Chapter 62 Lin Shiyuan's Heartbeats Accelerated Three Times
Lin Shiyuan was stunned, and his heart skipped a beat.
He said somberly, "There are no 'ifs'."
Lin Qiao pouted, picked up a piece of meat, chewed it, and stubbornly said, "If I had a sister-in-law like that, I would go to save her... How could I bear to let her face such danger alone... No, wait..."
She shook her head: "I would never leave my sister-in-law alone on a rainy night."
In a temple, where spirits and deities dwell, and storms rage, how can a woman be left alone?
"...Brother wouldn't either, right?"
Lin Shiyuan glanced at her, somewhat speechless.
"You don't have a sister-in-law, and I'm unmarried."
Lin Qiao pouted again: "I was just saying, is that not allowed?"
Lin Shiyuan took another sip of wine, watching his younger sister munching on a chicken leg, her mouth glistening with oil, as if she were angrily biting someone's leg.
He said slowly, "Even if my wife is brave and resourceful, as husband and wife, we should share hardships. Knowing that my wife is in dire straits, as her husband, I should die with her."
“To save other women but not one’s wife is disloyal and impolite; to not go to her aid after she has been rescued is cowardly and a betrayal of faith; to hold a funeral without investigating the matter afterwards is unkind and unwise; he has ulterior motives.”
Lin Shiyuan thought disdainfully, "I'd rather not have a man like that."
Lin Qiao's eyes lit up after receiving approval: "Right?"
Lin Shiyuan twitched the corner of his lips, but said nothing more.
Lin Qiao suddenly leaned closer to Lin Shiyuan again and whispered, "The young mistress wants to divorce her husband!"
Lin Shiyuan frowned, feeling his heart pound twice more.
"Divorce?"
He paused for a moment, then said, "Isn't she the daughter of the late Marquis of Zhongyong?"
Women from noble families rarely married down; they would marry into the royal family or nobility to consolidate and balance the power of various factions.
Divorce is impossible.
Even the bravest and smartest woman will suffer greatly in the circles of powerful and aristocratic families if she divorces.
Some were better off, eventually being confined to the backyard until death; others were divorced, sent back to their parents' home, given a cup of poison, and not even qualified to be buried in the ancestral grave.
Lin Shiyuan seemed to remember something, his eyes narrowed slightly, his face darkened, and he clenched his fingers.
Lin Qiao was only eight years old and didn't have many painful memories; but she remembered the Duke's mansion she had visited, and the beautiful older sister who called her the young mistress, Second Sister-in-law.
Lin Qiao said, "The young mistress married into the Duke's family."
Her voice was clear and crisp, without any worry, and even with a hint of anticipation. The young mistress would outwit and outmaneuver those powerful figures, escape unscathed, and achieve a perfect divorce.
She didn't think "perfect harmony and separation" was a contradictory term at all.
If it's separation, how can there be any fulfillment?
Lin Shiyuan glanced at her, thinking that once he left, he would definitely find a tutor to teach her properly.
Lin Qiao suddenly lowered her voice mysteriously: "Brother, the young mistress has been secretly associating with those bandits—"
Lin Shiyuan paused, his heart pounding for the third time.
The bandits burned down Yongning Temple, killing hundreds of monks and guards. The government captured these people and would not spare their lives.
The young mistress's association with these people, whatever her reasons, is entangled in a mess; this will cost her her life!
“…During the days when the young mistress was recuperating in Tongluo Lane, she asked me to deliver a letter once,” Lin Qiao said in a breathy voice.
Lin Shiyuan frowned, subconsciously wondering how deep the young mistress's entanglement with those people was.
He asked, "What did you write?"
Lin Qiao gave him a strange look, feeling that her brother had insulted her: "How could I possibly read the letter written by the young mistress? She trusts me so much, I would never betray her."
At this moment, Lin Shiyuan began to have doubts.
He recalled that the young mistress had taken Lin Qiao in without asking about her background the first time they met.
