Chapter 192
Chapter 192
Meanwhile, Ji Hanyi and Shen Si climbed into the carriage. It rolled along at an unusually slow pace. Ji Hanyi was just about to ask Shen Si why he had come when he leaned close to her ear and murmured hoarsely, “Hanyi, look behind you.”
His scorching breath brushed her ear, making Ji Hanyi shudder involuntarily. The ticklish sensation seemed to spread through her entire body, leaving her tingling as her heart skipped a beat.
Not wanting Shen Si to notice anything amiss, Ji Hanyi did as he said and turned to look behind them. Not far away, Li Mingrou had rushed out from somewhere with four or five burly matrons in tow. The moment they appeared, they threw themselves at Xie Yuheng.
Ji Hanyi watched as Xie Yuheng shoved Li Mingrou away. Faint curses drifted over to her, but Li Mingrou shrieked at him like a shrew, “Why are you still coming to see her?”
Ji Hanyi stared at the scene, momentarily lost in thought.
The Xie Yuheng she had once known had been an upright, aloof gentleman. In public, he had always observed every rule, and his conduct had never once been improper.
During the three years they had been married, apart from the days surrounding their divorce, they had never even quarreled.
Yet now, Ji Hanyi watched Xie Yuheng glare at Li Mingrou with undisguised loathing as obscenities she had never heard from him before poured from his mouth. Each vicious cry of “bitch” made her feel as though the man she had once known had never been the real Xie Yuheng at all.
The man who had once cherished and protected Li Mingrou with his entire being, the man who had lavished all his favor upon her, was now destroying every last trace of that love with a face twisted by vicious curses.
And Li Mingrou, once as gentle as water and beloved by everyone in the Xie Residence, now looked deranged, every word from her mouth an accusation born of love denied.
It seemed even mutual devotion was not necessarily unbreakable.
Did a love as steadfast as gold truly exist in this world?
Shen Si sat beside Ji Hanyi, his head lowered as he quietly studied the faint melancholy in her eyes.
Beneath her slender, arched brows, her eyes were clear and pure, like a pool of limpid water beneath the flutter of her long lashes.
The displeasure that had risen in him today when he learned she had suddenly come to the Gu Residence gradually faded.
Before they were married, Shen Si did not want Ji Hanyi going anywhere or seeing anyone.
He could not tolerate the slightest possibility of something going wrong. All he wanted was to marry her as soon and as smoothly as possible and keep her by his side.
But Shen Si knew perfectly well that he could not do that.
Nor could he show her even the slightest trace of his displeasure. She was free. She wanted to go to Wei County because she longed for that freedom, and he could not trap her too tightly or hold her too close, lest she try to break away.
All he could do was repeatedly reassure his anxious, insecure heart that she would never leave him.
With her sitting right before him, his breathing gradually grew strained, his body tightening inch by inch because of her. He was a perfectly normal man, and he had never been able to resist the woman he adored.
His gaze drifted downward, settling on the fair skin revealed beneath Ji Hanyi’s emerald-green collar. Even the tiny mole there was exceptionally alluring. His eyes moved lower to the rise and fall of her chest, and his throat bobbed.
A scene he had witnessed in his youth resurfaced in his mind. The hand resting beside Ji Hanyi slowly began to move toward her waist. Then his gaze shifted to the ruby earring beside her cheek. It glittered with a glassy sheen, swaying gently with the carriage’s slow movement and tapping lightly against the smooth curve of her cheek.
Shen Si knew the area around Ji Hanyi’s earlobe had to be sensitive. His breathing deepened as he leaned slowly closer, his eyes fixed on that patch of fair skin, longing to press his lips to it.
He found himself wondering whether, if he kissed her a little harder, she would go limp in his arms on the spot.
Ji Hanyi’s earlobes and the side of her neck truly were her most sensitive spots. She felt every fraction of Shen Si’s breath as it drew closer.
It was both ticklish and numbing, the sensation spreading through her entire body like a feather brushing lightly over her skin, tormenting her with neither too much force nor too little.
Even her breathing grew faint. Only when his scorching breath seemed about to sear her skin did she finally reach her limit and lean back.
The instant she raised her eyes, they met Shen Si’s lowered, fathomless black gaze. Turbulent emotions churned within those eyes, every bit as searing as his breath.
Ji Hanyi was no sheltered maiden entirely ignorant of relations between men and women. She could sense the intimacy in the air; she simply could not adjust to being this close to him.
Because that man was Shen Si.
Aloof and austere, seemingly untouched by mortal desires – Shen Si was someone she had always trusted and revered as she would an elder.
Being so intimate with him filled her with a faint, inexplicable sense of guilt, as though she were profaning the person she held most sacred in her heart.
Besides, they were still in the carriage, with their escort of guards right outside.
Ji Hanyi might understand such matters, but she was still a woman raised in the seclusion of the inner chambers, while Xie Yuheng had always adhered rigidly to propriety. Other than behind closed bed curtains in the dead of night, she had never experienced this sort of charged intimacy anywhere else.
Shen Si watched in silence as Ji Hanyi pulled away. Had she retreated even a moment later, he would have bitten her.
His gaze lingered on her lowered lashes and evasive eyes. He raised a brow, suppressing the faint agitation born of frustrated desire, and tightened the fingers around her waist.
His expression remained perfectly composed, as though he had not been the one leaning into her neck just moments ago. Looking every bit as proper and solemn as ever, he asked in a low voice, “Satisfied with what you saw?”
Ji Hanyi knew what Shen Si meant. She kept her eyes lowered and her gaze turned aside, her fingers clutching her embroidered handkerchief as if she were still shaken by what had just happened. She quickly nodded. “I am.”
Shen Si asked again, “After seeing the two of them like that, do you feel vindicated?”
Ji Hanyi froze for a moment, then nodded again. “I do. He deserved all of it.”
Shen Si smiled.
Then he said softly, “Once I finish dealing with everything on my plate, there will be something even more satisfying for you to see.”
Ji Hanyi looked up at him. A trace of cold ruthlessness lay across his handsome features. Although the corners of his lips curved in a faint smile, it was one that inspired fear.
A thought suddenly occurred to her: if she had refused to help him back then, what would he have done to her?
And did a man like him truly need her help at all?
The chaos behind them gradually faded into the distance. Shen Si glanced sidelong at Ji Hanyi’s distracted expression, lowered the rear curtain, and turned back while keeping his hand around her waist.
Ji Hanyi’s body went rigid. The last time, at the temple, he had gripped her waist hard enough to leave bruises. Now that his hand was there again, every muscle in her body tensed.
She wanted to push him away, but Shen Si looked utterly calm and unruffled. His fingertips kneaded her waist lightly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Even so, she edged her body a little to the side.
She remained stiff until the carriage came to a stop. Only then did Ji Hanyi secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
Shen Si caught that tiny movement from the corner of his eye. The hand at her waist paused briefly before releasing her. He stepped out of the carriage first, then took Ji Hanyi’s hand and helped her down.