Chapter 50 Jealousy: "Have you two kissed enough?"
That night, no one dared to sleep in Chonghua Palace. Rainwater rolled down the eaves, quickly forming a huge curtain of rain.
The more noisy it was outside, the quieter the house became. Jinlian knelt on the damp floor, calmly playing with the handkerchief between her fingers. Tonight she was dressed in light-colored clothes, her black hair was simply half-tied up, and her face was free of any rouge or powder.
Ning Xian recalled that during the years she met and fell in love with Ruan Yang, she always dressed like this, with a bare face and no makeup, her hair falling casually down her chest. Even on snowy days, she would run out from under the eaves to greet him when he came home, then bury her face in his chest and nag him for dressing too lightly.
At that time, he thought that woman was adorably silly and devoted to him. No matter how much he teased her, as long as he gave her some money and said a few nice words to coax her, she would still choose to forgive him.
But he belatedly realized that what Ruan Yang cared least about him were those material possessions.
Ning Xian gave a self-deprecating laugh as she confessed to herself.
He clearly didn't cherish Ruan Yang's kindness, and he clearly lost her. What right does he have to be jealous of Lu Wenjin now?
In order not to anger Jinlian, Ningxian patiently said, "Raise your head and speak properly. Tell me, where did you take her?"
Jinlian said happily, "How would I know? So many people can't find her, which proves my plan worked. She's dead. Could she have abandoned you and run off with another man?"
Ning Xian grabbed the woman's collar, closed his eyes, and coldly said, "You really don't want to live anymore?"
“My life has always been in your hands, how could I have the choice? You have fed and pampered me for years, when have you ever been sincere to me? Now this child is about to be born, and my death is not far away.”
Jinlian smiled through her tears and said, "Even if I die, I will still disgust you. Now that I have killed the woman you love, how about it? Are you sad?"
Ning Xian's eyes were bloodshot, unwilling to believe Jin Lian's words: "Why did you do this? If you hate me, come at me! What did Ruan Yang do wrong? Do you know that if it weren't for your appearance, my child with Ruan Yang would never have died!"
Jinlian asked in confusion, "Now that you two have come to this point, why are you blaming me? Who knew that Ruan Yang was insecure, yet deliberately held my hand, causing her to miscarry? If you hadn't forced her to stay in the palace, would she have died?"
"Look how clever our Miss Ruan is! It's just that I, a country bumpkin, am so stupid that I can't see you clearly. I used to think that your aloofness and tyranny were because you lacked love, so I tried to use my sincerity to influence you. How ridiculous that seems now!"
"You don't know what's good for you, so you deserve to end up all alone."
Ning Xian was suddenly startled. His eyes were sinister and terrifying, but his face remained calm. He pinched Jinlian's chin, and with a slight movement of his hand, a crisp sound echoed in the hall.
The movement is very small, but the force is enormous.
He said coldly, "If anything really happens to her, I will make you and the bastard in her belly be buried with her."
Jinlian covered her swollen cheeks, trembling as she watched the man's back as he left.
The rain intensified, and puddles inevitably formed in the yard, rippling as people hurried through them...
Ning Xian returned to his bedroom dejectedly. He lay down on the soft couch and pulled a rag doll out from the seam of the bed.
The doll was covered in pudding, and one of its eyes was missing, which Ruan Yang had sewed back on with a similar button. The doll was tattered and old, and a wad of cotton was sticking out of its belly.
Ning Xian pressed the cotton inside. After Ruan Yang left, he burned everything related to Ruan Yang, leaving only this tattered doll that was patched beyond repair.
He couldn't bear to throw away his mother's belongings and Ruan Yang's hard work day and night, but he was also afraid that he would be tempted to think of her by the sight of these things, so he stuffed the doll under the bed.
He would only take out the doll on holidays or his own birthday, place it by his pillow, and hug it to sleep.
The man lay on the soft quilt, holding the tattered doll in his arms, his vacant eyes unable to conceal the fear of losing Ruan Yang.
How could it be as Jinlian said? How could he have killed the baby he cherished so much? He only imprisoned her to keep the person he loved by his side.
Ruan Yang, Ruan Yang, did you think you could escape him completely this way?
Ning Xian trembled as she clutched the thing in her palm until the fragile doll's threads snapped open again.
He wanted to find the woman's body, piece together her remains, and imprison her in the cell forever, so that her corpse could be with him every night.
