Perfect Match – CH 065

Chapter 65

The promotion order arrived at the Teng Mansion first, but Teng Yue did not return until the following day.

Kong Hui had originally told him to come to his quarters after returning from the garrison, saying that his uncle Huang Xiqing had sent a staff member home from the capital on business, and he should meet with them while he was there to relay any messages back to the capital.

But his staff was delayed on the road and had not reached the city yet, so Teng Yue did not stay to wait any longer. He said,

“I have not been home for more than half a month; I will go home first.”

“Hey, hey, the person will be here in half a day; can you not wait half a day to go home?” Kong Hui tried to stop him.

But he said, “You can call me when the person arrives.”

Kong Hui could not do anything about it, knowing he was eager to go home, so he did not stop him any further.

But the promotion order had been issued, the transfer order had been sent out, and he would be returning to Ningxia to guard the border in the next few days, so going home would not be so easy.

What would he do then?

Kong Hui worried about him while Teng Yue rode home.

He arrived at his doorstep. The gatekeeper, seeing him arrive, bowed and congratulated him. Teng Yue smiled and waved his hand, ordering money as a reward. Then he asked, “Is Madam home?”

The gatekeeper repeatedly replied that she was. He did not care about anything else and hurried towards Liumingxuan, but before he reached the gate, he met his wife on the way.

Deng Ruyun had just returned from Chengfeng Garden.

Although the matters concerning Shen Run and the Huang family’s coming-of-age ceremony were settled, Old Madam Lin and Teng Xiao remained cold towards each other.

That day, Teng Xiao returned and went to Canglang Pavilion to pay her respects, but Old Madam Lin did not see her daughter. Later, Teng Xiao’s wet nurse persuaded her to go again, but Old Madam Lin still did not open the door.

Thus, further persuasion from others was useless. Teng Xiao stopped going and remained secluded in Chengfeng Garden.

Old Madam Lin, on the other hand, either stayed closed up in Canglang Pavilion or sat silently alone in the small ancestral hall all day.

The mother and daughter fell into a complete stalemate.

Teng Xiao was not feeling well today, and Deng Ruyun had visited her. She was not seriously ill, but her relationship with her mother was like ice thickening in the dead of winter, making her increasingly depressed and ill.

Upon seeing Deng Ruyun, she hugged her tightly, burying her head in her arms and asking, “Sister-in-law, can I go to the east of the city too? To live with your great-grandmother and Linglang?”

Given her condition, Deng Ruyun could not tell her that her entire family, including herself as her “sister-in-law,” would soon be leaving.

She could only comfort her for a while and only returned to Liumingxuan after she felt better. However, she had only gone halfway when she heard joyful sounds coming from the outer courtyard.

She paused briefly, glancing at the path leading to the outer courtyard, and saw someone step in first from behind the hanging flower gate.

He was covered in dust, but the moment he saw her, his eyes lit up with joy, like the rising sun leaping from behind the mountains, shining brightly. “Yunniang? You were waiting for me here?”

He was almost in front of her in a single step.

Deng Ruyun had not expected him to appear like this, but he suddenly scooped her up in his arms.

The servants who had been following him, offering auspicious greetings, were crowding towards the door when they saw the Second Master and Madam in this state. They all gasped in surprise. Those in front dared not go any further and blocked the door, but those behind, unaware of this, continued to push their way in. Chaos erupted, and in the confusion, people tumbled and fell to the ground.

Now that they had all seen the Second Master and Madam’s situation, their faces flushed crimson, disappearing like scattered raindrops from a lotus leaf.

Deng Ruyun was suddenly lifted by him. He held her by the knees, hoisting her high into the air. Deng Ruyun struggled, saying it was inappropriate, but he would not let go.

He looked up at her, gazing at her intently, as if his eyes could only hold her.

“I’ve been promoted to Guerrilla General.”

He told her this joyous news personally.

Deng Ruyun already knew, but her heart skipped a beat when he told her.

From a lowly squad leader to a Baihu Commander in charge of a hundred-household unit, and now, a general commanding three thousand soldiers on the frontier.

He had traversed this long road through his own merits.

He would surely achieve even greater things in the future…

Deng Ruyun could not help but smile faintly.

“Congratulations, General.”

