Chapter 22 "Seeing Zizheng Wanwan, let's get a divorce, come back to me." ...
She cried out and struggled as he led her back into the room.
As Lou Yanxu sank into the soft couch, she shrank back in a panic, goosebumps rising quickly on her fair collarbone. Xu Congjing lowered his eyes and removed the hairpin from her hair. Her thick, black hair fell perfectly into his palm, the scent of bath beans filling the air.
"Smack!"
A light slap landed on his face. Her reddened eyes glared at him, incredulously recalling his reckless actions. How could he... how could he carry her into the house! He really had ulterior motives; he truly harbored ill intentions!
Xu Congjing paused, rubbed the red handprint on the back of his hand, and chuckled softly.
A hint of disgust flickered in her eyes. Lou Yanxu stubbornly tried to escape, but was held down firmly. So she kicked him in the lower back, yelling, "Xu Congjing! Get out of here!"
Lou Yanxu angrily called out his name, but he put his index finger to her lips and shushed her, "You shouldn't call him Xu Congjing, you should call me..."
A tender voice came, "Brother Zizheng."
"..."
The atmosphere froze for a moment. She stared at him stiffly, her hands trembling so much she could barely support herself.
A moment later, she shook her head to herself, her chest heaving, "No, you are not Brother Zizheng."
"Wanwan, you promised me that once I obtained an official position, I would return and marry you in style."
Lou Yanxu's heart skipped a beat. She stared blankly at the strange yet familiar man before her, speechless. Then she saw him clench his four fingers, raise his thumb and bend it three times, and murmur aggrievedly, "It was my fault for leaving without saying goodbye. Can Wanwan forgive me?"
The three thumb taps were a secret between her and her brother Zizheng, representing an admission of wrongdoing.
How could it be him? It was actually him! The man I've been longing for has been right beside me all along!
As her anger subsided, blood rushed to her head, and a feeling of grievance choked her throat. Lou Yanxu frowned, bit her lip until it bled, and sat up, silently shedding tears. She shook her head repeatedly, her makeup ruined on her bitter face, and sobbed softly, unable to stop crying.
“How did you change so much… I can’t find you anymore…” She raised her hand to trace his outline, finally stopping at the brow bone of his face, gazing longingly at the blue mole hidden there, and pounded his chest, wailing loudly.
"After leaving Suzhou, I accidentally injured my face, so I changed my appearance and name, and eventually became an official in Chang'an." Xu Congjing's hands trembled as he took her jade-like hand and pressed it to his heart. He then pulled her into his arms, rested his chin on the top of her head, closed his eyes and murmured, "I'm sorry, I'm back, Wanwan, I'm back."
She's back; her brother Zizheng has returned.
The familiarity of the past few days—the sweet cakes, the bitter tea, the bruises on her calves—was explained in this moment. With his weight resting on her head, Lou Yanxu felt a rare sense of peace, and she gripped his shoulder to vent her emotions.
"Wanwan, let's get a divorce." After she calmed down, Xu Congjing cupped her face in his hands and pleaded almost hoarsely, "Come back to me."
"I agreed to the marriage with the Marquis's family because of you; I wanted to stay by your side."
Upon hearing this, Lou Yanxu suddenly remembered that he had agreed to the marriage the day before her wedding. The thought struck her like a ton of bricks, and she panicked, quickly running away from him. "We can't do this," she cried.
Her heart suddenly turned cold; there was no going back, nothing could be undone.
She has a husband, and he has a fiancée. How could they do such a deviant thing!
“You know perfectly well that my marriage was a scheme orchestrated by the Zeng family, and you have no choice but to suffer in the Marquis’s mansion, so why…” He rushed forward to argue, but was ruthlessly interrupted, “That won’t do!”
She stared intently, her voice firm and resolute, "No."
Xu Congjing wanted to say something, but she had already crawled off the bed and rushed out as if fleeing.
