Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Ji Hanyi paused slightly when she saw Xie Yuheng. She had assumed she would not see him tonight.
He was always busy at the end of the year and almost never stayed in the main quarters.
Besides, Li Mingrou often visited his study. Shouldn’t he have been waiting for her there?
By now, the two of them had long since fallen into silence. In the past, he had never had anything to say to her. Now, she had nothing to say to him either.
She sat down on the daybed to one side. Rongchun and another maid stood behind her, drying her damp hair.
Ji Hanyi held a hand warmer in her hands. Since she still had to go to the rear room later, she remained fully dressed.
She did not look at Xie Yuheng. Instead, she lowered her eyes to the Go board on the low table.
Xie Yuheng rarely returned to these main quarters, so she was often here alone. She did not usually like leaving the courtyard, and to pass the time, she would play Go against herself. There was therefore always an unfinished game laid out on the table.
In the past, whenever Xie Yuheng came back, Ji Hanyi would sometimes ask him to play with her. He had never agreed. After asking two or three times, she stopped asking altogether.
Now, Ji Hanyi was glad the game was there. At least it eased the awkwardness.
Xie Yuheng silently watched her for a long moment.
Under the gentle light, her slender, pale fingers moved across the board. Her long hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. Her lowered eyes held a cool remoteness, while her profile was quiet and tender, touched with a lingering, sensuous allure.
She was like a lush spring scene steeped in fragrance. Even the loose strand of hair draped across her shoulder was enough to stir the imagination.
Xie Yuheng had never particularly liked Ji Hanyi’s soft, seductive beauty, but even he had to admit that it was dangerously captivating.
The room was so quiet that only the faint click of stones could be heard. Xie Yuheng had always liked silence, yet this was the first time he found it too quiet.
As though this was not how things were supposed to be.
He and Ji Hanyi were husband and wife. They should have had something to say to each other.
It did not matter what. Anything would have been better than this.
Ji Hanyi had always been the one to initiate conversations in the past.
Xie Yuheng pressed his lips together, rose, and sat across from her. When he lowered his gaze to the board, he could not help but pause.
It was an extremely difficult life-and-death Go problem. He had not expected Ji Hanyi to play such a complicated game.
He had assumed she only played simple matches as a pastime, like any other lady.
After studying the board intently, Xie Yuheng picked up a stone and placed it down.
Ji Hanyi frowned slightly as she watched him. She and Xie Yuheng were now just like this game. She wanted to navigate this difficult position alone. She did not want him joining in.
She had already removed him from the equation long ago.
The stone poised between her fingers retreated before it could touch the board. Ji Hanyi turned to Rongchun and asked, “Is my hair dry yet?”
Rongchun hurriedly replied, “It will take a little longer.”
Ji Hanyi nodded, picked up the hot tea beside her, and took a sip. She did not touch another stone.
Silence settled over the room once more. Xie Yuheng glanced at Ji Hanyi’s profile, then lowered his eyes to the unfinished game. He knew she would not make another move.
He pressed his lips together and said quietly, “As for your cousin, it isn’t that I was unwilling to help you. What he did violated the law. No matter how serious the offense was, he was still in the wrong.”
Ji Hanyi lowered her eyes and nodded. She did not think Xie Yuheng was wrong. Her cousin had indeed broken the law, and whether Xie Yuheng helped him was entirely his choice.
That was why, once she learned his stance, she had never considered asking him.
Steam from the teacup brushed her face as she said softly, “There is no need for Eldest Master to bring this up again. I never intended to mention the matter to you in the first place.
“In fact, I never said a single word to you about it. Please don’t take what my aunt did today to heart. She will not come again.”
Ji Hanyi paused, then looked at Xie Yuheng. “No matter how my cousin’s situation ends, it has nothing to do with you or the Xie Family. Nor will it mean that anyone failed to do enough.”
Those were exactly the sensible words Xie Yuheng had hoped to hear, yet they lodged in his throat like a fishbone.
He would almost have preferred Ji Hanyi to cry and make a scene rather than see her looking so utterly calm.
Xie Yuheng took a deep breath before saying, “If you want my help, I can speak to my brother-in-law and do my best to have your cousin released.”
Ji Hanyi was briefly puzzled, unable to understand why Xie Yuheng would say such a thing.
She turned to him and shook her head. “There is no need for Eldest Master or the Xie Family to get involved in this matter.”
She pressed her lips together, then said softly, “I never intended to bring it up with you. You needn’t trouble yourself over it.”
Xie Yuheng froze.
He frowned deeply at Ji Hanyi. All of a sudden, he felt as though she had slipped beyond his control.
She realized that perhaps he had never truly understood her.
He could not even fathom what Ji Hanyi was thinking at that moment.
When Ji Hanyi saw that Xie Yuheng had fallen silent, she had no desire to continue this pointless exchange.
Their conversations had always been dry and stifling, just like the life she would lead if she remained in the Xie Family.
There would be no grievous wrongs or unbearable resentment. She simply would not be happy for the rest of her life.
Ji Hanyi set down her teacup and asked Xie Yuheng, “Has Eldest Master been to the study today?”
Xie Yuheng stared fixedly at her.
Ji Hanyi looked at the folding screen before her. She had spent three years looking at that pattern she disliked, on a screen in a style she disliked.
She said softly, “Eldest Master will probably need to work in the study for a while later. Don’t forget to look at what I left for Eldest Master.”
Since Xie Yuheng had come back tonight to speak to her about her cousin, he probably had not seen the Divorce Agreement yet.
But that did not matter. She was reminding him so he could make preparations early, and the two of them could part on peaceful terms.
A surge of anger suddenly rose in Xie Yuheng’s chest. He swept his arm across the game board, sending the pieces clattering loudly to the floor.
The other maid standing behind him and drying his hair jumped in fright, her hands going still.
Xie Yuheng shot to his feet from the daybed, his eyes flashing with anger and disappointment. “Do you have to keep making a fuss like this?”
“The New Year is almost here. Can’t you stop this nonsense?!”
Ji Hanyi quietly gazed at the pieces scattered across the floor. This seemed to be the first time someone as aloof as Xie Yuheng had ever lost his temper like this.
But she could not understand what he was so angry about.
She looked at him in confusion, her tone as calm and unruffled as his had always been. “I have never made a fuss, not from the beginning.”
“I made this decision after careful consideration. Why must you insist that this is merely a fit of temper?”
Hearing this, Rongchun hurriedly dismissed all the maids from the room.
Xie Yuheng took an incredulous step back, his gaze locked on Ji Hanyi. “You truly intend to divorce me…”
Ji Hanyi nodded without hesitation. “I also think it would be best if we submitted the Divorce Agreement to the authorities as soon as possible.”
“I haven’t told your mother yet, since you haven’t agreed.”
“If you agree tonight, I’ll pack my things and leave first thing tomorrow morning. As for the divorce, you can discuss it with everyone else–”
Before Ji Hanyi could finish, another deafening crash of shattering porcelain rang out.
Warm tea splashed everywhere, spattering Ji Hanyi’s white embroidered shoes.