Chapter 69: Burning the Glowworm Wooden Hairpin
“Mother!”
Shen Xinian, who had been sitting on the stone steps in front of the mountain gate, suddenly stood up, her face beaming with joy.
Liu Fuying’s carriage had returned, slowly stopping outside the inn.
“Mother,” Shen Xinian rushed over.
But the person who lifted the carriage curtain and stepped out was not Liu Fuying—it was Shen Yiliang. Upon seeing Shen Xinian, he smiled at her, but his expression shifted when he heard how she addressed him.
“Brother Yiliang, why are you…”
“It’s Uncle.”
“Alright, Uncle Yiliang, where is my mother?”
Hearing her finally call him “uncle,” Shen Yiliang smiled again. After stepping down from the carriage, he moved aside, indicating that her mother was inside.
The second person to emerge was Jin Li.
Jin Li always regarded Shen Yiliang with wariness, refusing to give him any chance to assist Liu Fuying. After alighting from the carriage, she personally reached out to help, positioning herself between Shen Yiliang and Liu Fuying to prevent him from getting too close, lest his overly intimate gestures invite gossip.
“Mother, mother, Nian Nian has been waiting for you for so long.”
Shen Xinian bounced and jumped, urging Liu Fuying to come out quickly.
“What time is it already? Why haven’t you gone to bed yet?” Liu Fuying lifted the curtain, pretending to be angry as she looked at Shen Xinian.
Yet from this angle, the person hiding in the shadows could not clearly see her face.
Behind a tree outside the side door of the inn stood a man.
He had been standing there for as long as Shen Xinian had been sitting outside.
Naturally, it was Pei Zhouwu.
Shen Xinian’s cry of “A Ying” was like a mine submerged in water, completely detonating as key triggers such as white robes, iron chains, boats, and mist were ignited one by one. The small boat at the center of the lake was shattered into pieces, and in his desperation, he wanted to immediately part the thick fog to find the shore of escape.
Su Yueying was his shore.
He had waited for a long time and thought for a long time.
He had considered that it might just be a coincidence—after all, she was someone else’s lawfully wedded wife.
He had also hoped it wasn’t just a coincidence—she was, after all, the person he had missed for over three years, the one he had to see whether she was alive or dead, human or bones.
Until the voice from behind the carriage curtain reached his ears, completely confirming that his thoughts were no coincidence.
That voice that had once whispered intimately in his ear…
It was her!
“But I want to sleep with Mother. I want Mother to hold me while I sleep.”
As Shen Xinian’s words fell, the person inside the carriage leaned forward and stepped out. Her smiling face, like a flower, carried a faint fragrance in the moonlight, wafting over with the wind, bringing with it a familiar scent from the past. With just one whiff, memories surged forth, and years of longing transformed into a flood that rushed over Pei Zhouwu, bringing tears to his eyes.
Su Yueying… it really is you!
He had imagined a thousand possibilities, but he had never expected it to be like this.
What a fine married woman.
Su Yueying, how could you be so cruel, so wicked.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered the possibility that the name “Su Yueying” was false, but he had never dared to imagine that she could be someone else’s wife!
In which year had Shen Xiunian married her?
Upon careful calculation, by the time he met Su Yueying, she had already been a married woman for over two years.
No, not Su Yueying—that wasn’t her name.
Pei Zhouwu had no intention of shedding tears, but he couldn’t control his emotions upon seeing that face. It was only when his vision blurred that he realized he was crying.
He raised his hand to wipe away the tears, only to find his face even wetter.
Spreading his hand to look, he saw that his fingertips and palms were seeping with blood. He didn’t even know at which moment he had clenched his fist so tightly that his nails had dug into his flesh, drawing blood.
Perhaps the pain in his chest was too intense, causing him to overlook the ache in his palm.
Two streaks of blood on his face were washed by tears into faint red rivulets, dripping down one by one.
His gaze at Liu Fuying was bitter and resentful, especially when compared to her joyful scene of holding the child, making him appear all the more wretched and pitiful.
Look how well she was living, nothing like him…
All these years, he had endured alone, clinging to the false happiness she had fabricated for him. How heartless she truly was.
He flicked his sleeve and turned away, striding off into the distance.
Returning to the guest room where he was staying, he happened upon Kong Linyu, who had been searching everywhere for him.
“General!” Kong Linyu was startled by the blood on Pei Zhouwu’s face, along with the tears that had smeared his features. “G-General, are you alright? What happened…”
Pei Zhouwu seemed not to see him, brushing past him without a glance.
As he reached the corridor in front of the room, he suddenly stopped, his sidelong gaze falling upon the stove beneath the lantern.
Medicine was simmering on the stove, the scent of charcoal fire billowing fiercely toward him.
“General, the physician said you must take another dose of medicine before sleeping. I was just preparing it; it will be ready shortly.”
Kong Linyu hurried forward, intending to remind him to simply go inside and rest.
Unexpectedly, Pei Zhouwu turned sideways, lifted the medicine pot, and tossed something into it.
Then, turning back, his retreating figure appeared rather carefree, yet he ultimately paused just before stepping over the threshold.
Pei Zhouwu’s eyes were bloodshot, a stream of hot tears tracing the path of the previous ones.
Moments later, he turned back again and walked toward the stove. This time, his movements were hurried and frantic. As he lifted the medicine pot, he accidentally knocked it over, shattering the earthenware into pieces on the ground. But what was even more shocking was that he plunged his bare hand into the red-hot charcoal.
“General!”
Kong Linyu was horrified. By the time he rushed forward, Pei Zhouwu had already retrieved something from the embers.
He clutched it tightly, and Kong Linyu could not see clearly what it was.
But the rapidly reddening burns on the fingers of his right hand were unmistakably clear to Kong Linyu.
“General, you…”
“It’s nothing.”
Pei Zhouwu uttered these two words softly, then stepped directly inside. Kong Linyu, anxious to follow and check his injuries, was blocked by the closing door.
Frustrated, Kong Linyu gritted his teeth and turned to run off in search of medicine for Pei Zhouwu.
Inside the room, Pei Zhouwu trembled all over as he clutched the object in his hand.
But his trembling was not from pain—it was from fear.
He had almost, almost burned the Glowworm Wooden Hairpin that A Ying had given him.
Yet the charcoal fire in the stove was too fierce; the back of the hairpin had already been scorched black, its lacquer burned away.
“Why should I burn it?”
“Su Yueying…”
Burning the wooden hairpin would not erase everything between them, and he did not want it erased. The cruelest thing about her was that she made him unable to even bring himself to hate her. Just like this hairpin, tossed into the charcoal and retrieved with a bare hand despite the pain—he could not let go, nor was he willing to. He would settle this account with her, one by one, and ask her why.
“The child is mine.”
Why did those two children resemble him so much? What other reason could there be?
Because they were not Shen Xiunian’s children at all.
They were the children left behind after he and Su Yueying had bowed to heaven and earth, entered the bridal chamber, and shared a month of tender love.
Since they were his children, why should they call Shen Xiunian father?
No wonder, no wonder Shen Xiunian wouldn’t let him enter the Shen Family’s door—it was because he feared he would meet Su Yueying. So he knew everything too.
No matter what was going on between her and Shen Xiunian, still…
“Su Yueying, you are also mine.”