Perfect Match – CH 029

Chapter 29

“She is my lawfully wedded wife, my wife, Teng Yue’s wife.”

After saying this, he paid no attention to what others thought. He only looked at the person beside him, his eyes lingering, his expression blank.

It was as if he had said something even she herself had forgotten, as if his standing up for her was something even she had never imagined.

She seemed somewhat at a loss, glancing at him with a hint of surprise.

Teng Yue could not bear to speak to her harshly as before; he simply took her hand.

“From now on, you do not need to be afraid anymore.”

*

The sentencing ended late at night. Teng Yue took them to the old Teng Mansion in Jinzhou.

This was the first time he had taken her back to his hometown.

In truth, after their marriage, he should have brought her back to pay respects to their ancestors and had her recorded in the family genealogy.

However, he went to fight in Ningxia immediately after their marriage, which delayed them for several months.

This time, however, his return was also rushed, and with this incident just occurring, Teng Yue figured he was already back in Xi’an anyway, and it would not be too late to properly return to their hometown with her to pay respects to their ancestors after his mother returned from Wutai Mountain.

Teng Yue pondered these things, carefully observing the woman.

Aunt Juan and Xiuniang were both very satisfied with today’s verdict. Xiuniang was overjoyed, saying that the compensation of five hundred taels of silver was practically a favor from the prefect. Aunt Juan sighed deeply, letting go of the past, and could not help but nod and smile beside her.

However, she herself was not in high spirits, even somewhat inexplicably depressed. At dinner that evening, she only ate a few bites before putting down her chopsticks.

When it was time to rest at night, Teng Yue let her sleep on the inside.

Since his return visit to his wife’s family home, he had gone back to Ningxia, and the couple had not slept in the same bed for a long time.

Perhaps the bed at their old home was too large, but she lay on the inside, covered with a thick brocade quilt, half-curled up with her back to him, like a small animal exhausted after a fierce battle.

Teng Yue felt her cool body temperature and could not help but speak.

“Are you cold? Come into my arms; I will warm you up.”

But when he said this, she hesitated slightly. She did not come into his arms but only looked back at him.

“Thank you, General. But you’ve been delayed all day, and you must be tired too. You should rest early.”

Her voice was very soft, and she genuinely thanked him, but her small body did not move an inch. She did not lessen the distance between them, not letting him hold her in his arms.

She remained curled up against the inside of the bed.

Perhaps, for her, the security her husband could offer was less than a comfortable quilt.

He felt a void in his heart and a pang of regret for having been harsh with her that day.

He did not even know what had gotten into him at the time.

He had basically finished handing over his affairs in Ningxia and was preparing to return to Xi’an when he received a message from Shen Xiu via carrier pigeon, saying that her own uncle was going to take her to court.

He had no idea she had returned to Jinzhou, let alone that she was going to be taken to court. That very night, he left Ningxia, riding at breakneck speed. After several days of travel, he dismounted only to hear that she had gone alone to Madam Zheng’s private mansion.

When he burst into the mansion and saw her uncle, wielding a wooden peg aimed at her face, his heart skipped a beat.

Even when fighting the Tartars beyond the Great Wall, he had not felt this kind of fear and tremor in a long time.

He could not explain his turbulent emotions and could not help but say a few words to her…

Teng Yue regretted it, but words spoken were like water spilled; they could not be taken back.

Teng Yue did not disturb her further but got out of bed and found a charcoal brazier to light.

She noticed, “The brazier is too hot. If the general is not used to it, it’s fine not to light it.”

He was indeed not used to lighting charcoal in the room, but she would not let him hold her. She was so cold; when would she warm the blankets?

Teng Yue did not say that. He moved the charcoal brazier closer and asked her softly.

“Can’t sleep? What are you thinking about?”

She paused for a moment. “Nothing, almost asleep.”

She would not tell him.

Teng Yue was not surprised.

He could guess. He went back to bed and lay down closer to her.

“Do you still want to go back to your hometown and stay for a few days?”

After he said this, she turned her head away. In the dim light of the bed curtains, a faint, almost imperceptible glint shone in her eyes.

It seemed he had guessed correctly.

Sure enough, he heard her ask, “Is it alright?”

Teng Yue’s heart softened, like water pooling on the ground.

“Of course, you can go back whenever you want. But I have some things to do; would you like to go first?”

Deng Ruyun nodded.

The heat emanating from the charcoal brazier seeped into her face from the bedside, and the man beside her seemed to be lying rather close.

The warm breath slowly warmed her chilly body.

She planned to go back the next day.

And he, indeed, had other business to attend to when he rushed back to Jinzhou from Ningxia.

