The servants were terrified, running around in chaos. Some tried to stop them, while others went to find the princess. Baohe hesitated for a moment, glared at Chen Anzhi, shook off Zhenxu’s restraining hand, and indeed ran off to the storeroom to fetch the bow and arrows.
Two maids stood in front of Chen Anzhi, quietly trying to soothe him, “Young Master, please calm down, calm down…”
Lady Jing, pale-faced, tugged at You Yuji’s sleeve and whispered, “Madam, let’s go, let’s go home first. We can talk about everything after we get back. Everyone needs to calm down, just calm down…”
Though she spoke these words, in her heart she muttered, “This is bad.” She knew You Yuji too well. If anyone had a sore spot, it was You Yuji’s family. Gentle and kind as she was, she could also be provoked.
For a moment, everything was in utter chaos.
Chen Anzhi watched the scene unfold, finding it utterly absurd. What were these people trying to stop? Did they think this unruly, unvirtuous woman from the plains would kill her husband? Would she dare?
“You Yuji, you unvirtuous woman, always flirting with this man or that, making married men run around for you, and now you’ve ensnared Young Master Qi’s heart. Now you come to me pretending to be a virtuous, filial daughter!” Chen Anzhi pushed away the servants blocking his way and charged toward You Yuji. “Do you think I want to marry you? This is all your fault! You brought this on yourself! The emperor decreed this marriage, and I don’t dare defy him or annul the marriage!”
Chen Anzhi rushed up to You Yuji, pointing his finger in her face, so close that his finger almost touched her.
You Yuji looked at his repugnant face and suddenly calmed down.
“The emperor decreed the marriage, and you don’t dare defy or annul it,” You Yuji spoke slowly yet firmly. “Fine, I will defy the decree, and I will annul the marriage.”
Chen Anzhi’s pointing and prodding stopped abruptly. He stared at You Yuji with wide-eyed astonishment, wondering if he had heard wrong.
“What did you say?” he asked.
You Yuji, her heart as calm as a still pond, didn’t want to speak to Chen Anzhi any longer. She simply ordered, “Zhenxu, bring someone to write the divorce letter.”
Zhenxu responded blankly, hesitating to act and looking toward Lady Jing for help. Lady Jing nodded hesitantly, then shook her head repeatedly.
Chen Anzhi was dumbfounded.
What did You Yuji mean? Bringing someone to write a divorce letter? Was she out of her mind? Forget that this was an imperial marriage decree; even in ordinary marriages, no woman would dare seek a divorce. As a woman, to initiate a divorce? What about her reputation? How could a divorced woman ever hope to marry again? Marry a beggar at the street corner? Not to mention, this was an imperial marriage with political significance, meant to unify nations! How could this marriage be annulled? What about her life?
He thought You Yuji was acting out of anger and confusion. But looking closer, You Yuji’s expression was calm, her tone composed, making him seem even more frantic and agitated by comparison.
“Are you trying to play hard to get?” Chen Anzhi blurted out, “Or are you just pretending?”
You Yuji didn’t want to entangle with him for even another moment. She sidestepped Chen Anzhi, who had rushed up to her, and walked quickly toward the exit. She had been worried since yesterday about Imperial Physician Hu’s visit to diagnose her mother today. She had to get home early, before the physician arrived, as her younger brother Jiamu was still too young, and she feared he wouldn’t be able to properly host the physician.
“The bow and arrows are here!” Baohe panted as she ran back from the storeroom.
Telling Baohe to fetch the bow and arrows was indeed a spur-of-the-moment expression of anger from You Yuji. She couldn’t actually kill Chen Anzhi; it wasn’t worth facing the consequences of murder over a moment of fury.
Chen Anzhi stood at the doorway, watching You Yuji walk away, and let out a cold laugh, saying snidely, “See? It’s just an empty threat. Pretending to be a dutiful daughter.”
Hearing Chen Anzhi’s voice, You Yuji’s mind replayed his curse against her mother.
