Could she leave this man behind?
She didn't know.
I wandered aimlessly in the courtyard for a long time, until it got dark, before I realized how cold the mountain wind was in the middle of the night.
Qiao Fenglang felt a little dizzy.
A beautiful woman in white, her hair slightly loose, leaned lazily against the zither table. One hand held her cheek, while the other slowly plucked the strings, and the clear, cool music poured out in a solitary way.
In a daze, he seemed to return to that afternoon many years ago when peach blossoms fell like rain. The little girl with red lips and white teeth raised her skirt high with both hands, capturing the fragrance of spring. Her clever smile turned to surprise when she saw his presence. She loosened her little hands, and the peach blossoms fell to the ground like blood.
"Brother Fenglang!" The little boy's eyes warmed, and he smiled.
The music stopped abruptly.
The woman playing the zither slightly raised her head, meeting Qiao Fenglang's gaze, and suddenly smiled.
Qiao Fenglang stared at the stunningly beautiful face before him, then suddenly felt a chill.
What is he doing?
So he bowed slightly and said, "Miss Cuiyu."
After playing the zither, Yuwen Cuiyu stood up gracefully and walked down from the pavilion with a smile.
"Did Chief Qiao mistake Cuiyu for someone else?" Her eyes were clear, with a hint of inquiry.
A strange feeling flashed through Qiao Fenglang's mind.
"I must be seeing things."
If he remembered correctly, this woman was the protagonist of the wedding banquet at Chuxiu Manor that day. He left first that day and did not see her resisting the marriage, but he heard about it afterwards.
Why would a woman like this fall in love with Baili Qingyi?
Yuwen Cuiyu took in all his expressions. She didn't press him further, but turned and went back into the pavilion.
The strings rang out again with a sharp note.
"Chief Qiao, when is the wedding date set?" She tilted her head, her smile undiminished.
"Why is Miss Cuiyu so concerned about my marriage?" Qiao Fenglang replied coldly. After all, this woman was Baili Qingyi's woman, the enemy's woman.
Yuwen Cuiyu didn't mind at all: "Cuiyu just wanted to remind Chief Qiao of something."
"What is it?"
Yuwen Cuiyu sighed: "Can't Chief Qiao see that Miss Yin has feelings for the young man in green?"
Qiao Fenglang froze.
"nonsense!"
"The reason why Miss Yin agreed to marry Chief Qiao was to use Chief Qiao's power to save Hundred Questions Manor and Young Master Qingyi, right?"
“Miss Cuiyu, I respect you out of respect for Old Madam Yuwen, but that doesn’t mean you can gossip about my private affairs.” Veins bulged on Qiao Fenglang’s forehead.
“Chief Qiao is a smart man, why continue to deceive yourself?” Yuwen Cuiyu stopped in front of him and said softly, “A one-sided marriage will only make you suffer.”
Qiao Fenglang looked back at the beautiful woman in front of him in surprise, and found that he couldn't find any words to refute her.
After a long pause, he said in a deep voice, "A woman who can answer Qingyi so definitively certainly has some eloquence. But, since you are so fond of Baili Qingyi, why..."
“Cuiyu felt that one should be true to one’s own heart.” Yuwen Cuiyu gently placed a hand on his arm and said earnestly, “Let go, let them be.”
A surge of agitation welled up in Qiao Fenglang's heart. He gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "I don't need you to interfere!" With a wave of his hand, he actually threw the defenseless Yuwen Cuiyu away.
Yuwen Cuiyu cried out in surprise. Just as her slender figure was about to fall into the pool beside her, Qiao Fenglang reached out and caught her around the waist, pulling her back to safety.
At this moment, his face showed no other expression, but his dark eyes, like pools of water, became increasingly obscure.
"The word 'to fulfill' has never existed in my dictionary."
He gave a soft snort and released his hand from Yuwen Cuiyu's slender waist. This stunningly beautiful woman could not make him linger for even a moment.
