Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Ji Hanyi stared at Xie Yuheng with wide, shocked eyes, unable to believe those words had come from his mouth.
That gentle, refined young gentleman who had always been somewhat aloof — she had never imagined he would one day say such things.
She struggled to push him away, but Xie Yuheng clamped his hands around her arms and forced her step by step into the study. Then he seized her face and drove her backward, an unfamiliar sneer on his face as his fingers dug into her smooth cheeks.
“Hanyi, you know how easily that face of yours seduces men, don’t you? Such a beautiful face, with skin as smooth as cream. What man wouldn’t like it?”
As he spoke, Xie Yuheng leaned over her and forced her against the edge of the long desk. His voice was filled with the reckless vindictiveness of a man with nothing left to lose.
“And this body of yours is very good at pleasing men. Do you know what I like most about you? I like how soft and smooth you are in bed. When you’re aroused, you’re even more wanton than the women in a brothel…”
Xie Yuheng stared fixedly at Ji Hanyi’s expression as he lowered his head and whispered the rest into her ear, using those crude, obscene words to carve her apart inch by inch.
He smiled at her in vengeful satisfaction, his hands clamped tightly around her wrists so she could not move. Eyes narrowed, he watched the petite body before him tremble, watched her face turn pale and fear fill her eyes.
Only when those incomparably beautiful eyes glistened with tears did he finally feel a sliver of vindication.
Ignoring Ji Hanyi’s struggles, he buried his face in the soft, fragrant curve of her neck and breathed deeply of her scent. Then, in a hoarse voice, he uttered the cruelest, most degrading words he could use against her.
“Hanyi, what other man has seen this body of yours?”
Xie Yuheng raised his head and quietly met Ji Hanyi’s eyes, vindictiveness lingering in his gaze.
She looked ready to collapse beneath the humiliation, her full red lips bitten until they bled. Only then did he feel as though he had reclaimed the pride she had trampled underfoot.
Of course he knew that, given Ji Hanyi’s nature, she could never have done such a thing. He simply wanted to humiliate her.
She could only belong to him.
She could only ever belong to him.
Ji Hanyi trembled from head to toe. She was nowhere near strong enough to resist Xie Yuheng. Fighting to keep the tears brimming in her eyes from falling, she stubbornly continued to meet his gaze.
She stubbornly endured the pain of his fingers crushing her wrists and blinked hard, her delicate face drained of all color.
Xie Yuheng’s voice sounded beside her ear like a demon’s whisper.
“Hanyi, as long as you’re willing, we can still make things right.”
“We can go back to the way we were.”
With that, Xie Yuheng straightened and looked down at the woman bracing herself against the desk, barely able to remain standing.
The candlelight flickered wildly, and her slender body trembled.
Then, before he could react, Ji Hanyi raised her hand and slapped him across the face.
The slap rang out sharply, and it hurt.
Xie Yuheng stared at Ji Hanyi in disbelief. When he saw the redness around her eyes and the tears glittering within them, he feebly clenched his fists, the pain coursing through his body draining all his strength.
“Hanyi, even if you’re unhappy with me, what terrible wrong have I committed?”
“Even if I had multiple wives and concubines, as a man from an aristocratic family, what would I have done wrong?”
“At the very least, I promised that you would forever be my only wife. At the very least, even now, you are still the only woman by my side.”
“For all my faults, compared with other men, am I really so much worse?”
“What other man would make you the promise I did? What sort of man do you think you could marry after leaving me? Even if you could marry again, you’re no longer a virgin. What man wouldn’t care about that? And even if someone truly were willing to marry you, wouldn’t you still have to compete with a host of other women for him?”
“Is that what you want?”
Now that he had vented his anger, an air of defeat settled over Xie Yuheng. Saying those things to Ji Hanyi had brought him a brief rush of satisfaction, but her slap had knocked it all out of him.
The pain in his face reminded him of what he had just done. Even he had not recognized himself in that moment.
He should never have said those things.
Ji Hanyi clutched the edge of the desk and struggled to suppress her trembling emotions. Fighting back a sob, she said, “Even if all I can be is a concubine, even if I never marry at all, I will not stay here and let you humiliate me.”
Xie Yuheng staggered back a step in disbelief. He stared blankly at her, his body swaying.
He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, then lowered his gaze to Ji Hanyi.
