Broken Jade - Chapter 114

Chapter 114

The arrow flew from the string-

Sheng Zhaoning stopped breathing. Her face twisted almost grotesquely as she acted without thought, lunging with the fastest speed she had ever mustered to seize the arrow by its tail.

The tremendous force dragged her forward.

She slammed into the upturned eaves below the roof tiles, half her body pitching over the edge. One more inch, and she would plummet to the ground far below.

The bowstring had sliced open her palm, and blood wound down her wrist.

Sheng Zhaoning’s face went deathly pale.

Her eyes bloodshot, she turned and searched through the dazzling sea of lanterns for that pale moon-white figure. The moment her gaze landed on the man’s face upon the bridge, the frost in her eyes melted away.

How could she have forgotten? Queqiao stood directly below Mingyue Pavilion!

Her hand trembled from how tightly she clutched the arrow. Crushing fear flooded every vein, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back.

This bow. This arrow…

She had almost killed him!

Sheng Zhaoning’s fingertips dug into the roof tiles until her entire hand was drenched in blood.

Her heart pounded so violently that she could only gasp for breath. A cold wind swept past, leaving desolation in its wake.

Slowly, she pulled herself upright. The man on the bridge stood amid the crowd, waiting quietly. Tall and straight as carved jade, his moon-white robes shimmered beneath the lantern light, his bearing gentle and composed.

Wei Heng had bought the apricot-blossom hairpin.

Not only that one, but everything left in the little girl’s bamboo basket.

Smiling, he handed her a silver ingot and stroked her head.

His expression was so tender.

Yet he had no idea that both the girl before him and the woman high atop the sixth floor of Mingyue Pavilion had come to take his life.

A sharp pain tore through Sheng Zhaoning’s heart. She clutched her chest and dared not look again.

How could it be him…?

How could the man Prince Zhenbei wanted dead be him?!

She snapped the iron arrow in her hands and sank to her knees upon the tiles, the full moon hanging high overhead.

Queqiao lay in the distance. The space between them might as well have been an uncrossable chasm.

Liangzhou. Dai Rong. Debts of gratitude. Everything that had passed between them…

She was powerless to resist.

The Black-Iron Heavy Bow still gleamed coldly beside her.

In the frigid wind, what seemed like an eternity passed-or perhaps it was only a moment. At last, Sheng Zhaoning appeared to make up her mind. Her fingers slowly curled, and when she raised her eyes again, they shone with steely resolve.

She struggled to her feet. Her gaze traveled over Wei Heng inch by inch, painstakingly engraving his every feature upon her heart. Then she turned away without hesitation-

Below Mingyue Pavilion, Han Xu stood in the shadow of a wall, watching the black-clad figure leap down from floor to floor. His eyes lifted slightly.

He turned and glanced toward Queqiao.

The man holding the apricot blossoms remained unharmed.

Sheng Zhaoning… had not gone through with it after all.

“Do you know what fate awaits you?”

Han Xu looked impassively at the woman approaching with the bow.

Sheng Zhaoning merely raised her hand calmly and, under Han Xu’s gaze, let go.

The Black-Iron Heavy Bow struck the ground with a heavy crash, scattering snow and dust.

“Do as you please.”

Kill her or carve her to pieces-it made no difference.

Her life was already ruined beyond repair.

Wei Chengjun had threatened her with Dai Rong’s life for no other reason than to force her to serve the Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion.

But once she was no longer of any use, he would have no reason to harm anyone else.

Some things had to be done.

“Take me to see the prince,” Sheng Zhaoning said.

Han Xu escorted her into Mingyue Pavilion.

It was the Shangyuan Festival, and the pavilion was packed with guests. Scholars, talented young men, high officials, and nobles had all gathered under one roof, surrounded by boundless elegance and opulence.

The two followed a hidden passage all the way to the top floor.

Only then did Sheng Zhaoning learn that the capital’s most lavish pleasure house was also Prince Zhenbei’s private property.

