Crimson Gold: Rebirths and Redemption

Chapter 7

The faint glow of an oil lamp casts long shadows across the opulent room, a stark contrast to the turmoil playing out on the silk-draped bed. Xunmi lay crumpled like a discarded doll, her once vibrant features a mask of despair.

She woke up to her bedchamber, the faint scent of medicine acrid in her nostrils. Her maid, Fenghua hovered by her bedside, her eyes filled with concern. "My lady," she whispered, "the doctor... he...said that you may..."

"What is it? Say it!" she croaked, hands shaking as she gripped Fenghua arms.

"The boy has been lost my lady, and...the doctor say it may be hard for you to get pregnant again in the future", Xuehua interjected yet even her calm voice shook at the end and the rest of the sentence was drowned out by the unbearable throbbing in her abdomen. A chilling realization dawned on her. The confrontation, the struggle, the fall... she had lost the child...

She screamed.

Raw and loud.

Unbefitting of a noble lady.

Like a wounded, dying animal.

But isn't that what she is right now?

She took her hand, trembling and cold, resting it on the empty space where her child had once promised to take root. The life that had pulsed within her, a testament to her love and her marriage, was now a chilling void, an echo of what could have been.

The air in the room hung heavy, thick with the scent of medicinal herbs and unspoken grief. The silence was broken only by the occasional sob that escaped Xunmi's lips, each one a ragged testament to the storm raging within her.

Suddenly, the stillness shattered. The bedroom door creaked open, and Weimin stepped inside. His face, usually etched with stillness, was now creased with lines of worry and regret. His eyes, something she loved so much once, were red-rimmed and downcast, mirroring the devastation in Xunmi's own.

But how dare that he cried, how dare he feels grief, when he is the reason for all of her grief.

He stood at the foot of the bed, looking lost and broken. But his gaze never met hers. The unspoken accusation hung heavy in the air, suffocating.

"I'm sorry..." his hoarse voice began but as if a matched was lighted on a pool of oil, A flicker of anger, sharp and bitter, ignited in Xunmi's eyes as she saw him. The pain, raw and primal, clawed its way up her throat, morphing into a guttural scream that tore through the suffocating silence.

Fury filled her as she lunged at him, scratching, hitting, and biting. Fury, grief, and betrayal mixing in a chaotic symphony of emotions. Weimin, caught off guard, tried to restrain her, his face a mask of shock and regret.

"Xunmi, please," he pleaded, his attempts to hold her at bay only intensifying her rage. Fenghua, witnessing the heartbreaking scene, rushed forward, attempting to separate the two in vain.

"You did this!" Xunmi screamed, tears streaming down her face. "You let her poison our home, and now our child is gone!"

Her accusation hung in the air, a poisoned arrow piercing the already fragile tapestry of their love. Weimin flinched, the guilt etched on his face deepening with each syllable that poured from Xunmi's lips.

He tried to reach for her, his hand outstretched in a hesitant plea for understanding. But Xunmi recoiled from his touch, as if from a physical blow

"No," she spat, pushing him away with a strength born of despair. "Don't touch me! Your touch is what brought this darkness into myself, your lies are what suffocated my life!"

tears streamed down her face, each one a scorching brand on her pale skin.

Weimin, still grappling with the shock of the miscarriage and the chaos unfolding before him, couldn't find words to appease the storm raging within Xunmi.

"Out!" she spat, pushing him away with a strength born of anguish. "Thats what you say, didnt you? Out of our lives, out of our home. You've chosen her over me, and I'll not be shackled by your betrayal any longer."

Weimin staggered backward, guilt and sorrow etched on his face. Xunmi, consumed by grief and righteous anger, collapsed onto the bed, her strength waning with each passing moment.

"Xunmi, please," he pleaded, his voice thick with remorse. "Let me explain, let me..."

But Xunmi would have none of it. Her once gentle heart, now hardened by loss and betrayal, wouldn't allow for explanations or apologies.

"I don't need your apology," she spat, her voice choked with tears. "All I need is solace from your presence. Leave, now, and never return, the only time you can return is when you give me the divorce paper!"

Tears trace fiery tracks down Xunmi's pale cheeks, each one a searing testament to the love she thought would conquer all, now reduced to ashes. Weimin still stands at the foot of the bed, a statue sculpted from remorse, yet as distant as the stars reflected in Xunmi's tear-filled eyes.

"Leave," she croaks, her voice a mere echo of the woman she once was. "There's nothing left for you here, no wife, no child, no haven."

Her words hang heavy in the air, each syllable sharper than the finest blade. Weimin flinches, the weight of her accusation a physical blow. He opens his mouth to speak, to plead, to explain, hands shaking, hanging in the air as he tried to reach her but Xunmi silences him with a gesture as cold as the ice encasing her heart.

"Don't," she whispers, her voice hollow. "There are no words left, no explanations that can mend what you've done.."

A tremor runs through her thin frame, a ripple of the storm raging within. Her eyes, once warm with affection, now glint with a coldness that chills Weimin to the bone

Her voice, though low, holds a chilling finality. It's the quiet before the storm, a promise of a future where Weimin has no place, a life where his name will be an echo, a whisper of a past she desperately wants to forget.

With a last, withering glance, Xunmi turns away, her back to Weimin.

Weimin, stripped bare by her words, stands frozen, the ghost of a man in a room that no longer feels like home. He turns, his footsteps echoing his retreat, each step a testament to the wreckage he has left behind, leaving Xunmi alone with her grief and the cold ember of hatred that flickers in the ashes of her love. It's a painful ending, but one that resonates with truth and emotional depth, without resorting to harmful representations of anger or violence.

As Weimin exited the room, a shattered man weighed down by the consequences of his choices, Xunmi's eyes met Fenghua's. The maid, a silent witness to the tragedy, offered a comforting touch on Xunmi's shoulder.

The room, once filled with the promise of love and shared dreams, now bore witness to the shattered remnants of a life unraveled by deceit and heartbreak. Xunmi, clutching the tattered fragments of her once-happy marriage, faced an uncertain future, the pain of loss cutting deeper than any physical wound.