“Madam, why don’t you rest for a while?”
Chuntao choked back sobs as she tried to wipe the blood from the corner of her mistress’s mouth, but Yun Shuyao pulled away.
Supported by her maid, Yun Shuyao climbed upward, pausing to catch her breath with every step.
The chilly wind swept across her temples, revealing the white hairs that had appeared there far too early.
She was only thirty-eight, yet she looked like an old woman with one foot in the grave, her back bent and her body wracked by coughs until she could barely straighten up.
As she walked, the jade bracelet on Yun Shuyao’s wrist chimed.
It was one of a pair of mutton-fat white jade bracelets named One Step, One Chime. Gu Jinghuai had given them to her the year he went to war.
They had only just married and had not yet consummated their marriage when the Marquis’s Residence received an imperial decree. Gu Jinghuai had no choice but to go to war in his father’s place.
He had put the bracelets on her himself, his heart full of affection, and said,
“From now on, they’ll chime with every step you take. You can think of it as me telling you I miss you.”
He had guarded the border for five years. When he returned, his manhood had been injured.
Yun Shuyao had felt nothing but heartache when she heard, but had kept his secret in silence, bearing the blame for their having no children herself.
“Even if I die, I have to see it with my own eyes.”
Yun Shuyao’s voice sounded as if it had been scraped raw, hoarse beyond recognition.
She looked toward the exquisite villa at the mountaintop, with its green-tiled roof and whitewashed walls. Gu Jinghuai had spent a fortune renovating it under the pretense of needing a quiet place to recuperate.
Only yesterday had she learned that this was Gu Jinghuai’s other home, where he had installed his cousin, Su Yuyan.
Her husband, who had falsely claimed to be impotent, had a fourteen-year-old son.
The three of them were living together as a happy family in this paradise-like place.
The villa’s vermilion gates stood ajar, and laughter drifted out from within.
Yun Shuyao stopped and peered through the crack in the gates.
Peach blossoms were in full bloom in the courtyard. Whenever the wind stirred, petals fluttered down in a breathtaking display.
Su Yuyan leaned her face against Gu Jinghuai’s shoulder, a freshly picked peach blossom tucked by her temple. Its pink-white petals made her skin look like the finest mutton-fat white jade.
The woman’s lips were always curved in a smile; even the fine lines at the corners of her eyes seemed filled with mirth.
It was the easy contentment of someone cherished in the palm of another’s hand, with nothing to worry about—the kind of contentment Yun Shuyao had never known in the eighteen years since marrying Gu Jinghuai.
Gu Jinghuai had an arm around her waist, holding her with just the right amount of support. His protectiveness was unmistakable.
The man’s head was slightly turned, his gaze resting on the peach blossoms drifting through the air. His brow was relaxed.
Even his lips, usually pressed into a tight line, now held the faintest curve.
Yun Shuyao’s heart tightened as she watched. She had never seen Gu Jinghuai like this.
At the Marquis’s Residence, he always wore a stern expression. Even when they ate at the same table, he sat three feet away, maintaining the appearance of a respectful, proper marriage.
But now, his gaze was tender, and he held Su Yuyan with easy affection. They truly looked like a couple made for each other.
“Father!”
The boy was tall, and his features bore a striking resemblance to Gu Jinghuai’s.
“Please help me with my studies.”
Gu Jinghuai smiled as he took the essay from him and began examining it closely.
A little while later, he affectionately rubbed the boy’s head and praised him, beaming with pride.
“It’s very well written, and your handwriting has improved a great deal.”
The boy puffed out his chest, the corners of his mouth lifting high.
“Can I write as well as you did when you were my age?”
Gu Jinghuai burst out laughing, fine lines appearing at the corners of his eyes.
“Give it another two years, and you’ll catch up with me. The future heir of our Marquis’s household is bound to make a name for himself.”
Su Yuyan teased with a smile, “Marquis, you’re praising A-Jin again? Have you even considered who taught him?”
Then she waved at Gu Yanjin.
“Go play for a while, but don’t wander too far. Otherwise, we won’t be able to find you when it’s time to eat.”
The boy bowed respectfully, then ran off in high spirits.
Just then, Gu Jinghuai reached out and placed a jade token engraved with “Yongning Marquis’s Residence” in Su Yuyan’s palm.
That was… the Marquis’s Residence’s household-management tally!
Yun Shuyao’s pupils contracted sharply.
No wonder she had searched the secret compartment several times and never found it. Someone had taken it…
“Her health has been getting worse and worse lately. I doubt she’ll last much longer.”
Gu Jinghuai’s voice was indifferent, with not a trace of concern.
“In a few days, I’ll bring you into the residence. You can take charge of the household first. Once she’s gone, I’ll petition His Majesty to make you my principal wife. Yuyan, I’ve wronged you all these years.”
Su Yuyan’s voice held shy delight.
“As long as I can be by your side, Marquis, I don’t feel wronged.”
She felt wronged?
At those words, Yun Shuyao clutched her chest. An agony like having her heart and liver ripped out swept over her.
