Chen Mian was also a bit puzzled by his sister’s behavior. He scratched his head and said, “Basically, my sister insisted on dragging my brother-in-law out to play hero for another woman. My brother-in-law got a little upset but couldn’t refuse her, so the two of them headed out all awkward and tense.”
Chen Mian’s summary was spot on. Once they got in the car, Chu Luyu belatedly felt the shift in the atmosphere. The man in the driver’s seat hadn’t said a word, but his expression was several degrees colder than usual.
She asked the system: [Cuihua, why is the male lead upset? Normally, we’re going to save someone today—he should be more proactive about it…]
System Cuihua: [I don’t know either. This version of the male lead is completely different from the original plot. Asking me is like asking a brick wall—you might as well just ask him directly.]
After hesitating for a moment, Chu Luyu turned to look at Jiang Hezhou.
“Jiang Hezhou, are you upset?”
Jiang Hezhou kept one hand on the steering wheel, his face relatively calm as he stared ahead, but his brows carried a chill.
He didn’t hide his feelings. When Chu Luyu asked, he admitted it directly with a quiet “mm”: “I don’t really understand why you care so much about this female classmate. If you were worried about her safety earlier, then after I contacted the local officers, that issue should have been resolved. But you still insisted on going to see her in person—I don’t get it.”
He paused, and when he spoke again, his tone was flat and obviously colored by personal emotion: “And also, she’s a woman who called me out of the blue on New Year’s Eve to ask for help. You, as my fiancée, knowing about this, not only didn’t feel jealous or bothered—you took this attitude instead… Chu Luyu, sometimes I really don’t understand what’s going on in your head.”
Chu Luyu caught the crux of the issue in half a second—it was the second half. She was momentarily speechless, then replied in an innocent, guileless tone: “But haven’t you always given me more than enough sense of security? I know you have good character and strong morals, and that you’d never betray your partner while we’re together. So when something like this happens, my first instinct is to think saving someone is more important, rather than wasting time and energy on jealousy. Because you’re wonderful—and even more wonderful to me—I don’t overthink things. Isn’t that a great thing in a relationship? Why would you be upset about that?”
Jiang Hezhou hadn’t expected that all the pent-up frustration he’d been holding would melt from ice to water with just a few words from the girl.
He let out a helpless sigh. “I was afraid that you not being jealous meant you didn’t care about me—that you didn’t like me enough.”
“How could I not care about you?” As she said this, a wave of inexplicable grievance swept through Chu Luyu’s heart. She didn’t know how to express her feelings to this man—it felt like a thousand words were stuck in her chest, yet in the end, all she could manage was a dry: “I do care about you, Jiang Hezhou. I really, really care about you.”
Jiang Hezhou was easy to appease. Hearing her say that, most of his dark mood had already lifted.
A moment later, he asked again: “But I still don’t understand—why do you care so much about that girl? You two clearly don’t seem close at all.”
Chu Luyu pursed her lips and was silent for a moment before replying: “Don’t you know that every person in this world is an important individual? Maybe if something happened to her, this world would be affected too.”
Just then, a red light came on ahead. Jiang Hezhou braked smoothly, turned his head with a hint of exasperation, and pinched the girl’s cheek.
“You and your nonsense.”
By the time they arrived at Meng Wantian’s location, it was almost midnight. Firecrackers were going off in every household across the village. A police car was parked outside a rural courtyard at the end of an alley. A local officer was talking to a peasant woman and an elderly man, while Meng Wantian stood nearby wrapped in a standard-issue police jacket, with a female officer holding her.
“I don’t even know what to say to you people. This girl is a proper university student with a bright future ahead of her. You managed to put her through college, and now all of a sudden you want to marry her off—to some crippled old man?!”
The peasant woman spoke hurriedly in a thick dialect: “We didn’t make her go to college! She made her own decisions—she never depended on us these past few years, handled everything herself! But now she’s offended some big shot in the city, and they came to our house! We had no choice—we had to marry her off to keep the family safe!”
The old man chimed in: “That’s right, that’s right! That big shot said if we didn’t deal with her, the whole family would suffer! We have no idea what she did to make them so angry that they’d come all the way to our doorstep!”
The officer’s expression soured at that. “We live in a society governed by law! If you’re threatened, you call the police—not make things hard for your own family!”
“Oh, we know how you people work! We’re just ordinary folk—you’d never take our side against a big shot!”
The peasant woman rambled on. Unable to listen any longer, Chu Luyu pulled Jiang Hezhou over to find Meng Wantian first.
The girl seemed genuinely frightened. She could barely stand even with the female officer’s support, her complexion ashen. The moment she saw Jiang Hezhou, she instinctively cast a vulnerable, dependent look his way—but when she noticed Chu Luyu beside him, she seemed to jolt awake, her feet frozen mid-step.
Jiang Hezhou didn’t spare Meng Wantian even a single extra glance. Instead, he faced the female officer and asked about the general situation.
“This girl apparently offended someone with some influence in Jingzhou. They sent people to her home, and after her mother and grandfather heard about it, they got scared she’d drag the family down. So they came up with an excuse to lure her back for the New Year, planning to tie her up and marry her off to some remote mountain village in exchange for a bride price—figuring that would satisfy the other side.”
Hearing this, Meng Wantian suddenly lifted her lowered gaze and looked at Jiang Hezhou.
