Лучшая актриса - Глава 53
"Xiao Tang!" Yue Ruzheng was startled, then chased after him. He didn't want to stop at all, ignoring her calls. Yue Ruzheng caught up with him, but he continued walking forward. Yue Ruzheng stood there dejectedly, watching his figure disappear into the darkness.
She stood there blankly in the wind when she heard soft footsteps on the path beside her. With a tinkling of jade pendants, Lian Junxin gracefully approached Yue Ruzheng, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you standing here alone, lost in thought? Didn't you come back with that cripple? A young man and a young woman alone together, I thought you were living together!"
Yue Ruzheng turned her face away, suppressing her anger, and remained silent.
Lian Junxin smiled and said, "No need to pretend anymore. You only became so close to him because you knew he was the son of the Seven Star Island Lord. Otherwise, if you're not crazy or stupid, why would you fall for someone like that?"
"Miss Lian, have you said enough? Please don't use your petty mind to judge me and Xiao Tang!" Yue Ruzheng turned around abruptly, her face stern, and stared at her.
"Feeling guilty?!" Lian Junxin sneered, sizing her up a few times. "Besides having our Lian family blood, what else does he have that's attractive? Maybe he's just good-looking? But what kind of future can a man without even hands have? Tell me, what do you see in him? Isn't it just his background? But don't forget, his mother never even entered the Lian family. He's just a lowly illegitimate child!"
"In your eyes, what is there besides status?!" Yue Ruzheng said angrily. "He has nothing, but he can support himself! He has lived a hard life, but he has worked very hard to get to where he is now, why do you always treat him like this?! Yes, I know that your mother's death is related to Xiao Tang's mother, but what did Xiao Tang do wrong?! He had never even seen his father's face back then, he was only nine years old, and his arms were cut off. He has to live like this for the rest of his life!"
"That's his retribution! He'll have to taste the bitter fruit his mother sowed! And let me tell you, don't even think about getting anything out of the Lian family!" Lian Junxin raised her eyebrows and shouted.
No sooner had she finished speaking than a rebuke came from not far away: "Junxin! Don't disturb Miss Yue!"
Lian Junxin turned around indignantly and saw Lian Junqiu walking towards her from the other end of the road with a displeased expression, her snow-white dress fluttering as if covered in frost. Lian Junxin raised an eyebrow, her eyes flashing, and said, "What, eldest sister, are you helping her? Or protecting Tang Yanchu?"
Lian Junqiu slowly stood in front of her and said, "She's Junchu's good friend. Are we going to treat her differently?"
Lian Junxin smiled meaningfully, took a few steps, and whispered in her ear, "You really are magnanimous." After saying that, she glanced at Yue Ruzheng sideways before turning away.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Moon Flies Over the Sea, Its Light Still Wet
Yue Ruzheng glared indignantly at her retreating figure. Lian Junqiu said, "Miss Yue, please don't tell my brother about Junxin coming to see you."
Yue Ruzheng looked up at the somewhat intimidating woman and said bitterly, "I know, Xiao Tang hates her."
"He suffered so much as a child. Yet Junxin never let him go." A hint of melancholy flickered in Lian Junqiu's cold eyes. "If it weren't for Junxin back then, perhaps he wouldn't have resisted to the death, forcing Father to let the Old Man of the Nine Netherworlds take him away."
"To resist to the death?!" Yue Ruzheng exclaimed in shock.
"Don't you know?" Lian Junqiu glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "After my brother was brought back to Seven Star Island, Madam Lian, Junxin's birth mother, had her health deteriorate due to the rekindling of painful memories. She passed away after a month. Junxin always believed that her brother's arrival was what killed her mother. She insisted that her father send her brother away, but naturally, he wouldn't have her way. So she started torturing her brother, trying to force him to leave."
"Are you just going to let her torment Xiao Tang?" Yue Ruzheng asked anxiously.
Lian Junqiu shook her head and said, "At that time, Father was busy arranging Madam's funeral, and later some sects took the opportunity to try to form an alliance with us as enemies. Father and I often had to leave Seven Star Island. On the surface, Junxin never went to the courtyard where Junchu was recuperating, but later we found out that she went there almost every day to beat and scold Junchu. The servants were used to being bullied by her and dared not say a word. We were all kept in the dark."
Yue Ruzheng's palms turned cold as she stammered, "Xiao Tang himself wouldn't say it, would he? He's always just kept quiet..."
"Yes. He endured it all, lying in bed, letting her run wild." Lian Junqiu took a deep breath and whispered, "Later, his injuries gradually healed, and he could walk again. Junxin started to bully him because of his disability... deliberately putting his clothes up high so he couldn't reach them... pushing him and running away, mocking him for not being able to catch her... These are all things the servants said after things were exposed. Usually when I went to see Junchu, he would sit by the small window by himself, not saying a word. Until one day, a storm raged on the island, and I was worried he was afraid of the weather, so I went to see him. I searched for a long time without finding him, and finally found him in the grass behind the yard. He was lying alone in the heavy rain, his eyes open, staring blankly at the sky, the rain lashing his face and body, but he didn't move at all..."
As Lian Junqiu spoke, her voice became hoarse and choked with emotion. Yue Ruzheng grabbed her arm and asked in a trembling voice, "Why did this happen?"
