Chapter 064: Not To Be Repeated

Xie Wei felt helpless and a bit regretful, his voice tinged with a hint of resignation. He had been angry before, but after calming down for a couple of days, he remembered the earnest requests and trust placed in him by Jiang Boyou and Yan Lin. He had promised them, and it seemed excessive to scold a young girl so harshly over a minor issue, especially since it was his own rashness that caused the problem.

He realized that some girls with a bit of a temper needed to be coaxed gently rather than scolded harshly.

Xie Wei observed her expression. She looked up at him in surprise, as if she couldn’t believe such words came from him, but quickly masked her emotions and lowered her head, saying, “Sir, you overestimate me. I wouldn’t dare be angry with you.”

Jiang Xuening originally didn’t want to interact with Xie Wei. Her impression of him from her previous life was terrible, and the unexpected interactions in this life were beyond her control. Rationally, she knew it was best to stay as far away from him as possible.

Last night, she thought about it. Even though Xie Wei had thrown away the “Admonitions for Women” and was different from other teachers, she wanted to explain that she wasn’t ignoring Zhang Zhong’s lectures without reason. But after calming down, she realized that the misunderstanding might not be a bad thing. It would keep Xie Wei from constantly watching over her.

She decided to endure the frustration.

So, she maintained a distant attitude, picked up her zither from the table near Xie Wei, and prepared to leave.

The young girl’s figure was slender and graceful, her light purple dress swaying gently with her steps, exuding a natural elegance that was a far cry from her appearance when she first arrived in the capital.

Xie Wei shouldn’t have remembered, but her posture as she picked up the zither strangely overlapped with an unforgettable scene from his memory.

In the deep mountains, under the bright moon, surrounded by wild grass.

The dark, eerie shadows of the trees were accompanied by the distant cries of mountain spirits. The smell of decaying leaves mixed with the scent of the surrounding vegetation.

He was burning with fever, delirious from illness.

Leaning against a few rocks, he was almost about to fall asleep.

But then, he heard the sound of footsteps, slow and unsteady, accompanied by a hoarse voice filled with excitement and relief: “A village! There’s a village just over the next two mountains! I saw smoke from the chimneys!”

Xie Wei didn’t really want to open his eyes.

But the footsteps came closer, and the voice came closer, someone shaking him vigorously: “We’ll be out soon, wake up, wake up, don’t fall asleep!”

Xie Wei found her noisy.

However, when the little girl saw he wasn’t waking up, she became frightened, choking back sobs, her voice trembling with fear: “Don’t fall asleep, Wanniang said you won’t wake up if you do. What will I do if you die? I’m so scared of dead people…”

Xie Wei thought she might be worried about him, but it turned out she was afraid of being scared by his death.

At that time, he thought, she wasn’t afraid of bandits, wasn’t afraid of wandering in the wilderness with the cries of mountain spirits at night, wasn’t afraid of being trapped in a dangerous situation, but she was afraid of a mere dead person?

Dead people are the best people in the world.

They don’t hide knives behind their smiles, nor do they plot and scheme.

But hearing her genuine, increasingly desperate cries, he finally slowly opened his eyes. The taste of blood he’d swallowed earlier surged up his burning throat, making it hard to speak.

The little girl’s eyes were wide open, still wet with tears.

Seeing he wasn’t dead, she was stunned for a moment before she became happy: “It’s good you’re not dead, not dead means you’re not scary.”

At that time, although he wasn’t prominent, he was a young scholar who had gained fame and was working for the court; secretly, he had many plans in Jinling, supported by the Tianjiao sect.

In her eyes, his greatest value was simply not being dead…

Xie Wei couldn’t help but cough.

Jiang Xuening glanced at the wilderness and said, “I can’t find any food, and I can’t take care of your injuries and illness. There are traps set by hunters on the mountain, and there must be hunters in the village. Where there are hunters, there are people who can treat injuries and illnesses. We’ll leave now, and we’ll reach the village by dawn.”

She came forward to support him.

The shoulders of the fifteen-year-old girl were thin and frail. Xie Wei felt that if he leaned on her carelessly, he might crush her.

