Chapter 460 Farewell to Wei Heng
Wei Heng wasn't annoyed. He said calmly, "You've seen the person now. Go back."
He was so calm, but Mei Qingyun felt a little uncomfortable. She stared at him and smiled, "I haven't had enough of your disheveled appearance yet."
After saying that, Mei Qingyun bent down and placed the food box on the ground. She slowly opened the food box and took out two pieces of meat, one vegetable, a bowl of white rice, a pot of wine, a wine cup, and a pair of chopsticks.
She handed the chopsticks to Wei Heng and said in a condescending tone, "Eat up. This is the last time you'll eat such a good meal. The wine is your favorite plum wine. Enjoy it."
Wei Heng didn't reply. He silently took the chopsticks, sat down on the ground, picked up his rice, and started eating a piece of meat.
Seeing this, Mei Qingyun felt like she'd punched cotton. In the past, if she said something unpleasant, Wei Heng would always retort, but now he ignored her completely. Watching Wei Heng eat with relish, she frowned deeply: "Wei Heng, aren't you afraid I'll poison your food?"
Wei Heng paused, looked up at her, and said calmly, "If you were to poison me, I would thank you for letting me die from poisoning before I was executed, so that I could at least have a whole body. However, you are a smart person and wouldn't do anything foolish at a time like this and get yourself involved."
Mei Qingyun was speechless at his words, but he was right, she really wouldn't do such a stupid thing. She asked with a sneer, "Wei Heng, you're going to the guillotine tomorrow, aren't you afraid?"
Wei Heng was completely in a "live for today" attitude: "What's the use of being afraid when it's already a fait accompli? Just enjoy today."
Upon hearing this, Mei Qingyun immediately became angry and shouted in a low voice, "You left so gracefully, choosing to end your life without a second thought. Did you even think about me?"
Wei Heng looked bewildered: "I remember that according to the laws of this dynasty, if an official commits a crime, his ex-wife will not be implicated."
Mei Qingyun felt wronged thinking about her recent experiences and questioned, "You scoundrel, why did you become a corrupt official?"
Wei Heng was surprised that she would ask such a question and fell silent instantly. Once something happens once, it will happen countless times.
When someone tries to bribe him with one hundred taels, he will be very disdainful and refuse without hesitation. The next time someone tries to bribe him with five hundred taels, he can refuse. Later, when someone tries to bribe him with one thousand taels, he can refuse. He can even refuse two thousand or three thousand taels.
Later, someone offered him five thousand taels of silver as a bribe, and he was tempted.
Temptations are presented time and again. At first, one can refuse, but later one cannot. How many truly honest and incorruptible officials are there? From lowly clerks to high-ranking officials, countless officials accept bribes. What difference does one more make?
However, he was the unlucky one among so many corrupt officials. He escaped time and time again, but in the end, he still fell into Gu Jingxi's hands.
Seeing that he didn't reply, Mei Qingyun became even more annoyed and said, "Wei Heng, why can't you be a good official who speaks up for the people? Why do you have to be a corrupt official? You've made me worry about marriage at this age. I'll be thirty after the New Year. How am I supposed to find a satisfactory husband at this age?"
Wei Heng never expected her to complain about these things to him. He raised his eyes and saw her angry and aggrieved expression. He suddenly smiled and said, "Miss Mei, you are mistaken. You are as beautiful as an angel, exceptionally talented, and have many suitors. Why would you need to worry about marriage? Isn't leaving me your greatest wish? Now that you have achieved your wish, why are you still angry?"
Mei Qingyun's eyes reddened with anger: "You made me a discarded woman at this age, and I'm remarried. How can I not be angry? You clearly said you would treat me well, but you betrayed me, took one concubine after another, and became a corrupt official. You ruined our whole family. You ruined half my life. You are a scoundrel!"
Wei Heng found it amusing: "You haven't even cleared your own mind, you're so fickle, what right do you have to ask me to be devoted to you? If you think Gu Jingxi is so good, why did you break off the engagement? Why didn't you marry him and chose me instead?"
No man can tolerate his wife comparing him to another man, especially if that man is his wife's former fiancé.
Gu Jingxi is the shadow of his life. He can never be as outstanding as Gu Jingxi. When Gu Jingxi was highly valued by the emperor, he had just passed the imperial examination and was sent to a local area as a minor seventh-rank magistrate, and not even to a wealthy county.
With great difficulty, thanks to the help of her brother-in-law Han Jin, she was promoted to the rank of fourth-grade prefect, while Gu Jingxi was already a third-grade official in the capital, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, one of the Nine Ministers, and a favorite minister of the emperor. His official position would definitely continue to rise.
Except for not being able to be a normal man, Gu Jingxi is better than him in every way. Now, he hears from the jailers gossiping that Gu Jingxi's hidden illness has been cured and that Madam Gu is pregnant.
He could no longer surpass Gu Jingxi, and was now a prisoner about to be beheaded.
Mei Qingyun was speechless for a moment because Gu Jingxi couldn't be a normal man. Although she liked Gu Jingxi, she didn't like him to the point that she couldn't live without him. How many girls would be willing to marry such a man and live a life of widowhood?
Seeing her glaring at him with a mixture of resentment and anger, Wei Heng no longer had the desire to argue with her as he used to. He said calmly, "Since you've hated me for so many years, then keep hating me. If one day you stop hating me, I'll feel uneasy."
After speaking, he continued eating. Born into an official family, he received excellent table manners education from a young age. Even as a prisoner, he maintained the demeanor expected of a wealthy family while eating, with elegant table manners and slow, deliberate chewing.
Mei Qingyun felt lost looking at him like this. She came to see him make a fool of himself, but it seemed that she couldn't see any foolingness at all. Faced with life and death, he didn't even have the slightest fear.
This was the first time she had ever seen Wei Heng like this.
In her memory, Wei Heng was always a coward who would argue with her hysterically, so angry that he wanted to kill her, but never dared to do it.
She opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say, and lost all interest in venting her anger on Wei Heng.
Mei Qingyun looked at him for a long time, took a deep breath, and said to him in a condescending manner, "Wei Heng, for the sake of that letter of divorce, if you have any unfulfilled wishes, as long as they are not excessive and are within my power, I can help you fulfill them. But I will only mention one thing."
Wei Heng paused, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "After I die, find someone to collect my body and bury me on the hillside at the intersection on the way to Lingyun Temple, with the grave facing east."
Mei Qingyun looked surprised, not expecting him to make such a simple request, and asked incredulously, "Is this all you wish for?"
Wei Heng looked at her and nodded gently: "Yes, that's my only wish."
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