Qin Lie’s gaze rested on Jiang Wu’s face, scrutinizing, doubtful.
The surroundings were completely silent.
Everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see how this drama would end.
Jiang Wu’s heart sank bit by bit. The mess the original host left behind was too big.
Elopement. Love letters.
Any man would find such actions by his wife unbearable.
It was perfectly normal that Qin Lie didn’t believe her.
Jiang Wu felt she was probably doomed, but then a thought sprang to her mind.
Her eyes reddened instantly, and large teardrops rolled down from her eyes.
She looked utterly and completely wronged.
Then, under the astonished gazes of everyone, she performed an action that froze the entire scene.
She rushed out from the courtyard, bypassing the already terrified Zhou Mingyuan, and threw herself towards Qin Lie.
“Waaah—”
She didn’t throw herself into his arms. Instead, with a thump, she hugged his leg.
It was the kind of leg-hug that abandoned all dignity, clinging desperately tight.
She buried her face in his crisp military trousers, wailing and sobbing as if she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Husband—”
This single word she cried out was full of twists and turns.
“You can’t believe him! You can’t believe them!”
“They’re all bad people! They’re all bullying me!”
“I didn’t! I didn’t do anything!”
She cried while rubbing her face against his trouser leg, smearing tears and snot all over his clean uniform pants.
Qin Lie froze completely.
He looked down at the woman clinging to his leg, crying her heart out, and his mind went blank again.
He had lived twenty-six years, had seen women cry. Those throwing tantrums, being unreasonable, pitiful and delicate—he’d seen all kinds.
But he had never encountered anyone who cried like Jiang Wu.
Here she was, in front of so many people, clinging to his leg and crying, with no regard for face whatsoever.
Qin Lie felt his leg going numb.
The military wives watching the spectacle were also dumbfounded.
They had thought Jiang Wu might try to argue or confront Zhou Mingyuan. But no one expected this move.
This was just too shameless.
But she cried so sorrowfully, so genuinely, that looking at her, people couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity.
“I… I don’t like anyone else!”
Jiang Wu sobbed between breaths, continuing her “performance.”
“You’re the only one in my heart!”
“I love you so much! How could I possibly run off with someone else!”
She tilted her tear-streaked, reddened little face upwards, looking at Qin Lie with teary eyes.
Then, she uttered a sentence that would send shockwaves through the entire military family compound.
“Qin Lie! Listen well!”
“I, Jiang Wu, am your person in life, and your ghost in death!”
“In this lifetime, even if I die, I’ll die on your bed!”
The moment those words fell, the surroundings fell silent, leaving only the sound of the sea breeze and sharp intakes of breath.
Die… on his bed?
How could any woman utter such shameless words in front of so many people?
It was too explosive.
Too stimulating.
Everyone’s gaze focused on Qin Lie, waiting to see his reaction.
Qin Lie’s face shifted through several expressions, the tips of his ears burning so red they seemed about to drip blood.
He felt that all the face he had in this lifetime had been utterly lost by this woman today.
But looking at her swollen eyes from crying, hearing that shocking declaration, something in his heart clenched.
Sour, swelling, and tingling all at once.
An indescribable emotion surged in his chest.
Was it moved?
Or was it his heart stirring?
Qin Lie couldn’t tell.
He only knew that when he heard “I’ll die on your bed if I must,” his hard, unyielding heart seemed to crack open a fissure.
A fissure only Jiang Wu could slip into.
He looked at her, at this woman clinging to his leg, crying without a shred of dignity, yet making his heart ache for her. The doubt in his heart completely tipped in her favor.
He believed her.
Whatever she might have done before, whether she was acting now or not, he chose to believe her.
Qin Lie suppressed the emotions churning inside him.
He bent down, his hand circling her waist—it was so slender, he could almost hold it with one hand. With a slight exertion, he lifted the person clinging to his leg and effortlessly scooped her into his arms in a princess carry.
The movement was smooth, as if he had done it many times before.
“Wow!”
A collective, hushed gasp rose from the crowd.
Another princess carry!
Regiment Commander Qin was really spoiling his wife!
Jiang Wu, cradled in his arms, stopped crying. The man had a pleasant scent of soap and faint sweat, blending into a unique, masculine aroma.
She stared blankly at his face up close, its contours sharp. His expression was neutral, but the coldness and doubt in his eyes were gone, replaced by something warm and unreadable to her.
Jiang Wu’s heart skipped a beat.
She knew she had bet right.
“Let’s go home.”
Qin Lie looked at her and squeezed two hoarse words from his throat.
With that, he turned, holding her, and walked straight back into the courtyard, leaving behind a crowd still processing what had happened.
“Wait… wait!”
The ignored Zhou Mingyuan finally found his voice.
Seeing Qin Lie about to close the courtyard gate with Jiang Wu in his arms, he panicked.
“Regiment Commander Qin! You can’t just leave like this!”
“You can’t believe her! She’s acting! She’s a liar!”
“Those letters! Those letters are real!”
He was making a last, desperate struggle.
Qin Lie, holding Jiang Wu, paused.
He didn’t turn around, his voice cold enough to freeze someone solid as he said:
“My woman, I believe her.”
“As for you…”
Qin Lie paused, tilting his head slightly to glance at him from the corner of his eye, a look that seemed to regard him as already dead.
“Starting tomorrow, I don’t want to see you on this island anymore.”
“And those letters you mentioned, bring them to me. Now.”
“If those things aren’t on my desk by tomorrow morning, you’ll bear the consequences.”
Finished, he paid no more attention to the pale, collapsed figure of Zhou Mingyuan on the ground, and carried Jiang Wu into the courtyard.
Bang.
The courtyard gate was kicked shut behind him, cutting off all prying eyes and that whole farce.
Outside the courtyard, silence fell.
Everyone was stunned by Qin Lie’s final words.
“My woman, I believe her.”
These words carried more weight than “I love you.”
It was a man’s ultimate protection of his woman.
“Oh my God! Regiment Commander Qin is such a real man!”
“Waaah, I’m so jealous! Seriously jealous!”
“I want a husband who trusts me unconditionally like that too!”
The military wives’ hearts were completely won over by Qin Lie, and their looks towards Jiang Wu shifted from envy to pure admiration.
This woman’s luck was too good, to have married a man like Qin Lie.
As for the man crumpled on the ground, Zhou Mingyuan, his world had shattered.
He knew he was finished.
Qin Lie’s words had been his death sentence.
Not only was he being expelled from the island, but he also had to personally hand over all the “evidence” between him and Jiang Wu.
It was killing him and destroying any last shred of dignity.
He regretted it.
He truly regretted it.
He shouldn’t have provoked Jiang Wu, this she-devil, and he definitely shouldn’t have challenged Qin Lie, this fiercely protective “King of Hell.”
But now, regret was far too late.