In the study room, Qin Huaiyong smashed the cup in Mrs. Qin's foot, who was scared to step back and hit the table on the side.
"Talk about it, what is going on?" Qin Huaiyong gloomily looked at Mrs. Qin with a pair of fierce and suffocating eyes.
Mrs. Qin was shocked and knew that Qin Huaiyong was really angry. She then hurriedly pretended to be confused and said. "General, I don't know what you are talking about?"
"How come I didn't know that you have the same taste as my cousin? When did you actually take away the dishes she likes!" Qin Huaiyong harshly said with a cold voice.
"I··· General, I··· I just wanted to taste her food that day so I told people in the kitchen. After they sent the food, I didn't feel very good after I tasted it, so I didn't care. I didn't know that they went behind my back and actually took away more than half of cousin's dishes!"
Mrs. Qin was flustered. She knew about the problem, so she could immediately think of countermeasures and hurriedly said it.
But things could still be clear if they took a deep look into it, since there were many people who had seen that Mrs. Qin had taken away more dishes that day, she couldn't hide it even if she wanted to.
"You like my cousin's dishes, so you want to split and have a taste?" Qin Huaiyong sneered and said.
"If you don't believe me, you can go asking someone else. It was coincident that you and Magistrate Qi were talking about Yuru's marriage, since I didn't know how things went on between you and assumed that you had no appetite, so I ate after seeing mother. A biddy of mother told me that cousin's dishes were pretty good, thus I did it, how could you just say that I ate her dishes deliberately?"
Mrs. Qin felt she was wronged, and her eyes turned red.
At that time, she deliberately let a biddy around Madam mention this matter to make it look casual, and she did it on purpose in front of Servant Duan, who Madam trusted most.
Because Qin Huaiyong had a very good relationship with Magistrate Qi, so they were very congenial every time they drank together, and he would always come back drunk. But on that day, it was Mrs. Qin, who deliberately asked Qin Huaiyong to find Magistrate Qi to discuss the marriage.
"How come things could be so coincident? You split cousin's dishes, so Qionghua ate her own and got stomachache?" Qin Huaiyong could not believe Mrs. Qin's explanation, but his voice was softened.
"General, why should I know about that··· you know that your cousin has never been close to me and she barely talks to me even if something bad happened to her. Though I tried so hard to make a good relationship with her, she was just cold to me. I don't really know what she thinks about, and Qionghua is her servant, so what do you really mean by saying this?"
Mrs. Qin cried with grievances, covered her face with handkerchief to act like sad. She didn't mean well by what she just said. She meant that there was something wrong with what Qionghua had said.
Qin Huaiyong's expression was still serious. He knew that Shui Ruolan and Mrs. Qin's personalities were not alike and they were usually indifferent when they met each other. Mrs. Qin didn't lie about it, but he was still confused and his brows were tightly locked.
Of course, he didn't know that what he saw was deliberately planned by Mrs. Qin. The so-called "what he knew" was simply on the surface that he thought that Mrs. Qin was really good for Shui Ruolan, but what he didn't know was that Mrs. Qin had always been ignorant of Shui Ruolan, and sometimes even taunted her.
"Whether it was something you deliberately did or not, but you were the reason that caused the mistake. Since the mistake had been made and it was on us, then we couldn't badly treat to my cousin." Qin Huaiyong slowly said it after long silence.
"General···" Mrs. Qin was shocked and lifted her head while being unable to cry but screamed.
"Why? Isn't it supposed to be like this? Things had happened and we have to take the responsibility." Qin Huaiyong sat down and resolutely said it. He didn't know what Shui Ruolan was thinking about at first place, so he said nothing when she entered the family temple. But since she still had some feelings for him, he surely could not let her down.
"But··· but it was a mistake, and cousin herself felt blamed and entered the family temple, which means··· " Hearing Qin Huaiyong was really thinking about that, Mrs. Qin was worried and didn't have time to wipe the tears she forced herself to cry out. She then hurriedly stopped him and said, "If you want to compensate her, just follow her wish. If we make her embarrassed, it will be even worse to deal with it then!"
It was something well said, which was completely considered from the perspective of Shui Ruolan, and it sounded fair and reasonable.
Qin Huaiyong would inevitably be touched by her words if it was before, which was also the reason why Qin Huaiyong had not dared to take action for so many days, but what Qin Wanru just said had dispelled his concerns.
"Since we did her wrong in the first place, I have to make it up as a real man. I will go to my mother to discuss this matter later!" Qin Huaiyong shook his hand and went silent for a long time before he said it firmly.
"But··· but what about me?" Mrs. Qin had never thought about things could turn out this way, so she immediately said with grievances, "I··· I can't get used to it at the moment, I still want to treat her as a cousin··· I, I fee terrible!"
