My Husband's Lover (11)

For the whole day, I apologized to Liqin. I did everything I could just to mend our bond. He locked his room so I waited outside. When he went out, I would follow him and explain that it was just a misunderstanding. I tried to make jokes to liven up the atmosphere but he remained unbothered.

The next day, Jie woke me up early.

"A message came in saying that the master in his hometown already. He sent a carriage to pick up Mr. Liqin and you, Miss Yanyu. You will depart by 6," she explained. "I have already prepared your things. If you have other things you want to bring, just place them on your bed and I will come back to pack them up."

I nodded and lazily rose up from my bed. It did not help that breakfast was tofu again.

Jie was about to leave when she added, "While I was preparing your things, I found a book. It's on your table, Miss."

I grabbed the book and skimmed through it. "Is this something like a diary? Whose diary is this?" I flipped through the pages to look for the owner's name until I came across the last page. There was a withered flower and the word Yanyu. "So Yanyu kept a diary. This will be a fun read."

I put the book away and ate my meal. I would read the diary when we get there.

***

The ride was awkward. Even my shamelessness was thrown out of the window once I got into the carriage. Liqin would not even look to my direction. Thankfully, I fell asleep and woke up only when we got there.

When we entered the household, Liqin still did not even talk to me. He walked fast and left me. I should not have gone there.

"Yanyu!"

I stopped on my tracks. Of course, I would. The man was hugging me so tight.

"I missed you!" he said.

"Who are you?"

"It's me, Guoliang."

"Guoliang? As in Guowei's brother?"

He nodded. We talked for hours. I realized why Guowei would accuse Liqin of cheating with Guoliang. His brother loved skinship. It did not even occur to him that I was a girl and considering the times, that would be preposterous. But that did not matter to me. I was not from those times and I liked skinship as well.

A servant called us for lunch and when we got to the dining room, Guowei and Liqin were already sitting beside each other. I sat beside Guoliang.

"Guoliang, you seem to be very happy," Guowei said.

"Of course. Yanyu is here. We can finally marry. We promised to marry each other when we were young."

Liqin's chopsticks fell on the floor. Guowei excused himself because he had a sudden matter to attend to.

Guoliang took a spoonful of the fish soup and said, "Taste this, Yanyu. I cooked this just for you. You like fish, right?"

He was about to put it into my mouth when Liqin said, "She does not like fish."

Guoliang stopped and looked at Liqin. "Yanyu loves fish. When we were younger, she used to ask me to catch fish for her."

"How old were you then? 5? 7? 8? She changed. She does not like fish anymore. She likes tofu." Liqin moved the plate of tofu close to me.

"Is that true?" Guoliang pouted. "I even woke up early just to catch this for you."

Feeling bad for Guoliang, I said, "It's okay. I still like fish. In fact, it's my favorite."

Guoliang grinned and fed me a spoonful of fish soup.

Liqin suddenly stood up and was about to leave when I stopped him. "Where are you going?"

"To my room," he said without looking at me.

"You haven't touched your meal. Eat first."

"I am not hungry. Go eat your favorite food with your childhood sweetheart."

That was when I decided to stop Operation: QinWei Forever for awhile. I needed to work on a new mission - Operation: Sorry Liqin.