Suddenly, a familiar figure flashed past in the distance, and his expression changed instantly. He took off after it.
Yuwen Cuiyu slowly stood up, watched the two figures gradually disappear into the distance, and suddenly sighed.
Chapter Seventeen: Where Will We See the Bright Moon Next Year (Part Two)
"I just stepped in to save her from falling into the pool."
With a slap, Qiao Fenglang pulled Yin Wuxiao back from her hasty retreat, forcefully turning her body around and fixing his gaze on her intently.
"I saw it." Yin Wuxiao looked at Qiao Fenglang, who was breathing rapidly, somewhat bewildered.
"Aren't you angry?" Qiao Fenglang asked anxiously.
"Uh... should I be angry?" Yin Wuxiao tilted his head and thought about it seriously.
Qiao Fenglang breathed a sigh of relief, but seeing her lost in thought again, a hint of anger crept into his heart.
"You are my fiancée, and you will be my wife in the future. Why aren't you angry that your husband is flirting with other women?"
"This..." That seems to make some sense. Yin Wuxiao blinked. "So... you want me to be angry?"
"I..." Qiao Fenglang was speechless, and almost wanted to reach out and slap her usually brilliant head.
After a long while, he dejectedly lowered his hand, a deep sense of disappointment enveloping him.
"Xiao'er, where do you place me in your heart?"
Yin Wuxiao looked at him quietly, then suddenly smiled bitterly: "Brother Fenglang, what kind of answer are you still expecting? I've already made it perfectly clear, we grew up together since we were little..."
"Enough!" Qiao Fenglang clenched his fist angrily, interrupting her usual refrain.
“I don’t want to hear you repeat the same things again.” His voice was unusually weary.
Yin Wuxiao opened his mouth, but ultimately remained silent.
What did he want to hear from her? He had already blocked any possibility of her telling the truth, yet he was forcing her to genuinely admit her feelings for him. Under these circumstances, even if she did tell him, would he believe her?
She didn't want to lie to him.
Seeing Yin Wuxiao's helplessness, Qiao Fenglang couldn't help but feel indignant and desperate, and laughed self-deprecatingly.
"If that's the case, why did you agree to marry me?" He was now questioning her like a clown.
Yin Wuxiao turned his head away in disbelief: "You... chose that time to bring it up, did you give me a chance to refuse?"
"So that means you're still doing this for Baili Qingyi?" A cruel glint appeared in his eyes.
"..."
"If I hadn't exposed you today, what were your plans? Would you have married me just like that? Or..." Qiao Fenglang gritted his teeth, "behind my back, would you have joined forces with Baili Qingyi to fight for Yu Fei?"
"It's not like you to humble yourself like this."
Yin Wuxiao took a deep breath, looked up at the face she knew all too well, and a sorrowful expression appeared on her cheeks: "Brother Fenglang, I'm tired, and I don't want to force anything anymore, or fight for anything anymore. If... if this kind of marriage is what you want, I'm willing to give it to you."
Since agreeing to marry him, she had already made up her mind to some extent, but today, as she blurted it out, she still felt a slight throbbing pain in her left chest.
For a fleeting moment, she seemed to feel that warm touch on her lips again. The laughter and drinks under the candlelight on that cold night, the warm care in the mountain breeze, even the painful roar in the rain at the bottom of the cliff that day, all surged into her heart like a tidal wave, but she quickly suppressed them.
She was finally afraid. Afraid that everything might have just been a dream that was too extravagant, afraid that the intimate affection would turn into a deep-seated poison that would devour her heart, which she could no longer bear.
"In what way, in what way am I inferior to him!" Qiao Fenglang roared in resentment. He grabbed her soft neck and pressed her against the wall behind him without any tenderness. His hot breath eroded her breath.
Yin Wuxiao shrank back and closed his eyes.
