Favoring a Hidden Mistress? Engagement Broken-Chapter 108 - 94

Lu Xiyao only came to the family temple once, accompanying Xie Wanqing for a chess game and heart-to-heart.

Although she apologized repeatedly for her previous aloofness, she never explained why her attitude had suddenly changed.

The intimacy and unrestricted conversations of the past between the two were no longer present.

Not only did the two involved notice, but even Lu Ziyuan felt it clearly.

His gaze was fixed on his sister, trying to judge whether her intentions were really that simple.

After two games of chess, when the atmosphere was not as tense, Lu Xiyao took out an embroidered box from her sleeve and opened it.

Inside was a meticulously carved jade bracelet studded with gems.

She smiled and said, "It was my fault before, let this bracelet be a token of my apology to Sister-in-law."

This jade bracelet appeared valuable, and Xie Wanqing hesitated to accept it, but then she heard Lu say, "If Sister-in-law truly forgives me, you must take it."

With that, Lu Xiyao noticed her empty wrist and took her hand to personally put it on for her.

The delicate white wrist paired with the lustrous gem bracelet looked stunning.

"It’s a pity these hands of Sister-in-law’s didn’t wear a bracelet." Lu Xiyao laughed, "Wear it, don’t take it off. Next time we meet, I want to see you still wearing it."

Before she married into the Lu Family, the two were intimate female friends who frequently exchanged gifts privately, so Xie Wanqing no longer refused. She got up and went to her room to retrieve a pearl hairpin as a gift in return.

Lu Xiyao accepted it with a cheerful smile.

Before leaving, she said, "Brother doesn’t allow us to visit the family temple to see you. This time, I came secretly while Mingjian is away, so Sister-in-law mustn’t tell him."

When hearing that Lu Ziyuan did not allow anyone to come to the family temple, Xie Wanqing lowered her eyes, not wanting to see others feel sympathetic towards her.

She pursed her lips and lightly murmured, "I won’t say anything."

It was so absurd—who could she tell?

Should she inform Mingjian when he came to collect the Buddhist Scripture, that the eldest miss of the house visited me today?

Or should she wait for Lu Ziyuan to return, run to him and say, "You don’t allow anyone to visit me, but your sister came secretly?"

So pathetic...

She was truly pathetic.

In the days that followed, Lu Xiyao did not come again.

Xie Wanqing neither liked nor disliked the bracelet she received.

But it was the first gift from Lu Xiyao after she married into the Lu Family.

Given its significance, she did not take it off.

This was the fourth month since Lu Ziyuan left the Capital, and she began hoping for his return.

She was truly terrified of staying in the family temple.

Every day when she saw Mingjian, she would ask if Lu Ziyuan had sent word of his return to the Capital.

But each time, the answer was disappointing.

She always remembered his words, waiting for him to come and take her out.

However, when the family temple doors opened, it was Mingjian who came to take her out.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be called taking her out; it felt more like releasing.

It was Mingjian who released her.

Lu Ziyuan had returned, but he did not come to take her away.

She returned to Shaoguang Courtyard, where, after months without residents, even the cleaning servants seemed to be apathetic and lazy; the flowers and plants in the courtyard were left untrimmed and uncared for, making the place even more desolate.

The autumn wind was chilling, the scenery bleak, but her heart burned fiercely. Xie Wanqing waited in Shaoguang Courtyard for three days, yet Lu Ziyuan never came.

Until the afternoon of the third day, the serene lady, who had been simply writing lyrics in front of a painting as usual, suddenly and violently threw away her pen, unable to endure any longer.

The anger in her heart was suppressed to the extreme, scorching and tormenting her insides, to the point where if she didn’t vent it, she would suffocate.

After nearly two years of marriage, she refused, for the first time, to obediently listen and wait.

Disregarding the rule that forbade Lu Family women from stepping into the front courtyard, she went directly to Lu Ziyuan’s study.

It was a place she could visit before marriage, but after the rules of the inner residence forbade her from stepping into the front courtyard, she hadn’t been there again.

A rebellious urge pushed her, urging her not to continue waiting obediently; she could take the initiative to ask him for an explanation.

An explanation was necessary!

Why should she be made to wait so blindly, be toyed with in her feelings and expectations?

Lu Ziyuan’s study was large, divided into a front hall and a back chamber, and she was stopped at the entrance to the front hall. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Move aside!"

Mingjian’s face showed distress, "Madam, please return, the Marquis..."

"Since I’ve come, today I will see him." Xie Wanqing’s expression was icy, "Where is he?"

"...Madam, please wait."

Mingjian turned and stepped into the back chamber, and when he emerged after quite some time, his expression was even more troubled.