Han Xu brought her to a door.

“Go in.”

By the time the music and singing reached the sixth floor, they had faded to little more than a whisper.

No guest had ever set foot on the sixth floor of Mingyue Pavilion. It could be reached only through that hidden passage.

Sheng Zhaoning stood before the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside.

A faint sound came from the huanghuali door carved with crabapple blossoms.

The unlatched window faced Queqiao. The bitter wind of the winter night swept in through the opening and curled out the door, creating a draft that sent the gauze curtains billowing. Then the door shut firmly, and the wind abruptly died away.

The instant Sheng Zhaoning entered, she saw the figure by the window.

Cold and oppressive, he radiated a dark, sinister air.

It was not Wei Chengjun.

It was Wei Yi.

“You still made a foolish choice.”

Beneath the heavy veil of night, the man by the window slowly turned around.

Illuminated by moonlight and the glow of countless lanterns, Wei Yi’s face gradually came into view.

Sheng Zhaoning froze, her breathing quickening slightly.

“You were the one who gave the order to kill him.”

Her gaze drifted past the window to Queqiao, and many things suddenly became clear.

“But you didn’t carry it out.”

Wei Yi advanced on Sheng Zhaoning one slow step at a time, each movement laden with menace and danger.

He stopped before her, not missing the tremor in her eyes.

Violent emotions surged within him. Forcing down his fury, he demanded, “What is so good about him that you would love him this much?”

That was what Wei Yi could not understand.

When had Sheng Zhaoning fallen in love with Wei Heng?

She had only been in the capital for a year and away from Liangzhou for no more than four.

Could such a short span of time truly make someone willingly cast aside everything in her past-even her own life-and throw herself into another man’s arms?

Sheng Zhaoning looked at him and suddenly smiled. “Everything about him is worth it.”

She suddenly felt that the love she had harbored all these years-so intense it bordered on madness-was nothing but an enormous joke in the eyes of a man who had never understood love at all.

“You never understood. Loving someone doesn’t require a reason.”

A dark shadow crept into Wei Yi’s eyes. “Then giving up on someone doesn’t require one either. Is that it?”

“No.”

Sheng Zhaoning met his gaze and shook her head, bitterness welling in her heart. “You don’t need a reason to love someone, but you do need one to give them up.”

“Then what was your reason?” Her words made a vein throb at Wei Yi’s temple.

He stepped closer, looming over her until they were so near that his breath brushed her brow.

Under the crushing force of his presence, Sheng Zhaoning instinctively tried to evade him. But she had only taken one step back when his hands clamped fiercely around her shoulders.

Savage fury filled Wei Yi’s eyes as he gripped her and demanded, “You were the one who left Liangzhou first. You were the one who betrayed me and fell for someone else. So tell me-what was your reason?”

Sheng Zhaoning said nothing.

Bitterness spread through her without end.

Her reason…

The reason she had abandoned everything, left Liangzhou, and resolved to let him go-

Wei Yi pressed her harshly. “Answer me! Why did you leave without a word?”

“I looked for you!”

It took nearly all her strength to scream those words.

The resentment and hatred she had buried deep within her heart for years burst out before she could stop them.

Sheng Zhaoning closed her eyes. With that single cry, all her grievance and fury seemed to break through a dam and come flooding out.

The hands gripping her shoulders abruptly went rigid.

Before Wei Yi could grasp what she meant, Sheng Zhaoning opened her eyes. Slowly, she raised her red-rimmed gaze to his.

“Wei Yi, I looked for you.”

Her memories plunged once more into those bitterly cold waters. The sensation of suffocation wrapped tightly around her, and boundless despair dragged her down into a dark abyss with no bottom in sight.

Moisture gathered at the corner of her eye, condensing into a single scalding tear that swiftly rolled down her cheek.

“Luochuan. The pleasure boat.” Sheng Zhaoning’s voice trembled.

“Do you still need to ask?”