Chapter 62: Brother-in-Law

"Yes." Upon hearing these words, Qin Lang felt as though a spring breeze was brushing against his face, and his lingering exhaustion vanished in an instant.

His gaze fell upon Shen Ruojin and never wavered, though his expression remained perfectly calm as he nodded and said, "I have returned."

Shen Ruojin stood side by side with Qin Lang and turned her gaze a few paces away. "This must be..."

Qin Lang spoke gently to his wife, "This is Senior Jiang's grandson, Brother Jiang Huai'an."

"Shen Shi greets Brother Jiang," Shen Ruojin nodded toward the man on horseback. "With the great battle for Xizhou City imminent, Brother Jiang's willingness to come out of seclusion to help is truly a blessing for the people of the Western Frontier. Shen Shi expresses her gratitude in advance."

When Shen Shi had first arrived at the Western Frontier, Senior Jiang had long since retired into the mountains. Though they had crossed paths briefly for a fleeting moment after the great battle three years ago, her mind at that time had been entirely consumed by avenging her uncle and elder brothers, and she had paid no attention to anyone or anything else.

Whether they had met before or not, she could no longer recall clearly.

She would simply treat today as their first meeting.

Jiang Huai'an wore the most ordinary coarse hemp clothing, draped even with a tiger skin, bearing the appearance of an isolated mountain hunter.

He was around twenty years of age, remarkably tall, with piercing eyes that immediately revealed him to be someone who had practiced martial arts since childhood and achieved great mastery.

Jiang Huai'an paused the moment he saw Shen Shi.

Shen Shi was smiling, radiant with joy at the return of her husband and the sight of his arrival.

Three years ago, after the men of the Shen family had fallen on the battlefield, he had accompanied his grandfather to Luoyue Pass to help General Shen defend against the enemy. Back then, Shen Shi was clad entirely in mourning white day in and day out, moving between the various cities, drawing her sword to take lives in the blink of an eye.

She had seemed like a wooden puppet back then, devoid of emotion, incapable of smiling, having wept even her tears completely dry.

She lived for only one purpose.

Vengeance.

Back then, when Jiang Huai'an stood before Shen Shi, she seemed completely unaware of his existence, as if no one in this world could ever catch her eye or enter her heart again.

And now.

Shen Ruojin seemed to have come back to life.

Was it because she had met the right person?

Her husband...

He seemed rather exceptional. He harbored no anger upon being suspected, and even dismissed the hidden guards so he could accompany her and wait outside the gates alone.

Seeing Jiang Huai'an staring fixedly at Shen Ruojin, Qin Lang raised his voice, "Brother Jiang, why are you still sitting on your horse? My wife has come out to welcome you, yet you refuse to dismount?"

"Just now... I misunderstood you."

Jiang Huai'an leaped down from his horse and stepped forward.

Just as he was about to offer an apology, Qin Lang interrupted him, "It is merely a trivial matter, Brother Jiang need not take it to heart."

The young Prince Qin spoke offhandedly, then turned to Shen Ruojin, "Who on earth was spreading the rumor that the Shen family's son-in-law had been captured by the Xichang soldiers? Do I really look that weak?"

Shen Ruojin recalled the scene from that day in the Li Garden, when the young Prince Qin had shattered the gates with a single palm strike and broken through holding a staff.

The word "weak" truly had no connection whatsoever to Qin Lang.

The generals, who had nearly been deceived, spoke with indignation:

"That must have been a treacherous plot by He Tuo! His sole purpose was to lure Tenth Lady out of the city alone!"

"He Tuo must have assumed that Tenth Lady and the son-in-law were newlywed and deeply in love, and deliberately released such false news to disturb Tenth Lady's composure!"

If anyone who regarded romance as the center of their universe had been in her place, they would have fallen into utter panic by now, swallowed the bait, and rushed out of the city to effect a rescue.

Qin Lang let out an "oh," and turned back to ask Shen Ruojin, "My wife and I are newlywed and deeply in love, yet have you ever been unsettled upon hearing such false news?"

Shen Ruojin lifted her gaze to look at him. "I am neither wood nor stone; how could I remain entirely unmoved?"

