Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Liang Zhi was gone.

On the third day after my mother discovered my hidden wooden hairpin, the head of the stables came early in the morning to report that a carriage was missing from the estate.

Liang Zhi had vanished along with it.

My mother was so clever. She didn’t even say a word; she merely wore a faint smile, casting a look of pity in my direction.

*Silly child, you see? Even if you refuse to speak, there will always be someone who confesses through their own fear.*

*The deepest abyss has a bottom, but the human heart is unfathomable… You should wake up and see the truth behind your so-called persistence and true feelings.*

***

I didn’t know if Liang Zhi’s departure was truly out of fear that our secret would be exposed and he would die at the hands of the Xie Family, or if it was as the other servants whispered-that he had once declared, “There is no future in being a groom and a slave.”

Regardless, I never saw him again.

I did hate him, a little.

To be honest, I didn’t believe Liang Zhi was such a coward, nor did I believe that everything he had said to me was a lie.

I also knew that he and I were destined to have no future together.

I simply hated that he left without saying goodbye.

Xi’er and I had already endured my mother’s interrogation, and Mother had even promised not to pursue the matter further.

I knew that everyone has their own ambitions and that he wouldn’t stay with the Xie Family forever. But why did he have to leave so abruptly and decisively, unwilling to even see me one last time to say goodbye?

At the very least, he could have left a message for me.

He said nothing, and he left nothing behind.

After Xi’er had been beaten to within an inch of her life and had rested for a few days until she could finally speak, I went to see her.

The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up. She grabbed my hand and said in a raspy voice, “Miss, are you alright? How is Liang Zhi?”

I held the bowl of medicinal soup, my eyes cast down. I quickly forced a smile. “Xi’er, from now on, let us never mention that man again. We shall act as if he never existed.”