Lian Junqiu sighed, "We punished the servants, and then someone said they saw Junxin come looking for him. Later we learned that Junxin had called him out that day, grabbed him, and forced him to see... the place where the box containing his arms was buried... On his way back from that place, Junxin kicked him to the ground, but he couldn't get up. He struggled for a long time but couldn't get up..." Her eyes were filled with sorrow, and her tone was low, as if she could see the scene at that time. She continued, "After that day, Junchu stopped eating and drinking, as if he were dead. We tried everything, but we couldn't get him to eat. In desperation, Father asked his friend, the Old Man of Nine Nether, for help to take Junchu away from Seven Star Island. Perhaps if he left this place of sorrow, he would have a glimmer of hope."
Upon hearing this, Yue Ruzheng's eyes filled with tears, and her heart felt as if it had been stabbed by a steel knife. She had always thought that Xiao Tang lived alone in Yandang Mountain only because of his discord with his father, but she never expected that in addition to his physical injuries, he had such a painful experience.
She couldn't imagine the despair he must have felt in that stormy atmosphere, collapsing to the ground, unable even to get up. She also couldn't imagine how Xiao Tang, after suffering so much pain, gradually learned to eat, dress, and even practice martial arts again.
When she first saw him, she only felt that he was quiet and indifferent, as if he had no emotions. Later, she also complained about his sensitivity and inferiority complex, and sometimes even felt that being with him was too tiring and painful. But she never thought that his quiet indifference was hard-won.
He simply hid all his pain, gazing at this strange and cruel world with his deep, dark eyes.
Yue Ruzheng lowered her head sadly, the wind whistling in her ears. Then she heard Lian Junqiu say softly, "Miss Yue, did you just go to the cemetery in the back?"
Yue Ruzheng was startled and quickly looked up, saying, "I didn't know that was a cemetery." Remembering Xiao Tang's angry expression earlier, she couldn't help but ask, "Could it be that Xiao Tang's birth mother is buried there?"
Lian Junqiu slowly shook her head and said, "When Father found them, my younger brother's birth mother had already passed away. Junchu stayed by her body for a whole day and night. It was quite a distance from Seven Star Island, so Father buried Madam Tang in the desolate mountains."
Yue Ruzheng's heart sank, and she asked blankly, "Then why won't he let me go to the cemetery?"
Lian Junqiu looked at her, stepped forward, and whispered, "As I just said, there's a place on this island where my brother's hands are buried."
Her gaze was deep and shimmering. Yue Ruzheng's mind flashed back to the graves she had just seen, and she couldn't help but scream, her face turning deathly pale.
Lian Junqiu remained calm, seemingly waiting for her to panic.
"Miss Yue, it seems you know very little. I thought my brother had told you everything about his past." Lian Junqiu said, a slight smile playing on her lips, which sent a chill down Yue Ruzheng's spine.
"How could he possibly say these things to me..." Yue Ruzheng forced herself to walk forward step by step.
The night wind rustled the shadows of the trees, creating a chaotic dance before Yue Ruzheng's eyes. Still shaken, she walked for a while before turning towards the courtyard where Tang Yanchu lived. When she arrived at the gate, it was pitch black inside. She knocked repeatedly, but there was no response.
Yue Ruzheng retreated in disappointment. At this moment, the cold moon hung high and the stars were sparse. She stood at the gate of the courtyard for a moment, then walked towards the beach.
The long coastline stretched to the horizon, the night was deep, and the vast sea undulated like dark blue silk. The distant sky covered the sea, with only a few stars shining with a cold blue-white light.
Yue Ruzheng wandered aimlessly across the damp sand, her mind a jumble of thoughts. Suddenly, she felt something under her foot. Looking down, she saw a white conch shell. Yue Ruzheng vaguely remembered her aunt giving her a conch shell when she was little. Since her aunt's disappearance, she had never seen anything like it, things found only on the beach. She squatted down on the sand, picked up the conch shell, and carefully wiped the sand off with her sleeve. A scene suddenly flashed through her mind: her aunt holding her, placing the conch shell to her ear, and telling her to listen carefully to the sound of the sea.
Yue Ruzheng lowered her head, thinking of her aunt who could make emerald green rice dumplings and sweet fermented rice, and then she thought of Jiang Shuying, who was just as gentle and beautiful, and whom she saw when she opened her eyes after wandering to Luzhou.
Yinxi Cottage was still shrouded in the shadow of the Valley of Bliss. Before leaving, Yue Ruzheng was determined to retrieve the Beauty-Preserving Pearl. But the closer she got to Xiao Tang, the less she could control her emotions. Meeting Lian Haichao today completely overturned her original plans. This only remaining path was now blocked…
The tide continued to surge, but Yue Ruzheng remained stunned, holding the conch shell, lost in confusion and self-reproach.
Suddenly she heard someone calling her name in the distance. She snapped out of her daze and saw a white figure rushing toward her in the vast darkness.
"Little Tang?"
Yue Ruzheng stood up in surprise, only to hear him running and shouting, "Ruzheng, come back!"
Yue Ruzheng ran towards him with the conch shell in hand. Behind her, the tide surged, crashing down like a collapsing wall. Hearing the deafening roar, Yue Ruzheng knew something was wrong and leaped forward with all her might. The waves, however, seemed to chase after her, sweeping her over with a deafening roar. Yue Ruzheng felt an immense force slam into her back, causing her to lose her balance. Just then, Tang Yanchu darted to her side and forcefully shoved her away.
Yue Ruzheng fell like a kite with a broken string to the distant sand, spinning wildly. But as soon as she regained consciousness, she sprang up and ran towards the surging waves.
Tang Yanchu was kneeling on one knee when he shakily stood up. Another wave crashed in from behind. Yue Ruzheng lunged at him, hugging his waist tightly, and ran forward a few steps before being hit by the wave. The two of them fell onto the sand together, fortunately without being swept away.