Hearing this, Lin Xiaoyue’s appetite was completely disrupted by the sudden surge of emotions.
After dismissing the guards, she asked the maid to lay out writing tools, planning to copy some scriptures to calm her mood. Just as she was about to start, Lin Xiaorou appeared at the door.
Lin Xiaoyue looked at the woman standing at the entrance, smiling and graceful, and frowned slightly, "Didn’t I tell you to leave? Why are you still here?"
Unlike the others who were easily embarrassed, Lin Xiaorou had long decided to stay rooted in the Champion Scholar Mansion, knowing she had nowhere to go back in Jizhou. Seeing Lin Xiaoyue attempting to drive her out, her smile deepened, "Mr. Qi just left, and you’re already so angry. If you miss him so much, why not follow him?"
The hand holding the brush paused slightly, lips pressed together.
She had never thought about it.
She just felt she should stay home and wait for him to return.
Lin Xiaorou pulled up a stool and sat by the writing desk, resting her chin on her hand, smiling, "Or do you not care at all whether Mr. Qi eats and sleeps well so far away at the border?"
Suddenly feeling irritated, Lin Xiaoyue put down her pen, "Lin Xiaorou, are you here early in the morning just to get scolded?"
The other didn’t mind at all, switching hands under her chin, "It’s not like I haven’t been scolded by you before."
Seeing her nonchalant attitude, Lin Xiaoyue felt a tightness in her chest, "What exactly do you want?"
Lin Xiaorou casually picked up the fruit platter, popped a grape into her mouth, and spoke slowly, "I’m here to say goodbye."
Seeing no reaction from Lin Xiaoyue, she continued, "I came to the Capital for Mr. Qi, who was originally mine. Now that he’s no longer here, there’s no point in sticking around to play house with you."
These words successfully raised a sense of foreboding in Lin Xiaoyue’s heart, "What do you mean?"
"What else could it mean? I’m going to the border to find him!"
Having a tainted reputation in Jizhou and facing rejection everywhere in the Capital, Lin Xiaorou had reached her breaking point and was ready to throw caution to the wind at this stage, with nothing left to lose.
"Don’t you dare!" Lin Xiaoyue’s face turned cold, glaring at her.
"It’s not that I wouldn’t dare, it’s that you wouldn’t, right?" Lin Xiaorou made no attempt to hide the mockery on her face, "To be honest, I like Mr. Qi. So wherever he goes, regardless of whether he’s dismissed or investigated, I don’t care. I only care about him as a person."
Curling her lips, Lin Xiaorou continued, "Had it not been for being misled and running off years ago, I wouldn’t have missed so many years before realizing who my true love was."
Noticing Lin Xiaoyue’s face darkening, she chuckled smugly, "Anyway, you don’t like him. Why keep him all to yourself? Besides, with the border so far away, if Mr. Qi doesn’t return for a year or two, doesn’t he need a woman by his side? Such things shouldn’t trouble you, Sister. You can stay peacefully in the Capital as Granny Qi, nurture your pregnancy, and give birth to your child. I’ll take care of everything on Mr. Qi’s end."
Though disregarded in the past, the words now stung particularly hard, and Lin Xiaoyue clenched her teeth, "Lin Xiaorou, he’s your brother-in-law!"
Lin Xiaorou’s grape-eating slowed, setting aside the fruit plate, and she wiped her hands with a silk handkerchief, "So? If you don’t care, don’t like him, why stop others from caring and liking him? What kind of logic is that? It seems there’s no rule forbidding Mr. Qi from taking multiple wives and concubines, nor is there a rule barring me from entering the Su Family, is there?"
"You’re outrageous!" Lin Xiaoyue snapped, "Mr. Qi can marry whomever he wants, but he must not marry you!"
"Just because I’m your paternal family, your half-sister?" Lin Xiaorou sneered even more, "As long as Mr. Qi likes me, what does it matter? Which outside concubine you think can be more genuine to him than I am? During my days in the Capital, I didn’t waste my time. I’ve already inquired about Mr. Qi’s background and maybe, I know better than you what kind of woman he needs by his side! If you can’t do it, don’t stop others from doing so, or you’ll only seem selfish."
Lin Xiaoyue suddenly found herself at a loss for a retort.
It’s true he can have multiple wives and concubines, and whoever he likes, he can marry.
What she couldn’t give him, she indeed shouldn’t prevent others from providing.
She lowered her head, and unexpectedly, the image of his gaze when he lifted her veil on their wedding day flashed in her mind.
She had dreamt of it many nights since.
But that feeling had been crushed before it could ever blossom, destroyed by the relentless inner strife that followed.
She had witnessed them attacking the newborns, seen people hang themselves, tongues stretched long, left stiff after being taken down.
Su Qing’s birth mother, her legitimate mother-in-law, was entirely made a scapegoat, said to be kneeling in the ancestral hall as punishment. Three days later, when the hall opened, the corpse was already decaying, and because she died there, defiling the ancestral shrine, lacked a proper coffin.
The people involved in the inner strife included the concubines of the deceased patriarch and the main wives and concubines of the junior generation in the rear courtyards.
Even as arrogant as she had been in her natal family, Lin Xiaoyue had never witnessed such shocking scenes.
Mr. Qi had six elder brothers, except for the often-sick sixth brother, who had only one wife and one concubine, the others had numerous wives and concubines.
Sister-in-law against sister-in-law, wife against concubines, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
In short, the mansion continuously staged all sorts of struggles, with endless strategies.
Lin Xiaoyue was scared out of her wits for those few years, so later when facing the people from the mansion, if she couldn’t win, she aimed only for self-preservation.
In such a constantly tense environment, who had the heart to dwell on romance?
One wouldn’t dare think about it.
Mr. Qi currently only had her as a legitimate wife because he was still young and had not devoted most of his energy to offspring yet, but when he realizes one day the importance of heirs in a large family, he will continually add women to the household to bear children for him.
By that time, even if she didn’t want to fight, others would come looking for a fight. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by NoveI~Fire.net
With these concerns, the affection buried in her heart digs a few inches deeper. She never thought of unearthing and replanting it.
But hearing Lin Xiaorou say she’d go to the border to seek him at all costs, she couldn’t ignore that little bit of concern rising within her.