He tilted his head and stared blankly for a long time, then wiped the tears from his palms and turned cold. He sat there silently until midnight, waiting for Yun Lu to arrive.
"My lord, you ordered me to take the young master away, but when I looked, it was not the young master but Lady Wan."
Xu Congjing suddenly looked up, smiled calmly, and realized that he had misunderstood.
But how did Sheng Yan disappear into thin air? Yun Lu continued, "It was because the young master Sheng hired two thieves to try to take Lady Lou's chastity, but she discovered it. So Lady Lou bribed one of them and gave the young master to Chen Jiulang."
"If he dares to have such thoughts, I think this is unnecessary!" Xu Congjing swept the chessboard aside, a white piece flying towards the candle wick to extinguish the flame. In the darkness, his gaze turned cold. "Do you understand?"
Yunlu understood and quickly left the inn.
The evening breeze was cold and the dew was chilly. A light drizzle fell, and in the stillness of the night, a carriage sped along the bluestone road. A man was abandoned on the carriage, his clothes disheveled and covered in wounds.
A guard with a sword ordered the man to turn over, and upon seeing that it was Sheng Yan, he viciously kicked him several times in the groin.
Lou Yanxu saw Sheng Yan the next morning. She had only managed to fall into a light sleep around dawn the night before, and woke up from a nightmare at the crack of day. Wan Qing'an was no longer by her side, and Qingrui told her that something had happened to the young master. He was barely clothed, his lower body was injured, and he occasionally emitted the unique fragrance of the Southern Courtyard, clearly indicating that Xiang Gu had been enjoying himself.
She was confident and leisurely made her way to Sheng Yan's room. Xu, Wen, Wan, and Weng were all gathered there, and the doctor came out from behind the screen.
She hadn't expected any further surprises.
The doctor hesitated for a moment, then sighed deeply, "Young master, your health is much better now, but that area... that area might be a bit difficult to deal with in the future."
He spoke tactfully, but Lou Yanxu understood perfectly and immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
She did manage to turn the tables on him, but she only wanted to teach him a lesson; she never intended to kill him! Now that things have come to this, how will she bear children in the future? Will Sheng Yan really kill her?
Her slender fingers trembled, and she subconsciously glanced at Xu Congjing, only to find that the latter's gaze was gentle and comforting.
A coughing sound came from behind the screen, and everyone crowded in. She avoided their gazes and rushed to the bedside.
"My husband, you're awake."
Sheng Yan opened his eyes and saw everyone gathered around his bed. He moved his body and felt sore all over. He asked in a daze, "What's wrong with me?"
Lou Yanxu took the opportunity to massage his stiff arm, then lowered her head and remained silent.
His eyes were fixed on the row of people, but he remained silent, his gaze darting away as he looked at Weng Chuchu, who turned her head away in a panic. His heart sank. Memories of last night suddenly flooded back like a tidal wave: his bound hands, the stench of sweat, the weight pressing down on him. He remembered it all. He trembled and convulsed, then abruptly turned to the side and dry heaved, tearing at his wounds and causing them to bleed.
Weng Chuchu instinctively stepped forward to cover his wound, but then froze, took a half step back, and said in a pitiful voice, "Brother Yuanzhuo, please don't move, you...you're injured there, the doctor said it might be permanent..."
Sheng Yan was stunned, his eyes blazing with anger. He pushed Weng Chuchu aside and slapped Lou Yanxu across the face. He had collapsed in her room; the whole story was clear upon careful consideration. He only regretted that he hadn't succeeded and had instead been bitten in return. He had underestimated his good wife!
"you!"
Lou Yanxu had expected this slap. She covered her face, lost in thought, and remained silent.
Startled by the noise, Xu Congjing rushed to her side to protect her, his face grim as if he were about to tear Sheng Yan apart. He only calmed down after Lou Yanxu tugged at his sleeve. Sheng Yan was taken aback, but dared not speak his anger. He kept wondering when their relationship had come to this point, having long forgotten about forcing his wife into another man's carriage.
