So, You’re the Henpecked One? 58

Chapter 58

A person suddenly pressed against her from behind, and the warmth of her body made Lin Zhao’s previous anger gradually soften, but she still couldn’t help but be a little unhappy.

She didn’t like that child. It was as if as soon as that child appeared, Chu Xihuan’s attention would shift to her.

Seeing that she didn’t answer, Chu Xihuan pondered for a moment and said with a smile, “Are you jealous? Jealous of a child?”

That was the only possibility. After all, Lin Zhao’s face had only darkened after she had picked up the child.

“Who’s jealous!” Lin Zhao said stubbornly, unwilling to admit it. How could she be jealous of a little brat!

Chu Xihuan let out a muffled laugh. She wanted to kiss her, but considering that she had just woken up and hadn’t washed up yet, she said, “You wait for me a moment.”

With that, she hurried off to wash up.

Lin Zhao stood there stiffly, her ears a little hot, not yet understanding what Chu Xihuan wanted her to wait for. After waiting for a while, a familiar body pressed against her from behind again, and then her earlobe was enveloped by a warm, wet, soft thing, and was occasionally bitten lightly.

“You’re not angry anymore, are you?” Chu Xihuan said in a muffled, coaxing voice. The hand on Lin Zhao’s waist was also slowly caressing her, but considering that it was broad daylight and her second sister and the child were outside, and she was afraid that they would suddenly come in, she didn’t dare to put her hand inside Lin Zhao’s clothes.

“You…”

Lin Zhao was caught off guard by her action. In fact, when her earlobe was being sucked and licked by Chu Xihuan, her legs were a little weak and she was about to lose her balance. Fortunately, Chu Xihuan was holding her from behind.

Lin Zhao was a little annoyed in her heart. She was simply ridiculous! How could she be so spineless!

“Lin Zhao, if you’re still not willing to accept her, then just try to pretend she doesn’t exist. Don’t get into a conflict with her, okay?” Chu Xihuan’s voice was very soft, but it also had a hint of a plea.

When she had found the child, she was still in swaddling clothes, but perhaps she could sense the outside world and knew that she had been abandoned, so this child had always been quieter and more sullen than other children of the same age, and had learned to speak and walk slower than others.

The child herself probably didn’t have much of a sense of security. Since she had already brought her back, she naturally had to be responsible for her. If possible, she still hoped that Lin Zhao could live in peace with her.

“How could I get into a conflict with her?” Lin Zhao’s tone was a little dissatisfied. In her opinion, although she didn’t like the child, she wouldn’t go so far as to make things difficult for a child. She, Lin Zhao, was not that shameless!

Hearing her say this, Chu Xihuan let out a muffled laugh. “Then what do you want me to do to make you happy?”

As she said this, she couldn’t help but sigh helplessly in her heart. Although she had raised the child for two years, she felt that the child was a little similar to Lin Zhao. They were both clingy.

Lin Zhao pressed her lips together, thinking of Chu Xihuan’s gentle expression when she was with the child. She wanted to say that Chu Xihuan was not allowed to treat the child like that anymore, but she also felt that if she said that, she would seem too petty. But she also felt that Chu Xihuan, who only cared about the child and not her, was really suffocating and wronged.

“You’re not going to say anything, hmm?” Chu Xihuan turned Lin Zhao’s body to face her, kissed her on the corner of her lips, and looked at her with a faint smile.

Lin Zhao’s gaze was fixed on Chu Xihuan’s eyes. She thought for a moment and finally said, “She’s been with you longer than I have.”

As she said this, her heart couldn’t help but feel a little bitter. She didn’t regret leaving back then, but there was an indescribable feeling that made her not want to think about it anymore.

Chu Xihuan was slightly taken aback. She carefully observed Lin Zhao’s expression and said with a hint of a probing tone, “Mm, what’s wrong?”

“So she’s more important,” Lin Zhao said.

It seemed to be true. Anyway, Chu Xihuan looked at the child much more than she looked at her!

Chu Xihuan’s eyes widened slightly, and she looked at Lin Zhao with a mix of anger and amusement. “So you’re comparing yourself to her?”

Lin Zhao pressed her lips together. Was that not allowed?

Chu Xihuan let out a low laugh, her voice with a hint of a sigh. She wrapped her arms around Lin Zhao’s neck and gave her a gentle bite on the nose. “Are you a fool? Can’t you both be equally important?”

Lin Zhao’s expression changed slightly, and she didn’t say anything.

Why should she be as important as that annoying child?

Although Chu Xihuan had said they were equally important, since she could say that, it meant that the balance in her heart had already tilted, and the one it had tilted toward was not her!

