The truck’s blaring horn shattered the air around them. The driver frantically spun the wheel left and right, but still couldn’t stop the vehicle’s mad, out-of-control charge.
The little girl from before was now frozen in the middle of the road. Perhaps it was the deafening horn, or the driver’s harsh shouts for her to get out of the way—she sat down on the ground, her face crumpled, and burst into loud sobs. The elderly grandmother, seeing her granddaughter about to be hit, was so desperate she tumbled out of her wheelchair! But her legs were completely useless; after falling, all she could do was crawl frantically toward the middle of the road, crying out in despair.
Chu Luyu’s thoughts were in utter chaos, numb and tangled. In those fleeting fractions of a second, two voices clashed fiercely in her mind—
[No, absolutely not. This has to be another plot kill. Chu Luyu, don’t fall for it.]
[But what if it’s not? A living, breathing life is right in front of you. Can you really stand by and do nothing? If this child dies right here, you’ll see her in your nightmares for the rest of your life!]
[Don’t get involved!! It’s none of your business—don’t!!!!]
[It’s a human life… it’s a human life!!!!]
Chu Luyu’s head felt like it was about to explode. It seemed as though the scene before her had slowed down several times over, but in that moment of hesitation, half a second passed, and everything sped up again!
Seeing the truck swerving wildly toward the child, Chu Luyu stopped thinking altogether. Instinct and muscle memory took over.
She had always been a kind person. She couldn’t truly learn to be selfish—couldn’t let an innocent little life vanish right before her eyes, especially with the grandmother wailing in the background. She couldn’t just stand by. She truly couldn’t!
The truck was only about three or four meters from the child. At its current speed, in about two seconds—no, maybe even less—the wheels would roll right over her!
Chu Luyu felt like she had never run so fast in her life. She closed the distance in a few desperate strides, grabbed the child by one arm—not caring if she hurt her—and yanked her to the side, trying to pull her to safety!
But for some reason, the truck seemed to lock onto them, swerving to keep following their direction!
By now, Jiang Hezhou had already spotted the commotion. The chestnuts he’d just bought were thrown aside without a second thought, scattering hot, steaming nuts across the ground. He didn’t spare them a glance—he ran straight toward Chu Luyu and the child!
His face had gone completely pale with fright. Though he looked composed on the surface, only he knew that in those brief two or three seconds, he had felt as if his very soul had left his body.
He was so terrified his mind went blank, so terrified a chill crept from deep within his spine. His sprint toward them felt mechanical, instinctive—as he watched the truck barreling toward Chu Luyu and the little girl!
Chu Luyu could already feel the extra weight in the air as the massive truck bore down on them. The low, blaring horn grew closer and closer. She kept pulling the child back, retreating as fast as she could, but the truck kept coming…
When the vehicle was only twenty or thirty centimeters away, a fleeting, absurd thought of giving up crossed her mind.
Maybe just let it happen. No matter how she ran, she couldn’t escape her doomed fate. Maybe it was better to give up.
But it was only for an instant. She heard someone behind her shouting her name. Before she could turn around, she felt her collar yanked hard, and the next moment, she and the child were pulled into someone’s embrace and thrown onto the boardwalk!
A second later, the truck slammed into the boardwalk steps! Chu Luyu, pressed against the chest of the person holding her, could hear rapid breathing and a pounding heartbeat. Then came a violent CRASH!
The wheels finally stopped as they got stuck on the steps of the boardwalk, with two stone bollards ahead acting as additional barriers that held the runaway vehicle at bay…
Chaotic shouts and screams erupted all around. The truck’s own alarm blared after the collision. Amidst the clamor, Chu Luyu could feel her own heart thumping heavily, one beat after another.
Jiang Hezhou’s voice came from above her—still as cool and low as usual, but if you listened closely, you could hear the tremor beneath it.
“Can you move?”
The child in her arms was still wailing in terror. Chu Luyu forced herself to stay calm and replied with a quiet “Mm.” She propped herself up from Jiang Hezhou’s chest and got to her feet, holding the child as they both stood. The man rose with them. He was about to check if Chu Luyu had been hurt, but the girl, once steady, looked at something and suddenly called out to him in a trembling voice.
“Jiang… Jiang Hezhou.”
“What’s wrong?”
Chu Luyu’s face had gone pale—already white as paper from fear, now completely drained of color.
She pointed to the spot where she had been standing and waiting for him. Her arm shook as she raised it. “There… look over there…”
Jiang Hezhou followed her gaze. His heart sank heavily in the next instant—
Where the girl had been standing on the boardwalk, a lamppost stood beside her. Two large spherical lamps had been hanging from it, but now they lay shattered on the ground! In all the chaos of the truck’s rampage, no one had noticed. Now, looking over, that small area was covered in shards of broken glass from the fallen lamps.
If Chu Luyu hadn’t gone to save the child and had just stood there motionless, those two lamps would clearly have fallen right on her head!
A chill shot up from the soles of her feet. Chu Luyu felt her heart trembling uncontrollably again. She looked at Jiang Hezhou, who was staring at the wreckage on the ground, his grip on her shoulders painfully tight.
The child’s grandmother had been helped back into her wheelchair by passersby and pushed over. Upon seeing Chu Luyu and Jiang Hezhou, she was so grateful she tried to kneel and kowtow to them.
Chu Luyu was still stunned by the shattered lamp fragments. Jiang Hezhou supported her, exchanged a few brief words with the grandmother, and then led her away.
