Missing mother
By the time the Cheng family's carriage arrived at Ganye Temple, the fire had already been put out by Pei Songsheng and his men. Fortunately, the fire was put out in time and did not spread. No one in the temple was injured or killed, and the damage to the buildings was not serious.
The carriage stopped outside the temple. Several monks who were silently chanting Buddhist mantras looked over. Pei Songsheng also looked over and was stunned to see that the first person to come out was Cheng Yayin.
Cheng Yayin didn't even look at him, jumped off the carriage, and rushed into the temple where black smoke was still emitting.
"A Zheng!"
Pei Songsheng hurried over to block her way, "Don't go, it's dangerous."
Cheng Hongyi was helped down from the carriage by his two sons. Pei Songsheng stopped Cheng Yayin and nodded to him, saying, "Don't worry, father. Mother is fine. She just can't stay in the temple for the time being. I will send her back to the city immediately."
"Okay, okay, kid, thank you so much."
Cheng Qiwang glared at Pei Songsheng and said, "Father, why should we thank him for this? The Cheng family is here. Why should we ask him, an outsider, to take care of her? We should take Mother home immediately. We haven't figured out what A Zheng mentioned yet, so I don't feel comfortable leaving Mother to him."
Cheng Hongyi slammed his cane and said, "Shut up, rebellious son!"
Cheng Yayin was filled with anxiety, but Pei Songsheng tried to stop her, so she could only stare at the temple gate. A moment later, a sedan chair was carried out, and the person sitting on it was covered in a thick cloak, with only a scorched corner of the clothing visible.
"Mother!" Cheng Yayin couldn't help but call out and ran over there, but was stopped by Pei Songsheng again. This time he directly grabbed her waist, leaving her no chance of escape.
"Let me go, mother!" Cheng Yayin kicked the people beside her and stretched out her hand as hard as she could to reach the sedan chair.
When the person on the sedan chair heard her voice, the figure that was originally leaning weakly on the back trembled suddenly, and stretched out a hand from his heavy cloak, waving in Cheng Yayin's direction and calling out: "A Zheng!"
This was the mother's call that she hadn't heard in three years. This short call condensed so much longing and so much grievance! Cheng Yayin was immediately heartbroken, tears rolling down her face. She grabbed and hit Pei Songsheng's arms, which were tightly restraining her, and cried, "Please let me go, I beg you, I beg you to let me see my mother!"
Pei Songsheng's expression trembled, as if he was infected by the sorrow in her voice. His eyes were also filled with pain, but the strength in his arms did not diminish in the slightest.
Seeing his mother and sister so heartbroken, Cheng Qiwang was enraged. He stepped in front of the sedan chair and said coldly, "Put my mother down."
The people carrying the sedan chair looked at Pei Songsheng helplessly. Pei Songsheng was unmoved and gestured for them to continue walking. Now even Cheng Qigu was angry and glared at him and said, "Moxing, why on earth did you treat my mother like this? Where do you put Ah Zheng?"
Cheng Hongyi said with a sullen face, "Then both of you should stop making trouble and let the silent man go."
Cheng Qiwang naturally had no choice but to obey his father's orders, but he was very dissatisfied and asked, "Father, are you crazy? How could you let him treat mother like this?"
Cheng Hongyi didn't know if he was touched, tears glistened in his eyes. He turned his head away when the sedan chair passed by him, as if he couldn't bear to watch, but still didn't allow his son to stop it.
Cheng Yayin watched helplessly as her mother was stuffed into the Pei Mansion's carriage and then disappeared from her sight. The strings of rationality in her mind all snapped, and she struggled to break free from Pei Songsheng's loose shackles. She looked at him with bloodshot eyes and shouted hoarsely, "Pei Songsheng, what do you want?!"
"A Zheng, I won't harm you, nor will I harm my mother. Please believe me."
"I want to believe you, but tell me, what are you doing? If you want me to believe you, then tell me everything. Tell me the truth about the poisoning, and tell me why you locked up my mother. Just tell me!"
Cheng Qiwang strode over and pulled the emotional Cheng Yayin behind him. "A Zheng, there's no point in wasting time talking to him." He drew his sword with a swish, pointed it at Pei Songsheng's chest, and said, "Give me back my mother."
