Chapter 19: An Agreeable Divorce
Lin Yue shook her head.
Xia Qingshan remained silent for a moment, before continuing, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Xia Qingshan, the father of these two children. And at least as for now, I'm still your husband."
Lin Yue suddenly felt a bit flustered. She looked at Xia Qingshan and furrowed her brows. Apparently, she had scolded him quite a bit by the river earlier today.
She hadn't realised that she was actually scolding him to his face; how embarrassing.
However, from another perspective, realising that he was her husband made Lin Yue's inner resistance towards him diminish slightly.
Xia Qingshan had no idea what his wife was thinking about. Seeing her remain silent, he recalled what she had said during the day.
"Shouldn't you explain to me first why you sold Xiu'er?"
Lin Yue suddenly couldn't find the words to form a response. How could she explain? Can she even say that it was because Xiu'er had a tumor in her body, and it was malignant?
Who would believe that if she said it?
Lin Yue fell silent, and Xia Qingshan's gaze grew colder.
Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere became tense.
Finally, Lin Yue couldn't bear the silence nor the cold stare from above any longer.
She bit her lip and said, "Um, it was a misunderstanding."
Xia Qingshan quickly retorted, "A misunderstanding? I can't think of any misunderstanding that would make you sell Xiu'er."
"When you were catching fish by the river, I was happy that you were thinking about the children. I never thought you would cruelly sell my daughter," Xia Qingshan said with suppressed anger.
Lin Yue looked up and saw a face with bulging veins on the forehead, the expression cold and grim.
Lin Yue felt very wronged, but more than that, she was stubborn and defiant, "Yes, I sold Xiu'er. So what? I did it for the sake of the children. After selling her, I regretted it and didn't actually let that Lame Xia take her away. I even risked my life, fighting desperately to protect her."
"Also, can you really blame me?" Lin Yue was furious, her voice increasing in volume and pitch.
"I'm just a bride who came into this household. I endured not seeing my own husband when I entered, and I tolerated sending the elders away. But the entire household is in ruins, with nothing left. Even the little food we had was taken by your eldest and second brother,” Lin Yue continued, seething with every word, "If I didn't sell Xiu'er, should I let her starve with us? Now you come here to argue with me, to blame me. Why don't you mention how you, as the father, didn't come back earlier to take care of the children?"
Xia Qingshan was momentarily stunned, his brows furrowing tightly.
Lin Yue carried on, "Don't tell me that it was because you had to work or anything. I've heard it all. The mine shut down long ago, and everyone else came back, but you didn't. Not only did you not come back, you didn't bring back any money either."
"Do you even remember that you're the father of two children?" With those words spoken, Lin Yue seemed to feel a bit tired. She took a deep breath and snorted coldly, "In any case, these two children are not mine by birth. Why should I go out of my way to be good to them? You know I'm a stepmother. How many stepmothers have you seen who are truly good to their children?"
Lin Yue sneered, "Don't just talk about selling Xiu'er now. In a few days, I'll even send Dongtian out to do odd jobs to earn money."
"What did you say, Lin Yue? Don't go too far," Xia Qingshan snapped.
Lin Yue fought back, "What's wrong with me going too far? Even if I did, I didn't take away all their food and force them to go hungry. If you have the guts to yell at me, why don't you go find your eldest and second brother? They took away all the food and even forced me to repay the money, saying it was for marrying me. Your mother and they borrowed money. Isn't that just bullying me for not having a man or any backing?"
"I'm a woman without a man, without any backing. What do I care about?" She ended off.
Xia Qingshan was momentarily stunned, seemingly not expecting his eldest and second brother to be so ruthless.
After Lin Yue finished scolding, she seemed to have vented all the grievances in her heart.
Xia Qingshan closed his eyes and said softly, "First of all, I want to apologise to you because there are some things that prevented me from coming back in time, making you send your mother-in-law away right after entering the household, and taking care of the two children. That's my fault."
He took a deep breath, "I know you didn't choose me and already have someone in your heart. It's okay, I can divorce you."
Lin Yue's eyes widened in disbelief at his words, "What did you say? You want a divorce?"
Lin Yue's mind was occupied by the word "divorce", ignoring the part about someone already in her heart.
Xia Qingshan frowned, intending to argue, but when he thought about what this woman had done, he lost the will to argue.
She could say whatever she wanted; they were going to divorce anyway.
"I can agree to a divorce, but not now," he quickly added.
"Why?" Lin Yue frowned, asking.
Xie Qingshan replied, "For the sake of the two children. They've finally got a mother, and if we divorce now, the children will have no one to take care of them. Their classmates at school will also laugh at them."
Lin Yue lowered her gaze in silence. She understood Xia Qingshan's meaning. In this era, children of divorced parents were looked down upon, and there would be all kinds of rumors spread among classmates.
"Okay," Lin Yue agreed readily. These two children were pitiful, especially Xiu'er, who was still ill. She couldn't bear to see her leave at this time.
Lin Yue's quick agreement surprised Xia Qingshan a bit.
His gaze flickered, and he added in a low voice, "Give me two more years. I'll solve this problem. After two years, we'll divorce, and I'll give you some money as compensation."
T/L: Translating and editing by myself is hard work zzz but we’re finally seeing our main couple get somewhere yay!
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