Chapter 6 — Better to Lean on Mountains Than a Faithless Heart

When I saw the mistress of the house escorting Jiang Nan Xi into the courtyard, I took three steps back to clear the path, turning on my heel with the intention of leaving. But he reached out and gripped my arm tightly. "Xie Sui Yi, do you truly believe that holding the betrothal contract makes you untouchable? If you dare to cause any more scenes, do not blame me for demoting you from my legal wife to a mere concubine." I pried his fingers off my arm, one by one, with a calm so cold it bordered on frozen. "I am not causing a scene. The jade bracelet, and the man himself—I have surrendered both to her."

"I knew it! How could you ever be so kind? The moment you turned your back, you incited your cousin to demand the jade bracelet back. Your hypocrisy is truly nauseating!" Jiang Nan Xi lunged forward, her hand raised to strike me, but I caught her wrist in a vice-like grip. During the disaster outside the city gates, I had injured my leg; as we struggled, I deliberately let my foot slip, steering both of us toward the edge of the pond. Grabbing hold of Jiang Nan Xi's robes was an intentional act.

"Splash!" I forced her down into the bone-chilling water. With all the bitterness I had kept buried, I tightened my grip around her throat. I used every ounce of strength in my body to press the malice she had inflicted upon me back into her own skin. No matter how she thrashed and fought, I did not let go—not until I saw someone dive into the water to rescue her. When Shen Yi An reached out to pull me to safety, I recoiled, rejecting his touch with sharp resolve. I had grown up in the southern reaches of Jiang Nan; I was well-acquainted with the rivers and tides. I had no need for his meager, insulting charity. He froze for a heartbeat before spinning around to rush toward Jiang Nan Xi.

The guests swarmed after them, witnessing with their own eyes as Shen Yi An climbed out of the water, holding Jiang Nan Xi, whose clothes were disheveled and clinging to her frame. Now that there had been such intimate physical contact, the marriage could no longer remain a private matter. Shen Yi An caught a chill, his constitution failing him suddenly. He coughed in the wind, soaked through with cold sweat at night, unable to keep down even the simplest meal. The Marquis was deeply concerned, intending to ask me to check his pulse, but the mistress of the house was consumed by rage. She personally prepared the carriage, ordering Shen Yi An to return to his maternal grandmother’s estate to settle the marriage arrangements and seek a renowned physician. In her fury, she barred me from the household.

The Marquis summoned me, rubbing his temples with a heavy sigh. "The mistress is foolish; I will not allow her to run wild. Wait until you and Yi An have bowed to the heavens, and only then shall Nan Xi be permitted to enter the house. Sui Yi, I can preserve your betrothal contract, but the affection between you and Yi An... that must rely on your own efforts. Be a good, intelligent child; do not let your master in the underworld worry over you."

I understood. Because of the conflict between myself and Jiang Nan Xi, the Marquis and his wife had been at odds for a long time. At the height of the tension, the mistress had even threatened a final rupture, forcing the Marquis to bow his head. The Marquis, a man who valued loyalty and kinship, was caught in an impossible position. In the end, he had gritted his teeth and conceded, agreeing only that Jiang Nan Xi could enter as a concubine. That day, when the mistress had gifted the ancestral bracelet to Jiang Nan Xi before the entire household, the Marquis had held his tongue, but he had retreated in a rage that led him to shatter a door, leaving the mistress weeping for half the night.

At this point, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to let go. I produced the letters exchanged between myself and Yun Jing Ting. Looking the Marquis in the eye, I stated clearly, "I have petitioned the Emperor for a marriage decree; I am merely waiting for Jing Ting to return to the capital, and the imperial order will descend. The Marquis values loyalty and has considered my well-being in all things, and for that, Sui Yi is deeply grateful. But if a fated pair becomes a pair of enemies, that is not what the Marquis or my master would wish. I beg the Marquis to grant me my freedom."

