Chapter 118
Chapter 118
Inside the East Warm Pavilion, everyone except Rong Shu-whether old maids or young servant girls-looked up at the words “letter dissolving the engagement” and exchanged glances.
Every face was filled with surprise.
Seeing this, Rong Shu quietly dismissed the servants and closed the pavilion doors behind them.
Ren Fengjue knew that, after being delayed until now, this matter ought to have an outcome.
Even so, he still looked toward Ren Xuan. “Father, do you agree to this?”
Ren Xuan murmured in thought before saying, “I spent all of last night thinking it over. I feel that what you said before was right. This matter of being betrothed before birth is indeed unfair.”
“Since… Ximo does not wish to marry you, I have nothing to say.”
Ren Fengjue felt that something about those words sounded very strange, yet he could not pinpoint what was wrong.
He looked toward Lady Rong again. “What does Mother think?”
Lady Rong sighed softly before she said, “Ximo is an honest and straightforward child. I truly like her. But marriage is indeed not something one can force on another. Therefore, I have nothing to say either.”
“…”
Only then did Ren Fengjue realize what felt wrong.
These were clearly words he had once spoken himself, and now they were coming from their mouths instead.
So it was not that reason could not be understood. It was that, when it came to him, it simply had not been “understood.”
He fell silent for a moment, then glanced at Xia Ximo across from him. The corner of his mouth twitched faintly.
“In that case, this letter dissolving the engagement…”
“Write it now.”
Xia Ximo rose and directly took the brush, ink, and paper that she had asked Rong Shu to prepare earlier from the desk beside them.
She placed them all before Ren Fengjue.
Looking at those things, his feelings grew rather complicated.
But under the gaze of three pairs of eyes, he still slowly picked up the brush.
A letter dissolving an engagement was not a divorce letter. It could be brief and to the point, explaining the matter in only a few words.
Ren Fengjue often held a brush in his daily life, yet never had he been as “at a loss for words” as he was at this moment.
After holding it in for quite some time, he finally brought this engagement, which had lasted sixteen long years, to an end.
When he signed his name at the bottom, a faint trace of regret unexpectedly swept through his heart…
“Miss Xia.”
Ren Fengjue handed over the document, black ink on white paper.
When Xia Ximo reached out to take it, she unexpectedly said two words to him for the first time ever. “Thank you.”
This should have been the first time he had heard those two words from her mouth.
He had never thought it would be under such circumstances.
“There is no need to thank me.”
Suppressing the indescribable emotion in his heart, Ren Fengjue deliberately spoke to her in a relaxed tone. “If Miss Xia has any need of me in the future, or of the Marquis Mansion, simply say so.”
“Mm.”
The instant she obtained the letter dissolving the engagement, Xia Ximo immediately felt a sense of “reality” in her body.
That sensation made the ground beneath her feet feel even more solid, and warmth returned to every limb and bone in an instant.
Her eyes and ears became clear, her mind bright and lucid.
The sensations of her body and the changes in her emotions both became sharper.
So this was what it felt like for soul and body to truly merge.
Inside the lamp, Wuyou could not help feeling happy for her. “This is wonderful. Now that you’ve fulfilled ‘Xia Ximo’s’ final wish, this body can be considered completely yours.”
In other words, from this moment on, she could finally be said to possess this body in its entirety.
Although the engagement had been dissolved, Lady Rong still wanted Xia Ximo to stay in the residence a little longer.
Meanwhile, when Ren Fengjue remembered that Yan Zhengchu and Yu Lang were still in the residence, he went to the North Courtyard Guest Rooms to look for them.
Vice Minister Yu was still annoyed that, after being invaded by the Baleful Qi of that ghostly thing last night, he had fallen into a deathlike unconsciousness and missed everything that happened in the Illusionary Realm.
But the moment he saw Lord Ren, he discovered that the man actually looked even more dispirited than he did.
His interest instantly returned. “Did Lord Ren quarrel with Miss Xia again this morning?”
