Chapter 4: Fulfillment
Liu Yueli's silver teeth were almost broken.
She has struggled for so many years, and she must marry into the Xie family in glory by virtue of her identity as the daughter of General Fuyuan!
Thinking of this, Liu Yueli slowly raised her head. Her usual weak image gradually disappeared at this moment, replaced by a sinister look.
"My stepmother always says she treats me like her own daughter..." Liu Yueli suddenly chuckled, the silver bracelet on her wrist jingling against the table. "But Zhaozhao can marry General Xie's legitimate son, but I have to marry your mother's family's second son, who can't even get a title?"
The teacup in Qin Wan's hand rippled, and the Junshan silver needle in the cup sank and floated. She remembered going to the Yongchang Earl's mansion in the rain last month to propose marriage for Liu Yueli. The Hetian jade pendant that her sister-in-law had given her was still lying at the bottom of her dressing box. Now it felt like a branding iron burning her heart and lungs.
Luo Dinglian snapped the military manual in his hand shut. He stared at the faded silk flower in Liu Yueli's hair—the one he had personally given the girl as a coming-of-age gift three years ago.
"Foster father, my father died on the battlefield saving you." Liu Yueli suddenly turned around, her embroidered shoes trampling over the broken porcelain on the ground. "The night my mother hanged herself, do you remember what you said? You said the Luo family is my home!"
Xie Wuqi dropped the sword in his hand. He had never seen Liu Yueli like this before. The gentle woman in his memory who would collect herbs and make soup for him now had a poisonous fire in her eyes.
Luo Zhaohan suddenly raised his hand and pointed at the Tiger Saber hanging in the hall. The dark cloth wrapped around the hilt had faded white, and the dark brown bloodstains on it were even more glaring. "This sword was given to my father by Lieutenant General Liu before he died."
Liu Yueli's pupils suddenly shrank.
Of course she recognized it. On the day her father went to war, he used this knife to carve a peach wood hairpin for her.
"One thousand nine hundred and sixty-three." Luo Zhaohan's fingertips brushed the incisions on the scabbard. "This is the number of casualties in the battle where Lieutenant General Liu died." She suddenly turned to look at Xie Wuqi. "General Xie, do you know why the Northwest Army plants willow branches in the parade grounds every Qingming Festival?"
Xie Wuqi's Adam's apple rolled. He thought of the list of names of the dead in his father's study, each page stamped with the red seal of "loyalty and heroism."
"Because when Lieutenant General Liu was leaving, he used a willow branch from the riverbank as a spear!" Luo Zhaohan suddenly drew out his Tiger Saber, the cold light reflecting off Liu Yueli's pale face. "There are 1,964 longevity tablets enshrined in the Luo family ancestral hall!"
Qin Wan suddenly covered her face and cried.
She spent thirty-seven days and nights carving the names on those tablets with her own hands.
Liu Yueli staggered back, her embroidered shoes catching on the hem of her skirt.
Of course she knew who the nameless tablet in the deepest part of the ancestral hall was for - on the night her mother committed suicide, Luo Dinglian knelt in the ancestral hall and carved the tablet all night.
"What a repayer of favor!" Luo Zhaohan pointed the tip of his knife at the training ground outside the hall, "Go and see those men of the Luo family who get up early every morning to practice shooting! Which one of them is not determined to die on the battlefield?" The blade vibrated and made a buzzing sound, startling the spring swallows nesting under the eaves.
Liu Yueli suddenly coughed violently, and Supa's fingers, which covered her mouth, were as slender and white as paper.
"Yueli!" Xie Wuqi hurriedly embraced her shaky body, looking up at everyone in the Luo family, "Do you really want to force her to death?"
Luo Zhaohan slid the Tiger Saber back into the hilt, cracking the golden nanmu frame. "Xie Xiaojiang, do you know what Lieutenant General Liu wrote in his last letter home?" She pulled out her purse and found the yellowed letter written in powerful handwriting: "If anything happens, don't blame me, General. I will die on my horse's hide. That was my life's wish."
Liu Yueli was trembling all over. Of course she remembered her father's letter, and her mother had hung herself on the beam holding this letter.
The sentence at the end of the letter, "Yue Li's marriage is entirely up to the general," was cut into pieces by her with scissors.
