Chapter 63 Exclusive Release Chapter 63 "Please put the ring on my finger..."
The Van der Berg family’s summer gatherings are held at Eldry Castle, deep in the Scottish Highlands.
This grey stone fortress, originally built in the 16th century, stands on the shore of Lake Lomond, its towers piercing the low-hanging rain clouds, and ivy climbing all over its south wall.
Yuan Ning stood in front of the arched window of the castle's master bedroom, gazing at the rolling, damp green hills and the leaden-gray lake outside.
Having arrived here only 24 hours ago, she already felt the omnipresent, silent scrutiny in the air.
The portraits of viscountesses from different generations on the wall, the whispered conversations of distant relatives that abruptly ended at the corner of the corridor, and the meaningful pauses in the clinking of silverware at the dining table.
However, Yuan Ning was never one to be affected by such scrutiny. Many years ago, she had already experienced trials and even reprimands on a much larger scale.
Elias approached from behind and draped a shawl over her shoulders: "Are you cold?"
“It’s not cold.” Yuan Ning turned around. “It just feels like… the flow of time here is a little different from outside.”
Raindrops pattered against the lattice window. Elias looked out the window and said, "Want to go back? Actually, you don't need to see them."
“Elijas, you still don’t believe me.”
Elias avoided her gaze.
"No, it's not that I don't believe you, I just feel that you were born not to do these things."
"You mean, integrating into your family? Elias, that's my current goal. Don't always see me as a selfish and greedy girl. I've grown up a lot."
Yuan Ning's voice gradually rose, and Elias repeatedly reassured her, "I know, I know, I've watched you grow up with my own eyes."
Dinner was held in the main hall of the castle. The twelve-meter-long oak dining table was polished to a shine, reflecting the warm glow of dozens of silver candlesticks.
Yuan Ning was seated to the right of Viscount Arthur, opposite Elias.
This position itself is a silent signal—she is being observed and measured.
More than twenty family members sat on either side of the long table: an uncle with silver hair and sharp eyes; a cousin with exquisite makeup and a proper smile; and several distant relatives, whose gazes were more curious than scrutinizing.
The appetizer was a refreshing game soup. The light clinking of the silver spoon against the porcelain bowl was particularly clear in the hall.
“Is this your first time in the Scottish Highlands, Miss Wynne?” Cecilia, Yuan Ning’s cousin, who was sitting diagonally across from her, spoke first, her voice sweet and gentle. “Are you used to the climate here? It’s always rainy and gloomy even in the summer.”
“A beautiful sense of desolation.” Yuan Ning put down her spoon and responded with a smile, “It calms you down.”
“Tranquility?” An elderly man with a neat white beard, Elias’s great-uncle Lucas, took over the conversation with a slightly hoarse voice. “The tranquility here is built up from hundreds of years of secrets and unfinished business.”
He glanced meaningfully at Arthur, who was in the main seat.
Viscount Arthur slowly and deliberately cut the roasted venison on the plate without looking up: "Lucas, don't try to be mysterious in front of your guests."
"Playing hard to get?" Lucas chuckled, his grey-blue eyes gleaming with an almost mischievous light in the candlelight. "I just think that since Miss Wynne might become a member of the family, it wouldn't hurt to know some old stories beforehand. After all, our Van der Berg family has some rather unique traditions."
Elias's knife and fork made a slight scraping sound on the porcelain plate.
Theodora, sitting next to Elias, raised her glass and said softly, "Uncle Lucas is referring to that old legend of Eldri Castle, about the unopened mailbox."
“It’s not a legend, it’s a fact,” Lucas corrected, lowering his voice, which only made it more intriguing. “Deep in the cellar, there’s a cherry wood chest that’s been locked for almost a hundred years. Inside are all the correspondence between Viscount Algernon, my grandfather’s brother, and his mysterious pen pal.”
“Viscount Algernon,” Yuan Ning repeated the name, her gaze thoughtfully sweeping over the portrait on the wall of a man with a thick beard and a slightly melancholy look in his eyes, “the viscount who converted the east wing of the castle into a hospital during World War I?”
"You know him?" Lucas asked, somewhat surprised.
"I read some brief family history before I came," Yuan Ning said calmly.
Lucas was about to say something more when Arthur coughed, stopping him.
After dinner, Elias told Yuan Ning, "My father wants to see you in the library."
The family library occupies the entire ground floor of the west wing of the castle, with a ceiling height of nearly ten meters. Oak bookshelves extend from the ground to the vaulted ceiling, and ladders are needed to reach the ancient books on the top shelf.
Viscount Arthur van der Berg stood in front of the fireplace, his back to the door.
“Father,” Elias said.
The viscount slowly turned around, his eyes falling on Yuan Ning's face.