The zither was placed on the other side of the rock.

He staggered to his feet, glanced at it, and despite the pain in his throat, pointed and said hoarsely, “The zither…”

The girl looked at him angrily: “It’s already hard enough to save you, I can’t carry the zither!”

Xie Wei didn’t listen and bent down to pick up the zither.

The girl finally seemed to lose her temper. She stepped forward, grabbed the zither, took a few steps back, and with her lips tightly pressed, as if releasing all her pent-up frustration, she turned around and smashed the zither against the rock without hesitation!

“Zheng—”

The sound of the strings breaking and the zither shattering echoed instantly!

A good zither was smashed to pieces on the rock.

He could hardly believe what she had done.

The girl looked back at him sternly and said, “People are about to die, and you’re still thinking about useless things. People like you don’t deserve to live!”

The frost moon that night was bright, shining on her like a layer of snow.

Xie Wei had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, struggling to survive for over twenty years, but it was the first time someone had smashed his zither and told him he didn’t deserve to live.

It was truly an unprecedented event.

Later, they did reach the village and fortunately encountered the people sent by Jiang Boyou to find them, finally escaping danger.

However, the power struggle in the capital was intensifying, with tensions high both in the court and among the people. Xie Wei was so busy with his secret activities that he barely had time to rest, spending more than half a year in this pursuit of power and wealth.

When Shen Lang finally ascended the throne and the situation stabilized, Xie Wei had some leisure time.

One day, he visited the Jiang residence.

As he passed through the corridor, he saw the girl, now dressed in fine clothes, kicking a slightly younger maid under the flower stand. Her expression was cunning and harsh, even showing a bit of obsessive malice…

It was truly unfamiliar.

Xie Wei couldn’t help but recall the events of their secret journey to the capital, but the more he thought about it, the more distant it seemed, like a dream, making him doubt if those events had really happened.

He had mentioned it to Jiang Boyou a few times, but Jiang Boyou felt guilty for the hardships his legitimate daughter had endured while living outside, and was reluctant to discipline her strictly.

Not to mention, she later got involved with Yan Lin.

Young people, full of vigor and lacking restraint, didn’t understand the principle of moderation, indulging her in her mischief and arrogance. The prosperity of the capital ultimately harmed her, gradually erasing the traces of her former self.

Xie Wei rarely thought about those events anymore.

Only occasionally, they would surface unintentionally.

But they didn’t evoke deep feelings.

The girl from that time and the girl she became were clearly two different people.

He thought, whether it was Jiang Boyou’s entrustment or Yan Lin’s request, he could have refused.

But why did he agree?

Maybe he wanted to teach her. Sometimes people stray from the right path, but if someone can show them what is good and how to be good, they might return to the right path and regain their true self.

However, after this period of interaction, seeing and hearing for himself, Xie Wei felt that the girl’s kindness was still there. Although her temperament was still somewhat bad and irritable, she was much better than she had been in previous years.

It was somewhat confusing.

He didn’t know if it was as Jiang Boyou said, all thanks to Yan Lin’s teaching, or if she had grown up and become more sensible. But overall, she wasn’t as bad as he had thought.

The handkerchief soaked with water felt cool under his fingertips.

Xie Wei withdrew his hand, watching her turn to leave, and softened, saying, “Alright, it was my fault for misunderstanding you without asking for the reason first. You have every right to be angry with me.”

Was this an apology?

Jiang Xuening was utterly stunned, her eyes widening slightly as she looked back at him.

Xie Wei smiled at her, his eyes dark but with a hint of distant stars: “Moreover, I owe you.”

“I owe you.”

These words were spoken lightly, but they carried a heavy weight.

Jiang Xuening felt a heavy pressure in her heart from his words, recalling one incident after another from her past life. It felt both absurd and melancholic: You owe me more than just this, Xie Wei.

She wanted to leave immediately.

But at that moment, her feet seemed rooted to the ground, making it difficult to move: This Xie Wei in front of her was completely overturning her understanding of him…

He was a devil in a saint’s guise, a demon from the underworld here to collect debts.

