Chapter 2

The green train wasn’t fast. All the way it wailed with sounds unique to that era. Watching the scenery outside, full of a bygone age’s traces, Gu Yueqian’s heart was filled with yearning for this peaceful world.

According to the original story, the baby in her belly would be born disabled.

But it wasn’t congenital. It seemed to be caused either by eating something she shouldn’t have during pregnancy, or from complications at birth.

In short, she had to be extra careful with whatever went into her mouth—she must not allow the baby to be put in any possible danger.

Bang.

Lu Cheng set down an old thermos cup on the little table, as if offering her a drink.

“No, thank you,” Gu Yueqian politely declined.

Immediately, Lu Cheng’s already icy face froze over with an even sharper chill. His hawk-like eyes cut toward her, as though questioning how she could dare refuse.

Just a cup of water—did he expect her to kneel in gratitude? He wasn’t the emperor.

“……”

Lu Cheng was simply like this, forever wearing a cold face, trying to communicate with his expression alone.

Happy? Cold face.
Unhappy? Still a cold face.

So what if he was handsome? Did being handsome give him the right to subject his wife to cold violence? — Though, in truth, their marriage was only an agreement.

The original Gu Yueqian couldn’t really be said to dislike Lu Cheng. After all, he was tall, strong, and handsome. But he was too cold. Cold enough to make people shiver.

In the book, the original wife flirted with other men everywhere, ruining her reputation, until everyone suspected Lu Cheng was being cuckolded. Yet in truth, before abandoning her husband and child, she had never actually cheated. The child was indeed Lu Cheng’s. She was just too foolish, thinking that flirting with other men might make Lu Cheng jealous, and in turn fall in love with her, fighting for her affection…

In the end, she successfully brought about her own destruction.

But Gu Yueqian’s desires were simple.

She didn’t care if Lu Cheng liked her or how cold he was.

She only wanted to use this marriage to safely give birth to her child. In this era, a single pregnant woman would find it nearly impossible to survive on her own.

After a year, they could go their separate ways.

Each back to their own life.

Seven or eight hours later, they arrived at their stop, then transferred to a bus heading deeper into the countryside.

At that very moment in Lujiagou, inside a small courtyard, a thin, sallow little girl was busy scrubbing the household’s shabby tables, benches, and window frames.

When the basin water turned muddy, she replaced it with a fresh one. She even scrubbed the door sill until the old grime faded, refusing to stop until it was almost invisible.

In the middle of the yard, two women sat picking vegetables and gossiping.

One was Lu Cheng’s cousin’s wife. Seeing how hard Lu Yao was working, she sighed to Tie Zhu’s mother:
“My poor cousin… A child raised in the military compound, only to lose both parents, escaping back here with his sister. Who knows how much hardship they’ve endured these years.”

“And now he’s married off to some capitalist’s granddaughter. They say she was forced onto him. That girl got such a bargain but refuses to behave. She wouldn’t go to the countryside, thought it was too hard, and when my cousin went several times to fetch her she wouldn’t come. Poor thing.”

Tie Zhu’s mother turned to Lu Yao and said, “Don’t waste your energy, girl. That cheap sister-in-law of yours thinks our countryside is beneath her. She won’t come. For all you know, your brother’s over there talking divorce right now. How could a capitalist’s granddaughter possibly come to this godforsaken place?”

Lu Yao pursed her lips, ignored them, carried her basin to the other side, and turned her back to them.

“This child—” Tie Zhu’s mother fumed. “Just look at her temper, carved out of the same mold as her brother’s. And to think, sister-in-law, you’ve raised them all these years. No gratitude at all, just two white-eyed wolves eating your food for nothing.”

Cousin’s wife felt secretly delighted. Indeed. She’d long wanted to drive the siblings out. If not for Lu Cheng’s father’s disgrace back then, they wouldn’t have all lost their jobs and been forced back to this poor village, ruining her own life and turning her into a yellow-faced woman.

Still, she put on a virtuous face: “What else could I do? He’s family. With their parents gone, if I don’t look after them, who will?”

“You’re just too kind,” Tie Zhu’s mother said, fanning her resentment.

Suddenly, noise erupted outside, faint shouts drifting in: They’re here, they’re here.

Who had come?

Could it be Lu Cheng’s new wife?

The cousin’s wife and Tie Zhu’s mother immediately dropped their vegetables and ran to look.

From the gate, they saw a donkey cart stop at the end of the lane. Lu Cheng, always cold as ice, got down first. And then—unbelievably—he reached out to help the woman beside him down. But the woman refused, jumping down on her own. Lu Cheng ended up carrying the luggage behind her.

This only confirmed the rumors: the woman looked down on him.

After all, though his family was poor, Lu Cheng was good-looking and the strongest worker in the village. Every family wanted him as a son-in-law. Only a city-bred young lady would scorn him.

“So fair!” Tie Zhu’s mother exclaimed, dazzled by the woman’s pale face and arms. “So delicate. Not a worker’s hands, that’s for sure. She’ll be trouble. Sister-in-law, your Lu Cheng is unlucky! He should’ve married my daughter—she can do every chore under the sun, ten times better than this one!”

The cousin’s wife’s eyes narrowed. Once upon a time, she too had been this fair and pretty. If not for Lu Cheng’s father’s disgrace, she wouldn’t have lost her job and youth to poverty.

She gave a cold snort. “Our Lu family doesn’t keep idle daughters-in-law. Since she’s here, she’ll pull her weight. Not a single chore less.”

Tie Zhu’s mother shot her a glance. “And you think you get to decide that?”

“……” The cousin’s wife choked, shut her mouth awkwardly.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Cheng had already walked up with his bride.

The cousin’s wife rushed forward, ready to speak, but Lu Cheng brushed right past her, ignoring her completely. He didn’t even glance at her. His new wife followed him inside without a word.

The cousin’s wife was left standing there, choking on her own words, nearly faint with frustration.

She watched helplessly as the two of them entered the west room without so much as a greeting.

Inside.

Lu Cheng put down the luggage and said curtly: “This is my sister.”

Then, his cold eyes flicked over Gu Yueqian’s face. Without another word, he turned and left.

Not lingering even a moment longer.

As though still sulking about that refused cup of water.

Gu Yueqian: “……”

“S-sister-in-law, hello,” Lu Yao stammered timidly. Knowing her brother wasn’t one for words, she hurried to explain, afraid the new sister-in-law might misunderstand:

“Brother took two days’ leave to fetch you, so now he’s behind on work. He has to catch up quickly.”

Gu Yueqian’s gaze finally fell on the little girl before her.

Twelve years old, but her thin frame looked more like eight or nine. Skinny and frail—clear signs of malnutrition.

Her wide black eyes blinked nervously at Gu Yueqian, little hands twisting at her clothes, as if terrified she might get angry.

So this was Lu Cheng’s younger sister in the story.

Gu Yueqian reached into her pocket, pulled out a few candies, and handed them over. “Here, these are for you.”