Chapter 66 -
Chapter 66: Chapter
While the main courtyard was consumed by the strange battle of wills between the young master and his wife, the atmosphere near the estate’s back quarters was entirely different. The woodshed served as the temporary holding cell for those who violated the house rules.
Wenzhe walked down the narrow stone path leading to the shed. His footsteps were heavy and deliberate, his mind swirling with the morning’s dramatic events. He stopped outside the heavy wooden door, nodding to the two low-ranking guards stationed there. With a solemn wave of his hand, he signaled for them to unbolt the iron latch.
"Open it," Wenzhe commanded quietly. "Leave us."
The guards quickly complied, throwing open the creaking door before stepping away. The dim light from the afternoon sun cut across the dusty floor, revealing a miserable figure curled up in the corner on a bed of sparse straw.
Li Mei looked completely unrecognizable from the pristine, clever head maid who usually managed the young master’s courtyard. Her fine silk-trimmed robes were torn and stained with dirt, her hair was a tangled mess over her shoulders, and her face was smudged with soot and tears. The second the door opened, she flinched away from the light, shielding her eyes.
When she realized it was Wenzhe himself standing in the doorway, a sudden spark of desperate hope flared in her dark eyes. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, dragging herself toward him.
"Master!" Li Mei cried, her voice raw and trembling as she reached for the hem of his robes. "Please... you have to believe me! The Young Madame... she framed me! It was a trap! You know I would never steal anything from the estate, let alone her dowry!"
Wenzhe stood perfectly still, looking down at her with a completely unreadable expression. In the past, he had respected Li Mei’s sharp mind and her dedication to him. But after the chaotic revelations of the morning and the dark whispers beginning to spread among the staff he found it difficult to look at her the same way.
Wenzhe sighed deeply, looking at her with a mixture of exhaustion and cold detachment. "Out of the remaining pity I have left for you... it will be best if you leave this estate and don’t come back. I’m giving you your freedom."
Li Mei froze, her breath catching in her throat. She stared up at him, tears welling over her dirty cheeks, her heart shattering.
"You don’t love me anymore..." she whispered desperately. "Why?"
Wenzhe snapped, his patience entirely spent. He stepped back, pulling his robes out of her grasp.
"Because I know the truth!" he told her sharply. "I know you told Lady Pei to try and cause trouble for Su Yueqing. And now, I am also aware of how you bully the other maids!"
He looked down at her, the final remnants of his affection turning to ash.
"I didn’t know you had such a cruel and jealous side in you."
"It was planted!" Li Mei shrieked, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the dusty floor, her sweet, victimized facade entirely cracking under the pressure.
"They want to isolate you! They want to remove me because I am the only one who truly looks out for your interests!"
As Wenzhe turned to leave, the finality of his footsteps struck Li Mei like a physical blow. The cold click of the unbolting latch outside signaled that her world was about to close in forever. Desperation overrode her fear, and she threw herself across the damp straw, her hands clawing at the dirt to drag herself closer to him.
"Master! Wenzhe, wait! You can’t just throw me away like this!" she shrieked, her voice cracking into a jagged sob. "Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten everything we promised each other?!"
Wenzhe paused, his back still turned to her, his shoulders rigid beneath his fine silk robes. The tension in the damp room grew suffocating.
"You promised me!" Li Mei wept, her fingers clutching desperately at the hem of his robe once more, unheeding of the dirt she was smearing on the fabric. "Two years ago, by the lotus pond... when the old head maid threatened to sell me off to the northern borders, you stood between us. You held my hand and told me that as long as you drew breath, this estate would always be my home. You said I was the only one who truly understood the heavy burden you carried!"
Tears washed clean tracks through the soot on her face as she looked up at his unmoving silhouette.
"And last winter," she choked out, her voice dropping to a raw, breathless whisper.
"When you fell ill with the lung fever and everyone else feared contagion, I stayed by your bedside for seven days and seven nights. You took my hand when the fever broke. You told me... you told me that when the time was right, you would give me a proper place by your side. You promised I would never have to bow my head to anyone in this courtyard again!"
She pressed her forehead against the polished leather of his boot, her frame shaking violently. "How can you let *her* change that? A woman you barely know!
A woman forced upon you by an imperial decree! You are letting a stranger erase years of my devotion! Please, Wenzhe... look at me. Remember who I am to you!"
For a long, agonizing moment, the only sound in the woodshed was the ragged sound of Li Mei’s breathing.
Slowly, Wenzhe tilted his head, looking down at her over his shoulder. His eyes were not filled with the nostalgic warmth she prayed for, but rather a profound, hollow exhaustion.
"I remember every promise, Li Mei," Wenzhe said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. "But the woman I made those promises to was kind. She was loyal, and she cared for this estate. The woman kneeling in the dirt before me is a stranger who uses my past affection as a shield to torment the innocent."
He pulled his robe from her grip, the fabric slipping through her fingers like water.
"My promises were to a protector," he whispered, stepping toward the door. "Not a venomous snake."
Wenzhe did not look back. He stepped out into the blinding afternoon light, signaling the guards to throw the heavy wooden doors shut. The iron latch fell into place with a definitive, ringing *clank*, plunging the woodshed back into gloomy shadows.
Inside, the sound of Li Mei’s ragged sobbing echoed for a few moments. But as Wenzhe’s footsteps faded entirely down the stone path, the weeping abruptly stopped.
The pathetic, trembling posture vanished. Li Mei slowly lifted her head, her tearful face shifting into a cold, calculated mask. With the back of her hand, she casually wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, her gaze fixing on the darkest corner of the shed.
"Come out," she said, her voice entirely devoid of its previous panic.
From the deepest shadows of the rotting wood piles, the darkness seemed to detach itself. A man wearing black attire, his face and form completely obscured by a dark cloak, stepped silently into the dim light. Outside, the low-ranking guards were still stationed at the door, completely oblivious to the intruder who had bypassed them.
The cloaked figure looked down at her, his voice a low, gravelly murmur. "He seems to have lost affection for you."
Li Mei stood up slowly, her spine straightening with the regal posture of someone who still held all the cards. She brushed the sparse straw from her torn robes, dusting herself off with meticulous care.
"He hasn’t," she replied coldly, a bitter, confident smirk touching her lips. "He is just shocked. He needs to believe he is punishing a villain so he can feel righteous."
She turned to the masked man, her eyes flashing with a dangerous resolve.
"We will have to execute Plan B instead."
The masked man tilted his head slightly, the fabric of his hood rustling in the dim light. "If we are to move to Plan B, we must act quickly. Wenzhe is going horse riding with Su Yueqing this evening."
Li Mei’s eyes narrowed, a sharp, venomous gleam replacing any lingering trace of her earlier tears. A cruel smile stretched across her face.
"This evening?" she mused softly, her voice dripping with malice. "Even better... a runaway horse and a tragic accident on the trails... it is the perfect stage."
She turned fully to the cloaked figure, her posture completely composed now, as if she were still the high-ranking head maid commanding the estate.
"Make the necessary arrangements immediately," Li Mei commanded coldly. "If Wenzhe will not cast that woman aside willingly, then we will let fate do it for him. Let us see how much affection he has left when he is mourning a dead wife before the sun sets."
"If a she dies in his arms.. then the Xi family will surely be in trouble."