Return of the Crippled War God

Chapter2

Zhao Yun remained silent, he didn’t know what else to say to Mei. She had made up her mind, but he couldn’t just let her slip out of his hand, and neither could he tell her everything she wanted to hear.

She stood in the room, her shoulders trembling as silent tears rolled down her cheeks. Her despair filled the room, suffocating Zhao Yun with a pain he could hardly bear. He wheeled closer to her, his finger brushing against her arm in an attempt to console her, but Mei noticed him and sharply moved away.

“Please don’t do this, Mei.” Zhao Yun pleaded.

Mei narrowed her eyes away from his manipulative eyes, she didn’t want to get trapped inside of him. She was scared he would find his way to talk her out of her complaint, while he provided no positive answer.

"Yun, they are all laughing at me. Everywhere I go, people whisper behind my back. They say... they say you are using my money to flirt around, they all say there is another woman. That you have a mistress!"

Zhao Yun flinched as if he was struck on a battlefield. "Mei, you know I would never do that to you. I love you more than anyone else."

"Don’t lie to me!" she screamed, her voice cold and filled with anguish. "You have made me feel like a fool! A stupid, blind fool, clinging to a man who doesn’t even respect me enough to tell me the truth." Her sobs grew louder, echoing through the room, each one a dagger to Zhao Yun's heart.

"Mei," he called out softly, his voice covered with guilt and helplessness. "I will tell you everything you need to know but this is not the right time, it’s something you have to understand.”

“Knowing too much at this time would only get you into trouble and I don’t want that to happen to you.” He added.

"Don’t you dare speak of such!" she interrupted, her eyes screaming with anger through her tears. "Are you going to suggest what’s good for me? I deserve the truth, Yun. I have given everything to this marriage, and what have you given me in return? Lies? Betrayal?"

“You have done nothing but fool me all these years.”

Zhao Yun opened his mouth to respond but found no words. He felt himself drowning deep inside her pain and rage. He tried to reach her again, desperate to comfort her, but she turned her back to him, her arms crossed protectively over her chest.

"Mei, listen to me," Zhao Yun said, his voice breaking. "You are my wife, the only woman I have ever cared about."

"Your wife?" she spat, whirling around to face him. "A husband provides. A husband protects. A husband is someone his wife can depend on. You, Zhao Yun, are none of those things. You are a man who leans on me, who takes from me, and who gives nothing in return!"

Her words hit him harder than any sword he had ever faced. Zhao Yun staggered, his mind racing for something that could fix the trouble they were facing. "Mei, I have tried everything possible to be the man you deserve…”

"Then I have to say that you have failed," she cut him off mercilessly. Her tone was cold now, her despair hardened even more. "I don’t need a man who drags me down. I need a hero. Someone I can look up to, someone I can trust."

Zhao Yun placed his hands on his chest, his breath hanging up in his throat as Mei pulled out a delicate necklace from beneath her dress. The pendant glittered faintly in the candlelight, a small, intricately designed token that seemed out of place in the crisis of their emotions.

“Where did you get that?” Zhao Yun asked, maintaining his focus on the necklace.

"You mean this?” she asked, holding up the necklace, her voice filled with both grievance and sorrow, "this is from the man I truly love. The man who saved me on the battlefield, risking his life to pull me from the trouble I was in. He left me this as a pendant of hope, of safety. That man is my hero. Not you, Zhao Yun. And I don’t think it’s ever going to be you."

“You should understand that I only married you because of my grandmother and nothing else. Although I tried to love you over the years, you didn’t give me a reason to continue loving you.” She added, her face stern and strict.

Zhao Yun stared at the necklace, his mind reeling. The intricate design was all too familiar. And immediately he recognized the necklace, the same old look, bringing with it a flood of memories he thought he had buried long ago.

"Mei," he called out, his voice barely above a whisper.

But she didn’t stop. "Do you understand now? I could never love you. Not when I have tasted what true courage and sacrifice look like. You are nothing compared to him."

Mei’s words left his soul exposed. He wheeled closer again, his eyes fixed on the pendant in her trembling hands. "That necklace," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion, "where did you get it?"

Mei’s eyes narrowed, her grip tightening around the chain. "Why does it matter to you?"

"Because," Zhao Yun said, his voice gaining strength as realization dawned on him, "I recognize it."

The room became silent for some moments as Zhao Yun's words constantly echoed in Mei’s ears. Her face twisted into a frown, her anger filled with confusion.

"What are you saying?" she asked, her voice losing its coldness. “Is this one of your plans to claim what doesn’t belong to you?”

Zhao Yun hesitated, memories of the battlefield flooding his mind. "I was there, Mei," he finally said. "I was the one who saved you that day. I gave you that necklace..."

Her eyes opened in shock, the pendant slipping from her fingers as she stared at him, not wanting to believe him. "No... that can’t be true."

"Think carefully, everything I have said is true, you have to believe me,” Zhao Yun said, his voice calm despite the trouble inside of him. "I didn’t know it was you until now. But Mei, I swear, I have always been fighting for you, even when you didn’t know it."

Mei looked at him, her heart and mind warring with each other. Could it be true? Could the man she had hated and resented be the same man who had once been her hero?