Help! The Frosty Noble's Son Is in Love With Me!-Chapter 416 - 415: The Fixed Image of Mother Begins to Crumble Bit by Bit
Seeing Xiao Shiqing’s pained expression, Li Hua didn’t actually feel happy.
She wasn’t a cold-hearted person who found pleasure in others’ suffering.
Instead, she felt desolate.
With positions swapped, she could see her past desolation even more clearly.
Even if she didn’t know the truth, she wouldn’t be as one-sided as Xiao Shiqing.
She thought of her cousin who had once lived at her home for a while. At that time, she was still a young lady and understood the difficulties her cousin faced living under someone else’s roof.
Once her cousin entered her mother’s room, and later, something went missing. Her mother suspected her cousin took it, but said nothing, just feeling disappointed.
It was she who helped uncover the truth; it turned out a maid took it, clearing her cousin’s name and causing her mother to feel guilty for wronging her cousin.
The reason she did this was that she believed in her cousin’s character, because she had talked with her and interacted with her for a while. She knew her cousin was not someone who would engage in petty theft.
So, it had nothing to do with whether the blade cut her, but rather about having a heart.
In the past, Xiao Shiqing truly had no heart for her.
Because his heart was insistent on trusting his mother, he doubted her character and repeatedly sided against her, which could easily destroy a person.
Later, when she changed, it was surely for her own reasons, but could it have been without Xiao Shiqing’s influence?
On the battlefield, he was decisive in killing, competent in public affairs, a good general in the eyes of the world, and a good subject in the emperor’s eyes.
He was even a good son.
But he was not a reliable person. Regarding family matters, he chose to be willfully blind.
— This is not a matter of tolerance, it’s a matter of principle. If I didn’t do it, then I didn’t do it; I can’t stand this slander.
Xiao Shiqing obviously didn’t agree with Li Hua’s conciliatory approach and insisted on making his position clear.
Li Hua, "Those people are all your mother’s people. Without her orders, they wouldn’t dare to act like this. By insisting on denouncing them now, you’re actually slapping your mother’s face. Do you think she feels good about it? No, in her eyes, the one targeting her is Li Hua, not Xiao Shiqing. Later, when it’s reversed, you’ll naturally be indifferent, but what about me? Have you thought of me?"
— At that time, I will seek justice for you.
Li Hua smiled, "Seek justice, and then what? Will your mother change her view of me? Right now, in my body, without doing anything, she targets you like this. If you offend her further, how will she see me in the future?"
— I won’t let this happen again.
Li Hua didn’t even have the strength to laugh, "Can you protect me for a lifetime? Perhaps when you’re at home, but what about when you have to travel far? What will I do then?"
— I will leave people to protect you.
Li Hua just smiled without saying anything.
The next day, Li Hua left on a trip without telling Xiao Shiqing in advance, and she was gone for half a month.
According to Xiao Shiqing’s words, she left some people behind to protect him.
Unfortunately, before Mrs. Xiao, these people were nothing but paper tigers; could they really bypass Mrs. Xiao? Naive.
When Xiao Shiqing learned of Li Hua’s departure, he was stunned for a long time, followed by a faint sense of panic about staying in the Xiao Mansion.
How laughable it was that this was his home, and now he had to fear this place.
No reason other than knowing his mother would surely come to trouble him.
And indeed, that was the case. Knowing her son had traveled far, Mrs. Xiao summoned Li Hua early in the morning to her chamber to establish household rules.
Won’t come?
There are plenty of ways to teach a lesson.
The stewards in the mansion were formidable figures, pricking you with a needle before you even react.
Xiao Shiqing didn’t react because he had never experienced such things; he hadn’t seen such techniques in the mansion, and for a while, he didn’t even realize he had been pricked by a needle.
The pricks on his back and arms were anything but "stimulating."
By just one morning, Xiao Shiqing was tormented to the point of near-death.
With kneeling punishments and needle pricking, and crucially no food, even iron would break.
The guards tried to intervene, but Mrs. Xiao easily blocked them, claiming it was her prerogative as future mother-in-law to set rules for her daughter-in-law. What did they understand?
They naturally did not understand, but thinking that they would become a family eventually, they didn’t dare ask more, assuming Mrs. Xiao wouldn’t harm the future Young Lady.
Xiao Shiqing: "..."
Eventually, Xiao Shiqing lay in bed feeling unwell, as if he were about to fall ill.
As a man who rarely got sick, he even when ill was never at death’s door. It was the first time he experienced the unpleasantness of being sick.
Despite his condition, his mother didn’t spare him, thinking he was faking illness, she came to his bedside with sarcasm.
"Fallen ill? Which family’s daughter is so precious? Falling ill just from setting a few rules. Who would dare to want such a daughter-in-law? Stop feigning illness here. I won’t fall for that. If you want to enter the doors of my Xiao Family, you must follow our rules. Don’t consider yourself a princess. Even a princess must be filial to her parents-in-law once married."
"There’s a banquet in a few days, and I need a new pair of shoes. I hear your embroidery is good; embroider me a pair. Time is tight, so hurry up. If you can’t finish in time for the banquet, it will be a serious issue."
With that, she tossed a pair of shoe soles to Xiao Shiqing.
Xiao Shiqing began to question his life.
With so many people in the Xiao household capable of sewing, why would the rightful masters need to do needlework?
He refused!
Not while being ill, feeling terrible—how could he do it?
Plus, as a grown man, he didn’t even know how.
Xiao Shiqing felt his mother had gone too far, each time more excessive than the last.
He just couldn’t understand why his mother targeted Li Hua repeatedly when Li Hua hadn’t done anything to wrong her.
Of course, Xiao Shiqing couldn’t understand. With roles reversed and perspectives swapped, many concepts could not be immediately converted.
The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is one many men are destined not to understand.
Finally, a maid brought food over, but none of it was fresh, just leftovers from the previous day, which, being summer, were a bit spoiled.
This left Xiao Shiqing without even the strength to be angry, lying weak and at the mercy of others.
He couldn’t speak, and even if he could, it was inconvenient for the guards outside to come in. He was truly isolated and helpless unless Li Hua was there.
Thinking of Li Hua, Xiao Shiqing felt a slap to his own face, having only said the day before that leaving people to protect her would suffice, only for this to happen the next day.
It turns out that protecting a person is impossible unless you’re there at every moment. Even leaving people to protect will inevitably result in them being sent away for all sorts of reasons.
Actually, carrying people with you at all times doesn’t guarantee protection in danger either.
So, what kind of comprehensive protection could there be? None.
Unless, there’s no danger.
But how could there be no danger in this world?
Originally, he believed home to be the safest place, a haven, but now—
Xiao Shiqing only felt that outside was safer than at home.
Truly ironic.
Name interruptions started to crumble his long-held impressions of his mother.
