“Mother, I know things haven’t been easy for you. You don’t need to worry about any of this. Just wait to drink your daughter-in-law’s tea.”
“In the future, I’ll still give you and Father monthly support money. Consider it helping me out. I like Qinghe, and I have no desire to marry anyone else.”
Truthfully, Qin Xiao had never intended to let his parents handle his wedding.
For one thing, they would never have found him a suitable bride, and the wedding itself would have been little more than a formality.
For another, he wanted to separate from the family eventually, and this was the first step.
As long as his parents were not involved in arranging his marriage, they would have less opportunity to interfere with his wife. Qinghe would also have an easier life in the future.
As for supporting his parents, that was something he intended to do regardless of whether the family split or not.
As their son, it was a responsibility he could not avoid.
Bringing it up now was simply a way of offering his mother a graceful way out.
The moment Madam Qin heard that the monthly support money would continue, she visibly relaxed and immediately took advantage of the opening.
Her words were directed at the gathered villagers, but they were also meant for Qin Xiao.
“See? My son is just that sensible. You can be jealous all you want.”
“I misunderstood my daughter-in-law. I thought she was encouraging him to waste money, which is why I got upset.”
“Now that everything’s clear, I’ll just wait to drink my daughter-in-law’s tea.”
Then, putting on a show of concern, she turned to Qin Xiao.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand or need help with, come ask your mother.”
“I still have things to do at home, so I’ll head back first.”
She needed to discuss the situation with her husband as quickly as possible.
And if he disagreed, she would have to make another trip to the back mountain and speak to Qin Xiao privately.
When she got home, she immediately found Master Qin and recounted everything that had happened.
She didn’t care who was right or wrong.
Her focus was entirely on the purchases.
“I did a rough calculation. All those things together must have cost at least ten taels.”
Which proved one thing.
Qin Xiao had money.
He simply refused to pay Qin Yue’s tuition.
The moment Master Qin heard Qin Xiao’s name, his eyes filled with dislike.
He had no interest whatsoever in helping arrange the wedding.
After all, Qin Xiao wasn’t even his biological son.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that his grandfather, Qin Xiao’s great-grandfather, had owned a valuable ancestral jade heirloom that was meant to pass to the eldest great-grandson, and if his own biological son hadn’t died at the temple, he would never have raised a child unrelated to him by blood.
Over the years, thanks to Qin Xiao, they had received the family’s best paddy fields during the division of property.
They had inherited the jade.
They had also gotten this fine house.
As far as Master Qin was concerned, the investment had already paid for itself.
Who cared whom Qin Xiao married?
Or what kind of fabric the bride wore?
Still, the thought of Qin Xiao having money and not handing it over annoyed him.
After raising the boy for so many years, wasn’t it only natural for him to give them money?
Thinking it over, Master Qin concluded that the real problem was Madam Qin.
His relationship with Qin Xiao had always been cold and distant.
Much of that was because Madam Qin had constantly manipulated the situation.
“This is your fault too,” Master Qin scolded, glaring at his wife.
“You’re so shortsighted. Why did you have to cause a scene? Now you’ve embarrassed yourself.”
“Can’t you see? Qin Xiao’s already drifting away from us. If you keep provoking him, why would he continue giving us money?”
“What you should do is treat him the way you did when he was little.”
Before Qin Yue was born, Madam Qin had believed her difficult labor meant she would never have another child.
Back then, she had genuinely doted on Qin Xiao for several years.
At the time, he was already five years old and old enough to remember.
Those few years of affection had remained in Qin Xiao’s heart for nearly twenty years.
Only recently had his attitude finally begun to change.
Madam Qin nodded on the surface, but inwardly she felt very differently.
Ever since Qin Yue was born, she had never been able to love Qin Xiao the same way.
If anything, resentment had taken root.
She had gone into labor at the same time another woman did.
Her own son had died.
Meanwhile, Qin Xiao had entered the world healthy and loud, crying at the top of his lungs.
In her eyes, he had survived at the expense of her biological child.
She believed his fate was too strong, that he had somehow brought misfortune upon her own son.
If not for how capable he was, after escaping her mother-in-law’s control all those years ago, she might have found a way to get rid of him.
At ten years old, Qin Xiao had already begun learning hunting from Zhou Ye’s father.
He regularly trapped pheasants, caught rabbits, and brought fish home.
Those catches not only earned money, they also helped nourish Qin Yue’s health.
After returning from military service, his abilities had grown even greater.
