1980, Northwest Qing Province, Military Family Compound.
“Qin Jian, I’ve thought this through carefully. I’m asking you for a divorce. This isn’t something I’m saying out of anger.”
Hearing those familiar yet unfamiliar words, Qin Jian opened her eyes and looked up. Standing before her was Lu Qingshen, thirty years younger than the man she remembered.
He wore a neatly pressed military uniform, his posture upright and his expression stern.
The large 1980s wall calendar hanging on the wall brought her abruptly back to her senses.
She had actually been reborn!
She had returned to the moment when she was three months pregnant, had received Lu Qingshen’s divorce letter, and had been dragged by her mother to the military compound to make a scene.
“All right. I agree to the divorce.”
Qin Jian remembered that in her previous life, she hadn’t agreed to the divorce this time. Instead, she had remained entangled with Lu Qingshen for decades, and things had never worked out between them.
Their marriage had been a mistake from the very beginning. When Lu Qingshen had originally visited the Qin family to propose marriage, the person he had intended to marry was her elder sister, Qin Yun.
At the time, Qin Yun already had someone she loved. The two had secretly pledged themselves to each other. However, she had also coveted Lu Qingshen’s excellent family background, so she persuaded their mother to deceive Qin Jian into taking her place as the bride.
Having married the wrong person, Lu Qingshen had endured the situation for three months before finally reaching his breaking point and demanding a divorce.
Qin Jian could understand that.
So she agreed.
Lu Qingshen’s tightly knitted brows paused. He seemed not to have expected her to agree so easily.
“You… Are you really willing?” His voice carried a hint of uncertainty, and his eyes scrutinized her.
Qin Jian’s expression remained emotionless. She nodded.
“Yes. Since you married the wrong person, it’s perfectly understandable that you want to set things right and divorce me. I can understand.”
Her understanding attitude made Lu Qingshen hesitate for a moment. It seemed that Qin Jian was quite different from the other members of the Qin family.
He remembered that he had decided to divorce her because he discovered that Qin’s mother had been using his identity to seek favors and benefits everywhere, constantly causing trouble for the Lu family.
He had therefore wanted to solve the problem at its root by divorcing Qin Jian and severing the marital ties between their families.
At that thought, his momentary hesitation disappeared.
“Proposing marriage at your home in the first place was my mistake. I had already sounded out your mother and elder sister. When I realized that Comrade Qin Yun had no interest in marrying me, I shouldn’t have gone ahead with the proposal. But I thought the formalities had to be completed, so I still went through with it.”
“I assumed your family would reject me. I never expected you to agree.”
Qin Jian found his words a little confusing.
“Formalities? What formalities? Wasn’t it because you liked Qin Yun that you proposed marriage?”
That was exactly what Mo Qi, Lu Qingshen’s close friend, had personally told her beside her hospital bed in her previous life, shortly before she died of a serious illness.
Otherwise, she might never have learned the truth.
One reason Qin Jian had agreed to the divorce so readily in this life was that Qin Yun had ruined her entire previous life.
What kind of decent man could someone like Lu Qingshen be if he had been interested in Qin Yun?
Hadn’t he kept her at arm’s length for decades in her previous life?
It was wiser to stay away from someone with whom she couldn’t have a good marriage and whom she couldn’t afford to offend.
Lu Qingshen shook his head.
“I don’t like Qin Yun. I came to propose because the elders in my family instructed me to.”
Qin Jian instinctively opened her mouth to argue.
That wasn’t what Mo Qi had told her.
Beside her hospital bed, he had implied that Lu Qingshen had loved Qin Yun his entire life.
But looking at Lu Qingshen now, he didn’t seem to be lying.
So… had Mo Qi deceived her?
Even after finally realizing this, Qin Jian’s mood remained heavy.
Even if Qin Yun wasn’t the reason, the conflict between her and Lu Qingshen still existed.
The only difference was that instead of him having someone he loved, he was unhappy with the marriage arranged by his elders and wanted a divorce because of it.
She could understand that, too.
