Chapter 229
Chapter 229
Gu Yan remained silent.
His connection to that powerful figure had begun by chance. After Ji Hanyi moved without telling anyone, he repeatedly visited her old courtyard hoping to see her. One day, he noticed someone else lurking outside and peering in. Suspecting trouble, he followed.
He had meant to learn who else was searching for her. If it was someone from the Xie Family, he would confront them and tell his mother to sever contact with that household.
Instead, he was discovered halfway and taken to meet the person behind the watchers.
Only then did he learn that they intended to act against Ji Hanyi and prevent her marriage-the very thing he had wished for day and night.
Yet Ji Hanyi married Shen Si as planned. When Gu Yan asked why, he was told Shen Si had protected her too well for them to strike.
That was unsurprising. A man like Shen Si would never let anyone easily ruin his wedding. Gu Yan had expected little, but was still disappointed.
Then he learned they would try again.
The powerful figure met him privately and asked whether he wished to take Ji Hanyi away. As though possessed, Gu Yan agreed.
So many people around Shen Si hated him. Could Shen Si truly protect Ji Hanyi forever? Gu Yan had intervened this time, but what would have happened without him?
He told Ji Hanyi none of this. Shen Si might be able to confront the person behind the scheme, but Gu Yan could not, and the Gu Family could never withstand retaliation.
He had known the danger when he chose to bargain with a tiger.
After waiting in vain, Ji Hanyi said softly, “Everything you have considered is only what you believe. Did you ever ask what I wanted? Whether I wished to leave?”
“Whether I wished to leave my mother?”
Gu Yan froze.
He truly had never wondered whether Ji Hanyi would go willingly. He had only thought of obtaining her.
It had become a contest in which he defeated Shen Si, favored son of heaven though Shen Si might be.
Ji Hanyi tightened her weak grip upon his wrist. “Cousin, I will not go with you.”
“I married Marquis Shen. No matter how difficult it becomes or who harms me in the future, I will not leave his side.”
“If you force me away and ruin my reputation, do you imagine I will be happy in Dongyi?”
“I doubt I could survive a single day. I would want to die on the road.”
Gu Yan jolted and stared at her. “Cousin Yi…”
“Do you despise me so much?”
“You always trusted me. We grew up together and know each other better than anyone. Would I treat you poorly?”
Despite her urgency, Ji Hanyi kept her face calm, though her voice trembled. “You have always treated me so well, Cousin. In my heart, you have always been the best. That is why I worry about you.”
“I worry you are taking a road from which there is no return.”
“My husband will come for me. He serves in the Censorate and has investigated countless cases. He will have every pass guarded. We cannot escape easily.”
“Any route you can imagine, my husband can imagine too.”
“Cousin, it is not too late. If you tell us who ordered my abduction, I will ask my husband to protect you.”
Gu Yan listened to her weak yet urgent voice and the repeated words my husband.
He had thought he cared about nothing, but he cared about Ji Hanyi’s feelings.
The powerful figure had prepared an escape by water to Dongyi. Yet now only Ji Hanyi’s wishes mattered.
For an instant, he regretted giving her the antidote, though he could never have borne to withhold it.
Ji Hanyi struggled to lift her head, sincerity and concern filling her eyes. “Believe me, Cousin. We can still turn back.”
“If you persist, have you considered what will happen when we are caught? I will lose my reputation, and you will implicate the Gu Family. Is that truly what you want?”
“Even if we reach Dongyi, I will die without my mother and my husband.”
The words I will die made Gu Yan shudder. His fingers trembled upon his knees.
He sprang up and fled outside almost in disarray.
The spring night was cool. Gloomy winds swept around the abandoned, dilapidated house, leaving him unsteady.
Deep down, he had always known Ji Hanyi would not willingly follow him. Yet he had remained greedy and selfish, deluding himself that he could persuade her.
None of it was real.
Every mention of her husband reminded him that she had married and become another man’s wife. She and Shen Si had entered the bridal chamber and perhaps spent that night in the greatest intimacy.
Even if Gu Yan took her, he would have no rightful claim and would earn only her hatred.
He hated that the mastermind was still inferior to Shen Si and had failed to ruin the marriage.
Cold spread through him. Before him lay empty darkness and a future he could not see.
He had come so far with such determination, yet wavered when confronted with Ji Hanyi’s pain.
She said she would die in Dongyi. How could he endure her death?
Since childhood, he had wanted only to shelter her and give her a peaceful life. Yet he was too insignificant to give her what she wanted, too insignificant ever to leave a mark upon her heart.
Wind lifted his thin green robe. The road ahead seemed beyond his control, yet dependent upon a single decision.
Ji Hanyi’s star-bright eyes appeared again in his mind.
He had chased her gaze all his life and could never bear to see her suffer. Though she had married into a perilous great house, he could do nothing for her.
Gu Yan swayed, growing colder in the wind, then turned back unsteadily.
He had never been able to resist her.
It had always been so. Since childhood, he had always ended by obeying her.