Qingya was not surprised to see him remain silent. She had long since seen through to this ending — the body, hair, and skin are received from one’s parents; how could children truly set themselves against their parents? A pillow partner can be replaced, but parents — there is only one pair.
Hang Zhi stared at her for a long while before speaking haltingly. “If Mother had harmed me, I’d have nothing to say. But she just had to harm you. Ya’er, you are more precious to me than my own life. I wish I could give you the very best of everything in this world, yet Mother wanted your life! Doesn’t she understand — taking your life was also taking mine? These past few years, my soul has been gone. Eating has no taste, drinking has no taste; when I think back, it’s as if nothing remains at all. She can be said to have taken two lives.
Life for a life — if you were to ask your sister, Dingxi Marchioness, to file a complaint at court, the hundred-year reputation of the Hang family would be destroyed. Yet not only do you not think of avenging yourself, you think of me in everything. If I still only thought of myself… would I even be human?”
Qingya listened blankly. His words… did they mean he was going to stand against his mother?
“What are you planning to do?” she asked.
Hang Zhi’s brows furrowed slightly. “I haven’t figured it out yet. Ya’er, give me a few more days’ patience. I will give you an explanation.”
Qingya said softly, “You can give me an explanation, but you won’t be able to give one to your mother.”
“She can’t give me one either.” A cold light flashed in Hang Zhi’s eyes. He was no longer the Hang Zhi who once wished for everyone to be well. His mother had personally killed him.
Qingya felt a bit dazed. This cold Hang Zhi before her was unfamiliar, yet somehow made her feel more at ease than before. He was truly willing to go against his own mother for her sake. But his mother was not only his parent — she was the main mistress of the Hang household; his eldest brother, third brother, and third sister were all her children. And behind her stood the Wang family. Even if Hang Zhi was the Prime Minister, could he really fight the entire Hang family alone? And if outsiders knew, how would he face them?
“Don’t joke with me. That’s a joke I cannot afford. I’m only making things clear — we should part ways. Anyway, you still have your cousin to be your concubine. You won’t be lonely.”
Hang Zhi’s already heavy heart gave a jolt. How had he forgotten this? She was the most jealous woman — back then he had two bed servant girls, but knowing she disliked it, he had sent them off to marry before their wedding, or she likely wouldn’t have agreed to marry him at all. Now suddenly hearing he had taken a concubine, and that it was Wang Ziqi of all people — of course she’d fall into a vat of vinegar!
“I… I… Ya’er, listen to me explain!” Hang Zhi struggled to his feet, stammering. “That was a moment of foolishness!”
Qingya knew she shouldn’t care, yet sourness still welled in her heart. “Enough. That happened after my ‘death’. You can marry however many wives or take however many concubines you wish; it has nothing to do with me. From now on, I won’t live with you anyway.”
Listen to those offhand words! Cold sweat poured down Hang Zhi’s back.
“If you won’t live with me, then with who? Wang Ziqi… she only became my concubine because she kept pestering me and Mother was always urging me to marry this one or take that one. I thought — since you were gone, I cared for nothing anymore, and I resented that they had already pushed for concubines while you were alive, angering you several times. I thought — if she was so eager to be my concubine, then let her see for herself what it’s like. So I… I have never once set foot in her rooms!”
Qingya’s eyes widened. “You’ve never been to your cousin’s rooms? Don’t lie to me!”
“If I’m lying, may heaven strike me dead with lightning!” Hang Zhi, in his desperation, squeezed himself into her chair, trying to pull her into his lap. When she resisted, he used brute force to hold her there. “I only think of you. I don’t even want to look at any other woman!”
Qingya murmured, “I don’t believe it.”
He had had bed servant girls before, and after they married he had always been shameless with her — this trick and that trick, pestering her nearly every night. And in the years since her “death” he had never entered her room?
“Believe it or not, it’s the truth.” Hang Zhi was drenched in sweat. “I haven’t touched even a single strand of her hair. I just… ah, why did I do something so stupid!”
Seeing the formerly steady Hang Zhi in such panic, Qingya believed him, but couldn’t help finding it half laughable.
