Chapter 130 Autumn’s End: The Lady’s demise.

Chapter 130: Autumn’s End: The Matron’s Death.

A sliver of moonlight trembled among the drifting clouds. In the pot, tuberoses bloomed into full, dense clusters of white flowers, their fragrance like tiny hooks drifting through the still air, tickling the heart.

The curtain was half-drawn, half-open, and the figure was drenched in moonlight, fully submerged. The agarwood incense had grown cold, the wind, flowers, snow, and moon rustled, dry leaves crackled faintly, and the room was covered in a layer of cold frost.

Tian Qin loosened her arms from around the man’s neck, breathing in soft, quick gasps, a fine layer of fragrant sweat beading on her forehead. She collapsed weakly to the side. Xie Tanwei also slowed his pace, raised a hand to light the lamp, and the candle flame glowed warmly.

He wiped his hot sweat, brushed her cheek, his expression elegant and refined, curving into a faint smile: “You did well tonight.”

“Did you take the medicine?” She pulled the quilt tightly around herself, asking with concern.

“I took it,” Xie Tanwei said.

When it came to children, he had voluntarily given up.

Tian Qin let out a relieved sigh. “That’s good.”

Undercurrents swirled in the air.

“You should go,” she said after a while, dismissing him. “Go back to your place. I’ll sleep more soundly, and you will too.”

Xie Tanwei pulled her tired, limp waist over, his arms insistently locked around her, complaining, “Now that you’re dressed, you’re pushing me away?”

“I’m not even dressed yet,” Tian Qin felt the pressure inch by inch, trying her best to avoid him.

Xie Tanwei kissed her gently and indulgently, with a soothing, afterglow tone, hoarse and fierce: “Then don’t wear them.”

The candle flame burned hot and bright, the temperature gradually rising.

Tian Qin leaned against Xie Tanwei’s chest for a while longer, waiting for him to confront her. Today, Xian Qiu had come looking for her, and she had insulted Xian Qiu presumptuously. Given his vengeful nature, she expected no good outcome.

Yet for a long time, he simply enjoyed the fine night they spent together in peaceful solemnity, talking about irrelevant things while pointing at the jade-white disc of the moon, reciting poems about it with her, immersed in a tender, gentle mood, showing no intention of finding fault.

Tian Qin was secretly puzzled.

If he was unaware, given his far-reaching influence, it was hardly possible. Mama Liu of Drunken Years would have reported everything to him.

She soberly pushed him away, taking the initiative to say, “Today, your wife came to see me. She wept bitterly, accusing me of still clinging to you even after ending up in a brothel, and demanded I leave you and return you to her.”

“Mm…” Xie Tanwei listened. “And how did you answer?”

“How would I dare to think of leaving you?” she said with sarcasm.

A hint of approval flickered in his gentle, solemn eyes. After being trained for so long, she had finally learned to read the situation correctly. He pinched the back of her neck, his emotions unreadable: “You angered her.”

“Then do you love her?” She raised an eyebrow and shot back.

“Do you think I love her?” He returned her question with another.

“Well, I didn’t anger her. I just told her I would put in a good word for her, saying you care about her and you two would be happy together. She felt much better after hearing that.”

Tian Qin followed his lead, acting as if nothing had happened.

Xie Tanwei was momentarily lost, his eyes gradually turning cold. His slender fingers brushed over her as if carrying a thousand thoughts. Suddenly, he seized her jaw and kissed her.

Tian Qin’s muffled sounds were swallowed in the roughness. She nearly drowned, not knowing what had touched a nerve.

Afterward, he let her go, his face neither flushed nor out of breath, and coldly said: “I have divorced her.”

Tian Qin covered her throat, struggling to breathe, and fell silent for a moment.

Xie Tanwei pressed his face close, relentless: “From now on, don’t use ‘your wife’ to refer to her anymore.”

“So what?” Tian Qin’s eyes reddened, refocusing. “You didn’t have to tell me.”

Xie Tanwei glowered at her darkly, like a predator eyeing a lamb, a sharpness gradually spreading: “I am surprised that when she asked you to be her advocate, you actually did it. This is how you’ll lose me.”

In all the world, there was never a woman who pushed her own husband away. He had divorced Xian Qiu because his heart was only with her.