Before, she didn't feel guilty towards Qiao Fenglang. She arrogantly thought that liking her was his own business, and she was just being true to her own feelings, without having to take responsibility for him. But now it's different. She understands what heartache, reluctance, hatred, and unrequited love are. And she sees all of these clearly in Qiao Fenglang's hysterical anger.
Does she really have the right to make someone she cares about so much heartbroken for her sake? If there's anything she can do, even if she can't say something against her will, at least let him get what he wants.
"Do you know how cruel you are?" Qiao Fenglang growled in her ear, his voice low and suppressed.
He vaguely recalled that afternoon when peach blossoms fell like rain. From that afternoon on, he was bewitched by her, willingly taking the poison she gave him. She would never know what he had done to win her over.
“Brother Fenglang…” A thin mist appeared in Yin Wuxiao’s phoenix eyes. “I’m sorry.”
His handsome face, so close yet so close, filled her heart with an unfathomable sorrow.
"Do you think you're doing something noble?" Qiao Fenglang suddenly glared at her menacingly.
"Do you think that this will make you keep that hypocrite Baili Qingyi in your heart forever? What do you think you are to him?"
Yin Wuxiao was taken aback. What was she to him? She hadn't thought about it, nor did she want to. He had once said he wanted to take care of her, but aside from that, she truly didn't know what she meant to Baili Qingyi. Her relationship with him was merely a chance and coincidental beginning, but it was all too long ago, and as for the ending, she dared not think about it.
"Do you think he would abandon his beautiful wife and the Baili family's century-old reputation in the martial arts world for you?" Qiao Fenglang continued to mock. If Baili Qingyi dared to forcibly take her away from him, then his reputation as the Qingyi Young Master for stealing another man's wife would be confirmed. Even if he disregarded the Qiao Gang's immense power in the martial arts world and the clamor from the martial arts defenders, the Baili family would still have to consider the clean and upright reputation they had painstakingly built up over the past century.
Would he... do that?
Those eyes seemed relaxed and indifferent, but in reality, they carried too much responsibility and fleeting fame, leaving Yin Wuxiao uncertain. In that instant, she was afraid to think about where in the heart this man, who took the world and the martial arts world as his responsibility, placed her.
"Maybe he will, maybe he won't, but it doesn't matter to me anymore." She paused, then gently touched her dark hair beside her cheek, as if seeking a sliver of comfort.
However, Qiao Fenglang refused to let her go.
"I will not give you a chance to escape, nor will I give him a chance to leave a perfect image in your mind."
"What...do you want?" Yin Wuxiao's face turned slightly pale.
"What do I want?" Qiao Fenglang's smile was laced with ruthlessness.
"Tomorrow, you will come back to the Qiao Gang with me to prepare for the wedding. If Baili Qingyi dares to stop you, I will no longer require you to keep your promise. If he doesn't dare, you must promise me that you will completely erase him from your heart from now on."
Autumn has arrived.
A messenger from Qiao Bang brought news that Aunt Yun, who was far away in the capital, had woken up. Upon hearing that they were going to hold a wedding, she insisted on coming to Qiao Bang's house to officiate the wedding, despite her illness.
Mu Wanfeng was still ill, and Qiao Fenglang remained indifferent to her, but he did not object to her moving to Qiaobang to recuperate once her condition improved.
Mu Wanfeng took her hand and, for the first time, instructed her like a true mother: "I'm entrusting Lang'er to you. Take good care of him."
Everything seemed to be falling into place.
“Divine Doctor, come to the capital another day. Aunt Nan’s twenty years are all there.” As if he had made a great decision, Yin Wuxiao said slowly to Xuan Hegu.
Hidden behind Xuan He's aloof nature was loneliness, remorse, and now, a touch of reluctant farewell. She knew that this aged man saw the shadow of Aunt Nan in her. And because of this, she found it difficult to hate him any longer.
Aunt Nan, I'll forgive him on your behalf, okay?
I wonder if, decades later, she herself will feel the same loneliness as Xuan Hegu?