Helian Feng also looked at his elder brother. “Brother, I actually can’t understand either. What exactly do you see in Ye Qingyu? In terms of family background, she can’t compare to Xia Xing’er. As for appearance, the difference isn’t just a little—it’s worlds apart. What exactly about her is better than Xia Xing’er that attracted you?”
Hearing his younger brother directly call Ye Qingyu by her full name displeased Helian Zhi. “How dare you call her ‘Ye Qingyu’? She will soon be your sister-in-law. In my heart, she is better than Xia Xing’er in every way. I simply like her.”
In truth, he didn’t truly feel this way; he merely wanted to prove to others that his choice was not wrong.
Now he was going to see Qingyu to prove that his choice was not wrong.
The two walked along the riverbank. Because it was night, there was no one else by the river, only the two of them.
Ye Qingyu had thought he called her out because he had something to say. She hadn’t expected that after walking for quite a while, Helian Zhi hadn’t uttered a single word.
She wanted to ask, but she also wanted to wait for him to speak first. Her heart felt as restless as a cat’s claws scratching inside.
After walking a bit longer, she couldn’t hold back any longer and stopped. “Zhi-gege, you asked me out so late at night. Is there something you want to tell me?”
The moonlight fell on Ye Qingyu’s somewhat dark-skinned face. Suddenly, he remembered Xia Xing’er’s fair, cold, and beautiful countenance, and his heart ached.
“I just came to tell you that His Majesty’s imperial marriage decree has been issued, ordering us to marry within three days.”
A look of joy flashed across Ye Qingyu’s face, but then she seemed to remember something. “Has Xia Xing’er agreed to it?”
Helian Zhi suppressed the strange feeling in his heart. “I have already divorced her with a Divorce Decree, so our marriage does not require her consent.”
“Divorce Decree? Did she take all her dowry back? How will we live in the future?”
Helian Zhi looked at her. “Qingyu, that dowry was originally hers. There’s nothing wrong with her taking it back. Are you afraid of marrying me and suffering hardships with me?”
Ye Qingyu turned away, not wanting him to see the calculation in her eyes. “That’s not what I mean. I only want us to focus wholeheartedly on building achievements in the military in the future, without worrying about money.”
Helian Zhi said, “If we live frugally, we can always get by. The General’s Manor isn’t so poor that we can’t afford food. We still have some assets.”
Ye Qingyu turned back to look at him. “So, she really took all her dowry back, leaving nothing behind at all?”
Seeing the disappointment and anger flash in her eyes, Helian Zhi suddenly felt a chill in his heart. “After I told her I requested His Majesty to issue an imperial marriage decree, she went to the palace and requested a Divorce Decree. She had no intention of sharing a husband with you.”
“What?”
Ye Qingyu sneered. “No intention of sharing a husband with me? How ridiculous. I didn’t even look down on her. Who does she think she is?”
Helian Zhi said, “She is the legitimate daughter of the Changxin Marquisate.”
Ye Qingyu looked at Helian Zhi with disbelief.
Of course she knew she was the legitimate daughter of the Changxin Marquisate. What did he mean by that? Was he looking down on her now?
“What does it matter that she’s the legitimate daughter of the Changxin Marquisate? It doesn’t change the fact that she’s a discarded woman.”
Helian Zhi sighed. “Alright, let’s not talk about her anymore.”
Ye Qingyu punched him in the chest and said coquettishly, “Since she doesn’t want to share a husband with me, it’s just as well—I don’t want to share a husband with her either. She learned all those underhanded tricks of the inner household. I’m no match for her.” After saying this, she even pouted.
She then looked at Helian Zhi, “Although I can’t learn all her tricks, I can still manage to imitate her sweet, delicate manner and say a few cheesy words to you.”
Placing her hands together in front of her, she smiled without showing her teeth and called out in a soft, gentle voice, “Husband.”
After saying it, she pretended to shiver all over, “Oh my, that’s so cheesy, so fake. How can she be so hypocritical?”
Helian Zhi also shivered, but only because Ye Qingyu was deliberately putting on an act. In truth, Xia Xing’er had never spoken to him like that. He thought to himself and unconsciously voiced it aloud, “She never spoke like that. Every time she talked to me, she was neither humble nor arrogant, never wasting a single unnecessary word.”
Ye Qingyu didn’t hear what he said because she had already run off earlier.
Although she hadn’t managed to seize Xia Xing’er’s dowry, with Xia Xing’er gone, she was now the principal wife, no longer just an equal wife.
If she knew that the imperial marriage decree had designated her as an equal wife rather than the principal wife, who knows what she would think.
Helian Zhi didn’t chase after the fleeing Ye Qingyu. Instead, he sat down by the river.
Even now, his mind was still in a daze. Today’s Divorce Decree had struck him like a bolt from the blue, leaving him scorched inside and out.
He recalled many things.
He remembered the first time he saw Xia Xing’er, the day he visited her home to propose marriage, and the joy he felt when the Empress Dowager bestowed the marriage decree.
On the day of their wedding, he had to depart for battle, and how reluctant he was to leave Xia Xing’er.
On the march, whenever he thought of Xia Xing’er’s stunningly beautiful face beneath the red bridal veil, he could hardly believe how fortunate he was to have married her.
Later, as the war intensified and soldiers fell one after another around him, not knowing when his own turn would come, he stopped thinking about Xia Xing’er altogether.
Every day, he discussed battle strategies with his officers and Ye Qingyu.
When he saw Ye Qingyu mount her horse and charge into battle, fearless and heroic, he realized that a woman could also fight alongside him.
Amidst the chaos of the battlefield, he felt that women like Xia Xing’er, confined to the inner chambers, were useless. What he wanted was someone like Ye Qingyu—someone who didn’t need a man’s protection and could stand strong on her own.
Perhaps it was at that moment that he fell in love with Qingyu.
Xia Xing’er returned to the Changxin Marquisate.
The gates of the Marquis’s Mansion were wide open, and the entrance was crowded with people eagerly awaiting the return of their loved ones.
Looking at her family before her, Xia Xing’er was already in tears but dared not step forward, afraid that all of this was just a dream.
Marquise Liu Youran, seeing her daughter’s tear-streaked face, could no longer hold back. She hurried forward and pulled Xia Xing’er into her embrace.
“You silly girl, suffering in silence and not even coming home. Your father and brothers are all here—why did you have to be so stubborn?”
As she spoke, she herself broke down in tears.
Behind her, Changxin Hou Xia Chengsheng and his three sons watched their daughter and sister, their hearts aching.
Their precious treasure, whom they had always cherished, had been mistreated like this by others.
Seeing how heartbroken their daughter and sister was, they knew she must have suffered greatly.
Changxin Hou Xia Chengsheng had only one woman, Marquise Liu Youran, with whom he had three sons and one daughter.
The eldest son, Xia Qingyun, twenty-seven years old, had already been appointed as the heir. He was married to Zhuge Pei, the granddaughter of Grand Preceptor Zhuge Wuji, and had two sons: the eldest, Xia Ziyu, eight years old, and the second, Xia Zichuan, six years old.
The second son, Xia Qingfeng, twenty-five years old, was married to Bai Wan’er, the legitimate second daughter of the Vice Minister of Revenue. They had one son, Xia Zibo, six years old.
The third son, Xia Qingyu, is twenty-two years old and unmarried.
Finally, the heir’s wife, Lady Zhuge, spoke up: “Mother, let’s bring our sister into the residence first. The meal is already prepared, and she must be hungry.”