Chapter 7
Edward Quan ·
“At the burial ground, Zhiwan’s maid ordered a servant to slash my face again so you would never recognize me.”
“If I hadn’t crawled away with everything I had left, Linyuan, you would never have known what kind of woman you married.”
His eyes looked ready to burst. He ground his teeth.
“She’s vicious! She’s been deceiving me all along!”
He gripped my hand.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let them get away with it.”
I slowly lay down and turned toward the wall.
“I haven’t had a brother for a long time.”
For the next half month, Linyuan never left my side.
He didn’t bother changing his clothes. He brought me food and medicine himself, holding the bowls.
When the spoon reached my lips, I turned away.
Medicine spilled onto the bedding.
He hurried to wipe it up with his sleeve, eager to please.
“Is it too bitter? I’ll have someone bring you candied fruit.”
Suddenly, Qiuju’s sobs sounded outside.
“General! Don’t ten years of marriage mean anything to you?”
A crash.
Linyuan smashed the medicine bowl.
“Guards! Bring Shen Zhiwan here!”
Before long, she was forced to kneel beside my bed, her hair disheveled.
“Linyuan! Why have you bound me?”
He looked down at her.
“How much longer will you pretend?”
Her crying stopped.
She wasn’t a fool.
He hadn’t left the side hall for half a month. Even her trusted servants were locked in the woodshed.
She should already have realized that the burial ground and the false corpse from ten years ago had been exposed.
“Let me explain.”
Her voice trembled.
“Yes, I lied. But it was because I loved you too much!”
“When A-Yue disappeared, you nearly went mad! If I hadn’t found a body to put your mind at rest, you would have followed her into death!”
“For ten years, I’ve faced danger with you and managed your household. What have I done to wrong you?”
He kicked her away.
“So you let me hold false remains and mourn for ten years!”
“You knew the rebels had taken her, knew she was suffering every torment. Yet you concealed it all and comfortably played the general’s wife!”
“If you hadn’t deceived me, why would I have stopped searching for her? She suffered for ten years!”
“And a few days ago, you pretended to miscarry so you could take her heart’s blood and kill her!”
He drew his saber and advanced.
“If not for you, A-Yue would never have come to this.”
Zhiwan was stunned with terror.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re husband and wife! You can’t hurt me!”
After ten years of marriage, even he couldn’t remain entirely unmoved.
She was his childhood sweetheart, the wife he had brought home with great ceremony in a sedan chair carried by eight men.
But when he turned and saw my empty eyes, guilt drowned the last of his reluctance.
“A-Yue lost her eyes because of you. You’ll give her yours!”
The blade flashed.
Zhiwan screamed.
“You’re mad! Xie Linyuan, you’re mad!”
She forgot all dignity.
“Ten years ago, you pushed me into that passage!”
“You abandoned her outside to die so you could protect me!”
“You gave her up with your own hands!”
“What right have you to demand my eyes? If anyone owes her eyes, you should gouge out your own!”
Every word stabbed into his heart.
He stood frozen, his eyes bloodshot.
He had made that choice.
He was the one chiefly responsible for what had become of me.
I felt for the edge of the quilt and pulled it closer.
“Enough.”
“You’re giving me a headache.”
He turned to me in panic.
“I’ll avenge you right now, A-Yue. I’ll take her eyes for you.”
I curled my lips, my voice calm.
“And will that let me see again?”
“What happened ten years ago has already happened. Apart from making you feel a little better, what good would taking her eyes do me?”
I turned toward his voice.
“She’s your wife. You’ve shared ten years together.”
“Don’t let me spoil your marriage.”
“Let her go. I’m tired.”
Did I hate Shen Zhiwan?
Of course.
But I was even more disgusted by Linyuan like this.
Unable to win my forgiveness, he wanted to torture someone else to prove that this time, he had chosen me.
I would not give him that satisfaction.