“It was Zhou Chao. The people who came to my house—they were sent by Zhou Chao. Because back at the club, they found out I was the one who went to your booth to warn you. So he holds a grudge and came after my family…”
Jiang Hezhou frowned. That explanation made sense. He knew a bit about Zhou Chao—the man was always kept on a tight leash by his family and wouldn’t dare do anything too outrageous that might get back to them. But these villagers were simple folk who could be easily intimidated. With just a show of influence and status, Zhou Chao could get them to do his dirty work for him without lifting a finger.
It was a despicable tactic, but undeniably effective.
With that thought, Jiang Hezhou finally turned his gaze to Meng Wantian, his tone carrying a rare sincerity when addressing her.
“Regardless, we do owe you thanks for what happened at the club that day. You can tell us whatever you need now—money, a place to stay, anything. We’ll do our best to help.”
His use of “we” clearly referred to himself and Chu Luyu. Meng Wantian listened, her heart growing colder and more sour with each word.
After a long pause, she finally spoke: “I don’t know what I need yet. But I’d like to… talk to you, shi mu (mentor’s wife), alone for a moment. Is that okay?”
Jiang Hezhou frowned and was about to refuse, but Chu Luyu agreed first.
His frown deepened. He pulled Chu Luyu aside and lowered his voice: “She’s emotionally unstable right now. If you’re alone with her, I’m worried she might do something to you.”
He couldn’t bring himself to mention the girl’s private harassment. Though he would love to see Chu Luyu get jealous over him, he knew that if she actually got upset over it, he’d only end up feeling worse. So in the end, he just framed it as concern over the girl’s emotional state.
But Chu Luyu didn’t mind at all. From her perspective, Meng Wantian was just as upright and kind-hearted as Jiang Hezhou. No matter how the girl had acted toward her before, she didn’t believe she would actually harm her.
So she just tugged at his sleeve to reassure him: “Don’t worry, she won’t. And we’ll be standing just a short distance away—if anything really happens, you can come save me right away.”
Seeing her insist, Jiang Hezhou couldn’t stop her any further. He only told her to stay alert.
The two girls walked about seven or eight meters away. Jiang Hezhou stood in place, his gaze fixed on them the whole time. Meng Wantian could feel the weight of his stare and knew exactly what he was worried about. A wave of bitterness washed over her heart.
She looked at the girl before her. She seemed so kind and approachable, her eyes full of soft, genuine concern—like she truly cared about how she was feeling.
Meng Wantian knew she should hate her. But at this moment, she could understand why Jiang Hezhou favored her so much in this life.
Under the cold, dark night sky, she looked at Chu Luyu and asked: “Why are you helping me? I know that you coming here tonight was because you insisted… But I still don’t understand. You know I could be your romantic rival—so why help me at all?”
Though nothing had been said outright, Meng Wantian had already sensed Jiang Hezhou’s attitude during the earlier phone call. It had been Chu Luyu who stopped him from hanging up, which led to the help they’d provided.
It felt absurd to her—but more than that, she just didn’t understand.
Chu Luyu didn’t know how to explain it either. After thinking for a moment, she simply said: “I don’t know what else to say, but I know you’re a good girl. Your life and future should be wonderful and bright. I don’t want some strange detour to ruin that for you.”
Her words seemed to strike something in Meng Wantian. The girl suddenly collapsed into a squat and burst into loud, wailing sobs.
“You’re right—my life and future should have been wonderful and bright. But why did everything change…? It wasn’t supposed to be like this—it wasn’t supposed to be like this!”
Chu Luyu stayed with her through the emotional breakdown, waiting until she gradually calmed down. When Meng Wantian finally stood back up, she seemed to have made up her mind. She wiped her tears and said: “Let’s go. Teacher Jiang is waiting for you.”
Back beside Jiang Hezhou, Meng Wantian calmly stated her needs: “I know I’m asking for a lot, but for now, I need a stable place to stay, and enough savings to support myself until I find a job.”
She was responding to Jiang Hezhou’s earlier offer to ask for anything she needed.
He nodded in acknowledgment. “Fine. Tonight I’ll have my colleagues book you a hotel for a period of time. Later, you can pick out a two-bedroom apartment—we’ll cover the cost. Once that’s settled, I’ll transfer another sum to you as the remainder of our thanks.”
Thanks compensation—the man had made it so blunt that Meng Wantian could hardly hold onto any illusions anymore.
But she’d already made her decision. If she couldn’t have things the way they used to be in this life, she might as well use what she’d done as leverage to secure a more comfortable future.
On the way back, Chu Luyu was still shaken by how transactional the male and female leads’ interaction had been.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, is this state between the male and female leads right? This… how did they suddenly become so calculating with each other?]
System Cuihua: [What else did you expect? The male lead is crazy about you now and couldn’t care less about the female lead. When he owes her a favor, of course he’d rather throw money at it to settle things cleanly. And with the female lead in her current situation, when a good deal comes knocking, she’d be a fool not to grab it!]
Chu Luyu: [But if this keeps up, how are they supposed to have a normal relationship later? And today, the female lead… I feel like some of the things she said were strange.]
System Cuihua: [Don’t worry about all that. What happens between the male and female leads later isn’t really your problem anymore. Your most important task right now is to set the plot straight.]
Chu Luyu paused: [So… we can start now?]
The system was silent for a long time this time. Then it took a deep breath, its voice carrying a hint of heaviness, though it tried to sound light: [Yeah, we can start now!]
Leave a Reply