Chapter 52: Protecting Her
Song Hemei's accusatory tone seemed to jolt Song Yunyao back to his senses. He gasped for air, slowly rising with the support of a servant boy while wiping the sweat beading on his forehead with his sleeve.
He avoided Song Hemei's gaze, yet still failed to conceal his panic.
His expression was grave and barely hid his fluster; it seemed that putting up a brave front in front of Yu Yeqing had already drained all his composure. Yet at this moment, he still knew to protect the Song family's dignity. "Mei'er, we'll talk once we're back."
Song Hemei's expression was displeased, a ball of fire clogging her chest. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and hold it in for now.
Once inside the residence, she told the maids to take Shao Lianzhu back to his room first, while she followed her elder brother to the study.
As the door closed, leaving only the siblings, she could no longer hold back. She stepped forward and asked directly, "What exactly happened three years ago? Did you use some means to drive him away?"
Song Yunyao sat in the armchair, raising a hand to his brow, not daring to look at her. For a long moment, he could not utter a single word in reply.
Song Hemei stood right before him, making it clear she would not relent until she got the truth. Under her relentless questioning, he finally spoke. "Mei'er, I did it for your own good."
He slapped the wooden armrest. "Back then, he was nothing but a commoner, and you had him so bewitched that he couldn't even look upon a family like the Shao. If I hadn't come up with some way, how could I have made you give up?"
After saying this, regret surfaced on his face. "But I never expected that he would have such fortune. If I had known earlier, I would surely have—"
He cut his words short and let out a heavy sigh.
Failing to uproot the weed was a grave mistake. Who could have thought that his life would be so tenacious, and that in just three years he could climb to such a position?
Although an Investigating Censor was not a high-ranking official, he could report directly to the Son of Heaven. Serving as an imperial inspector was no trifling matter! Every local official had to tread carefully before him. If he wanted to deal with a family like the Song, it would be as easy as lifting a hand.
A sudden thought struck him, and he shot to his feet, scrutinizing his sister from head to toe with concern. "Why did he just now call you 'Miss'? What does he mean by that? Did he do anything to you? Did he trouble you over what happened before? Does your husband know about your history?"
His rapid-fire questions only stoked the fire in Song Hemei's chest. She was trembling with anger and pushed away the hand he had placed on her shoulder.
"Back then, I already did as you all said. Why did you still have to go after him?"
Song Hemei let out a cold laugh. "What, were you afraid that if you pushed me too hard, I would not bow my head and go to the Shao family? You deceived me to this extent! Did you ever think of me at all?"
Song Yunyao's face was full of conflicting emotions. He flicked his sleeve angrily and turned away. "How could I not have thought of you? I am your brother. Could I possibly harm you? It was precisely because I thought of you that I stepped in to sever ties with him on your behalf. Otherwise, do you think your affair could have been kept from the Shao family much longer? You made such a mess! If I hadn't covered for you, the Song family would never have been able to hold up their heads in Changzhou again!"
He paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, sighing repeatedly. "What matters now is not dwelling on the past. We have to figure out how to make him show some mercy and not wipe out the Song family entirely."
Song Hemei stared at her brother, her pupils trembling with fury.
She thought of how three years ago she had ridden alone to the Yu family courtyard, only to find that they had not taken all their important belongings with them.
Yu Yeqing had always been poor, and he had a younger sister who had been ill for a long time. For them to leave in such a hurry—how much suffering must they have endured?
Her elder brother had always been decisive, and her father often said he was too ruthless. When he said he had "severed ties" with Yu Yeqing for her sake, it could hardly have been a matter of giving him money and seeing him off peacefully.
The scar on Yu Yeqing's palm surfaced in her mind. At this moment, she felt a suffocating tightness in her chest and dared not imagine what her brother had done to him three years ago to leave such a long scar, and what had made her brother so afraid that Yu Yeqing would annihilate the Song family.
Such deep enmity—and she had still believed he harbored feelings for her—
Song Hemei closed her eyes. The bitterness of her own wishful thinking made her face sting with shame. She furrowed her brow, and when she opened her eyes again, her gaze at her elder brother was full of mockery.
"In these past few years, how many foolish things have you done, elder brother?"
The coldness in her eyes grew. A mocking smile curled at the corners of her lips. "The Song family has suffered a heavy blow and been declining day by day. We are even being implicated by the Shao family's troubles. Father is bedridden with illness—could it be without your contribution, brother? You thought marrying me into the Shao family would secure their support, but now we have ended up with nothing, and on top of that, we've made a formidable enemy we cannot afford to provoke."
"You—!"
Song Yunyao spun around, a flash of anger in his eyes. But looking at his sister, he could not bring himself to lose his temper. His anger dissolved into a heavy sigh.
"Who could have foreseen such an outcome back then? At that time, the Shao family was such a good connection. You have no idea how many people coveted that marriage. Let alone a family like ours—even the backer behind the Shao family could never have imagined that they would fall one day."
A thought suddenly struck Song Yunyao, and his eyes widened. "Since things have come to this, you shouldn't linger here any longer. You need to leave and lay low for a while. Go to our maternal grandparents' home—the farther from Changzhou, the better."
He grabbed Song Hemei's wrist and tried to pull her out of the room, but she yanked her hand away forcefully.
"Have you lost your senses, brother? If he truly came back for revenge, what use would there be in hiding? If I hide, what about Father, Mother, and Jilang?"