He smiled.

“My wife shares my joy!”

He put her down after speaking.

He took her hand and led her to Liumingxuan. “What have you been doing these past two weeks? Is Yuyun Hall busy? Did you need anyone’s help?”

Only then did Teng Yue realize he had just seen his wife again; why bring up unrelated people? He did not want her to think of anyone else.

He quickly changed his tune. “The medicine I brought for you from Ningxia, did you see it?”

He glanced at his wife, wanting to see her reaction.

For some reason, she seemed a little downcast. She said she had seen the medicinal herbs.

“General, why did you buy two caravans? That’s far too much. I told Shopkeeper Qin…”

Before she could finish, Teng Yue interrupted her.

“You dare?”

He glared at her. “We are husband and wife. How dare you mention money to me again?”

Deng Ruyun looked at him. She did not say anything more for a moment, but he gave a soft snort, expressing his displeasure, and stepped into Liumingxuan.

Liumingxuan seemed to be the same as before he left home, but there was an inexplicable sense of desolation about it.

Without much thought, he went into the room to change into clean clothes, but when he opened the door, he found the room empty.

Most of the clutter on the tables and cabinets was gone, leaving the space clean and spacious. The once-full bookshelves now held only a few scattered military books.

Teng Yue looked around the room in surprise, and for some reason, his heart skipped a beat.

He had been transferred back to Ningxia, and he had come home today to discuss taking her with him. However, her family and the newly opened Yuyun Hall were still in Xi’an. Teng Yue knew that most of her thoughts were with them, and he was not sure if he could take her with him.

But before he could speak, he saw that everything in the room had been packed away.

For a moment, he wondered if she also wanted to come with him.

Inexplicably, a deep unease crept into his heart as he thought of her slightly downcast mood and the inexplicable loneliness in Liumingxuan.

He saw her follow him into the room.

Her gaze also swept over the tidy, almost empty room.

Teng Yue asked in a low voice.

“Why did Yunniang pack up everything in the room?”

The sunlight, obscured by clouds, could not penetrate the room through the thin gauze window, making it slightly dark and further emphasizing its emptiness and desolation.

But to be precise, Deng Ruyun had only packed up her own belongings; Teng Yue’s things remained untouched.

He asked, but Deng Ruyun did not look at him or walk towards him. She took a few steps to the side, creating some distance between them, and answered his question with a sideways turn.

“The General is going back to Ningxia, is he not?”

“Yes.” The man looked down at her. “Would you like to come with me?”

He asked, and Deng Ruyun smiled faintly.

She lowered her head, her eyes half-closed.

The room, where sunlight could not fully penetrate, was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

In this silence, Deng Ruyun slowly began to speak.

“General, your promotion to Ningxia Guerrilla General is truly delightful. Your future is bright, and you will surely achieve even greater feats. Becoming a marquis or general is within your grasp. However…”

“However, I come from humble beginnings, merely a medicine merchant; my mind is only focused on making money. I am unworthy to be the General’s wife, much less deserving of your favor.”

As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily drifted to the hem of his robe.

She saw him stand stiffly, his robe completely still.

But before she could finish, she opened her mouth, forcing words from her throat.

“For the past year, I have been deeply grateful for the help and care from the Teng family and the General, but from now on…”

She could not continue. She took a letter from the shelf, not daring to place it before him, but gently placing it on the corner of the table beside her.

The letter bore three words—”General, let’s divorce.” In the dimly lit room, Teng Yue felt as if he were being scorched by the sweltering summer sun, the very thing he hated most.

The hot, sticky heat made him feel utterly uncomfortable. He stared at her, his lips barely moving before he uttered the harshest, most cutting words.

She had placed the letter—which should not have existed—on the table.

He stepped forward and pressed it down on the letter.

He did not look at it; he did not want to see a single word. He just pressed the letter down hard, as if he wanted to crush it along with the corner of the table.

He just stared at her, his suppressed aura enveloping her completely, but when he spoke, every word trembled with surprise and doubt, a plea hidden within the tremor.

“Do you know what you are saying?”

Deng Ruyun knew; she knew everything from beginning to end.

The only one who did not know was he…

On the corner of the table, his hand nearly crushed the letter against the corner, but the corner resisted fiercely, digging into his palm.

