Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Old Madam Xie knew in her heart that she had been partial after all.

For the sake of her grandson, she had wanted to keep Ji Hanyi here despite knowing how unhappy she had been in the Xie Family.

Old Madam Xie let out a deep sigh and looked at Ji Hanyi. “Hanyi, you did nothing wrong. Heng’er is the one who has wronged you.”

“He will treat you well from now on.”

“I know life hasn’t been easy for you in the Xie Family. I’ll have three shops under my name transferred to you. I’ll also have someone take you to the storeroom to choose from the jewelry and hair ornaments there. They are all yours. Take whatever you like.”

“I already have one foot in the grave. Those things are of no use to me anymore. They would all be left to you eventually anyway.”

Ji Hanyi’s eyes stung and burned. Her throat tightened so badly that she could not get a single word out.

She shook her head. “I don’t want any of that. I only want to leave the Xie Family.”

Old Madam Xie paused and studied Ji Hanyi. “Hanyi, do you truly think your life will be better after leaving the Xie Family?”

Ji Hanyi clenched her hands. “Perhaps I won’t live well after leaving the Xie Family, but I won’t look back.”

Old Madam Xie’s compassionate gaze was filled with helplessness. “Hanyi, you’re too young.”

“You have no idea how you’re supposed to live after a divorce.”

“Go back and think it over carefully.”

With that, Old Madam Xie had the nanny beside her help her to her feet. She walked past Ji Hanyi and entered the inner chamber.

Ji Hanyi watched Old Madam Xie’s figure disappear behind the curtain. She blinked, then silently walked outside.

The sky had darkened, and heavy snow was falling. The lanterns beneath the eaves swayed in the wind. Silence blanketed the surroundings, leaving only scattered specks of white amid the vast haze.

Rongchun came over and draped a moon-white silver fox cloak around Ji Hanyi’s shoulders. She took in Ji Hanyi’s expression and wanted to say something, but she did not know where to begin.

Although she had not been inside the room just now, she had a general idea of what had happened.

That Li Mingrou truly knew how to make Young Madam miserable.

Ji Hanyi lowered her head as Rongchun tied the cloak’s ribbons. A nanny stepped up beside her to shield her from the wind, then placed the hand warmer she had kept heated into Ji Hanyi’s hands.

After straightening the cloak, Rongchun looked up at Ji Hanyi. Her normally gentle, beautiful features were now tinged with exhaustion. Her almond-shaped eyes had lost their light, and her cheeks were pale. Rongchun’s heart ached at the sight, and she asked softly, “Where are we going now?”

Where could they go?

Ji Hanyi slowly raised her head and gazed at the snow filling the sky. Where else could she return to?

But she understood that this would never be where she belonged. Sooner or later, she would have to leave. She no longer needed to concern herself with maintaining appearances. That veneer of respectability should have been torn away long ago.

Tonight was the time to leave.

Ji Hanyi breathed out a faint cloud of white mist. Her soft voice dissolved into the night. “Rongchun, I feel like eating sweet rice dumplings.”

For some reason, Rongchun’s eyes instantly grew hot. She hurriedly nodded. “I’ll go with you, Young Madam.”

Ji Hanyi lowered her gaze to the steps illuminated by the nearby lanterns. Lifting the hem of her skirt, she slowly descended one step at a time.

From inside the room, Old Madam Xie watched Ji Hanyi’s departing figure. Only after a long while did she sigh. “I have wronged her too.”

“But one day, she will understand my intentions.”

Ji Hanyi returned to her courtyard, but before she even stepped through the gate, she could already sense the chaos within.

There were hurried footsteps, a jumble of voices, and the faint sound of Madam Lin sobbing.

Ji Hanyi stood at the courtyard gate. Everything around her seemed distant, as though she were watching a farce that was intimately connected to her yet had nothing to do with her at all.

A maid at the gate saw Ji Hanyi standing there motionless for a long time and said quietly, “This spot catches the wind, Young Madam. It’s cold. You should go inside.”

Ji Hanyi did not feel particularly cold. Perhaps she simply wanted to take one final look at this courtyard — the courtyard where she had lived for three years.

A thin layer of snow had already settled on her shoulders. Rongchun hurriedly raised an umbrella over her, then quietly remained by her side.

When they entered the courtyard, there were no servants outside. Everyone had crowded into the main room. Maids carried basins of hot water inside, then emerged with basins of bloody water. A physician hurried in with his medicine case, while another maid crouched by the door, heating more water.

Nanny Lin walked over to Ji Hanyi and said in a low voice, “Eldest Master’s injuries are serious. When I went inside, Eldest Master kept murmuring Young Madam’s name and saying he wanted to see you. Would you like to go in and see Eldest Master now, Young Madam?”

Ji Hanyi stood beneath the eaves and held out a hand to catch the swirling snow. She slowly lifted her gaze to the murky, mist-shrouded sky. Her breath clouded white amid the chaotic noise behind her.

Nanny Lin’s quiet voice continued beside her ear. “Just now, Eldest Master said he wouldn’t let them apply medicine unless he got to see Young Madam. First Madam was beside herself, but Eldest Master refused to listen no matter how she tried to persuade him.”

Even Rongchun found the whole thing ridiculous.

Only moments ago, in Old Madam’s quarters, Eldest Master had been willing to let himself be beaten to death rather than give up on taking Li Mingrou as a concubine. Yet now he acted as though Young Madam were indispensable. Could a man’s heart really be split in half?

A faint, mocking smile also touched Ji Hanyi’s lips. She merely told Nanny Lin to go inside and attend to him first. She needed to make a trip to the study.

