Un corazón puro en una vasija de jade

Capítulo 161

Yongye smiled as she looked at him. Yuepo sat opposite her, drinking. Where was his tenderness? He imprisoned Qiangwei, yet blamed her for attracting Feng Yangxi.

She chuckled and said, "Isn't this a good thing? It lets you know that Feng Yangxi has his eye on the An family. You know that the An family is a big name that attracts the emperor's suspicion, so you have time to plan a good show. You had Mo Yu lure An Boping to the villa to find me, so that I would know Mo Yu's identity. Then you had Mo Yu capture me but not kill me, deliberately giving the emperor an excuse. You made the An family fall overnight as if it were a matter of course. Hehe, why was Mo Yu able to capture me? Isn't it because he was wearing the black gold armor I gave you? He wasn't afraid of my throwing knives, was he?"

A bitter smile appeared on Yuepo's face; she did not deny it.

She had given him her black gold armor, only to have it fall into Mo Yu's hands because of it. Blood gushed from the healed wound on Yong Ye's back. She truly wished Mo Yu would kill her, and she truly wished Yue Po would offer incense to her before the Buddha!

Moon Spirit, Moon Spirit! Is this the person she wants to protect, the person she trusts with all her heart?

As Yongye looked at him, she admired his shrewdness and forbearance.

"The An family needs to disband, but there must be a reason that others will think is legitimate, a reason that will prevent others from noticing the relationship between the An family and Youli Valley. And the An family breaking up into smaller units will make it easier for Youli Valley to operate. Right?"

"You deliberately made yourself a hostage with Rose to prevent me from making any moves. But how meticulous you are! You were able to give me the throwing knife in advance and set up men along the long street beforehand. You knew Feng Yangxi would follow me, and you deliberately made him recognize me as Xinghun, the assassin he had always wanted to kill. You hoped that Feng Yangxi and I would turn against each other, didn't you? How come I didn't see through your deep scheming? I thought I was smart, but in your eyes, I'm not even as smart as your idiot brother!"

Yongye's voice was like a knife, each strike aimed at Yuepo's vitals. He didn't want to deny it, "You've seen it all? The An family's business is growing bigger and bigger; if this continues, it won't just end up falling apart. Doing this is beneficial to the An family, and beneficial to Youli Valley. I started arranging this a long time ago; you're just an opportunity. I can tell you the true face of Youli Valley. Our whole family are from the Xibo tribe. After that battle more than twenty years ago, we left the mountains of Xibo and started doing business in Shengjing. My grandfather secretly established Youli Valley, dividing the An family into two parts. My elder brother and the others only know about the business, but they don't know the relationship between Youli Valley and the An family. I was eight years old, and Moyu was seven; we were sent to the valley at the same time."

A pain showed on his face, and Yuepo said softly, "Children from other wealthy families can live in luxury, but Moyu and I started training as children. You can't imagine the hardships we've endured. My grandfather said that only by suffering more than others can we become successful. I have no official status in the An family because I knew from a young age that I would take over Youli Valley and have nothing to do with the An family. Moyu is only a year younger than me, and he's just a little softer than me, yet my grandfather threw him into the Peony Courtyard, making him a courtesan and teaching him to be patient. How cruel is that! I've always loved him dearly, so how cruel is that to me! That's why, when I saw you in the valley, I was willing to protect you and stand in front of you no matter what."

Sometimes, things in this world can't be simply judged as right or wrong. In the past, Yongye wouldn't have looked down on him just because he was the Valley Master of Youli Valley; she didn't have Feng Yangxi's strong sense of right and wrong. But now, no matter how much suffering he endured, she remained unmoved.

Yongye sneered, "Since you're so ruthless, why not go all the way? Kill me and throw my body into the An family's Buddhist hall; that would achieve the same goal! Why don't you kill me? Don't you know how much this would hurt Moyu's feelings? It would be a pity to ruin your brotherhood for a woman."

Yuepo stared at her, and said calmly, "Why? You ask me why?!" He suddenly slammed his wine glass to the ground and roared, "I want to live a peaceful life with you, why don't you want that? Why did you expose all of this? Why couldn't you just pretend you didn't know?"

