TFWYH – Chapter 417 Yuan Yuan’s Sacrifice

“Huan Yuan…”

“Knowing that Your Excellency cares for me is already enough. I cannot repay such deep affection… so I can only…”

As she spoke, Yuan Yuan untied her clothing and let it slide to the floor.

She wore only a pink undergarment, her eyes lowered, shy yet uneasy.

“The most precious thing I possess… is the purity I have preserved until today.”

“Yuan Yuan…”

Huang Yi gently cupped her face, his expression complicated. “Why must you do this? You know this isn’t what I care about.”

“But I care,” she said softly. “I want to give my most precious thing to the man I love.”

With such a beauty before him, dressed like this—who could possibly resist?

The fact that Huang Yi managed to persuade her even once already showed tremendous self-control.

He lifted Yuan Yuan into his arms and carried her toward the bed…

The bed curtains fell closed, leaving only two silhouettes visible within.

Embracing each other, entwined through the night.

—

The next day.

At the gates of Xiangxi Town.

Huang Yi sat atop a tall steed, with ranks upon ranks of Black-Scale Cavalry behind him.

Su Yuan arrived with Ling Yu and officials from the yamen to see him off.

Huang Yi seemed distracted, his gaze fixed inside the city gate.

But when the time came, the woman he waited for still did not appear.

Last night she had given him everything most precious to her, yet she refused to leave with him.

And today… she would not even come to see him off?

They both knew that once he left, they might never meet again.

After waiting in vain, and with his deputy urging him repeatedly, Huang Yi had no choice but to clasp his hands in farewell to Su Yuan and the others before urging his horse forward.

Just then—

a familiar pipa melody drifted from above the city gate.

Huang Yi trembled and turned his head.

There sat Yuan Yuan atop the city wall, dressed in a pale pink gauze gown, gently playing the pipa.

The breeze brushed her face, lifting strands of dark hair as her skirt fluttered in the wind.

Huang Yi gazed at her unwilling to part.

She was smiling—

yet tears slid silently from her eyes.

That moment froze in Huang Yi’s memory. For many years afterward, he would never forget this woman.

“Your Highness, it’s getting late!” the deputy urged again.

Huang Yi cast one final, lingering glance at Yuan Yuan before turning his horse around.

“Hyah!”

“Hyah—!”

He rode away, followed by the vast procession of Black-Scale Cavalry.

Again and again, he turned back to look at that pale pink figure upon the wall—until she shrank into a tiny dot and finally disappeared from sight.

Once he was gone, Yuan Yuan’s tender expression vanished instantly, replaced by a sly grin. Hugging her pipa, she stepped down from the wall.

Su Yuan and the others soon returned. Seeing her, he sighed and shook his head but said nothing, simply walking away.

Ling Yu slowed his steps and stopped beside her as they passed each other.

“You’re really not going with him?”

Yuan Yuan smiled faintly, confidence shining in her eyes. “We will meet again. I’ll be waiting.”

“Heh…” Ling Yu chuckled softly and walked on.

People said men understood men—but what men didn’t realize was that women might understand them even better.

Especially a sentimental man like Huang Yi.

He, too, would wait eagerly for the day they met again.

And when that day came—

it would surely be interesting.

—

With the disasters over, the second branch of the family moved back to Sweetwater Alley.

Compared to before, their home was much larger.

When the neighboring house collapsed during the disaster and its owners fled, Tang Wan had decisively bought the property next door.

After reconstruction, what had once been a small single-courtyard residence became a spacious double-courtyard home.

There were more rooms, and the bedrooms for the mother and her two children had been expanded.

The stables were brand new and spacious—Tang Wan even planned to buy another horse for her handsome husband to ride in the future.

Even Yinbiao now had an oversized doghouse of his own.

As for Qian Shi and Ling Sheng, they had purchased two shops and already moved out to live independently.