Chapter 54 p2
Xie Yao slowly patted the dust from the soles of her feet, put on her embroidered shoes, and did the same for the other one.
Yuli’s heart was torn. He was so meticulous with her. Why did he want to kill the people she cared about?
He stood up. Yuli held his wrist and looked at him. “Husband, tell me, is Ye Weiqing still alive?”
Yuli’s eyes trembled, showing the complexity in her heart.
“What will you do if he is dead?”
Yuli’s hand holding his loosened.
The fingers behind Xie Yao’s back tightened, and his knuckles turned white. At this moment, he had the impulse to kill the people in the courtyard, kill the cat, burn the courtyard, and take her back to the palace and lock her up.
But he had had such impulses before, and he could control them.
“He is still alive,” Xie Yao said.
Yuli’s stopped breathing returned to normal.
Xie Yao sneered. It turned out that she also thought he was abnormal.
Hearing him laugh, Yuli looked at him, but there was no smile on his face. He hadn’t killed Ye Weiqing. Why was he so abnormal that it frightened her?
Yuli looked at him but couldn’t see any clues. She reached for him again, but he quickly took a half step back.
Yuli’s hand was empty.
It was as if her heart was also empty for a moment.
Yuli pulled her hand back and forced a smile at him. “Can we have a good talk?”
“I know you’ve hidden your identity. I was content with the status quo and didn’t ask. It was I who neglected you. Now you tell me, and I won’t blame you no matter what.”
“You already guessed, didn’t you?”
Xie Yao’s face was cold.
A trace of pain suddenly appeared in Yuli’s heart. She couldn’t help but retreat, but she took two deep breaths and still maintained a smile. “I want you to tell me in person, your identity, your past experiences. We are husband and wife, the closest people in the world. We should trust and cherish each other. Husband, believe me, okay?”
Xie Yao looked at her, his eyes a mixture of dark currents, which made his face look a little distorted.
Yuli was also very scared. The past that could force such a strong man to have a mental illness must not be simple.
Yuli was afraid that she couldn’t bear it, but she was not alone. She looked at him and encouraged, “Don’t underestimate me. Actually, I have seen a lot and have heard of all kinds of people. Perhaps your experience is just a little strange, and it’s no big deal. And you’ve remembered it for so many years and nothing has happened. I’m just helping you share a little of it and face it with you. You don’t have to worry so much. Tell me. Mingyan.”
Xie Yao was almost drowned in her gentle and soft words. He was startled awake when he heard the name “Mingyan.”
These two words had nothing to do with him.
They were only worthy of her.
Seeing his expression turn dead again, Yuli frowned. “If you don’t want to talk today, we can talk another day. We have a long time. Until you want to talk. Just don’t overthink it before then. It’s too late. Let’s go back to our room and sleep, okay?”
Yuli was apprehensive. She wanted to hug him, but this time he took a big step back. “You go to sleep.”
“I still have things to do,” he said, and then walked away.
Yuli froze in place, looking at his back.
Xie Yao did not look back, until he disappeared outside the hanging flower gate.
*
That night, Yuli was almost awake until dawn.
In the morning, she got up and heard Xiyun and Jingyu talking.
“You didn’t even take off your outer clothes when you slept last night, and you suddenly got up in the middle of the night. Did you catch a cold? Are you sick again?” Xiyun said to Jingyu.
After a moment of silence, she heard Jingyu reply, “Probably. I’m sick.”
“I was too tired last night and slept too soundly. I didn’t pull your quilt, did I?”
“No.”
“Then you rest. I’ll go out with the Mistress today,” Xiyun said with a smile. “It’s a pity you won’t get to see the grand occasion at the shop.”
Jingyu was silent.
Yuli walked out from behind the rockery. Xiyun immediately came up to her when she saw her.
She probably thought that she was concerned about Huayan Fang, which was why she had gotten up so early.
Yuli maintained a normal demeanor and said with a smile, “I was a little tired yesterday. Xiyun, go to the shop today and see how things are. Are everyone tired? If there are too many people, close the shop early. Anyway, we don’t have to worry about selling the flowers.”
Xiyun nodded in agreement and went to have someone serve breakfast with a happy face.
Yuli and Jingyu looked at each other, their eyebrows simultaneously furrowed with gravity.
Yuli had promised Xie Yao not to go out and had stayed in the residence all day. Xiyun was not there, and Jingyu stayed with her, not leaving her side.
Neither of them mentioned what had happened yesterday, but they were both on edge, especially Jingyu, who had a premonition that she might not live for long.
Yuli’s thoughts were more complicated, but she couldn’t say much to Jingyu. She spent the whole morning in the study, practicing calligraphy.
After noon, Xiyun returned.
Yuli and Jingyu both came to greet her and asked about the situation at the shop.
Seeing the two of them nervous, Xiyun told them a lot about the grand occasion at the shop and finally said, “But Mr. Ye’s fingers are injured and are wrapped in thick gauze. He can’t work properly, so Lizhen took the initiative to close the shop and gave everyone half a day off.”
Only then was Yuli relieved. It seemed that Xie Yao had not lied to her.
But what she had seen of him last night was unprecedentedly strange, which always made her uneasy.
All of this must be related to his past experiences. Asking Jingyu would be fruitless.
Yuli combined what she had seen and heard before and made her own deductions.