The Marquis’s hands trembled. Finally, as he read the simple, earnest letters, every word filled with genuine concern, he heaved a heavy sigh. "In the end, I have failed your master, and I have raised such a rebellious son."

On the day Shen Yi An departed the capital with Jiang Nan Xi, I abandoned the betrothal contract and moved out of the Marquis’s estate. We met at the gate, and Shen Yi An’s expression shifted. "Where do you intend to go?"

Jiang Nan Xi hid behind his back, grumbling under her breath, "Crying and making a scene didn't work, so now you're trying the 'running away' act? Didn't you once say you would never marry my cousin? Such a transparent ploy of playing hard to get—it's truly shameless! Did you really think you were that clever?"

Shen Yi An’s expression softened slightly, his gaze fixed on me. "Return! Once I am back from Ying Zhou, I will marry you and your cousin on the same day! Things have reached this point, even if you are..." Before he could finish his sentence, I stepped into the carriage and left without a single backward glance. From this moment on, across the ends of the earth, his marriage and his health had nothing more to do with me.

Five days later, Yun Jing Ting returned to the capital. Beneath the cold moonlight, he stood by a plum tree, the frost settling white upon his sharp, handsome brows. Upon seeing me, the frost seemed to melt into a clear sky, his entire presence radiating a gentle warmth. His ears flushed red as he reached into his tunic and produced a pair of jade bracelets, offering them to me. "Whatever the Shen house has, the Yun house also provides. It is merely an ancestral trinket, but I have two—they are both yours!"

The world knew the young general Yun Jing Ting as wild and unruly, indifferent to the rigid rules of decorum. Even before the Emperor, he moved with the ease of the wind, offering only a careless salute. The Emperor had intentionally made things difficult, keeping me behind to play chess with the Imperial Concubine until the night was deep. Little did they expect that throughout that night, he stood under the cold moon, quietly waiting until the inner palace gates were about to lock.

The Emperor laughed. "That mischievous monkey, once he meets the one he loves, he turns into such a clumsy, obedient fool. That lad... I had thought that since the Yun house had only one descendant left, I would strip him of his military command and keep him in the capital. But look at him! He found a pageboy to feign illness, and in the dead of night, he slipped off to the frontier! When he left, he swore on his life he would never return to the capital. Hmph, in just half a year, he sent me six letters—the first asked me to look after the Xie girl from the Shen house, the next begged me to keep an eye on her, and finally, the shameless boy begged me to help him win a wife! I am treated with more devotion than the sacred turtle in the wish-granting pond. If it weren't for you, I doubt I would have ever seen that monkey bow his head in my lifetime."

The Emperor cherished him, and every word was spoken for my benefit. He feared that Yun Jing Ting’s sincerity might be betrayed, and he entrusted the young man’s passionate heart and his vast estate entirely into my care. He was a good man—so good that everyone around him loved him, and in turn, loved me.

"I like them very much!" I lifted the jade bracelet, and with it, I lifted that sincere heart. Half a month later, the Emperor urged us to select an auspicious day for a hasty wedding. Jing Ting’s parents had passed early, and I was alone, having no desire for grand, empty spectacles. Under the auspices of the Emperor and the Imperial Concubine, surrounded by those who truly cared, we exchanged our vows. His parents were buried in their ancestral home in Luo Chuan. A few days later, we left the capital as husband and wife to pay our respects at their resting place. Relatives from Luo Chuan came to visit, and we remained there for over a month. By the time we returned to the capital, three months had passed.

The pair of mandarin duck jade carvings I had commissioned at the jeweler’s were still waiting, as we had left in such a rush that I had not had the chance to collect them. I wanted to bring them home quickly so that Jing Ting and I could each hold one, keeping them close day and night; surely, his heart would be delighted. But as I lifted the exquisite jade mandarin ducks, Jiang Nan Xi appeared, draped over Shen Yi An’s arm, and walked through the door with a saccharine smile.