On the day they returned, Lin Youyou was unable to see her mother.
On the second day after returning, she still did not see her mother, but her father came instead. He did not enter the room, choosing instead to sit in the pavilion in the courtyard.
Lin Youyou stepped forward, greeted him politely, then sat down and asked, “Father, have you been well?”
“Mhm.” Lin Chaowen did not say anything else. Instead, he looked at Lin Youyou and asked, “I heard from your mother that you encountered assassins in Peach Blossom Village and only returned because of that.”
“Yes.” Lin Youyou nodded. “There were six of them in total. We killed five, and one made it back alive. He confessed that a woman had hired them.”
“A woman?” Lin Chaowen lightly tapped the table with his fingers, deep in thought.
Meanwhile, Lin Youyou kept glancing at him. How could Lin Chaowen fail to notice?
“What is it?” he asked.
“Father, do you truly love Mother?” Lin Youyou stared straight at him.
“What kind of question is that? Of course I love your mother. I’ve adored her since I was young.” Though somewhat embarrassed to discuss such matters with his daughter, he still had to make her understand how important Madam Xu was to him.
Hearing this, Lin Youyou narrowed her eyes slightly. “If you truly loved Mother, then why, during the eight years she spent in the countryside, did you never send her even a single letter?”
Lin Chaowen froze. His eyes widened slightly as he stared at his daughter in disbelief.
“Your mother never received my letters?”
Those words caused Lin Youyou’s eyes to narrow as well.
“And you never received Mother’s letters either?”
Lin Chaowen’s hands trembled when he heard her answer.
“No. I never received a single letter from your mother. I thought…”
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down before continuing.
“I thought your mother still resented me because, back then, I opposed her taking you back to the countryside. After our huge argument, I believed she hated me all this time.”
“My mother wrote a letter home every month,” Lin Youyou said coldly. “But since you never replied, she gradually stopped mentioning you in front of me.”
“I wrote to your mother every ten days. Your brother also wrote once a month. She… she never received a single one?” Lin Chaowen said in disbelief.
If Madam Xu had not returned this time, would they all have carried this misunderstanding with them for the rest of their lives?
“Not once.” Lin Youyou shook her head. Looking at her father’s darkened handsome face, she lost her earlier coldness and instead smiled as though watching a show. “It seems Father’s household isn’t very peaceful either. I wonder what Mother will think once she learns about this?”
Lin Chaowen felt his scalp go numb. He glared at this daughter of his who clearly enjoyed stirring up trouble.
Both of them were intelligent people. There was no need to spell it out. Anyone capable of intercepting so many letters, so frequently, had to be someone with authority in the household. No one else would have had either the opportunity or the need.
At the thought that this person had caused him and his wife to miss eight entire years together, even the scholarly Lin Chaowen felt the urge to chop them into pieces and feed them to dogs.
Lin Youyou said, “If I hadn’t learned martial arts and blocked those assassins this time, you, Mother, and I might have been separated by death forever. Father, are you going to brush this off again and turn a major matter into a minor one?”
For once, Lin Chaowen failed to maintain his elegant and refined gentlemanly image. He rolled his eyes without any dignity at all.
“Oh, enough of that. Anyone who dares touch my wife deserves to be chopped up and fed to dogs, no matter who they are.”
Lin Youyou was fairly satisfied with that answer, so she continued, “The assassin who escaped had both arms chopped off by me. He should’ve been easy to find.”
Hearing this, Lin Chaowen suddenly paused.
Lin Youyou looked at him in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
“That man is dead.” A trace of coldness entered Lin Chaowen’s voice. “Yesterday morning, some commoners reported discovering a corpse without arms not far outside the capital.
“The Ministry of Justice investigated. Although the man had lost too much blood, that wasn’t the cause of death. He was poisoned.”
At that moment, Lin Chaowen fully believed that whoever was behind this truly intended to kill his wife and daughter.
How could he possibly sit still any longer? He immediately stood up.
“Stay here and amuse yourself for now. I’m going to investigate this matter.”
Previously, he had known nothing about this terrifying situation. But now that he did, how could he allow the danger to continue existing?
Lin Youyou sat in the pavilion, watching her father’s swiftly departing figure with a smile.
It seemed this old father of hers was much better than she had imagined. He appeared to be someone reliable. She would see how he performed in the future.
Because of this conversation, the barrier that had existed between father and daughter for years seemed to loosen slightly.
When Qingli saw Lin Chaowen leave and noticed only Lin Youyou remaining in the pavilion, she hurried over respectfully.
“Miss, the room has already been tidied up. Is there anywhere else that needs changing?”
Lin Youyou pointed toward the right side of the courtyard, near the pavilion.
“Go find the steward and have him set up a small kitchen here. I’ll be using it.”
“Yes, this servant will go immediately.” Qingli did not ask questions. The master had already instructed that if the young miss wanted anything, they only needed to inform the steward.
How could the steward possibly refuse such a small request from the young miss?
Before long, the steward brought craftsmen over, and they began building the small kitchen in the courtyard. Lin Youyou returned to her room. With unfamiliar men present, she still needed to avoid suspicion.
Thinking about how she would soon be able to cook whatever delicious food she liked, live comfortably, and have parents and brothers who cherished her, Lin Youyou felt overjoyed.
What could be more satisfying than this?
Many hands made light work. Before nightfall, the small kitchen was already finished. It only needed airing out before it could be used.
On the third day, she finally saw her mother.
The first thing Lin Youyou did upon seeing Madam Xu was examine her complexion.
Sure enough, a woman nourished by love looked entirely different. Her face appeared rosier, and her expression carried an indescribable softness.
After fixing her hair, Madam Xu said to her daughter, who sat behind her watching her closely, “We’ve been back for two days and still haven’t visited your grandmother. Come, let’s go see her.”
“Alright.” Lin Youyou nodded and followed behind Madam Xu toward Songzhen Courtyard, where the old madam lived.
This courtyard had once belonged to the old master and old madam. After the old master passed away, only the old madam remained there. Fortunately, elderly servants and attendants kept her company, and Lin Chaowen and the others often came to visit her as well, so her life was not lonely.
The moment they entered the courtyard, they heard laughter coming from inside the room.
The servants were all startled when they saw them. Though they did not recognize Madam Xu and Lin Youyou personally, they had certainly heard the stories about them. Among the people in the residence whom they did not recognize, only these two could fit the description.
Thinking this, the maid immediately bowed respectfully and went inside to announce them.
“Old Madam, the First Madam and the eldest young miss have arrived.”