As agreed, that evening Nie’s mother, Huang Guilan, sent a message through someone, asking that the next morning, Chen Lili meet by the Qi Si River.

Nie Bozhao was on his way.

Early the next morning, the two sisters arrived by the river.

Chen Lili was still saying, “Lina, if Nie Bozhao isn’t easy to talk to, you’ll have to help me push him away.”

Suddenly, she stopped talking, because she noticed her younger sister, Lina, was staring intently across the river.

Chen Lili turned around to see.

There, walking towards them, was a man who was at least 1.8 meters tall, with bronze skin, dressed in a wool coat, and wearing a pair of large leather shoes.

His appearance was imposing and handsome, his features firm and sharp—he exuded a powerful, masculine energy.

Chen Lili couldn’t help but compare him to her ex-husband, Wang Hongbing, and she realized this man was a far better catch.

It was hard to believe such a man had lost his wife.

Meanwhile, Chen Lina seemed unusually nervous, gripping her sister’s hand tightly as though she might faint.

No wonder men often said they wished women could see what they looked like when they were young—tall, handsome, with deep eyes.

With just one look, Lina’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest.

“Eldest brother, do you see? That’s the nanny Mom found for you. What do you think? If you don’t like her, we can turn her down, and Mom will take care of the kids,” Huang Guilan said, following her son closely, her tone showing some dissatisfaction.

The man extended his hand and reached out to shake Chen Lili’s hand. “I heard you’re willing to go to the border to work as a nanny for my family. We’ve already agreed on the salary. Let’s meet and I’ll ask you a few quick questions. If everything’s good, we can settle this, and we’ll leave the day after tomorrow. How does that sound?”

His voice was deep, speaking perfect Mandarin, like a news broadcaster.

Huang Guilan scanned the two sisters from the Chen family and immediately noticed their lingering gazes on her son.

She could tell what they were thinking: “The Chen family’s eldest daughter, my eldest son is only looking for a nanny, not a wife. Don’t get any wrong ideas. He’s not looking for a partner.”

The last few words were spoken pointedly.

This remark made the atmosphere awkward for everyone present.

“If you have any questions about the border or about me, feel free to ask. I’ll answer them for you,” Nie Bozhao said straightforwardly.

Chen Lili, still gripping her sister’s hand tightly, hesitated before asking, “What’s your position at the oil field? You don’t look like someone who works deep in the wells.”

“Once we get to the border, you’ll see for yourself,” he answered briefly.

“Isn’t it as hard as being a well-digger?”

“Compared to that, my work also involves going down into the wells often. Do you have any other questions?” Nie Bozhao asked.

Chen Lili shook her head. “No.”

During the silence, she subtly signaled her sister with a shake of her head, trying to gauge Lina’s opinion.

It was clear from Lina’s unwavering gaze on Nie Bozhao that she didn’t dislike him—quite the opposite.

She was obviously captivated by him. Otherwise, why would she stare so intently?

“Then it’s settled. The day after tomorrow, you pack your things, and I’ll buy the bus tickets. We’ll leave together?” Nie Bozhao said.

“I… I’m afraid I can’t go. But…” Before Chen Lili could finish her sentence, the smile on Nie Bozhao’s face instantly disappeared.

“Not going? You promised me you would! And now you’re saying you can’t go? Miss Chen, you didn’t think this through, did you?” Huang Guilan’s voice rose sharply.

“Aunt, it’s really because something came up. But you see, my sister, she can go in my place,” Chen Lili quickly said, pushing her younger sister forward.

Chen Lina continued to gaze at the man.

She recalled their first meeting in her past life.

She had gone to him for business, and he was wearing a navy blue shirt and work pants.

He had smiled and extended his hand, greeting her, “Miss Chen, hello.”

Now, thinking of how he had suffered from illness, that tall, strong man reduced to a mere skeleton, his hand still clutching hers in his final moments, Chen Lina’s throat tightened.

She had cared for him as he died.

She remembered how, even at the end, his eyes couldn’t close.

It was unimaginable to see him again so soon.

At this moment, she still hadn’t figured out what to say to him.

Huang Guilan, unable to hold back, exclaimed, “Miss Chen, you can’t be serious. Your sister is a university student, a graduate from the Women’s Normal University. How can she go work as a nanny? I don’t believe it. I see now, your whole family must be scamming me! You never planned to be a nanny; you just thought I was old and easy to fool. You’re tricking me for my money!”

“Huang Dama, you can’t say that. It’s just twenty yuan, I won’t go, my sister will go in my place. It’s all the same, how did it become a scam?”

“How else should I say it? You promised me so well at the beginning before you took my money. I’ve figured it out—there’s no good girl in this Qishixiang. This old lady, it’s better I do it myself,” Nie’s mother kept grumbling, blocking Chen Lili from saying anything further.

“Old… Old Nie!” Chen Lina staggered and weakly walked over.

The man seemed to have just noticed her, looking at her blankly with no recognition, completely devoid of the sadness and love that was there when he passed away in her previous life.

