Broken Jade - Chapter 102

Chapter 102

A tall, powerful black stallion came to a halt outside the courtyard gate.

Jin He was picking vegetables in the courtyard. Through the fence woven from branches and wooden stakes, she immediately spotted the man swinging down from the horse.

He was dressed in fitted black clothes, his striking features proud and imperious. His expression was cold and grim, and a palpable air of menace surrounded him. Though undeniably handsome, he looked so intimidating that no one would dare approach him.

When she saw him striding into the courtyard, Jin He shot to her feet and asked warily, “Who are you?”

Her voice was faint, betraying her lack of confidence.

Wei Yi entered the courtyard with an icy expression. His dark gaze swiftly swept over the surroundings, but when it reached the dilapidated wooden door, his view was blocked, leaving him unable to see inside the house.

“Where is Sheng Zhaoning?”

His brows drew low, and his voice was steeped in frost.

At his words, the wariness in Jin He’s eyes intensified.

This man looked so vicious, as if he wanted to devour someone alive. Could he be an enemy of Young Master Sheng?

How could Jin He possibly dare answer him? Steeling herself, she said, “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

All the while, she prayed that Young Master Sheng would not come out at this moment.

Wei Yi’s black eyes darkened. “You don’t know her?”

A chilling trace of killing intent entered his gaze, frightening Jin He so badly that her face went deathly pale.

Under her terrified stare, he slowly raised the jade pendant in his hand and sneered. “Then how do you explain this jade pendant?”

Wei Yi had traveled from Capital City to Jizhou at top speed, leaving his attendants behind as he raced ahead to the underground current at the bottom of the valley where Sheng Zhaoning had disappeared.

The river was far too violent and swift. Cliffs and precipices lined its course, making the terrain extremely difficult to traverse, and in many places, their path was completely blocked.

Han Xu had already split his men into groups and searched for days, yet there was still no sign of Sheng Zhaoning or Wei Heng.

No one believed they could have survived.

The vast, raging river was unfathomably deep and riddled with reefs. Farther downstream, it plunged into chasms and waterfalls capable of swallowing and sweeping away anyone with ease. Their bodies might never even be found.

After searching downstream for days, they had not seen so much as a shadow of either of them.

They had held little hope to begin with, so naturally, they had not put their hearts into the search.

Only after Wei Yi arrived did everyone pull themselves together and continue searching farther afield.

In truth, even Han Xu thought Sheng Zhaoning’s chances of survival were vanishingly slim. But when he saw Wei Yi’s bloodshot eyes and the vicious aura surrounding him, as though he might kill someone at any moment, Han Xu had no choice but to swallow the words on the tip of his tongue.

Wei Yi led a group of more than a dozen men along the seemingly endless river, searching every step of the way.

Eventually, the river split into several tributaries, which then fragmented farther downstream into countless small streams.

The group had no choice but to divide again.

Trusting his instincts, Wei Yi chose one route. Before long, he left the borders of Jizhou and traveled all the way into Shizhou. He passed through village after village and refused to overlook a single household. After questioning more families than he could count, he finally picked up traces of the pair in Chenjia Village.

The jade pendant Wei Heng had given Jin He to exchange for silver and grain was now hanging ostentatiously from the buyer’s waist.

Wei Yi recognized it at a glance as an item belonging to the imperial family.

In that instant, all the blood in his body seemed to surge and boil. He seized the man by the collar, his eyes gleaming with almost feverish excitement, and forced him to reveal where the pendant had come from. That led him straight to Jin He’s home.

Wei Yi could no longer tell whether, upon learning that Sheng Zhaoning had truly been willing to risk her life for Wei Heng and had remained by his side all the way here, he felt more joy at having found her or more rage at her “betrayal.”

All he wanted now was to seize Sheng Zhaoning.

Everything else could be settled afterward.

No matter what, she had to stay alive.

A vicious aura rolled off Wei Yi as he advanced toward the door, one step at a time.

Seeing the murderous look on his face, Jin He’s palms began to sweat. Her entire body trembled with fear.

“Y-You can’t go in!”

Summoning every ounce of courage she had, she blocked Wei Yi’s path. Her eyes darted away in terror, but her body remained firmly planted in front of the door.

Wei Yi already had a bellyful of rage with nowhere to vent it. Now, a dense darkness gathered in his eyes. The sheer menace in his gaze made Jin He’s scalp prickle.

His thin lips parted, and two words hissed through his clenched teeth.

“Get lost!”

When a man who had slaughtered his way across battlefields unleashed that cold, bloodthirsty presence, even a burly butcher who killed pigs for a living would tremble in fear.

Jin He stared at him as though she were looking upon an Asura. Her eyes brimmed with terror, and her legs abruptly gave out beneath her. She collapsed onto the ground.

Wei Yi ignored her and strode grimly into the house.

He had barely taken two steps when a pair of arms wrapped tightly around his legs.

“Young Master Sheng, run!”

Sprawled on the ground, Jin He clung to Wei Yi with all her strength and shouted toward the room.

Wei Yi clenched his fists. He lowered his head and swept her with a gaze fit for a dead woman, then raised his foot to kick her away.

The instant his leg moved, the wooden door was flung open.

Creeeak-

The sound was long and piercing.

Wei Yi froze.

He held his breath as his heart began to pound wildly. For one fleeting instant, he seemed to lose even the courage to raise his head.

The autumn wind swept through the courtyard. That brief silence felt as long as an entire cycle of seasons.

His bloodshot eyes slowly lifted, first falling upon her slender waist, then traveling upward until they met a pair of icy eyes so calm and aloof that they betrayed not the slightest emotion.

The figure he hated with gritted teeth, yet had spent every waking moment yearning for and half a month chasing, had appeared before him without warning.

Wei Yi’s breathing instantly fell into disarray. Countless emotions crowded his mind, devouring what remained of his reason.

“Sheng. Zhao. Ning.”

He enunciated every syllable of the name he had yearned for to the point of madness.

Yet Sheng Zhaoning merely regarded him without expression, as if he were a complete stranger who had nothing to do with her.

Wei Yi went still when he met that gaze.

He had never imagined that one day, Sheng Zhaoning would look at him this way.

Cold and forbidding, with a nearly imperceptible trace of wariness.

So unfamiliar that he could hardly believe it.

Just then, a figure leaning on a staff slowly emerged behind Sheng Zhaoning.

The eyes that had remained cold and indifferent while looking at Wei Yi finally changed when she heard footsteps behind her.

Her gaze left Wei Yi’s face at once, without the slightest reluctance or attachment. The movement was crisp and decisive, as though she were flinging away something filthy. Yet the moment she looked at the man behind her, her eyes softened. She turned to support him, afraid he might lose his footing and fall.

“Careful,” she said in the gentlest voice Wei Yi had ever heard from her.

Wei Heng naturally allowed her to support him, accepting her care as if it were the most natural thing in the world. There was no hesitation or distance between them, making their intimacy unmistakable.

Wei Yi’s gaze dropped to their clasped hands, and his eyes reddened with jealousy.

At that moment, the last of his reason burned to ash.

Like a madman, he tried to charge forward and tear them apart, but Jin He still clung desperately to his legs, preventing him from moving even half a step.

Only then did Wei Heng look up at the figure standing in the courtyard, surprise flickering in his eyes.

“Cousin?”