Footsteps drew closer, and mud from boots dripped onto the clean floor. Eunuch Liang approached Ning Xian, carrying some items, to report his mission.
Hearing the noise, Ning Xian's dark pupils flickered, and he stared blankly at Eunuch Liang: "Well, did you find it?"
"Found it...found it, but..."
Upon hearing this, Ning Xian quickly sat up from the couch and rushed to the screen. He slipped and fell in a daze, but immediately got up. He then grabbed Eunuch Liang's shoulder and asked joyfully, "Is she alright? Where is she?"
Seeing that Eunuch Liang looked grief-stricken and hesitated to speak, the worst thought in his heart seemed to have been settled.
Ning Xian pushed away Eunuch Liang, her voice choked with sobs, and roared angrily, "Why didn't you bring her to see me? There's thunder and lightning outside, leaving her there alone. Are you courting death?!"
Eunuch Liang pressed his forehead to the ground: "Forgive my incompetence, but we couldn't find Madam Lu's complete body near that embroidered shoe. Only one of her arms was lying in the mud..."
The contents of the package then scattered, revealing a slender, fair arm lying lifelessly in the blood.
Upon seeing this, Ning Xian burst into tears, and then began to roar furiously: "How dare you try to fool me with a broken arm! You must have colluded with that vile woman Jinlian to hide my precious body!"
"Get out! All of you, get out of my sight!"
Ning Xian staggered as he looked at the torrential rain outside, and his feet involuntarily stepped into the wet corridor. He hadn't taken an umbrella, and the rain quickly soaked him to the bone.
He wanted to go find her himself.
Eunuch Liang was terrified. He kicked the indifferent eunuch and shouted, "Hurry up and follow! It's so dangerous outside. If anything happens to His Majesty, we'll all be in big trouble!"
"Yes, yes..."
………
The rain continued unabated until midnight, with large raindrops hitting the muddy ground and washing away the stones and vegetation on the slope.
Amidst the lush weeds, Ruan Yang was completely disheveled. Her shoes and socks were missing, her skirt was torn, and rainwater kept choking her nose, making her extremely uncomfortable.
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious or where she was; all she could feel was the pitch-black darkness before her and the excruciating pain in her calves.
Her calves were cut by stones, and Ruan Yang crawled barefoot for a long time until she could no longer move, at which point she hid at the foot of the hill to rest.
After struggling for a long time, she finally managed to climb out of the deep, dirty, and smelly ditch. With the help of the faint light in front of her, she could barely see that the area ahead was open.
In the misty rain, the treetops swayed slightly, and the outline of the temple appeared and disappeared.
The distant, low roars of tigers echoed intermittently. Ruan Yang had no time to hesitate. The mountains and fields were teeming with ferocious beasts and birds of prey, and she was bleeding. If she didn't leave soon, she risked being killed.
Ruan Yang hugged her arms and walked forward, shivering. She had been soaked in the rain for a long time and was barefoot. Her injured left calf was exposed in a sorry state, and she was freezing cold.
Her steps were unsteady, but her gaze was unusually firm.
Forced into such a predicament, there was a moment when she truly and desperately considered taking Ning Xian down with her.
But her weakness was firmly in that man's grasp; if he exerted any force, she feared that the person she cherished would disappear from this world.
Ruan Yang couldn't help but bite her lip and gently stroke her lower abdomen. In the lonely rainy night, she could only face all dangers alone with this poor child.
Inside the dilapidated temple, the Buddha statues were broken, the prayer flags fluttered faintly, and the incense ash in the incense burner had hardened into clumps and fallen to the corner due to lack of supply.
Without a fire, she huddled alone in a sheltered spot, waiting for the rain to stop. Outside the window, ghosts howled and wolves howled, but she obediently wrung out her clothes and picked up a thin blanket left behind by a passerby to cover her stomach.
She was blowing on her frozen hands, trying to figure out how to get through the night, when suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. There were rustling footsteps coming from the haystack, and a man wearing a straw raincoat and hat, with his face covered, stepped into the temple.
Ruan Yang shrank into a corner, clutching her waist, and trembled as she said, "Who...who are you? Don't come any closer, please..."
After he finished speaking, the man lit the tinderbox in his hand, illuminating the surroundings slightly.
He crouched down and took off his mask: "Don't be afraid, it's me."
Ruan Yang frowned, and after realizing that the person in front of her was Lu Wenjin, she almost thought she was hallucinating: "...Who are you?"