According to the storyteller in the teahouse, he came from a large family but had been living outside in his early years. Later, he had joined the army and had become a world-famous young general before being recognized by his family.
Could it be that he had been abandoned at that time, had suffered a lot outside, and that was why he hated his own family?
Perhaps his mother was of low birth, and he was the result of his father’s impulse. According to what his father had said, his mother should not have given birth to him. Yuli felt that this was very close to the truth.
After that, his mother might have been driven out of the residence and should have been left to fend for herself. But her mother had given birth to him and had raised him through great hardship. Before she could enjoy his success, she had passed away, which was why he hated the Xie family.
In order to make up for the regret of his mother’s early death in his childhood, he had presumptuously wanted to give her the best of everything in the world.
After his mother’s death, he had joined the army and had become a famous general, but he had been treated unfairly and could only be recognized by his ancestors. He had relied on his family’s glory to reach the peak of a military general, but his grandfather, who had valued him, had passed away, and he was not trusted by others, and had fallen from the altar again.
At this thought, a sudden pain shot through Yuli’s heart.
According to the storyteller, the time of his grandfather’s death was the same as the time he had been stranded in Xihe County.
Who on earth had poisoned him, not only making him unable to move and speak, but also disfiguring him?
Yuli couldn’t think any further. She had lightly passed over the hardships before because she had not seen the details. But his miserable state in Xihe County, she had seen with her own eyes.
Previously, she had only treated him as a stranger, and later as a male lead with a protagonist’s halo. Now he was her husband, not a respectful, cold, and distant one, but one who was warm and affectionate every day, with whom she was intimate.
His smooth skin had once been corroded and burned by medicine. His eyelids were stuck together and he could not see. His lips were stuck together and he could not eat or speak, let alone move his body. She didn’t know how much it had hurt.
Yuli unconsciously touched the jade pendant at her waist. A cold shiver ran through her body, and her breathing tightened.
She thought of the old scar on his waist. He had not been left with any marks after being disfigured. How had that old scar been caused?
Yuli didn’t dare to think, and even shrank back a little. Her current life was still bearable. It was better to just pretend she didn’t know.
But what about Xie Yao? Did he not tell her just to protect her, to let her live a life of wealth and peace of mind, without having to bear the pain and blood of his journey?
He had gone from being a child abandoned by his family to being above tens of thousands of people, which was no different from a child from the slums becoming the president of a country, and a country with a strict class system as if there were a reproductive barrier.
How strong did he have to be, and what kind of pain did he have to go through? Yuli couldn’t imagine at all, because her family was complete, but she couldn’t even pass the civil service exam, and she had never dreamed of becoming the ruler of a country.
Yuli felt that her imagination was lacking. Not only did the suffering he had endured exceed her imagination, but his strength also far exceeded her imagination.
Although she was afraid of bearing his terrible past experiences, she thought that with him there, as long as he told her, she would not be afraid.
After her afternoon nap, Yuli went to the kitchen to make many of his favorite dishes, steamed custard buns, and also prepared a pot of plum wine, planning to create a warm and relaxed atmosphere, and then go to bed with him early, and listen to him tell his story while holding him.
By dusk, she had already bathed early, washed off the dust, put on a beautiful dress, and went to the second gate to wait.
She waited for a full half an hour. The sky was dark, but he had not yet returned, and no one had come with a message to tell her that he had something to do and would be back late.
Yuli’s legs were sore from standing. She wanted to go back, but she was afraid that he would appear at the door the next moment, but would not see her at the first opportunity.
He liked to see her waiting for him here. Many times when he came back, he had no expression at first, but the moment he saw her, he would smile.
Thinking of his smile, Yuli felt that she could wait a little longer.
She waited until the moon was high in the sky, but he still hadn’t returned.
Nor had she received any message.
Yuli’s back was sore, and she was weak from hunger. In the end, she couldn’t wait any longer.
She returned to Mingyue Residence, forced a smile at Jingyu and Xiyun, didn’t say much, and prepared to go to bed after dinner.
Perhaps he would sneak back in the middle of the night.
Yuli went to bed early, leaving the outer side of the bed empty, and lay on the inner side.
Facing outwards, she closed her eyes and slept very lightly all along.
A night passed, and nothing happened.
In the morning, Yuli sat on the bed. The morning sun was shining on the bed curtains. Everything was as usual, but she began to doubt the reality of everything.
Yuli lifted the quilt to get out of bed. Xiyun and Jingyu both came in.
Yuli quickly asked, “Did the Young Master come back last night?”
Xiyun looked at Jingyu. Jingyu shook her head.
Yuli put on a normal expression. “He must have been held up by something.”
“Is the Mistress going out today?” Xiyun asked.
Yuli shook her head.
Xiyun finally sensed that something was wrong.
After leaving the room and walking a little further from the main room, Xiyun suddenly asked Jingyu, “Did the Mistress and the Young Master have a quarrel?”
Jingyu pondered.
“What happened when I wasn’t with the Mistress the day before yesterday?” Xiyun’s face was solemn. “Did the Young Master fool around outside again?”
Jingyu’s eyes widened.
“It was like that last time!” Xiyun said with a hint of anger on her face. “I didn’t really agree to find a girl from the Chunxiao Tower again. Now look, tell me honestly, did the Young Master see Yingniang that day and have a change of heart again?”