He was filled with humiliation. In a fit of rage, he threw down the pillow, leaned out halfway to shoo the man away, and roared at the top of his lungs, "Get out! Get out of here!"
Weng Chuchu caught the pillow and staggered out, a ghostly voice coming from behind her, "Chuchu, are you really leaving?"
She turned back, but under Sheng Yan's expectant gaze, she quickly glanced at the base of his thigh, carefully placed the pillow down, and took a step back, each step feeling like a needle piercing his heart. "You, you should rest well."
He collapsed back onto the bed, pounding his body with his fists, a bitter smile on his face as tears streamed down his face. No wonder Chu Chu didn't care about someone as useless as him.
He lay in bed for a few more days until his injuries healed, and then the group set off back to Chang'an.
Everyone returned to their respective homes, and three carriages came to a steady stop in front of the Chenghua Marquis's residence. Sheng Yan was carried into the hall, followed closely by Lou Yanxu and Sheng Ling. As soon as they stepped inside, Sheng Jin rushed over in a flurry and immediately slapped Sheng Ling across the face. Sheng Ling froze on the spot upon seeing this.
This was the second time Lou Yanxu had been slapped in just a few days.
She bit her lip to endure it, listening to Sheng Jin raise her voice, pointing her finger at her nose and cursing, "You jinx who can't stay at home! You seduced your brother-in-law and ruined your husband, why don't you just die!"
She admitted to being involved in Sheng Yan's affair, but somehow it had gotten dragged into Xu Congjing's matter. Lou Yanxu stood up and asked, "Where did you hear this rumor, Second Madam?"
"What do I care where I heard that! You were on the same boat as Jinglang, and you were exchanging glances under the guise of bandaging your wound. What else could that be but unchaste behavior?" Sheng Jin was half an inch shorter than her, so she secretly stood on one foot, her face stern and her anger even greater. "My brother went to Suzhou with you, but when he came back... you're a jinx!"
Unfaithful to a woman? She cruelly rejected her beloved precisely because of so-called womanly virtues! Lou Yanxu felt bitter, and her eyes were wet.
“That was just catching bandits and returning to the city together. Besides, what’s wrong with sharing a boat? I even shared a carriage with him. My husband personally pushed me onto it. If we’re really going to talk about it, then we can only ask the world to judge for themselves.” She stepped forward, pulling at her sleeve, tears welling up but she blinked them back. “Secondly, no matter how much you look down on me, I am still your sister-in-law. If you have any doubts, you can confront me one by one in Xiangzhou, instead of accusing me without any evidence.”
A standoff? Would Sheng Yan dare?
He dared to confront them, so that the whole world would know how the heir of the Chenghua Marquis's mansion had plotted to smear his wife's innocence, bringing shame upon the entire mansion for generations to come.
She bet he wouldn't dare be the sinner, and she won. Just as Sheng Jin was about to continue, Sheng Yan sternly shouted to stop her, "Enough! Isn't it chaotic enough already?"
Sheng Jin froze, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at Madam Zeng. Madam Zeng was a shrewd woman and immediately sensed something was wrong. She quickly appeared from behind her daughter and ordered someone to carry her son back to the house.
After this commotion, Madam Zeng had no time to care about Sheng Ling. The legitimate daughter of a noble family was thus relegated to a remote and desolate courtyard by a mere servant. That night, Lou Yan saw Sheng Ling dressed in thin clothes from afar under the eaves and knew that Madam Zeng was intentionally neglecting her. So she ordered Qing Rui to send her some new clothes.
But Qingrui was reluctant. "Our monthly allowance has already been reduced by a lot. You can't even take care of yourself, how can you take care of others?"
"It's alright." Lou Yanxu sighed, thinking that Sheng Ling was also a person with a tragic fate.
No more than half a month after the death of his first wife, the Marquis brought back his mistress and two children. No one could stand it, and Sheng Ling made a scene. She was sent to her maternal grandparents' house that same day, and was only able to return to Chang'an when her maternal grandparents passed away a few days ago and she had no one to take care of her.
