86. If you truly need a man, then...

Gou Fei’s mind was far too sharp to miss the key point. The instant she learned that the batch of ink pellets at the Little Ink House had been destroyed, she understood it at once.

She had ordered You Hu to make the move, but she had never imagined he would strike in broad daylight. And from what the servant had said, it had been a whole group of men forcing their way through the gates of the Little Ink House, carrying pellet hammers, breaking into the storeroom with unmistakable purpose. In the blink of an eye, more than fifty ink pellets had been smashed to ruin.

Reduced to powder, beyond any hope of repair.

The action had been swift as lightning and ruthless beyond measure. When You Hu acted, he did not merely move; he struck at the very life of the Little Ink House.

Yet this did not bring Gou Fei joy. On the contrary, from this thunderous efficiency, she perceived the strangeness of the last failure.

You Hu had claimed that Mo Yan had set a trap, that he had been careless and fallen into it, and that even the people he had bribed had long since been arranged. But this time, You Hu had shown the slightest hesitation. Every step had seemed as though he already knew it by heart.

She could not help wondering whether he had known everything all along, and whether he had deliberately failed before, using dozens of lives to force her to choose to strike at Le Qingbo.

Thus she had deliberately shown weakness, pretended to agree to return to the capital with Le Qingbo, and even went to great lengths to have Le Qingbo speak on her behalf, inviting Mo Yan and Gu Zhong.

She had never been at ease. Her intent from the start had been to use the invitation as a pretext to keep Mo Yan of the Little Ink House occupied, so that You Hu could act. She had even been willing to offer the ink pellet formula as bait, prepared to bargain slowly with Mo Yan and keep him tied up until nightfall.

But in the end, in just an hour or two, You Hu had succeeded.

Her fingers, still clutching You Hu’s collar, had gone white at the joints, stiff and curled, unable to move. Her pale face grew whiter still, as though snow itself had been ground into it. The anger in her eyes faded little by little, until it settled into a dead, still calm that was somehow even more unsettling.

She let go of You Hu, lowered her hand, and turned her wheelchair toward the water vat beneath the corridor eaves. Bowing her head, she looked at the koi inside, remaining silent for a long time.

Her slender figure, seated in the cold wooden chair, looked empty and distant, as though a gust of wind could sweep her away.

For the first time, a cold indifference appeared in You Hu’s long, phoenix-shaped eyes, and the exquisite softness of his features fell away. Even those lines as hard as carved ice no longer carried warmth. He looked at Gou Fei as if she were no different from any stranger on the street, and said coldly, “This is only the beginning. It is not yet the end.”

With that, he came before her, bracing both hands on the wheelchair’s armrests and bending slightly, his posture one of absolute dominance as he looked down on her. His low voice was like a judge of the underworld demanding a life, utterly devoid of mercy. “Very soon, you will taste despair at its deepest, rage that sinks into the marrow, hatred that gnaws at the heart. Only then can you become powerful enough to fear nothing, rather than clinging to Le Qingbo’s empty sweet nothings.”

Gou Fei seemed not to hear him. Reaching past his arm, she extended one pale hand into the cold water without rolling up her sleeve. When a koi darted toward her, her slender fingers abruptly spread and closed around it.

As You Hu’s final word fell, those fingers clenched hard.

Without a sound, the koi was crushed to death in her grip.

She stared at him, her gaze sharp as a blade, her pale lips pressed into a straight line. The familiar stubbornness between her brows and eyes rose again.

Receiving no response, You Hu reached out and seized her chin. Forcing her to meet his gaze with absolute control, he lowered his head further. The slightly upturned tip of his tear-shaped lips almost brushed the corner of hers as he said in an even lower voice, “Of course. If you truly need a man, I am not incapable of solving that for you.”

Their heated breath mingled at once, no longer distinguishable as one or the other. With every inhale and exhale, they carried the other’s scent.

You Hu stared at Gou Fei. His wildly handsome phoenix eyes and ink-dark pupils were so close they could not reflect either of their figures. Suddenly, he leaned in, crushing her pale lips beneath a fierce and overbearing force, an utterly invasive kiss that left Gou Fei no room to resist.

Her hand, still crushing the koi, suddenly loosened.

Like a fallen leaf, the fish, now devoid of life, slowly floated up to the surface. She lifted her hand, her sleeve sending out a spray of dazzling droplets that flashed into a riot of colors beneath the sunlight, before striking You Hu’s face with thunderous force.

A sharp crack rang through the usually quiet Azure Ink Courtyard, echoing to the heavens. Birds hidden among the tree shadows were startled into flight, leaves drifted down in profusion, and for a moment it seemed silence had stretched into eternity.

You Hu remained with his face turned slightly aside. For a long while he seemed not to react at all. His lashes trembled, and surprise appeared in his eyes, followed only later by rising anger.

He seized Gou Fei’s errant wrist with one hand, his grip so strong it immediately left bruises. He stared back at her too, his face darkly cold. For an instant, Gou Fei even thought she saw a storm of wrath in his eyes, as though mountains and seas had been overturned.

The pain in her wrist made her brow knit slightly, but she did not beg. Instead, with a coldness and resolution even greater than his, she said, “The Azure Ink Courtyard is small. Go back wherever you came from.”

With that, she jerked her hand free, breaking out of his grasp, then shoved him with both hands and turned her wheelchair into the flower hall. She called out to Madam Ku, ordering, “Pack his things. From this day on, no one bearing the surname You is permitted to step into the Azure Ink Courtyard!”

