She didn’t seem like an especially fierce woman, fighting him with raw intensity. She had her ruthlessness, but also a measured control he couldn’t understand.
Like that silver hairpin – precisely placed two inches from his vital point.
“So this is the kind of person you are.”
He released Yang Wan’s throat and looked down at his chest.
Though not deep, the wound was bleeding.
“Don’t move.”
Yang Wan pulled out the hairpin. His blood ran down her arm, and she carelessly wiped it with her sleeve before turning to Yin’er who stood frozen behind the screen: “Bring medicine.”
She deliberately coughed several times to steady her breathing after Zhang Luo’s grip.
“I’m sorry. I know this is very unfair to you. I also know that because of me alone, both you and the Zhang family have endured unnecessary shame. So…”
She dropped the hairpin and knelt before Zhang Luo, her skirts pooling around her: “I apologize and beg forgiveness from Lord Zhang, and ask that you spare my brother.”
Zhang Luo looked at his blood dripping on the floor, then at Yang Wan.
She was wrapped in light lotus-colored silk, her delicate white fingers pressed against the cold floor, looking almost pitiful.
It was hard to imagine these hands had just stabbed him with a hairpin.
Zhang Luo ground the hairpin under his foot, the sharp metallic scraping making Yang Wan involuntarily clench her teeth.
Suddenly Zhang Luo kicked the pin away, lifted his robes to crouch down, and seized Yang Wan’s chin, forcing her to look up.
“For such a fierce woman, why commit such improper acts? If you had no interest in me, you could have said so directly. I am not shameless enough to force you to be my wife.”
Yang Wan raised her head. “By speaking thus, my lord has already condemned me?”
Zhang Luo was unsettled by the look in her eyes, but she refused to look away.
“If our Yang family refuses to break the engagement and insists on marrying into your Zhang family, what then?”
“I cannot allow someone who has shamed me to live by my side.”
Yang Wan smiled slightly after hearing this. “If I don’t marry into the Zhang family, what must I do to dispel your hatred?”
Zhang Luo said nothing, but his grip grew stronger. Yang Wan winced in pain, her eyes involuntarily reddening.
“So… you want me to take my own life, is that it?”
Though tears welled in her eyes, there was a smile in their depths. “Don’t you find it laughable? You are the Commander of the Northern Disciplinary Court, overseer of the imperial prison. Officials throughout the capital fear you. Does such a person’s reputation need to be maintained by the life of a mere woman? Are your achievements at court and reputation abroad all false?”
“Impudent!”
“I have done nothing improper with Deng Ying.”
She met Zhang Luo’s gaze. “My brother is also blameless. The guilty ones are those who use my chastity to seemingly stand up for you and sympathize when they just want to watch drama between our two houses. Lord Zhang, you are indeed a powerful figure in the capital, but you’ve never been married. They know you cannot be as decisive in this matter as you are in prison, so they deliberately look down on you and mock you. Yang Wan understands that speaking to you this way is impudent. But to take my brother away for questioning or force me to suicide over mere rumors – these are not actions worthy of someone like you.”
Zhang Luo’s fingers cracked as he gripped Yang Wan.
“Did Yang Lun teach you to say this?”
Yang Wan was forced to tilt her head back. “Why would you think that? Can’t you tell these are words I had no choice but to say?”
Zhang Luo grabbed her chin and yanked her up, then threw her aside.
Yang Wan’s waist hit the sharp corner of a huanghuali wood table. The pain was too intense to bear, and she couldn’t help but crouch down, clutching her waist.
Zhang Luo looked down at Yang Wan contemptuously.
“Whore.”
Though separated by centuries of civilization, vicious words share commonalities.
Yang Wan understood the implicit threat of violation in his tone.
“What did you say?”
Zhang Luo said coldly: “My not taking Yang Lun away today does not mean I can tolerate you living with that criminal from the Imperial Household Department. I walk within and without the court with clear eyes. As long as you remain in the capital, your lives are under my blade at any moment.”
He pressed down on his sword hilt and turned to stride out of the main hall.
As he descended the steps, he brushed past a servant bringing medicine. The servant dropped the tray, shattering the medicine bottle. The grayish powder scattered like paper ash across the ground.
Yang Wan sat on the floor, trying desperately to force the word “whore” out of her mind.
But it only grew louder.
Yin’er came to help her up and settle her in an armchair.
“Miss, where are you hurt? Why are you so pale?”
Yang Wan coughed harshly several times. “That garbage person just called me a whore!”
“Shh… how can you still speak of it…”
Yang Wan was so angry her head hurt. She had spoken too much earlier, and now her throat was irritated, making her cough worse and worse.
Seeing her press her neck again, Yin’er hurriedly asked: “Should we tell the madam to have Doctor Liu come to examine you again? When I saw Lord Zhang grab your throat earlier, I was terrified to death.”
Yang Wan waved her hand. “It’s fine, he didn’t use much force. I’m just thirsty… I want to… go get some water.”
She moved to pour herself water from the kettle.