No wonder that in her previous life, although he had treated her coldly, he had never had an inappropriate relationship with Qin Yun.
Qin Jian realized that some of the things she had never been able to explain in her previous life suddenly made sense.
“Oh, I see. That’s rather unfortunate for you, then,” Qin Jian said.
Lu Qingshen paused suspiciously for several seconds. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes as he looked at her.
“…You married me and are getting divorced after only three months. Doesn’t that make you even more unfortunate?”
Qin Jian waved her hand dismissively.
“It’s fine. That’s still better than us becoming a bitter, resentful couple.”
“…”
“I’ll provide you with compensation: an apartment in the provincial capital, a monthly living allowance of thirty yuan for ten years, and either an opportunity to retake the university entrance examinations or assistance in finding a job.”
Qin Jian looked at him in surprise.
“You’re really going to give me all that?”
It was quite a substantial amount of compensation.
Of course, it still couldn’t compare with what she had received in her previous life when they remained married.
Back then, while their marriage was still intact, she had enjoyed a comfortable life thanks to the Lu family. After all, she was the wife of a battalion commander, and Lu Qingshen’s parents were both military officers in the capital.
Qin Jian only recalled these things briefly before getting up from the metal bed in the military family quarters. She took the initiative and said:
“Let’s go. We’ll head to the Political Department and sign the divorce application.”
As she spoke, Qin Jian started walking, thinking to herself:
Fortunately, my mother made such a huge scene today that the military leaders had someone escort her back home. Otherwise, getting a divorce wouldn’t have been this easy.
Lu Qingshen had also given her mother fifty yuan. Without that money, she wouldn’t have gone back so readily.
Thinking of her mother, who favored Qin Yun to the core, Qin Jian’s eyes darkened, concealing the coldness within.
In her previous life, her mother had always sided with Qin Yun to bully and make things difficult for her.
And it wasn’t just her mother. Qin Yun’s admirers, her husband, and the other people around her had all bullied Qin Jian and the child in her womb.
Qin Jian clenched her fists.
In this life, she would never allow Qin Yun to enjoy another comfortable day.
Especially since Qin Yun was currently doing nothing more than using Qin Jian’s name to ask the Lu family for money.
She hadn’t yet grown into the wealthy and powerful lady she would eventually become, with both money and influence at her disposal.
It would be easy to stamp her out before she had a chance to grow.
Qin Jian couldn’t help feeling that being reborn was a gift from Heaven.
“Qin Jian, why did you agree to marry me in the first place?”
Lu Qingshen hadn’t moved. Instead, he watched her retreating figure before finally asking.
Qin Jian pressed her lips together.
“Because my mother told me you had proposed marriage to me. I thought you seemed like a decent person, so I agreed.”
Lu Qingshen fell silent for a long time.
“Qin Jian, I’ll give you more compensation. If there’s anything you want, just tell me.”
Qin Jian turned around in confusion.
“Why?”
“I just think you’re innocent in all this. You shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes your mother and I made. Getting divorced now will have a significant impact on your life, so I want to compensate you a little more.”
“And besides… Now that you’re divorced, can you even go back to your parents’ home?”
Lu Qingshen’s question left Qin Jian speechless.
If his face hadn’t been completely devoid of mockery, she might have thought he was deliberately making fun of her.
Of course she couldn’t go back to her parents’ home.
Her mother would probably be furious enough to curse her to death. Her old bedroom had already been reclaimed the moment she got married.
Besides, she had no intention of going back.
She planned to stay in Qing Province, find a job, and then consider how to “repay” Qin Yun for everything she had done.
“I can’t go back. If you’re willing to give me those things, then I’ll accept them.”
Qin Jian didn’t refuse the benefits.
Lu Qingshen’s sense of guilt could be a valuable asset in dealing with Qin Yun. She wasn’t foolish enough to turn down such an advantage.
The first step in dealing with Qin Yun was simple: once she divorced Lu Qingshen, her mother would no longer have any excuse to ask the Lu family for money to spend on Qin Yun.