaiyu standing there all alone.

He was blocking my path, and there was truly no way around him, so I could only salute him. “Young Master Xie, you may board now. The servants will escort you to the estate. If anything comes up, inform the steward. The Wang family will help where we can.”

But Xie Huaiyu still did not move. He gripped his Buddhist prayer beads and rolled them rapidly between his fingers, his movements somewhat restless and hurried.

I tried to guess what he wanted. “Your father should be in no serious danger. You will have to wait a little longer for these next few days, until my colleagues at the Ministry of Justice…”

“Wang Weige,” he softly interrupted me.

It was as though he knew that once I finished that sentence, there would be nothing left for us to say.

“Last time, in the prison, I called out to you. You didn’t hear me.”

“I heard you,” I admitted.

Xie Huaiyu’s eyes trembled, and his lips pressed together.

He did not ask me why, if I had heard him, I had not turned back.

After a moment of silence, Xie Huaiyu said quietly, “I will never forget the kindness you have shown my family. Your favor is deep and weighty. One day, I will surely repay it.”

I cupped my hands to him. “The court is treacherous and unpredictable. My brother is frank and simple by nature, and now he merely holds an idle post in the Crown Prince’s Faction. If you prosper in the future, Xie-lang, please look after him a little. That will be repayment enough.”

Xie Huaiyu stood as steady as a mountain, still making no move to leave.

He looked up at me. “And?”

I was astonished.

This was truly rare.

Because in the past, Xie Huaiyu would probably have thought even one extra word with me was too much.

When our feelings had been tender and intense, there had been a time when he smiled beneath the moon and plucked a fallen flower from beside my ear.

But when my brother discussed marriage with him, he withdrew in an instant and cupped his hands coldly. “Young Master Wang, please do not misunderstand me. I only regard Miss Wang as my younger sister.”

My brother was so angry he nearly grabbed his wine cup and smashed it at him.

But Xie Huaiyu neither dodged nor avoided him. His tone was stiff as he said bluntly, “Miss Wang has a lively and innocent nature, but please forgive me. I was born dull and may find it difficult to make Miss Wang happy.”

With that one sentence, he had all but said plainly that I was too noisy by nature and unworthy of him.

It should have ended there.

I had no wish to get further entangled with him either.

It was just that after having the marriage refused, I inevitably spent a few days dejected.

My brother pitied me so much that he was too angry to sleep. One night, drunk on wine, he forced his way into the Xie family home to demand an explanation on my behalf.

By coincidence, he saw Madam Xie inviting Miss Lin to admire the moon.

Xie Huaiyu wore a moon-white robe, with a jade ring tied at the end of his hair. He looked as elegant and charming as a man possibly could.

His eyes were lowered as he poured wine for Miss Lin.

So it turned out that he had simply been born with affectionate eyes, and he looked at everyone the same way.

My brother left in a daze.

Perhaps because Xie Huaiyu feared my brother would go out and speak recklessly, within a few days, he requested to go cultivate at a temple and pray for his grandmother’s blessings.

That year, during the Huazhao Festival, we met once.

At the time, I had gone to the temple with several other young ladies to pray for blessings. Someone among us was connected to the Xie family by marriage, and out of courtesy, she wished to visit Xie Huaiyu, who was then cultivating at the temple.

I had no choice but to hide among the crowd and see him once.

At the time, incense smoke curled through the air.

He lowered his eyes and quietly bowed to me.

“Benefactor Wang, I trust you have been well.”

Without waiting for my answer, he calmly turned and left.

I guessed that he must have hated me. Hated me for entrusting my heart so easily, for wanting to discuss marriage with him so soon. Hated that if only I could have guarded my feelings more tightly and been slower to fall in love, that fragile paper window between us might have been pierced a little later, and he would not have been forced to cultivate at a temple just as his official career was beginning to soar.

Remembering this, I came back to myself.

Xie Huaiyu was still standing there.

He looked almost like a devoted young woman demanding an explanation from some fickle libertine.

So I shook my head again. “Nothing else. I truly ask nothing more of you.”

This ought to have been a good thing, yet for some reason, Xie Huaiyu’s expression darkened.

At last, he turned around, facing the carriage with his back to me. He stood there fixedly for a long time before finally lifting the curtain and boarding.