USWHC -Chapter 29 The Runaway Bride (Part 9)

Ji Yi didn’t snort this time, because he knew she was right. But he still couldn’t swallow his anger. “Then why did you come back? Weren’t you desperate to escape?”

The room suddenly fell into silence, broken only by her sighs, one after another.

“Just now I had already reached Mount Qi,” she said softly. “But when I stood there at the foot of that vast, white mountain, I suddenly lost my nerve. I admit it—I’m a coward. I never thought that after all the hardships I went through to escape, I’d stop at the very last moment out of fear.”

“I was really scared—afraid of getting lost again, afraid I might just die somewhere on that mountain. Only then did I realize how much I’m actually afraid of death.”

Zhu Jie let out a faint, bitter laugh. But only she knew how much sorrow was hidden in that sound.

“I know you’re not interested in me. You really don’t want to marry me. But precisely because of that, being with you actually feels safer. If I just left like that, who knows what kind of people I might run into?”

She didn’t turn around. In fact, she didn’t dare look at anything. She could only lower her gaze and stare at the hem of her clothes as she spoke quietly to herself.

“Could you just help me out, okay? Give me a little time. I’ll leave once the snow melts. For now, let’s just pretend to be a married couple… alright?”

Ji Yi didn’t answer.

Zhu Jie couldn’t tell whether he agreed or not, so she could only continue speaking.

“They were going to marry me off to an old man—a sick old man who was almost dying. I didn’t want that, but something like this was never my choice to make. For all these years, I bowed and scraped before them, trying my best to please them. I hated it, but I still had to smile at them. And what about them? In the end, they were still plotting against me. So the only thing I could do was run—run away from them, run away from Liang.”

“I once thought I could do it, you know? I studied martial arts for five years. Anyone I could find, I asked them to teach me. They all praised me for being clever, said I learned quickly. But actually, I’m very stupid. I just worked harder than anyone else. I practiced day and night. I thought I had finally become capable… but the ridiculous thing is, I couldn’t even beat you—a countryside farmer?”

As soon as she said that, she hurried to explain.

“Oh, of course, I’m not laughing at you! I just think I’m ridiculous. Turns out I was only fooling myself all along.”

“My purse really was stolen. Not just the purse—everything valuable I had was gone. Of course, I didn’t lose it on the mountain. It was stolen in the town ahead. Yes… that’s another thing that makes me feel ridiculous. I thought I was smart, that I could see through people’s intentions. But I was tricked by a child who looked pitiful. He stole my purse and ran away with everything I had. Just like that—ran away!”

As she spoke, Zhu Jie finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and began to sob softly.

She felt like a complete failure—an utter failure.

What happened to roaming the world freely?
What happened to living boldly in the martial world?
All those beautiful fantasies—this was how they ended.

She had failed completely. Failed so badly that she no longer had the courage to continue—at least not right now.

Just as she was quietly crying, she heard a low murmur from behind her.

“Go to sleep. You’ve been running around all morning.”

Zhu Jie turned around in surprise.

Ji Yi was still facing away from her. There were no gentle words of comfort, no soft promises, not even a sentence of pity. He simply loosened the edge of the quilt slightly and said something that seemed almost unrelated.

Yet at that moment, Zhu Jie felt an unexpected warmth.

She squeezed into the warm blanket, leaning against his not-so-broad back, letting the cold that filled her body and heart slowly fade away.

Just as she was drifting into sleep, she suddenly felt something warm press against her. It startled her badly.

No way… had she misjudged him again?

Before she could react, the object was suddenly pushed into her hands. Smooth, warm with body heat—it was a small hand warmer filled with hot water, a copper hot-water pouch from ancient times.

Actually, this guy was pretty warm too.

Zhu Jie smiled. Holding the warm water pouch, the same warmth spread across her face.

“This quilt is too small. Tomorrow I’ll ask Mother to get you another one,” Ji Yi said calmly.

But Zhu Jie felt so moved that she almost started crying again.

Did this mean… he had agreed to let her stay?