In the struggle, the veins on his hand bulged.

But all Deng Ruyun could do was repeat herself.

“General, I say, let’s part ways here.”

Part ways here.

From now on, we would never meet again, and there would be no more longing to send our thoughts to Mount Wu.

*

In the Teng Family Ancestral Hall.

Old Madam Lin had already heard the news of Teng Yue’s return.

She knelt before her husband’s prayer mat, watching the incense in the burner burn to its end, and personally added three more sticks.

“Teng Yue is back today. Yunniang wants to bring up divorce with him.”

She thought of Deng Ruyun’s face.

Thinking of her struggling to support her entire family alone, thinking of how much she had helped the Teng family since coming to them, far exceeding the money she had given; thinking of how she might already have feelings for Teng Yue, but because of the contract, she was told to leave, without uttering a single extra word…

“That child, such a good child. I wonder what kind of mother could raise such a good child…”

Old Madam Lin spoke, her throat tight.

It’s a pity, a pity about her humble origins; in this world and its prevailing customs, she was truly not a good match for Teng Yue.

Old Madam Lin said she had not been a good mother, her head bowed before her husband’s memorial tablet.

“I’ve raised my own daughter to hate me so much that she even wanted to shoot me with her crossbow. But I can not delay Yu Chuan any longer. He can rise to the rank of guerrilla general through military merit, but to go further, he either needs to achieve extraordinary feats or have someone act as a go-between.”

Three incense sticks burned steadily, their thin, long wisps of smoke swirling around the incense burner before the memorial tablet.

She said, “After you left, the world became even worse; a quagmire everywhere, every step is as difficult as climbing to heaven. Shi Zeyou climbed up to the Chief Eunuch, and that Chief Eunuch is the true master of this land. He’s in his prime, and who knows how many more years he will be in power. I can only… I can only let Yu Chuan marry the young lady of the Zhang family of the Yongchang Marquis’s Mansion.”

“As his mother, this is all I can do for him.”

But as Old Madam Lin spoke, her face turned ashen. “But that county princess had taken a liking to him, so I found him a temporary wife to cover for him.”

Thinking of this, she felt a splitting headache. She gritted her teeth, enduring the intense pain, and repeatedly called out her husband’s name.

“If you are watching from heaven, can you guide our son? Make him agree to the divorce after hearing Yunniang’s explanation today!”

“Stop nagging, stop causing trouble. Just agree to the divorce, let Yunniang go, so he can settle things with the Zhang family as soon as possible. Once the mourning period for Fourth Young Lady Zhang is over, he can properly marry a noblewoman.”

“Only that noblewoman related to the Chief Eunuch can help him pave his way in the future!”

She called her husband’s name again.

“You must, you must make him agree to the divorce with Yunniang…”

But before she could finish speaking, the middle stick of the three incense sticks she had lit for her husband suddenly flickered with flame.

Old Madam Lin stared blankly, wondering what the flickering flame in the incense burner before her husband’s memorial tablet meant.

Just then, Qingxuan’s footsteps sounded outside the ancestral hall. Qingxuan called her softly through the window.

“Madam, there seems to be a commotion at Liumingxuan…”

“Who…who’s making a fuss?”

“It seems…only Second Master…”

As soon as she finished speaking, a sharp pain shot through Old Madam Lin’s head again.

She forced a glance at her husband’s memorial tablet.

Would she actually convince Teng Yue to accept the divorce?

*

At Liumingxuan.

Teng Yue did not break the table where the divorce papers were placed, but instead smashed the entire table to the ground.

The vases, tableware, and teacups on the table crashed down with a loud bang, shattering two slabs and shaking the door open.

The commotion alerted everyone in Liumingxuan.

The servants rushed over. Some, reaching the doorway, were astonished to see the overturned table and shattered porcelain scattered on the floor.

“Second Master, Madam, what happened?”

“Should we go in and clean up?”

A large group gathered at the doorway, but only a furious voice came from inside.

“Get out! All of you! Do not let anyone in!”

His roar, as loud as the crashing table, jolted everyone away.

Only Deng Ruyun, seeing his pale face, felt a pang of pain in her heart. She did not know what to do and could only look at his utter confusion and rage, managing a hoarse whisper.

