Jie Jingchen scoffed, "Is this a problem money can solve? My sister is the barefoot doctor in their village; she doesn't rely on the Sun Family for support. But her in-laws have deeply ingrained beliefs—as long as my sister hasn't given the Sun Family a son, they'll never treat her well. No amount of money would be any help."
"A son, a son... Does the Sun Family have a throne to inherit or something? This preference for sons is such backwards thinking." Qin Mei scratched her head, thoroughly annoyed.
Jie Jingchen was silent, in complete agreement.
"Dear, is something wrong?" The woman stopped and turned to look at the pair a short distance away when she saw they hadn't kept up.
"Oh, it's nothing. We're coming right now." Qin Mei beamed, taking Jie Jingchen's arm to catch up to the woman.
Jie Jingchen didn't protest, letting Qin Mei help him walk. The thought of her refusing to return with him to Shijiu City made the light in his eyes dim.
The woman arranged for them to wait in a lounge, explaining she would let them board early once the train arrived. Jie Jingchen's face was grim, while Qin Mei thanked the woman profusely.
The two of them were alone in the lounge, both silent. Jie Jingchen's words had sunk in, and Qin Mei was now torn over whether she should still insist on returning to Dazhuang Village to find Jie Jingling.
The letter of introduction was in Jie Jingchen's hands. If he didn't give it back to her, she really wouldn't be able to get anywhere.
"Jie Jingchen," Qin Mei said suddenly. Jie Jingchen gave a deep, nasal hum in acknowledgment. Qin Mei blinked and asked curiously, "Why did we get married?"
Their marriage had nothing to do with love. The way he looked at her and his attitude toward her had absolutely no connection to romance.
Jie Jingchen's heart jolted, and his breath hitched. He clearly hadn't expected Qin Mei to ask him such a question out of the blue.
"Do you really not have a single memory left?" The expression on Jie Jingchen's wickedly handsome face was unusually grave.
Qin Mei rolled her eyes and said peevishly, "I have total amnesia, not intermittent or selective."
'Could Qin Mei tell the truth? Could she say that the original owner of this body was dead and she was a soul who had traveled from the year '24?'
Jie Jingchen lowered his gaze. After careful consideration, he solemnly uttered a single word. "Responsibility."
"What?" Qin Mei had heard him, but she didn't understand.
"I slept with you. Marrying you was me taking responsibility." His words were blunt and to the point, yet Jie Jingchen wasn't telling the whole truth. He was sparing her dignity, and also avoiding his own embarrassment. "Understand?"
'The story of how they got together was infuriating and difficult to talk about.'
"Got it." Qin Mei nodded vigorously. 'It was so blunt. If I still didn't get it, I'd either be playing dumb or be a true idiot.'
'So that's why they were married. I thought it was an arranged marriage, decreed by our parents and a matchmaker. Who would've guessed they slept together first, and he married her out of obligation? In this era, as soon as a man and woman had any sort of physical intimacy, marriage was a foregone conclusion.'
'And the original owner? What was her attitude toward this marriage?'
Qin Mei guessed it was resistance. 'Otherwise, she wouldn't have killed herself by hitting her head against the wall, giving my soul an opportunity to take her place.'
Qin Mei touched her head. It felt like there were lingering effects from the injury, as a faint ache throbbed in her skull.
'There was no love between them, yet they had slept together. One could only imagine the implications.'
'Digging for the truth would only make them both feel awkward. It didn't matter why Jie Jingchen and the original owner slept together. The original owner was dead, and that matter was a closed chapter along with her life.'
Qin Mei was satisfied with this husband of convenience, Jie Jingchen. 'He's responsible, and more importantly, he's gorgeous. I'm definitely not getting the short end of the stick.'
Qin Mei took a deep breath and made her decision. Gazing at Jie Jingchen's achingly handsome face, she said, "Jie Jingchen, I'll go home with you."
The corner of Jie Jingchen's mouth curled up slightly, a subtle smile spreading across his lips.
