Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Yeah, I Hold a Grudge

She said without giving him any face: “Young Master Du, if you want to throw your weight around here, save it. The people of Windward Pavilion are mine. They are not houseborn servants of Du Manor. You have no right to scold them.”

Du Zi Heng choked on his words.

As the young master of the Chancellor’s Manor, his life had gone smoothly since childhood. In the capital he had a few rivals, but people usually spoke in circles. Even when they set traps, they did it in the dark. No one tore the pretense in public.

This was the first time someone pointed at his nose and said he was not qualified.

His face tightened, and anger pushed his reason aside: “Fine. I have no right to scold her. But I still have the right to talk about Bing Yue, don’t I? Since you knew she was invaded by yin energy, why pretend to be deaf and say nothing? Are you still holding a grudge because she stole your credit?”

He believed that no matter how tough Yu Zhi Yi was, she would not admit to such a small-minded motive. Even if she minded, she would deny it.

If she denied it, he could ride the momentum and ask her to remove the yin energy.

He never expected Yu Zhi Yi to admit openly: “Yeah, I hold a grudge.”

“You…” Du Zi Heng stared, stunned by her bluntness.

Yu Zhi Yi gave a short laugh: “Surprised I am so honest?”

“I am a Daoist cultivator. I am not a Buddhist cultivator, but unless there is a real need, I do not lie. You Bing Yue is not worth a lie.”

“She grabbed my credit right to my face. That is like sitting on my head and taking a dump. If someone bullies me that openly, why should I warn her that she is about to suffer?”

“People should pay for what they do, right?”

“And besides, doesn’t she have the chief disciple of Dragon-Tiger Mountain by her side?” Her smile was pretty and sharp as she said: “If she had not rushed out overnight because she feared I would steal the credit, and had instead waited until Ou Yang Shuo recovered the next day to return to the capital, Ou Yang Shuo would have seen her condition.”

“But she was afraid of me taking her credit, so she insisted on leaving the injured Ou Yang Shuo behind. She brought this on herself.”

Du Zi Heng had no reply.

His anger cooled. Reason told him he would not easily persuade Yu Zhi Yi to go remove the yin energy today.

He softened his tone: “Zhi Yi, I know Bing Yue offended you. Could you do me a favor for my sake and help her?”

Yu Zhi Yi found it funny: “What ‘sake’ do you have with me?”

“…”

She added, twisting the knife: “To be blunt, your ‘sake’ is not as important to me as a single blade of grass at Windward Pavilion.”

She had first wanted to say he was not as important as the steward and Aunt Wen, then thought that might drag them into trouble, so she changed her words.

Du Zi Heng almost fainted from anger. He knew Yu Zhi Yi had a sharp tongue, but he had not tasted it in a long time. Now that he did, he found he still could not take it.

He shut his eyes, pressed down the fire and the helplessness, and asked: “What will it take for you to remove the yin energy from Bing Yue?”

Yu Zhi Yi had expected this: “Wait a moment.”

She asked Li Rou for paper and brush, wrote a few lines, then blew the ink dry.

Handing the paper to him, she said: “Take this divorce letter, and I will go.”

At first, Du Zi Heng admired the bold, flowing calligraphy. But when he heard “divorce letter,” his face darkened: “Zhi Yi, stop making a scene.”

Yu Zhi Yi smiled: “You think I am making a scene?”

Du Zi Heng closed his eyes, holding back his temper: “Saving a life is better than building a seven-tier pagoda. Your conflict with Bing Yue is not so deep that you would watch her die, right? Yes, she offended you a few times, but she is straightforward, and in the end nothing serious happened. Can’t you be generous?”

Yu Zhi Yi’s smile faded as she said: “Young Master Du, have you never heard this saying: if you tell someone to be generous, may lightning strike you.”

“You!”

She looked at him coldly and said: “The reason the things she did to target me did not cause ‘serious results’ was not because they could not. It was because I was skilled enough to prevent serious results. Otherwise, on the very first day when she pushed Zi Yuan, Zi Yuan would have been badly hurt.”

“Zi Yuan cannot swim. If she fell into the water, her life would be at risk. Yes, there were people nearby, but if they had no skill to stop You Bing Yue, they would also have no skill to get past her and save Zi Yuan. If that happened, Zi Yuan would face more than a ruined name. She might die.”

“Later, that woman even let a servant accuse me of witchcraft. In any dynasty, witchcraft is hated and a serious crime. At that time I had not gained a firm footing in Du Manor. The Chancellor and his wife might have thrown me out.”

“Even if I am not afraid of being thrown out, the fact that I am skilled does not cancel being slandered.”

“One thing after another, which one was not You Bing Yue striking first?”

“Du Zi Heng, you do not deserve my generosity. So today you have only two choices: either take this divorce letter, or go back and keep serving You Bing Yue. Stop bothering me.”

Anger rose again in Du Zi Heng: “Since your heart is not here, I will grant your wish!”

He took the divorce letter and said: “Now will you come with me to save Bing Yue?”

Yu Zhi Yi gave him a sidelong glance and said: “You think I have not read the Sheng Code? If a man and a woman want to end a marriage, besides a divorce letter, they have to register it at the yamen. If you do not register, the letter is just a scrap of paper.”

“…”

He could not tell if he had simply forgotten or chosen not to bring it up. Now that she mentioned it, and seeing how eager she was to leave him, he felt no urge to keep her. [Let her run into walls outside. She thinks being a director at the Ministry of Justice lets her ignore how harsh this era is to women.] In his mind he added: even an empress abandoned by a man would be flayed by public opinion.

He looked at her and said: “As you wish.”

He planned to wait for her to return and beg to remarry. [She will come back and ask to marry again.]

About two hours later, Yu Zhi Yi and Du Zi Heng walked out of the Jing Prefecture yamen with certificates in hand proving they were both now single.

Besides that, Yu Zhi Yi also held a set of household registration papers. When she had married Du Zi Heng, her registration had moved to Du Manor. Now that she had succeeded in divorcing him, her registration should have been moved back to the Yu Clan.

However, she was now an Imperial Court official, and earlier she had severed ties with the Yu Clan in front of the emperor. So she could set up her own registration as a female household.