Yongye's rage erupted from her, all her emotions surging like a volcano. She hurled the wine pot and cups from the table, the sharp cracking sound jolting her senses. Yongye's eyes were bloodshot, and she said, word by word, "Because of Qiangwei! Qiangwei... she went to Qi with you, she discovered your secret, didn't she? So you crippled her legs, you imprisoned her. That day, when Uncle Ping and I came to the courtyard, Qiangwei pretended to be crazy, acting confused and incoherent, but she told me, she risked her life to tell me everything!"

She remembered the bamboo mat where Rose had slept. Rose had used her hairpin to poke small holes in the mat little by little, and when she held it up to the sun, the light shining through the mat was just like a crescent moon.

The crescent moon was more intense and scorching than the sun that day, burning away all her hopes. Her heart, moved by the moon's essence, leaped from her chest, laid naked in the sun, dried out, stripped of its moisture and tenderness, leaving only a withered shell. He said he could remove the thorn piercing her hand, and the thorn piercing her heart. He didn't know that at that moment, she had no heart left. Only hatred pounded in her chest, each beat sending a surge of ferocity into her blood, even her words and breaths were filled with gnashing hatred.

"What a wonderful girl Qiangwei was, didn't you know? How could you bear to let her die, poisoning her and then performing a blood sacrifice? You were even down there watching helplessly. Yuepo, I don't know you. The Yuepo I know isn't like this!"

Rose knew, of course, that the one in the courtyard was Moon Soul, so she pretended to be crazy and talked nonsense. He wasn't afraid that Rose would tell anyone. In order to prevent Yongye from discovering his secret, he hadn't even touched the things buried in the ground in the neighboring clinic.

Yongye stared at Yuepo for a long time, then turned and walked out of the house. "What's on the mountain that makes you so afraid of me going there? I never planned to leave here alive anyway, and now I'm going to go and see."

"You're not allowed to go!" Yuepo stood up and grabbed her tightly, his eyes filled with fear. He was incredibly strong; Yongye felt like her wrist was about to be broken. "You're marrying me tomorrow night, and I won't allow you to leave this place even a step."

Yongye burst into laughter, "Marriage? With you? It's impossible in this lifetime! Even if you break my legs, I'll still go and see what could possibly frighten the renowned Valley Master of Youli Valley!"

The tenderness in Yuepo's eyes vanished. She was so beautiful; she was the last person he wanted to hurt. Her stubborn protection of him softened his heart again and again. He even thought that, if he could, he would keep it from her for the rest of his life.

He shut down all the Peony Courtyards, shifting all of Youli Valley's influence to the shadows. He didn't even want to kill her father, didn't want revenge. But it was destined that her meeting him was a tragedy, destined that he would break her heart.

Yuepo forcefully pulled Yongye into her arms, forcing a bitter laugh. "You don't want to see what's going on, you want to see if he's right, don't you? I didn't want to kill Qiangwei. It was you. When you called out Feng Yangxi's name in the Xibo tribe's underground chamber, I couldn't save her. I wanted you to save Qiangwei and leave, so I could return to your side. Because I always believed what you said. You said that if we saved Qiangwei, we would live a peaceful life... But when you held Qiangwei in the underground chamber and shouted Feng Yangxi's name, I knew it was impossible. In your desperation, you only believed him; you didn't even come to my side... At that moment, I thought, your heart is no longer with me. You don't understand it yourself, but I see it clearly!"

"So you let her die from the poison? How could you be so cruel, Moon Soul?" Yongye was trapped in his arms, and thinking of Rose, she bit down hard in hatred.

She used all her strength until her mouth was full of blood, until she had no strength left.

Yue Po remained motionless, blood slowly seeping from her arm, seemingly without feeling. He said coldly, "You're willing to marry Prince Yan for him. I asked you before, but you refused to agree to marry me. From the moment you decided to marry Prince Yan, I stopped trying to hide it from you. I kidnapped Feng Yangxi; I knew you would come. Now, just marry me for him."

Yongye looked up at him and said, "Master Huihun said that the beauty's charm is incurable, is that true?"

“It’s true. From the moment you arrived here, I felt you no longer needed martial arts. You’re just an ordinary person, and you’ll never be able to leave this valley in your entire life.” Yue Po’s words were cold, but a flame flickered in his eyes.

