{"id":3987,"date":"2026-06-14T12:18:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/pursuit-of-jade-119\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T12:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:18:47","slug":"pursuit-of-jade-119","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/chapter\/pursuit-of-jade-119\/","title":{"rendered":"Pursuit of Jade 119"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 119

Dawn had only just broken, and the purple bamboo leaves in the courtyard were still beaded with tiny droplets of morning dew.

Fan Changyu groggily opened her eyes, feeling a throbbing ache in her head.

Had she really gotten drunk last night?

Frowning, she raised a hand to rub her temples. As she breathed in, she realized the bedding carried a scent unfamiliar to her. She immediately jolted awake and looked down instinctively. Fortunately, her clothes were still neatly on her.

What greeted her eyes was a dark-colored quilt embroidered with clustered bird patterns, while the gauze canopy embroidered with entwined lotus vines was only lowered halfway near the head of the bed. Golden morning light filtered through it, making the dark lotus patterns seem to glow faintly.

Fan Changyu assumed she had been temporarily settled in the City Lord’s residence after passing out drunk. Relieved, she pushed herself upright.

“Awake?”

A low, husky yet clear voice sounded from beyond the bed curtains.

Her body stiffened.

Turning toward the sound, she looked through the golden silk gauze curtain and vaguely made out a figure seated by the latticed window opposite the bed.

Clad in a princely robe with a jade belt, his black hair was half tied and half loose beneath a golden crown. It was impossible to tell how long he had been sitting there. In the morning light, he was as silent and motionless as a statue.

Xie Zheng?

She was in his room?

For a long moment, Fan Changyu’s mind went completely blank.

Her head ached fiercely from the hangover. Pressing a hand to her temple, she forced herself to recall the events of the previous night.

She remembered pretending to be drunk and allowing a maid to help her out of the banquet hall. Afterward, she had intended to find a place to sober up, but somehow she seemed to have genuinely become drunk. The last thing she remembered was washing her face at a water vat before Xie Zheng had grabbed her and pulled her up.

Had he seen her while she was drunk?

Given the state of their relationship, why hadn’t he simply ordered a maid to escort her to a guest room? Why had he brought her to his own chamber instead?

Questions flooded her mind, but unfortunately she could not remember a single thing after becoming drunk. Worried there might have been some misunderstanding, she could only say first:

“I’m sorry. I got drunk last night. I… didn’t cause any trouble for the Marquis, did I?”

Separated by the gauze curtain, she could not make out his expression, but she distinctly felt the atmosphere in the room turn cold and heavy.

Fan Changyu had no idea whether something she said had displeased him or whether she had truly behaved inappropriately while drunk.

She could already hear servants moving about in the courtyard. Afraid that if she stayed any longer, people would see her leaving Xie Zheng’s room, she lifted the curtain and got out of bed. As she pulled on her boots, she said:

“If I truly offended you in any way last night, I will apologize properly another day, Marquis…”

The man who had remained silent all this time suddenly let out a short laugh.

“What exactly could you have done to offend me?”

Perhaps because he had sat there all night, his voice was hoarse, as though his throat were full of sand. Yet his words were sharp and cold, as though he deeply hated the way she constantly tried to draw a clear line between them.

Fan Changyu’s hands paused.

A deathly silence spread between them.

After putting on her boots, she looked up.

Without the curtain obscuring her view, she could clearly see his pale complexion. The corners of his eyes were tinged red from staying awake all night. His hands rested on his knees, and dried blood crusted over his fingertips.

Anyone could see how exhausted he was.

Yet at the same time, he seemed like a bowstring stretched to its limit, making one fear the madness and distortion that would spill forth if that fragile calm ever snapped.

Looking at him, Fan Changyu suddenly felt a dull ache in her chest.

The Xie Zheng she remembered had always been proud and aloof, looking down on the world. Even when he had nearly died and she had brought him home, he had never shown the slightest weakness.

