Chapter 6

Chapter 6

That was the last time I saw Zhao Pu at the Chancellor’s Mansion. It was just a glimpse of his robe’s hem, but I harbored resentment for a long time because of it.

Later, he came to see me regarding Lin Dieyun. He wanted me to take her place in the palace as a study companion for the Fifth Princess Chu Ning. I met his request with cold mockery for quite a while.

Today was the first time I had faced him directly since entering the palace.

I hadn’t expected him to be here. This was the inner court of the imperial palace, but when I remembered that his aunt was Consort Zhao, his coming and going through the palace gates was as routine as a daily meal. My doubts vanished.

I didn’t want to listen to his nonsense, so I turned to leave.

Zhao Pu suddenly grabbed my wrist, jerking me to a halt.

I raised my other hand to slap him, but he caught that wrist too. His dark eyes scrutinized me intently.

“You’re different than you were before.”

I wrenched my hands free and glared at him coldly.

In the past, I had thought too little of myself and too highly of others.

I used to think he was like an immortal from a painting, fair and upright.

But later, I watched with my own eyes as he chose to shield Lin Dieyun even though he knew I had been framed. That was when I understood one thing:

People are all raised on the same grains. Everyone has their own selfish motives. In terms of character, he wasn’t any more noble than I was-in fact, he was even more despicable.

I turned to walk away.

Zhao Pu’s voice drifted slowly from behind me.

“Don’t you want the item that man left behind in the Imperial Prison?”

I froze in my tracks and whipped my head around.

Zhao Pu slowly opened his hand. Resting in his palm was a Jade Bead.

It was the same Jade Bead that Song Duhe had once pawned at the medical clinic to save my life.

Back then, my body had been incredibly weak, and I had no will to live. My condition kept relapsing.

Song Duhe’s debt to the clinic grew larger and larger, until he no longer had enough money to redeem the Jade Bead.

I didn’t know any of this at first.

It was the doctor at the clinic who finally couldn’t bear it anymore and grumbled in my ear, “Young lady, you are truly fortunate to have met such a good man. I don’t know what kind of suffering you’ve endured to lose your will to live like this. But if you don’t get better soon… from the look of him, he’d bankrupt himself just to save you. Take your medicine properly and get well quickly.”

I had replied feebly, “I didn’t ask him to save me.”

The doctor let out a long sigh. “But he is begging for you to live.”

That single sentence pierced my long-numbed heart. It began to ache, to feel sour and swollen, until I wanted to cry.

Later, Song Duhe came to the clinic to bring me food.

I lowered my eyes and said softly, “Why save me? I’m not worth it.”

Song Duhe waited until I had slowly finished my meal before giving me an answer.

“Who gets to decide what’s worth it and what isn’t? In the past, people advised me that some things weren’t worth doing, but in my heart, I felt they were, so I did them. Young lady, I don’t think you want to die. You’re just in despair. You want to abandon yourself to make those who hurt you regret it. But how could those who are willing to hurt you ever care about your pain or suffering? Other people’s thoughts don’t matter; only yours do. If you must hear it from someone else to feel at ease, then I can tell you: to me, you are worth it.”

Later, I learned to write. Relying on my memory, I recorded the words Song Duhe had said and kept them in a small box, taking them out to read from time to time.

I thought to myself that my life wasn’t so terrible after all. At the very least, I had truly met one good man.

I began to take my medicine properly, eat well, and recover.

The clinic’s doctor found a teaching job for Song Duhe, which allowed him to pay off the medical fees and redeem the Jade Bead.

That Jade Bead had hung around Song Duhe’s neck ever since, never leaving him.

The cord on the bead had worn through once, and I was the one who had braided a new knot to re-string it. I recognized it.

This truly belonged to Song Duhe. But how did it end up in Zhao Pu’s hands, and why would Zhao Pu give it to me so easily?

I asked Zhao Pu, “What do you want?”

Zhao Pu stepped forward slowly, took my hand, and placed the Jade Bead in my palm. He said calmly, “This is compensation for you. From now on, we are even.”

He turned and walked away, his brocade blue robes fluttering with a graceful, carefree air.

I clutched the Jade Bead tightly, my emotions a tangled mess.

The human heart is truly unpredictable.

Just when I thought he was an utter villain, I discovered he actually had a kind side.

But whether we are ‘even’ or not isn’t for him to decide alone. Only the victim’s word counts.