Lu Wenjin tossed the sword aside and cautiously approached Ruan Yang. He took Ruan Yang's cold hand and placed it on his face, smirking, "Are you silly? I'm your brother Wenjin, don't believe me? Try pinching it."
Ruan Yang stared intently and pinched Lu Wenjin's face hard a few times. After confirming that it wasn't a human skin mask, she snuggled into the young man's arms.
She sobbed, overcome with grief, "You... why are you only coming now? It's been so long... don't you want me anymore...?"
Lu Wenjin rubbed the back of the girl's head and comforted her, "Don't cry, don't cry. Who told you that? I've been trying to find a way to reunite with you these past few days. I didn't abandon you."
He sighed, "There are many people sent from the palace outside now. They are probably all looking for you. I followed them secretly, but I'm afraid I've already been exposed."
"Then can we still leave?" Ruan Yang asked.
Lu Wenjin gritted his teeth and said, "Even if Ning Xian finds out we're here, it's not a big deal. You are my wife, whom I rightfully married. What's wrong with me bringing my wife home?"
Ruan Yang shook her head and pushed him away: "Perhaps the person they want to kill is you. I'm just bait to lure you here. You should leave and don't worry about me."
She turned away sadly and said, "After I'm gone, you must live a good life. Don't kick off the blankets in winter, remember to apply medicine to your legs every day, and don't drink alcohol whenever you're sad."
"Oh, and then?" Lu Wenjin raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Then...then marry a good wife who won't sleep in and won't lose her temper with you, have a few more kids, live happily ever after, and finally forget about me."
Lu Wenjin leaned against Ruan Yang, gripping his sword tightly again. He rested his elbows on his bent knees, treating Ruan Yang's words as a joke: "Look at you, saying so many caring things about me, making it seem like I'll never see you again..."
He looked at the girl's slender back and said, "Ruan Yang, you really have a jinx. You were perfectly fine, how could you just suddenly disappear?"
"Even if it comes to that, Ning Xian can't bear to part with you, and I'll be the one who has to die."
Lu Wenjin lowered her eyes and smiled bitterly: "Although I don't know if you agreed to marry me because you pitied me, whatever you were thinking, I respect your final decision."
Even if I were to return to Ning Xian's side.
"Just don't ask me to take a concubine or have children with other people next time, or I'll..."
Ruan Yang blinked her wet eyes and said, "What is it?"
Lu Wenjin glanced at her sideways and said angrily, "From now on, I really will never take any contraceptive pills again."
Upon hearing this, Ruan Yang burst into laughter through her tears, forgetting that Lu Wenjin was unaware that she was carrying their little life within her.
Lu Wenjin clicked his tongue, then reached out to tickle her: "What's so funny? If you laugh again, I might get rough with you..."
Ruan Yang dodged him, sniffling as she muttered, "Okay, okay, I give up."
The girl looked up at him and said sincerely, "But Wenjin, I only agreed to marry you because I really like you. Once I decide to be with you, I will be yours for life. Even if Ningxian takes me away, my heart will always belong to you."
Lu Wenjin was taken aback, gently touched Ruan Yang's forehead, and smiled, "Thank you."
Seeing the undisguised loneliness in his eyes, Ruan Yang straightened up and pecked his lips repeatedly.
The girl's fingers were on his neck, and their soft lips occasionally brushed against each other. Lu Wenjin swallowed.
Seeing that the person remained unmoved, Ruan Yang sighed, "Why are you still angry...?"
"I'm not angry anymore."
Lu Wenjin noticed that Ruan Yang's hand was gradually slipping off his body. He quickly grabbed the small hand, pulled the girl back around the waist, and then, under her surprised gaze, kissed her lips forcefully.
Breathing and humming intertwined in the rainy night. After a long time apart, Ruan Yang responded passionately to Lu Wenjin, her fingertips quietly reaching towards his waistband.
"What are you doing? Have you kissed enough?"
Ning Xian said in a trembling voice, "I went through so much trouble to find her, only to see her being all lovey-dovey with another man."
Ruan Yang was startled and turned around to see the person she least wanted to see.
Ning Xian leaned wearily against the door, his whole body soaked in sweat. His black clothes and face were covered in dirty mud, and blood was slowly dripping from his palms, which were scratched by pebbles.
He had fantasized about Ruan Yang and Lu Wenjin being affectionate and tender, but when he saw this scene with his own eyes, he couldn't help but be driven mad with jealousy.
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