“Hanyi, don’t say such things in anger.”
“I shouldn’t have said those things just now, but you need to calm down and think about this. Things between us haven’t come anywhere near the point of no return.”
“Tomorrow is Grandmother’s birthday. Think it over carefully.”
“Hanyi, I am willing to spend the rest of my life with you. I am willing to keep my promises to you.”
After Xie Yuheng finished speaking, he gave the woman before him another long look. Her head remained bowed.
He waited for a long time, but she never spoke. The hood she had been wearing had fallen to the floor during their struggle, and a few loose strands of hair now hung against her cheek.
Her delicate profile was still fair and lovely. The marks his fingers had left from gripping her cloak remained clearly visible.
He raised a hand, wanting to smooth them away, but he had barely reached toward her when she recoiled sharply, staring at him in terror.
Pain flashed through Xie Yuheng’s eyes, and his heart twisted.
His hand hung suspended in midair. Only after a long while did he speak. “Hanyi, I’m sorry…”
Ji Hanyi neither looked at him nor responded. She merely lowered her eyes to the tabletop, lost in thought.
A long time later, he heard her hoarse, faint voice. “Could Eldest Master please leave for now? I truly don’t want to discuss this any further.”
Xie Yuheng silently lowered his hand. A suffocating weight clogged his chest, something he felt he would never be able to release.
He looked at Ji Hanyi in dejection and said, “Hanyi, even if I truly did wrong, you should still give me a chance to make amends instead of denying me any chance at all.”
“I hope you’ll think this through carefully. Divorce is no trifling matter.”
Only after saying this did Xie Yuheng stumble out, his steps unsteady.
Once Xie Yuheng was gone, Ji Hanyi looked at Rongchun, who entered with worry written all over her face, and whispered, “Rongchun, let me be alone for a while.”
Rongchun froze halfway through the doorway. Biting her lip in distress, she silently backed out again and gently closed the door.
She had wanted to intervene earlier, but the two men accompanying Eldest Master had firmly blocked her. Now that she saw her mistress in such pain, her own heart ached terribly.
Only a single lamp burned in the study. Ji Hanyi slowly sat down and looked at the two boxes Xie Yuheng had brought.
Both boxes stood open. One contained banknotes and silver, while the other was filled with jewelry.
The sight of them filled Ji Hanyi with disgust. She reached out and closed the boxes, then slowly slumped over the desk and buried her face in her sleeves.
She was not heartbroken. She did not want to cry.
She only felt so sick with revulsion that she could barely breathe.
Her body was still trembling with lingering fear.
Every place Xie Yuheng had touched continued to tremble.
Outside the door, Xie Yuheng had not left.
He stared blankly at the silhouette cast against the window, watching her shadow bent over the desk, and found himself almost unable to move.
He recalled what he had seen when he first entered Ji Hanyi’s study today.
The study was not large, yet everything in it had revealed a Ji Hanyi who was a complete stranger to him.
It turned out he had never understood her at all.
Several pots of begonias sat on the flower stand.
He had assumed she did not care for begonias all that much. Back then, when he saw how upset she was, he had meant to make it up to her. But she had never mentioned the matter again. As it turned out, she had never stopped thinking about those flowers. She had simply kept them all here.
He had never known.
On the desk beneath the window lay a landscape painting, not yet half finished.
Jagged rocks rose in an unbroken chain while a mountain stream cut through the stone, its waters surging onward.
The bold, seasoned brushwork was unlike what one might expect from a woman. Pale ink washes formed the undertones, overlaid with a thin layer of azurite. The technique was skillful, and the painting possessed both grandeur and depth.
Xie Yuheng had never known that Ji Hanyi could paint so well.
She even kept a cat.
Everything in that room felt utterly unfamiliar to him.
Only then did he understand that he had never truly known Ji Hanyi.
Only then did he realize how profoundly he had neglected her.
But Xie Yuheng thought none of that mattered. He knew Ji Hanyi would eventually come to her senses. Where else in this world could she live as securely and comfortably as she did here?
One of his colleagues had told him that no matter how furious a woman became, her anger would eventually fade. As long as he dragged things out long enough, the matter would ultimately come to nothing.
Though Xie Yuheng did feel guilty toward Ji Hanyi, he believed they still had a long life ahead of them. Sooner or later, he would have a chance to make it up to her.