… …

The next day, Deng Ruyun, along with Aunt Juan and Xiuniang, went back first. Teng Yue sent some people to escort her all the way to the city gate before returning home.

He had barely returned when the prefect of Jinzhou visited him.

Teng Yue had anticipated this. Upon seeing the prefect, he had Tang Zuo serve tea and then cleaned the area around his study.

Seeing this, the prefect did not beat around the bush.

He said that the matter of Deng Yaocheng and his wife was easy to handle with solid evidence, but it was more difficult to deal with Teng Yue bringing Xue Dengguan, the second-generation scion of a local gentry family, to the yamen.

Firstly, Xue Dengguan had taken potent drugs and forced himself on Madam Zheng, Deng Ruyun’s aunt. Convicting him on this basis would be difficult. Secondly, a trial would inevitably damage Deng Ruyun’s reputation.

“But these were not the most important issues,” the prefect sighed repeatedly.

“I know this man is worse than a beast; he’s persecuted countless innocent families. But I’ve been an official in Jinzhou for six years, and it’s time for performance reviews. Last time, after three years, I was fined two thousand taels of silver by the Xue family for an economic case, and my review was changed from excellent to average. If I were to re-examine and convict Xue Dengguan this time, I’m afraid I would not even get an average review, and I’d lose my position.”

The prefect looked bitter.

He said he also wanted to be a good official, “but the Xue family has powerful connections. If it were just ordinary people, it would not matter, but they’ve even connected with the Chief Eunuch in the capital. What kind of person is that? Even high-ranking officials cannot do anything about him. Officials going to the capital do not even see the Emperor before they go to his mansion to pay their respects. I’m just a lowly fifth-rank prefect, and if I want to continue my official career, I simply cannot bring myself to truthfully punish that rogue surnamed Xue.”

As he spoke, he looked at Teng Yue with difficulty.

“General, you’re from Jinzhou, and I’ve heard about your family’s affairs. The person who suppressed your father back then has now ingratiated himself with that powerful eunuch. If you insist on convicting that Xue fellow, I’m afraid you will end up making a mess of things.”

The prefect, having said this much, almost laughed himself.

Having spent half his life studying Confucian classics, he’d become such a pathetic official. He dared not dream of a clean and honest government, but if it were not for that powerful eunuch who had the young Emperor completely under his thumb and wielded absolute power in court, perhaps his life would be a little better.

But now…

He simply stood up and bowed to Teng Yue.

“General Teng, what do you think…”

Teng Yue helped him up.

“I understand the prefect’s predicament. I will not make things difficult for you. Release the man.”

Upon hearing this, the prefect breathed a huge sigh of relief.

He repeatedly thanked Teng Yue, saying he would still take the opportunity to give the Xue family a warning, and reassured Teng Yue.

That same day, Xue Dengguan was released from the yamen, having paid a mere one hundred taels of silver as a ransom—a sum insignificant to the Xue family.

Xue Dengguan stepped over a brazier into his home, and the whole family helped him cleanse and ward off bad luck, explaining that tomorrow was an auspicious day, and they would hold a feast at noon, the midday sun dispelling all misfortune.

Xue Dengguan had never refused a drink, and that evening his family began preparations.

The next day, he changed into a bright red brocade robe, donned a gold-inlaid jade hair ornament, and raised his cup to celebrate.

“Who am I, Xue Dengguan? There’s nothing in this world I cannot handle; it’s just a matter of spending a little silver.”

However, his failure to obtain Deng Ruyun still lingered in his heart. But that Deng woman had actually married Teng Yue, who dared to offend even the Prince Enhua’s Mansion. No matter how itchy Xue Dengguan’s heart was, he could only fantasize about it in his mind.

His mind was racing with desire, and he’d drunk a lot of strong liquor, so he was starting to feel restless.

He turned and called to his men.

“Go and bring that old man’s granddaughter here. I’m going to have her this afternoon to quell this lust in my lower abdomen.”

His men were about to leave when Xue Dengguan, standing on the high platform, raised his wine cup again.

Just then, something whistled through the air.

With a whoosh, a sharp arrow shot down from the hillside outside the courtyard, soaring over the low wall and the crowd, piercing straight through Xue Dengguan’s neck.

The moment blood gushed from his throat, the entire scene in the wine-soaked, meat-filled hall fell silent.

The next instant, Xue Dengguan collapsed to the ground with a thud. A sudden, piercing scream erupted from the courtyard, rising and falling, lingering for a long time…

On a nearby hillside.

Teng Yue, seated on horseback, tossed his longbow to Shen Xiu, wiped his hands, and pulled on the reins, turning his horse around.

