Chapter 136
Chapter 136
Shen Changling was honestly a little bewildered.
Why did Fifth Uncle look as though he did not want him speaking to Ji Hanyi?
The impatience written all over Fifth Uncle’s face was so stern that Shen Changling did not dare ask any questions. He could only glance at Ji Hanyi before reluctantly turning away.
After crossing the street, he saw Ji Hanyi looking his way and waved to her again.
When Ji Hanyi withdrew her gaze, she found Shen Si watching her.
Her heart skipped a beat. She looked up at him and asked softly, “Did Lord Shen not care for the food today?”
She lowered her head in embarrassment. “I should have been the one treating Lord Shen today.”
Shen Si glanced at Ji Hanyi. She was so strapped for money that she had even pawned her own jewelry. If he let her pay for this meal, who knew what else she would have to pawn afterward?
He did not answer her. He merely said, “Let’s talk in the carriage.”
Ji Hanyi watched Shen Si climb into her carriage again. After a moment’s hesitation, she followed him inside.
They were once again seated inside her plain, somewhat cramped carriage. Ji Hanyi tucked herself into a corner and lowered her head, waiting for Shen Si to speak first.
Shen Si asked, “Why haven’t you left yet?”
Ji Hanyi looked at him. After a brief hesitation, she told him the truth. “My mother suddenly fell ill.”
Shen Si showed no particular reaction. He merely nodded and asked, “Is she feeling any better?”
Ji Hanyi hurriedly nodded. “She is.”
Shen Si glanced at her again. “What do you think caused your mother to suddenly become gravely ill?”
Seeing him press for details, Ji Hanyi answered seriously, “The Imperial Physician said that years of pent-up sorrow had taken a toll on her health, and an affliction of the heart caused her to vomit blood.”
“My mother has been despondent ever since my father passed away, but this was the first time she had ever vomited blood.”
Shen Si fixed his cool gaze on her. “Have you considered that there might be another cause?”
Ji Hanyi froze. His gaze was deep and inscrutable, as though he were trying to warn her about something. She asked, “Does Lord Shen suspect that someone poisoned my mother?”
Shen Si pressed his lips together, then said quietly, “I wouldn’t call it a warning. But if you find anything suspicious about your mother suddenly vomiting blood, you should be careful.”
His gaze shifted before returning to Ji Hanyi. “That possibility cannot be ruled out.”
His words sent a chill through Ji Hanyi’s entire body. Her mother vomiting blood had indeed come on very suddenly, but if someone truly had poisoned her, Ji Hanyi could not imagine who it might have been.
Shen Si watched her stare blankly into space, then tapped twice against the side of the carriage. Wen’an soon passed a box inside.
Shen Si took it and unhurriedly opened it in front of Ji Hanyi. A single key lay quietly within.
He picked up the key with his slender fingers and held it out to her. “This is the key to a residence under my name. You can stay there for the time being and let your mother recuperate. It would be safer.”
Ji Hanyi lowered her gaze to the key in his outstretched hand. In the dim light, she stared at it in a daze for a moment before quickly pushing it back toward him. “Thank you for your kindness, Lord Shen, but I’ve already sent someone to find a residence for me.”
Shen Si understood exactly what she meant. She did not want to accept anything from him.
He did not insist. He had never forced her to do anything. All he had ever wanted was for her not to be so afraid of him whenever she was in his presence.
Shen Si put the key back into the box and casually set it beside Ji Hanyi. His voice was low as he said, “That residence has always been vacant. You can move in whenever you need it.”
He looked at her again. “You can return the key to me on the day you leave the capital.”
After saying all that, Shen Si rose in silence. He lifted the curtain and, without lingering, stepped down from the carriage.
Ji Hanyi watched his retreating figure, her heart trembling. Almost instinctively, she lifted the curtain to follow him with her gaze. His tall, elegant figure stood amid the ceaseless flow of people like a solitary crane. The street lanterns had just been lit, and his black robes made him appear all the more distant and aloof, as though he had never possessed a heart at all.
And yet, he always helped her whenever she was in trouble. Just now, he had even left that key with her.
He seemed forever silent, yet he always knew exactly what she needed.
She had rashly thrown herself into his arms, but he had not blamed her. With steady, reassuring strength, he had taken care of everything.
At that moment, she desperately wanted to call out to Shen Si’s departing figure. She wanted to ask why he helped her and whether she was, in some small way, different to him.
But his solitary figure was already fading in and out of view. Beside his magnificent carriage, his guards respectfully went forward to meet him before bending to lift the curtain for him.
In that moment, it felt as though countless mountains stood between them.
He was refined and composed, noble by birth and powerful in rank. The distance between them was as vast as that between the clouds and the mud. Even if she asked and received an answer, it would mean nothing.
She did not understand exactly what she felt for Shen Si. She only knew that a deep, reassuring attachment to him had taken root in her heart. It felt as though, as long as he was by her side, everything would go smoothly and she would always be safe.
–
By the time Ji Hanyi returned to the residence, her mother had already eaten dinner and was reclining on the bed, waiting for her.
The moment Ji Hanyi entered, Madam Gu hurriedly beckoned her over, then asked, “Did you give the two maids your Eldest Maternal Aunt sent you a hard time?”
Ji Hanyi glanced at Chunju.
Chunju quickly shook her head. “Young Miss, I didn’t tell Madam. The First Madam came by today and made all sorts of barbed remarks. She even said…”
Madam Gu interrupted Chunju and told her to leave first. Then she turned back to Ji Hanyi and said gently, “Hanyi, we are living under your maternal grandfather’s roof, after all. There are some things we simply have to endure and let pass.”
“You know things aren’t easy for the Gu Family these days.”
Ji Hanyi looked into her mother’s gentle eyes. Her gaze was frail, her face pale, and there was a soft helplessness in the way she looked at her daughter.
Ji Hanyi wondered how Eldest Maternal Aunt could have brought herself to say such things when she came to demand an explanation today and saw her mother in this state. She clearly knew that her mother’s illness stemmed from the heart and that there were many things she struggled to move past. Why, then, had she come without the slightest consideration for her feelings?
Her mother regarded Eldest Maternal Aunt as family and was considerate of her in every way. When Ji Hanyi’s father had still been around, her mother had constantly urged him to help her two brothers as well.
But now that something had happened to her father, Eldest Maternal Aunt had long since changed her tune. When had she ever truly treated them as family?
Ji Hanyi had countless words bottled up inside her, but when she saw the hope in her mother’s eyes, she lowered her gaze and nodded. “Don’t worry, Mother. I understand the Gu Family’s difficulties. I wasn’t trying to make things difficult for Eldest Maternal Aunt. I’m only replacing two maids.”
After saying that, Ji Hanyi looked at Madam Gu again. “Mother, I’ve actually been thinking about moving out and finding another residence.”
“We could find somewhere quiet. By staying here, we’re only causing trouble for Grandmother.”
Madam Gu froze. “If the two of us move out on our own, we’ll have no one to rely on. What will we do if something happens?”