SGEIRS -Chapter 430 Wei Heng Loves Her

At this moment, a veiled woman stood a few steps away from them.

This person was none other than Mei Qingyun, the very woman being discussed. As she listened to the two ladies’ conversation and watched Meng Jinyao being helped into her carriage by her maid, her heart felt unbearably heavy.

Back then, Gu Jingxi had been abandoned by her because of an injury that left him with lingering complications. Yet now, not only had he married, he was about to become a father.

She had heard that Meng Jinyao’s pregnancy was diagnosed only after she returned to the capital. That meant the child had been conceived back in Huzhou. Back then, Wei Heng had mocked Gu Jingxi in front of her again and again, calling him useless—yet it turned out he had already recovered long ago.

How could this be?

Why would Heaven play such a cruel joke on her?

Gu Jingxi now had a wife and a child. In the future, he would have both sons and daughters, a complete and happy family. Meanwhile, her own life was a complete mess.

What virtue or merit did Meng Jinyao have?

She had practically picked up a bargain and married Gu Jingxi, becoming Madam Gu.

Mei Qingyun gazed at the Changxing Marquis’s carriage as it disappeared into the distance, feeling desolate over her own fate.

After a moment, she turned her gaze to the two noblewomen standing a few steps away. They looked somewhat familiar, but after so many years, she could not remember who they were. From their conversation, it seemed that one of them had some past grievance with her, yet she had no recollection of it and had no idea when she had ever offended such a person.

The two ladies, however, did not notice Mei Qingyun at all. With her face covered by a veil, they were even less likely to recognize her. After Meng Jinyao’s carriage left, they dropped the topic and walked away.

Seeing her mistress staring gloomily at the departing figures, Mei Qingyun’s maid lowered her voice and said, “Miss, don’t take their words to heart.”

Hearing this, Mei Qingyun came back to herself.

After more than ten years, having shed her identity as a Wei family daughter-in-law, being called “Miss” again felt strange, as if the person being addressed was not her.

She had returned to her natal home in the capital with a letter of divorce in hand. Her family believed she had been cast out because she had failed to bear children for many years. Only she knew the truth—that Wei Heng had suddenly gone mad and, for once, spared her life.

That day, when Wei Heng learned that Gu Jingxi had arrived in Hangzhou Prefecture, he said nothing and dragged her onto the bed.

Afterwards, she angrily scolded him: “Wei Heng, at a time like this, how can you still think about such things? Gu Jingxi is in Hangzhou—he must be investigating what your brother-in-law has been doing all these years. When that happens, both the Han family and we will suffer!”

Wei Heng, however, handed her a letter of divorce and said calmly, “You should go.”

When she saw the letter, she was completely stunned. She did not reach out to take it. Instead, she looked up at him blankly, utterly confused.

Soon, she heard him say: “Madam Mei, you’ve been married into the Wei family for over ten years without bearing a child. You’ve violated one of the Seven Grounds for Divorce—childlessness. Pack your belongings today and return to the Mei family tomorrow. From now on, our marriage is severed. I’ll inform Mother later.”

She was shocked and bewildered.

For so many years, despite her childlessness, Wei Heng had never once considered divorcing her. Why was he suddenly using that very reason now?

Over the years, they had quarreled countless times. She had wanted either a mutual separation or to be divorced. Yet Wei Heng had always refused, telling her to stop dreaming. He swore to entangle himself with her for life, to torment each other until death, and even after death, to be buried together and continue tormenting each other underground.

He had never relented in all those years.

Yet now, at such a critical moment, he gave her a letter of divorce. There had to be something suspicious about it.

She stared at him for a long while, then suddenly laughed.

“Wei Heng, I ruined your heirs and your concubines. Didn’t you once wish you could strangle me, this poisonous woman? And now, at this moment, you’re giving me freedom? This letter must be a trick to toy with me. You want to see me rejoice at being reborn, then suddenly crush me by saying it’s fake, don’t you? Don’t think I’ll fall for it. After all these years as husband and wife, do you think I don’t know what you’re thinking?”

Wei Heng merely looked at her quietly for a long time and did not argue.

He only said, “The ship departs tomorrow morning. I’ve made the arrangements. Have someone pack properly.”

With that, he put down the letter and left without looking back.

Seeing that he did not seem to be joking, she felt puzzled. Out of curiosity, she opened the letter and read it. It was a proper, legitimate divorce document.

In that instant, she felt as if she had narrowly escaped death.

Wei Heng was about to be convicted, and the Wei family members would inevitably be implicated. She would have faced only two paths: exile or being sent to the pleasure quarters.

Now that Wei Heng had severed ties with her through this letter, she would not be dragged down with him.

Because of this letter, although she would be mocked after returning to the capital, it was actually a good thing for her.

The more people mocked her now, the more they would curse Wei Heng later when they learned he had been arrested for corruption, bribery, and murdering court officials.

When her former husband was exposed as a scoundrel, people would assume that she must have suffered greatly in the Wei family after being childless for so many years. She would gain sympathy, and others would comfort her and consider her fortunate for escaping his fate.

Before Wei Heng was escorted back to the capital, all she needed to do was play the role of a desolate, abandoned woman.

Her mother doted on her. After she returned home, her mother said that if she never remarried, the Mei family would support her for life. Her sister-in-law might not be happy about it, but as long as her mother was alive, she could protect her. Marriage did not need to be rushed.

Yet she had never imagined that after returning to the capital, she would suffer such a devastating blow:

Gu Jingxi had recovered.

Meng Jinyao was pregnant.

It had once seemed that everyone was “incapable.” In the end, she was the only one who truly was.

Gu Jingxi and Meng Jinyao were loving and harmonious, about to become parents. When people mocked her for being divorced, they compared their marriage with hers and Wei Heng’s.

It was like rubbing salt into her wounds.

Seeing her silent and unresponsive, the maid asked again, “Miss, what’s wrong?”

Mei Qingyun’s thoughts slowly returned. She looked at the maid blankly, then gently shook her head.

“Nothing. Let’s go back.”

Soon after, she boarded her family’s carriage and headed home.

On the way back, she thought of her former husband again.

After giving her the divorce letter, Wei Heng never appeared before her again. Before she left for the capital, she had tried to see him, but he refused. He only had someone escort her to the docks.

They had tormented each other for so many years. He had never once considered giving her freedom.

Yet now, he had let her go.

She could not understand him.

Could it be… that he had feelings for her?

But how was that possible?

He hated her so much, wished he could strangle her.

How could he possibly love her?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Mei Qingyun shook her head repeatedly, rejecting the thought in her heart. She forced herself to think of something else, suppressing any further speculation.

She was now a young lady of the Mei family, not a wife of the Wei family.

She had nothing to do with the Weis anymore.