Lou Yanxu forgot about the matter the next day, and Sheng Ling didn't say anything either. Unexpectedly, she came to thank her in person a few days later.
That day was the Cold Food Festival. Every household inserted willow branches at their doors. As dawn broke, the Hou family entourage ate cold food and rushed to the ancestral tomb to offer sacrifices.
The Sheng family ancestral tomb is located in the suburbs. The carriage swayed and bumped to the edge of the woods, and then we walked there.
Sheng Ling caught up with Lou Yanxu in a few quick steps, curtsied and thanked her, "My sister-in-law sent me some new clothes a few days ago, and I thank you very much."
The sound wasn't quiet, and Lou Yanxu turned her head to see Zeng Shi giving her a cold glance, assuming she had heard. Originally, she had done this secretly; after all, she still depended on the mistress for survival and couldn't openly make enemies. Sheng Ling's actions had put her in a very difficult position. However, she wasn't sure if this young lady was naive or did it intentionally, so she nodded and said nothing more. Fortunately, Zeng Shi didn't pursue the matter, which secretly relieved her.
But when she got close to the ancestral tomb, Zeng blocked her way.
Sheng Jin swept past her, coldly snorting, "A woman who doesn't uphold the virtues of womanhood is not worthy to meet the ancestors of my Sheng family!"
So Lou Yanxu and Qingrui could only stand aside and watch as the Sheng family added soil to the offerings.
Qingrui stared intently, holding her breath, and muttered, "This Marquis's mansion doesn't treat you like the wife of the heir!"
Lou Yanxu watched silently, and for some reason, she remembered Xu Congjing's advice again: why should she wrong herself?
No one regarded her as a daughter-in-law of the Marquis's household. After she died, she would probably be abandoned in some desolate wilderness, left to be torn apart by wild dogs.
She silently asked herself: Father, can Wanwan disobey just this once?
Thinking this, she unexpectedly asked, "Qingrui, if I get a divorce, will Grandmother be angry that I'm being unreasonable?"
"What did you say, my lady?"
Qingrui didn't hear clearly. When she came to her senses, she was startled and hurriedly suppressed her thoughts, saying, "It's nothing."
After the ancestral worship ceremony, she did not go out for the next few days and did not see Xu Congjing again. The two of them kept silent about what happened that day.
On the fifteenth, she went to Huiju Temple to pray for blessings as usual. The old woman grumbled and nitpicked for a while before finally stopping.
When only the two of them were left inside, Qingrui quickly helped her mistress up and tenderly rubbed her knees, saying, "Madam is so cruel. Originally, you were only supposed to kneel for three hours, but now you have to kneel for five hours. Even an iron man couldn't take it!"
Since returning from Suzhou, Madam Zeng didn't say anything openly, but in reality, she both deducted her monthly allowance and imposed hidden punishments. Lou Yanxu saw all of this, but she couldn't disobey her elders, so she could only endure it patiently. However, what worried her at the moment was not this matter.
"Qingrui, how could Madam know so much about the details of our journey when she is far away in Chang'an?" she muttered to herself, feeling increasingly uneasy. "The matter of the young master has been kept secret in Xiangzhou, but the manor already knows about it before we have even returned."
Finally, she instructed, "There's something fishy about this. Go and investigate."
Qingrui broke out in a cold sweat and quickly agreed.
In the evening, Granny Hua returned to her residence by herself, and the two of them finally breathed a sigh of relief. They helped each other out of the house and happened to run into Yun Lu.
A childlike voice reached my ears, "My lady, my husband requests your presence."
Lou Yanxu's heart skipped a beat. The two had finally recognized each other, and she missed him terribly, but she was also afraid that she would lose control if she saw him and do something wrong that would harm both of them. After struggling with this for a while, she still decided to refuse, "Go back to your husband. He's been very busy lately. I'll go see him when I have time."
