Chapter 14: Could it be that Qin Yanzhou is also a hopeless romantic?

When Qin Yanzhou returned, Qiao Luo half-pouted and half-complained to him about her encounter with Fang Qing that day.

“You wouldn’t believe how difficult she was,” Qiao Luo said, pursing her lips. “And she was spreading rumors about me in front of that Aunt Wu…”

Qin Yanzhou’s expression darkened. “It seems I need to have another talk with Chen Liao.”

Qiao Luo sighed. “Just have Chen Liao and Fang Qing locked away! Don’t let them come out biting anyone else!”

Qin Yanzhou pondered for a moment. “If you think that way, I suppose I could expedite the approval of his marriage application.”

Qiao Luo’s eyes lit up with hope. “That sounds great! It’d be best if they got married tomorrow!”

Qin Yanzhou couldn’t help but chuckle. “Getting married tomorrow isn’t possible, but I think there’s something you’d be even more eager to see.”

He handed Qiao Luo the document Chen Liao had written to officially dissolve their engagement.

Qiao Luo took it and examined it thoroughly. “Wow! Now I’m truly free!”

After reading it, she carefully put it away and then pulled out the paper her grandfather had given her, tearing it to pieces without hesitation.

“My grandfather was really foolish back then—how could he have favored someone like Chen Liao!” Qiao Luo said disdainfully. “He’s both power-hungry and foolish, never considering the consequences of his actions…”

She thought Chen Liao was simply mentally unstable. If he wanted to break the engagement and marry someone else, he should have calmly sought to dissolve it properly so they could part amicably. Instead, he acted like a fool and even came to threaten her!

Did he think Qiao Luo was someone who could be intimidated?

She also couldn’t understand what Chen Liao saw in Fang Qing. While Fang Qing was decent-looking and competent at work, her personality left much to be desired.

Qiao Luo could only say: respect, blessings, and then lock them away!

Qin Yanzhou smiled faintly. “Your grandfather was probably deceived as well. After all, Chen Liao was a soldier, but your grandfather didn’t know he was a treacherous, power-hungry man.”

Qiao Luo looked at Qin Yanzhou, her eyes dancing with mischief. “But it’s a good thing I had that engagement—otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to the military and met you!”

As she spoke, she tugged at Qin Yanzhou’s sleeve, fingers twirling and occasionally brushing his wrist, managing to make his face flush slightly.

Qin Yanzhou grabbed her hand quickly, freeing his sleeve from her fingers, then cleared his throat. “Now that your engagement is dissolved, we should properly discuss our own marriage.”

Qiao Luo immediately perked up. “Speaking of which, since you’re also a soldier, do you have to file a marriage report? Does the organization have to review me too?”

Qin Yanzhou nodded slightly. “It’s a necessary procedure. Military marriages undergo strict scrutiny.”

He looked up at Qiao Luo. “Also, if we’re getting married, I’ll have to accompany you home to seek your parents’ consent.”

Qiao Luo’s expression instantly turned strange. “Get my parents’ consent?”

Seeing her reaction, Qin Yanzhou frowned slightly. “Is there a problem?”

Qiao Luo pulled up a stool and sat beside him, resting her chin in her hands and gazing into the distance, her voice quiet. “My mother passed away long ago. As for my father… it’s better not to mention.”

Qin Yanzhou was surprised and hesitated before asking, “What happened with your father?”

Her tone darkened. “My mother died when I was very young. Shortly after, my father remarried…”

She twisted her mouth. “As the saying goes, when there’s a stepmother, there’s also a stepfather. Besides, my stepmother brought along a daughter. My father tried so hard to please my stepmother that he treated her daughter better than me… If it weren’t for my grandfather protecting me, I might not have survived.”

Memories of the original Qiao Luo flooded her mind.

When she was thirteen, in the dead of winter, her grandfather caught a cold and lay bedridden.

Lin Xiuzhi, Qiao Luo’s stepmother, seeing that Qiao Luo no longer had her grandfather’s backing, didn’t even let her eat enough, constantly ordering her to do chores. Washing dishes and clothes with cold water became routine.

She remembered that day clearly—wearing the cotton jacket her grandfather had arranged through a neighbor, squatting by the well washing clothes.

Her stepmother’s daughter, Chen Zhi’an, saw the jacket and immediately demanded to wear it.

Lin Xiuzhi roughly pulled the jacket off Qiao Luo, giving it to Chen Zhi’an, forbidding Qiao Luo from returning to her room to put on another jacket, forcing her to wash clothes in the biting cold wearing only a sweater.

That night, Qiao Luo ran a fever. When her grandfather heard, instead of standing up for her, he blamed her weak constitution and said she deserved it for showing off.

She burned for three days, still having to do chores, barely conscious and nearly falling into the well. When Lin Xiuzhi found out, she laughed and said, “Why didn’t you just fall in and drown?”

Only after her grandfather’s condition improved did he send the neighbor to fetch the village doctor, who prescribed medicine and retrieved the jacket—otherwise, Qiao Luo might have died from the fever.

Whenever she thought of this, even if she hadn’t personally endured it, her hatred burned fiercely.

Qin Yanzhou’s brows knit slightly. “How can there be such a foolish father in the world, who treats someone else’s daughter better than his own flesh and blood?”

He hesitated again before asking, “You are his biological daughter, right?”

Qiao Luo shot him a glare and pinched his thigh. “What nonsense! Of course I’m his real daughter!”

Qin Yanzhou felt a tingling sensation where she pinched him, though he knew it was just a phantom feeling—his leg had long since lost sensation.

Still, he couldn’t help placing his hand over the spot she had pinched, his voice tightening. “Stop fooling around.”

“You’re such an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud!” Qiao Luo rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Let’s just go back to talking about my dad’s love-struck brain!”

“Love-struck brain?” Qin Yanzhou looked puzzled, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “What’s a love-struck brain?”

Qiao Luo tilted her head, pondering how to explain. “Well, it means someone who only thinks about love and their partner, nothing else.”

Qin Yanzhou considered this. “It doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it also doesn’t seem entirely wrong.”

Qiao Luo burst out laughing. “Looks like Commander Qin has potential to become love-struck too!”

Qin Yanzhou’s cheeks flushed slightly as he turned his head away. “Even if I’m love-struck, it depends on who it’s for.”

Qiao Luo stood and faced him, bending forward with hands on her knees, her dark, round eyes fixed on his face. “You’re going to marry me—who else would you want it to be?”