Chapter 54 Let It Go for Each Other
2036 Words
The question was sharp and condescending.
Gu Yunjin kept her head low and sobbed. Her two curved eyebrows were twitching slightly, implying her reluctance.
"What? Are you not willing?"
Leng Qingtang suddenly widened his eyes, his voice cold and loud.
"No, no. Yunjin is willing!"
On her side, Nanny Gu's makeup had been long ruined by her tears. While frightened by the Master's expression, she could not bear seeing the girl she brought up to be blamed. As she interceded for Gu Yunjin, Nanny Gu also kept poking her on her back, reminding her of the urgency to read the atmosphere.
Gu Yunjin stopped crying and stared at the ground. Smothering her resentment, she threw herself on Gu Yunxi's feet and shouted at the top of her lungs,
"Mother, my good mother! I was wrong. Don't blame me. Please ask for a pardon from my father! Mercy! Mercy! I will never dare to disrespect you again."
Gu Yunxi panicked and took two steps backward. She was about to look down on her before her small hand was suddenly caught by the Master.
Leng Qingtang looked emotionlessly at both sides and ordered,
"Gu Yunjin was disrespectful and disobedient to her mother. Guards, drag her out of here to be flogged to death immediately!"
Gu Yunxi was stunned.
"Master, she has admitted wrong..."
"There's a difference between confession and punishment. Now that she admitted her guilt, she ought to be punished!"
Leng Qingtang raised his eyebrow with a stern look.
Gu Yunjin rolled her eyes and passed out in Nanny Gu's arms. Still, she was snatched away by two young eunuchs in spite of Nanny Gu's protection.
Nanny Gu sat on the floor and howled. Others were so terrified that they knelt on the floor and dared not to take a deep breath.
Gu Yunxi stared blankly at the chaos. Suddenly, she fell on her knees and implored Leng Qingtang with her head low,
"Master, please calm down. Yunjin is still young. I beg you to show mercy on her for my sake."
Leng Qingtang looked at her, pondering for a moment, and then changed the order to the waiting eunuch,
"Take Gu Yunjin to the outer yard and whip her 30 times. The whole Garden is compelled to be present!"
His disdainful eyes were then directed at Nanny Gu, and cold words were uttered,
"Despite her youth, Gu Yunjin is wicked and unsuitable for Palace service. It suits her better to rot in the Garden and dream about becoming an Imperial Concubine."
Nanny Gu certainly knew what the Master meant. With an easy statement, Gu Yunjin was disqualified from entering the Palace, which was no different from a death sentence!
Instantly Nanny Gu saw countless stars and was scared to unconsciousness.
When Gu Yunxi stood up, she noticed Lvning and other girls were peeking at her secretly.
The moment their eyes met, Gu Yunxi only felt the numbness and coldness in them. The overwhelming emotions penetrated her like a fierce storm or a sharp sword.
Her heart trembled. She wanted to avoid those eyes but found them following her everywhere.
Timely, the Master pulled her out of the room.
The snow hadn't stopped, and the white snowflakes shone as they fell from the boundless sky.
Under the porch, a little eunuch put on big cloaks for the Master and Gu Yunxi. Leng Qingtang held up the oiled paper umbrella in one hand and embraced Gu Yunxi by her shoulders in another, walking with her together.
Piercing wailing and whipping sounds were coming from somewhere in the front yard, sending Gu Yunxi trembling.
Leng Qingtang's hand patted on her shoulder and comforted her.
"Don't be afraid. It's okay. You have just healed. It's not appropriate to see something violent. Let's go back to the Master's Mansion."
He spoke as they walked. His eyes were looking directly at their front, failing to note her half-swollen and half-pale face was fraught with bitterness and complex.
The Master's hands were big and warm. She felt more than once his tender feelings for her...
He was the one who cared her the most.
Before leaving the inner courtyard, Gu Yunxi paused.
Leng Qingtang stopped and looked at her in surprise.
"What's wrong, girl?"
"Master, let's... let's not do this..."
"..."
Gu Yunxi turned sideways, slowly pulling away from the Master, and looked up sadly.
"Master... We shouldn't act like before..."
Leng Qingtang froze for a moment. He gazed at her for a while and then fawned upon her.
"Girl, some people are born vicious. Gu Yunjin's bullshit words are not worth to reflect on! If you are not satisfied, why did you stop me when I planned to shut her up forever?"
"Because... what she said... wasn't nonsense. I am indeed the girl in the Garden... who grew up under your eyes..."
"..."
Leng Qingtang frowned, and the stern expression on his handsome face became more and more apparent as if he had been forced to the corner. He abruptly protested,
"So what! I like you."
"I... Master... I... don't like this..." She looked at him bitterly. As her voice trembled to an end, her heart seemed to be torn apart in an instant. The pain was permeating.
"..."
The big hand holding the umbrella suddenly loosened, and the oil umbrella in his palm fell slowly, imprinting a half arc in the snow.
"Girl, what do you want?"
He stared at her closely, his voice hoarse and helpless.
"Shall we... just let go of each other...?"
She finally catered to his gaze. Her petite face was blurred by the whirling snowflakes, hard to discern.
Leng Qingtang's heart was inexplicably painful. Out of the persistent uncomfortable feeling, he only managed to open his dry lips but failed to utter a word.
Let go of each other.
The apple of his eye that he had always cherished and loved, now decided to stand before him and say something about letting go of each other?
