He tore the note into shreds and scattered them into a bowl of water. Then he bent his legs and sat on the pile of dry grass. Glancing at her indifferently, he said, "Are you pitying me that my end is near?"
Du Gu Luanyue watched silently as the ink on the paper scraps spread in the clear water. Her fingers tucked in the black robe tightened. "You should be able to tell that I'm trying to save you."
She knew that Huo Wei was still angry with her and hadn't forgiven her yet.
Huo Wei's sharp black eyes swept over her face fiercely. He noticed that her complexion was extremely haggard, and the dark circles under her eyes were even more prominent than when she was in Danyang City.
However, he didn't know what Du Gu Luanyue had done for him in these few days.
He turned his head to the side. "Go back. I won't accept any more favors from you."
Du Gu Luanyue questioned him, "You'd rather die than bend, right?"
Huo Wei replied, "Yes."
Du Gu Luanyue knew that Huo Wei's stubborn temper had flared up again. She squatted down, grabbed his lapel, and said in a hoarse voice,
"What time is it? Are you throwing a tantrum again? Huo Wei, you're about to die. Don't you understand!
Whether you hate me or resent me, you have to stay alive if you want to continue hating and resenting me. Once you're dead, it's all over."
Huo Wei slumped expressionlessly on the pile of dry grass and sneered. "People are actually the clearest before they die.
Looking back on my life, I wasn't even sure who I was. The things I've been chasing after, even the truth has started to blur.
I was plotted against by some people before, and now by you. You always have your high - sounding reasons and your must - do purposes.
What do you take me for? A killing tool and a weapon of war that has been trained since childhood, right?"
There was some stubble on his chin. His chiseled cheeks were even thinner and tauter than a few days ago. There was always a gloomy smile on his face, as if he had seen through the world and was ready to face death calmly.
Du Gu Luanyue's warm fingertips gently touched his sharp eyebrows.
"I don't even have the right to say sorry to you because it's useless. All I can do is try my best to save you.
Huo Wei, if the person standing in front of you right now was just a pure Crown Princess of Southern Chu, she would have given up by now. She would just wait for you to die, and then Northern Yan would no longer have a general capable of destroying a country.
My plan in Northern Yan would come to an end the moment your head was chopped off, and I could fake my death and leave.
Why did I come here at the risk of my life? To argue with you?"
The anger in Huo Wei's black eyes still burned like a raging fire. Du Gu Luanyue was a million times more anxious than him. Her voice trembled slightly.
"After I rescue you and make sure you're safe, I'm going to leave."
Hearing this, Huo Wei slowly fixed his pupils on her and removed her slender wrist from his eyebrows.
"I don't need your help. Three days later, when I'm dead, you can leave."
Life and death seemed to mean little to him.
It was as if he had been living in a big net woven with lies since childhood. His life was really a great irony, full of tiredness and mistakes. Death would be a relief.
Du Gu Luanyue's eyes turned blood - red. "What on earth should I do for you to stop throwing your tantrums? Huo Wei, this is a matter of life and death. How can you be so indifferent?
Mu Rong Min wants to kill you. He believes that you're the son of Xie Jinyang. With his complicated and entangled feelings for Lu Wanyin, he will pour all his anger on you.
I've found a breakthrough now. As long as you cooperate, you won't have to die."
Huo Wei didn't want to talk to her anymore and turned around.
Suddenly, a small golden bell slipped from his waist.
Du Gu Luanyue picked it up faster than him. This small bell was hers. She had kept it with her since childhood. How did it end up on Huo Wei?
Huo Wei knew that there were words on the small golden bell, but they were extremely small and hard to see without a close look.
He snatched it back in the blink of an eye. "It was given to me by my unmarried wife. Give it back to me."
Du Gu Luanyue took another look at him. Huo Wei was still wearing the inner shirt of his wedding clothes from that day. Did Huo Wei secretly pick up her thing before and wear it on himself on the wedding day?
Didn't he hate her to the core? Why did he still wear her thing?
He thought Du Gu Luanyue didn't recognize it. After all, the style of the bell was the most common one, just an ordinary bell. He guessed that Du Gu Luanyue wouldn't remember.
She slowly stood up, and her expression turned cold. "I came here to save you out of our past friendship. Well, I'm too lazy to save someone who wants to die.
I originally planned to go back to Southern Chu quickly and tell my father and mother to cancel the engagement with the Sheng family. But now I think it's better not to. Yun Qi is nice. At least his temper is better than yours."
After saying this, Du Gu Luanyue lifted the hood of her cloak and was about to leave.
Huo Wei stood up from the ground and grabbed her arm. "Why cancel the engagement?"
Du Gu Luanyue forcefully shook off his hand and said coldly, "It has nothing to do with you. You're going to die in three days. Why are you asking these questions?"
The sharp and heroic lines of Huo Wei's cheeks softened a bit. He held on to her black robe tightly. "Tell me. How should I cooperate?"
Du Gu Luanyue leaned close to his ear and said only a short sentence, which made Huo Wei furious. He shouted, "Absolutely impossible!"
Aunt Meijiang walked to the prison door. "Your Highness, there's no time left. We have to go."
Du Gu Luanyue stood in front of the prison door and said hurriedly,
"Shen Guilan didn't even care about her own life for you to survive. She has been hiding everywhere and running around for you.
If even after all this, you still want to die and are not willing to endure the humiliation temporarily, then Shen Guilan and I have misjudged you."
Huo Wei stood in the dim prison cell, looking at the pitch - black sky outside the iron window. A black crow landed under the iron window, cawing inauspiciously.
He picked up a stone on the ground and threw it at the crow with great force.
The black crow couldn't dodge in time. The stone pierced into its entrails, and it fell to the ground, dead.
Three days later, Huo Wei was sentenced to be beheaded and was escorted to the execution ground. It seemed that he didn't wait for the scene Du Gu Luanyue had mentioned.
It seemed that her plan had failed, and everything about himself didn't matter anymore.
It turned out that this life of revenge ended halfway.
Huo Wei's hands and feet were in shackles. He dragged the chains and walked barefoot in the snow - covered ground.
He raised his black eyes and looked at the gloomy and gray sky. White snowflakes were constantly floating down from the sky, falling into his thin clothes. The snow melted into ice - cold water and flowed into his burning heart, making it extremely cold.
The execution ground was surrounded by curious onlookers. People were chatting animatedly. Some said that Huo Wei was ambitious and wanted to rebel, while others said that he might have been framed.
Most of them sighed for this young and heroic general. It was such a pity that he had such an end at a young age.
Huo Wei still scanned the crowd to see if there was anyone he knew coming to see him off. Obviously, there was no one.
He had no relatives or lovers. He came alone and was going to leave alone.
He even thought of Du Gu Luanyue. Probably in the near future, this empress - to - be who was ambitious for the Southern Chu throne would forget him completely.
Huo Wei knelt heavily on the snow - covered ground. He put his hands in front of him and was pressed under the guillotine by a very fat executioner in red clothes behind him.
The official from the Ministry of Justice threw the execution token, and the executioner raised his machete high and swung it down towards Huo Wei's head.