Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 171
Chapter 171 - Xie Jingyu's Death
Xie Jingyu stared fixedly at the porcelain vial.
His voice took on an edge of mounting urgency: "Madam, it was a momentary lapse into delusion that drove me to harm those two innocent children. I know my sins are difficult to redeem... Now that the Xie family has been reduced to this state, consider it my retribution. If the heavens grant me another chance, I will never do such a thing again. I was wrong, I was truly in the wrong..."
Yun Chu closed her eyes.
Xie Jingyu had confessed to his crimes and received his due retribution, yet why was there not the slightest shred of satisfaction in her heart?
How she wished time could flow backward to that snowy night four years ago; she would have protected her children at all costs...
Two streams of clear tears slid down from the corners of Yun Chu's eyes.
She allowed herself to show vulnerability for merely a fleeting moment before wiping her tears dry, extending the porcelain vial in her hand toward him.
Xie Jingyu raised his right hand—the only one capable of movement—and was just about to grasp the life-saving antidote when he saw Yun Chu pull her hand back.
From within her sleeve, she retrieved a folded sheet of paper and presented it to him: "Sign your name upon this and press your thumbprint. Only then will all scores between us be considered settled."
Using his right hand alongside his mouth, Xie Jingyu unfolded the paper. When his eyes landed on the three largest characters inscribed at the top, his gaze changed abruptly.
"A deed of divorce?" Shock bled unmistakably through his tone. "Madam, you wish to divorce me?"
"What, Xie Jingyu? Do you truly believe our days as husband and wife can still continue?" Yun Chu chuckled. "Are you not afraid that I might poison you once more?"
Xie Jingyu pressed his parched, withered lips tightly together.
Though he feared having such a venomous woman by his side, he was far more terrified of the Xie family losing their marital alliance with the Yun family.
Yet he also recognized that he and Yun Chu had reached a point of no return; remaining husband and wife was utterly impossible.
Still, how could he be willing to simply let Yun Chu walk away...
Over the past several years, the Xie family had been steadily ascending, gradually securing a firm foothold within the capital. Yet now, everything had been ruined by the woman standing before him...
Once he recovered from his illness, his first priority would be rescuing Brother An; the second would be clearing his own tarnished reputation; the third would be enabling the Xie family to rise once more. And finally... he would make Yun Chu pay the ultimate price...
He admitted that he had once felt genuine affection for Yun Chu.
Yet what did that sliver of affection amount to when weighed against the glory and disgrace of his entire clan?
"Where is the brush?"
Xie Jingyu reached out his hand.
Yun Chu produced the writing brush she had prepared long in advance and placed it into his palm.
At the end of the divorce deed, he inscribed the three characters of his name—Xie Jingyu—before biting into his thumb and pressing down a crimson thumbprint.
Yun Chu took up the deed of divorce, reading through every single word. Folding it neatly, she tucked it back into her sleeve before finally handing over the porcelain vial.
Xie Jingyu uncorked the vial with his teeth, catching a whiff of an intensely rich fragrance. His fingers paused for a fraction of a second, then he tipped his head back and swallowed every drop of the liquid within.
The moment he finished drinking, his gaze collided with the mockery brimming in Yun Chu's eyes.
He had always prided himself on his intellect; the instant he caught her expression, he realized something was terribly amiss. He jammed his fingers down his throat, but the liquid had already descended into his belly, leaving him entirely unable to vomit it back up.
He roared in total breakdown: "Yun... Yun Chu! What did you just make me drink?!"
"Rest assured, it is not poison." Yun Chu picked up the porcelain vial that had tumbled to the ground. "This is an essence distilled from eighteen jars of fiery spirit. Does it taste fine?"
Xie Jingyu's pupils dilated abruptly.
The physicians who had examined him previously had explicitly warned that his condition strictly forbade the consumption of alcohol.
Once, during a social banquet outside, he had merely taken half a cup of rice wine, which had left him bedridden for seven full days.
Eighteen jars of strong liquor—while not lethal poison in itself—was more than enough to stimulate the toxicity throughout his body and claim his very life.
Sure enough, violent churnings soon erupted within his abdomen. His entrails felt as though they were being relentlessly wrenched and shredded, the agony driving him to thrash and roll across the ground...
"Yun Chu! You venomous woman!"
"I already did everything you demanded! Why will you still not spare me?!"
