Gu Yingjie rode very fast, but because of the darkness, he didn't realize that he rode straight toward a tree branch. When he saw the branch, he was already very close, so he jumped off the horse and landed on the branch, and his horse took off. Then he realized that the full moon tonight was beautiful.
Listening to the silence of the night made his heart feel even more lonely. He climbed higher and higher until he almost reached the top of the tree. He found himself a good, stable branch. He sat down and leaned his back against the tree. He looked up at the full moon, his head full of memories of the past. While sobbing, the memories of the past slowly came to him.
Gu Yingjie knew that Zhu Mingyang was already very angry with him and Gu Tingfang when he heard the reason why Gu Yingjie was visiting the Yuan household. He closed his eyes, leaning on the ceramic bathtub.
Lin Ruchao walked in and stood behind the screen. He asked, "Young master, what happened to Guard Zhu?"
Gu Yingjie replied, "He is angry with me."
"Is this about you meeting Lady Yuan?" Lin Ruchao asked, sensing the source of the conflict.
"Yes," Gu Yingjie confirmed.
"Young master, can I say a few words?" Lin Ruchao requested.
"Go ahead."
Lin Ruchao, speaking from the heart, said, "I raised you two since you were young. I know that the relationship between young master and Guard Zhu is not just master and servant. Young master, as a guard, we don't have many choices in life. We serve our master and silently suffer alone." He knelt down, making a sincere plea. "Young master, if you consider Guard Zhu more than a guard, then please give him his freedom to live freely as a man with dignity."
Gu Yingjie asked, "What do you mean?"
Lin Ruchao elaborated, his plea becoming desperate, "I don't want Guard Zhu to stay on the sidelines and watch young master live his life with pain like me. The young master should know the temperament of Guard Zhu better than anyone else. Once he loses control, no one can stop it."
Gu Yingjie, having clearly already made a decision, shifted the topic. "Guard Lin, is there any way to make people blind temporarily?"
Lin Ruchao, horrified, asked, "Young master, what are you trying to do?"
Gu Yingjie explained his desperate plan. "If I let him go, he will never go. If I am blind and rely on him, he will go if I am overburdened."
Lin Ruchao objected strongly. "Young master, you don't have to do that. Young master can let him go without causing physical harm to you and him."
Gu Yingjie opened his eyes, reflecting on the failure of his most extreme sacrifice. After he went blind, Zhu Mingyang did not leave him but cared more for him. Zhu Mingyang ensured that all of his needs and requirements were met and even agreed to let him marry Yuan Chaomei. He understood that both he and Zhu Mingyang had to pay a price for his decision.
The pain Gu Yingjie was now suffering was nothing compared to the shock of the time Zhu Mingyang looked at him with disgust for the first time. Yes, that day was the moment he had to remind Zhu Mingyang that he is the master and Zhu Mingyang is the servant. That day was the first time he had fully let Zhu Mingyang understand his cruel intention. He questioned what he would gain from hurting Zhu Mingyang, and the answer was the same as the day when he decided to walk this route: his reason was selfish to some extent, but it was because he truly loves Zhu Mingyang.
The sight of the small house with red lanterns hanging outside brought Gu Yingjie back to the day when Zhu Mingyang broke hell loose. He closed his eyes, and the painful memory of that night, immediately following his marriage, slowly came back to him.
After talking with Yuan Chaomei, the couple slept in separate beds. Suddenly, the bedroom door was violently opened, and Zhu Mingyang rushed into the bedroom. The loud noise awakened both Gu Yingjie and Yuan Chaomei. Zhu Mingyang walked straight to Gu Yingjie and grabbed his hand.
Gu Yingjie tried to pull his hand away from Zhu Mingyang's grasped. "What are you doing?" he demanded.
Zhu Mingyang angrily dragged Gu Yingjie from the bedroom to the main entrance of Gu Mansion. Along the way, he injured many guards on patrol.
Gu Yingjie demanded, "Mingyang, what are you doing? Let go of me."
Zhu Mingyang replied angrily, "Go with me, I won't allow you to sleep with her." He proceeded to drag Gu Yingjie to the front entrance.
When Zhu Mingyang and Gu Yingjie reached the top of the stairs, forty guards and Gu Tingfang had already arrived, blocking their exit.
Zhu Mingyang, his voice filled with reckless rage, declared madly, "I will kill those who stop us."
Gu Yingjie smelled a strong odor of wine from Zhu Mingyang. He asked, "Did you drink?"
"Yes," Zhu Mingyang replied, his eyes blazing with intoxicated defiance, "that's why I have this courage."
"Are you crazy?" Gu Yingjie demanded, trying desperately to pull his hand away. "Guards are prohibited to drink alcohol. What do you think you will gain by doing this?"
Zhu Mingyang ignored the question, grabbing Gu Yingjie by the back of his head and pulling him closer. He said angrily, "I warned you. Don't push me too far."