The Xue family’s panic and chaos, along with the stench of blood, were carried away by the howling mountain wind.

Silence reigned here, broken only by the man urging his horse onward to call Shen Xiu.

“Let’s go find Madam.”

*

The weather grew colder.

Deng Ruyun returned to her old home and checked on the two remaining old dogs. They were still holding on, but the old tree cut down in the courtyard would never return.

The other six pieces of household items that Madam Zheng had secretly hidden were also collected by the officials and returned to the Deng family.

But Deng Ruyun had no heart for tidying up. She told Aunt Juan, “I’m going to my parents’ graves to say a few words to them.”

Aunt Juan looked at her with pity. “Go ahead.”

The Deng family’s graves were on a small hilltop outside the town.

Deng Ruyun offered incense to her parents, brother, and sister-in-law, and kowtowed. But when she turned around, she saw someone else approaching.

It was her aunt, Deng Yuemei.

Thinking back, her aunt had tried to persuade both sides, not wanting her and her uncle to go to court and make everyone’s lives difficult, but in the end, it had come to this.

Seeing her approach, Deng Ruyun could not help but ask.

“Aunt, are you trying to persuade me to release my uncle again? But the court’s verdict has already been handed down,” she said. Deng Yaocheng and his wife were sentenced to exile to the border, “and they will probably be passing by our hometown today.”

But upon hearing this, her aunt shook her head.

“I did not come to advise you.”

Deng Ruyun looked over and saw her head slightly lowered. “I know they’ve bullied you all these years, but perhaps even I felt that girls were not good enough to support the family, so at most I only offered a few words of advice, never really helping you. You are who you are today thanks to yourself. How could I, as your aunt, have the face to advise you again?”

She lowered her head and placed the paper money she had brought into the fire, burned for Deng Ruyun’s father.

The flames swept the paper money and the words of those who had come into the world.

No one spoke on the mountaintop. After a long while, the paper money burned completely, and Deng Yuemei rose from her elder brother’s grave.

She glanced at Deng Ruyun gently, seeing that the little girl she had not favored nor helped seemed to have grown up long ago, no longer the niece who followed her around calling her “Auntie.”

She treated Linglang with the true respect of an aunt for her niece, not the way she herself had.

She whispered, “Everyone has their own fate. Their tragic end is their destiny. I will not say anything more.”

“But Yunniang,” she looked up at Deng Ruyun, “we may never see each other again, aunt and niece. Yunniang… you must live your life well.”

Tears streamed down her face.

Deng Ruyun saw that the creases between her brows had deepened, and her thin body could barely support her clothes. She lowered her head and turned away.

Deng Ruyun could no longer see her aunt, who had left in a grand wedding procession with sixty-four loads of dowry around the town.

She only whispered behind her.

“Thank you, Aunt. Take care, Aunt.”

She shook her head and nodded but ultimately did not look back, walking down the mountain towards her home.

On the road below the mountain, a couple was being escorted by officials.

The two, dressed in prison clothes, their hair filthy, staggered along, repeatedly urged on by the officials to head northwest.

In the desolate mountains, where the green leaves had all fallen, Deng Ruyun watched the departing figures, and in a daze, she suddenly thought of the old jujube tree at home that had been cut down.

That year, when her father used his hard-earned money to buy the neighbor’s house next door and merge it with the Deng family’s old house, he must have been overjoyed, right?

Her grandparents had passed away early, and he had raised her two younger siblings alone, living with them in a cramped mud-walled house for many years. Did he, too, swear under that tree that day that from then on, the Deng family would prosper, that he would build a large house for his brother, give his sister a lavish dowry, and that the whole family would live a life of glory?

Those years did bring glory.

When she was born, the family was well-off, and life was prosperous.

That jujube tree bore so many jujubes every year, but the ones at the top were out of reach. Yet she believed her brother’s lies and said that the ones at the top were the sweetest.

Her father was busy, and her brother was too young, so she sat by the door, eagerly waiting for her uncle to come home.

When her uncle came home, he would bring her delicious food and fun toys, and he would use the longest pole to knock down the sweetest jujube for her.

Her aunt would spread a large cloth bag under the tree to collect all the fallen jujubes, then pick out the crispest and sweetest ones and put them in a big purse, which she would hang on her back.

Back then, she would carry a big bag of sweet jujubes around, showing it off, asking everyone who passed by her house, “Do you want some sweet jujubes? My jujubes are so sweet! If you play with me, I will give you some!”

Passersby were incredibly fascinated by this little girl with her head tilted back, carrying a big bag of jujubes, but her uncle would simply pick her up and take her home.

