Chapter 385 That was all because of love
After collecting all the Sinew-reconnecting cream spilled on the ground, He Danggui felt relieved. Fortunately, the ice ground was very clean and would never melt so the medicine hadn’t been tainted and could still be used. Duan Xiaolou made a fuss but it didn’t cause any terrible results. He said she got wrong answers when she said she should keep her words and marry Meng Xuan and she wanted him to wish her a happy marriage so he threw the medicine bottle as a punishment for her.
However, the wrong answers for Duan Xiaolou were the right ones and the promise for Meng Xuan and her. Maybe their common rebirth experiences enabled Meng Xuan and her to be the birds of the same kind and the right answer for each other so they met a few times fatefully this life even though they had been strangers in their previous lives and now, they couldn’t live without each other. But why did Duan Xiaolou become like this? What eerie skill had he practiced? Would it sap his will?
She saw the trace of blue waves in his eyes in some instant. Moreover, he could use the skill of invisibility and manipulate others to make them keep telling the truth. It was indeed the best skill set for Imperial Guards. He even used these skills on her. Should she exclaim that one should be given a different look even though there were only three days of separation? Although she was sophisticated, she hadn’t ever heard of such an irresistible and gruesome skill that could force people to tell truth. Even a gossipy man like Bai Yangbai hadn’t mentioned any skill like this before.
“Duan Xiaolou? My... my precious?” He Danggui covered her mouth as soon as she called him that and felt embarrassed. She didn’t know when she could stop speaking contrary to her thoughts. “My precious” should only be said by Guan Yun and Ling Miaoyi. He Danggui couldn’t bear to call him that at all.
Duan Xiaolou didn’t give her any response. Obviously, he was in a deep sleep and his steady breathing made her feel he hadn’t been asleep for three years and was also slightly like the “sleeping beauty” Qing’er talked about before who would keep sleeping and need to be woken up by the right person with some special methods.
She thought, “Sure enough, he is more like the man he used to be while sleeping.” Meanwhile, she glanced out of the icehouse unconsciously. Now, people in Baisha Mountain Villa had been missing and no one could watch or detain her anymore. It was the perfect time for her to escape, wasn’t it? She held the right hand of Duan Xiaolou carefully, removed the gauze on it, applied the medicine to it, and bound it up again. She moved extremely cautiously, lest she might wake him up and ruin her chance to escape.
After finishing binding up his wound, she looked at Duan Xiaolou who was sleeping again before lifting her robe, turning around, and creeping toward the door...
“Don’t go. If you leave, I’ll die...” Duan Xiaolou said this while snoring.
He Danggui was shocked and had a guilty conscience. She looked back at him and found he was still sleeping so she encouraged herself to take a risk, “Stay calm. Don’t flutter. I should get back to Yangzhou City as soon as possible and consult with Meng Xuan. Imperial Guards already knew I was with the traitors so I can’t stay in Yangzhou City anymore.” Her hands and feet got sweaty while she was creeping. She was so nervous...
“You can run but you can’t hide. Kings have long arms. Do you really think you can escape?” He talked in his sleep again while snoring, but He Danggui was resigned and had to admit that she had already lost the chance to escape.
She looked back at Duan Xiaolou who seemed to be having a sweet dream now, but obviously, he was awake. Why didn’t he sleep? His eyes were full of red veins, weren’t they? He was just like a big child that always made people worry. He Danggui was the worst at dealing with children and was often at the end of her rope before them. She thought children were much shrewder than adults. Staring at Duan Xiaolou’s calm face, she became in a daze.
Anyway, she failed him. No matter who was right or wrong or who became excessively greedy, in the final analysis, that was all because of love. If he didn’t love her, why would Duan Xiaolou pay lots of effort to frame people around her? What’s more, he didn’t have to do that. As long as he asked to go one step further in their relationship by sleeping with her and she didn’t refuse, she wouldn’t be able to make up her mind easily to leave no matter how they argued in the future. He, however, didn’t choose to do so. Thus, he did respect her, right? Bai Yangbai said Duan Xiaolou often crossed the wall and entered Luo’s Mansion in the late night to watch her sleeping stealthily. If that was the truth, Duan Xiaolou must have gotten rid of such a thought immediately after he had it.
After they broke up, an open-minded person like her had spent nearly one year before she finally moved on so he must’ve spent a longer time. In other words, although they had broken up nominally, they still regarded each other as a lover in their hearts. The former was what the outsiders thought their relationship was while the latter was the essence that only he and she could see.
Being such “imaginary lovers”, they still didn’t rely on each other less or mitigate their possessiveness. Actually, those feelings were intensified instead because except for the shadows in their memories, they had nothing about each other. It was also why she thought she had betrayed Duan Xiaolou and his love. If the one that left and fell in love with another person first wasn’t her but Duan Xiaolou, and if he married Guan Yun or anyone else later and she heard from others he had become a happy husband, what would she feel even though she always held a generous attitude toward love and hoped he could live happily? Duan Xiaolou was a good man who was considerate, careful, and gentle and he loved her but she failed to be the woman who could bring him happiness...