Pei Songsheng remained unmoved, just looking at Cheng Yayin with pleading eyes.
Cheng Qiwang was furious and moved the tip of his sword forward an inch. Cheng Yayin was unable to stop him and the tip of the sword had already pierced Pei Songsheng's shoulder. Blood gradually seeped into his blue-gray coat.
"Rebellious son, what are you doing?!" Cheng Hongyi couldn't catch his breath and started coughing violently. Cheng Qiwang was distracted, and Qi Sheng, who couldn't stand it any longer, pulled him away and scolded him harshly, "What are you doing here? Don't let your father get caught in the cold wind. Go home quickly."
Cheng Hongyi seemed to have aged several years in an instant. Leaning on a cane and supported by Cheng Qigu, he walked towards Pei Songsheng tremblingly, "Moxing, your injury..."
"I'm fine. Father, go back first. I'll report back to you after I've settled Mother." Pei Songsheng's face paled, but his voice remained steady. Cheng Hongyi could tell he had something to say to his daughter, so she sighed helplessly and left.
Cheng Qiwang was being dragged away by Qi Sheng, but he still refused to give in. Qi Sheng was so angry that he hit him hard on the head. Taking advantage of the pain, he pulled him away and whispered, "You stupid fool! Even I can see that something is wrong, so why can't you see it? How can a father-in-law protect his son-in-law to this extent? Moreover, the father-in-law clearly cares about the mother-in-law very much, so why would he collude with others to harm her? There must be some unknown twists and turns in this. As a son, you should stop making trouble at this time and think about it carefully!"
Several people left voluntarily or unwillingly. Seeing this, the monks who were avoiding the fire outside the temple also went into the temple. For a moment, only Cheng Yayin and Pei Songsheng were left outside the empty temple.
The warm afternoon sun only peeked out briefly before being blocked by dark clouds again. The sky was gloomy, and the wind carried a heavy chill, as if it was going to snow.
Cheng Yayin looked at Pei Songsheng in silence. She suddenly felt that this man who had experienced life and death with her and shared the same bed with her in the past few months was now extremely unfamiliar. She had no idea what he was thinking. She once thought that she knew him very well, but now she felt that she actually knew nothing about this man.
"A Zheng..."
"If you're not going to tell me the truth about why you did this, then there's no need to say anything."
Pei Songsheng fell silent and looked at her earnestly.
Cheng Yayin suddenly felt it was ridiculous. If a couple couldn't even be honest with each other, what was the point of continuing? She laughed at herself, looked at Pei Songsheng, and said word by word: "Pei Songsheng, let's get a divorce."
Pei Songsheng's face instantly lost all color. Cheng Yayin didn't even give him a chance to stay and turned away.
*
The snowstorm arrived as expected, and by dusk, it was so raging that the sun was blindingly bright. This was a heavy snowfall rarely seen in Shengjing.
Cheng Yayin sat in the room with a brazier lit, but she still felt a chill in her heart, so cold that she almost lost consciousness.
Yixing pushed the door open and walked in, looking at her anxiously. He said carefully, "Miss, my son-in-law has been standing outside the mansion for several hours. The master asked him to come in, but he refused. It's snowing heavily outside, and he's injured. How can he endure it? The master said that you should go and persuade him."
"No." Cheng Yayin casually picked up a book on the table and flipped through it, her expression cold. "I've already said everything to him. If he wants to wait, then let him wait. Don't expect me to soften my heart."
She held a book in her hand until nightfall, without reading a single word. The wind and snow outside seemed to be getting stronger, and the doors and windows were rustling. Cheng Yayin stared at the flickering candlelight, absent-minded.
Seeing her expression, Lan Yue sighed inwardly, quietly left, and returned to report, "Miss, our son-in-law is still outside the door and refuses to leave." Finally, she added, "It's so cold, if someone were to stand in the snow all night, they might die."
Cheng Yayin's expression trembled, and she suddenly stood up. However, instead of pushing the door open and leaving, she walked to the desk, quickly wrote something, and then walked out with the paper and pen. Lanyue and Yixing hurriedly followed her, holding umbrellas and cloaks. She walked so fast that the two of them couldn't keep up.
When they reached the door, Uncle Chen and his servants were looking out worriedly. Seeing Cheng Yayin emerge, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Uncle Chen dismissed the servants, telling them to go about their business, and forbade them from prying into their master's private affairs.