“Who would like our little Yunniang? What if someone takes her away? Uncle and Aunt would be heartbroken!”

… …

The fierce mountain wind was so strong that it was hard to stand. Deng Ruyun knelt down and buried her head in front of her father’s grave.

“Father, you do not blame your daughter, do you?”

She buried her head deeply, as if wanting to bury her face in her father’s chest.

In this manner, she asked in a hoarse voice, and the biting mountain wind suddenly stopped.

In that instant, the chill of early winter’s wind was gone; she seemed to feel the gentleness of spring. A breeze blew from her father’s grave, softly caressing her face.

It was as if her father had not said anything, as if he had never blamed her in the slightest, only offering comforting solace, only a tender embrace.

Deng Ruyun could no longer hold back and threw herself before her parents’ tombstones.

“Father, Mother, your daughter misses you so much…”

She nestled between her parents’ gravestones, shrinking into a small ball in that narrow space, her delicate shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

Teng Yue stood under a pine tree not far away, silently watching the person before the graves.

A completely uncontrollable emotion surged from his limbs, carrying a sharp pain in his heart.

He wanted to hold her tightly in his arms, but at this moment, he dared not approach.

His steps faltered under the pine tree, listening to her trembling sobs, each note clearly reaching his ears.

After a long while, her voice softened, but she remained motionless against her parents’ graves.

He could not bear to disturb her.

As if remembering something, he whispered a question to Shen Xiu.

“Which side of Mother’s family is related to Madam? Have I not ever visited before?”

He did not remember them at all.

But when he asked, Shen Xiu hesitated slightly.

“Reporting to the General, I have not found any connection between the Deng family and the Old Madam. It seems… they are not distant relatives.”

Upon hearing this, Teng Yue was surprised.

“No? Then how did Mother find Yunniang?”

Shen Xiu quickly explained what he had found out over the past few days.

“…At that time, Madam was being pressured by Deng Yaocheng and the Xue family, and Aunt Juan had broken her leg. She felt she could not go on like this, so she went to Jinzhou herself and went to a matchmaker’s door, asking the matchmaker to arrange a marriage for her. She did not care what kind of marriage it was, as long as it could protect her family.”

Teng Yue was stunned. “She went to find a matchmaker herself to arrange a marriage?”

Shen Xiu said yes, “Initially, the matchmaker found her an old widower with one eye, a centurion in the garrison. Because his two previous wives had died, he wanted to remarry, and Madam had actually… agreed. But coincidentally, the old lady also found this matchmaker…”

When Shen Xiu said that she had actually agreed, Teng Yue felt a moment of panic; he felt as if he saw something almost slip through his fingers.

He paused, then frowned.

“Then why did Mother say she was a distant relative?”

Shen Xiu could not find out anything deeper. The old lady had come specifically to see the lady, but he could not find out the specifics of their conversation.

He could only guess, “If she were an unrelated girl, it would be too much of a slap in the face to the Prince Enhua’s Mansion. The old lady probably wanted to leave some room for maneuver for both sides, so she claimed that the lady was a girl from a distant relative’s family who had come to find her relatives.”

Saying these things out loud, of course, there was no problem. “Then why would Mother lie to me?”

“Perhaps the old lady was afraid that if she just found any girl to oppose the Prince Enhua’s Mansion, she might be afraid that the general would refuse, so she said she was a distant relative?”

“Is that so?” Teng Yue’s brows were still slightly furrowed.

However, at the time, he had not really considered using marriage to oppose the Prince Enhua’s Mansion. After all, which family was not afraid of being implicated and harming others?

He had indeed heard that she was a distant relative’s daughter, desperate for survival, and had come seeking refuge, so he agreed.

However, in the end, he still implicated her, nearly causing her death in the bandits’ den…

He walked forward step by step, slowly kneeling before Deng Ruyun’s parents’ graves, and kowtowed.

He was too late.

Deng Ruyun did not notice him behind her.

Teng Yue did not know how to approach her; a surge of emotions he had never felt before made him too timid to utter a sound, as if afraid to startle a dragonfly that had landed in his palm.

He simply watched her quietly, gazing at her intently.

But someone else witnessed this scene.

Aunt Juan watched Teng Yue, his gaze fixed on Yunniang without daring to disturb her, and she fell silent in astonishment.

Before, it was always her young Yunniang who quietly followed behind him, never daring to utter a word of “like,” just silently watching him from behind.

But now, times had changed, and the tables had turned?

Aunt Juan remained motionless, surprised.

She only looked at Yunniang, as if she knew nothing.