Time Reversal

40. Epilogue

Wei Wuxian studied the letter sitting on his desk. He'd read the contents at least twenty times already. Limping footsteps roused him from his reverie. He quickly shoved the letter into his lapel pocket as a woman shuffled into his study. "A'Qing," he sighed, exasperated and trying to not show it, and rose to assist his wife of seven years to the couch. "You shouldn't be out of bed yet."

She glared at him from a face still too pale. It had been a full week since she delivered their stillborn son, and she still hadn't begun healing, emotionally at least. He suspected that the reason was the same reason for this stillbirth as well as her previous four miscarriages. "I will be the judge of what I am capable of."

"You should listen to your doctor," he chided gently before filling the tea kettle. "I will make you some of the tea he prescribed."

"Wen Zongzhu has requested my presence at dinner," she stated.

He bit his lip, furious at their sect leader. "I wish I could keep you away from him. His mo dao...." She wouldn't have the choice to not attend their sect leader. Not even when his experiments into resentful energy affected the people around him.

Not even when his experiments in resentful energy were what most likely caused Wen Qing's miscarriages.

He felt guilty about the miscarriages. For them occurring. For wanting her to never have become pregnant in the first place. As much as he wanted to be a father, he didn't. Not in this sect. Not with this woman. They didn't love each other; they barely liked each other. They certainly didn't like each other enough to share more than a handful of meals together, and then only because they had company to impress. In their seven years of marriage, they had both slept in the manor, not even in the same bed, at most fifty nights. The few nights they shared a bed had been more in desperation for human contact and a pretense that they were desired and loved rather than even a vague feeling of lust or affection. And even then, after their breathing had returned to normal and the sweat dried off of their skin, they would get up, wash a bit, and each returned to their own bed for the remainder of the night.

There was a knock at the door, and his father stepped into the room. "A'Ying," Wen Zhuliu sounded almost fond. "Wen Zongzhu requests your presence at dinner this evening."

"Of course, Fuqin." He bowed as properly as was possible from his position kneeling at the almost steaming kettle. "Will Fuqin stay for some tea? I can send a servant for some snacks." Don't stay. Please just leave A'Qing and I alone. She needs her rest.

"No. I won't stay." Wen Zhuliu seemed almost jovial. "Tonight's entertainment is a Jin I've heard."

"A Jin," he echoed. "Will Jin Zongzhu be joining us tonight? I have heard rumors that he is... unsettled."

"It might be Jin Zongzhu," Wen Zhuliu smiled. It made Wei Wuxian's stomach turn over, rumbling with nausea. "I will see you tonight."

"Yes, Fuqin," he bowed again and began pouring the hot water into the tea cup and pots to warm them up.

Wen Qing waited until the door was firmly shut behind her father-in-law before she spoke. "Do you think the... entertainment... really is Jin Zongzhu?"

He shook his head and spooned out some of her medicinal tea. "I think it more likely that it will be one of Jin Guangshan's relatives or high ranking disciples. The man really does need to stop grumbling about Wen Zongzhu in public; Wen Zongzhu doesn't appreciate dissent.

"Perhaps it will be that Zixun idiot. He was insolent to Wen Chao during their last joint night hunt. I was honestly surprised he left the hunt with his guts still inside his belly. I half expected Wen Chao to string the man up with his own entrails."