“Divorce?”
Everyone present showed shocked expressions at the same time. Liu Shutong hurriedly tried to persuade her.
“Sister-in-law, I know you’ve suffered and feel wronged. But look, the two children are already this big now. Divorce… how can you casually talk about divorce? Even if you don’t think about yourself, you should think about the children!”
After all, this was still the 1970s, and people treated divorce as something taboo.
Across from her, it was hard to read the expression on Huo Guangji’s face. Qin Yue didn’t say anything either.
Instead, she pulled the two children over and pointed at Huo Guangji as she asked, “Guigui, do you know who this is?”
The twins were still very young. The little girl had started speaking earlier, while the boy could only babble “ah-ba ah-ba,” so there was no point asking him.
More importantly, Qin Yuyue had long noticed that the little girl was clever and sharp-eyed. She would definitely be able to tell at a glance that the man across from them didn’t want them.
Qin Yuyue came from the modern era. She didn’t have the old-fashioned mindset of enduring everything just so her children could “have a father.”
These days, toothbrushes and men were the same—absolutely not to be shared with others!
The little girl looked up at Qin Yuyue’s expression, then turned to look at Huo Guangji.
Against the light, his face was difficult to see clearly. His sharply carved features cast heavy shadows, and his stern, unsmiling expression was exactly the sort of thing children feared most.
“Waaahhh—”
The little girl’s mouth trembled, and she burst into tears.
The meaning couldn’t have been clearer—she didn’t recognize Huo Guangji at all.
The little boy sitting by the table sucking on his fingers had no idea what was going on, but the moment he heard his sister cry, he immediately started bawling too.
The sudden crying instantly threw the group of grown men in the reception room into panic as they hurried awkwardly to comfort the children.
Qin Yuyue quickly gathered the two children onto her lap to soothe them, though her voice carried a quiet chill.
“Leader, you saw it yourself. Ever since he, Huo Guangji, got married, he’s never fulfilled a single day of responsibility as a father. The children are almost three years old, yet they still don’t recognize their own father! A father like that might as well not exist at all!”
Liu Shutong’s expression stiffened awkwardly.
At the doorway, Huo Guangji stood ramrod straight, his lips pressed into a thin line.
Clearly, he was in an extremely bad mood.
Yet the woman sitting across from him showed no fear whatsoever. At the corner of her lips was even the faintest trace of… satisfaction?
Liu Shutong was beginning to panic. How had this mediation somehow made things worse?
“Sister-in-law, that’s not exactly— ah, forget it!” He sighed, then after some thought decided to change tactics. “Look at you and the children’s condition. Even if I issued the paperwork for your divorce right now, it’d still be hard for you to travel alone with two children. Why don’t you stay temporarily at the guesthouse until the children recover a little?”
“Alright. Then I’ll trouble you, Leader, and the rest of the brothers here.”
Qin Yuyue no longer stubbornly insisted.
She had come here for money, not to start a war. She understood perfectly well when to stop while ahead.
Seeing her finally nod, Liu Shutong at last let out a sigh of relief and quickly ordered a guard to arrange accommodations for her.
Only then did he turn and roar at Huo Guangji.
“You! Come with me!”
Inside Liu Shutong’s office, the desk was slammed loudly enough to shake the room.
“Huo Guangji, you’d better explain yourself clearly! You’re the captain of a special field operations unit—how could you completely ignore your wife and children?! Did all those political education classes go straight into a dog’s stomach?!”
“I sent them money.”
Huo Guangji’s voice was cold and hard. He stood stiffly at attention, but Liu Shutong knew very well that beneath that expression was pure defiance.
Bang!
Furious, Liu Shutong slammed the enamel mug in his hand onto the desk, splashing hot water everywhere.
“Then tell me this—if you sent money, how did that mother and her two children starve themselves into that state? What, is Qin Yuyue an idiot who doesn’t know food goes into her stomach?!”
“…”
Huo Guangji fell silent.
He stood there like a wooden post in front of Liu Shutong. After waiting a long while, Liu Shutong still didn’t get a single word out of him.
Damn it, this brat was still the same—tight-lipped as ever.
Still, Liu Shutong understood Huo Guangji well. He absolutely wasn’t the kind of man who would abandon his wife and children back home.
After a moment’s thought, Liu Shutong snorted coldly.
“Now that they’ve come all the way here to our unit, there’s no way I’m letting them leave still carrying this much grievance. Listen carefully—your task from now on is to settle your family matters properly! If you can’t coax Comrade Qin Yuyue into calming down, then don’t show your face in front of me!”
Across from him, Huo Guangji frowned ever so slightly.
“Company Commander, I still have a mission. I can’t stay in the unit for long.”
“What mission? Your mission right now is to make peace with your wife! If I find out you dare abandon your wife and children, you can forget about being captain anymore!”
After venting his anger, Liu Shutong’s expression finally eased somewhat. After a pause, he added, “This mission will be handed over to Second Squad. You’re not going.”
“No!”
Huo Guangji immediately objected.
“Second Squad isn’t familiar with the valley terrain. We’ve already operated in that area before. It’s not suitable to send them.”
Liu Shutong was so angry he nearly lost his breath.
“Are you giving me orders now?”
“Wouldn’t dare.”
Still the same standard military posture, and Huo Guangji’s face remained almost expressionless.
The brat said he “wouldn’t dare,” but in reality he clearly dared very much.
Liu Shutong shot him a glare.
“That’s enough. Your First Squad has been operating in the mountains continuously for over half a month already. It’s time you got some rest. Treat it as leave. Go hand over the materials to Second Squad. That settles it!”
His gaze flicked toward the obvious dark circles and bruised exhaustion beneath Huo Guangji’s eyes, and he couldn’t help feeling a little soft-hearted.
Huo Guangji had always been known in the unit as a workaholic who fought like his life depended on it. The First Field Assault Squad under his command always took the most dangerous assignments.
Maybe staying behind at the company to rest for a while was actually a good thing.
But Huo Guangji clearly didn’t see it that way. He stood there with his jaw tight and his expression ugly.
Annoyed by that look, Liu Shutong glared at him again.
“What? Planning to disobey orders?”
“No.”
Still that cold, rigid tone.
The two sides remained locked in silence for a while before Huo Guangji finally turned and strode out of the office.
The office door slammed shut with a thunderous bang behind him.
Watching his departing figure, Liu Shutong couldn’t help grumbling, “That stubborn mule!”
“Captain! What happened? I heard Sister-in-law arrived?”
The moment he stepped outside, several men crowded around Huo Guangji, asking curiously.
Seeing his unpleasant expression, veteran soldier Zhao Fushui reached out and jabbed Ning An, who had leaned in closest to Huo Guangji.
“Xiao Ning! Cut it out. Let’s hear what the captain says. Did the company commander chew you out again?”
Zhao Fushui had been a soldier for ten years and was the oldest member of First Squad. He’d known Huo Guangji for over six years, so he naturally spoke more casually than the others.
Huo Guangji pressed his lips together without speaking.
His gaze drifted toward the company guesthouse.
There was one thing he couldn’t understand. He had clearly mailed all of his monthly allowance home every year without keeping a single cent for himself… so how had that woman still ended up starving herself into that state?
Judging from Qin Yuyue’s condition, he believed she hadn’t been lying.
“Xiao Ning, the company commander gave our squad a month off. Go back to my hometown for me and investigate something.”