To him, small game had become little more than gifts he could casually hand out to others.
There was no way Madam Qin could bring herself to flatter him.
She simply couldn’t do it.
Still, since Master Qin had agreed not to interfere with the wedding, she began calculating her options.
After all, there was no sense making an enemy of money.
“Then… what about the gift money from the wedding banquet…”
…
By the time Qin Xiao and Qinghe returned to the back mountain, it was already late afternoon.
The entire way home, Qin Xiao refused to let her carry anything heavy.
He only allowed her to hold a basin while he loaded himself down with the rest.
His arms were full, and a cloth sack hung over his shoulder.
The first thing he did after arriving home was soak a handkerchief in cold water and place it gently against Qinghe’s swollen cheek.
“What do you want for dinner?” he asked as he took her hand into his.
When she had fallen earlier, the skin on her palms had been scraped raw.
He soaked gauze in alcohol and carefully cleaned away the tiny grains of sand embedded in the wounds.
“I’m fine, Husband~”
“It’s only a scrape. It didn’t even bleed. I can still cook.”
“What would you like for dinner? There’s not enough time to stew meat, so how about I make cold noodles for you?”
Qinghe had spent nearly her entire life, from childhood to adulthood, in the Prince’s Manor.
Her memories of village life had long since faded.
She had no idea how country women addressed their husbands, so she copied the way women in the capital spoke.
What she didn’t realize was how devastating that soft, sweet “Husband” was to Qin Xiao.
Every time she said it, his bones practically melted.
Qin Xiao grinned so broadly that his bright white teeth stood out even more against his dark beard.
The look in his eyes resembled spring water in a deep pond.
Warm.
Gentle.
Impossible to escape.
“Anything you make tastes good.”
“But your hands are hurt, and I don’t want you working.”
“You can teach me how to knead the dough and mix the seasonings. I’ll make it for you.”
Qin Xiao knew how to cook.
He simply wasn’t as meticulous as Qinghe.
When he made noodles, some strands were long while others were short.
Some thick, some thin.
The seasoning might be a little salty one day and bland the next.
It was edible, but hardly impressive.
Qinghe, on the other hand, made food that looked appetizing before anyone even took a bite.
Under his gaze, her cheeks slowly turned pink.
“Alright.”
“We still have plenty of time. Let’s put away everything we bought today before we start cooking.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.”
Qin Xiao immediately wanted to spread out the new bedding they had purchased.
Qinghe stopped him.
She explained that even though the bedding appeared clean, it had likely passed through countless hands during production.
She planned to wash everything the next day and leave the cotton stuffing out in the sun before using it.
Qin Xiao found her reasoning completely sensible.
Cotton was grown in the north.
By the time it traveled all the way south, who knew how many people had handled it?
He personally didn’t care much.
But the thought of Qinghe sleeping beneath blankets touched by countless strangers made him oddly uncomfortable.
It was only early September.
The daytime heat still felt like summer.
But once night fell, cool mountain breezes swept through the area, carrying thick mist.
On top of that, Qin Xiao’s house was built of wooden planks.
Tiny gaps existed everywhere.
The damp night air slipped through every crack and drifted straight into the bedroom.
By the middle of the night, the old military blanket was no longer enough.
Still half asleep, Qinghe instinctively searched for warmth.
Before long, she had rolled into Qin Xiao’s arms.
She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and draped one leg over his.
Only then did she settle into a peaceful sleep.
Remembering how upset she had been that day, and seeing the swelling still visible on her cheek, Qin Xiao had spent an exceptionally long time brushing his teeth.
Yet even then, he couldn’t bring himself to kiss her.
Because he knew exactly what kind of man he was.
Once he started, he would not want to stop.
And if he didn’t stop, he would inevitably want more.
In the end, he would only make things difficult for her.
Especially now that both of her hands were injured.
As the soft, warm body nestled deeper into his embrace, Qin Xiao instinctively tightened his arms around her.
Oddly enough, the burning desire he had expected never came.
Instead, he felt her dependence.
Her trust.
The way she had defended him earlier.
And suddenly, his heart felt as though it had finally found a home.
He was someone’s husband now.
The woman he called his wife would spend her life with him.
She would depend on him.
There was now one more family member in this world whom he was responsible for protecting.
One who truly belonged to him.
And one day, she would give him children who carried his blood.
That night was sweet.
Warm.
Comforting.
And for the first time in a very long while, the darkness passed easily.