Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Standing behind Ji Hanyi, Rongchun trembled with anger when she heard those words.
It wasn’t that Li Mingrou couldn’t stand the scent of crabapple blossoms. She simply couldn’t stand to see Young Madam happy.
Whenever Young Madam and Eldest Master seemed to be getting along even a little better, Li Mingrou always had to stir up trouble.
Young Madam loved crabapple blossoms because Madam had loved them in years past. Master had personally planted a courtyard full of them for Madam, and crabapple blossoms were what had first brought Master and Madam together.
They had become Young Madam’s source of solace. Yet because of a single remark from Li Mingrou, Eldest Master had ordered every crabapple tree Young Madam planted with her own hands to be uprooted.
That day, Young Madam had wept and begged Eldest Master to leave just one, but he had not so much as blinked before ordering them all removed.
Bringing it up again after nearly two years was nothing less than rubbing salt into Young Madam’s wound.
Ji Hanyi turned her gaze toward the window.
When she first married into the Xie Family, she had believed she and Xie Yuheng would spend their lives together in mutual love and respect, just as her mother and father had.
After all, Xie Yuheng was refined, honorable, and upright. She had heard of his unimpeachable reputation long before marrying him.
Everyone said he possessed the noble virtues of a true gentleman, unsullied by the corruption around him.
She had planted those crabapple trees because she believed she could live out the rest of her life here in peace and security.
She had poured her heart and soul into every tree she planted with her own hands.
Now the view outside the window had long since become bleak and barren. All she could see was an unbroken expanse of white, devoid of even the faintest trace of color.
Ji Hanyi turned back, her expression as composed as ever.
She had indeed grieved for a long time. No one had comforted her, and she could not bear to make her mother and maternal grandmother grieve for her as well. So, during those lonely nights, her wounds had slowly healed on their own. They no longer hurt.
Her fingertips were still faintly cold, and even the warm tea could not drive the chill from her body. Ji Hanyi said softly, “Crabapple blossoms can be found anywhere. People are what truly matter.”
Her calm, unhurried response made Li Mingrou feel as though her punch had landed on cotton.
She hadn’t expected Ji Hanyi to keep clinging so stubbornly to a man who didn’t love her, even after she had made her meaning so obvious.
The Ji family had merely fallen on hard times, and Ji Hanyi could no longer bear to give up her wealth and status.
Li Mingrou despised people like that from the bottom of her heart.
She hadn’t come here to spare Ji Hanyi’s pride in the first place. She had come of age a full year ago. She could not wait any longer.
Li Mingrou straightened slightly, no longer bothering to conceal the contempt and arrogance in her eyes. “Do you know that the year you came to my cousin with that marriage contract, my aunt had already begun arranging for me to marry him?”
“If you hadn’t barged in with a marriage contract from ten years ago, I would already be his wife.”
“After two years of marriage into the Xie Family, you should understand how important I am to him.”
“If you have any sense, you’ll request a divorce of your own accord. I might even persuade my cousin and my aunt to give you some compensation.”
With that, Li Mingrou rose to her feet and looked down at Ji Hanyi with disdain. “Cousin-in-law, don’t be blind to what’s good for you.”
“My cousin left you out in the snow all night without even checking on you. Isn’t that enough to make you see the truth? He doesn’t care about you at all.”
“Everyone should know their place. Don’t be too greedy.”
The curtain swayed gently as the soft sound of footsteps faded into the distance.
Li Mingrou drew her sleeves close around herself and gazed at the snow that had yet to melt in the courtyard. In one corner stood a pear tree that had already grown tall and sturdy. A puff of white escaped her lips, and she smiled.
She and her cousin had planted that pear tree together when she first came to the Xie Residence as a child. He had told her that as long as the tree remained, she would always be important to him.
And he would always protect her.
She looked down on Ji Hanyi.
Because Ji Hanyi did not understand that what was not hers would never be hers.
Nor would anything she had to force ever truly belong to her.
Inside the room, Ji Hanyi quietly watched Li Mingrou leave. When she turned back and saw Rongchun hesitating as though she wanted to say something, she smiled, patted her hand, and sent her to prepare hot water for a bath.
The hot water slowly drove the chill from her body. Only after soaking for a long while did she finally begin to feel warm again.
Rongchun said worriedly in a low voice, “You waited in the snow all night and endured such a bitter wind. You must have caught a chill, Madam. Shouldn’t we call a physician to examine you?”
Ji Hanyi could no longer suppress the tickle in her throat. She coughed several times, then murmured her assent.
A physician was summoned at once. After examining her, he furrowed his brow and sighed. “Madam’s constitution cannot withstand such bitter cold. Even a common cold can turn fatal.”
Rongchun’s eyes reddened beside them. Ji Hanyi consoled her, “It’s only a cold. Don’t worry.”
Wiping away her tears, Rongchun said, “When did Young Madam ever suffer like this before? If you so much as got caught in a light drizzle, Master and Madam would be beside themselves with worry.”
“Let alone spending an entire night exposed to the wind and snow.”
Ji Hanyi’s fingertips stilled. She gave a soft sigh. “Rongchun, things aren’t what they used to be.”
The Ji Family had fallen on hard times, and she no longer had anyone behind her. She could hardly expect anyone to cherish her now.
Just then, an older maid arrived with a message. She served First Madam and had presumably heard what happened the night before. First Madam had sent over some restorative tonics and instructed Ji Hanyi to recuperate for the next two days instead of coming to pay her respects.
Ji Hanyi accepted the gifts and conveyed her thanks.
Once the maid had left, she told Rongchun to put everything away.
The Ji Family might have fallen into decline, but Ji Hanyi had once lived a life of luxury, with only the finest food, clothing, and household goods. The gifts appeared to be bird’s nest and shark fin, but they were all of inferior quality.
Ji Hanyi had no desire to quibble over it. The Xie Family was, after all, an upright scholar-official clan whose forebears had attained the Palace Graduate degree and entered government service. They placed great importance on rules and propriety and would never allow matters to become too ugly. But when it came to the perfunctory gestures and hollow courtesies hidden beneath those rules, no one understood them better than the Xie Family’s First Madam.
When Xie Yuheng returned that night, he smelled medicine the moment he stepped into the inner chamber. His cool, aloof brows drew together slightly.
He walked farther in and saw Ji Hanyi reclining against the headboard. Her long hair, always meticulously pinned up before, now fell loosely over her shoulders. Beneath her lowered, delicate brows, her face was faintly pale, lending her a fragile, scholarly air.
There were no bright candles burning in the room. Warm light washed over her unlined robe. The moment he entered, she closed the book in her hands and placed it beside her pillow.
This was the first time Xie Yuheng had returned at night to find Ji Hanyi already in bed. It was also the first time she had neither come out to greet him nor followed closely behind him to help him change.
His face remained expressionless. He had never needed her to do those things in the first place. His cool gaze settled on the woman in bed.
“Mingrou came to see you today. You drove her away.”
It was a simple statement, delivered in a cold, even tone without the slightest inflection.
Perhaps he had spent too long at the Court of Judicial Review. Even a statement from him sounded like an interrogation.
Since he opened by calling her to account, it seemed he had gone to Li Mingrou first.
Li Mingrou had tried every trick at her disposal to prove to Ji Hanyi that Xie Yuheng cared about her most. And she had indeed succeeded.
Ji Hanyi rubbed between her brows. Faced with the same accusation yet again, she felt only a dull sense of weariness and boredom.
She had grown weary of Xie Yuheng as well.