After Marrying The Paranoid God of War (Rebirth) - Chapter 41
“Huo family cannot tolerate these shady affairs.”
“Madam, you must take care of yourself. If you dare to harbor any crooked thoughts again, even if the second son does not write a divorce letter, our master will not easily let it go.”
After Steward Su left, He Xinruo was covered in cold sweat. She clutched her abdomen, her expression one of pain, nearly fainting on the spot. Fortunately, her maid supported her.
“Madam, you cannot fall now. Didn’t Steward Su just say? During this month of confinement, you still have to kneel in the main house for two hours every day.”
He Xinruo, struggling to keep her breath, angrily shook off the maid’s arm and said with a trembling voice, “I heard him, no need for you to repeat!”
She finally understood the whole story.
And found the reason for her sudden unbearable abdominal pain.
It was all the mischief of that little wretch, Huo Xi!
She had underestimated the child of the Fang family. Yesterday, outside the tea room, the child must have discovered something. That’s why he pretended to be sick and ran back to the Minister’s residence.
The medicine she used to harm Fang’s womb must have been swapped by someone he instructed, and she ended up drinking it herself…
Thinking of this, He Xinruo, clutching her abdomen and enduring the unbearable pain, clenched her fist and smashed it hard against the ground covered with a velvet blanket.
Fortunately, the physician who tested the medicine last night only told Steward Su that the medicine would disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle.
The physician did not realize that if the medicine was used too much, it would also cause infertility in women.
Thus, He Xinruo breathed a sigh of relief.
In this way, the seriousness of her drugging the Fang family would not be too severe, and Huo Lang gave her a chance to reform, not immediately asking Huo Changjue to write her a divorce letter.
It’s just a pity that she will never be able to hold her head up again in the Minister’s residence.
After He Xinruo’s condition slightly improved, she went to kneel in Madam Gao’s courtyard.
Steward Su had also visited Madam Gao’s courtyard. After hearing the whole story, Madam Gao was shocked, her hand holding the teacup trembling.
Zhang, sitting beside her, glanced at the pale-faced eldest Miss He of the He family outside the hall.
It seems that the Minister sent the second wife to kneel in Madam Gao’s courtyard as a warning to others and also to reprimand Madam Gao for not supervising her daughter-in-law properly.
Zhang, seeing He Xinruo’s increasingly weak expression, asked Madam Gao, “Madam, it looks like Miss He is about to faint. Should we send someone to help her up?”
“No need. If she faints, just let her lie outside. Don’t bother with her.”
Madam Gao finally sorted out the events. What He did this time was too foolish. After she sent He to the Duke of Dingbei’s house to deliver the relocation gift, her behavior upon returning was not right, always inciting Huo Changjue to split the family and move out.
It seems she was jealous of Fang’s cousin, so she gave her medicine that disrupts menstruation.
Fortunately, Huo Xi, that clever child, noticed something was amiss and quietly ordered someone to switch the tea of the two.
Of course, only a few people in the Xiang residence know the truth.
Huo Lang did not want to expose the things He Xinruo did. Speaking out loud about it would sound bad and could also affect Huo Changjue.
After Huo Lang had Steward Su speak some heart-wrenching words to He Xinruo, she was also severely punished.
And He Xinruo, suffering the consequences of her own actions, had already learned a lesson. The Fang family did not suffer any harm.
It wasn’t serious enough to make Huo Changjue divorce his wife.
However, at this time, Madam Gao thought about making Huo Changjue divorce his wife.
But she had to wait for Huo Changjue to finish his official duties and come back to discuss it with him.
And now, another matter was quite troublesome for Madam Gao, and that was how to deal with Fang’s cousin.
After all, it was she who brought up this topic in the main hall yesterday.
Fang’s cousin, being a decent person and having held back, did not complain to Huo Pingxiao after being punished as per her request.
Otherwise, that fierce Huo Pingxiao would have come to the Xiang residence to trouble her long ago.
After this incident, Madam Gao saw many things clearly. In the future, if Huo Lang is gone, the Huo family, relying only on Huo Changjue and Huo Leshi, will not be able to hold up.
After all, the marriage of Huo Changjue, which was not quite satisfactory, was arranged because everyone thought Huo Pingxiao had died in battle. She chose the He family, which was not very prominent, to prevent Huo Changjue from being oppressed by his wife’s family.
Thinking of this, Madam Gao ordered her maid: “Go to the storeroom and pick out a few sets of fine jewelry, choose the most valuable ones. Then send a card to the Marquis of Dingbei’s mansion. In a few days, I will personally go to their mansion to… apologize to Fang’s cousin.”
***
Although Ruan An’s slender back, cushioned by her waist-length hair, still felt a large area of coldness when lifted away from the wall by the man.