Lin Qiao had unintentionally betrayed her before, so it was already unexpected that she would take Lin Qiao in again... And she even asked Lin Qiao to do such a confidential thing?
Does she trust, or...?
Beneath the man's drooping eyelids, his eyeballs moved slightly.
Lin Qiao added, "Besides, I don't know many characters either."
Lin Shiyuan: "..."
No wonder they sent a little girl to deliver the letter.
Firstly, Lin Qiao was just a child, and the bandits were a group of refugees whose children had died in disasters, so they couldn't bear to harm children who also looked poor. Secondly, Lin Qiao knew some martial arts, so she was much better able to protect herself than the timid maid.
Thirdly, Lin Qiao is not very literate, and she cannot understand the correspondence between the two parties, so she is unaware of the inside story and will not reveal anything to others; fourthly, Lin Qiao has no wealth or power, and even if she is arrested, with the young mistress's intelligence, she can deny everything to the end.
Furthermore... the young mistress has very few people she can rely on, so she can only use Lin Qiao.
Lin Shiyuan said, "You really should read more books."
Lin Qiao suddenly gave him a disdainful look: "Brother, how dare you say that to me?"
“I told the young mistress that I made up that nursery rhyme. Her maid said, ‘No wonder.’ She said that the nursery rhyme didn’t rhyme and wasn’t literary enough; only a child could make up something like that.”
Lin Shiyuan: "..."
He doesn't look well.
Lin Qiao: "Brother should also read more books."
The man coughed lightly, a hint of unease flashing across his face. He said with a serious expression, "I'm reading military strategy books."
As a military general who fights the enemy, what he needs is knowledge of how to deploy troops and arrange formations; what use are the poems and lyrics of scholars?
He then pointed to the corner of the wall, where several books were placed.
—The jailer respected his courage in killing enemies, so he didn't make things difficult for him in prison. He even gave him a few books for his younger brother's imperial examinations to help him pass the time.
"...Besides, I read books every day in prison."
Lin Shiyuan did not give up on himself just because he was in prison; he never slacked off.
Lin Qiao thought to herself, "My brother is really something, always so strict with himself."
Lin Qiao didn't want to give her brother a chance to teach her a lesson, so she quickly changed the subject: "Brother, these are pastries made by the young mistress. I brought them for you to try."
She opened the food box to the next layer, where there were two plates of pastries.
"The young mistress is recuperating in Tongluo Lane and doesn't go out. She stays in the kitchen making pastries. Old Yu and I ate a lot of them."
Lin Shiyuan picked up a piece of pastry and looked at it.
To please the nobility, the pastry chefs in the capital made their pastries beautiful and exquisite.
That young mistress actually has such skills?
Lin Shiyuan took a small bite.
The pastry is soft and chewy, melting in your mouth, with a lingering sweetness on your tongue.
He glanced at the remaining half of the pastry and couldn't bear to eat it all.
He didn't know when he would be able to leave; he wanted to save it for a while longer, to savor its sweetness every day.
Meanwhile, Lin Qiao had already finished a peach blossom pastry in a few bites and then went to get an osmanthus cake.
Lin Shiyuan frowned: "Wasn't this for me to eat?"
He gathered the remaining pastries to his side.
Lin Qiao didn't think much of it, figuring her brother wouldn't get much good food in prison; anyway, after the young mistress's divorce, she would be able to eat well more often.
Thinking generously, I decided to give it all to my brother, since it was originally meant for him anyway.
She squinted as she bit into the remaining half of the osmanthus cake and said, "I think the young mistress will definitely be able to get a divorce."
"But brother, is there any way to get the young mistress to leave as soon as possible?"
She wanted to help the young mistress, just like last time.
Lin Shiyuan stared at the half-eaten pastry in his hand, lost in thought.
After a moment, he beckoned to Lin Qiao: "Come here."
Lin Qiao offered her ear.
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