As the two spoke, they soon reached the door to the main room of the principal courtyard. Gazing at the carved doors with their air of stern authority, Cui Wan faltered despite herself, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.
"Don't be afraid, Wanwan." Sensing her nervousness, Tang Xiang gently patted the back of her hand and reassured her softly, "Mother-in-law... is simply a little impatient. She has a good heart."
Cui Wan drew a deep breath and nodded. Only then did Tang Xiang signal for the maid at the door to announce them before leading Cui Wan slowly inside.
The furnishings were classical and imposing, yet the room somehow felt empty and desolate. A woman in understated, elegant clothes, her hair arranged in an immaculate bun, sat upright in the seat of honor. This was Madam Chu, Wei Shuyun. Traces of her youthful beauty still lingered in her face, but a thick veil of weariness and melancholy shrouded her brow, and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes spoke of the years' harsh weathering and utter exhaustion of heart and mind.
Cui Wan dared not look closely. Hastily lowering her head, she stepped forward with proper decorum and, following the etiquette Tang Xiang had taught her beforehand, bowed respectfully to Wei Shuyun three times. Then she carefully lifted the cup of scalding tea from the tray held by a maid beside her and offered it with both hands.
Her hands trembled slightly, perhaps from nerves, perhaps because the exhaustion of last night had not yet faded. The cup quivered in her hands, spilling a few drops of scalding tea. Her fingertips flinched from the burn, and she nearly overturned the cup.
Cui Wan went white with fright, certain her mother-in-law would punish her for her clumsiness and improper manners.
To her surprise, Wei Shuyun merely looked at her quietly, her gaze complicated but devoid of anger. She reached out to take the cup, her fingertips seeming to tremble slightly as well, then slowly brought it to her lips, took a small sip, and returned it to the tray.
"What are you afraid of?" Wei Shuyun said, her voice a little hoarse, yet carrying an almost imperceptible gentleness. "Unlike that boy... I don't eat people."
Her gaze rested for a long time on Cui Wan's face, still touched with childishness and now filled with alarm and a hint of discomposure. The scrutiny in her eyes gradually faded, replaced by something deeper-a complicated mixture of pity, guilt, and helplessness.
"Good child." Wei Shuyun sighed, her voice softening further as she questioned her with something close to earnest pleading. "You... tell your mother-in-law the truth. Just... how old are you?"
Cui Wan's heart tightened, and her fingers curled unconsciously. Remembering the repeated, emphatic instructions of her aunt, Lady Li, she gritted her teeth, lowered her eyes, and answered in a small, delicate voice, "Mother-in-law, your daughter-in-law... is sixteen."
At this, Wei Shuyun exchanged a glance with Tang Xiang beside her. A flicker of understanding and regret passed through both their eyes.
"How could she possibly look sixteen..." Wei Shuyun murmured, shaking her head, but in the end she asked no more. She understood as clearly as a mirror what the Cui Family intended by sending over such a half-grown child. It was just that the Chu Family had long since lost the standing and confidence to be choosy.
She fell silent for a moment, looking out the window as though gazing through the void toward some distant, painful place. "That child, A-Qi... I..." Her voice caught, heavy with suppressed anguish. "I don't know how he became what he is now... When I see those legs of his... I... I just..." Unable to continue, she raised a handkerchief and pressed it to the corners of her eyes.
When she looked at Cui Wan again, her gaze was almost pleading. "Wanwan, you two... live well together from now on. A-Qi... isn't bad at heart. He's simply trapped. You two... try to leave an heir. The line of the Marquis of Ningyang's Residence... must not end."
She paused, her tone becoming somewhat distant, tinged with self-mockery and something like release. "I... won't disturb your lives anymore. Perhaps without an aggravating mother like me before him, once that boy no longer sees me-out of sight, out of mind-his temper will naturally improve."
"Mother-in-law, please don't say that..." Cui Wan felt an ache in her heart as she listened and could not help speaking softly.
Wei Shuyun gave a bitter smile and waved a hand at her, saying no more. She turned to the servant woman beside her, her voice calm again, even carrying a trace of resolve. "Let's go. He kept his promise, so I, as his mother, must keep mine as well. Perhaps... if I don't see him, I... won't dream every night of your father-in-law and Lei'er anymore, or... those broken legs of his."
Those words made Cui Wan's heart quiver and her nose sting.
Tang Xiang led Cui Wan as they silently escorted Wei Shuyun out of the principal courtyard, through the long corridors and courtyards, all the way to the residence's main gate. Throughout it all, Wei Shuyun never once looked back at the residence where she had spent half her life. Her back remained perfectly straight, but her steps seemed unsteady.
Following behind, Cui Wan's thoughts were a tangled mess. She did not understand. Chu Moqi was her mother-in-law's own son, and he was only injured, so why was her mother-in-law so unwilling to see him? Why would she rather retreat into the mountains for secluded spiritual cultivation and never see him again? Was Chu Moqi as fierce toward his mother-in-law as he was toward her? It was one thing for him to dislike her, but why even his own mother...
Chu Moqi clearly did not want to marry, yet her mother-in-law had set aside her dignity as the marquis's wife to visit the Cui Family again and again to seek a bride for him. And Sister-in-law Tang Xiang came from an illustrious family and possessed both talent and beauty. In the prime of her life, why was she willing to remain a widow and stay with the Chu Family, already swaying in wind and rain?