She couldn’t help but shiver in his arms, and Huo Pingxiao, sensing her discomfort, gently placed his broad hand over her, slowly warming her soft skin.
Ruan An, with her little face flushed, let him bury his sharp nose in her neck.
Huo Pingxiao, deeply inhaling her scent, said in a hoarse, magnetic voice, somewhat teasingly, “I told you, you won’t fall.”
As he said this, Huo Pingxiao lifted Ruan An up.
The man’s arm, scarred, gently brushed her waist, and with his large hand cradling her head, he carried her like a child back to the inner side of the bed.
As a military commander, Huo Pingxiao’s physique was tall and straight, each muscle exuding strength, not overly bulging, but firm and strong, giving her a sense of security.
He had a god-like, beautiful, and majestic physique.
Ruan An shyly lowered her lashes, not daring to look at him, her heart still pounding fast.
After everything was over, she usually didn’t know what to say, but recently, she had also gradually found pleasure in it.
“In a few days, I have to go to Guannei Road, and I’ll have to stay there for at least ten days.”
Huo Pingxiao, lying beside her, was calming his deep breaths, as if restraining something, his voice still hoarse and magnetic, vibrating her eardrums.
Ruan An quietly covered her ear with her hand and asked softly, “What are you going to do in Guannei?”
“Farming.”
He replied to her in a mild voice with one word.
“Are you not fighting wars? How come you’re also involved in farming matters?”
Hearing Ruan An’s soft question, Huo Pingxiao looked at her amusingly, responding in a deep voice, “The affairs your husband needs to manage are indeed numerous.”
Ruan An was somewhat bewildered, suddenly feeling that although she had liked Huo Pingxiao for so long, she didn’t really understand him well, nor did she know what he usually had to do.
Being a general wasn’t just about fighting battles; the things he had to do and understand were actually quite numerous.
Curious about the matter of farming he mentioned, Ruan An moved her delicate and fragrant body closer to him and asked with pursed lips, “Then can you tell me why we need to farm in Guanzhong? There are many things I don’t understand, don’t laugh at me.”
As the girl spoke, her sweet breath also brushed past his ear.
Huo Pingxiao’s brows slightly furrowed, concealing the unusual feelings in his heart, and he grabbed Ruan An’s wrist, preventing her from leaning closer.
“It’s about the military provisions.”
He explained to Ruan An with patience, “Every inspection path within the territory of Li Country needs to farm. Sometimes, when the battles are intense, if we wait for the Ministry of Revenue to distribute grains from the granaries, the soldiers will starve before they even fight.”
“Also, we have to consider the weather during transportation, whether the waterways are flooded, if using boats there is a risk of capsizing, and if traveling by land, whether the horses will encounter problems.”
Huo Pingxiao told her many things in a warm and deep voice.
The more Ruan An listened, the more she realized why, since ancient times, lords were ennobled for their military achievements.
Just the task of transporting military provisions involved so many intricacies; she was almost confused listening to it.
Ruan An recalled that when she first returned to Jiazhou from the southern borders, the silver coins awarded to her by the Jiedushi were lost in a battle in Lingnan.
She had also thought about raising some livestock outside her thatched cottage, to sell them at the market later.
Xiao Tao brought her a few piglets from home, but although raising pigs seemed easy, it was actually quite difficult in practice.
Not long after, one of the piglets died of illness, and she was unable to save it successfully.
She couldn’t even raise pigs well, let alone manage people.
Naturally, Ruan An couldn’t manage Sun Ye and the two medicine boys either. Even if she pretended to be strong, the three young ones were not afraid of her.
But Huo Pingxiao was in charge of hundreds of thousands of troops.
A man who could make hundreds of thousands of people with different personalities all obey his commands.
Ruan An had a hard time even driving a piglet into the pen.
How did Huo Pingxiao, alone, manage to move such a vast army?
Ruan An, immersed in her memories of feeding the piglets, suddenly realized that Huo Pingxiao had not spoken for a long time and thought he had fallen asleep.
Taking advantage of his sleep, Ruan An harbored some thoughts and reached out her small hand to gently touch the scar on his neck.
Upon touching it, the man had no reaction.
Ruan An confirmed that Huo Pingxiao had indeed fallen asleep.
Her courage grew a bit, and she gently traced the fierce lines of the scar with her tender fingertips, inch by inch.
Just as she was considering whether to secretly touch his wolf talisman, she suddenly felt a suffocating breath approaching her.
Ruan An’s eyes widened in shock, and by the time she regained her senses, the man had already subdued her beneath him.
He lifted her restless hand above her head, his large hand imprisoning her wrist bone, and gradually interlocking his fingers with her soft small hand.
Huo Pingxiao kissed the girl’s lips with a punitive intent, cursing in a low voice, “Someday, I will surely be undone by you.”