But now, it seemed to her that all his pride and harshness were nothing more than a thin sheet of ice on a lake, ready to crack apart with the slightest touch of sunlight.

Perhaps realizing his words had been too harsh, Xie Zheng fell silent for a moment before standing and walking toward the door.

“What do you want to eat?”

His tone was so natural, as though things between them had always been this way, as though there had never been any barrier caused by the hatred between their fathers.

Memories of their time together resurfaced.

Fan Changyu had once believed she could face those memories calmly, but now her heart was gripped by an unbearable sadness.

“Xie Zheng.”

The man whose hand had already reached the door latch froze instantly.

Looking at his elegant figure, Fan Changyu took a deep breath. Yet when she spoke again, her voice still carried a trace of hoarseness.

“Since we parted in Chongzhou, we’ve never really had a proper conversation. Since we’re here today, let’s talk things through.”

The man standing with his back to her said nothing.

But neither did he leave.

He simply stood there, waiting for her to continue.

Fan Changyu said,

“I’m sorry about General Xie’s death.”

At the mention of Xie Linshan, Xie Zheng remained silent.

With his back turned, she could not see his expression, but the hand gripping the door latch tightened so hard that the veins on the back of it bulged visibly.

“I don’t blame you for the choice you made that day, or for the things you said. Until the truth about what happened seventeen years ago is completely uncovered, I won’t ask you to believe my grandfather and father’s words anymore.”

She paused before continuing.

“You once said that, out of respect for Grand Tutor Tao, you would only regard me as a junior fellow disciple from now on. But I’m not as free and easy as you are, Marquis.”

Staring at his back, her eyes had already begun to sting. Yet she still spoke each word carefully and distinctly.

“We should remain strangers from now on. I’ve already imposed on you enough today.”

When her mother was alive, she had always said Fan Changyu was broad-minded.

But whenever someone truly entered her heart, losing even one of them would take half her life away.

She rarely fell in love.

And once she did, how could she simply let go?

A father’s death. An imperial marriage decree.

Too much stood between them now.

There was no going back.

Crack\u2014

The sound of wood breaking came from the doorway.

Xie Zheng had crushed the door latch in his hand.

Fan Changyu’s heart jumped involuntarily.

She saw fresh blood seeping from beneath the scabs on his fingers where he had squeezed too hard, yet he seemed completely oblivious to the pain.

Still facing away from her, he asked,

“What if I said… I regret it?”

Fan Changyu’s eyes widened.

For a moment, she failed to understand what he meant.

“What?”

Xie Zheng turned around.

His eyes were dark, devoid of any trace of light. Crimson droplets slid down his pale, slender fingers and fell to the floor, bursting into tiny flowers of blood like tears.

“I said…”

His voice was pale, stubborn.

“I regret it.”

The words struck Fan Changyu so hard that her chest went numb.

What followed was an endless bitterness.

For a long time, she could not speak.

The doorframe blocked the sunlight pouring in from outside. Standing there, Xie Zheng seemed completely merged with the shadows.

Meanwhile, Fan Changyu stood directly opposite the latticed window, bathed in the morning sun. Warm, vibrant light enveloped her.

The line dividing light and darkness between them looked like an insurmountable gulf.

After a long while, Fan Changyu finally heard herself ask hoarsely,

“You regret it… and then what?”

Xie Zheng looked at her quietly.

There was not a single glimmer of light in his black eyes.

“Can we go back to how things were before?”

He had tried to give her up.

But the greatest pain and torment he had ever suffered in his life had been these past months.

At first, he thought he would slowly get used to it.

Just as he had once been unable to accept the deaths of his parents in childhood, he believed that no matter how painful it was, he would eventually endure it.

If one day wasn’t enough, then a month.

If a month wasn’t enough, then a year.

Yet he hadn’t even managed to endure a single month.

His chest felt unbearably hollow.