"In this life, what I hate most is breaking my vow and believing in you. When Rose died, I thought it was my fault. I clearly saw what she left behind, I clearly solved all the questions, but I still refused to believe. Until I opened my eyes and saw you, until I saw Butcher Zhang, the fat shopkeeper, and the soul-reviving master in the town, I knew that this was Fubao Town, the hometown of the old lady of the An family, and this was also your hometown! Moon Soul, you don't need to use Feng Yangxi to threaten me. I know that even if I marry you, he will only die! I will not marry you, I will rather die than let you have your way."

Moon Soul was enraged by her. How many things had he betrayed the Valley of Wandering for her? The former Eternal Night longed to be with him, but now she would rather die than marry him. He gritted his teeth and said, "You have no choice. You can't even die if you want to. I can make sure you don't even have the strength to die. Do you want to try again?"

He was no longer the Moon Spirit who had protected her, pampered her, and was always gentle to her since childhood. Yongye told herself once again that the person before her was the Moon Valley Master of Youli Valley, and that her Moon Spirit had ceased to exist after cruelly killing Qiangwei.

There is no one in this world she can trust, no one.

Years of dependence vanished in an instant. Rose's pale face stung her, and Feng Yangxi's disappearance enraged her. When did she begin to want to rush to him, scream, and vent all the pain in her heart? Was it when Mo Yu wore the black gold armor she had given him, or when she saw the crescent moon Rose had embroidered on the bamboo mat through the sunlight? Was it the moment Rose died in her arms in Xibo Village, or the instant Feng Yangxi was abducted?

Grief and despair, like molten lava destroying everything, burned away all her reason, driving her to recklessly expose the truth, even refusing to feign ignorance. She could have pretended not to know and continued living with him, looking for another opportunity, but she couldn't control herself. Ever since arriving here, seeing him was like seeing that hideous centipede that made her jump—though given a cute name, a centipede is still a centipede!

When I saw him, the flowers all over the mountains lost their color, and even the most beautiful and peaceful town became as ugly as hell.

She smiled and told him, "Isn't the butcher Zhang?" The Butcher Zhang at the street corner of his hometown was actually the Butcher Zhang from Youli Valley. She bought only a black jade hairpin from the plump shopkeeper, smiling as she told him about the close relationship between the black jade and him. She even bluntly told him that this was Fubao Town, the hometown of the old lady of the An family.

At a terrible time, she forced herself and him into a dead end with no way out.

Yongye's heart was already riddled with holes. She never knew that she, who was always pragmatic and knew how to survive, actually had such courage—the courage to "rather be a broken piece of jade than a whole piece of tile."

However, even a cornered beast will fight to the death; as long as one is alive, there is hope. The ingrained will to survive and years of training forced Yongye to remain calm.

“I want to see him, now.” Yongye raised his chin high. “You don’t mind getting a little excited, do you?”

Moon Spirit smiled. "I don't mind. I have nothing to mind anymore."

The inn's blue cloth flag fluttered in the wind, and Yongye asked curiously, "Isn't he on the mountain? Is he staying at the inn?"

"He was supposed to be on the mountain, but he's the only guest here to attend the ceremony. If he's not staying at an inn, is he supposed to stay at my house?" Yuepo walked into the inn and pushed open the door to room number one.

What might be up on the mountain? Yongye wondered once again.

Feng Yangxi looked towards the door, her eyes sparkling with surprise. "Yongye, it's you! No wonder I heard the magpies chattering this morning. You look so beautiful in women's clothes! It's a pity the color is too plain; it makes your complexion look pale!"

He sat motionless on the bed, still wearing the same black robe, his beard unkempt, and his eyes bloodshot. Apart from looking a little tired, there was no sign of injury.

His words suddenly brightened Yongye's heart. She smiled and twirled around, saying, "Yes, this dress doesn't look as pretty as the one you gave me. Last time I changed my hairstyle and put on rouge, but today I'm not wearing anything. However, last time was the first time I wore women's clothes, so it felt different."

"It's alright, I'll buy you the best rouge and style your hair in the most beautiful way from now on." Feng Yangxi looked at Yongye with deep affection, lying with perfect cooperation. But her heart ached. From Anguo to Shengjing, she insisted on wearing men's clothing regardless of etiquette, and even when she wore women's clothing for her wedding, it was the moon white that Yuepo loved to wear.

The moon's heart also ached terribly.