Past midnight, the night was pitch black.
A candle burned inside the lampshade in the room, casting a soft, warm glow. The “Fortune” inscription on the copper incense clock had burned down to the end.
Suddenly, the courtyard gate creaked. Fine, hurried footsteps followed.
Xiang Lan sat in the main hall and poked her head out to look. She saw that her young miss had returned from outside, so she quickly set aside her work and went forward to greet her.
Only then did she notice that her young miss’s complexion was poor. Her gorgeously beautiful little face was frosted over with ice, and her lip was slightly torn, the seeping blood already scabbed.
A somewhat sullen, refined youth followed behind her.
“Young Miss, what happened?” Xiang Lan asked in a daze.
She had never seen her young miss with such a terrible expression before, especially since she had been fine when she went out. Could it be… that something had happened with Xie Shuo?
She had long felt that the youth was unreliable.
He had come from a disreputable place like the Miao Frontier that specialized in gu techniques, and he had a reclusive personality to boot. He was also the younger brother of the new madam. No matter how one looked at it, he was not a good match for her young miss.
Moreover, she sometimes saw the obsessive look in the youth’s eyes when he gazed at her young miss, and it secretly alarmed her.
He seemed like the type who, if he couldn’t have her, would destroy everything, even her. Xiang Lan feared this relationship wouldn’t end well. Several times, she had wanted to advise her young miss that if things continued like this, something bad would happen sooner or later.
The moonlight shone brightly, bamboo shadows swayed.
A gentle, cool night breeze swept through the courtyard.
Xin Yi was thoroughly annoyed. She could even slack off for a day or two at work.
Ever since she had made up with Xie Shuo, she hadn’t rested at all. Every time she wanted to just give up, the affection progress bar in her task panel would drag her back.
But she never imagined that Xie Shuo would go this far.
Supported by Xiang Lan’s arm, she turned her head and glared at him, her face suppressing anger, her chest rising and falling slightly under the disheveled lapels of her short-sleeved dress. “Get back to your own courtyard. Don’t follow me!”
She had no face left to recall those absurd, debauched scenes from earlier.
What was there left to not understand? She finally knew why the youth had insisted on dragging her out at night to view the lotus lake—it had all been with ulterior motives.
Actually, these past two days, she had planned to come clean with Xiao Cheng Ce and then leave this place, but definitely not in this kind of way.
She hadn’t expected Xie Shuo to have no bottom line at all.
Seeing him stand there silently, only staring at her with a pair of narrow, refined phoenix eyes.
Xin Yi grew even angrier. “Are you still pretending? Do you think I’m a fool? Tonight, you deliberately lured Xiao Cheng Ce over, wanting him to see me cheating with his own eyes, and even forcing me to make those messy noises! You have no shame, but I do. How could you, how could you…”
Xiang Lan heard this and couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open.
She glanced at her young miss’s wrinkled dress, the crooked peach-colored silk flower by her temple—how could she not understand?
She felt her young miss’s temper was still too good.
She should have slapped him left and right. How could anyone humiliate someone like this? Even the dandies who frequented the Pleasure Quarters didn’t act this way.
What’s more, the general was the husband of his Sister, his nominal brother-in-law.
If the youth hadn’t been mute, from the first day he entered the residence, he should have called her young miss “Madam” along with his own A Jie.
The courtyard fell silent for a moment. No one spoke.
Only the night wind blew, scattering the fragrant, abundant petals from the crape myrtle tree.
Suddenly, the youth’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
Those beautiful ink-black eyes fixed tightly on her as he asked with sign language, ‘Are you this angry because you still care about him, right?’
‘He said he wanted to elevate you as a co-wife, and you’re tempted, right?’
What next?
Was she going to abandon him?
But why, why?
A man who had betrayed her just needed to crook his finger, and she would waver, start swaying back and forth. Then what was he? He liked her more than Xiao Cheng Ce did, and he was more loyal than him too.
Xin Yi froze.
Then her overly sore and soft legs nearly buckled. She was practically dizzy from his train of thought. Gritting her teeth, she said, “Any normal person wouldn’t want to be caught in that situation.”
