Chapter 6

Chapter 6

In the end, I was one step too late.

By the time I found Xu Mingyi, she and Liang Xi were already talking in the small garden.

Through a curtain of willow branches, I caught fragments of Xu Mingyi’s voice.

“Outside Songshan Temple… couldn’t bear to… that jade pendant… found a physician…”

When she finished, she lowered her head and took out that familiar jade pendant from her sleeve.

Liang Xi looked down at the pendant without saying a word.

He was standing sideways to me, so I couldn’t see his expression clearly.

But I could imagine it wasn’t good.

I closed my eyes.

It was over. Completely over.

Not daring to hesitate for even a second, my survival instincts sent me rushing back to my bedchamber as fast as I could.

I dug out all the banknotes I’d secretly stashed away over the years and tucked them into my sleeve.

Then, just as I usually did when going out for fun, I walked out of the prince’s estate as if nothing had happened.

I hired a fast horse and galloped all the way out of the capital.

I hadn’t known how to ride at first. Liang Xi had been the one who insisted on teaching me.

I didn’t want to learn. I was afraid of falling, so I clung tightly to his arm and refused to get on the horse.

He had crouched down patiently and told me, “The more you learn, the more paths you’ll have when it matters.”

Well, look at that. He had been right.

Once I left the capital and put more and more distance behind me, my heart gradually settled.

I drifted from place to place, stopping briefly here and there.

It wasn’t until the spring of the following year that I arrived in Wu County, settled down, and opened a bookshop.

I had long since prepared myself to spend the rest of my life here. I never thought I would see Liang Xi again in this lifetime.

After all, we were so far apart.

If two people who had lost each other didn’t force a meeting or stubbornly chase after one another, it was very difficult for them to reunite.

And yet, we had.

I admitted that I had treated Liang Xi terribly.

Yes, I had my reasons. Lying to him had truly been my only choice.

But wasn’t that thought far too selfish? Didn’t it sound like I was making excuses for myself?

In the end, did having reasons mean I could hurt someone else with a clear conscience?

I found it difficult to face Liang Xi. For several days in a row, I stayed in the bookshop and didn’t go see him again.

Who would have thought he would come to the bookshop to look for me instead?

When he came in, I was teaching a little girl how to write her name.

She was writing the “Man” in Ah Man, and after several tries, she still wasn’t satisfied.

Seeing that I was busy, Liang Xi didn’t interrupt. He simply stood off to the side, picked up a book, and flipped through it.

Only after Ah Man had written her name properly enough and skipped away did he put down the book and walk toward me.

My eyes darted everywhere, looking this way and that. At last, when there was nowhere left to look, I finally looked at him.

“What are you doing here?”

He said, “Because I said the wrong thing that day and made you too afraid to come see me again.”

He spoke so bluntly that I felt even more ashamed.

“So I came… to apologize to you.”

I froze. “…Huh?”

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

He said, “I’m not demanding that you explain anything to me. I just hope you won’t keep hiding from me.”

“You know I don’t have any friends here, nor do I know anyone else. If even you stop seeing me, then I…”

“I won’t!”

Seeing his eyes droop so pitifully, I immediately declared my stance.

“I won’t hide from you again! I promise!”

Flustered, I tried to make up for it. “How about I take you out for a stroll? You’ve been here for so long, but you haven’t really gone out to enjoy yourself, have you?”

He hesitated. “Can you? What about the bookshop?”

I took his hand and pulled him outside. “Closed for the day.”