Chapter 24: A brief moment of peace, followed by an illusion
A few newly sprouted green ivy climbed the window lattices of the side room. Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, weaving tiny specks of light across the ground. Yun Zhi sat on a small stool by the window, holding a yellowed, old bookâthe only relic she had brought from the Imperial Tutor's Mansion. Inside was a dried osmanthus leaf, her mother's favorite.
She wasn't focused, her eyes occasionally drifting out the window. Ever since her last high fever subsided, Xiao Jin hadn't locked her up anymore, but he hadn't lifted the house arrest either. He just had Qingzhu bring her three meals and her medicine daily, and would occasionally come over in person.
Unlike before, he was not sarcastic or deliberately humiliating her. Every time he came, he just sat on the chair beside the table, either reading the files or looking at her silently for a moment, then got up and left.
With a creaky sound, the door opened and Xiao Jin walked in. He was dressed in a moon-white suit, his usual coldness and hardness gone, a touch more gentle. Seeing Yun Zhi sitting by the window reading, he paused, said nothing, and walked straight to the table and sat down.
Yun Zhi's heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously hid the book behind her - she was afraid that he would say it was "the property of a traitor" and destroy her only remaining hope.
Xiao Jin didn't notice her small movements, his eyes fixed on the back of her hand on the table. Her hand still bore scars from the laundry room, and her fingertips were faintly red, from being accidentally burned while boiling medicine.
"What's wrong with your hand?" He suddenly spoke, his voice flat and emotionless.
Yun Zhi was stunned for a moment, then looked down at her hands and whispered, "No...nothing, I accidentally burned myself while boiling the medicine."
Xiao Jin didn't ask any more questions. He took out a small porcelain bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the table: "This is ointment for treating burns. Qingzhu is clumsy, so you can apply it yourself."
The porcelain bottle felt slightly cool to the touch, and was intricately engraved with patterns. It was a medicine bottle used exclusively in the palace. Yun Zhi looked at the porcelain bottle on the table, and a strange feeling came over her heart. He actually noticed her hand injury and brought her ointment?
"Thank you so much, Your Highness." She whispered, lightly touching the porcelain bottle with her fingertips, unable to believe that this was something Xiao Jin would do.
Xiao Jin didn't respond. He picked up the file on the table and flipped through it, but after only a few pages, his eyes drifted to Yun Zhi again. She was looking down at the old book, the sunlight falling on her profile. Her long eyelashes and the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye looked particularly soft in the light.
She clearly resembled Shen Qingyue, but now, looking at her, she felt something was different. Shen Qingyue's beauty was delicate, like a flower in a greenhouse; while Yun Zhi's beauty carried a tenacity that came from having experienced hardship. Even with her head bowed, she was like a grass stubbornly growing in the cold wind.
"What is that book?" he asked again, breaking the silence.
Yun Zhi's heart tightened. She quickly took out the book and spread it out on the table. "It's...it's a collection of poems I read before. It's not something valuable."
Xiao Jin's gaze fell on the pages of the book and he saw the osmanthus leaves sandwiched inside. His eyes flashed, but he said nothing more. He just lowered his head again and pretended to read the file, but his heart was in turmoil.
He told himself that he just didn't want her hand injury to affect the subsequent investigation, and he just didn't want to see her pitiful appearance and get in the way, so he brought her ointment and asked about her book. But he knew in his heart that these were all excuses - he really noticed her hand injury, was really curious about what she was looking at, and really couldn't help but look at her a few more times.
Yun Zhi looked at Xiao Jin's silent profile, her doubts growing deeper. His recent behavior was so abnormal. He didn't hit or scold her, but instead gave her ointment and asked about her condition. Could it be that... he really cared about her a little bit?
As soon as this thought came to her mind, she forced it down. She remembered the sterilizing soup on their wedding night, the punishment of kneeling in the snow, the whipping on her back, and him calling her a "fake" and a "slave"... Those painful memories pierced her heart like needles, reminding her not to easily trust Xiao Jin's gentleness.
But looking at the ointment on the table and Xiao Jin's silent but non-hostile profile, her dead heart couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope.
"Your Highness," she hesitated for a long time before asking in a low voice, "Will you still investigate the case at the Imperial Tutor's Mansion?"
Xiao Jin paused flipping through the files and looked up at her. Her eyes held a hint of anticipation, a touch of unease, like a child awaiting judgment. He felt a strange surge of guilt, but he steeled his heart and spoke in a colder tone, "Whether I investigate the case or not is none of your business. Just do what you're supposed to do, don't cause any more trouble, and don't get involved with Xie Heng again. That's all that's needed."
When Xie Heng was mentioned, Yun Zhi's eyes darkened, and she lowered her head and stopped talking. She knew that he still cared about Xie Heng and still didn't trust her. The hope she had just had was indeed just an illusion.
Xiao Jin looked at her lost expression, and the irritation in his heart surged up again. He clearly didn't want to make her feel lost, and he clearly didn't want to say those cold words, but when the words came to his lips, they still turned into hurtful words.
"I have something else to do, so I'll leave first." He stood up, without looking at Yun Zhi again, and walked out of the side room quickly.
The door was gently closed, and silence returned to the side room. Yun Zhi looked at the ointment on the table, then at the poetry book with the osmanthus leaves between them, feeling a mixture of emotions.
Xiao Jin's silence, his ointment, and the book he asked her about were like a faint ray of light, illuminating her gloomy world. But the coldness in his tone when he mentioned Xie Heng was like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing her newly ignited hope.
"Maybe... I'm really overthinking it," she muttered to herself. She picked up the ointment on the table and unscrewed the lid. The ointment inside had a faint fragrance. She carefully picked up a little and applied it to the burn on her hand. A cool feeling spread instantly, relieving the pain.
Even if it was just an illusion, even if it was just a brief moment of peace, at least at this moment, she felt a hint of warmth. Perhaps, she could wait a little longer and see. Maybe, Xiao Jin would really be different?
What she didn't know was that after Xiao Jin walked out of the side room, he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he stood behind the pillar outside the window, watching her sitting by the window applying ointment, and the conflict in his heart grew deeper and deeper.
"I just use her as a substitute. I don't want her to die too early and affect the investigation." He said to himself over and over again, trying to suppress the concern in his heart that shouldn't be there.
But his eyes could not leave the slender figure sitting by the window. He knew that his feelings for Yun Zhi were becoming increasingly uncontrollable. And this uncontrollable feeling would drag both him and Yun Zhi into a deeper vortex.
In the side room, Yun Zhi finished applying the ointment, carefully put away the porcelain bottle, and picked up the poetry book again, gently stroking the osmanthus leaves inside. The sun was still warm, the green vines were still lush, but the glimmer of hope in her heart was like a candle in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
Little did she know, this brief moment of peace was only the calm before the storm. Lin Wanru and Su Yurou's conspiracy hadn't ended, Shen Qingyue's past case hadn't been solved, and the injustice at the Imperial Tutor's Mansion hadn't been redressed. And the love-hate relationship between her and Xiao Jin had only just begun.
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