She realized she simply couldn’t communicate with Xie Shuo.
Because his mindset wasn’t normal at all. What he thought and did were never on the same wavelength as hers.
Just like now. Clearly, he was the one in the wrong.
Yet he gazed at her with reddened eyes full of forbearance, as if he were the one misunderstood and hurt.
Xin Yi’s head throbbed. She wasn’t just mentally exhausted now; her body ached all over too. She really needed a warm bath to relax.
So she didn’t want to tangle with him anymore or argue right and wrong. She glared at him for a good while, then gritted her teeth and exhaled. “Go back to your own courtyard now, pack your things, and we’ll leave the general’s residence first thing tomorrow morning.”
“If you can’t bear to part from your A Jie, or don’t want to leave with me, then forget I said anything.”
The next morning, two carriages stopped in front of the general’s residence.
The corresponding luggage and fine items had already been packed and loaded. They just waited for the woman in green clothes standing at the entrance to board the carriage and give the order to depart.
Her mistress and servant didn’t have much, mainly the various spiders, scorpions, and venomous snakes that Xie Shuo raised.
Otherwise, there would have been no need to hire an extra large carriage.
Xin Yi stood for a while, her legs aching.
She looked up at the sun and figured it was about time for Xiao Cheng Ce to wake up. She had asked Xie Shuo, and he said the latest he would wake was by the end of the Chen hour.
Sure enough, it didn’t keep her waiting long.
Xiao Cheng Ce hurried over with a gloomy face, a hunched, waist-bent little manservant following behind him, not daring to breathe loudly.
When he saw the youth standing beside Xin Yi, his footsteps suddenly halted.
His eyes slowly widened in disbelief, then he quickly realized that what he had seen last night
wasn’t a dream or illusion—it was all real!
Scenes flashed through his mind like a lantern show.
That dinner when a wild cat had scratched Xie Shuo’s jaw; that night when Bai Xinyi’s hair was drenched and her cheeks flushed, claiming she had caught a cold, then the crisp silver bell sounds from behind the suddenly shut door; and last night, that small boat on the lake rippling endlessly…
She and he—the two of them—actually dared!
Xiao Cheng Ce’s eyes nearly split open. He couldn’t believe it, couldn’t understand no matter what why the woman who had thrown herself at him, jealous over him, had become like this.
“Bai Xinyi, come here.” He clenched his fists, his face ashen, chest heaving nonstop, as if he had reached the limit of his anger.
Xin Yi wasn’t stupid; of course she wouldn’t go over.
She shook her head and said softly, “This concubine waited here early to bid farewell to the general. After all, we were husband and wife once. There should be a proper beginning and end.”
When Xiao Cheng Ce heard this, his eyes gradually turned bloodshot, even his breathing uneven.
Gritting his teeth, he spat, wishing he could pounce and tear her apart alive. “Bai Xinyi, how cheap are you? Anyone can have you, right? You have the face to hook up with Xie Shuo—can’t stand being lonely that much?”
Before Xin Yi could speak, the youth’s breathing beside her ear changed.
She turned her head and sure enough saw those cold ink-black eyes faintly turning into vertical pupils. Her heart jumped, and she quickly touched his face. “No, you can’t do that, A Shuo.”
If he really transformed into his snake tail in front of everyone, even if he held back from turning them into meat paste, he would still scare them to death.
That wasn’t the result she wanted.
“You already angered me once yesterday. Don’t do it a second time today.” She pinched his cheek.
The youth understood the warning in her words and quickly calmed down, pursing his crimson thin lips and obediently lowering his eyelashes.
Xin Yi leaned in and kissed his face, smiling at his lips. “That’s good.”
But this scene in Xiao Cheng Ce’s eyes became deliberate provocation, evidence of her posing seductively and lacking shame.
He could no longer hold back his erupting hatred and anger. He yanked her forcefully into his arms, his iron-like arms clamping her soft slim waist, wishing to snap it in two. “Can’t hold back right in front of me? Since your skirts are so easy to lift, how about I let all the guards in the residence have a go?”
The man’s scalding breath pressed against her ear, as if the next second he would bite through her neck.
