So, it was about that matter. Gu Youyou had no objections and nodded with a smile, "Alright, I’ll follow Doctor Zhou’s arrangements."
"Ah! Agreed, then let’s settle on that!"
Gu Youyou thus secured the house for herself, and left the matter of paying the silver to Qin Changlin. She went home and began to pack her belongings.
Her possessions were indeed few: aside from the vegetables and herbs she planted in the yard, there were only a few garments.
Hmm, she couldn’t take the vegetables and herbs with her, so they would be a gift for Jin Zijin.
Looking at the small bundle she had packed, she truly felt a sense of sorrow.
This was all she had in the world.
Gu Youyou took out a piece of coarse cloth and, similarly, picked up a piece of burned charcoal, and wrote in large, bold characters on the cloth.
A self-divorce letter.
"Presently, the daughter of the Gu Family of Lotus Village, having been gravely ill, was wed into the hunter’s family of the same village. Her husband had not abandoned her, attentively caring for her until her recovery. However, Gu Youyou was constantly anxious.
Due to long-term illness, she believed she would remain barren for life. As the ancients say, ’There are three forms of filial impiety, and to have no descendants is the most serious.’ Gu Youyou does not wish to burden her husband’s family by leaving them without progeny, and thus, with tears, she hereby divorces herself.
With this, she concludes her writing, wishing her husband long-lasting peace and urging him to find a better partner!"
Although there were few words, she filled the entire piece of coarse cloth with her bold and vigorous handwriting, especially the characters for her name, Gu Youyou, which seemed to possess the power of dragons and tigers.
When Jin Zijin came back in the evening and finished reading this self-divorce letter, he was once again shocked.
Perhaps because her health was much improved, these words contained much more vigor than the prescription she had written last time.
A woman capable of such writing, how could she be ordinary?
Ha, she even claimed to have learned these things in a dream—a ridiculous excuse!
Jin Zijin looked up at the sky, realizing it was getting late.
He curled the corners of his mouth and murmured softly, "I’ll let you off for now."
You think the game is over, but in reality, it hasn’t even truly begun.
In August, the nights were much cooler, and most people would cover themselves with a thin blanket to prevent catching a chill. But Jin Zijin, in his simple thatched hut, was so hot that he couldn’t sleep.
This had been the case since last year, and it was only out of desperation that he had finally set his sights on the Gu Family’s pawn.
But now, she had run away.
Jin Zijin could not help but give a bitter laugh before finally getting up and heading to the source of the Qingshui River, that very coldest spring.
The moon shone brightly, and beneath the night sky, the earth was cloaked in a hazy, silvery glow.
Shedding all pretense, within the cool stream, Jin Zijin’s deep and expansive eyes held a clarity and gentleness like the moonlight.
He was originally a man of hearty and carefree nature.
Trees long for peace but the wind does not cease; he desired an ordinary life, yet others insisted on pulling him into the whirlpool of power.
Rustling sounds came from behind the cliff, disturbing Jin Zijin who was relaxing in the icy spring water. He slightly furrowed his brow, and after a moment, gazed in a direction with displeasure and muttered quietly, "Ever persistent, you manage to find me everywhere. Do you truly have nothing better to do?"
From behind the tree, a man dressed in white emerged. In the moonlight, his white garment glowed with a soft radiance, and the handsome man appeared as if he were an immortal who had descended from the moon.
He walked at a leisurely pace, a faint smile on his lips, his ivory-colored fan swaying with each step.
"It seems you’re the one with the leisure, to bathe in the ice-cold spring and bask in the moonlight in the dead of night. Aren’t you afraid of freezing yourself to death?"
"Sharp-tongued as ever, no wonder your father was so angered by you that he fell ill," Jin Zijin replied irritably.