Tian Qin smiled bitterly and self-mockingly, murmuring softly, “If only I could truly lose you.”

The words drifted clearly into Xie Tanwei’s ears, making him flinch.

“Just think, if Xu Junzheng or Bo Ge had other women, you’d never be so indifferent, nor would you use this to bargain.”

Xie Tanwei’s expression was extremely displeased, his anger like a storm, a chill that cut to the bone. It was a rare moment of losing control. He pressed her down firmly: “Xian Qiu is your enemy, yet you would rather push me to your enemy than accept me.”

“Since you know she is my enemy, and through two lifetimes you have done nothing for me. You only ever bully me, use your power to oppress me, drive me out like a dog and then trap me back like a turtle in a jar. Why should I like you?”

The Love Gu drummed wildly, and Tian Qin realized he was demanding a deeper emotion from her. She blurted out, shattering her calm demeanor, with instinctive resentment.

“Not just me, no one will ever love you.”

At this point, both of their demands were clear.

He wanted undivided loyalty and love; she wanted the enemy’s life.

Xie Tanwei gave a low chuckle, released her, interlocked his fingers, and sat quietly for a while—a typical negotiating posture: “Alright, then tell me, what do you want to do to her?”

Before she could speak, he listed them as if reciting from memory: “I have already divorced her, expelled her from Xie Garden, sent her back to her family in the bitter cold borderlands, stripped her of all property, and made her feel the humiliation and pain of being abandoned.”

“But it’s not enough, far from enough. I take it you want her life, right?”

He pressed on step by step.

Tian Qin did not deny it.

“I should want that,” she said, exaggerating, with a desperate hint of threat, “If you can’t bear to part with her, think her crime doesn’t warrant death, and I’ve overstepped, then go live with her from now on and don’t come looking for me again.”

Xie Tanwei frowned almost imperceptibly. It was undeniable that he still wanted to see Tian Qin and couldn’t bear to break with her. If he cared about Xian Qiu, he wouldn’t have divorced her.

He sensed a trace of jealousy in her tone, which inexplicably pleased him and left a lingering satisfaction.

“What you want is not only Xian Qiu’s life but also mine. Because both she and I have harmed you in past and present lives, and I am the chief culprit, beyond redemption.”

Xie Tanwei was exceptionally perceptive, his expression as if it were all a trivial joke.

Suddenly, he pulled her curled fingers and placed them against his heart, linking their hearts. Her sharp nails seemed capable of tearing out the bloody heart in one claw-like motion.

He asked solemnly and seriously, “If I give it to you, will you care for me even a little bit?”

Tian Qin did not yearn for the impossible and coldly refused: “You’re changing the subject.”

“I promise you.”

Xie Tanwei cut her off abruptly, taking a clear stand.

“Kill her.”

He clicked his teeth together and softly uttered those three words.

Tian Qin’s heart tightened sharply, then she reminded him with disgust: “Fine. Remember it.”

Xie Tanwei stared at her, dazed and utterly captivated, as if he would die to make her happy. He pulled her back into his arms, locking her in his arms again, lost in an involuntary, meaningless smile—like ripples of longing spreading outward.

“I’ll remember. You have to remember what you promised too…”

To try to care about him a little more each day. At least hate him a little less.

She curled her lip in disdain.

Xie Tanwei smiled faintly, pinched her cheek, in his one-sided affection.

An unspoken pact had been struck between them—to share in wrongdoing. If humiliating his lawful wife proved his loyalty to her, he was willing. As she had said, he was already a scumbag; he had no bottom line at all.

…

In the Autumn Osmanthus Residence.

Xian Qiu, skeletal and gaunt, stared blankly at the divorce papers on the table, as if her soul had left her body.

She had no tears left. She had tried shouting, throwing tantrums, pleading, and groveling—everything she could think of. Even if Tian Qin acted as the primary wife and she as the secondary, nothing worked. She was doomed to be cast out.

The valuables in the Autumn Osmanthus Residence had been cleared out by the servants. It was as silent as a grave. The Lord had ordered the place to be razed and turned into a garden, planted with the black-spotted green bamboo Miss Tian loved most.

