However, her hopes were dashed almost immediately.
Xie Jingbai looked at her and shook his head in disappointment.
“Yun Shuangxu, you’ve truly gone too far. You know perfectly well that Yun-niang isn’t that kind of person. When she heard Mother had summoned you, she was afraid Mother would make things difficult for you, so she cried and begged me to come help you. You can suspect anyone, but you shouldn’t suspect her.”
“……”
Yun Shuangxu silently closed her mouth, feeling as though something were lodged in her throat.
She had known he was biased.
She had known he would not believe her.
So why had she bothered with this pointless argument?
How laughable. Even after things had reached this point, she had actually still held out hope for him.
Enough!
She tugged at the corner of her lips in a bitter smile. “Fourth Master may believe whatever you wish to believe. I’ll write another separation agreement for you. If you refuse, I’ll go to the authorities and sue for marital separation. By then, I’m afraid it will be even more humiliating.”
With that, she did not give Xie Jingbai another chance to continue reproaching her. She walked into the wind and snow without looking back.
She had knelt for far too long, and her knees were frozen through. Every step felt as though needles were stabbing into them, yet she kept her back ramrod straight, refusing to reveal the slightest trace of weakness.
Xie Jingbai stood rooted to the spot, watching that stubborn figure recede into the wind and snow. He suddenly realized that her body was as thin as a sheet of paper, as though a gust of wind could carry her away.
When had she become this thin?
He remembered that when they had first married, she had still been a plump, radiant, and beautiful young woman. With a single turn of her eyes, she could make all the stars in the sky seem dim by comparison.
Yet now, after only three years, how had she come to look like a completely different person?
Did she—did she truly have the heart to separate from him?
Once she left the courtyard, the wind and snow struck her in the face. Yun Shuangxu’s body swayed, and she only managed not to fall because she clung tightly to Lü Bo’s hand.
Lü Bo’s heart ached so badly that tears streamed down her face. “Young Madam, why did you have to oppose them so stubbornly? In the end, you’re the one who suffers.”
“Wasn’t I the one who suffered when I tried to deal with them gently?” Yun Shuangxu retorted. “I endured and yielded for three years. What did I get in return?”
“……” Lü Bo was overcome with bitterness and found herself unable to answer.
Yun Shuangxu’s heart was in turmoil, and she said nothing more. She merely lowered her head and kept walking.
After they had gone a long way, Lü Bo suddenly tugged at her. “Young Madam, I think we’ve taken the wrong road.”
Yun Shuangxu stopped and looked around by the faint light of the lantern. Only then did she realize that somehow, they had ended up at Lingshuang Courtyard.
Xie Jingbai’s father, the current Duke of Zhenguo, Xie Yuanshan, had had another wife before Duchess Wei.
After Madam Mei died of illness, Xie Yuanshan married Wei as his second wife.
Lingshuang Courtyard had been the residence where Madam Mei had lived while she was alive. Ever since her death, the courtyard had remained empty.
“Young Madam, let’s leave quickly!”
Looking at the courtyard shrouded in wind and snow, Lü Bo felt only a sinister chill. She hurriedly supported Yun Shuangxu and quickened their pace.
The road was slippery with snow. The faster they went, the easier it was to fall.
Yun Shuangxu failed to plant one foot firmly and fell to the ground with a thud, taking Lü Bo down with her. The lantern flew from Lü Bo’s hand.
“Young Madam, are you all right?” Lü Bo did not spare a thought for herself. She scrambled to her feet and went to help Yun Shuangxu up.
Yun Shuangxu managed to sit up with difficulty. A sharp pain shot through her right ankle, and she hissed.
“Don’t move yet. I think I’ve twisted my ankle.”
“Which ankle? Is it serious? Can you still walk?” Lü Bo hurriedly knelt on the ground and lifted the hem of her trouser leg to examine it.
It was dark, and the lantern had gone out. Only the ghastly white light reflected from the snow remained, making it impossible to see the injury clearly.
Yun Shuangxu felt as though her heart were being carved out. Frowning as she endured the pain, she said, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk for a while.”
“Then what should we do?” Lü Bo asked anxiously. “How about I go call Fourth Master and have him carry you back?”
“Do you think he’ll come?” Yun Shuangxu gave a self-mocking smile. “Don’t invite further humiliation. Help me to the eaves first and let me sit there. Go back and get someone to bring a shoulder palanquin to carry me.”
“But—but how can we do that? Aren’t you afraid to stay here alone?” Lü Bo glanced at the tightly shut vermilion gates of Lingshuang Courtyard and felt a chill run through her.
Yun Shuangxu shook her head. “I’m not afraid. Hurry and go. If you keep dawdling, I’ll freeze to death before I’m scared to death.”
She had once been timid too—afraid of the dark, afraid of ghosts, afraid of insects, afraid of thunder. She had been afraid of everything.
Only after experiencing the warmth and coldness of human relationships had she learned that the most frightening thing in this world was not ghosts or monsters, but the human heart.
