The Night Before the Wedding, My Fiance Asked Me to Comfort His White Moonlight - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Lu Jingci came to Song Mansion three days later.

By then, the Lu Family Case had spread throughout the capital.

Madam Lu had been thrown into the imperial prison, the Lu Family title was temporarily suspended, and Lu Jingci had been stripped of his official post.

Dressed in plain robes, he stood outside the gates of Song Mansion.

When the gatekeeper came in to report his arrival, I was playing chess with Pei Shu.

I was terrible at chess.

Yet Pei Shu was very seriously losing to me.

I looked at the obvious path he had left open on the board.

“Vice Minister Pei, are you looking down on me?”

He had just opened his mouth to speak when the gatekeeper came in.

“My lady, Young Master Lu requests an audience.”

Pei Shu’s hand paused with a piece between his fingers.

I looked at him.

He put the piece back into the chess box.

“I’ll go to the study.”

I asked, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll leave with him?”

Pei Shu looked at me.

“I am.”

He rose to his feet.

“But you need to see him yourself.”

I said nothing.

He walked to the door, then stopped again.

“The tea has gone cold. I’ll have someone bring a fresh pot.”

Something in my heart softened.

When Lu Jingci entered, he looked like he had lost an entire layer of himself.

When he saw me, the first thing he said was, “Zhining.”

I had someone serve tea.

He did not sit.

“I’m here to apologize.”

I nodded.

“Go on.”

Lu Jingci’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“At the spring hunt three years ago, I thought I was the one who saved you.”

“Only later did I learn that arrow had been meant for me.”

I asked, “When did you learn that?”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“Last night.”

I did not expose him.

It was true that he had only believed it last night.

Lu Jingci went on, “After Ah Jiao came to Lu Mansion, she kept telling me there was something wrong with Mother.”

“I didn’t believe her.”

His voice was terribly hoarse.

“I thought she was trying to turn me against Mother.”

I looked at him.

“So you kept her by your side, but you didn’t believe her?”

Lu Jingci’s face went pale.

That sentence was probably more painful than cursing him outright.

Because it was true.

He said in a low voice, “I owe her.”

I asked, “Then what do you owe me?”

Lu Jingci looked up, his eyes red-rimmed.

I answered for him. “You owe me one honest truth.”

“Did you ever love me?”

Lu Jingci stood there for a long time without answering.

Outside, the wind stirred the curtain, and the fragrance of tea slowly diffused through the room.

At last, he said, “I did.”

I asked, “Did?”

He flinched as if he had been stabbed.

“Zhining, I can’t tell the difference.”

I smiled.

That was, in fact, the truest thing he had said all day.

He could not tell apart gratitude, habit, responsibility, and love.

So he refused to let go of anyone.

He made Shen Jiaojiao wait for him to believe her.

He made me wait for him to wake up.

But people were not something that could be made right for you simply by waiting and waiting.

Lu Jingci said hoarsely, “Are you still willing to turn back?”

I looked at him.

“No.”

The last glimmer of light in his eyes went out.

I thought he would beg again.

But he only nodded.

“All right.”

He took a jade hairpin from his sleeve.

It had been one of the betrothal gifts the Lu Family had given me.

“This. I’m returning it to you.”

I did not take it.

“The betrothal gifts have already been returned to Lu Mansion.”

Lu Jingci shook his head.

“This one wasn’t from the Lu Family.”

“I bought it myself.”

I froze for a moment.

The jade hairpin was very simple and plain. It truly was not the sort of style Madam Lu would have chosen.

Lu Jingci said softly, “You don’t like ornate hairpins. I remembered.”

I looked at the hairpin, but the pain I had imagined did not come.

I only felt a little tired.

“Lu Jingci, if you remember too late, even memories expire.”

His hand trembled.

The jade hairpin fell onto the table with a soft clink.

He did not pick it up again.

When he reached the doorway, he suddenly turned back.

“Ah Jiao is leaving the capital.”

I was somewhat surprised.

“Where is she going?”

“South.”

The corner of Lu Jingci’s mouth twitched.

“She said the capital is too cold.”

I was silent for a moment.

“That’s good.”

Lu Jingci looked at me.

“She asked me to pass you a message.”

I waited.

He said, “She said that night, when she asked you to go to Lizhao Courtyard, it wasn’t because she wanted you to save Lu Jingci.”

“It was because she wanted to save you.”

My eyelashes trembled.

So what that letter had written was that he would die.

But what it truly meant was that if I married into the Lu Family, I would also be dragged down by that death.

Shen Jiaojiao had not written everything plainly in the letter.

Because she had not known whether it would fall into someone else’s hands.

All at once, I wanted to see her.

But Lu Jingci said, “She’s already gone.”

He lowered his eyes.

“She didn’t wait for anyone.”

After those words fell, the room remained silent for a long time.

Only after Lu Jingci left did Pei Shu return.

He did not ask what we had talked about.

He only glanced at the jade hairpin on the table.

“Do you want to put it away?”

I shook my head.

“Have someone take it to the pawnshop.”

Pei Shu raised a brow.

I said, “Exchange it for silver, then send it to Shen Jiaojiao as travel money.”

A smile appeared in Pei Shu’s eyes.

“All right.”