Nanny Lin froze, unable to make sense of Young Madam.

She knew what had happened in the courtyard that morning, but she did not know what had happened since, how the matter had been handled, or why Eldest Master had been beaten into a bloody mess.
But these were not matters a mere servant like her could speculate about or question, so she dared not say anything more. Yet as she looked at the Young Madam’s impassive expression and saw that she had no intention of visiting the Eldest Master despite his grave injuries, sorrow welled up in her heart again.

In the past, the Young Madam would be beside herself with worry if the Eldest Master came home even a little late. Now the Eldest Master was half-dead, yet the Young Madam would not even ask after him. Vaguely sensing that something had changed, she suddenly murmured to Ji Hanyi without preamble, “The Eldest Master does care about the Young Madam.”

Ji Hanyi paused and turned to look at Nanny Lin.

She smiled faintly and simply told Nanny Lin to withdraw.

Nanny Lin faltered, realizing she could say no more, and hurriedly retreated.

Ji Hanyi did not go to the main house to visit Xie Yuheng. She did not even set foot in its outer room. After standing beneath the corridor for a moment, she returned to the room by the rear veranda.

She instructed Rongchun to pack her belongings: her paintings, the books she usually read, the copybooks she used for calligraphy practice, the writing supplies she had purchased herself, and her clothes and jewelry. Everything was to be packed into trunks so it could be taken away easily tomorrow without any further fuss.

While Rongchun packed, Ji Hanyi took stock of the small casket of valuables, silver, and jewelry she could take with her today. Once she was done, she went to the flower stand and gazed at the hibiscus she had tended.

The branches in the pot were thick and sturdy, still brimming with vitality. By next year, they would be lush and flourishing again.

Her fingertips gently brushed a branch. Even though it had withered, life still remained within its stem.

The heavy weight in her heart finally seemed to ease a little. Her present predicament was nothing more than a cage. As long as she kept moving forward one step at a time, the cage confining her would cease to be a cage.

Ji Hanyi stood there for a while before picking up the white cat rubbing against her ankles and sitting down at the writing desk. A charcoal brazier burned warmly beside her. With one hand stroking the cat’s warm neck, she lifted her brush with the other and began to write.

She recorded everything that had happened at the Xie Residence that day, then had Rongchun arrange for the letter to be delivered.

But the letter had only just been sent when First Madam Xie stormed into Ji Hanyi’s quarters.

She strode into the room, her habitually stern and calculating gaze sweeping across it before finally settling on Ji Hanyi.

She raised a hand and pointed at Ji Hanyi as she advanced on her, her eyes red-rimmed. “Yuheng is in that state, yet he is still calling for you even now. How can you hide here and refuse to see him even once?”

“How can you be so utterly heartless?”

Ji Hanyi calmly raised her eyes to Madam Lin and stated the truth. “I am not the one who did this to the Eldest Master.”

Madam Lin froze, her finger trembling faintly.

No longer willing to waste words, she seized Ji Hanyi and dragged her outside. “Now that something has happened to Yuheng, I have no time to punish you. Once Yuheng recovers and Mingrou bears me a grandson, you can go to the mountains and devote yourself to Buddhist cultivation.”

“What use is there in keeping you at the Xie Residence anyway? Who are you putting on this show of sleeping alone for? If you do not want to live properly with Yuheng, then I will grant you your wish.”

Madam Lin’s grip was painfully tight, and she dragged Ji Hanyi along with such force that Ji Hanyi stumbled repeatedly. Every maid they passed lowered her head, not daring to intervene.

Rongchun followed in a panic all the way to the main house.

Madam Lin gave Ji Hanyi a hard shove, sending her stumbling to Xie Yuheng’s bedside. She spoke through gritted teeth. “Take a good look at your husband. His entire body is covered in wounds, but he refuses treatment. He will not let anyone tend to him until he sees you.”

Madam Lin choked up as she continued, “What has the Xie Family ever done to wrong you? Will you only be satisfied once you have driven him to his death?”

The faint smells of blood and medicine mingled in the room. The charcoal fire burned fiercely, and the windows were tightly shut, making the air stifling and oppressive.

Looking somewhat disheveled, Ji Hanyi braced herself against the edge of the bed. When she lifted her gaze, she found herself looking directly at the pale Xie Yuheng lying there.

Xie Yuheng’s eyes were red and bloodshot. The moment he saw Ji Hanyi, tears gradually welled in them. He reached out, trying to touch her face, which was just as pale and cold as his own.

Xie Yuheng blinked. His bloodstained lips parted, and his hoarse voice trembled faintly. “Hanyi… I’m sorry…”

Ji Hanyi blinked hard. What did such an apology mean to Xie Yuheng that he insisted on saying it?

Again and again, he hurt her. Again and again, he apologized.

It was a cruel game of death by a thousand cuts. He was carving into her flesh with a dull blade, yet somehow, he was the one who appeared most pitiful now.

Ji Hanyi avoided Xie Yuheng’s outstretched hand and used the bed frame to steady herself as she stood upright. She no longer felt anything for him. Even her grief and heartache were gone.

She shook her head. “There is no need for the Eldest Master to say this to me now. The Eldest Master’s decisions are his own to make.”

But Xie Yuheng suddenly began to cry. He struggled desperately to push himself up from the bed. Though he collapsed again and again, he continued trying to rise and reach for the hem of Ji Hanyi’s robe.

Ji Hanyi took a step back.

Unable to bear the sight any longer, Madam Lin hurried over with tears in her eyes to support Xie Yuheng. Then she roared at Ji Hanyi, “How can you be so heartless…”