Lü Bo had no choice. She helped Yun Shuangxu to the eaves, brushed the snow from the steps with her hands, then removed her cloak and spread it over them for Yun Shuangxu to sit on. Afterward, she hurried back to summon help.
Yun Shuangxu watched her figure disappear into the wind and snow. She gathered her cloak around herself and leaned wearily against the doorframe.
Her shoes and socks were soaked, and her robes had also been drenched by the snowmelt during her punishment. An icy coldness stabbed through her knees.
If anyone saw her in such a wretched state, they would certainly never believe that she was the Young Madam of the Duke of Zhenguo’s Residence.
The status everyone envied her was, when all was said and done, nothing more than an embroidered pillow stuffed with straw—shiny on the outside and worthless within.
These people bullied her because they knew that she had no one behind her to rely on, didn’t they?
If her father were still alive, how could she have ended up like this?
If her father saw her present circumstances from beyond the grave, would he be heartbroken?
How had the daughter he had raised as dearly as a pearl, treasured in the palm of his hand, become worthless scrap metal after marrying into another family?
Snowflakes fell onto her face and melted into icy droplets.
Yun Shuangxu looked around with reddened eyes. Since there was no one here, it should be all right for her to cry a little, shouldn’t it?
She covered her stiff, frozen face with both hands, and suppressed sobs escaped through the gaps between her fingers.
On ordinary days, maintaining the dignity of the Young Madam made even crying a luxury. She could no longer remember how long it had been since she had last wept her heart out.
Just as she was crying with abandon, the wooden door behind her suddenly gave a soft creak.
“Who is it?”
Yun Shuangxu’s sobs stopped abruptly, and every hair on her body stood on end.
She instinctively wanted to flee, but her frozen body and injured ankle left her unable to move.
The vermilion gates slowly opened. A servant holding a lantern appeared inside, accompanying a tall figure dressed in a dark blue-black robe and draped in a silver fox-fur cloak.
Yun Shuangxu held her breath and raised her head to look by the lantern’s light.
Amid the snow filling the sky, what entered her view was a face as cold as frost and snow.
It was an exceptionally handsome face, with sharply defined features and deep-set eyes. His eyes in particular were striking, their outer corners slightly raised and their pupils as black as an abyss. There was no surprise in them, no concern, not even the slightest unnecessary emotion.
There was only an unfathomably deep, bone-chilling coldness.
Yun Shuangxu’s blood seemed to freeze in her veins. She opened her mouth and timidly called, “Third Master!”
He was the eldest son of the Duke of Zhenguo, Xie Yuanshan; Xie Jingbai’s elder half-brother; and the current Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Xie Jinglan.
Because he ranked third among the brothers of his generation, everyone addressed him as Third Master Xie.
And because he was ruthless, merciless, and indifferent to human feeling, court officials had privately given him the nickname Jade-Faced Yama. They said that the Northern Command Office’s imperial prison was his Hall of Yama.
His birth mother was the mistress of Lingshuang Courtyard—Former Duchess Mei.
When Yun Shuangxu and Xie Jingbai had married, he had not attended the wedding despite being the groom’s elder brother.
Some said that he had looked down on a woman like Yun Shuangxu, who had married above her station through despicable means, and had therefore considered their wedding unworthy of his presence.
For that reason, Yun Shuangxu had kept her distance from this elder brother-in-law as well. In the three years since her marriage, the total number of words she had exchanged with him had not exceeded ten sentences.
To encounter him alone in such circumstances now, Yun Shuangxu’s inner panic was entirely understandable.
Yet Xie Jinglan was unmoved by her agitation. His dark eyes stared at her indifferently, and his voice was as cold and biting as though it were mixed with shards of ice.
“Has no one told you that unauthorized persons are forbidden from approaching this place?”
Yun Shuangxu’s heart jolted. Only belatedly did she remember that when she had first married into the Duke of Zhenguo’s Residence, a senior household servant had indeed told her about some of the residence’s taboos. One of them had been not to approach Lingshuang Courtyard.
Too much time had passed, and she had been distracted just now, so she had forgotten this taboo.
Afraid that Xie Jinglan would turn hostile the next moment, Yun Shuangxu hurriedly explained, “Please forgive me, Third Master. I didn’t do it intentionally. I was merely passing by when I accidentally twisted my ankle. My maid went back to call for help. The snow is too heavy, so I had no choice but to take shelter here for the time being.”
Xie Jinglan’s gaze lowered to the muddy hem of her skirt. “Which foot?”
Yun Shuangxu froze for a moment, assuming that he did not believe her. With difficulty, she moved her right foot.
Pain immediately surged through her, making her sharply suck in a breath.
Xie Jinglan looked down at her from his superior height. No emotion could be read on his face. Then, without warning, he untied his silver fox-fur cloak and draped it over her head.
Yun Shuangxu’s vision went black. A faint fragrance of winter plum reached her nose, while her chilled body was enveloped in a warm, soothing aura.
The next moment, a pair of large, warm, powerful hands seized her right foot and removed her shoe.