A few minutes earlier before the agreement got sealed.
On the fence outside the courtyard of the Lin family was packed with people.
Even the children playing by the well had gone quiet, staring at the tall officer and the divorcee sitting face-to-face under the fig tree.
Everyone thought it was over when Lin Qingya mentioned taking her son with her into her new marriage. They thought the soldier would frown, make some excuse, and leave.
No man in his right mind would agree to marry a divorced woman and take her child along.
But Han Yuzhe's eyes didn't waver. His voice, low and even, cut through the murmurs.
"You won't leave the child at your brother's house?"
The tone wasn't accusing, just a calm question.
Lin Qingya froze. For a heartbeat, she saw the faces of the villagers and relatives from her previous life. The same faces that had said the same thing.
"Leave the boy here, Lin Qingya. Let him grow up in the village. You'll just burden your new husband."
She had listened to them once.
She had left her son behind for three months.
And for the rest of his life, he had never stopped hiding food under pillows, inside schoolbags, even beneath the car seat when he grew up to own his own car.
A boy who had once had everything became a man who hoarded crumbs and she had been the one to plant that hunger.
Not again.
Her voice was firm, shaking only slightly as she said, "Impossible. Wherever I go, my son goes. I won't leave him behind."
The whole courtyard stilled.
The crowd watching and her elder brother peeking in through the small space between the door.
Everyone expected the man to scowl, maybe turn on his heel. But instead, Han Yuzhe's gaze softened almost imperceptibly. He looked at the child hiding behind her skirt, then back at her.
"What other conditions do you have?"
For a second, Qingya thought she'd misheard. He hadn't rejected her and he'd also invited negotiation.
Inside the room, Zhou Qiaolan, her elder sister-in-law, was the first to react. "Quick, quick! Go inside and talk properly. Don't sit here for the whole village to hear!"
The crowd stepped closer to the window as the two stepped into the small sitting room.
It was a modest space: cracked tiles, a tea table, and faded curtains fluttering in the hotel breeze.
Han Yuzhe sat upright, back straight as though still in the army. Qingya poured him water but he didn't drink.
He spoke first.
"You have a house in the city?"
"In the outskirts, Yanguan District," she said carefully. "A courtyard house my ex-husband and I bought during our marriage."
Han nodded slowly."That's under our bureau's jurisdiction. I can arrange the household registration transfer easily once we marry. You'll have it under your name before long."
He said it so simply.
Qingya's heart skipped. In her previous life, that same house had been worth millions after the city redevelopment. It was her second chance at security, and this man was casually handing her the key.
Still, she forced herself to remain composed.
"There's my son too. His registration-"
"We'll transfer his with yours," Han interrupted. "No child should live apart from his mother no matter the age."
He didn't even blink as he said it.
The room fell quiet except for the rhythmic drip of water from the kitchen basin.
Qingya studied him carefully, the line of his jaw, the steady hands folded on his knees. This man was rigid as steel, but maybe, just maybe, there was a little bit of warmth inside.
....
Qingya took a breath. "Officer Han, I should be honest about my situation too."
He raised an eyebrow. "Please do."
"I'm not marrying for comfort. I'll need to work later, once I settle. I also have my own property. The courtyard. I'll need a written agreement stating that it remains my premarital asset."
He just blinked once. This was a woman who understood things clearly.
Outside the window, the villagers were whispering furiously to the ones who weren't near the window.
"She's setting conditions."
"Is she out of her mind?"
"Who does she think she is; the mayor's daughter?"
But inside, Han only leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"Understood. You want written proof. We'll draft it when we file the marriage papers."
Qingya blinked. "You're agreeing just like that?"
"I am used to follow clear terms," he said. "If we're to live together, better to set rules early than fight later."
His logic was clean.
Encouraged, she pressed on. "Then another thing. I want a say in raising your children. But if I scold them, you must ask why first. I want us to discipline all of them together, not against each other."
"I like the idea of that."
Outside Zhao Qiaolan nearly bit through her kerchief. "What are they still talking about? It's been half an hour already!"
Her younger sister-in-law, earsdropping on the door beside her, scoffed. "She will probably scare him away with her big-city talk. 'Written proof,' she says. Doe she think she's doing him a favour?"
But when the door creaked open again, both women straightened up.
Han Yuzhe emerged first, his expression unreadable. He adjusted his cuff, then turned toward Qingya, who followed a step behind holding her son's hand.
"I agree to all her terms," he said simply.