She wanted to laugh, but tears fell first.
She had endured eighteen years of living widowhood, poured her dowry into managing his failing household, tended to his seriously ill parents, and worked herself to the point of utter exhaustion.
And in the end, Su Yuyan was the one who had been wronged?
Yun Shuyao’s vision began to darken. A bloody sweetness erupted in her throat, and she spewed out a mouthful of black blood. The world spun around her.
“Madam!”
Chuntao’s wail sounded distant and indistinct.
Yun Shuyao toppled backward, the back of her head striking the flagstones.
“Someone, help! Please, someone save Madam!”
Chuntao was still crying out, but Yun Shuyao’s body was already growing stiff.
Yun Shuyao wanted to grab Chuntao and tell her to take the seal and donate all her properties—not leave a single coin to that despicable pair.
But her fingertips grasped only empty air, and no sound came from her throat.
Before long, she heard footsteps. Yun Shuyao fought to lift her eyelids.
At first, all she could see was a wash of red. Slowly, her vision focused, and she made out the people before her.
Gu Jinghuai stood in front of her, his expression as cold as ever, as if he were not looking at his own dying wife.
Su Yuyan hid behind him, half her face concealed. Only her startled eyes showed, like those of a frightened rabbit.
But Yun Shuyao saw it clearly: beneath the alarm lurked a trace of barely perceptible delight.
“How did you find your way here?”
There was not a hint of concern in Gu Jinghuai’s voice, only irritation at the interruption—as if he were speaking to a stranger who had broken into his private residence.
Yun Shuyao opened her mouth, and bloody foam bubbled from the corner of her lips.
Looking at her husband, she suddenly felt that her life had been nothing but a joke.
“Mar-Marquis! Quick, call a doctor! Madam’s dying…”
Chuntao knelt on the ground, weeping in anguish.
Gu Jinghuai did not move. His gaze settled on the front of Yun Shuyao’s robe, soaked through with blood. His voice was terrifyingly calm.
“There’s no need.”
Yun Shuyao’s vision began to blur, but she stubbornly kept her eyes fixed on Gu Jinghuai. With great effort, she raised her arm, trying to catch the hem of his robe.
She wanted to question him, to scream at him, but all that came from her throat was a rasping breath.
The jade bracelet chimed softly on her wrist, as if recalling the promises made by the childhood sweethearts.
With the last of her strength, Yun Shuyao smashed the jade bracelet on her wrist against the flagstone beside her.
“Crack!”
The sharp sound of shattering cut through the silence.
Gu Jinghuai frowned slightly and motioned for Su Yuyan to leave first.
Only after Su Yuyan had gone did he crouch down and seize Yun Shuyao’s wrist, cut by the broken jade. His voice was eerily gentle.
“Shuyao, in this life, I have wronged you.”
Gu Jinghuai paused, his gaze fixed on her glazing eyes. Just as he had when they parted years ago, he spoke slowly and tenderly, making a solemn promise.
“If there is another life… I will never fail you.”
Never fail her?
A self-mocking smile appeared on Yun Shuyao’s withered face, and bloody foam welled from the corner of her mouth again.
She couldn’t accept it!
That despicable pair would go on enjoying the wealth she had painstakingly earned.
It felt as if her innards were being crushed.
Why?
She had given everything, only to end up like this?
Why?
They had stolen a life together, yet they could live in such peace and comfort?
Resentment coiled around her heart like poisonous vines, binding it tightly.
In the last second before her vision sank completely into darkness, she seemed to hear the clear chime of One Step, One Chime once more.
It sounded just like the day he had smiled at her beneath the peach tree and said, “Wait for me to come back.”
He had deceived her so cruelly…
Duke Zhenguo’s Residence.
“Mm!”
Yun Shuyao jerked upright in bed, her chest heaving, cold sweat covering her forehead.
There was no bloody taste in her throat, no dull ache in her chest—only a faint trembling from her ragged breaths.
She instinctively clenched her fists. Her hands felt smooth and delicate.
These hands…
Yun Shuyao’s heart pounded wildly. She threw off the covers and rushed barefoot to the dressing table.
The bronze mirror was somewhat blurred, but it clearly reflected a young face.
Her brows were willow-shaped, her almond eyes clear, though panic still lingered in them.
But her fair skin was completely smooth, without a single wrinkle, alive with the vigor of a twenty-year-old.
She raised a trembling hand and touched her cheek. Beneath her fingertips was warm skin.
This wasn’t a dream.
Had she… come back from the dead?
She had returned to the age of twenty, before anything had begun.
She had not yet put on her wedding dress or entered that man-eating Marquis’s Residence.
Faithless bastard—Gu Jinghuai!
She would see how he could carry on playing the devoted lover in this life without her private wealth propping up his ruined household!
Wretch—Su Yuyan!
She probably didn’t yet know that even now, the Marquis’s Residence was already a hollow shell riddled with holes.
And what Yun Shuyao had to do was immediately withdraw all her financial support.
She would pull the rug out from under the Yong’an Marquis’s Residence!