The chaotic noise behind them gradually faded as they walked. Chu Luyu’s legs were still weak, and the back of her top was soaked through with cold sweat.
She leaned heavily against Jiang Hezhou, completely drained. After a few more steps, she spoke in a low voice: “Jiang Hezhou, in that situation just now—no matter what I chose… I probably would have died.”
The man beside her was silent for a moment, his grip on her shoulder tightening wordlessly. “No. No matter what, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Hearing this, Chu Luyu gave a weak, helpless smile.
“Yeah, thanks to you again this time. I guess I really should stick close to you, the male lead. It seems like every time a plot kill comes, as long as you’re there, I manage to get through it.” She let out a wry laugh. “See? This world really does favor the protagonist. Even in such a dangerous situation, the moment you showed up, everything was resolved.”
Jiang Hezhou didn’t feel relieved at all by her words. He stood there, silent for a long while, before speaking again: “Let’s go find that female student.”
Chu Luyu looked confused. “What female student?”
He turned to look at her, his eyes deep and dark. “The one you mentioned—the female lead of this world.”
“Ah… Meng Wantian!”
“I don’t know her name.” Jiang Hezhou replied. “Let’s go find her now and see if there’s anything we can do. She came up to me several times before and said some strange things. At first, I just thought she wasn’t right in the head. But now that I think about it… she might know something too.”
Chu Luyu’s eyes widened slightly—surprised, yet as if she’d expected it.
“I knew something was off about her! Normally, she shouldn’t have had any interaction with you two months ago. Even if you’d met, she wouldn’t have developed feelings for you—your romantic storyline wasn’t supposed to start until after we broke off the engagement… But that time I ran into her at the supermarket, she was clearly hostile toward me, and she seemed to know a lot about our relationship—saying we weren’t suited for each other.”
Jiang Hezhou’s expression turned cold, his eyes devoid of warmth as he corrected her: “It’s the plot’s romantic storyline for me. The real me could never like her.”
Hearing that, Chu Luyu found it amusing. “Mr. Jiang, that ‘loyal to one woman’ setting of yours—whether before or after awakening, you really keep it tight.”
He looked at her with a hint of helplessness. “Are you not scared anymore?”
“Getting over it now. That really scared me to death—for the first time, my cold sweat soaked completely through my clothes. If you don’t believe me, feel my back—under this vest, it’s definitely damp.”
Jiang Hezhou gave her back a cursory pat, then paused for a moment before leading her toward the parking area.
“Let’s go find her.”
When he had bought the apartment before, Jiang Hezhou had left the communication with Meng Wantian to the real estate agent. She had picked a two-bedroom unit, and the agent had told him the location and the price. He hadn’t even looked closely—just transferred the money.
Now in the car, he contacted the agent again to ask for the address of the apartment Meng Wantian had bought.
Given her situation at the time, she would have moved in immediately after buying the place, unlikely to be anywhere else.
The agent responded quickly and sent Jiang Hezhou a location pin. He entered it into the map and drove to the neighborhood according to the navigation.
But unfortunately, when they got there, they found that Meng Wantian wasn’t home.
The community had high security. After learning their purpose, the security guard didn’t let them in directly—instead, he called the homeowner, Meng Wantian, using the phone number on file.
Meng Wantian was currently out of town for training. She had found a nursing job at a private hospital and would start working as soon as the training ended.
Hearing that Jiang Hezhou and Chu Luyu were looking for her, she sounded surprised over the phone.
“Is something the matter?” The girl’s voice came through on speaker.
Jiang Hezhou paused for two seconds, then asked, “When does your training end? We’d like to meet you in person to discuss some things.”
There was no way they could cover everything they needed to say in a one- or two-sentence phone conversation, especially not out in public. If they started talking about “transmigration” or “reincarnation,” the security guard would probably think they’d lost their minds.
Meng Wantian seemed to calculate the dates on her end, then replied, “Probably about half a month.”
…
As they left the neighborhood, Jiang Hezhou’s expression was noticeably heavy.
He held Chu Luyu’s hand, his eyes behind his glasses lowered slightly, his tall, lean figure wrapped in a black coat.
Chu Luyu thought to herself: he really had lost so much weight these past days. Ever since they came out of that illusion, he had been constantly tense—sleeping poorly, eating noticeably less than before. Now that he knew about the plot kills, he was even more anxious. Though he never showed it in front of her, she could sense every change.
She sighed inwardly and turned to hug him.
“Jiang Hezhou, stop worrying so much. If this keeps up, you’ll turn into a little old man.”
He didn’t want her to worry, so he hugged her back and said in a low voice, “I’m not. I was just thinking about something else.”
“Oh—”
Chu Luyu didn’t believe him for a second. She held him tightly around the waist, and after a few quiet seconds, she thought of something and looked up at him.
“Do you have our ID cards with you?”
Ever since the earlier incidents, all of Chu Luyu’s documents had been kept with Jiang Hezhou, which was why she said “our.”
Jiang Hezhou nodded. “They’re both in the car.”
Her eyes lit up as she looked at him.
“Then how about we stop waiting for that auspicious date the fortune-teller picked? Let’s go get our marriage license today, okay?”
Jiang Hezhou’s expression visibly froze for a moment. His dark eyes behind the glasses met hers, and he saw the girl in his arms smiling, her bright eyes curved beautifully—
“Jiang Hezhou, let’s go get our marriage license!”
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