Gasps rippled through the courtyard.
The younger sister-in-law's jaw feel open. "You what?"
Han continued, his tone clipped but courteous.
"However, I'm newly transferred and haven't secured housing yet. Yanguan is close to my unit. I'll stay temporarily at comrade Lin's house after the marriage until quarters open up. I'll pay rent in the meantime. "
Rent?
The younger sister-in-law nearly fainted.
Paying rent to your wife?
But Lin Qingya didn't look shocked. She nodded, as calm as ever.
"Then that's settled."
....
As the crowd dispersed, someone whispered from behind the granary wall.
"Did you hear? He agreed to everything."
It was Zhou Xinyi again, she had decided to leave only after Han Yuzhen left. Hiding behind her scarf, listening through the cracks in the wooden boards.
She felt cold, even under the blazing sun.
Her plan had been simple: push Qingya toward Han Yuzhe, so she could chase after Yun Hao freely.
But she hadn't expected the man she once scorned to bend for another woman.
He never agreed to my conditions. He never once smiled at me.
The thought gnawed at her like rust.
But there was no time for regret, not when her next move was already in motion.
That same evening, she would make sure to visit her old acquaintance in the city, a man with too much money and too little patience, to whisper a few poisonous truths about Lin Qingya's "missing property."
...
Two days later, a young Policeman rode into Linyang Village on a motorcycle.
He stopped outside the Lin courtyard, dismounted, and handed Qingya a small leather bag.
"From Comrade Han for Comrade Lin," he said briskly, saluted, and left.
Inside were two neatly folded pair of khaki trousers and T-shirts, one white and one blue. Beneath them sat a pair of small, genuine leather shoes.
"City goods," Zhou Qiaolan gasped, touching the soft fabric with awe. "This set alone could cost thirty yuan!"
Zhou Qiaolan lamented in her heart how foolish her sister was.
Really, very foolish!
Qingya's eyes softened as she looked at her son.
"They're for you," she said.
The child's eyes went wide. "Really? They look so good."
But Han's note tucked beneath the shoes made her eyes softened considerably.
"For the child who cared more of his mom's protection than his own."
That night, as rain pattered gently on the eaves, Qingya couldn't sleep.
She kept replaying what she had heard from her brother's house three nights ago.
Through the thin walls that night she had heard them clearly.
"You were the one who caught that bastard Lu Jianhao and the woman together," hissed her younger sister-in-law. "Two thousand yuan isn't enough. Go ask for more."
"Keep your voice down," her husband muttered.
"Don't tell me you don't dare ask for it! That woman he is with works at the city cooperative. She's afraid of loosing face. Push her harder!"
Qingya's pulse quickened.
Lu Jianhao. Her ex-husband.
So her brother and his wife had blackmailed him and his mistress for hush money uh.
Two thousand yuan, enough to buy a small house in the suburbs was enough for her brother to care less about her pain.
And yet they hadn't said a word to her. They had taken money for their silence while she had been mocked and gossiped about by the whole village.
Her fists clenched tightly under her blanket.
Her sister-in-law had planned to visit where the mistress worked the next day to threaten her for more money.
This time, Qingya intended to confirm her suspicions of who exactly that woman was. And so the next morning she followed her sister-in-law.
..
Taoyang County's Town centre was noisy that morning.
Vendors shouted about fresh buns and bean curd, donkey carts rattled by, and the single post-office phone booth already had a line snaking out the door.
Zhou min, Lin Qingya's second sister-in-law, stood at queue clutching a crumbled note with a phone number written on it. She had never been to the city before, but rumour said a single phone call could reach anyone in Xiping if you paid enough coins.
When her turn came, she pushed her headscarf back, slapped two yuan on the counter and barked, "Operator, get me Yanguan Primary School, the office!"
Her voice was louder than the static on the line.
"Hello? I'm looking for Teacher Hu Xiaomei!"
Several people in line exchanged glances. Two yuan a minute was no small thing; every second cost a breakfast worth of eggs.
The voice that answered was faint through the crackling wire. "This is Hu Xiaomei. Who's speaking?"
Zhou Min straightened her back as if someone could see her through the receiver.
"I'm calling from Taoyang. About that little favor. You promised us two thousand before. We're not satisfied. We want another two thousand, or I'll come shouting outside your school gates!"
There was silence on the other end. Then the voice stiffened. "Has Qingya...remarried?"
