"You're so great! Every time when my life is hanging by a thread, you show up like a heroic savior. Do you think I should be extremely grateful to you and be completely devoted to you?"
A broken and poignant smile spread across Song Wanchu's lips. As she smiled, her tears flowed like a flood, uncontrollable.
"You're always like this. When I need you most, you turn away. Then when I'm in deep trouble and danger, you suddenly jump out. I'm always your second choice, Liang Yuzhou. I don't want a hero like you at all!"
In Liang Yuzhou's dark eyes, something seemed to shatter.
Suddenly, he tightened his lips, and the hand hanging by his side trembled slightly.
It was not until today that he suddenly realized that the sense of security he had given Wanchu was far from enough.
That was why she had risked her life again and again.
It wasn't that she liked to be brave and overestimated her own abilities. It was his turning away that had pushed her into a desperate situation.
She had no choice but to face the difficulties head - on and shoulder everything with her slender body.
She knew clearly that entering the Princess Chang's mansion meant a dead end, yet she still resolutely went to her possible death.
She had always been a woman who loved passionately and purely, willing to give everything, even her life, for those she cared about.
Song Wanchu seemed to have had her soul taken away. Her heart was already too numb from the pain. "Liang Yuzhou, I don't need you to be good to me like this. Your one promise after another gave me hope again and again, but then you cruelly shattered those hopes and left me in darkness and despair. Your promises are luxuries to me. The price of believing in you is too high. I'll never believe you again!"
He had rescued her regardless of everything, but had pushed his uncle into a desperate situation.
Five years in prison was enough to destroy a person's body and will.
Uncle was broken by the time he was lucky enough to be released from prison. Aunt was broken, and the Qi family had also fallen apart.
She would rather sacrifice her own life to exchange for Uncle's freedom.
"If you don't believe me, who do you believe? The Crown Prince?"
Liang Yuzhou's voice was filled with frost, and his eyes were as cold and sharp as ice arrows. "The Crown Prince's bedroom was just separated from the Princess Chang's by a single wall. If he had the intention, he should have stopped the Princess when she took out those two cups of poisoned wine!
But what did he do? He cared about too many things: reputation, authority, morality, dignity. You think he loves you, but his love for you comes far behind all those things he cares about."
"He does not love as purely as you do."
Song Wanchu mocked lightly. "Every time something happens to Yu Huiyan, you're always the first one to rush to her rescue. What am I to you? How could I possibly deserve your promises, Master Liang?"
Liang Yuzhou clenched his fists and then relaxed them. He looked at her with a complicated look in his eyes, and his voice was a bit hoarse. "It's not like this..."
"Liang Yuzhou, let's end it here."
Song Wanchu closed her eyes wearily. Her voice was lighter than smoke, but her attitude was extremely firm. "Please, stop torturing me. Let me go, and let yourself go too."
There was no love, only possessiveness. Song Wanchu didn't want to waste her whole life in his overbearing plunder.
There was a cold glint hidden in the corner of Liang Yuzhou's eyes. "It's late at night. Go to rest. I'll keep thinking of a way about Uncle's matter."
Song Wanchu looked at him with empty eyes. Like a puppet, she forced a stiff smile on her lips.
All the lights in Shuiyunju were extinguished.
The moon was bright that night. Liang Yuzhou sat alone by the window, stroking the nightgown embroidered with bamboo.
The soft satin flowed through his hands like water, just like Wanchu's delicate skin, which was so endearing.
The nightgown that had taken months to embroider was suddenly rushed to completion a few days ago.
What did it mean? A farewell gift for him?
He turned around and took a deep look at the beautiful figure on the bed.
As he walked out of Shuiyunju, Yaoguang silently caught up with him.
"Master Liang."
"Speak if you have something to say."
Yaoguang lowered her head. "Aunt Fang took this servant to the outside of the Princess Chang's bedroom. This servant heard Madam say to the Princess..."
Her hearing was a hundred times sharper than ordinary people. The others outside the hall couldn't hear anything.
As long as she didn't say anything and the Princess didn't mention it, that matter would still be a secret.
But she couldn't just watch Master Liang lose his wife.
"What did she say?" Liang Yuzhou's lips tightened into a cold line.
"Madam said that there was a document of releasing a concubine with the old lady. As long as Madam got the document, she would be free and could leave the capital at any time and never see you again in this lifetime."
In the quiet summer night, Liang Yuzhou stood still, like a silent mountain.
After a long time, he laughed. "A document of releasing a concubine? She's not a concubine. She's the wife bestowed upon me by the Emperor. How could a document of releasing a concubine set her free?"
...
For several consecutive days, the capital was calm.
There was no earth - shattering news coming from the Princess Chang's mansion.
Obviously, after some weighing, the Princess had strictly silenced everyone from top to bottom.
However, the news that Liang Yuzhou had broken into the Princess Chang's bedroom at night reached the old Duke.
The old Duke was shocked into a cold sweat.
"You're being so outrageous! For a woman, where do you put the honor of the Duke's mansion?"
Early in the morning, the old Duke called Liang Yuzhou over and scolded him severely.
Liang Yuzhou's eyebrows were cold, and there was a disdainful sneer on his lips.
"Father, if Wanchu had really been killed by the Princess Chang, would you be able to sleep soundly for the rest of your life?"
The old Duke's eyebrows twitched violently.
Liang Yuzhou knew how Song Hengyi had died...
The cold sweat on his back became even denser. He had underestimated his own son.
Literary talent and military strategy, calmness and composure were qualities that Liang Yuzhou had possessed since childhood. Now that he was getting older, he had also gained more strategy and calculation.
All of Chuan'er's petty tricks were just child's play in front of him, not worth mentioning.
What could Chuan'er use to compete with him for the position of the heir?
The old Duke was worried.
In his plan, it should be Liang Yuchuan who became the heir, inherited the title in the future, and became the head of the Duke's mansion.
Liang Yuzhou should have been an obedient younger brother and used his talents to help his elder brother.
But Liang Yuzhou was growing stronger, and obviously would no longer follow his orders.
The old Duke was a hero on the battlefield, commanding thousands of troops, but he sadly found that he couldn't even control his own son.
A sense of frustration filled his chest.
"You should be grateful that the Princess Chang is magnanimous and doesn't care about your absurd and impolite behavior."
The old Duke scolded with a straight face. "It should have been you who went to the Princess Chang's mansion to apologize, but the Princess has condescended and sent you two concubines. You should accept them. We must take the step the Princess has given us."
Two young women walked in lightly and bowed to Liang Yuzhou.
They were wearing thin clothes, their eyes full of spring. They were only seventeen or eighteen years old, looking so tender.
Both of them were looking at Liang Yuzhou with affectionate eyes.
On closer inspection, their eyebrows and eyes resembled Song Wanchu a little.
Liang Yuzhou sneered. Did the Princess Chang think that he would like these two imitations just because her plan had failed?
"On what basis does the Princess Chang think that I'll like two fakes?"
Hearing the word "fakes", the two women's faces stiffened.
They had been carefully selected by the Princess Chang and imitated Song Wanchu in every move.
Although they only got a little bit of Song Wanchu's charm, other men would be fascinated by them.
But Liang Yuzhou didn't even look at them.
"What do you mean by fakes? Apart from Wanchu, there has been no one else in your house for these years. Why don't you accept the Princess Chang's kindness?"
Liang Yuzhou remained unmoved.
"The women are already in the Duke's mansion. Do you still want to send them back?"
The old Duke pressed.
Liang Yuzhou smiled indifferently. "If Father is reluctant to part with them, it's not a bad idea for you to take them for yourself. I don't mind calling them step - mothers."