Mrs. Qin's tears came down while saying that. It was not totally faked since a big part of it dropped because of worries. She would not care about it if there was really nothing between Shui Ruolan and Qin Huaiyong. But if they were quite affectionate to each other at first place, there would be a serious problem.
"You suddenly splitted a large part of the cousin's dishes that day, and then Qionghua had a diarrhea after she had her own food, could it be so coincident!" Qin Huaiyong coldly said. Since he had the doubt in his heart, he chose to lead the conversation that way. And the more he thought about it, the more skeptical it was that it was such a coincidence when these things came together.
Although Qin Huaiyong did not know the truth of the inner court and he could not see through Mrs. Qin for a while who had been playing dirty in the backyard, it didn't mean that he couldn't see the strange situation inside. When he saw that Mrs. Qin didn't agree to his idea for a long time, he felt a bit unpleasant.
"But it··· was just a coincidence, if you don't believe me, you can ask people in the kitchen and people around mother!" Mrs. Qin cried again with her face covered, looked like pretty poor.
"You can leave now, it's settled," Qin Huaiyong waved his hand and unpleasantly said, and then added another sentence, "don't make those coincident things again, there are not so many coincidences in the world! If you are not capable to manage Yuru's thing, you can ask someone else to help you with the family issue!"
This sentence was almost a warning to Mrs. Qin.
She was so furious when she heard it and wanted to talk back, whilst her sleeve was secretly pulled by someone when she was ready to talk. She turned and found it was her personal servant Servant Chou.
Servant Chou made a gesture to her and pointed at the door with her finger, indicating that she should go out at this time.
Looking at Qin Huaiyong, right now, Mrs. Qin knew that it was useless to say anything at this time. She had to secretly bite her teeth and left the room after she bowed down and wiped out her tears.
Qin Huaiyong lifted his head again after seeing that Mrs. Qin was out. He reached out and rubbed between his eyebrows and looked at the snack on the table for a long time without saying anything.
Coming out from Qin Huaiyong's study, Mrs. Qin took Servant Chou to a secluded place and spit hard. She said with a face fully covered with jealousy. "That bitch actually had a thing with General. I won't give them such a chance if I knew about it!"
"Madam, don't worry, it's not done yet." Servant Chou tried to comfort her and said.
"By looking at what General means, he hoped it could be done right away. He is so partial before he even doesn't marry her, then we could not live after she was a part of the family!" Mrs. Qin bit her and almost smashed the handkerchief in her hand. How could she bare that she made herself such a big enemy by just playing a little trick?
Thinking about Shui Ruolan's personality, she felt so ashamed that she wanted to die when something like this happened. She should hide herself from people because of shame.
"Madam, don't worry, even if the General has the intention, it couldn't be done so soon. The marriage of young madam just failed the other day, and everybody was talking about things between us and Magistrate Qi, so the Madam would not allow him to marry Shui Ruolan at this time."
Servant Chou reminded Mrs. Qin while looking harshly and pointed towards the family temple.
It was the time when the wind and waves were highest, it would be easily said but hard for people to accept the truth that Qin Huaiyong wanted to marry his cousin, which might also affect Qin Huaiyong's career.
Mrs. Qin was enlightened and she nodded with her gloomy face. If the news that marrying his own cousin who was widowed at home was spread out, it was indeed very shameful. Since Qin Huaiyong always cared much about his reputation, not to mention the sensitive time like right now when he was trying to move back to the city, he couldn't be so reckless.
"But··· he would eventually marry her!" Mrs. Qin couldn't let go of it after thinking about it.
"Madam, it's not only decided by General if he could marry her. If something bad happened to Shui Ruolan, he couldn't marry her even if he wanted to!" Servant Chou reminded her, "isn't Miss Qi coming over to have fun, we could ask her to stay for a few more days until someone of Magistrate Qi came to pick her up, whether it's Magistrate Qi or First Young Master of the Qi Family, we can make moves until then!"
"No, it will make the general suspect!" Mrs. Qin categorically refused, because Qin Huaiyong had already warned her.
"Please rest assured, Madam, even if it is a coincidence, it is not made by you. So General could not blame you, could he just find trouble at Qi's mansion? Since we owed them on Young Madam's thing!" Servant Chou pointed to the direction of the family temple.
Her words made Mrs. Qin remain silent, and she revealed some cruelness in her eyes after thought about it. "Well! People of Qi's mansion would not come to ask for explanation if something happened to Miss Qi? We can wait and see that something bad happened to Miss Qi and the bitch at the same time!"
Servant Chou immediately understood what she meant and hurriedly applauded.