“Do you know — I originally came to Yongan with Marquis Xing’s army, intending to find you. But then I heard you had taken a new concubine, and I was heartsick. I thought, since you’d already forgotten me, you probably didn’t want me to return and spoil your fun with three wives and four concubines, and would certainly not go against your mother for my sake. I was utterly disheartened, so I gave up the idea and went with Marquis Xing to Yuzhou instead. I was so distraught I even wanted to jump into a well and die. It was Jiaoniang who talked me out of it.”
In just a few words, cold sweat soaked Hang Zhi layer after layer. He had never imagined that one foolish, reckless decision had stopped Ya’er from returning to his side — and nearly caused her to die a second time! He truly wanted to stab himself then and there. Marchioness Xing had been called her lifesaver — and indeed she was! “Ya’er, I was a fool. From now on, if you’re angry, don’t do anything rash. Take it all out on me, all right?”
“I’m not that foolish anymore,” Qingya said.
“That’s good, that’s good.” Hang Zhi was still shaken. “The Marchioness said she and her husband each saved you once — was it Marquis Xing who rescued you when you fell into the water?” As soon as he asked, he shook his head. No, Xing Muzheng couldn’t have been in that area then.
“No.”
Qingya shook her head, pursed her lips, and told him everything that had happened after she fell into the water. Hang Zhi listened in silence. The hand he had placed behind her back was clenched into a fist, veins standing out, nails nearly digging into his flesh. His Ya’er — she had suffered so much! He had once sworn to make her the most honored woman in all of Great Xie, yet because of his own mother she had endured such torment. How could a few sentences suffice to describe it? All of it was the Hang family’s doing!
Hang Zhi closed his eyes briefly and made up his mind. “I once thought that if everyone else was well, that was enough. After you died, it didn’t matter to me who was good or bad. Now, I only want you to be well. Ya’er, don’t abandon me. If you don’t want me, I truly can’t go on living.”
Di Qingya looked into the depths of Hang Zhi’s eyes and sighed, moved.
As for that night, it shall be set aside for now.
The next day, Hang Zhi took Di Qingya and Qian Jiaoniang to live at Nanzi Courtyard in the western outskirts — a small residence he had prepared long ago for himself and Qingya. Inside still remained the southern Lingnan landscapes Qingya loved. She accompanied Jiaoniang for a stroll in the back garden.
Last night, Hang Zhi and Di Qingya poured out their hearts to each other, talking at length until the rooster crowed before they lay down. Yet Qingya felt not the slightest drowsiness—she tossed and turned, thinking over and over.
“You’ve really decided to reconcile with him?” Qian Jiaoniang picked up a flat stone and tossed it toward the lotus pond in the garden.
Qingya gazed at the ripples spreading across the lake, nodded slowly yet firmly.
“What plan has the Prime Minister come up with?”
“He said he needs to think it over carefully.”
“And you believe him?” Qian Jiaoniang arched a brow.
Qingya sighed lightly. “In the end, he’s the person I trust most in this world.”
Qian Jiaoniang was silent for a moment, then picked up another pebble. “This matter—even if he is the current Prime Minister—won’t be easy. He can’t just have his own mother handed over to the authorities. And we have no evidence. If this is handled within the clan, will he force his father to divorce her? Or will he split from the Hang family entirely? I hear he’s the sixth son—there are five older brothers ahead of him. Will his father and siblings agree to what he wants? And if he starts strong but ends weak, and his mother only gets a light punishment, then in the long years ahead, you’ll have plenty of suffering to endure.”
Of course Qingya had thought of these worries. But when she was far from Hang Zhi, she could pretend not to care; the moment she returned to his embrace, she couldn’t bring herself to let go.
“Jiaoniang, I want to believe in him. And I’m not so foolish now. I can fight side by side with him. I want to defeat that old woman with my own hands.” Qingya hardened her resolve. “At worst, I’ll just do what you do.”
Qian Jiaoniang gave her a sidelong look. “Do what I do?”
Di Qingya curved her lips, leaned in close, and whispered in her ear, “Poison her.”
Qian Jiaoniang froze, then burst out laughing. Di Qingya also bared her teeth in a wide grin, and the two sisters laughed together until they shook. The guards some distance away were completely baffled—just a moment ago, the two women had looked so solemn, and now they were doubled over in mirth.
“Then suit yourself.” Qian Jiaoniang hurled the pebble hard into the lake, sending the water surging.
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