Chapter 9: Setting the Stage
Mrs. Xie's eyes lit up.
Under the girl's loose hair, there were traces of tears at the corners of her eyes. Her usually bright and flamboyant eyebrows were now drooping, just like a crabapple flower wilted by the rain.
She hurried forward to grab Luo Zhaohan's hand: "Good boy, auntie will apologize to you on behalf of Wuqi."
Luo Zhaohan retracted her hand as if she had been electrocuted. In her previous life, these hands had brought her bird's nest laced with arsenic, but now it felt as if a centipede had crawled over the place where it touched.
"Aunt, please go back." She deliberately let her voice tremble. "The marriage certificate has been torn up, and we will have no contact from now on!"
"It can be rewritten even if it's torn up!" Madam Xie raised her voice anxiously, "Wuqi is possessed by a foxy woman! Wait for the master to break his legs!"
"Thank you, Madam, be careful with your words!" Qin Wan slammed the table and stood up. "Our Sister Han is not a rag picker!"
General Xie's scabbard banged heavily on the ground.
Luo Zhaohan caught a glimpse of the corner of his father's black clothes hidden behind the screen, and suddenly shook the table.
"Zhao Han!" Madam Xie seized the opportunity to grab her wrist. "Ever since you were little, you've loved horse racing and archery with Wuqi. Last year, during the hunt, he even fended off a wolf for you. These bonds of friendship can't be written off."
Qin Wan suddenly covered her face and sobbed, "My poor son..."
General Xie finally couldn't contain himself and stepped out from behind the screen, the jade belt around his waist jingling. "I've failed in parenting, so I've come here today to apologize!"
"General Xie, are you going to use your military achievements to pressure others?" Luo Dinglian's voice was like a loud bell, shaking the beams and pillars slightly.
He sat down in the main seat with great dignity, "Your son humiliated my daughter in public, and Madam Xie is here to play the motherly role!"
Mrs. Xie's face burned, her nails digging into her palms to hold back. She peered at Luo Zhaohan's loose collar—a faint tooth mark was visible there. This discovery made her heart beat like a drum: If only Luo Zhaohan could admit his lingering feelings for Wuqi...
"Sister Han," she said in a softer voice, "Auntie brought you your favorite rose pastry, the kind Wuqi bought specially for you when you came of age."
"Thank you, Madam." Luo Zhaohan suddenly looked up, his eyes shining frighteningly. "Did you know that the gold armband Miss Liu wore today is engraved with a pattern of intertwined branches?"
The room was dead silent.
Mrs. Xie's mouth twitched as she looked at her husband. General Xie's face turned ashen. The intertwined branches were a pattern only the wife could use. If word got out, the Xie family would be implicated by the Censorate.
The beaded curtain suddenly rustled. Luo Zhaohan's personal maid rushed in, crying, "Miss! Why did you spill the medicine again? The imperial physician said that excessive worrying can harm your health."
"Shut up!" Luo Zhaohan pretended to hit her, but his raised wrist was caught by Madam Xie.
Mrs. Xie was overjoyed, but pretended to be heartbroken on the surface: "Good boy, Auntie will let Wuqi give you an explanation!"
Luo Zhaohan lowered his eyes and said nothing.
Mrs. Xie's eyes gleamed even brighter. She took two quick steps and placed her palm on the girl's thin shoulder. "My dear child, Wuqi may be blinded by greed, but as a mother, I can see clearly that he has you in his heart."
Luo Zhaohan's shoulders trembled slightly, and his crow-feather-like eyelashes suddenly lifted, revealing red eyes.
This reaction reassured Madam Xie, the jade bracelet on her wrist jingling. "Last month, he was still harping on about having an embroiderer from the palace make her wedding gown, and that he would marry you. When he comes around, I'll force him to kowtow three times and nine times to apologize. Will you give him another chance?"
Luo Zhaohan bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, leaving deep creases in the brocade handkerchief.
"Zhao Zhao..." Madam Xie took the girl into her arms, her golden hairpin sweeping across the girl's hair. "You are the only one who can be the daughter-in-law of the Xie family."
Qin Wan almost broke the tortoise shell armor.
If her daughter had not informed her in advance, she would have torn the old woman's mouth to pieces at this moment - Xie Wuqi had just torn up the marriage certificate in front of the Luo family, and today his mother had the nerve to deceive her daughter!
