Chapter 237: Love Is Trivial

Chapter 237: Love is Trivial

"Heir Gu is magnanimous and surely won't hold my unintentional mistake against me."

"How about I pay for a doctor to stop the bleeding and bandage the wound for Heir Gu?"

Gu Huai was in so much pain that cold sweat dripped down his face. He extended a trembling finger but couldn't form a complete sentence.

"Go!"

Gu Huai endured the pain and raised his voice to give the order.

Before dawn, he had to catch up with the entourage returning to the capital.

The wheels turned, and the carriage moved forward slowly.

The road was far from smooth.

Every bump was a torment for Gu Huai.

Lu Mingchao's lips twitched.

Gu Huai's family background was too significant. She had controlled the force of her knife strike perfectly—it would wound but not sever.

If she had actually chopped off Gu Huai's toes, Duke’s Madam, Gu Shen, would have turned into a rabid dog chasing after her.

If the friction continued, she couldn't guarantee that Gu Huai wouldn't become disabled.

"Heir Gu, why not have your sneaky guards pull out the knife and stop the bleeding?"

"Are you worried about me?" Gu Huai was drenched in cold sweat, his face pale.

Lu Mingchao's expression was as if she'd swallowed a fly.

"Mostly, the smell of blood is making me sick."

Lu Mingchao patted the carriage wall and called out, "Hey, you big oaf who can't even set off smoke properly, your master is about to die."

A dull thud, and the carriage jolted.

It seemed someone was kneeling outside the curtain. "Heir."

"Come in." Gu Huai was in excruciating pain.

The guards on duty would carry medicinal powder with them.

Lu Mingchao moved further away, leaning against the soft cushion, covering her nose, and closing her eyes to pretend to sleep.

She was afraid that if she stayed too close, blood might splash on her when the knife was pulled out.

Suddenly, she felt her sleeve tighten as a warm hand gripped her wrist through the thin fabric.

Lu Mingchao wearily opened her eyes and said coldly, "Let go."

The black-clad man thought: Heartless!

The black-clad man silently tagged Lu Mingchao with another label.

Gu Huai's gaze was fixed stubbornly on Lu Mingchao.

She bit her lower lip tightly, blood drops rolling down and mingling with sweat, adding a vivid, almost sensual beauty.

Seeing the knife pulled out, Lu Mingchao swatted Gu Huai's arm away.

The carriage reeked of blood, far from pleasant.

Lu Mingchao kept vomiting and had no choice but to open the window and stick her head out.

"It’s not safe," Gu Huai said, his voice hoarse.

Lu Mingchao glared at Gu Huai but said nothing.

Gu Huai’s hands trembled as he pulled a white porcelain bottle from his pouch and handed it to her. "Green Jade Ointment," he said.

"To dispel the smell and clear the mind."

Lu Mingchao eyed Gu Huai with suspicion.

Green Jade Ointment, a specialty of the Wu Xing Shen family, was primarily used to sober someone up and counteract the effects of aphrodisiacs when inhaled after being drugged.

The claim of dispelling the smell was just a cover; its real purpose was to cool the fire.

Not bad at all!

After a moment’s thought, Lu Mingchao took the Green Jade Ointment and tossed a bottle of hemostatic powder back.

Gu Huai rubbed the medicine bottle, his eyes glinting.

His A Chao might seem tough, but deep down, she still cared for him.

Lu Mingchao snapped, "Bullshit!"

This is just settling accounts between us!

The man in black treated Gu Huai’s wound and then respectfully left the carriage.

The bright moonlight streaming through the window made Gu Huai’s pale face appear almost translucent.

"A Chao," he said softly, "you chose to come with me."

There’s no turning back now.

Lu Mingchao struggled to put her feelings into words.

"If you can’t speak," she snapped, "then just shut up."

In the dead of night, aren’t you worried a fire might burn down Changxi Village?

The Young Master, noble and privileged, exuded an arrogance and coldness that seemed ingrained in his very being, a reflection of the rigid hierarchy he embodied.

To those in power, the common people mattered less than a piece of fine fabric or a trinket.

Gu Huai’s voice was soft but firm. "A Chao, you forced my hand."

In an instant, Lu Mingchao’s expression turned icy, her gaze chilling.

What is this? Some kind of overbearing love story where she runs, he chases, and there’s no escape?

"A Chao," he said quietly, "Xie Yan has given up on you."

"Between the people of Changxi Village and you, Xie Yan chose the people of Changxi Village."

Lu Mingchao lowered her gaze. "Heir Gu, personal feelings and selfish desires can never outweigh the importance of human lives."

"Heir Gu stands too high to see the hardships of the common people struggling for survival, like ants."

"Your fire destroyed their humble shelters, which shielded them from wind and rain, and wiped out their lifelong savings."

"Without help, their fire injuries would fester, forcing them to cut away the rot, relying on baseless folk remedies, left to fend for themselves."

"Elderly in despair, to ease the burden on their children, choose to end their own lives."

"The fire you casually set fed on the lives of these ants."

"Even the lives of ants are precious."

"Heir Gu might not realize that many families in Changxi Village fled famine and settled here during the great famine. When there was tree bark and wild grass, they gnawed on them; when the land was dry and cracked with no grass, they stuffed themselves with edible clay to stave off hunger."

"Can Heir Gu imagine emaciated people eating white clay and dry mud, their limbs swollen and bellies bloated?"

"They survived the famine, settled in Changxi Village, and started anew."

"From thatched huts to mud houses, all destroyed by your fire."

Gu Huai felt a sudden tightness in his throat.

As if he had actually swallowed bark and edible clay.

"Lu Mingchao, if you had come with me willingly back to the capital from the start, I wouldn't have resorted to such measures."

Lu Mingchao didn’t look up, just scoffed. "See, you’re still lying to yourself."

"I don’t think Xie Yan was wrong to choose the people of Changxi Village."

"My feelings for him shouldn’t come before innocent lives."

"Flowers nourished by innocent blood, no matter how beautiful, deserve neither praise nor pride."

"He made the right choice."

"Otherwise, tonight would have been the end for the people of Changxi Village."

"I’m proud of him."

She truly admired someone who was good at heart.

When Xie Yan came up, Gu Huai noticed Lu Mingchao’s eyes shift from cold indifference to an unspoken tenderness.

This change left Gu Huai’s heart feeling pricked by countless tiny needles, stirred by a bitter ache, leaving him uneasy.

"But he should’ve left someone to protect you, not taken them all away."

Gu Huai persisted.

Lu Mingchao shot back, "And then you’d have killed him, right?"

"Gu Huai, we’re not on the same side, so there’s no point in talking further."

Finding common ground isn’t easy.

"A Chao, why can't it be like before?" Gu Huai felt inexplicably guilty and awkwardly changed the subject.

Lu Mingchao sighed softly, "A mayfly's life is but a day, born at dawn and dead by dusk."

"All the past, no matter how deeply etched or regretted in your eyes, is to me just like that dead mayfly, the dust on a garment's hem, the rotten flesh."

"I long to bury it, brush it away, cut it out."

"Gu Huai, believe it or not, the Lu Mingchao who once rejoiced at the sight of you is gone. She died on the day everyone forced her, despised her, and abandoned her."

"Between us, let's not speak of affection anymore."

"I return to the capital with you, not out of compassion, not because of unresolved past emotions, but because I do not wish to involve the innocent."

"You injured your foot, and the pain is unbearable."

"What about the villagers of Changxi, whose lives were consumed by the fire?"

"There's no point arguing with fools."