Once upon a time, Miss Tian had been a rat chased out by everyone.

But in just a few months, the Lord had recognized his own heart. Miss Tian had returned to the pedestal, becoming an incurable bloody scab on the Lord’s life—painful to touch, itchy to ignore.

Miss Tian was a legend.

And she was nothing but a discarded pawn.

“The Lord says, out of respect for your years together, you have three more days. Move out as soon as possible.”

Outside the door, the First-Class Maid of Autumn Osmanthus Residence delivered the notice coldly. Those who had once been loyal to her now looked at her with open contempt, unwilling to spare even a shred of courtesy.

The Xie estate belonged to the Lord alone. He was the sole master. His favor and disfavor decided everything.

The Yu family had long fallen. Xian Qiu, as a clan matriarch without her natal family’s backing, could be divorced at the Lord’s whim. In truth, all the glory and wealth she had enjoyed in the Xie household had been a gift of his goodwill.

“Divorce—I can spin it as me abandoning you. I’ll be the heartless scoundrel everyone curses, and you’ll be the innocent victim, earning sympathy and help. The downside is that your circle of noblewomen will laugh at you, and you’ll lose face. Or I can say you abandoned me, that I pined for you fruitlessly, and you soared away high and free like a bird. That way you’d hold the moral high ground in matters of affection, but some would surely condemn you for cruelty and ingratitude.”

“Both choices have pros and cons. You decide.”

“However it goes, we’ll part amicably. You should understand that. After years of marriage, you probably don’t want a messy scene that humiliates both of us.”

Xie Tanwei had said that once.

“Part amicably”—meaning she didn’t stand a chance to make a scene. Brute force could crush any stubborn obsession.

Xian Qiu made no choice. It was a losing gamble either way.

Haggard, she glared hatefully at the first-class maid and fiercely tore up the divorce papers, blood seeping from under her fingernails.

That little bitch Tian Qin had humiliated her for no reason, done nothing to help, and only fanned the flames, speeding up Xie Tanwei’s decision to divorce her. She had been pathetic enough to kneel—what madness.

She wouldn’t leave. She was, after all, the Lord’s lawful wife, the clan matriarch of the Xie family. With the Xie family’s deep moral character, they wouldn’t drag her out by force, would they? Others might, but Xie Tanwei never would—he was the most courteous gentleman.

She would just dig in her heels.

Within a few days, Xian Qiu’s naivety was quickly shattered.

The situation was far worse than she imagined.

First, Yu Yuan lost a finger to frostbite on the frontier, delivered to her by a weeping servant. Then came He Shi’s finger, Yu Ye’s finger… After each member of the Yu family had lost a finger, the cycle began again from Yu Yuan. Each one, blood-soaked and horrifying, was sent to her.

Xian Qiu held out for a few days, then her spirit shattered. Her frail, sickly body couldn’t withstand the blow. She showed signs of madness—hallucinations, nightmares, cold sweats, screaming for no reason, dreaming of someone trying to kill her or of the entire Yu family drenched in blood.

Her nerves were as fragile as a hair’s breadth. Her eyelids were dark, her face livid, and she cowered in dark corners all day.

Tian Qin had once said Xie Tanwei was no good, and Xian Qiu hadn’t believed it. Now she tasted his dirty tricks firsthand.

He was determined to force her into divorce. If she didn’t accept the offer gracefully, disaster would fall on the Yu family. He had plenty of ways to make her comply.

Xian Qiu’s kneeling to Tian Qin had changed nothing; instead, it had cost her life.

Tian Qin was a truly venomous woman, Xian Qiu thought. What goes around comes around—everything she had done was now happening to her. If there was a next life, she wouldn’t let Tian Qin get away with it.

Xian Qiu let out a manic laugh.

She gathered the torn divorce papers, pieced them back together, and signed her name. Then, dazed, she walked into the spring river, which had just thawed, preserving the last shred of dignity she had left. With a splash, she jumped in.

Her illness was beyond cure—both physically and mentally.

When Tian Qin was driven out of the Xie estate, Xian Qiu thought she had won completely, that she could rest easy from then on. But she had been terribly wrong.

The swift, torrential river water swallowed Xian Qiu’s face, quickly taking her life and tearing her body apart.