Even wood and stone have feelings, let alone human beings.

She simply understood Qin Lang better than Uncle Wei and the others did.

Thus, she was all the more certain that the Xichang people could never capture Qin Lang.

As a mortal of flesh and blood, how could anyone hear news of their companion's capture and not feel the slightest bit of worry?

Qin Lang lowered his voice. "It is my fault for returning so late."

Shen Ruojin wanted to say, 'You brought Brother Jiang back, which is a tremendous help to Xizhou City,' but those words sounded a bit too formal and official.

The look in the young prince's eyes at this moment was somewhat different from usual.

As the words reached the tip of her tongue, Shen Ruojin changed them to, "You are not late."

Qin Lang took half a step forward, closing the distance between them.

Shen Ruojin raised her hand to brush a withered leaf from his shoulder. "You and Brother Jiang have traveled far and are both exhausted. Let us go inside first."

Qin Lang paused, his thin lips curving slightly. "Very well."

Upon seeing this, Jiang Huai'an asked himself repeatedly in his heart: Why on earth did I think Qin Lang wasn't the Shen family's son-in-law just a moment ago?

The group turned and walked toward the residence.

Qiao Xia, standing nearby, stared at Qin Lang in utter bewilderment.

It took Qiao Xia a good long while to recover her wits. She hurried forward, squeezed in beside Shen Ruojin's right, and whispered into her ear, "No wonder you married the moment you decided to—with a handsome man of such bearing and appearance, who wouldn't grab hold and refuse to let go the moment they met him?"

Shen Ruojin whispered back, "Do you honestly think you were whispering?"

In reality, everyone behind them had heard every single word.

Qin Lang, who was walking on Shen Ruojin's left, had also heard it with crystal clarity, and asked with a smile, "My wife, who is this young lady with such exceptional taste?"

Shen Ruojin paused her steps and formally introduced her to Qin Lang. "My dearest friend, Qiao Xia."

With that, she turned to Qiao Xia. "My husband, Qin Lang."

"Ah—brother-in-law, it is an honor, an honor."

Qiao Xia cupped her hands in greeting, then leaned close to Shen Ruojin's ear to murmur, "The number one beauty of Shengjing truly lives up to his reputation."

Shen Ruojin maintained a steady expression and did not take up the playful banter.

Qin Lang smiled and returned the greeting. "Miss Qiao."

"Splendid, splendid, splendid." Finding the young man's face exceedingly pleasing to the eye, Qiao Xia felt her mood instantly improve and asked him directly, "I call you brother-in-law, why won't you call me older sister?"

Qin Lang looked at Shen Ruojin and replied slowly, "A married wife follows her husband's lead in all things."

Shen Ruojin glanced at him, smiling without a word.

"A married wife follows her husband? That is quite a novel phrasing; I don't believe I've ever heard it before."

Qiao Xia didn't quite catch the implication at first.

After a moment of thought, she realized she had just been fed a mouthful of sugar by the man before her. "So what you mean is, since Shen Shi refuses to call me older sister, you won't either?"

Qin Lang did not answer aloud, merely nodding gently.

Qiao Xia gazed up at the sky in mock despair. "Why is it so terribly difficult to trick someone into calling me older sister?"

She was clearly a year older than Shen Shi, yet Shen Shi stubbornly refused to call her older sister.

And her husband looked equally impossible to fool.

The generals trailing behind were all amused by her antics.

With the son-in-law safe from the Xichang forces, and having witnessed Qin Lang return safely with Jiang Huai'an, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief as they chatted amongst themselves and walked inward.

One of the generals, turning the matter over in his mind, could not help but chime in, "That He Tuo is full of crafty schemes, but he isn't one to invent things out of thin air either. Since he dared to send a letter by arrow today claiming he captured our son-in-law, it's possible he wanted to use a falsehood to pass as truth and disrupt our military morale, or perhaps... he captured the wrong person..."

"With our son-in-law's appearance and demeanor, he is vastly different from ordinary men. The Xichang soldiers couldn't just casually grab any random man off the street and claim he was our son-in-law, could they?"

Upon hearing this, the others began to ponder and speculate:

"Then just who on earth did he capture and mistake for the son-in-law?"