"The antidote! Give me the antidote, quickly!"
Xie Jingyu rolled and bellowed across the dirt like a madman.
She commanded him to kneel and repent—he knelt!
She commanded him to write the deed of divorce—he wrote it!
He had already acknowledged his wrongs, so why must she still subject him to this!
He was merely twenty-eight years old, with so many boundless ambitions left unfulfilled; how could he possibly die just like this?
"Yun Chu, I was wrong, I was truly in the wrong. Save me!"
"I truly regret it! I shouldn't have abandoned your children! I beg of you, Yun Chu!"
"Yun Chu... save me! I beg you to save me..."
Yun Chu remained standing by his side, silently watching him transition from violent rolling to feeble writhing and twitching upon the earth.
Gradually, he lost even the strength to stir.
She crouched down and gazed into his wide-open eyes, witnessing the resentment and bitter unwillingness lingering deep within them.
She had never intended to let Xie Jingyu keep his life from the very start.
It was only upon discovering that her children had perished by his hand that she chose to end him with her own.
With the extinguishing of his final breath, the blood feud between them could at last be considered truly concluded...
Yun Chu reached out her hand, gently closing his unseeing eyes.
"Xie Jingyu, I hope you learn to be an upright, honorable person in your next life. Rest in peace."
Xie Jingyu's eyelids closed shut.
As he lay upon the cold ground, a final remnant of conscious awareness still lingered, conjuring what seemed like a grand tapestry of prosperity before his mind's eye.
He had become a third-rank high official in the Ministry of Revenue; Brother An, a decade after claiming first place in all three tiers of the imperial examinations, had risen to become the second-in-command of the Grand Secretariat; Sister Ping had somehow ascended to become the Emperor's most favored imperial consort; and Brother Wei, that most unruly child of all, had actually become a formidable third-rank Grand General commanding tens of thousands of troops... Their Xie family had grown into an illustrious noble house in the capital, an exalted clan that everyone vied to flatter and court...
What a magnificent vision; what an ideal future. Yet he would never live to see it...
The envisioned tapestry dissolved away bit by bit, and Xie Jingyu slowly lost his very last trace of breath...
"Someone, come."
Yun Chu called out softly.
Qiu Tong and Tingxue, who had been standing guard outside the entrance all along, were the first to step inside, while Tingfeng continued to keep watch.
Upon seeing Xie Jingyu lying lifeless upon the ground, neither showed much surprise. They had long known this day would arrive sooner or later; it had merely arrived slightly ahead of schedule.
Without needing explicit orders from Yun Chu, the two maidservants attended diligently to their respective duties.
A quarter of an hour later, Tingfeng hurried off with an expression of sheer panic to find the other members of the Xie family.
At this very moment, the other masters and mistresses of the Xie family were gathered within the courtyard of Lady Yuan and Xie Zhongcheng. The two elders occupied the main seats of honor, while the various concubines sat in descending order along the sides.
"The reason I summoned you all here is so that we can brainstorm solutions together," Xie Zhongcheng spoke up. "Our Xie family is currently trapped within this manor, putting us in an utterly passive position where numerous matters cannot be resolved. The first is Brother An's predicament; the second is Jingyu's situation. Both matters require spending silver to grease the right palms. We cannot simply wait idly until the formal verdicts are handed down before figuring out what to do, wouldn't you agree?"
The concubines nodded their heads one after another.
They might not care what became of Xie Shi'an, but Xie Jingyu's downfall was intimately bound to their own livelihoods, leaving them no choice but to be concerned.
"Bribing our way out of the estate requires silver, and finding influential figures to handle matters requires silver; a conservative estimate would amount to at least ten thousand taels," Xie Zhongcheng sighed. "We only possess four to five thousand taels in hand. We still need each of you to pool together a little over a thousand taels of silver..."
Concubine Tao's eyes went wide. "This concubine is merely a concubine; where could I possibly find so much silver?"
Concubine Jiang's fingers tightened around her handkerchief. "Master, this concubine only has a little over a hundred taels in total, but I am willing to hand it all over."
Lady Yuan wore a deeply distressed frown. "A little over a hundred taels is barely enough to bribe the guards at the entrance. Take out your everyday jewelry to pool together so we can weather this difficult hurdle as one."
Tingyu spoke up in a gentle, measured tone: "Why not seek the contribution from the Madam?”