"Miss Meng," he nodded slightly, his voice steady, "please sit down."
The three sat down around a set of dark leather sofas by the fireplace. The maid quietly brought in a tea set and then quickly left.
“Elijas told me that you two are planning to get married,” Arthur said, getting straight to the point without any pleasantries.
“Yes, Viscount.” Yuan Ning sat upright, her hands folded on her knees.
Arthur put down his teacup, picked up a dark blue velvet box from the low table beside him, and opened it.
Inside was not jewelry, but an old brass key.
“This is the key to the cellar of Eldry Castle,” Arthur said. “The cellar contains the most important documents and contracts of the family over the past four hundred years, as well as some… unresolved old things.”
He pushed the key toward Yuan Ning: "There's one of these issues that has troubled our family for nearly a century. If you can resolve it, I will personally sign your marriage announcement."
The entrance to the cellar is hidden behind a secret door behind the stairs in the north wing of the castle.
The brass key clicked heavily as it was inserted into the lock, and the door opened inward, releasing a blast of cool air mixed with dust, parchment, and a faint musty smell.
Elias walked ahead, carrying a kerosene lamp, with Yuan Ning close behind. The stone steps were steep and slippery, stretching downwards into a deep darkness.
"What exactly is it?" Yuan Ning asked in a low voice.
“A box of letters.” Elias’s voice echoed in the narrow space. “From my great-great-grandfather, Viscount Algernon van der Berg, to his…lover.”
"So that mysterious pen pal was actually his lover?"
The lights illuminated the bottom of the cellar, revealing a space that was more spacious than expected.
Elias walked to a separate cherry wood cabinet at the far end and opened it with another small key.
Inside was a faded mahogany box, about the size of a suitcase, with oxidized and blackened brass clasps.
“Between 1912 and 1920, Viscount Algernon corresponded with a woman named Irene in nearly a hundred letters.” Elias opened the box, revealing neatly stacked, yellowed envelopes inside. “The family knew of this relationship, but none of the letters were ever opened. According to the will, it is up to Algernon’s direct descendants and his partner to decide how to handle them.”
Yuan Ning picked up the top letter. The recipient's name, "My dearest Irene," was written in elegant italics on the envelope, and the sealing wax stamp was intact.
Why hasn't it opened for a century?
“Because of morality.” Elias leaned against the file shelf. “When Viscount Algernon died, his wife, my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth, was still alive. She requested that these letters be sealed, but also left instructions in her will that future generations could open these letters and seek enlightenment from them when they encountered partners facing obstacles.”
He paused. "Wynne, if you read these letters and choose to leave, that's fine too."
It's not hard to guess that Lucas brought up this topic at dinner tonight in an attempt to dissuade Yuan Ning from the competition.
“My great-great-grandmother Elizabeth said that although this box of letters came from her husband and his lover, it contained the core of the Van der Berg family marriage. It was never a romantic fairy tale, but rather the weight of history that two people shared over the long years.”
For the next three days, Yuan Ning did not touch the box of letters.
She studied family history with Theodora, learning about those dry lineage charts, land deeds, and charitable foundation charters, and listening to Theodora recount how the viscountesses of past generations balanced social seasons with estate management.
Many times, she believed that she was fully capable of becoming the next mistress of the Van der Berg family, after all, she was very intelligent and courageous.
On the morning of the fourth day, Yuan Ning and Elias sat under the grape trellis in the garden.
She opened a 1910 diary: "Look here, Algernon oversaw the construction of three village schools within the estate and personally served as their principal. In 1914, with the outbreak of war, he converted the east wing of the castle into a hospital for wounded soldiers, with his wife Elizabeth serving as the head nurse..."
She flipped through several pages: "He's a responsible lord, not a dissolute playboy indulging in personal affairs. Then what about Eileen? Who is she?"
Elias took out several blurry old photos and a stack of newspaper clippings.
The photo shows a young woman standing in front of an easel, wearing a loose-fitting work blouse, her hair casually tied up, and holding a palette. Even with the low resolution, her delicate features and focused gaze are still discernible.
“Eileen Carlyle, portrait painter, was born in Edinburgh in 1889 and graduated from Glasgow School of Art,” Elias read from the clipping. “She met Algernon at a solo exhibition in London in 1912. The two corresponded for the next eight years but never lived together. In 1920, Eileen immigrated to Canada, remained unmarried for the rest of her life, and died in Vancouver in 1971.”
Yuan Ning stared at the photo: "She has a career and an independent life. This is not a relationship of being kept. Eileen is not just Algernon's mistress."
“But it’s still an extramarital affair.” Elias’s voice was low. “Did your great-great-grandmother Elizabeth always know about this relationship?”
