Chapter 19: The Self-Torture Strategy
Xie Wuqi's voice was low and firm as he continued, "I will declare my true feelings to you for the last time. I only wish to be with Yue Li in this life. I have no other choice. Moreover, I will definitely rise to great heights and achieve extraordinary success, allowing Mother and Father to witness my glory with their own eyes!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Wuqi walked around Mrs. Xie, who was still standing there in a daze. His steps were firm and quick, and without the slightest hesitation, he turned around and was about to leave.
When the setting sun dyed the window frame blood red, Xie Wuqi's hand just touched the door latch.
Suddenly, he heard the sharp sound of a golden hairpin cutting through the air behind him. He turned around suddenly and saw that his mother's neck was pressed against the tip of the hairpin, and her pale skin was sunken into a pale pit.
"Mom!" His voice broke. "What are you doing..."
"If you step out of this door today," Mrs. Xie said, her veins bulging as she clutched the hairpin, "you'll be waiting to collect my mother's body!"
The nanmu table shook as she bumped into it, and the teacup tumbled down with a clang, spilling tea that swirls like blood on the blue brick floor.
Xie Wuqi's Adam's apple rolled, and his nails dug deep into the wooden thorns of the door frame: "You know I can't bear to see you get hurt!"
"Then stay!" Madam Xie suddenly shouted, the tip of the hairpin drawing a bloody line across her neck. "Come back home with mother and break off all ties with Liu Yueli!"
The dusk poured through the window screen between mother and child.
Xie Wuqi looked at the newly grown white hair on his mother's temples, and seemed to see the white banners fluttering in the mourning hall of his previous life.
"If you insist..." He slowly released his trembling hand, "I will accompany you on your journey to the underworld."
The creaking sound of the door hinge startled the spring swallows flying under the eaves.
Mrs. Xie watched her son cross the threshold and angrily thrust the hairpin into his flesh.
"Madam!" When Nanny Chao rushed in, the golden hairpin was rolling to her feet.
She hurriedly took out a handkerchief and pressed it against Mrs. Xie's neck, but was pushed away.
Mrs. Xie stood up, holding onto the corner of the table. The sunset light stretched her shadow outward. "Prepare the car." Her voice was hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "Go back home."
The locust tree at the entrance of the alley had sprouted new buds, and Mrs. Xie walked out on the broken shadows.
She expected to hear footsteps behind her with every step, but until the carriage was right in front of her, only Nanny Chao was holding her arm and shaking.
"Madam..." The driver hesitated and looked into the depths of the alley.
"Let's go!" Mrs. Xie opened the car curtain.
When the brocade curtain fell, a drop of blood splashed on the satin, quickly turning it dark brown.
Behind the diagonal attic window, Liu Yueli frowned as she watched the receding carriage, "Madam, there seems to be blood on your neck!"
"She's always like this. It's just a self-torture trick." Xie Wuqi tightened his grip on her shoulders. "When I was little, I refused to take medicine, so she cut my wrist with a piece of porcelain."
Liu Yueli leaned her head against his shoulder and said, "After all, she is my mother. You should go home and make amends sometime later!"
"Let's not talk about this." Xie Wuqi suddenly pinched her chin, "Let me see your face."
She flinched subconsciously as her fingertips brushed against the red, swollen marks. These were the injuries inflicted by Madam Xie just now, leaving three bloody scratches on the jeweled armor.
"Wuqi..." Liu Yueli called softly, "If you are really in trouble..."
"Stop talking!"
Xie Wuqi suddenly pulled her into his arms with red eyes: "Even you want to persuade me to go back?"
"You hurt me..." Liu Yueli struggled to look up, but was met with the murderous anger surging in his eyes.
Xie Wuqi like this reminded her of the day at the hunting ground - he had the same look in his eyes when he drew his bow and shot the white fox.
Xie Wuqi suddenly let go and slumped down on the edge of the couch. "That year, she forced me to marry my cousin, threatening to commit suicide in the same way." The candlelight cast his profile against the wall, flickering with the flames. "I knelt in the ancestral hall for three days and three nights, and she had my food and water cut off."