She thought that even if they were not destined to be lovers in this life, being siblings would be just as good.
But when she turned around, the person she had been longing for day and night suddenly appeared, and she realized how absurd her thoughts were. How could she be willing to be siblings with someone she had loved? Perhaps it would be better to be strangers, or better yet, never to meet again in this life, so that she would not have any delusions.
Xu Congjing approached and took her hand, his gaze tender, "How have you been lately, little sister?"
Qingrui stared wide-eyed in shock and fear, frozen in place as Yunlu pulled her away.
"I'm fine."
He lowered his head and addressed her as brother and sister, but Lou Yanxu felt an emptiness in her heart. She took small steps back, enduring the pain, which caused the longevity necklace around her neck to swing askew.
His heart ached, and when he looked down at the necklace, he remembered that it was a gift from Rou'er on her fourteenth birthday. He stared at it, lost in thought.
This was something she brought back from Suzhou. She placed her hand on it, recalling the happy times they had shared, and then lowered her voice to speak, "About Sister Rou, I want to ask..."
Xu Congjing interrupted with a stern face, "Wanwan, I don't want to mention this matter again."
She opened her mouth but remained silent, knowing that this was a pain in his heart, and dared not push too hard.
Then Xu Congjing took the initiative to change the subject, "Are you going to the polo match tomorrow?"
Because the current Empress Dowager is a big fan of polo, she organizes a polo match every few months when she feels like it, just for the sake of having fun.
"I will go." Lou Yanxu's eyes sparkled. "Will Brother Zizheng be participating?"
She probably had never seen him play polo, but after arriving in Chang'an, she had heard that the current Minister Xu was very good at the game. She was eager to see him play, but she didn't want to ask him directly.
Unfortunately, he failed to grasp her unspoken meaning and instead boasted, "At banquets and competitions like this, one either seeks the attention of the powerful or wins the favor of one's wife. I have both, so I don't need to show my face."
Which lady has won his heart? Naturally, it's Lady Lou. Lou Yanxu wasn't oblivious to this implication, but her mind was too heavy to respond. His position in court was now secure, and he had won the hearts of many young ladies; how could she possibly be worthy of his sincere affection?
"It's getting late, I have to go back." She said goodbye hastily and turned to leave.
"Wanwan!" Xu Congjing called her by her childhood name from behind, and said gently, "Sheng Yan's matter was his own fault. You were just trying to protect yourself. You did nothing wrong."
Lou Yanxu turned her head slightly, her heart pounding as she clutched the longevity lock on her chest.
He knew all along!
She was never a malicious person, and she never imagined that she would accidentally kill Sheng Yan by turning against him. In her midnight dreams, Sheng Yan would always be choking her and demanding her life. Now, someone finally told her that it was not her fault.
It was Sheng Yan's fault; he reaped what he sowed.
Lou Yanxu didn't look back again, but her steps were more steady than before.
That night, she took out the jade pendant she had kept at the bottom of her chest and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at it for a long time. In a daze, she returned to the pear tree in Suzhou, where Zizheng stuffed the jade pendant into her hand, blushing as he said he wanted to marry her.
Zizheng was deeply in love with her, and she couldn't bear to owe him anything. Now that he had made something of himself, and the Marquis's mansion could no longer tolerate her, should she seek another way out? A way that could also fulfill her father's dying wish and bring the Lou family into the ranks of the elite.
Once this thought takes hold, it flows endlessly in all directions, and there's no way to stop it.
Tap tap tap, someone's coming. She jumped up and hid the jade pendant under her pillow.
Sheng Yan carried a basin of ice water through the curtain and entered the room. He took off his clothes and applied the ice to the bruises on his abdomen. The water rippled into Lou Yanxu's eyes, and she felt a lump in her throat. The coldness ran from her fingertips to her heart, as if she had returned to that morning when her head was pressed firmly underwater, and she had taken a trip to the gates of hell.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her mind was screaming: Divorce! Divorce!
She looked towards Sheng Yan.
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