"Aunt," Luo Zhaohan suddenly broke free from her embrace, a faint reddening at the corners of her eyes, "just consider all these years of sincerity as wasted. From now on—" She choked with sobs and turned away, "Master Xie and I will go our separate ways! Send him away!"
The moon-white skirt swept across the green bricks, and the staggering figure disappeared behind the bead curtain.
The startled bird under the eaves fluttered up and flew away, shaking the green smoke from the incense burner.
Qin Wan waved her sleeves, and the teacup lid knocked against the edge of the bowl with a crisp sound: "Please."
Mrs. Xie didn't care about the host's order to leave, and walked out of the door slowly with the help of her maid.
The parrot in the corridor fluttered its golden chain and mimicked: "Change of heart... Change of heart..."
There was wisp of white mist floating in the ice mirror in the inner room.
Luo Zhaohan was covering his eyes with a wrung-out cold handkerchief when he heard footsteps and chuckled, "Mother, your nails almost dug a hole in the tea table just now, didn't they?"
"You're quite patient." Qin Wan grabbed the handkerchief and gently pressed her swollen eyelids. "You woke up this morning with rabbit eyes from crying and refused to put on face mask. You were waiting for this drama."
Luo Zhaohan examined her face in the bronze mirror. The tip of the girl's nose in the mercury mirror was slightly red, like a crabapple tree bruised by wind and rain—exactly the look Madam Xie loved to see.
In her previous life, when Xie Wuqi led Liu Yueli to serve tea, this old woman grabbed her hand and stuffed a jade bracelet into the palm of the newlywed: "We in the Xie family will recognize you as the eldest daughter-in-law." Now the situation has changed, she wants to see how Mrs. Xie will coax Liu Yueli to drink her bowl of "daughter-in-law tea" this time.
More importantly... Luo Zhaohan's fingertips traced the secret compartment of the dressing table. While the secret letter Chunxi had "found" that morning had resolved the immediate crisis, Xie Wuqi's suspicious nature made it hard to guarantee he wouldn't become suspicious once he came to terms with it.
"I have to make sure the Xie family thinks I'm still the fool they manipulate." She threw the cold handkerchief back into the copper basin, the splash of water scattering her reflection in the diamond-shaped mirror. "Now that the stage is set, will you accompany me to sing 'The Story of Unfaithfulness'?"
The sun was setting outside the window, giving the girl's sneer a golden edge.
Qin Wan looked at the unfamiliar sharpness between her daughter's brows, and suddenly remembered the female wolf she saw during the autumn hunt last year - she had the same expression when licking her wounds.
…
As dusk fell, the wind chimes on the eaves of the Jingxi Villa made a faint sound.
Xie Wuqi carried Liu Yueli as they walked through the hanging flower gate, their overlapping shadows reflected on the bluestone slabs.
"Call the doctor quickly!" The moment he kicked open the door of the side room, the person in his arms woke up with a moan.
Liu Yueli's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her nail-stained fingertips grasped his collar. "Wuqi...where is this?" She looked around and suddenly struggled. "How could you bring me here? Go back to the General's Mansion and apologize to Miss Luo!"
Xie Wuqi looked at the red corners of her eyes and suddenly pressed her down on the carved couch: "Yueli, now that I have brought you out, I will never look back."
"But the Luo family..." Liu Yueli suddenly fell silent, tears hanging on her eyelashes just right.
She knew very well that Xie Wuqi was most susceptible to this - when showing weakness, one must be a little stubborn, like a white camellia swaying in the wind and rain.
Sure enough, Xie Wuqi's Adam's apple rolled, and he wiped the moisture from the corners of her eyes with his fingertips: "The Luo family is just a grasshopper after autumn, and in two years..." He suddenly stopped talking. In his previous life, the imperial decree to execute the entire Luo family was issued in the fifth year of Yongchang, and now it is only the third year of Yongchang.
Liu Yueli snuggled into his arms, the scent of jasmine in her hair mixed with tears: "I don't want luxury and splendor, I just want simple meals with you." Before she finished speaking, she felt a slight rumble in her stomach.
She lowered her head in shame, revealing the cinnabar mole on the back of her neck.
Xie Wuqi felt sad and called for someone to bring him food.
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