Chapter 293: Chapter 293

Lin Xiaoyue was taken aback, "When did this happen?"

"Just today." Su Qing said, looking up at her, "I rushed back originally to tell you about this, didn’t expect that..."

Lin Xiaoyue, surprised and angry, said, "That’s a separate matter. Whether you’ve been reinstated or promoted, it can’t erase the fact that you found people to harm those two young girls. You owe me an explanation for that!"

"If explanations were useful, you wouldn’t have asked me like that the moment you came in."

After saying what he needed, Su Qing stood up and walked towards the door, his tall figure covered in a layer of loneliness and solitude.

That night, he didn’t come to the main house, but slept in the study.

Lin Xiaoyue had a bad temper to begin with, and with such an event happening, he didn’t come, and she didn’t care either, bathing then heading straight to bed.

The next day, it was already late morning when Lin Xiaoyue got up and came out after washing up.

The maid had already prepared breakfast.

As she sat down, she glanced at the empty stool beside her.

Since being suspended, Su Qing had basically accompanied her for breakfast every morning.

On this rare day, the seat that originally belonged to him was empty, and Lin Xiaoyue found it a bit hard to get used to.

She routinely asked, and the maid said Mr. Qi had gone to the Ministry of War early in the morning.

Lin Xiaoyue reacted indifferently, without asking more, and lowered her head to start eating breakfast.

After breakfast, Lin Xiaoyue went for a walk in the garden, using the fresh morning air to clear away the chaotic thoughts in her head.

After becoming pregnant, Nanny Qin took care of most of the household matters, so Lin Xiaoyue didn’t have to worry too much; she found herself living a rather leisurely and pleasant day.

In the evening, when Su Qing returned to the mansion, he didn’t come to the main house to eat and had the servants send the meal to the study, staying there afterwards, busy with something unknown.

Lin Xiaoyue realized he was giving her the cold shoulder.

Clearly, it was his fault, yet he was acting as if she was being unreasonable? Lin Xiaoyue felt even more irritated and didn’t want to pay attention to him.

After only two days of cold war, the entire household knew, and the servants, scared of being implicated by their masters’ wrath, were careful in everything they said and did.

Su Qing’s paperwork for deployment to the border area was approved three days later.

The night before his departure, he didn’t continue sleeping in the study but came to the main house after bathing.

Lin Xiaoyue had already gone to bed.

During these days of cold war, she seemed not to be heavily affected, her complexion still rosy, her sleeping visage peaceful.

Su Qing looked at her, inevitably recalling their early days of marriage.

This marriage was personally arranged by the elderly lady before her death.

Honestly speaking, the Su Family was a literate family, a high-status family; even as an illegitimate son, he was qualified to marry a Capital maiden.

But at that time, the Su Family encountered difficulties, urgently needing a sum of Silver Coin to tide over, and the elderly lady had once been an old acquaintance of the Lin Family, thus the marriage was hastily arranged after exchanging a few letters.

Su Qing was merely an unloved illegitimate son; whoever he married, the elderly lady wouldn’t care. What she wanted was support from the Lin Family in terms of Silver Coin.

So Lin Xiaoyue’s dowry was particularly substantial, and upon arriving at the Su Family, most of it ended up in the depot of her legitimate mother-in-law.

Even knowing it was a transactional marriage, Su Qing never neglected Lin Xiaoyue for even a day.

His feelings towards her stemmed from possession.

At first, he indeed regarded her as a "possession" to compensate for the lack he felt his whole life, having never truly owned anything complete.

Later, besides possession, he began to learn to care, to be considerate, to shed all his aloofness in front of her.

But until today, he realized that all his efforts were a colossal joke.

This woman was absolutely a stone that couldn’t be warmed.

No matter what he did, how he did it, she remained indifferent, even going so far as to push him towards others.

These, he could overlook.

He was just heartbroken that regarding the incident with Lin An’an and her sister, she would suspect him first and so decisively, without a shred of hesitation.

Clearly, to her, he didn’t even have a speck of trust.

In the end, Su Qing didn’t stay overnight in the main house. He returned to the study, packed up his belongings, slept a couple of hours on the small couch behind the screen, and before dawn, got up, leaving a trusted person to protect Lin Xiaoyue, and took a few attendants to head to the border area.

As Su Qing mounted his horse, a maid asked if he wanted to awaken Granny Qi to see him off.

Su Qing looked back, his gaze seemingly penetrating through layers of courtyard walls, fixing on the face of the person still sleeping in the main house.

A moment later, he withdrew his gaze, lightly said "No need," and swiftly rode off.

When Lin Xiaoyue got up, she found more guards outside.

She went out to see and recognized them as Su Qing’s trusted guards.

She knew Su Qing was leaving today.

But she hadn’t expected he would leave so quietly.

Lin Xiaoyue called one of the guards inside for questioning.

The guard, being one of Su Qing’s trusted ones, understood his master’s thoughts better than other attendants. He pursed his lips, but in the end, couldn’t resist saying, "When the two girls left, Mr. Qi did instruct us to follow them and think of a way to set a trap as a lesson, but before we could do anything, they already got into trouble."

Hearing this, Lin Xiaoyue’s face turned slightly pale, "Do you mean those people weren’t arranged by Mr. Qi?"

The guard replied, "I can swear to the heavens, Mr. Qi absolutely never ordered anyone to do such a heartless thing."

Lin Xiaoyue’s hand, holding the spoon, gradually clenched tighter, "Then why didn’t he explain to me?"

Clearly, a single sentence could explain it all, yet he hid it and played cold war with her?

The guard paused and spoke, "Perhaps Mr. Qi was hurt by Granny Qi’s lack of trust." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs NoveIＦire.net