Broken Jade - Chapter 137

Chapter 137

“You once said you would wait until the day I was ready to speak and tell you about my past.”

Sheng Zhaoning gazed at him, her eyes unwavering and full of lingering emotion.

“I’m ready now.”

She was willing to tear open that old wound and recount her blood-soaked past, piece by piece.

The look in her eyes seared Wei Heng.

His breath caught. Through her eyes, he seemed to glimpse the desolate sorrow hidden deep within them.

Sheng Zhaoning had a past she did not want anyone to know about.

He had always known that.

Once, he had looked forward to the day she would finally lower her guard and trust him completely, rely on him, and willingly tell him everything.

Then she would no longer have to bear the weight of her past alone.

But that day had never come.

Instead… he had begun to piece together the truth himself.

Mingluan Palace, Chenjia Village, the hunting grounds… Wherever Wei Yi appeared, she had always been terrified and ill at ease.

And the possessiveness in that man’s aggressive gaze was certainly not something one directed at a stranger.

All at once, Wei Heng seemed to understand everything.

His anticipation faded, leaving behind only a dull ache.

At last, Wei Heng understood why she was always so calm, why she had never shown fear even in the face of death.

She had come to the capital alone, carrying far too much on her shoulders and burdened by far too many worries.

Once, he had hoped she would tell him of her own accord. Now, he wished she would never have to recall the past again for the rest of her life.

Whatever that past had been, it had shaped her into the woman she was today.

And this was the only version of her he loved.

So when Sheng Zhaoning finally suppressed the pain and turmoil in her eyes and prepared to lay everything bare before him, he no longer had the heart to listen.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

Wei Heng looked at her, flecks of moonlight seemingly caught in his eyes.

If those memories were filled with humiliation and pain, she did not have to tear open her wounds for him to see.

Wei Heng bent down and slowly gathered her into his arms, his touch gentle and infinitely tender.

“It’s all in the past,” he murmured with a soft sigh.

“Everything will get better.”

She only needed to do what she loved.

She could remain at the imperial court and continue being Lord Sheng, a figure of spotless repute.

And if she ever grew tired of this place, she could venture out into the world, riding across its vast lands and beholding its boundless mountains and rivers.

He would go with her.

Sheng Zhaoning rested against the warmth that belonged to him alone, held with the utmost care.

Even the way this man embraced her was so gentle.

As though he feared that holding her too tightly would be an unwelcome restraint.

Everyone else kept dragging her back into the past, afraid she might forget those years she never wished to speak of. He alone whispered in her ear that it was all over.

Everything would get better.

A dense, bitter ache welled within her heart, and tears spilled silently down her cheeks.

She wrapped her arms around his back and surrendered herself completely to his embrace.

She felt the tremor deep within his chest.

Then his voice sounded beside her ear, almost pleading.

“But could you… love only me?”

It was the most selfish and earnest request Wei Heng could bring himself to make.

He could not forget the look in Wei Yi’s eyes, blazing like an inferno that threatened to consume her whole.

Perhaps the two of them had once shared memories just as fierce, a passion that had burned like wildfire.

If she had once loved someone else, then please… do not return to the past.

Love only him. Could she do that?

Sheng Zhaoning clung to him with nearly all the strength in her body.

She did not know why Wei Heng would ask her such a thing, but the overwhelming pain that surged toward her still engulfed her completely.

“There will never be anyone else.” Her fingers trembled as she pulled herself free from the endless sea of anguish, answering in a voice as tender as it was unwavering.

Life is long, and countless things can change.

No one can promise forever.

But she could.

In the distance, sky lanterns became a sea of stars, their glow mingling with the moonlight spilling down upon them.

Ah Heng, if this is the last time I ever hold you…

Please don’t forget me.

Zhou Wei had been captured and brought back to Capital City.

Sheng Zhaoning confirmed the news after returning to the Sheng Mansion.

Men from the Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion had followed him all the way to Yanzhou.

Even before Zhou Wei left Capital City, Sheng Zhaoning had anticipated that the Sheng Mansion would be watched. There was no way news of Zhou Wei’s departure could escape Wei Yi’s notice.

She had taught Zhou Wei how to shake off his pursuers and told him to take the back roads to Yanzhou.

But she had never expected Wei Yi’s men to find the Chen Family mother and son first.

The pair had been taken back to Liangzhou, while every piece of evidence Chen Shao had left behind concerning Wei Chengjun’s rebellion had been destroyed.

Zhou Wei had been seized by the men waiting in Yanzhou and brought back to Capital City.

He was now a hostage Wei Yi could use to threaten her.

Once again, every last hope she had was effortlessly shattered by him.

There was no longer the slightest chance of survival anywhere in the Capital.

The army’s departure from Capital City was fast approaching. If no proof of Wei Chengjun’s treason could be found and he was allowed to return to Liangzhou, his ambitions would only continue to swell until they became a blade cleaving straight into Capital City.

There was no longer a war at the front, nothing at the borders to keep him in check.

Once his army of hundreds of thousands marched south, Capital City would be powerless to fight back.

Sheng Zhaoning had wondered why Wei Yi had insisted on three days from now.

She had long since come to regard Zhou Wei as family. With Wei Yi using such a tactic to coerce her, she had no way to resist.

But then a flash of insight crossed her mind, and she seized upon it at once.

The emperor would never allow Wei Chengjun to return to Liangzhou so easily.

If he could not find a suitable charge of treason, he would sooner risk mutual destruction than truly let Wei Chengjun leave.

When the time came, assassination, false accusations, and every other deeply flawed scheme would be dragged into the open without the slightest regard for the consequences.

Even a patently absurd excuse that could not withstand the least scrutiny could serve as grounds to arrest Wei Chengjun.

Even if history condemned him and the entire realm reviled him, the emperor would protect his throne from anyone who sought to take it.

Naturally, Wei Chengjun must have realized this as well.

His announced departure at the end of the month was meant both to observe the memorial rite for Consort Mei and to cast a smokescreen over the imperial court.

Everyone was waiting until the final moment, clinging to the hope that some path to survival might emerge before then.

If none appeared, they would resort to even the crudest means to drag him down with them.

And that was precisely what Wei Chengjun was counting on.

He would not remain until the end of the month.

He would leave Capital City early.

And the day he intended to leave was… three days from now.

Sheng Zhaoning’s hand tightened into a fist against the desk as she slowly raised her cold gaze in the darkness.

Wei Chengjun would never expect Wei Yi to willingly take such a risk and attempt to bring her back to Liangzhou.

Had it not been for Wei Yi, she would never have realized that Prince Zhenbei planned to leave Capital City in three days.

Their chance in Yanzhou had already been extinguished. She would never surrender the final opportunity left to her in the Capital.

No candles burned in the study.

Standing before the window, she raised the Bronze Tally in her hand to the moonlight. Its surface gleamed with an icy, forbidding light.

It was the gift Wei Heng had personally given her on her birthday.

It represented the authority to mobilize the Crown Prince’s Personal Guard.

Three days from now, they would fight to the death.

That was… their last chance of survival.