Shui Qing didn't actually have a very good impression of Ling Ce, her father.
He married his childhood sweetheart less than three months after his wife's death, which she declined to comment on. However, the fact that the two already had a child, who was only one year younger than Ling Ran, was something she couldn't accept from any perspective.
She looked at Ling Ce quietly. Out of gratitude for his help in bringing troops to assist her, she neither refused outright nor immediately agreed. Instead, she was extremely polite: "Governor Ling, you are too kind. Please feel free to give any instructions."
Ling Ce is not Bai Manshan or Li Huyu. The latter two were her friends and sisters, but Ling Ce was just Ling Ran's father, a second-rank governor.
Ling Ce understood everything Shui Qing said.
She was treating him like a governor or an official. He could bring up important matters, and she would do what she could to help. As for personal matters, she would only look at them selectively.
But he only came for personal matters.
He glanced at Shui Qing's wary and polite expression, then changed the subject to recounting the past: "Rou Rou and I, who is Ran'er's stepmother, have known each other since childhood, fallen in love with each other, and stayed together through thick and thin."
My grandfather encountered bandits while traveling and was rescued by Zhu Neng, who is also my father-in-law. To repay his kindness, my grandfather arranged my marriage. I could not resist and had to marry Ran'er's mother. In fact, I was in pain and resentful. If it weren't for her, I would not have separated from Rou Rou.
My heart belongs only to Rou Rou. I did neglect her after marriage, but I gave her the position of mistress and the power to manage the household.
Rou Rou compromised and became my mistress, remaining depressed and unhappy. She only entered the family after Ran'er's mother passed away. I gave all the respect and face I could to Ran'er's biological mother, yet my own son still doesn't understand. What else can I do?
Looking at Ling Ce's face, which was full of bitterness, as if he was truly enduring great pain and helplessness, Shui Qing felt nothing but anger and a thousand words of concern.
Damn it! If you're going to repay a debt of gratitude, then repay it properly. Jade from Hetian, crystal from the East China Sea, chicken-blood stone from Changhua, pearls, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, or at the very least, simple and straightforward gold and silver—aren't all of those ways to repay a debt of gratitude?
Look at how Bai Manshan and Li Huyu repay her for saving Bai Ziqian's life! They just shower her with gifts! Gold leaves, fish maw, clothing fabrics, and all sorts of gold and silver jewelry. Did she feel neglected? No, on the contrary, their friendship only grew stronger!
She scoffed, unable to contain herself any longer, and asked, "Why bother with all this formality? Wouldn't it have been enough to give more gifts back then? Was your grandfather repaying a debt of gratitude or seeking revenge?"
If you repay a debt of gratitude like this, what can you possibly do to the Zhu family if you seek revenge? It probably won't be this bad.
If you ask me, it's better to be enemies; maybe they didn't really want to marry their daughter into the family anyway.
Ling Ce's pained expression froze, and for a moment he didn't know what expression to make.
In the past, some people have blamed my grandfather for arranging his marriage, but he was, after all, my grandfather, the head of the Ling family, the one who brought glory to the Ling family. Zhu Neng saved my grandfather, and was not only my grandfather's savior, but also the Ling family's savior. It was just a marriage, so what did it matter as a favor in return?
They never intended to repay their debt of gratitude through marriage. Is that what the various families truly wanted? Perhaps they didn't think the Ling family was particularly good, so good that they would break up a marriage just to marry into it.
But his grandfather had passed away many years ago. Even a son would not speak ill of his father, let alone his grandfather. As a grandson, he could not be unfilial.
"Besides, you are a grown man, and you have a lover who is willing to die for you. You are powerless to resist and have to obey your elders to get married. How can you expect Ling Ran's mother, a young woman from a secluded family, to rebel against her parents?"
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