Zhou Weiqi closed the window and sat down. Seeing Han Zhi standing by the door with a pensive expression, he let out a cold laugh: “Wasn’t cousin supposed to be finding a way to deal with Lai Chenglong? Yet you actually have the leisure to scheme against a child.”
Clearly he hadn’t taken his matters seriously at all. Now when his affairs had reached a critical juncture, Han Zhi had actually run off to settle old grudges, offending the Song family. If he hadn’t happened to overhear Ye Jingchuan mention it when he went to Princess Rongcheng’s residence, if he hadn’t later received that letter, Song Chuyi and Song Yan might truly have been killed here by an irrational Han Zhi right now!
But if Song Chuyi and Song Yan had really died here, the Tongzhou Prefecture Magistrate’s forces would have immediately surrounded this gambling den. Today also happened to be the monthly accounting day—if those account books were confiscated along with everything else, the investigators would easily discover that every month a substantial dividend was deposited into Zhenghe Bank. If they then investigated this account at Zhenghe Bank…
Never mind an old hand like Han Zhi—even a child would understand these cause-and-effect relationships. Han Zhi clearly hadn’t put his heart into handling matters for him. Han Zhi wasn’t like this before. Zhou Weiqi raised his eyes to glance at Han Zhi, his gaze surging with indescribable disappointment.
“Cousin, is it because of Yue Heng’s matter that you’ve come to resent us?” Seeing Han Zhi slowly lift his eyes as if touched by his words, he shook his head with a bitter smile: “Mother Consort and I have both tried our best in this matter. It’s not that we stood aside doing nothing while waiting to watch Yue Heng suffer misfortune—we truly couldn’t intervene. Even uncle sent a letter saying he understood our position. Why can’t you see reason?”
Because Han Zhi had been sent away to recuperate since childhood, his relationship with Minor Madam Fan and Han Yue Heng could only barely be described as superficially harmonious while actually estranged. So why was it that when push came to shove, Han Zhi seemed to be caught up in this matter instead, unable to think straight?
Guan Shan’s voice came from outside: “After Sixth Miss Song’s carriage traveled a distance, female family members from Magistrate He of Tongzhou personally came to receive her. This subordinate also heard that Second Young Master Ye seems to have come to Tongzhou together with Eldest Young Master Song, and is currently staying as a guest at the Song family’s villa in Dougezhuang.”
Han Zhi raised his eyebrows slightly—he had thought that when Song Chuyi encountered the matter with Song Yan, she would be thrown into complete chaos without any ideas. After all, when she’d previously seen Jiang Yuan, she’d lost all composure. But what he never expected was that Song Chuyi had already dug a pit early on, waiting for him to jump into it.
Not only had she contacted the Tongzhou Prefecture Magistrate in advance, ready to turn the tables on him at any moment, she’d even contacted the Ye family—otherwise how would Zhou Weiqi appear here at this time? Not only that, she hadn’t even concealed things from her own family elders—otherwise with her capabilities alone, how could she have moved the Tongzhou Prefecture Magistrate? This must have been Song Jue’s doing.
Zhou Weiqi’s mocking laughter rang out right on cue: “Cousin has truly been driven to distraction by rage, to actually be schemed against like this by a young girl.”
Yes, he truly had been driven to distraction by rage. Not only had all his previous arrangements come to nothing, he’d also thoroughly offended the Song family and alienated Zhou Weiqi.
From now on, in Fan Liangdi and Zhou Weiqi’s hearts, he would no longer be that good nephew, that good cousin. He had sabotaged Fan Liangdi and Zhou Weiqi’s plans. They wanted to win over the Song family and Cui family—right now they couldn’t curry favor with the Song family fast enough, yet he had chosen precisely this moment to not only disregard Prince of Dongping’s predicament but also offend the Song and Cui families—everyone knew the Han family was a blade in Grand Madam Fan’s hand.
Han Zhi didn’t respond for a long while. Zhou Weiqi couldn’t help but grow somewhat agitated: “What’s to be said about this matter? Does cousin not plan to give me an explanation?!”
An explanation? What explanation? No matter what he said now, that thorn in Zhou Weiqi’s heart wouldn’t disappear. He laughed once: “His Highness just said you couldn’t intervene—is it that you couldn’t intervene, or that you intervened too much?!”
Qian Ying, who had been standing attendant at the side all along, twitched his eyebrows sharply. He glanced at Han Zhi, then lowered his head impassively.
Round and round, it still came back to Han Yue Heng’s matter. In the end, he still couldn’t get past this hurdle in his heart. Zhou Weiqi also couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. Although he also felt Han Yue Heng was pitiful, in his heart, the Han family should be the ones to make sacrifices for them. Once he’d grieved over this matter, it should have been settled—yet Han Zhi was being so relentless about it.
After all, Han Zhi and Han Yue Heng were blood siblings. Blood was thicker than water. All that talk about being wholeheartedly devoted to him—looking back on it now, it was all a joke.
He raised his eyebrows and ordered Qian Ying: “Go downstairs and tally up the accounts. Balance everything clearly. Take all the previous account books with you as well.”
If these things continued to remain in Han Zhi’s hands, he no longer felt at ease. Who knew—since Han Zhi’s rage-driven distraction this time could make him disregard their interests, what even more irrational things might he do next time?
So now that they’d lost their utility value, he was simply starting to distance himself from the relationship? Afraid of being hated by the Song family together with him, was he?
Han Zhi pulled at the corner of his mouth in a mocking smile: “Your Highness needn’t be anxious. How could the accounts between our two families possibly be settled clearly? Even if we settle things clearly here, what about Xibei? What about Yangzhou? To settle everything clearly would probably take seven or eight years at least, wouldn’t it?”
Zhou Weiqi turned to glare at him furiously: “In the end, isn’t it all because of cousin’s matter?! I’ve already said…”
“Why doesn’t Your Highness go ask aunt what the story is with that Nanny Qi by Yue Heng’s side? Why not ask aunt why, when the Han family was trying to find solutions, she had someone go to the Imperial Observatory to urge them to set the date?” Han Zhi raised his voice as he looked at Zhou Weiqi: “Aunt was the one who was first unkind to us. I’m not the one who betrayed our alliance.”
He just couldn’t get past it in his heart. He didn’t understand why the aunt who had doted on him since childhood and treated him as her own would suddenly change like that—he had thought that no matter what happened, he still had his aunt. But when he suddenly discovered one day that the truth wasn’t what he’d imagined, that he might just be a chess piece held in someone else’s hand, that breath of air in his chest simply couldn’t be expelled no matter what.
Once certain rifts exist, they cannot be smoothed over. Even if you use ten times the effort to make amends, it’s impossible to restore things to their original state. Trust is something that once lost, is simply lost.
Just a month ago, they had still advanced and retreated together, still discussed through the night how to handle the Xibei matter and cover their tracks more cleanly. But now, between the intimately united Han family and them, a deep chasm had been carved.
Should he blame Mother Consort for acting willfully on her own, or should he blame Han Zhi for making far too much of a small matter?
Zhou Weiqi was left speechless. He pressed his lips together, looked at Han Zhi, then slammed the door and strode away with large steps.