“Calm down…”

“Calm down?” Teng Yue grabbed her wrist.

“Teach me how to calm down?!”

The courtyard fell completely silent at his outburst, but outside Liumingxuan, footsteps seemed to be constantly moving.

The entire Teng family was thrown into turmoil by his fury.

Deng Ruyun was at a loss for how to calm him down.

She remained silent for a moment, but he suddenly lowered his voice.

He leaned down slightly, took her hand, and asked her anxiously.

“Yunniang, tell me the truth. Has something happened? Has something happened while I was away?”

He asked urgently.

“Did Aunt Yang from the Yang family…?”

He thought it impossible. After what happened to her eldest cousin, Aunt Yang was grateful to her; how could she possibly humiliate her like before?

He saw her shake her head.

But if it was not Aunt Yang, then who was it? Who could have made Yunniang make such a decision?

He suddenly thought of someone.

“Was it Mother?! Did Mother say something?”

His mother lived in constant tension and panic.

But when he asked, Deng Ruyun shook her head again.

“General, no one has spoken ill of me; no one has bullied me.”

She did not want him to speculate, so she told him what she had thought about a hundred times.

“General, you are very kind, and the Teng family is very kind, but do you not know? My background is too low; I do not fit in here, and I feel completely out of place at banquets for women.”

“Then do not go. You do not need to attend any banquets, not anyone’s!” He hurriedly pulled her close, as if afraid she would slip away from his grasp.

Deng Ruyun felt a mix of emotions; she simply shook her head.

“No, General, my background might protect you from immediate trouble, but I can not help you much more.”

She slowly told him, “For myself, this kind of life is meaningless. I came from the wild herbs of the countryside, and I will return to the wild herbs of the countryside.”

As she spoke, she tried to pull her hand away from his.

He would not let her. She looked at him, and only then did he release her.

Teng Yue saw her take something out of her bosom—a clay figurine he had made for her at the market last year.

The clay figurine was still bright and lifelike; she liked it very much and often played with it in her hands.

Today, she held it carefully again, showing it to him.

She pointed to the clay figure, her finger gently touching the girl dressed in simple clothes, then to the large basket on her back.

“General, look. She’s always been dressed in simple clothes, carrying herbs she’s gathered from the mountains. She’s just a girl who gathers herbs and makes medicine; she does not belong here. She should go back to where she belongs.”

She was just that simple country girl gathering herbs.

She tried to speak to him calmly, hoping he would calm down as she did.

But bitter, salty tears streamed down her face, falling into her mouth, tasting bitter and salty on her tongue, and finally down her throat.

Though she wept, she held the clay figure he had given her, trying to smile and explain to him.

“General, we are not a good match. If it were not for the coercion of the Prince of Enhua’s Mansion and Xue Dengguan, we would never have been together. Now that those things are over, this marriage should end. We should both return to our own paths and live the lives we were meant to live.”

She knelt down and picked up the divorce papers he had pressed so tightly they were crumpled.

This time, she did not place them in front of him.

She took his hand and placed the divorce papers she had already written into his palm.

“Let’s get a divorce.”

A clean break, a peaceful parting.

He did not move or speak. Seeing that he had not thrown away the divorce papers she had given him, Deng Ruyun guessed that he had finally calmed down.

Calmed down, he could accept the divorce, right?

She turned away, wanting to leave him some quiet time to let him calm down further and think carefully about his future.

But she had only taken two steps before she even reached the door, when he suddenly turned back and spoke to her.

He spoke slowly and deliberately.

“Deng Ruyun, I do not believe a single word of your excuse.”

With those words, he tore the divorce papers to shreds, his veins bulging as he crumpled the pieces into a ball and tossed them into the courtyard.

A strong wind had suddenly swept through the courtyard, instantly blowing the crumpled paper away.

Deng Ruyun stood frozen at the door while he walked towards her, watching her intently.

“You do not like those snobbish people in Xi’an Prefecture? We can go to Ningxia, establish our own mansion there, and never associate with these people again.”

He had mentioned this to her before.

Back then, he had said that the winds in Ningxia were strong, the sand fierce, and the land vast and open; they could go there and no longer stay in Xi’an Prefecture.