Zhou Min smirked. "Of course she has! Married to a policeman this time. My husband saw you and that coal boss tangled in bed, remember? Don't act innocent. If you don't pay, I'll tell everyone that the famous Teacher Hu is just another man's mistress-"
Click.
The line went dead.
Zhou Min kept yelling "Hello? Hello?" Until the clerk yanked the phone cord from her hand. She stomped out muttering, "Two yuan gone just like that, enough to buy three jin of egg cakes! Crooked city woman."
From across the street, Lin Qingya had watched and heard everything. She no longer needed proof. The "mistress" her ex-husband had taken was Hu Xiaomei. The same neighbour who used to share sewing needles and gossip over tea at her house.
In her past life, that very woman had later married her ex-husband after Qingya's divorce, claiming it happened after the split. She even had the nerve to come begging for help years later when he was imprisoned for tax fraud since she had remarried a rich man.
Qingya remembered turning her away without a word.
Now, standing there reborn and watching history repeat, a bitter smile crept across her lips. "So it really was you all along ."
She turned, bought a paper bag of fresh egg cakes from the bakery stall, and began her walk home.
The cakes were warm, their sweet milk scent mixing with dust and sunlight. She took a small bite. The crust flaked and the inside soft like she remembered.
She had barely stepped onto the county road when the hum of a motor filed the air.
A motorcycle sped toward her, leaving a trail of dust. The rider wore a white shirt, sleeves rolled, eyes bright under the sun.
Lu Qingya stopped short.
Yun Han.
In her past life, this man had become her second husband. The one who later built half the city's real-estate empire.
She walked faster, not glancing back.
Behind her, the motorcycle engine faded.
In her previous life, Yun Han had always introduced her as a plain rural wife who managed the household well. It sounded like praise but it erase her completely.
...
By the time she reached Lin Family Village, the afternoon sun had turned everything gold.
At the gate, Lin Chen came running in his pin-trimmed shirt and city shoes that Han Yuzhe had sent. He leaped into her arms.
"Mom! You didn't leave me!"
Qingya laughed, hugging him tight. "Of course not. Here, look-your favourite egg cakes."
The boy's eyes lit up. "Better than spicy sticks!" He declared between mouthfuls.
Watching him eat, Qingya's throat tightened. In her last life, when she had foolishly left him behind for "convenience," he had clutched a stale cake like a treasure, waiting for her to return. That single image had haunted her for decades.
That afternoon, In the millet fields.
The millet fields shimmered like waves. Zhou Qiaolan, sickle in hand, called out cheerfully, "Qingya! You're about to marry into the city; stop tiring yourself out. Go rest, put some cream on that face. City people like plae brides!"
Her husband, Lin Degang, laughed. "She's right. You've worked hard enough."
But Qingya only smiled faintly and swung her sickle. "Brother, when you built your house, I helped you pay for it. Second Britger never built one, right? Has he ever complained about that?"
Degang's face darkened. "He shouldn't. You helped me out if kindness, not obligation. If he resent it, that's his own problem."
Zhou Qiaolan stopped cutting millet, remembering the good bangle and the new shoes she had seen on Zhou Min and her son. Her eyes hardened. "Qingya, is it about the money you said you saw in her chest the other day?"
Qingya nodded slowly. "Two thousand yuan. And I overheard her today calling someone named Hu Xiaomei, demanding more hush money. Looks like they all worked with my ex-husband."
The sickle in Zhou Qiaolan's hand glinted under the sun. "So they took money from that scoundrel while we broke our backs helping them? Let's see if she still has the nerve to shout in my yard."
She strode off toward the second house, rage propelling her faster than the wind.
The crash of wood splitting echoed through the courtyard.
Zhou Qiaolan had smashed open her sister-in-law's locked clothe cabinet. Inside were neat stacks of ten-yuan-bills more than either of them had ever seen.
Among the bundles was a folded paper, a note of receipt with the amount 1,700 yuan scrawled across it.
Lin Degang arrived just as Zhou Min screamed. "You have no right-!"
He didn't listen. His eyes landed on rge trembling figure of their second brother, Lin Dejun, who had supposedly been bedridden for weeks. The man's face turned white as flour.
"So you were never sick," Degang growled.
Dejun backed toward the wall. "I-I can explain-"
"Explain how you took money to betray your own sister?" Degang shouted, raising a sickle. "Because of your lies, she divorced with nothing, and we worked your fields like fools!"
Zhou Min lunged to pull her husband away, but Zhou Qiaolan shoved her aside. The courtyard exploded into chaos. Neighbours rushing in.