The longer he stayed away from her, the deeper that emptiness became, until it nearly drove him insane.

Endless killing and pain could not alleviate it in the slightest.

Many times, Xie Zheng felt as though he were already dead.

No.

Death would probably be easier than this suffering.

It was as though she had always been a part of his life.

So when he lost her, he became lost himself, wandering like a walking corpse.

Night after night, dreams of her intertwined with the horrific image of Xie Linshan’s death in Jinzhou seventeen years ago, leaving him bloodied and struggling in endless darkness.

Perhaps he had only ever been destined to live for revenge.

Perhaps he was never meant to receive even the smallest measure of happiness or kindness in this world.

Yet from her, he had received the purest and most passionate love.

She had taught him that life was not made entirely of suffering.

But the image of Xie Linshan’s body\u2014his abdomen cut open and emptied of its organs, later crudely stitched together by military physicians\u2014along with the countless axe and blade wounds that exposed bone, continued to suffocate him.

When hatred and love tormented him to the brink of madness, he suddenly realized something.

He hated her too.

Her family had caused his father’s death.

That hatred had tormented him for half his life.

She had shown him what love was.

Yet the feelings she awakened within him tormented him day and night, ensuring that he would never know peace for the rest of his life.

At moments when his hatred reached its peak, he had even thought that once his revenge was complete, perhaps he should take her with him into death.

If they could not share a bed in life, then they could share a grave in death.

Then he would never have to endure such pain again.

He could hold her hand across the Naihe Bridge and walk toward their next life together.

In the next life, there would probably be no blood feud separating them.

Perhaps they would meet as children and grow up together as childhood sweethearts.

She liked scholars.

Then he would become a refined scholar.

He would earn official honors, and when she came of age, he would marry her, have children with her, and grow old by her side…

But those were only fantasies.

If he had truly been willing to hurt her, he would never have settled for merely saying that they should never meet again.

When he saw her again and learned that she had already walked through death’s gates once, the terror, helplessness, and fury that had made his entire body tremble was something he never wanted to experience again in this lifetime.

Xie Zheng looked at the young woman in military attire standing in the morning light.

Even her strands of hair glowed with a faint golden radiance, like a deity who had accidentally wandered into the mortal world.

The scene from the previous night’s banquet surfaced in his mind again\u2014Zheng Wenchang drinking on her behalf.

The jealousy raging inside him grew like wild weeds.

Could she not be a goddess for him alone?

Still, no answer came from Fan Changyu.

Xie Zheng unconsciously clenched his fist.

The faint sting from the wounds on his fingertips only made him more aware of everything. His dark eyes grew even deeper and more unreadable.

Fan Changyu was simply stunned.

Go back to how things were before?

How could they possibly do that?

A blood feud stood between them.

Even if the truth behind the Jinzhou tragedy seventeen years ago was eventually uncovered, the Emperor had already bestowed a marriage upon him.

He was going to marry a princess.

So what exactly did he mean by this?

Fan Changyu had heard stories about powerful nobles keeping mistresses outside their official households.

Did he want her to become his mistress?

The thought made it hard for her to breathe.

A sharp pain rose from the depths of her heart, blurring her vision.

Suppressing the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, she asked in return,

“And how exactly does the Marquis think we can return to how things were before?”

“Can the Marquis pretend that what happened in Jinzhou never occurred?”

“Or can the Emperor’s marriage decree be withdrawn?”

By the time she reached the final sentence, no matter how tightly she clenched her teeth, a tear finally escaped her eyes and crashed heavily onto the floor.

When Xie Zheng heard the first part of her words, his expression darkened terrifyingly.

But after hearing the second half, he suddenly lifted his head.

“Who told you the Emperor bestowed a marriage upon me?”<\/p>","protected":false},"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"novel":[],"class_list":["post-3987","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3988,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/3987\/revisions\/3988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"novel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velvetink.xyz\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/novel?post=3987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}