The more she thought about it, the more suffocated she became. Although it was reassuring and pleasant to know that Chu Xihuan really liked her, now that the realization that someone else was more important than her had come out, Lin Zhao still couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

During the time she was away, it was true that the child could make Chu Xihuan less lonely, but to be more important than her was too much!

Although Lin Zhao didn’t speak, her expression and stiff body were telling Chu Xihuan the answer. She turned and lightly bit Lin Zhao’s lower lip. “Silly girl, that’s our daughter. Even if I dote on her, won’t you be the one who spends the most time with me in the future?”

“Lin Zhao, you’re very important,” Chu Xihuan finally buried her face in her neck and shoulder and murmured.

If Lin Zhao wasn’t important, she wouldn’t have been willing to wait for her to come back, and she wouldn’t have felt compassion for a child who had lost her parents.

After all, after she had saved the child, she could have just sent her to an orphanage instead of bringing her back and raising her herself under the strange gazes of everyone.

Lin Zhao’s nose suddenly stung. “You’re just coaxing me.”

When she said this, her tone was a little choked, and also wronged.

Hearing her tone, Chu Xihuan felt a pang in her heart. She cupped her face and said softly, “You don’t believe me that much? You think everything I say is to coax you.”

Lin Zhao looked at her with a wronged expression. But Xihuan was very good at coaxing people.

Chu Xihuan let out a low laugh and pecked at the corner of her lips. “Alright~ It’s fine if you don’t believe me. You’ll feel that you’re the most important in the future.”

Seeing Lin Zhao’s attitude soften to this extent, Chu Xihuan couldn’t help but sigh in relief, and at the same time, her heart felt hot, with an impulse to love her even more.

Because she knew that the reason Lin Zhao had softened so quickly was only because she really liked her.

Lin Zhao let her peck at the corner of her lips. It wasn’t until she felt that it was about time that she pressed her lips together and said in a small voice, “Aren’t you hungry? There’s still breakfast I made for you in the pot.”

When she had entered the kitchen earlier, it was to serve Chu Xihuan breakfast.

Chu Xihuan’s gaze grew even softer, and she let out a low laugh. “Lin Zhao, you’re so good.”

Chu Xihuan was very sure that if she really lost Lin Zhao, she would never find anyone better than her in the future.

And no one would like her more than Lin Zhao.

After Chu Xihuan let go, Lin Zhao tried to maintain a normal expression, turned, and took a bowl to serve her a bowl of lean meat porridge. She also boiled an egg. After all, it was breakfast, and Lin Zhao couldn’t make anything too lavish in a hurry.

However, after eating Lin Zhao’s cooking after such a long time, Chu Xihuan felt that it was already very good.

Lin Zhao sat opposite her and ate breakfast with her, then said in a muffled voice, “That child, what’s her name?”

Since Chu Xihuan had already brought her home to raise, there was no reason to send her away again. No matter what, they would be living under the same roof in the future. And Lin Zhao considered herself an adult and had to be a little more magnanimous, so she naturally had to have a certain understanding of the child.

“Chu Lin. Chu from Chu Xihuan, Lin from Lin Zhao,” Chu Xihuan replied.

Lin Zhao was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting Chu Xihuan to name her like that.

Chu Xihuan looked up at her, her gaze soft. “Lin Zhao, I said, she is our child.”

Lin Zhao lowered her head, but her lips couldn’t help but curve up. Her dislike for the child seemed to have lessened a lot.

Her and Chu Xihuan’s surnames had become the child’s name.

How could she still dislike her? She was not at all opposed to her surname being put together with Chu Xihuan’s.

Chu Xihuan looked at her with a mix of affection and amusement. After they finished eating and came out, her second sister in the courtyard was already so bored that she was making a snowman with the child. Seeing them come out, she said, “Are you done with your lovey-dovey stuff?”

Lin Zhao’s face instantly turned red.

Chu Xihuan was speechless.

“Second sister, there’s a child here,” Chu Xihuan reminded her, afraid that her second sister would say something even more shocking.

Chu Ningyi looked at the child who immediately dropped the snowman and ran toward her as soon as she saw Chu Xihuan. “She’s still young. She doesn’t understand.”

“Niang~” the child said, hugging Chu Xihuan’s leg.

Hearing her voice, Lin Zhao squatted down and stared into her eyes. “What’s with her accent?” she couldn’t help but say.

She had been in Liangcheng for so long, and she had never heard anyone call their mother with that accent!

Chu Xihuan looked down, then also squatted down and patted the snow off the child’s clothes. “This child started speaking late and still can’t speak clearly. It’ll be fine after she speaks more in the future,” she said with a smile.

The child, seeing that Lin Zhao was still staring at her, was a little scared and a little curious, and she shrank toward Chu Xihuan.