Even though everyone said he was gentle and kind, a gentleman with a noble demeanor, she didn’t believe a word of it.

But now he was looking at her warmly, admitting his mistake.

Was she crazy, or was the world crazy?

Or—

Had she never truly known the real Xie Wei?

Xie Wei, thinking he had convinced her, stood up and walked over, taking his zither down from the wall and explaining to her: “I didn’t know about what Zhang Zhong, the chief compiler of the National History Museum, did at first, so I assumed you were unruly and unmotivated. It wasn’t until I saw that book yesterday that I realized he had acted on his own. I know you don’t like him, and I know he’s hypocritical, so he won’t be teaching at the Fengchen Hall anymore.”

Jiang Xuening instinctively asked, “He’s not teaching anymore?”

Xie Wei lowered his eyes and said calmly, “Zhang Zhong is getting old and can no longer handle the task of compiling history. Asking him to continue teaching the princess is really too much for him.”

His words were so subtle and euphemistic that if Jiang Xuening were still an ignorant girl, she might have thought Zhang Zhong was simply tired of teaching them. But just the other day, Zhang Zhong had angrily scolded her.

Xie Wei had thrown away his book yesterday, and now he was casually saying that Zhang Zhong wouldn’t be coming anymore. It was clear that Zhang Zhong had offended him and hadn’t come out well!

But…

She was actually a bit happy?

If that old man wasn’t teaching them, it would be wonderful!

Jiang Xuening bit her lip, feeling that she had already decided to distance herself from Xie Wei, but she couldn’t help the slight curve of her lips.

Xie Wei looked at her patiently: “I’ve admitted my mistake, Zhang Zhong won’t be coming anymore, and I wrongly accused you. You also brought a cat to scare me, so we’re even now, right? You should be appeased.”

It sounded reasonable…

But Jiang Xuening felt like he was talking to a child, and she frowned, wanting to save face: “I wasn’t angry.”

Xie Wei saw through her stubbornness but knew that young girls cared about their dignity. He raised his elegant eyebrows and didn’t expose her, thinking that the conflict had been resolved, and relaxed a bit.

He added, “But what I said at the time wasn’t a joke. Don’t mess around in front of me…”

As he spoke, he turned to pour himself half a cup of tea from the pot on the table.

He was probably referring to the fact that he didn’t fear cats but loathed and even hated that incident.

Jiang Xuening still found it strange.

Her eyes flashed slightly.

At that moment, Xie Wei had just taken a sip of tea and was about to suggest returning to the main hall of Fengchen Hall with his zither. Unexpectedly, a sound came from behind—

“Meow.”

A shiver and a chill instantly crawled up his spine!

His hand shook, and the teacup almost slipped from his fingers, spilling tea onto the desk. Xie Wei’s scalp tingled as he turned around abruptly.

But the side hall was clean, with no sign of a cat.

Only Jiang Xuening stood behind him, looking at him thoughtfully. Then she slowly curled her lips, as if she had discovered something interesting, and raised her hand, mimicking a cat’s paw, and tilted her head, saying with interest, “Yes, Master Xie isn’t afraid of cats. But sometimes, hatred and fear are hard to distinguish, aren’t they?”

Xie Wei’s face turned cold.

But before he could react, Jiang Xuening lowered her hand and said cheerfully, “Now I’m not angry anymore!”

“……”

Xie Wei gripped the porcelain teacup so tightly that he almost crushed it.

After a moment, he said, “My temper isn’t as good as you think, Miss Ning.”

Jiang Xuening was taken aback, lowering her eyes, unable to describe her feelings. When she looked up at Xie Wei again, she smiled, her eyes more serious: “Master Xie’s temper is very good.”

Xie Wei laughed in exasperation.

He put down the teacup, took a handkerchief to wipe his hands, and said, “With your mischievous nature, who can handle you in the future?”

Jiang Xuening raised an eyebrow and snorted, “That’s not something you need to worry about.”

Xie Wei thought she was right.

He paused, looking at the water stains on the handkerchief, and smiled. In the end, he let it go, picked up his zither, and said, “This won’t happen again.”