Chapter 53
Chapter 53
Ji Hanyi kept her eyes lowered, watching as Xie Yuheng held her hand in his palm. Suddenly, an uncontrollable wave of nausea rose from deep within her chest.
It was so intense that she turned her head, covered her mouth, and began to retch.
She could listen calmly to Xie Yuheng’s predictably callous and biased words. She could remain unmoved as he chose Li Mingrou without the slightest hesitation.
He had always been like this.
Even though Li Mingrou had poisoned her and left her bedridden, even though he had just asked whether she was in pain, none of it could outweigh the person he truly cared about.
None of that mattered anymore. She had long since stopped expecting anything from him.
But she could not bear to let Xie Yuheng touch her.
Those hands had held another woman. They were slender and broad, and had once given her warmth and hope. Now, they only made her sick.
Truly sick.
Xie Yuheng stared blankly at the scene before him. Ji Hanyi had one hand braced against the edge of the bed and the other pressed over her mouth in discomfort. Her delicate fingers trembled faintly, her black hair spilled down her back, and her slender body was slightly hunched, bathed in the fragile warmth of the candlelight.
The joy that had suddenly stirred in his heart quickly went cold again.
He and Ji Hanyi had not shared a bed in nearly two months.
From the corner of her eye, Ji Hanyi caught the cool, searching look on Xie Yuheng’s face. She straightened, pressed a white handkerchief to her lips, and said softly, “Eldest Master needn’t read too much into it. It’s merely a reaction to the poison.”
Xie Yuheng’s expression froze again. A trace of guilt rose within him. He had nearly misunderstood her yet again.
He said, “Hanyi, once you’ve pleaded with Grandmother, I’ll have Mingrou come and apologize to you.”
Ji Hanyi had been waiting for precisely those words. Winding the handkerchief around her fingers, she nodded gently. “I can plead with the Old Madam on Li Mingrou’s behalf, but Eldest Master must agree to one request.”
Xie Yuheng looked at Ji Hanyi’s profile. Her lashes were long, her eyes as limpid as water, and not a hint of emotion could be seen on her face.
She was still as docile, delicate, and alluring as ever.
Still the obedient woman he liked her to be.
He relaxed slightly and nodded. “As long as you plead with Grandmother on Mingrou’s behalf, I will grant whatever you ask.”
What could Ji Hanyi possibly ask for? Most likely, she would only ask him to stay in her room and keep her company more often. She was always complaining that whenever he left the capital on official business, he never brought anything back for her. She had also mentioned several times that she wanted him to accompany her on a visit to her mother.
He would simply agree to all of it.
Ji Hanyi had already placed the Divorce Agreement beside her pillow. She knew Xie Yuheng would inevitably plead for Li Mingrou. That was another reason she had made such a commotion over the incident.
Ji Hanyi placed the Divorce Agreement before Xie Yuheng and said in the same soft, gentle voice, “Eldest Master, sign the Divorce Agreement. Tomorrow, I will plead with the Old Madam on Li Mingrou’s behalf, and I will also go to the Shen Family to explain everything clearly.”
Xie Yuheng stared at Ji Hanyi’s face in shock, then at the long scroll in her hands.
He shook his head in disbelief before looking at her again. “You’re making trouble this way again?”
“The First Branch is already in complete chaos, and you insist on adding to it at a time like this?”
“Ji Hanyi, how did you become so inconsiderate?!”
Ji Hanyi suddenly felt that the furious, embarrassed man before her was no longer the same refined and dignified Xie Yuheng she once knew.
He was forever standing above her and condemning her, as though she were morally deficient and had failed in her duties as a wife.
Ji Hanyi raised her eyes. There was nothing left in them for Xie Yuheng but coldness. “Li Mingrou is the one who harmed me. If Eldest Master wants me to plead on her behalf, you must show some sincerity.”
“All I ask for is a Divorce Agreement. I told Eldest Master this half a month ago. How does that make me inconsiderate?”
“If Eldest Master wants Li Mingrou to be safe, then agree to my request. I won’t take so much as a single copper from the Xie Family.”
Xie Yuheng shot to his feet and stumbled back a step. He pointed at Ji Hanyi, his eyes filled with disappointment and shock, yet for a long while, he could not utter a single word.
At last, he lowered his hand and asked dejectedly, “Why must you insist on a divorce?”
Ji Hanyi looked at him with solemn eyes. “Because I wanted a divorce long before this. This isn’t something I decided just now.”
Xie Yuheng took another step back.
Ji Hanyi continued, “Eldest Master, by refusing to sign the Divorce Agreement, you are only prolonging Li Mingrou’s suffering as well.”
“Don’t you often say that she is in poor health? Can you really bear to let Li Mingrou suffer?”
“I don’t need her to come and apologize to me, either. Once I leave the Xie Family, she will have nothing more to do with me. Her health is poor, and she truly cannot endure such hardship. It is only natural that Eldest Master would cherish and protect her. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with that.”
“But I also have something I want. Eldest Master should think it over carefully.”
Xie Yuheng stared at Ji Hanyi in a daze. He watched her speak those words with perfect calm, watched her say there was nothing wrong with his concern for Li Mingrou. In that instant, it felt as though a large piece of his heart had been hollowed out.
All he had done was ask her to plead on Li Mingrou’s behalf, yet she was using it to coerce him.
He could not understand whether she truly wanted a divorce or simply did not want to help Li Mingrou.