Passing by Baohe, You Yuji grabbed the bow and arrows, turned around, drew the longbow to a full moon, and shot the arrow in one fluid motion.
A sharp arrow whistled through the air, accompanied by the gasps of everyone in the courtyard, heading straight for Chen Anzhi. It struck his hairband, severing a large lock of his hair, which fell to the ground.
Chen Anzhi’s eyes widened, and he carefully reached up to feel if his head was still intact.
“Show disrespect to my mother again, and I’ll send you to my father to let him deal with you!” You Yuji tossed the arrow aside and walked away.
Baohe felt immensely satisfied, almost clapping with glee. She glared at Chen Anzhi and quickly ran after You Yuji.
His father?
Chen Anzhi finally understood. Wasn’t her father dead?
As You Yuji’s carriage left the Jinnan Prince’s mansion, the events that transpired at Tanxiang Yingyue had already spread throughout the residence.
Fang Qingyi was pleased. You Yuji, being so headstrong at this moment, clearly wasn’t a clever person. She would undoubtedly be outmatched in the future!
Cuiyu and Lin Yingying huddled together, whispering and gossiping for a long time.
Chunxing dared not comment and begged the two maids beside her not to stir up trouble.
Si Que lounged lazily on one side of a soft couch, holding a delicate, small hand warmer, watching Baisui play in a bowl while listening to Liufeng report on the recent events at Tanxiang Yingyue.
“What a pity,” he suddenly said.
Liufeng didn’t understand what he meant, but naturally, she didn’t dare to ask.
Baisui, being playful, jumped in and out of the bowl on the table, never tiring of the game.
This bowl was the same one from which Si Que and You Yuji had once shared a bowl of porridge, which Baisui later crawled into to eat meat paste. Now, it had become Baisui’s exclusive food bowl and toy.
The carriage stopped in front of the main gate of the You family residence. You Yuji hurriedly got off and walked quickly towards the house, her pace increasing until she was almost running.
She blamed herself for wasting time on unimportant people and matters, delaying her return home.
“Jiamu!” You Yuji called out, as You Jiamu ran to meet her.
“Sister, has Physician Hu arrived yet?” You Yuji asked anxiously.
You Jiamu shook his head. “Not yet!”
Only then did You Yuji breathe a sigh of relief. She stopped, as if a taut string had suddenly loosened, and the exhaustion washed over her. She leaned against the railing of the covered walkway and slowly sat down.
You Jiamu watched his sister’s face closely and asked, “Sister, what’s wrong?”
You Yuji smiled gently at him and shook her head, speaking softly, “I’m just worried about being late.”
She looked at her brother and said, “Jiamu, you’ve grown taller.”
“Sister, I’ve not only grown taller, but I’ve also matured.”
You Yuji’s eyes crinkled in a smile.
Liu Momo sent someone to report that Physician Hu had arrived. You Yuji quickly stood up, straightening her clothes as she hurried out to greet him. She had already prepared her mother’s medical records but did not present them directly to the physician, only mentioning that they were available if he needed them.
Physician Hu was over seventy years old, with white hair and beard. He was short and lean, but his eyes were bright and sharp. As he walked with You Yuji, he asked about Madam You’s condition.
You Yuji answered each question in detail.
Physician Hu did not ask much. When they reached Madam You’s bedside, he first examined her condition, then sat down to take her pulse.
You Yuji stood by, her heart in her throat. She couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but it felt like Physician Hu was taking a long time to diagnose her mother.
After a long while, Physician Hu let go of her wrist and walked to the table.
You Yuji followed quickly, and before he could speak, she ground ink and handed him a brush.
Physician Hu wrote prescriptions for a long time, filling one sheet, then another, until he had written four or five. You Yuji held the prescriptions, frowning as she looked at them.
When he reached the last prescription, Physician Hu seemed troubled, hesitating to write. Seeing You Yuji looking at the prescriptions, he asked, “Does Madam You understand medicine?”