A sudden rain came, hitting the window frames like the sound of war drums.
Liu Yueli suddenly broke free from Xie Wuqi's embrace, and her hairpin fell to the ground, breaking in two. She finally made out the small words engraved on the end of the hairpin: "Descendants of loyal heroes, the Luo family will forever protect you." These were the last words her father had inscribed with his Tiger Guard Knife before his death.
Qin Wan picked up the broken hairpin with trembling hands, her palm pierced by the wooden thorn, drawing blood. "This hairpin... was brought back by someone your father asked. Every female member of the Luo family has one."
Thunder roared, illuminating everyone's pale faces. Liu Yueli looked at the faded red rope around Luo Zhaohan's wrist—it was the symbol of the family of a fallen soldier, and everyone in the Luo family, even the grooms, wore it.
The candlelight flickered on the bronze crane lampstand, casting Luo Zhaohan's shadow on the blue brick floor, stretching it as thin and long as a sword.
She stroked her father's empty left sleeve with her fingertips, and the broken bones protruding under the brocade made her palm ache.
"Miss Liu, do you know whose life was lost in exchange for this severed arm?" When she turned around, the white jade hairpin on her temples flashed a cold light, reflecting Liu Yueli's suddenly contracted pupils.
Luo Dinglian suddenly grasped the armrest of the armchair, and the red sandalwood creaked under the weight. "Zhao'er!"
"Twelve years ago, at the Battle of Yanmen Pass," Luo Zhaohan said, her voice as clear as the sound of broken ice. "Lieutenant General Liu, greedy for merit, advanced recklessly, leading 3,000 light cavalry deep into the enemy's territory. By the time father arrived to help, the enemy had already set up a caltrop formation." She suddenly ripped open her father's sleeve, revealing the hideous scar like a centipede in the candlelight. "To protect your father, your left arm was severed by a scimitar."
Liu Yueli stumbled into the Duobao Pavilion, shattering the celadon plum vase on the shelf. She stared at her distorted reflection in the porcelain shards scattered across the floor, and suddenly laughed shrilly. "If it's my father's fault, why did you raise me for ten years? Why do you always say you owe the Liu family a life every Qingming Festival?"
Thunder roared outside the window, and raindrops wrapped in crabapple petals slammed into the window. Xie Wuqi stared at the flickering candle wick on the table, suddenly remembering his coming-of-age year, when his father gazed toward the Luo Mansion and sighed, "That's Lieutenant General Liu's tomb. Every year, your uncle Luo personally sprinkles wine on it."
"Out of guilt." Luo Zhaohan picked up the broken porcelain, the sharp blade reflecting the cold light in her eyes. "Father always said that if he had been a moment faster, Lieutenant General Liu might not have had to use himself as a shield." She threw the porcelain shard at Liu Yueli's feet. "It's not some favor you imagined!"
Liu Yueli's brocade embroidered shoes rolled over broken porcelain, and her scarlet agate earrings swung wildly with her movements: "Since you have no gratitude, why are you stopping me from marrying into the Xie Mansion?"
Luo Zhaohan suddenly chuckled. Her fingertips traced the marriage certificate on the table. The words "Forever Together" on the gold-dusted paper pierced her eyes, causing her to ache. "Since Master Xie is so deeply in love and loyal, why don't you take her away today?"
"Really?" Xie Wuqi looked up suddenly, and the mutton-fat jade pendant on his waist hit the table.
"Zhao Zhao!" Qin Wan looked at her daughter with a distressed look on her face.
"Mom." Luo Zhaohan held her mother's trembling hand and glanced at Liu Yueli's pale face. "Didn't Mr. Xie always say that he would marry Yueli? Today, I will help him." She smiled slightly and saw with satisfaction that the corners of Xie Wuqi's mouth stiffened instantly.
Liu Yueli suddenly raised her pretty face, her face was as pale as snow, like a white lotus attacked by frost.
Is Luo Zhaohan trying to expel her from the family? If she really leaves with Xie Wuqi, then her status will be completely lost!
Qin Wan was in great pain, and her pity for her daughter was beyond words.
Whenever she thought of Liu Yueli's words, her anger burned like a raging fire, making her unbearable, so she agreed without hesitation. She said angrily: "If she insists on leaving, then I will regard all my selfless efforts over the years as going to waste!"
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