She left Duan Xiaolou, fell in love with Meng Xuan, and showed Duan Xiaolou her “unfailing” love for Meng Xuan as well. Standing in Duan Xiaolou’s shoes, she could understand why he reacted so fiercely. He must’ve felt he had been abandoned and betrayed so he became vexatious and threatened her with his maimed hand.
In the entanglement of their relationship, one of them must be excluded. She had the final say and Duan Xiaolou was the one she chose to leave. She also felt the pain and was swayed when she saw him get hurt but only if she tolerated one and became cruel to another could she move on. She wasn’t like the men in the world who had the right to be half-hearted and was energetic enough to love several people at a time. As a woman, she already had to rack her brains when she loved only one man.
“Duan Xiaolou, are you awake?” She decided to tell him her thoughts so she asked gently, “Xiaolou, I have something to tell you. Can you hear me?”
Duan Xiaolou seemed to be in a deep sleep and gave no response. His breathing and heartbeats were still steady.
However, He Danggui guessed he was awake so she began to explain, “I don’t know what eccentric trick you have used on me so I failed to hold my tongue, but some of the words I said were not true. Just stop extorting my confession and I will tell you the important points of my thoughts, okay?”
Duan Xiaolou still didn’t give any response.
Staring at his side face, He Danggui slightly believed he was indeed asleep. She could see the obvious tiredness and calmness covering the corners of his eyes and eyebrows. Tiredness and calmness were incompatible but they showed together on his face now. She lifted her robes, turned around, and walked toward the door. Her heart was pounding and she thought she could leave the icehouse first...
“You can try to walk out of the door if you dare. I’ll let you feel regretful immediately.” Duan Xiaolou said in a cold voice, “Actually, I don’t have to warn you. You’ll never escape from here. Haven’t you felt strange before? This icehouse is underwater and its door is open but why doesn’t the water rush in? If you’re curious about it so much, you can take a look at the configuration outside and then, estimate if you can leave this place alive.”
His voice was cold and calm. It was as crisp as the crushed ice chiseled by a dagger and sounded very callous. However, instead of feeling offended or frightened, He Danggui found it fresh and interesting. It turned out Duan Xiaolou’s tone would be like this when he talked with a cold face. She sensed the intriguing differences between his cold tone now and the soft tone he used when he was an easygoing gentleman before.
“So...” Turning around and smiling, He Danggui looked at Duan Xiaolou lying on the bed with his eyes closed and asked, “Are you going to nab me and interrogate me in the prison after you recover?”
“I don’t need to.” Duan Xiaolou replied, “Before, you tried to commit suicide to stop yourself from calling his name. It was me that saved you by hurting myself and you almost scared me to death as well. Thus, you should take responsibility for it. From now on, you should break up with Mr. Mu and not go back to Yangzhou City again. Except for me, you can’t look at any other man.” He said in a tough tone to notify her instead of consulting with her, “If you don’t want yourself and your family to be implicated by the traitors, you should go back to the capital with me and I’ll help you settle down. Just rest here and wait to leave with me.”
He Danggui lowered her head to tidy the torn hem of her shirt. It seemed she hadn’t been scared by Duan Xiaolou’s threat at all.
Duan Xiaolou still kept his eyes closed for rest. He lay on his back while she was standing on the edge of the Ice Pool. He continued in a softer tone, “I do this just to protect you. You’ll understand me in the future. If you’re still unwilling to live with me, I will wait for two more years and find a house for you outside my mansion first. When you say yes and... and we have two children, I will take you to my mother and tell her I want to marry you...” His tone became softer and his threat gradually turned into a gentle statement, “If you can still treat me as you did before, I will forgive you and we can still lead a happy life this life. You... you can think about it.”
After keeping silent for a while, He Danggui replied, “You know we can’t get back together anymore. Why did you still say this? To be honest, a selfish woman like me always thinks for myself first but not you or him. Thus, I didn’t try to cut my neck to stop myself from calling his name before. I wouldn’t do such a stupid thing even in my previous life. The truth is that I noticed there was a third person in the icehouse except for Lu Jiangbei and me and that person was using a despicable trick to extort a confession from me.”
Duan Xiaolou opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. The red veins in his eyes hadn’t been soothed at all.
She sighed, looked into his eyes, and continued, “Is the sachet used on your clothes regular ones specially made by your family? Three years have passed but it still doesn’t change so I recognized it as soon as I smelled it. Moreover, I couldn’t help guessing if you still loved me since you kept using the sachet with the same fragrance. Therefore, I took a risk and had a try. I was amazed when I knew the answer for my guess was yes.” She put on a smile, “Thus, I didn’t risk my life for anyone. I just pulled your leg. I’m really sorry about what happened before.”
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