“She knew.” Yuan Ning pointed to a small booklet with a leather cover, Elizabeth’s private diary. “Look at this passage. On the eve of Christmas 1916, she wrote: ‘A went to London again today, saying he was dealing with foundation matters. I know he was going to see I. It’s raining so hard; I hope he has a safe journey.’”
She paused for a moment: "Elizabeth doesn't resent her husband's affair; in fact, she's worried about him."
Elias asked her, "What do you think about this?"
Yuan Ning calmly analyzed: "The first reason is that men in that era generally had multiple partners, and women were used to it, so Elizabeth didn't mind; the second reason is that the significance of their marriage was primarily for family inheritance, with the husband and wife sharing honor and disgrace, and only secondarily for love. Compared to her husband's safety, who he went out to meet was not so important."
Yuan Ning decided to start opening the letters in the box: "Elizabeth is a very calm and farsighted woman, and I admire her. I think I understand why the other party would leave these letters behind so that I could see them one day."
"Is she trying to say that this is the true essence of Van der Berg's marriage?"
Yuan Ning chose the last letter in the box, dated March 12, 1920, a week before Eileen was to depart for Canada.
Elias held her hand before opening it.
Yuan Ning smiled and said, "Elijas, I know that Elizabeth left these things not so that I would forgive your extramarital affair in the future, but she can make me think clearly about what choice I will make if such a thing happens."
Elias frowned, feeling insulted: "I will not have an extramarital affair."
Yuan Ning carefully used a letter opener to cut open the resealed sealing wax. The letter paper was still cream-colored, the ink had faded to dark brown, but the handwriting was still strong enough to penetrate the back of the paper.
“My dearest Eileen:
Writing this letter now feels like confiding in a version of myself that is about to depart forever. You once asked me why I couldn't abandon everything and run away with you. My answer then was 'responsibility'—responsibility to the family, to the land, to Elizabeth. But tonight, as I sort through old letters to seal them away, I suddenly realize that wasn't the whole truth.
The truth is: I love Elizabeth, in a different way. She is the foundation of my life, the mother of my children, the woman who stood shoulder to shoulder with me in organizing relief efforts when the plague swept through the village, and the woman who quietly managed the family affairs after my father's death. This love may lack passion, but it is deeply rooted in shared years and sacrifices.
And to love you, Erin, is to love a possibility. To love the you who burns with life before the canvas, to love the you who dares to question all conventions, to love the you who lets me see another side of the world. These two kinds of love cannot be compared in weight, because they exist in different dimensions.
I ultimately chose to stay, not because responsibility was heavier than love, but because I realized that true burden is not choosing one over the other, but bearing both at the same time and enduring the torment of that burden for the rest of my life.
May you find your own freedom and peace on the other side of the ocean.
I will always love you.
A”
Yuan Ning slowly finished reading the letter and gently placed it on the table.
Elias took her hand in his; his palm was warm.
"So, what Elizabeth wanted me to learn was never those superficial principles about whether or not to forgive a husband's extramarital affair."
“Yes.” Elias nodded. “The answer is never a choice between two options. It’s about two people willingly shouldering each other’s burdens, walking through life together, and facing any possibility of the future.”
After all, in the long course of life, an extramarital affair is the least of the minor setbacks.
"So, after reading these letters, Wynne, do you still have the courage to accept this ring?"
Morning light filters through the grapevines under the trellis, and a thin mist rises from the surface of Lake Lomond.
"Elijas, do you know when was the first time I was willing to give up something for the word 'marriage'?"
Elias watched her silently, waiting for her to speak.
“Because of my parents’ situation, I’ve always been averse to marriage, thinking it’s just a piece of paper with legal significance. Later, when I learned about your family’s ancient customs, I found marriage even more boring. I can be free and independent.”
"It was in Dunhuang, that's right, five years ago. I had just rejected you then, and I regretted it for a moment right away. I was wrapped in a military overcoat, squatting on the Gobi Desert with my laptop, waiting for the satellite signal to connect. I hadn't been in contact with the outside world for a long time at that time."
Elias was slightly taken aback.
“That night the wind was strong and it was very cold. The generator was roaring. Zhang Qingrang and Li Xiaohui were helping me adjust the equipment, their fingers turning red from the cold. I never imagined that someone in some corner of the world had been preparing and waiting for me to say a word to you through such a difficult way.”
"Richard later told me that you had specifically researched the situation in Dunhuang and considered all the possibilities of contacting me. You knew that the chances of us getting through on the phone were almost zero, but you still made preparations for it."
"I was thinking, it's a miracle. Every star is helping us make connections. The power of the universe is so strong."
"Part of it is a miracle of the universe, and part of it is you. It is you who rationally calculated all the possibilities and made 100% preparations for that almost zero probability."
She looked at the ring with the ancient emblem: "So, please put this ring on my finger, Elias."
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