She meant it. She had truly made up her mind to drive the You brothers away.

Madam Ku’s lips moved as though she wanted to say something, but Gou Fei, after issuing her order, went straight back into her room and gave no one a chance.

Only after the door closed and she was alone did her body finally collapse. Supported only by the wheelchair, she turned before the dressing table. In the upright bronze mirror framed with winding vines, her pale face was reflected back at her.

Expressionless, with only the black depths of her eyes cold enough to freeze bone, she drew out a handkerchief and began wiping her lips again and again with great force, from the inside out. Anything that had been touched by You Hu, anything that carried his scent, she wanted to strip away as though she would gladly scrape off the flesh itself.

Even Le Qingbo would never dare treat her so. What right did You Hu have to humiliate her like this?

Only when her pale lips had been rubbed into a blood-red hue, the skin around them reddened as well, did she stop. She stared fixedly at her own reflection, and moisture suddenly welled in the dark pupils of her almond-shaped eyes.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Miss, Lord Le and the people from the Little Ink House want to see you.” It was some time later when Madam Ku’s voice came from outside.

Gou Fei said nothing, as if she had not heard. At that moment, loud and furious voices erupted beyond the door, mixed with Mo Yan’s roaring anger and Le Qingbo’s pale attempts at persuasion. Then came the sound of the door being kicked open with a bang.

In the blazing sunlight, Mo Yan stood against the light. The brilliance behind him was so dazzling that his expression could not be seen clearly at all; only the chill that radiated from his entire body could be felt.

Then came Le Qingbo. Leaning by the door, half his face was caught in the light, the other half in shadow, divided by the high bridge of his nose. His left side was bright; his right side, dim.

He too looked at Gou Fei, and his expression was far from pleasant.

Madam Ku did not appear. From the courtyard came the crisp sounds of a struggle; apparently someone had been held up outside.

Mo Yan stepped inside and pointed at Gou Fei, angrily saying, “Such a vicious girl! While diverting attention with a banquet, you secretly struck and destroyed my ink pellets. You have harmed my Little Ink House. Today, if you do not give me an explanation, I swear the Gou family will repay this until it is ruined and bankrupt!”

Gou Fei said nothing. Looking through the bronze mirror, she merely cast him a faint glance before shifting her gaze to Le Qingbo.

Le Qingbo’s face darkened, unable to hide his disappointment. “Fei, was it truly you who did this to the Little Ink House?”

After a pause, he added, “And when you asked me before about that batch of ink pellets, was that also deliberate?”

As he said this, he seemed finally unable to hold back. He took a few steps closer and asked again, “So agreeing to return to the capital with me was only to make use of me?”

Gou Fei still did not speak. By the time Le Qingbo asked the second question, she had already lowered her eyelids, long lashes veiling her round eyes so completely that not the slightest gap could be seen.

To Le Qingbo, her silence was no different from admission. He drew in a sharp breath, unconsciously stepping back several paces. Shaking his head, he said in disbelief, “Fei, how could you become so calculating? Even the affection between you and me is something you could use. In your eyes, am I nothing more than a chess piece?”

Meanwhile, Mo Yan swept his sleeve in fury. His anger was unbearable. More than fifty newly made ink pellets—those were the very best chance for the Little Ink House to return to the main family in the capital. Yet in the blink of an eye, they had been brutally destroyed. How could he not hate Gou Fei to the core? If he could, he would drink her blood.

“Hmph. I will report this to the county yamen and have the magistrate investigate it thoroughly. I will never let this rest lightly!” With those harsh words, Mo Yan turned and strode away at once.

Le Qingbo’s face showed pity. He came before Gou Fei and seemed to reach out to touch her, but halfway there his hand stiffened abruptly and could move no further. He sighed. “Even if you care nothing for our ten years of affection, I cannot stand by and watch you be thrown into prison. I will try to smooth things over for you. When Mo Geyi arrives in Yizhou, this will never be the end of it. You... take care of yourself...”

Having said this, he gave Gou Fei one last deep look, engraving that face into his heart, and silently resolved that when the chance arose, he would still bring Gou Fei back to the right path and not let her continue down this road of ruin.

He stubbornly believed that Gou Fei was only momentarily muddled, lacking judgment, and that the instigation of others had led her to commit such a grave wrong.

The Gou Fei of before, so pure and simple, had been the childhood friend he cherished in his heart.

At last, even Le Qingbo was gone. At the wide-open doorway, Madam Ku looked at her with grief on her face. Beneath her drooping eyelids was such deep distress that it seemed she might weep for Gou Fei. “Miss...”

Gou Fei’s slender fingertips traced the folds of her skirt again and again. From beginning to end, her expression had not changed, nor had her emotions wavered. It was as though she were only an outsider to the whole affair, and the joys and anger of others had nothing to do with her.

Only then did she finally understand what abyss You Hu had meant. First he had deliberately failed, forcing her to choose the scheme against Le Qingbo; then he had destroyed the ink pellets with lightning speed; and after achieving success, he had left behind deliberate clues so that Mo Yan and Le Qingbo would quickly suspect her, leading to the complete rupture between her and Le Qingbo.

Utterly, effortlessly, he had severed even the thin possibility between her and Le Qingbo, leaving her nowhere to retreat and no choice but to stand against him.

You Hu had trapped her in hatred, day and night, making her suffer. And once that immense hatred became her support, she would become invincible and unrestrained, free of all weakness and fatal flaws.

That was the abyss into which he had forced her: rage deep in the marrow, hatred gnawing at the heart.