Only at this moment, as if pierced by the cold wind, his heart was frozen. Endless words were blocked in his throat, and could not be expressed.
Gusts of white fog were emitted from Leng Qingtang's silent half-open mouth. It took a while for him to ask in a quivering voice,
"You... do care about it... right?"
"I do!"
She hurriedly answered with a firm expression and did not even have time to consider whether she and the Master were referring to the same thing.
Leng Qingtang was so shocked that his face twitched. His tall figure seemed to be frozen by the ruthless snow, standing motionless in the white.
Before he could fulfill his great achievement, there were so many secrets that he could not tell her.
The snow was heavy, and flakes of ice flew into Gu Yunxi's eyes, making her eyelids shivering.
After a fraction of a second, the snowflake melted and moisturized her eyes. Through the curtain of water, the Master's face became blurred.
Time was almost still, leaving the tall and short figures in the snow. Only the sound of snow falling would break the silence now and then.
In the cold wind, Leng Qingtang's response arrived, faint and weak,
"Fine, as you wish..."
Snowflakes were flying, fusing the line between the sky and the earth. Eventually, the shade of the blue figure was gone, leaving the lonely footprints on the snow.
Master...
Master!
Gu Yunxi stood blankly in the snow as snow accumulated a thick layer on her shoulders.
Now, she was alone in the vast world!
Tears burst out of her eyes and were blown dry by the cold wind in an instant.
"Lady? What are you doing?"
Seeing that the Master left without Gu Yunxi, Qinger came up to hold her anxiously.
"Lady, you and the Master clearly love each other, and he had promised you a proper position in front of everyone. Why did you reject him like that?"
"I. I."
Gu Yunxi opened her mouth but could not fathom a word.
She had a feeling for him for a long time, but it was she who ended up hurting him the most!
To cut one's heart with a knife would not hurt more than how she felt now.
Leng Qingtang strode out of the Garden and silently got on the carriage.
Cheng Wanli looked into the Garden but did not catch the sight of Gu Yunxi.
He knew that the Master rushed over to take her back to the Mansion. Now that he saw him out with a dark face, a bad hunch harbored in his mind.
"Master, where are we going?"
Cheng Wanli turned to ask inside the carriage.
"..."
The Master's eyes looked straight forward but he saw nothing.
"Master..."
"Back to the Eastern Depot!"
Leng Qingtang gave an abrupt response. He blinked confusedly and then added absent-mindedly,
"Xiaoshen stays and escorts Yunxi back to the Mansion..."
Cheng Wanli and Xiao Xiaoshen exchanged glances. Then, the man led the Master's carriage to leave the Garden first.
Xiao Xiaoshen looked serious. When he was about to run into the courtyard, he saw Gu Yunxi stumbled out, held by Qinger.
"Sister Yunxi, you..."
Xiao Xiaoshen saw the mess of her and asked with great anxiety and confusion.
"You and the Master... What happened?"
Gu Yunxi seemed to have lost her soul. With the vacancy of expression, she leaned against the carriage, and her long eyelashes stained with fallen snow.
Suddenly, she burst into tears, and the voice of grief was torn apart by the howling wind.
Not remembering how she had climbed onto the carriage as if she had lost her mind, Gu Yunxi was light on her feet and reached the Master's Mansion in a complete reverie.
For a whole day, Gu Yunxi did not eat or drink but sat in a daze.
Qinger lit up the stove in the room and had to coax her to eat a bowl of fish porridge at night.
The cold wind outside was roaring like a ghost. Gu Yunxi could not sleep. She huddled herself in the quilt, feeling lost.
He was not here, and the entire Master's Mansion seemed to have fallen into dead silence. When he was not here with her, she would lose her heart.
What was the Master doing now.
Earlier today in the Garden, she was happy and fearful when he announced she was to be the "Master's Wife".
Gu Yunxi liked the Master wholeheartedly and naturally wanted to stay with him for life.
But she didn't want the people in the Garden to think that she was greedy for fame and fortune and to even use her to slander the Master's name.
The Master and Lord Ming were at odds because of her and hence she became the gossip topic. She didn't want to be a burden on the Master anymore.
"Let go of each other." The words might have hurt him deeply, but was he the only one in agony?
Days passed by quietly.
Qinger accompanied Gu Yunxi every day and talked with her. She preserved the dried osmanthus, hawthorn, and begonia fruits Yunxi had picked in the front yard with honey or salt particles. Also, she asked Xiaoshen to inquire after the Master from the Eastern Depot guards and kept her informed.
It was said that the Emperor had sent the Imperial Noble Concubine's younger brother, the Shenle Marquis, Wan Li, to march north with the army to put down a rebellion in a vassal state...
It was also said that the Western Depot Master Ming Lan had volunteered to inspect the six stricken counties in Jiangan. Unexpectedly, he was stopped by the Empress.
After some persuasion, Emperor Jingxiao adopted Empress's suggestion and appointed the Eastern Depot Master Leng Qingtang as the imperial envoy to fully preside over the disaster relief in Jiangan.
In the Eastern Depot, Leng Qingtang was chained to his work.
In the Master's Mansion, Gu Yunxi was relieved to know that he was well.
The snow was falling outside the window, and the wintersweet flower buds on the branches were covered with a white blanket.
Gu Yunxi looked up at the heavy snow. The loneliness was relentless in her mind...
- Writer