Ren Fengjue heard him use the word “again,” and his brows drew together slightly.
“Listen to you. You make it sound as if she and I are always at odds.”
Yu Lang smiled. “Not always, exactly. The last time I saw it was the morning we learned of Zheng Daoyuan’s death.”
He remembered it with perfect clarity.
So clearly that even Ren Fengjue could not help thinking back for a moment.
But he quickly came to his senses. “Nothing of the sort. Utter nonsense.”
Yu Lang, however, had plenty of confidence. “I am not talking nonsense. Even Guan Yue noticed.”
“…”
“So what is it this time?”
Ren Fengjue shot him a glance and had no desire whatsoever to bring it up. He merely asked, “Where has Daoist Yan gone? Why isn’t he in the guest room?”
Yu Lang replied, “From what he said, he wanted to take a walk by the lake.”
The lake?
Ren Fengjue immediately thought of South River Courtyard.
He supposed that was the place Yan Zhengchu truly wanted to see.
At that thought, he suddenly remembered the “sword” the ghost had mentioned last night.
Could Yan Zhengchu know something about it?
As he pondered this, the frustration he had nowhere to vent was temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.
Ren Fengjue decided to go to South River Courtyard as well. Seeing this, Yu Lang hurried after him.
When the two of them arrived at Tingxue Lake in the Rear Garden, there was no sign of Yan Zhengchu by the water.
Just as Ren Fengjue had predicted.
At that moment, Daoist Yan was standing in a daze before the gates of South River Courtyard, but he had not gone inside.
Yet even without entering, he could still sense the aura of his Little Martial Uncle, Ren Yao.
He thought back to Mount Yunhe in the past. When the sect had been declining day by day, it was only because a stunning talent like Ren Yao had appeared that the world remembered them once more…
And after Ren Yao “vanished,” Mount Yunhe fell silent again.
Yan Zhengchu stood before South River Courtyard for a long while. Only when Ren Fengjue and Yu Lang arrived did he slowly come back to himself.
“Daoist Yan, let’s go in and take a look.”
As if he had seen straight through Yan Zhengchu’s thoughts, Ren Fengjue asked nothing and simply walked in first.
That morning, Adong had come to him and said that last night, he had seen an unfamiliar woman leave the North Courtyard. He had followed her all the way here, only for her trail to suddenly vanish.
Based on his description, that person was very likely Manager Bai.
Could she have come here for Little Uncle’s sword as well?
Yan Zhengchu had originally not dared to enter.
But on second thought, he had already entered the Marquis Mansion and met the Marquis. What difference would one more South River Courtyard make?
He might as well go back and apologize to his master for everything at once.
Ren Fengjue pushed open the courtyard gates. Everything was exactly as he remembered it, without the slightest change.
More than ten years had passed.
The Marquis Mansion had weathered the years and undergone several rounds of repairs.
The Marquis had grown old, and he had grown up.
Only this South River Courtyard remained as it had always been, unchanged year after year.
Behind him, Yan Zhengchu and Yu Lang marveled at the room full of objects that looked like both ritual artifacts and toys.
What kind of mind could have devised such ingenious designs?
To Yan Zhengchu, every single artifact seemed like a treasure. “Wonderful…”
Ren Fengjue looked at him with a smile. “Daoist Master, if you like them, why not choose one or two that suit you and take them for your own use?”
“Truly?”
Yan Zhengchu’s eyes lit up. He had taken a liking to a delicate, palm-sized Bagua Jade Gourd and was about to reach for it, but then he stopped. “Forget it. If I take it, I am afraid I will only be scolded even more harshly when I return.”
Ren Fengjue, however, directly pressed the jade gourd into his hands. “Leaving these things here is like letting bright pearls gather dust. Better to give it to you, Daoist Master. At least then it can be put to good use.”
Only after hearing this did Yan Zhengchu happily put the item away.
Taking the chance, Ren Fengjue asked, “Daoist Master, do you know whether my Little Uncle had a sword?”