It was as though he had forgotten her, not even the slightest trace of that bittersweet longing.

A thousand words and emotions surged in Chen Lina’s heart, but in that instant, she froze.

She remembered: he and she were still strangers to each other.

“This young lady, you came with her, right? Please talk to this little Chen comrade again. The agreement isn’t something to take lightly. I’ll wait for your message. Consider whether you want to go, and send me a message when you decide,” the man said coldly, tossing those words over his shoulder before turning and walking away.

He probably hadn’t really looked at her, but Chen Lina had clearly observed him.

Despite wearing a woolen coat, his shirt cuffs were worn, and though he wore large leather shoes, the heels had been studded with iron nails, indicating the shoes had been used far beyond their lifespan.

Though he worked in the oil fields, and his salary wasn’t bad, his personal life seemed to be a mess.

Chen Lina said, watching his retreating figure. “Sister, I want to marry that man.”

Of course, right now he didn’t recognize her, so he was cold and distant.

But Chen Lina believed that if she made enough of an effort, she could marry him.

However, there was something she had to figure out first.

In her previous life, he had always claimed to be the descendant of revolutionary soldiers, so how did he end up as the son of Huang Guilan, a figure from Qishixiang?

She needed to get to the bottom of this before she could truly get his attention and speak to him.

And to uncover the truth, she’d have to ask her father.

“What? You want to go to the borderlands to work as a nanny?” Chen’s father was furious. “Now you don’t want to go, but you want your sister to go in your place? No way! Lina needs to stay home. What if the university resumes? She still has to go back and study.”

Chen’s father, a primary school principal, came home for lunch and immediately opposed the idea when he heard that his two daughters had secretly gone to meet Nie Bozhao and that Chen Lina was supposed to replace Chen Lili as the nanny.

“How about that twenty yuan? Dad, I can’t repay it,” Chen Lili was most worried about the debt.

“Besides, isn’t Nie Bozhao a widower?” Chen’s father continued. “Though he’s older, he has a high salary and is a good person. If Lina marries him, she’ll be fine.”

“Lili, you really dare to think this through. Nie Bozhao is a senior engineer at the oil field. Senior engineers have a very strict marriage review process. Let’s not even mention that he’s thirty and has three kids. How could I bear to marry Lina off to be someone’s stepmother?”

“You’re saying not to marry her off? What, is she supposed to work the fields her whole life and never see the outside world?” Chen Lili retorted.

Chen’s father had been especially upset lately because, due to political reasons, his salary had been cut off since last year.

With no wage subsidies, the family had to rely solely on his wife and eldest daughter’s hard work in the fields, and they were barely getting by.

The family was eating composite flour, and fine flour was a rare luxury.

Chen Lina, however, picked up the conversation. “Dad, tell me more about Nie Bozhao. I’ve grown up in Qishixiang, but how come I’ve never heard of him?”

“Nie Bozhao? He’s from here, but it’s normal you haven’t heard of him. He was born around 1940. In 1948, when the bandits were causing chaos here, his parents took him and his brother to escape. But his father fell ill and couldn’t afford treatment, so they sold Nie Bozhao for fifty silver yuan to a couple who were revolutionaries. This couple also happened to be named Nie, and they only changed his name, then sent him to the Northern Industrial University. His foster parents told him to come back to find his biological family before they died, which is why he came to Qishixiang,” her father explained.

Chen Lina finally pieced everything together.

So, Nie Bozhao, in her previous life, had come back to find a nanny.

But because Chen Lili was hiding from debt, she and He Lan’er had taken her and her father to Zhang County.

Unable to find a nanny, Nie Bozhao had moved his whole family to the borderlands, and his mother had been left to take care of the children.

That was why they had never met, even though they were so close in proximity.

“Sister, I’ve made up my mind. I want to marry that man, but I need your help. Let’s go to Niejia Village again,” Chen Lina said to Chen Lili after their father had gone to work and their mother had gone to the fields.

“Lina, I think his mother is firmly against him remarrying,” Chen Lili cautioned.

“He’s him, and his mother is his mother. We’ll go see him separately,” Chen Lina said confidently.

Nie Bozhao had never spoken much about his mother in his later years, which showed how little importance he placed on her.

And since Nie Bozhao worked in the oil fields, and given his position as a senior engineer, his children back home shouldn’t be mistreated.

Chen Lina could clearly see that when Nie Weimin was beaten by Nie Xiaoqiang and went to complain, his mother, instead of standing up for him, scolded him.

This made Chen Lina realize that Nie’s mother was not someone she wanted to deal with—at least, not someone who treated her children well.

“But what if he doesn’t want a rural life? He’s a senior engineer in the oil fields, with a monthly salary of one hundred yuan. And he’s a widower. There must be many girls at the oil field who want to marry him. Do you think he’d look at us with our background?”

“Sister, look at what you’re saying. It’s all about finding the right approach. Once we figure out what he wants, I’m confident I can win him over,” Chen Lina said confidently.