Deng Ruyun had previously deflected his question with a joke, but now she could only say this:

“A general can not be without connections, and neither can I. What’s the use of hiding at the ends of the earth?”

She ruthlessly rejected his words, and Teng Yue stared intently at her as he continued:

“Then do not hide. Not everyone in this world is a snob. You’ve seen it all, have you not? Yang’s eldest cousin is not, Shen Yanxing is not, and Kong Hui and Wang Fuxiang are not either. Although they all come from higher social classes than you, they’ve all experienced ups and downs these past years; who cares about background anymore?”

He said Wang Fuxiang’s wife was the most charitable: “She’s the most popular woman among the women in Ningxia. She’s willing to get to know all sorts of people, often inviting a large group of people she does not even recognize herself to her home, introducing them to each other. Ningxia is such a desolate place… Even in remote places, she can host banquets twice a month. If you befriend her, how could Yunniang not make true friends?”

He said that Kong Hui’s fiancée, his cousin, was also the type not to care about one’s background. “She was originally engaged to a minor scholar, but he went to the capital, passed the imperial examination, and was favored by high-ranking officials. He broke off the engagement with her with a single letter. She’s getting older, and finding a husband is not easy, but she’s not in a hurry. She apprenticed herself to a female Taoist priest, loves fortune telling, and sometimes secretly sets up a stall at the market…”

Teng Yue walked over step by step, repeating each sentence, “Do you think people like them would care about your background? And there are more than just one or two people like them?”

He asked her, “Yunniang, with just a few words, you’ve condemned all these people, and… me, in one fell swoop?”

Deng Ruyun was rendered speechless by his arguments.

No matter what he said today, no matter how reasonable it seemed, she still had to divorce him.

Deng Ruyun took a deep breath.

“The general is right, but rather than expending effort to find these good people in the world and adapt to my new status, it’s simpler and more comfortable for me to return to my original position.”

As soon as she said this, the wind in the courtyard slammed the door shut.

With a creak and a bang, Teng Yue looked at her incredulously.

“What do you mean by that? With our friendship, you are not even willing to put in a little extra effort to stay for me; is that it?”

She just felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave. What did this mean? Was it…?

He looked at her and saw a faint smile on her usually cold face. She did not meet his gaze, only saying…

“Perhaps it’s because, from beginning to end, I never really liked the General that much?”

This sentence seemed to extinguish all the light in the room, leaving only darkness and the sound of the howling wind in the courtyard, causing a tightening in her heart.

Teng Yue pressed her against the wooden frame behind him.

The frame pressed painfully against Deng Ruyun’s back. She looked up and saw that his face was almost ashen.

He gritted his teeth, pressing his face against hers.

“What’s the difference between saying such things and stabbing me in the heart with a dagger?” he asked.

He asked her, “How can you say such ‘sweet’ things?”

His anger was threatening to burst forth again, and she could feel it every time it surged.

Deng Ruyun’s back ached from the pressure; her shoulder felt like it was about to break under his grip. She clenched her hands tightly under her sleeves, but then said…

This time, she looked into his eyes.

“It’s not that I am being harsh; it’s just that the truth is inherently harsh. The General should have realized it long ago, right? My feelings for you have never been the same as your feelings for me…”

“Say that again?!”

Teng Yue felt as if she were holding a sharp dagger aimed at his heart, the hilt twisting relentlessly.

He could not understand how she could say such things.

But she did not stop. “…If I did not like you that much to begin with, why would I force myself to live like this…”

Every word she spoke was like a sharp dagger stabbing at him.

Teng Yue could not bear to hear another word. He lowered his head and bit her lip hard.

He gripped her arms tightly, binding them behind her back like a prisoner, pinning them firmly to her waist.

And he forcefully pressed her towards him.

He was like a ferocious leopard, plunging down from the mountaintop and biting her, refusing to let go.

He bit her lip viciously, his sharpest teeth piercing her skin. She cried out in pain until the blood seeped between their intertwined jaws.

The man spoke again, his voice filled with hatred.

“Deng Ruyun, I’ve said it before, I do not believe a single word you said!”

Deng Ruyun’s heart tightened, and she involuntarily looked up at him.

Just then, a voice announced from outside.

“Second Master, Madam…the Old Madam has arrived.”