“My mother fell ill, so I skimmed some medical books, but I don’t truly understand them,” You Yuji explained softly.
Watching his expression, You Yuji tentatively asked, “Physician Hu, my mother’s health…”
Before she could finish, Physician Hu said directly, “These prescriptions will only slightly prolong her life. To completely cure her illness, we need a specific medicine.”
“What medicine?” You Yuji asked urgently, grasping at any hope. She would get whatever medicine was needed to save her mother.
“The umbilical cord blood of a close relative.”
You Yuji froze, holding the prescriptions in her hand.
Physician Hu continued, “You don’t need to worry. Collecting umbilical cord blood won’t harm the baby. Since Madam You is married, it’s manageable. I’ll prescribe another remedy to help with conception.”
You Yuji turned her gaze to her mother, who lay unconscious on the bed.
After personally seeing off Physician Hu, You Yuji returned to her mother’s room and quietly lay down beside her with closed eyes for a while. When it was time for lunch, she went out to eat with her brother.
You Jiamu frequently glanced at his sister’s face. Although she still spoke to him with her usual gentle smile, he could sensitively perceive that something was off about her mood.
“Sister, try this,” You Jiamu said, handing a piece of green bamboo shoot to You Yuji.
You Yuji accepted it with a smile. Despite having no appetite at all, she ate it. The next moment, her stomach churned, and she covered her mouth, feeling nauseous. She quickly stood up and hurried to the washroom.
You Jiamu dropped his chopsticks in surprise and stood up, unsure of what to do.
Liu Momo stopped the others from following and went after You Yuji herself, gently patting her back until the retching stopped. She handed You Yuji a cup of warm water to soothe her throat and stomach.
“Lady Jing has told me everything,” Liu Momo sighed. “The heir is unreliable, but we women don’t necessarily have to depend on the favor of our husbands. Having a child can give us hope for the future.”
Liu Momo’s voice was tinged with sorrow. “We are all people from a fallen country; we have no roots.”
“Momo, whenever I think of having a child who looks like him, who might inherit his utter lack of discernment and foolishness, I feel like vomiting,” You Yuji said.
Liu Momo opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words to respond.
You Yuji looked up at her reflection in the bronze mirror.
“Father used to say that life is short, and one should live with integrity and grace,” You Yuji began to smile slowly. “I cannot let Father down.”
She drank half a cup of warm water, her complexion improving, and then turned to leave.
You Jiamu and a few servants were waiting outside, their faces full of concern.
You Yuji looked at Zhenxu and asked, “Did you go to invite him?”
Zhenxu glanced at Lady Jing but remained silent. Lady Jing wanted to speak up but didn’t know how.
You Yuji did not blame Zhenxu. As she walked out, she instructed, “Baohe, come help me grind ink.”
— She would write the divorce letter herself.
You Yuji walked into her father’s study and sat behind the desk where her father used to write and read every day, calmly writing the divorce letter.
No matter how outrageous or reckless Chen Anzhi was, You Yuji had never cared. Whom he liked, whom he took as a concubine, were all insignificant matters to her.
But if she had children, she would love them as her life, protecting and cherishing them with all she had.
She couldn’t accept her children having Chen Anzhi’s features, nor could she accept them inheriting his foolishness and recklessness. She didn’t want to grow old and suffer from chronic illnesses, feeling as furious and helpless as the princess did because of her children.
You Jiamu stood outside the door, watching through the gap as his sister put down the brush before he walked in.
“Sister…” he called softly, lowering his head, unsure of what to say. He only regretted that he was still young and couldn’t be a support for his sister.
You Yuji smiled gently and said softly, “Get ready, we are going to the Pear Garden to watch an opera.”
“Why are we going to watch an opera?” You Jiamu looked at his sister in surprise.
You Yuji smiled warmly without offering an explanation.
Her mother needed the umbilical cord blood of a close relative to survive, so she would conceive a child.
Thus, she was going to find a father for her future child.