Cheng Yayin saw Pei Songsheng standing outside the door. He wasn't even wearing a coat, and was covered in snow. His face was frozen white, and his eyes were as still as a pool of water. Only when he saw her did a slight ripple well up in his eyes. Cheng Yayin paused, heartache spreading through her chest. She suppressed it and stepped over the threshold.
She took the umbrella from Lan Yue's hand, walked over and held it over Pei Songsheng's head. With her other hand, she handed him a pen and paper. In his pleading eyes, she said only one word: "Sign."
Pei Songsheng slowly raised his hand, and with his frozen fingers it took some effort to unfold the piece of paper. In the light of the lantern in front of the mansion gate, the first three words mercilessly jumped into his eyes - divorce letter.
Pei Songsheng's lips trembled, and he struggled to squeeze out the words from his throat: "I don't want a divorce."
Cheng Yayin: "Then tell me the truth about everything and return my mother to me. No matter how cruel the truth is, I can forgive you and we can go back to the way we were before."
Pei Songsheng fell silent again. The blizzard froze not only Cheng Yayin's body, but also her heart, which still held a glimmer of hope. She gave a wry smile, "You're always like this."
She forcefully stuffed the divorce papers into Pei Songsheng's clothes and turned away.
"A Zheng." Pei Songsheng tried to persuade her to stay, but Cheng Yayin said without turning her head, "It's already like this, how can we continue to live together? Anyway, I'm determined to get a divorce. If you want to torture yourself to make me soften my heart, then please do so."
Cheng Yayin resolutely returned to her room. No matter how her father pleaded or her sister-in-law tried to persuade her, she refused to leave again. But only she knew that her heart was far less heartless than she appeared. She didn't sleep a wink that night. The wind and snow outside the window constantly worried her. At the slightest sound, she would get up and open the window to take a look, fearing that the wind and snow would be too strong, afraid that he would be too stubborn.
Lan Yue and Yi Xing knew what she was thinking. They were about to go out and take a look, then report back to her about the situation. When they returned from their night shift, their expressions were filled with relief, mixed with a hint of confusion. They said they saw Jian Zhu rush over, say something to Pei Songsheng, and then leave. It seemed like something urgent had happened.
Cheng Yayin didn't know if this was a trick by Jian Zhu to persuade Pei Songsheng to go back, or if something really happened. In any case, Pei Songsheng wouldn't freeze to death in the snow and ice. She breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt uneasy.
The next morning, Qi Sheng came to her room early and said with a serious face that something seemed to have happened. Someone from the Pei Mansion came to take his father away early in the morning, and took his two brothers away as well. It was really unusual to mobilize such a large number of people.
Cheng Yayin was worried and asked, "Sister-in-law, do you know where they went?"
"I don't know. Even your eldest brother was confused. He didn't want to talk to anyone from the Pei Mansion and was even scolded by the father-in-law. I vaguely heard them say something about disappearing, and then your eldest brother hurriedly followed them."
Missing... Could it be my mother?!
Cheng Yayin panicked instantly and pulled Qi Sheng to her side, saying, "Sister-in-law, mother must be missing and they're going to look for her. We have to find her before they do, otherwise she'll be hidden again."
Qi Sheng also became anxious and said, "But we don't know where they went. How can we find them?"
Cheng Yayin forced herself to calm down and pondered her mother's possible whereabouts. Pei Songsheng had previously said he would relocate her mother to Shengjing City, and the place he would find would likely be not too far from the Pei Mansion. Finding a place to relocate her mother required manpower, and many people in the Pei Mansion were undoubtedly involved. After all, she was still Pei Songsheng's wife, and her authority within the Pei Mansion was still there. She thought it would be wise to take advantage of Pei Songsheng's absence to return home. She would use threats and inducements to extract the whereabouts of her mother from his subordinates, so she could search for clues nearby.
Cheng Yayin was about to tell Qi Sheng about her plan and was about to go out. Qi Sheng wanted to go to Pei Mansion with her. As they turned out of the alley, they heard a voice calling from behind: "A Zheng."
Her voice was weak, but Cheng Yayin stood still. Her eyes suddenly turned red, and she turned slowly as if she was afraid of disturbing some fragile dream.
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