She sneered at the man before her. "Besides, what use would it be for me to hide? You are the one who should hide. If you hadn't interfered between him and me in the first place, would we be in this situation today?"
Song Yunyao's face turned ugly. If he could do it over again, he would still interfere—in fact, he would go even further. He would make sure to watch the man breathe his last, to spare himself today's trouble.
His sister was already a member of the Shao family. Even if that surnamed Yu rose to prominence, could he allow his sister to use their past feelings to cling to him?
One woman could not marry two families.
The Song family had never produced a woman who remarried. If that fell upon his sister, how could he and his father face their ancestors?
Song Yunyao looked at his sister, wanting to speak but stopping. Finally, he sighed heavily. "How could you, a woman, understand my difficulties?"
Those were the words Song Hemei hated to hear most.
She didn't understand—did he, then?
If he truly had that much ability, why hadn't he shown clear judgment back then? Why was he still so stubborn even when they had reached a dead end?
Over these three years, her conversations with her brother had grown fewer and fewer. She never expected him to become even more stubborn and hard to talk to than before.
She closed her eyes, feeling as if a cold wind had suddenly blown into her heart, chilling it completely.
"Brother, there is truly nothing left to say between us. My affairs are none of your business, and you don't need to meddle."
Having said that, she turned and walked out of the room.
In that study, being next to her brother made her feel suffocated, as if she were on the verge of choking.
She returned to the room she had occupied before her marriage. The two maids were entertaining Shao Lianzhu at play. Seeing her come back with a dark expression, they quickly poured her tea and fanned her. "Madam, have you suffered from heatstroke?"
Song Hemei sank into a chair, her whole body feeling drained. She shook her head lightly, signaling them not to attend to her.
The two maids took Shao Lianzhu to the adjoining room, not daring to disturb her. She was left alone in the empty chamber, staring blankly at the floor before her.
She could not help but wonder: Had Yu Yeqing come back to settle scores with the Song family?
What did he think of her? He had asked her several times if she had ever thought he would come back. Had he always believed that her brother's actions three years ago had been done at her behest?
Song Hemei closed her eyes, her back slumping slightly.
She wanted to explain that she had known nothing about what happened back then. But if she did, what would he do to her brother? Was she supposed to dump all the blame onto her elder brother and make him bear the full consequences of what he had done?
A breath of air stuck in her chest, neither rising nor falling, and a buzzing sound filled her ears.
She stood up. Somehow, her eyes drifted to the right, where she caught sight of several porcelain vases placed in a cabinet.
When she was younger, she had had a period of being particularly fond of porcelain. Whenever her elder brother saw something nice while out, he would buy it back for her, and before she knew it, she had accumulated quite a number.
A sour feeling welled up in Song Hemei's heart, but then she paused. She took a few steps toward the cabinet, reached out, and lifted the outermost vase. Behind it, she saw a vase with an orchid-shaped rim and a base decorated with a hundred butterflies.
Her pupils trembled. Wasn't this the one Yu Yeqing had repaired for her back then?
She extended her hand slowly, took out the vase, and examined it closely. She could no longer remember when she had put it away here, but at this moment, memories she had once ignored began to surface bit by bit.
It seemed that back then, when she had pulled Yu Yeqing into the room and had just sent away the clamoring Shao Wen'ang knocking at the door, he had been staring at this very spot in a daze.
Had he been looking at this vase?
Song Hemei felt as if some clue had belatedly struck her chest. She paused, then rose to her feet, walked straight out of the room, and went all the way to the stable, where she ordered a horse to be saddled.
She thought, no matter what had happened three years ago, she had to make things clear with him. If he held any resentment, she had to ask how she could make amends. Now that she knew, how could she continue to pretend she didn't?
It had been three years since she last rode the road to the Yu family courtyard. She was a little out of practice on horseback. She tried to take the back roads from memory as much as possible. Even though she wore a curtain hat, it was better to encounter as few people as possible on the way.
When she drew near, she dismounted and walked slowly, leading the horse by the reins. The closer she got, the more nervous she became. She instinctively smoothed her dress and tucked a stray strand of hair blown by the wind behind her ear.
She walked forward slowly and could vaguely make out two figures standing in the courtyard. Before she could lift her curtain hat, she heard Madam Qi's accusing voice: "In these past few years, there hasn't been a word from you. I thought you'd died out there! I wouldn't care if you, ungrateful wretch, had died, but I pity my niece whom you took away. Where is Minglian? Why didn't you bring her back? Or have you abandoned her to curry favor with your birth father?"
Yu Yeqing answered in a low voice, "No. Her health has improved a lot, and she is recuperating in the capital. The journey was too rough to bring her back to her hometown, so she couldn't come to see Aunt."
Madam Qi's face still held suspicion. "Really?"
Yu Yeqing replied, "Really."
But even so, Madam Qi did not give him any better treatment. She kept on chattering: "You have a mansion in the capital now, and yet you don't know how to lift up your two younger cousins? It's a pity that my brother treated you like his own son, and you don't even inquire after his nephews! My poor brother—killed young by you and your mother, and now you don't even offer the slightest recompense!"
Song Hemei's face gradually darkened. She could not bear to listen any longer. But Yu Yeqing, with some strange forbearance, just bowed his head and listened quietly to the scolding without a single word of rebuttal.
She decisively tethered her horse to one side, took a few steps to the little courtyard, and pushed open the gate.
Slowly, she removed her curtain hat and wiped her hands on her handkerchief. "Madam Qi, that's enough."
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