Xie Yuheng knew how deeply she had once cared about him. He refused to believe Ji Hanyi truly meant what she was saying now. In the past, even a single glance from him had been enough to make her smile.
She was merely throwing another tantrum.
Could she really bear to divorce him? Could he really bear to give up the Xie Family?
She couldn’t.
A surge of anger suddenly rose within him, and he shouted for someone to bring him a brush.
Xie Yuheng’s voice boomed through the room.
The usually mild yet aloof Eldest Master of the Xie Family almost never lost his temper like this.
The maidservants and matrons waiting outside trembled with fear when they heard him.
Xie Yuheng’s personal attendant was the first to react. He hurried to fetch a brush and had one of the matrons take it inside.
The matrons in the outer room spent some time pushing one another forward before finally sending an older matron in.
The instant the calligraphy brush was placed in Xie Yuheng’s hand, his cold gaze fell on Ji Hanyi. His voice was icy. “Hanyi, think carefully. Once I sign and seal it, there will be no turning back.”
“If you obey me and conduct yourself properly, I’ll continue to treat you well in the future.”
After hearing that, the matron who had entered dared not linger for even a moment. She quietly retreated outside.
Ji Hanyi, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief.
Her gamble had paid off after all.
What could possibly matter more to Xie Yuheng than Li Mingrou?
This was the moment she had been waiting for.
Ji Hanyi nodded without hesitation. “Rest assured, Eldest Master. I won’t regret this.”
With that, Ji Hanyi stood and spread the Divorce Agreement over the small table beside the bed. She asked with her usual thoughtfulness, “Would Eldest Master prefer to sign here or at the low kang table?”
The hand with which Xie Yuheng held the brush began to tremble.
He had only meant to frighten Ji Hanyi into backing down. He had never expected her to agree without the slightest hesitation.
Only he knew how violently his heart was pounding.
He stared fixedly at the Divorce Agreement spread across the small table, then shifted his gaze to Ji Hanyi.
She had already risen from the bed. A pale green cross-collared robe was draped over her, and her long hair had been gathered over one shoulder. Her pitch-black eyes looked straight at him, yet not a trace of any emotion he wanted to see appeared in them.
Was she sad or heartbroken?
Was she panicked or regretful, nervous or worried?
Was she resentful, perhaps, or did she blame him?
Xie Yuheng could see none of it.
All he saw in those ever-clear eyes was something utterly unlike before. He could not say what it was. He only knew that there was not a trace of what he wanted to find there.
Only then did it belatedly dawn on him that, at some point, Ji Hanyi had begun drifting farther and farther away. He could no longer control her, and she no longer seemed bound to him.
Now, she truly seemed not to care in the slightest about divorcing him.
Xie Yuheng stepped forward. It was only three or four paces, yet each step felt impossibly heavy.
Ji Hanyi sat quietly to one side the entire time, waiting for Xie Yuheng to set his brush to the Divorce Agreement.
When he finally stopped before the small table, his hand halted just before the brush touched the paper. He turned to look at Ji Hanyi. “Have you thought this through?”
“Is this really what you want?”
“Once I put brush to paper, don’t even think about coming back.”
Ji Hanyi paused. She could not decipher the emotions in Xie Yuheng’s eyes. She merely nodded, her lovely voice carrying not the slightest hesitation. “Please grant me this, Eldest Master Xie.”
Xie Yuheng’s hand jerked. A drop of ink fell from the brush tip that had hovered in midair for so long, landing squarely on the signature line.
Xie Yuheng lowered his eyes to the ink blot. Then he abruptly threw down the brush, his voice carrying an urgency and relief even he did not notice. “This paper is stained. I’ll sign another one next time.”
With that, Xie Yuheng fled in something close to disgrace.
He flung aside the curtain, pushed through the crystal-bead screen, strode through the outer room, and stepped into the bitter wind.
He had not even put on a cloak, yet he could not feel the cold at all.
He staggered out of the courtyard and along the flagstone path. When he reached the rockery beside the lake, he braced one hand against it, his eyes reddening.
He still remembered that instant — the one that had just passed. In that instant, he had finally understood, truly and completely, that Ji Hanyi meant to leave him.
Ji Hanyi wanted to divorce him.
His attendant came running after him with a sable cloak in hand, his voice anxious. “Master, please put on your cloak first.”
Xie Yuheng shoved the attendant’s hand away and moved closer to the lake.
The cold wind blew in gusts beneath the moon hanging high in the sky. He lowered his gaze to his reflection in the lake and stared at the man looking back at him.
That man seemed like a stranger.
Ji Hanyi had been someone he had barely spared a thought for in the past. Why, then, when she said she wanted a divorce, was he so unable to let her go?
Perhaps he had grown accustomed to her yielding to him in every way. Deep down, he had never imagined that one day she might cease to be his wife.
Even though he could not make sense of what he truly felt for Li Mingrou, he had never once considered letting Ji Hanyi leave him.
Seeing Xie Yuheng swaying precariously at the edge of the lake, his personal attendant was terrified. He dropped to his knees, clutched Xie Yuheng’s legs, and cried, “Master, let’s go back. It’s cold outside.”
Amid the attendant’s sobs, Xie Yuheng slowly came back to his senses. He closed his eyes, then turned and staggered toward the study.
Yet his mind was filled with the image of Ji Hanyi asking him to sign without the slightest hesitation.
Ji Hanyi had once cared about him more than anyone. How could she possibly leave him…