Broken Jade - Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Wei Yi was so furious he laughed. “So if I tell you to come, you come?”

Why had she never been this obedient before?

Back then, the only reason he had agreed to send her to the Capital City was because he had been certain she would not leave.

How could Sheng Zhaoning possibly leave? For so many years, she had been unwilling to stray even half a step from his side. For a single word from him, she could even throw her life away.

Yet she had truly left without a word.

After news arrived that Chi Yu had proposed marriage to Sheng Zhaoning, he ordered Han Xu to bring her back, but Sheng Zhaoning was nowhere to be found.

An indescribable panic swallowed him in an instant.

Like a madman, Wei Yi searched for any trace of her, turning all of Liangzhou upside down just as Chi Yu had back then, yet he found nothing.

Unwilling to give up, he sent people out again and again. In the end, Wei Chengjun, worried that he would ruin their larger plans, had no choice but to tell him the truth.

Only, he deliberately left out the part about her being pushed into Luochuan.

And so Wei Yi believed only that Sheng Zhaoning had been cruel and heartless, that she had betrayed him, left Liangzhou on her own, and had not even said goodbye.

A bitter smile curved Sheng Zhaoning’s lips, and a faint mist gathered in her eyes.

“I am not worthy of defying Your Highness’s orders.”

Wei Yi kept feeling that Sheng Zhaoning had somehow changed.

In the past, whenever she faced him, she had always been humble and weak. Now, even her every word was barbed.

She was the one who had come to the Capital City without a sound, yet she actually dared resent him?

“What exactly is your relationship with Wei Heng?”

When Wei Yi asked this, his fingertips brushed over her face, his tone plainly dangerous.

At the sound of that name, Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze went blank for an instant. Then she quickly lowered her eyes and said nothing.

In Wei Yi’s eyes, that expression was no different from guilt.

His eyes reddened with rage, as if blood had seeped into them.

“Speak!”

Wei Yi gripped her face and roared.

Sheng Zhaoning’s fingertips dug into the ground, the edges turning white.

What exactly was she to Wei Heng…

Enemies on opposing sides? Friends who had survived life and death together?

Ruler and subject, who kept public and private matters separate? Or kindred spirits who understood and admired one another?

The feelings tangled within it were too complicated. She could not answer. She could only lower her lashes and say vaguely, “Friends.”

The air around them turned icy in an instant.

Wei Yi gave a cold laugh, the fury churning in his eyes seeming as if it might devour her whole.

“Friends?” he repeated through clenched teeth.

“What kind of friends would make you take a blade for him and throw away your own life?”

He stared at the face caught in his hand. Porcelain pale and fragile, yet every inch of it carried a cold, stubborn defiance.

Sheng Zhaoning had always been good at pretending.

With a harmless-looking face, she stabbed the cruelest knives.

For these three years, there had not been a single moment when he had not thought of dragging her back.

If she dared run, he would break her legs.

He would lock her in a cage for the rest of her life.

Wei Yi had imagined their reunion countless times. He had wondered what expression Sheng Zhaoning would wear when she saw him.

Fear, joy, or perhaps sorrow and grievance.

But he had never expected that she would only lower her head, hide herself in the crowd, and pretend she had not seen him.

And be so close to another man.

Wei Yi had waited for her for several days, waiting for her to come to him on her own and explain.

But she did not.

Sheng Zhaoning remained that upright and untouchable Lord Sheng in court, remained the favored “beloved minister” of the Crown Prince.

After she got drunk at Guangyang Hall, Wei Heng had escorted her back to her residence.

She had stayed out all night.

What the two of them had done together, Wei Yi hardly dared to imagine.

He did not understand what jealousy was. He only knew that what he had felt then was like being cut by knives and burned by fire. He had wanted to rush to the Sheng Mansion, drag her out, and kill Wei Heng with a single stroke of his sword.

Now, he had set aside his pride and taken the initiative to bring her back. All he had wanted was for Sheng Zhaoning to soften, admit she was wrong, and give him an explanation. Then he would have let it go.

But when Sheng Zhaoning grew stubborn, she would not say a single gentle word.

A temperament that clashed head-on like this only made a person even more furious.

Wei Yi gripped her face and kissed her with savage force.

Scorching heat pressed against her lips. Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes flew wide open. She struggled desperately, shoving at him with both hands in a frantic mess, only for him to hold her even tighter.

Wei Yi caught her lips between his and bit down hard twice, as if venting his anger.

The taste of blood spread between their lips and teeth.

Sheng Zhaoning frowned from the pain. With her hands and feet pinned by him, desolation filled her heart.

Why? If he clearly did not like her, why did he still have to put on such a deeply affectionate act?

He had a marriage agreement with Chi Wan. He was destined to marry someone else.

She had already made up her mind to give up on this kind of love, one that was full of hardship and would never come to anything.

But why, after she had fled to Capital City, did he suddenly refuse to let her go?

Sheng Zhaoning could not understand it.

The pain in her lips continued. Sheng Zhaoning wrenched herself free of his restraint, and in her panicked resistance, she swung her hand back and slapped him across the face.

With a sharp crack, both of them froze.

Wei Yi’s face turned to the side. Only after a long while did he turn back in disbelief.

The haze of desire in his eyes darkened into a thick blackness, as if brewing a bottomless storm vortex that would swallow her whole.

Sheng Zhaoning stood rigid where she was as well.

The numb, swollen sting in her palm seemed to remind her just how much force she had used in that slap.

Trembling, she lowered her hand, panic surging through her.

Wei Yi’s eyes were bloodshot as he asked, each word slow and deliberate, “You dare hit me?”

Sheng Zhaoning’s face went pale. A dense, needling ache suddenly rose in her heart.

She had truly loved him once.

She had loved him desperately for twelve years, loved him until she lost herself, loved him until Wei Yi was the only person left in her entire world.

But she could not love anymore.

Keeping watch alone through one lonely, endless night after another, facing a love that would never receive a response, her heart had been broken into countless pieces that could never be put back together. Even its beating had become so difficult, so faint.

Sheng Zhaoning had already died once.

To love someone so recklessly, so single-mindedly, as if her life meant nothing, once was enough.

She did not have the courage to do it all over again.

Nor would she degrade herself like that again.

She was not that cheap.

“This subordinate knows her crime.”

Sheng Zhaoning closed her eyes and spoke in the tone that should exist between master and servant.

Wei Yi stared at her face. A strange unease moved slowly through his blood, creeping through every limb and bone.

It was as if, unseen, an invisible wall had risen between him and her. It was not obvious, but it was solid.

He began to panic, but he had no idea what it meant.

Why had Sheng Zhaoning become so cold?

Because of Wei Heng?

The mere thought of that possibility made Wei Yi’s breath catch.

Against his will, he thought of the scene that day when she had collapsed into Wei Heng’s arms. She had trusted him so completely, without the slightest guard, letting him take her away, letting him stay in her room for an entire night.

A monstrous blaze of jealousy burned his eyes red and collapsed his reason.

Wei Yi released her and forced out one word through clenched teeth.

“Get out.”