Too many questions and too much heaviness pressed upon her heart, leaving her unable to breathe.
The carriage was ready. Supported by the servant woman, Wei Shuyun stepped onto the footstool and climbed aboard with somewhat sluggish movements. Once seated inside, she lifted the curtain and took one last look at Tang Xiang and Cui Wan standing before the gate. Her gaze was deep and distant, her voice calm and unruffled. "From now on, this household... is in your hands. Do not worry about me."
With that, the curtain fell, separating the inside from the outside.
Watching the carriage slowly draw away and vanish at the end of the long street, Cui Wan finally could not hold back her tears. She turned toward Tang Xiang, whose eyes were also slightly red, and asked through sobs, her voice thick and nasal with bewilderment, "Sister-in-law... why? Why does everyone suffer so much? But clearly... clearly none of us has done anything wrong... I don't understand. Why..."
Tang Xiang gently wrapped an arm around Cui Wan's trembling shoulders, her gaze following the direction in which the carriage had disappeared. Only after a long while did she slowly speak, her voice very soft, yet carrying the desolation and resilience of someone who had seen through the ways of the world:
"Wanwan, sometimes the suffering in this world... isn't because anyone has done anything wrong. Just as the seasons turn, where there is spring warmth and blooming flowers, there is also the bleak autumn wind. Just as the moon waxes and wanes beneath clear and clouded skies, people know sorrow and joy, parting and reunion. Father-in-law and A-Lei gave their lives for the country-that was loyalty and valor. Mother-in-law lost her husband and son-that was heartbreak. A-Qi's body was crippled and his spirit broken-that was calamity. And you and I... have our allotted fates as well."
She withdrew her gaze and looked at Cui Wan's tearful face, compassion in her eyes, but also a soft light that would not be broken. "What we can do is not keep asking why, but... amid the wind and rain already destined for us, protect what is still worth protecting in our hearts, and then... go on living, one day at a time."
"The Chu Family is a half-withered tree now, but as long as its roots remain, it may yet sprout anew one day. Are you willing to wait?"
Those words were like a cool yet utterly bracing wind, dispersing some of the bewildered mist in Cui Wan's heart, yet also making her feel the deeper helplessness and weight of the adult world. She only half understood, but she stopped crying and nodded firmly.
The two turned silently, preparing to return inside.
Just as she turned, Cui Wan suddenly caught sight, out of the corner of her eye, of a wheelchair standing quietly in the shadows of a corridor a short distance to one side.
There was no telling when Chu Moqi had arrived, or how long he had remained there. He still wore yesterday's dark everyday robes, his face looking even paler and gloomier where the morning light met the shadows beneath the eaves. He sat upright in his wheelchair, staring fixedly at the long street beyond the gate, though that direction had long since become utterly empty.
He seemed... not to have slept all night. Beneath the empty corridor, his figure looked incomparably lonely, yet carried an icy hardness that kept others a thousand miles away.
At the sight of him, Cui Wan's heart instinctively tightened. The fear that had only just subsided a little surged up again, and she unconsciously shrank behind Tang Xiang, her fingers secretly clutching her sister-in-law's sleeve.
As though sensing something, Chu Moqi withdrew his icy gaze from the empty, silent street and swept an indifferent glance toward them. Seeing Cui Wan shrink away like a startled rabbit, something seemed to flash through his eyes, but indifference returned at once. He said nothing, not even offering a change of expression, and merely turned his head slightly to signal Yan Qin behind him.
Yan Qin immediately turned the wheelchair and pushed him away along the corridor they had come by, neither hurried nor slow. The sound of wooden wheels rolling over the ground was especially clear and lonely in the residence's early-morning silence.
Only after that figure had disappeared completely behind the corridor pillars did Cui Wan dare release her tight grip on Tang Xiang's sleeve. A thin sheen of sweat had already seeped into her palms.
Still shaken, yet with a trace of concern she could not quite put into words, she quietly asked Tang Xiang, "Sister-in-law, just now, did Mother-in-law... see Second Young Master Chu... mm..." Remembering Tang Xiang's instructions, she awkwardly tried to correct herself, yet was afraid to utter those two words. "...Hus... mm... Second Young Master Chu?"
Tang Xiang gazed in the direction where Chu Moqi had disappeared, her eyes distant. She shook her head gently, her voice filled with boundless melancholy. "I don't know. Perhaps she saw him, or perhaps... she didn't." She paused and gave a quiet sigh. "In any case... it no longer matters."
Some estrangements and wounds had long since become as deep as a chasm. Whether they saw each other or not seemed no longer capable of changing the outcome.
Tang Xiang gathered her thoughts and took Cui Wan's slightly cool hand, changing the subject, her tone gentle and clear once more. "Wanwan, the courtyard where you and A-Qi live is called Orchid Courtyard. Mine is called Plum Courtyard, and it isn't far away. From now on, settle into Orchid Courtyard and try... to get along with A-Qi. If you need anything, just tell Qiaoju. If you're bored, or feel troubled at heart, come to Plum Courtyard to see me whenever you like. Do you understand?"
Cui Wan nodded, but her heart remained heavy, without the slightest sense of ease. She knew that from today onward, she truly would have to face alone that cold, violent husband who somehow also made her feel loneliness and sorrow.
The road ahead stretched uncertainly, as though she had fallen into a fog.