Gu Tingfang shouted from the foot of the stairs, "Zhu Mingyang, what are you doing?"
Zhu Mingyang declared, "I'm leaving with him."
Gu Yingjie quickly patted Zhu Mingyang hard on the chest—a desperate signal that went unheeded.
Zhu Mingyang looked into Gu Yingjie's eyes and demanded angrily, "Release me."
This forced Gu Yingjie to make the final, devastating move. He glared at Zhu Mingyang and said the words he knew would cut the deepest. "Zhu Mingyang, I want you to remember who you are and what role you play. I am the master, and you are the servant." He turned his back to Zhu Mingyang, completely repudiating their bond. "Guard Zhu, break the rule of consuming alcohol. Men, take him to the pole and give him his punishment."
The men told Gu Yingjie that Zhu Mingyang was punished and dragged back to his room. Gu Yingjie waited until early in the morning before entering the room. He saw Zhu Mingyang's bleeding back, and his heart ached terribly. Gu Yingjie closed the door behind him, walked to Zhu Mingyang, and knelt down. He took the towel beside the bed and began to wipe the blood from his back.
Zhu Mingyang, eyes closed in pain and anger, said, "Young master, since your intention is to inflict pain, why bother wiping the blood. You can get out now."
Gu Yingjie asked, "What exactly do you think you gain out of acting this way?"
"That same question goes to you. Now scram," Zhu Mingyang retorted.
Gu Yingjie ignored him and continued to wipe the blood from Zhu Mingyang's back. In a rage, Zhu Mingyang pushed him away, causing Gu Yingjie to lose his balance and sit down on the ground.
Zhu Mingyang looked at him with a pair of detested eyes. He sternly said, "Why care when you already burned that bridge? Get the hell out."
He refused to forget those painful memories; they were a reminder that sometimes pain is the only thing that keeps a person sane. Since that incident, Zhu Mingyang kept a distance from him and no longer got close to him. After they completed their given tasks, Zhu Mingyang would hand him over to Yuan Chaomei. Zhu Mingyang now acted like any other guard, fully accepting the role that he was a servant and was not qualified to stand equal to his master.
In Gu Yingjie's life, he had been given away many times. His mother gave him to his aunt. After taking care of him for two months, his aunt gave him to his grandfather. But every time they gave him away, his pain was not even one-third of Zhu Mingyang's hateful stare.
He frowned sadly and said, "It is a lonely feeling when someone you care about becomes a stranger." His tears began to fall. "People who try to keep their loved ones safe often end up feeling the loneliest."
Down in Li Village, inside the shared bedroom of Yan Zhanjin's home, Yan Zhanjin helped Zhu Mingyang onto his bed and covered him with a quilt. When he was about to leave, Zhu Mingyang grabbed his hand.
Zhu Mingyang, still deeply in his drunken confusion and reliving the painful past, pleaded, "Don't go, don't leave me. I was very angry just now and told you to scram. I didn't push you on purpose." He got up and hugged Yan Zhanjin tightly. "I miss you so much."
Yan Zhanjin pulled away gently and lay Zhu Mingyang back down. After a while, Zhu Mingyang finally fell asleep. Yan Zhanjin looked at him and smiled, but his expression immediately hardened. He sneered and said to himself, "I don't understand why a big man like you, who is not afraid of anything become such baby in time like this. If you are going to confess, confess when you are sober."
Early in the morning, Xiao Bai, Gu Yingjie's horse, arrived on the doorstep of the Gu Manor. The two guards at the door glanced at each other and were taken aback as to why their young master's horse came running towards them without their young master.
The two guards looked at each other and shockingly said in unison, "Xiao Bai…"
The two guards walked to Xiao Bai and saw blood on Xiao Bai's body. A guard rushed in and arrived at the morning meeting in the conference hall. The guard knelt in front of Gu Tingfang.
The guard said, "Chief Gu, we found blood on Xiao Bai outside the front entrance this morning, but the blood stains are not Xiao Bai's blood."
Gu Tingfang demanded, "Where is Yingjie?"
The Guard replied, "We only found Xiao Bai."
Gu Tingfang, his face hardening, ordered, "Call the young mistress here."
After a while, Yuan Chaomei showed up.
Gu Tingfang asked sharply, "Where is Yingjie?"
Yuan Chaomei looked at him calmly. "He left."
"Where to?" Gu Tingfang pressed.
Yuan Chaomei appealed to his conscience. "Father, he is not happy here. Why should we keep him here when his happiness is elsewhere? Should we let him go and pursue his own happiness according to his wishes?"
Gu Tingfang's anger spiked. "I will ask you again, and this time I better have an answer. If not, I will use house rule."
Yuan Chaomei, seeing she had no choice but to ensure Gu Yingjie's safe pursuit, finally relented. "He went to see Guard Zhu."