Liu Yueli squatted down and put his hand on her cheek: "It's okay, it's all over."
As dusk drifted through the window lattice, Xie Wuqi pinched Liu Yueli's red wrist, rubbing the marks on her wrist with his fingertips: "The golden wound medicine from the Command Department is the most effective. I'll bring two bottles tonight."
Liu Yueli suddenly remembered something and tugged at the sleeve of his crimson official uniform with her fingertips. "You should have been patrolling the west side of the city at this hour. Why did you suddenly rush here?"
"Someone came to the command center and delivered a message." Xie Wuqi raised his brows and glanced at the swaying bamboo shadows outside the window. "They said that my mother tied you up in the other courtyard."
Before he finished speaking, the expressions of both of them changed slightly.
"Could it be someone sent by Aunt Zhang?" When Liu Yueli blurted out, the copper bells on the eaves jingled in the night wind.
Xie Wuqi nodded, the tassel of the knife at his waist scraping across the blue brick floor. "My mother wasn't careful enough, so she got the chance." He suddenly chuckled and pulled her into his arms. "But I have to thank her this time. Otherwise, you and I would have been separated again."
Liu Yueli broke free from his embrace and pushed him away hastily: "You will be punished with a military stick if you leave your post without permission! Go back now!"
"It's okay." Xie Wuqi held her slightly cold hand, the candlelight dancing in his eyes, "This job in the Command Department is just a temporary measure, but in the future I have to..." The words were swallowed back at his lips.
The matter of rebirth is too strange, even his mother thinks he is crazy. If Yue Li doesn't believe him, it would be better to keep this secret to himself.
Seeing his expression change, Liu Yueli thought he was just worried about official business, so she quickly took out her black cloak and tied it around her: "Go back quickly, or you might get caught."
When the sound of horse hooves disappeared at the end of the alley, a man in gray flashed out from the darkness.
A servant of the Luo Mansion was running quickly along the wall, with the word "Spring" engraved on a wooden sign on his waist - he was the spy planted by Luo Zhaohan.
…
Inside the waterside pavilion of Jinghong Garden, Chunxi trotted in, holding a lantern. "Miss, a tip-off came in from our informants. Madam Xie escaped from the Jingxi Villa with blood on her neck!"
She gestured, the silver bracelet on her wrist jingling. "Xie Wuqi has been talking in the room for a full half hour, and our spies haven't been able to find out what Xie Wuqi and Madam Xie are talking about. And yet, Madam Xie has fallen into such a dire situation!"
After all, Xie Wuqi possessed unique skills, so the guards in the mansion did not dare to approach him easily.
Luo Zhaohan's hand holding the pen hovered over the rice paper, and ink dripped down the wolf hair brush, blurring out half of the withered plum blossom.
She couldn't help but have some speculations in her mind.
Perhaps, Xie Wuqi has revealed the secret of his rebirth to Mrs. Xie.
He originally thought that revealing this shocking truth would make Madam Xie accept Liu Yueli. However, it was obviously the opposite of what he had hoped for. Madam Xie thought he was hysterical.
See, this is the evil consequence of exposing the truth. How can a treacherous person expect others to trust him unconditionally?
Especially since Xie Wuqi had already done so many deviant things for Liu Yueli. Xie Wuqi might not have realized that today he had deeply hurt the person who cherished him most in the world.
At this moment, Luo Zhaohan's careful plan has come to fruition, but her heart still cannot be completely at peace.
She recalled that in her previous life, not long after Xie Wuqi proposed to her, he was transferred by the court, leaving the Five Cities Army and entering the Jingwei of the Five Military Commandery, where he served as a centurion.
Since then, he has been at the peak of his career, rising through the ranks. Xie Wuqi never told her the secret behind his promotion, and she had never been too curious to ask Xie Wuqi about it.
Therefore, in order to prevent Xie Wuqi from "rising to fame overnight", Luo Zhaohan had to make meticulous plans.
She decided to start by stirring up resistance against Xie Wuqi within the Military Affairs Division, like throwing a stone into calm waters to create ripples. She wanted them to become jealous and suspicious of this promising young general, thus laying the groundwork for his future advancement!
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