Chu Ningyi looked at this family of three, a strange light in her eyes, and the curve of her lips couldn’t help but rise. Her heart was itching.

Before she could say anything, someone who had heard the news had already come to congratulate Lin Zhao.

Not only had Lin Zhao returned safely from the army, but she had also earned a fortune for herself. And those with good information also knew that after she retired this time, she had also been given a position as a patrol inspector. Although it seemed to only be in charge of some public security issues, it was still a position with real power!

Looking at the compliments and flattery of those people, Lin Zhao was not very used to this situation, but fortunately, Chu Xihuan was by her side to help her, so there was no awkward situation.

“Sure enough, a person as righteous as Miss Lin would give birth to a child who is even better than her!” someone couldn’t help but exclaim, clearly very surprised that Lin Zhao had grown to this point. After all, she had clearly gone down the wrong path before, but she had been straightened out after she got married.

Suddenly hearing someone mention her mother, Lin Zhao was taken aback for a moment. She couldn’t help but wonder if her mother would be at ease now, seeing her like this.

“But those people from the Lin clan are really bastards! When I find a chance, I’ll definitely sue them! A person as righteous as Miss Lin, they didn’t take good care of her child, but instead bullied a child. They’re really shameless!”

Hearing those words, some people chimed in, saying that the members of the Lin clan had gone too far and had no sense of kinship!

Lin Zhao listened to their words. Although she knew that these people were not really standing up for her, but were just trying to get on her good side because of her change in status, and also wanted to do her a favor by dealing with the members of the Lin clan.

Although she knew that it was not sincere, Lin Zhao did not stop them when they said those words. Now that someone was helping her deal with the members of the Lin clan without her having to do it herself, she was naturally happy to see it.

In the past, she had no ability. Now that she had the ability, how could she continue to tolerate the members of the Lin clan living so comfortably with the assets her mother had left behind?

They had taken it for too long. There would be a day when they would have to pay it back with interest.

After those people left, it didn’t take long for Lin Yongchang to come to the door, begging Lin Zhao to let them go for the sake of being in the same clan. And this time, he had also brought all the title deeds of the assets Lin Zhao’s mother had left behind, trying to return them to her.

No one in the Lin clan had expected Lin Zhao to come back alive. After all, she had joined the Qi family army, and the reason the Qi family army was so respected by everyone was because they guarded the most dangerous passes and had become an extremely solid barrier for the Liang Kingdom, protecting the peace of the people behind them.

Dangerous… meant high casualties, especially since the war had started not long after Lin Zhao had enlisted. And for three years, there had been no news. Apart from Chu Xihuan, who was still at the Lin residence, almost everyone had thought that Lin Zhao was already dead.

It would have been good if Lin Zhao had really died, but she had retired as a Centurion of the Qi family army. You know, General Qi was the most protective of her own. The people who retired from under her would be well taken care of. If anyone dared to cause trouble for these people, who knows when General Qi’s people would come to their door.

Lin Zhao took the things. They were her mother’s things, so she naturally had no burden in taking them.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you,” Lin Zhao said with a warm smile, as if she really didn’t care about his past actions.

Lin Yongchang was a little stunned to hear her agree so easily. He wanted to say something more, but he found that he had nothing to say.

She had already agreed. What else could he say?

“If there’s nothing else, you can go back first. I’ve just come back and still have a lot of things to arrange,” Lin Zhao said, clearly not in the mood to chat with him.

Lin Yongchang replied awkwardly, without any of his previous arrogance as the head of a clan.

After he left, Chu Xihuan looked at Lin Zhao. “You’re letting them go so easily?”

She didn’t quite believe it.

Lin Zhao looked at her with a slightly innocent expression. “I just said I wouldn’t do anything to them.” She hadn’t said that others wouldn’t do anything to them, right? For example, that group of people earlier, who still wanted to use this matter to get on her good side.

Chu Xihuan let out a soft laugh. Lin Zhao had finally grown up and had also learned to play these little tricks.

Chu Ningyi, who had been sitting to the side holding the child all this time, looked at the two of them, the curve of her lips unable to be controlled. She lowered her head and said to Chu Lin in a low voice, “Little Lin’er, do you like your mother? Do you think the two of them are a good match?”

Chu Ningyi was very happy to see that Lin Zhao had returned safely and had reconciled with her little sister. After all, if the two of them broke up, the stories she wrote would probably be tasteless.

The child looked at Lin Zhao with her glassy eyes. She had been a little afraid of this person before, but seeing her and her mother together, she felt that perhaps she was not so scary.

Apart from yesterday, she hadn’t dared to speak loudly to her mother today.

**

Author’s Note:

So, Zhaozhao, you only stood up for yourself for one day!