With the woman's help, Qin Mei helped Jie Jingchen board the train early.
To Qin Mei's surprise, Jie Jingchen had bought sleeper berths—two lower bunks. With his bad back, climbing to an upper bunk was out of the question, and since she had to look after him, it would have been inconvenient for her to be climbing up and down.
Qin Mei got motion sickness on trains. As soon as she lay down, she didn't want to move. She felt faint and dizzy. You couldn't expect her to take care of anyone; it was already a blessing that Jie Jingchen didn't have to take care of her.
"Qin Mei, get up and eat." Jie Jingchen had bought two boxed meals and called for her to get up.
"I don't want any. You eat." Qin Mei rolled over, her back facing Jie Jingchen.
"Qin Mei." Jie Jingchen frowned.
"I feel sick and dizzy. Don't bother me, I'm trying to sleep," Qin Mei mumbled. She felt completely groggy but couldn't fall into a deep sleep.
"You get sick on trains?" Jie Jingchen asked. He'd seen people get carsick, but it was rare to see someone get sick on a train.
"Mhm," Qin Mei hummed.
Jie Jingchen didn't insist and ate by himself, glancing at Qin Mei from time to time. He thought about her sitting on the train alone for a day and a night. 'How agonizing must it have been for her on that trip?'
His sister-in-law's family wasn't well-off; it was impossible that his sister could have bought Qin Mei a sleeper ticket. Yet, upon hearing he was injured, she had been willing to travel to Shanghai to care for him. Jie Jingchen was still quite touched.
They arrived in Shijiu City, and passengers began to get off the train.
After a day and a night on the train without a drop of water, Qin Mei was completely drained. Her hair was disheveled and her face was dirty, yet her wretched state did nothing to diminish her beauty. Instead, she possessed a kind of casual, lazy charm.
"You..." Jie Jingchen started to ask if she wanted to tidy herself up a bit before they got off, but seeing her pale face and exhausted state, he swallowed his words.
"What?" Qin Mei asked weakly, leaning against the bunk ladder without even lifting her eyelids.
"Nothing," Jie Jingchen said, shaking his head.
Qin Mei shot him a lazy, sidelong glance and muttered, "So weird."
Only after everyone else had gone did Jie Jingchen and Qin Mei get off the train.
Jie Jingchen didn't let Qin Mei carry their luggage; she only had her small cloth shoulder bag. With his injured back, he couldn't carry the bags either and had to seek help from a station attendant.
At the train station, Jie Jingjue had been waiting for a long time. When he saw a familiar figure, he waved excitedly and called out, "Fourth Brother!"
Jie Jingchen glanced at Jie Jingjue, then turned to the attendant who was helping with the luggage. "Comrade, thank you. That's my brother. You can give the bags to him."
The attendant smiled, quickened his pace toward Jie Jingjue, handed him the luggage, and left.
Jie Jingjue stared at the pair leaning on each other for support, unable to tell for a moment which one of them was actually injured.
'But that wasn't the point. The point was, who was the woman with Fourth Brother?'
'For them to be so intimate in public, their relationship had to be extraordinary.'
'Then again, both of them were pale-faced. Anyone with eyes could see they were ill, so it was normal for them to be supporting each other. If two healthy people were to act so intimately in public, they would absolutely be gossiped about.'
"Fourth Brother, she is...?" Jie Jingjue asked, looking at Qin Mei, whose head was resting on Jie Jingchen's arm. His first impression of her was that she was a mess.
Jie Jingchen glanced at Jie Jingjue, then lowered his eyes to look at Qin Mei. "My wife, Qin Mei."
"Fourth Brother, you're really married?" Jie Jingjue was stunned. When his brother had retired from the service and returned home, he had bluntly stated that he was already married. But whenever they asked about his wife, he remained tight-lipped.
They had never seen her, nor had they even heard her name. No matter who asked, his brother refused to discuss the topic of his wife in any detail. At first, they had believed him, but gradually, their belief faded. They became convinced that he had only said he was married to refuse the partner their parents had arranged for him.