Xin Yi hadn’t reacted yet when she was suddenly pulled into his embrace, her face smacking painfully, stars bursting before her eyes.
She had already eaten a greasy breakfast that morning. Now with him squeezing her waist so hard upward, her stomach churned violently, her originally rosy little face instantly paling.
The next second, she heard a “crack” by her ear.
It sounded like something dislocating—maybe a bone. Fortunately, the embrace confining her loosened, letting her breathe again before she suffocated from the discomfort.
Xin Yi pushed away the youth’s reaching hand and couldn’t look back at Xiao Cheng Ce’s furious, humiliated face after his arm dislocated.
She staggered two steps, clutching the horizontal wood by the carriage, covering her chest and bending over to dry heave.
She dry-heaved dizzily for a long time, but unfortunately nothing came up.
Still, it left her head spinning nonstop and unsteady on her feet. Xin Yi took a good while to straighten up.
She looked up and saw the youth’s tightly furrowed brows, his ink-black eyes full of worry.
Before she could speak, a slightly trembling, incredulous question came from behind. “…You’re pregnant?”
“Are you carrying his bastard child, Bai Xinyi!”
“…”
Xin Yi couldn’t help wanting to roll her eyes: Pregnant my foot. She took contraceptive soup without fail—how could she be pregnant? If he hadn’t yanked her so hard just now and squeezed her waist that forcefully, would she have felt this nauseous?
But she was too lazy to explain, especially seeing him this furious. She had even less intention to.
So she waved away Xie Shuo’s hand and walked forward.
As if admitting it, she smiled at the corner of her eyes and countered instead of answering. “What a strange thing to say. You can be with his sister, so why can’t I be with her brother? Or does General Xiao always believe only officials are allowed to set fires, while the common folk can’t even light lamps?”
Seeing him stunned for several seconds, on the verge of exploding again.
Xin Yi retreated two steps and struck first, kindly reminding him. “Don’t get angry. After all, family scandals must not be aired in public. If I can’t leave this general’s residence peacefully today, then tomorrow, all the teahouses and taverns in Prosperous Capital will be reciting our scandalous tales. Not just court colleagues—even the entire Capital City will know that General Xiao was cuckolded by his original wife, with her own concubine’s younger brother…”
She smiled and asked, her brows and eyes rippling like waves. “My reputation is worthless, but is the general’s worthless too?”
That lushly beautiful face was like April’s flowers, but her words were coldly indifferent, cutting into his heart without a shred of pity.
Xiao Cheng Ce’s thin lips trembled slightly. She… hated him that much?
Hated him to the point of using such the most vicious and resolute method to cut ties with him.
Xin Yi smiled faintly, standing there casually, appreciating his pain.
After a long while, as if finally finding it boring, she turned and walked to the carriage, extending her hand to the handsome youth guarding her side. “Too high. Hug me up.”
Xiao Cheng Ce couldn’t tell anymore if she did it deliberately to stab at his heart or if she always acted this spoiled with the youth.
But he would rather it be the former.
In an instant, the youth lifted her gently onto the carriage, then boarded himself.
He gave him two provocative glances before slowly lowering the carriage curtain.
As the horse hooves sounded and the carriage was about to leave.
Suddenly, the curtain lifted slightly. A fair, delicate hand emerged from the carriage, its water onion-like fingertips painted with dan kou.
Then an embroidered handkerchief loosened, and along with the faint fragrance falling were several ingots of silver wrapped inside.
The woman’s soft, charming voice transmitted from behind the green curtain, tone indifferent. “These fifty taels of silver are thanks to the general for playing matchmaker. Without your unwitting matchmaking, this concubine wouldn’t have had the chance to meet A Shuo.”
The carriage rumbled away, but the fallen embroidered handkerchief and silver ingots remained unclaimed.
Like glaring symbols of humiliation.
Xiao Cheng Ce stood rigidly at the residence entrance for a long time before finally unable to hold back. He kicked the nearby stone lion.
Then punched it several more times with his uninjured arm, smashing until the back of his hand bled.
The little manservant nearby kept his head down, not daring to look up.
He even suspected that before the general had even written the divorce papers, he had already been cuckolded by his former wife.