The most important thing?
Everyone’s eyes turned to Zhou Mu together, and Yan Ruizhi could not help looking at him curiously too.
Zhou Mu pulled a stack of money out of his pouch, held it neatly in his hand, and said to Yan Zhengguo and Huo Shufen, “Since Ruizhi and I are getting married, then I’ll follow Ruizhi’s generation. Uncle, Auntie, this is the bride price money I’m giving Ruizhi. Ours is a military marriage, so the procedure is fairly complicated. I’ll file the marriage application as soon as I get back. Let’s get engaged first!”
Yan Ruizhi was completely dazed. The way she saw it, Zhou Mu must be marrying her out of responsibility, with no other choice, but why did she feel… that he seemed rather eager?
Huo Shufen and Yan Zhengguo stared blankly at the stack of money in Zhou Mu’s hand. They had not counted it and did not know how much it was, but looking at the ten-yuan notes stacked together, it was at least several hundred. Husband and wife exchanged a glance, and their faces gradually turned serious.
“Zhou Mu, at the village head’s house just now, our whole family was very grateful to you, but this match… I’ve thought about it, and I feel it still isn’t quite suitable.” Huo Shufen looked at Yan Ruizhi beside her. However satisfied she was, if her daughter was unwilling they could not force her to marry anyone.
“This match… Zhou Mu, I’m really sorry. You and Ruizhi are a generation apart. You stood up today out of decency to get our Ruizhi out of a corner, and our whole family is very grateful. It’s only marriage…”
If at first it was Huo Shufen who was satisfied, then right now Yan Zhengguo’s good opinion of Zhou Mu was rising sharply too. It was just a pity that his daughter did not seem to have nodded to this match, and as her father, in a matter this big, his daughter’s own wishes mattered a great deal.
Zhou Mu’s eyes went straight to Yan Ruizhi.
Yan Ruizhi’s face was very red. Several times she wanted to open her mouth and make it clear, but the man’s gaze was too heavy with pressure, and she could not help stepping back without thinking.
Something odd flashed in Zhou Mu’s eyes. Yan Ruizhi thought she had seen it wrong, and then she heard Zhou Mu say, “Can I talk with Ruizhi alone?”
Huo Shufen patted the back of Yan Ruizhi’s hand. “Ruizhi, why don’t… you two talk?”
Yan Ruizhi knew that in their hearts her parents still wanted this match with Zhou Mu, but she felt that if it was purely because of what happened yesterday, there was really no need for him to pay with his whole life. Reputation was a thing that, living a second time, she did not take all that seriously.
After hesitating a moment, Yan Ruizhi nodded.
Outside the Yan family courtyard the air carried the smell of earth. Yan Ruizhi stared at her own toes. The ground under her feet was wet and soft and her head was rather muddled. She did not know what to say, and it was Zhou Mu who spoke first. “Comrade Yan Ruizhi, you don’t want to marry me?”
Yan Ruizhi kept her head down and thought for a long time before saying softly, “What happened yesterday, you were clearly the one who saved me. If it weren’t for you, maybe I… I can’t repay kindness with harm. Uncle, thank you!”
The words had barely left her mouth when Yan Ruizhi felt the air around her turn cold. She cautiously raised her eyes and glanced at Zhou Mu. The night was too dark and she could not see his face clearly, she only felt a slight chill at her neck. She shrank a little and added, “Actually reputation and so on isn’t that important either. As long as a person is alive, good name, bad name…”
“Heh!”
Before Yan Ruizhi could finish, Zhou Mu gave a short laugh. Yan Ruizhi tilted her head to look up at the man who was a whole head taller than her. In her last life she had felt both gratitude and a little fear towards Zhou Mu. He was the Zhou family’s pride, the one who could truly make the decisions in the Zhou family. In her last life, if not for his weight holding them down, Zhou Ze’an would have driven her and her daughter out of the house long before.
Right now Yan Ruizhi was a little afraid, especially of that mocking sound he had just made, which was more like pointing at her nose and calling her ungrateful.
“Yan Ruizhi, I didn’t expect your consciousness to be so advanced that you don’t even care about your reputation! But I hear Zhou Ze’an is making your family return the bride price money. I believe your family will certainly help you through this hard time, but are you really willing to let them be pointed at, willing to let them tighten their belts for you?”
Yan Ruizhi’s eyes snapped up to Zhou Mu’s. He was very tall, and looking up for so long made her neck ache. Her chest rose and fell hard as she stared at him, hardly able to believe it. “Uncle, are you threatening me?”
Zhou Mu lowered his head and said, word by word, “This is a well-meant reminder. Ruizhi, I saved you yesterday, yes, but the thing has already spread. If it reaches my unit, have you thought about what would happen to me? Since that’s so, for your reputation and for my own sake as well, let’s get married!”
Zhou Mu was a soldier. If this reached his unit it really would cause him some trouble. Yan Ruizhi lowered her head. But she truly did not want any further tie to Zhou Ze’an. In her last life she had already paid the price for her love and her obsession, and in this life she only wanted to live well for herself. Yet just as Zhou Mu said, she was not only Yan Ruizhi, she was also a daughter and a sister.
After a long while Yan Ruizhi said, “Uncle, I was engaged to Zhou Ze’an, and even though the engagement is broken now…”
“I know what you’re worried about. My marriage application report hasn’t been filed yet, and you’ll need a political background check on your side. Once the marriage application comes through, I’ll apply for you to join me at my unit…”
It was silent all around. Even the barking of the village dogs had quietly stopped. In her ears was Zhou Mu’s steady voice, and in that moment Yan Ruizhi’s heart was beating hard. She quietly swallowed a few times. He had thought it through so thoroughly!
At the end Zhou Mu looked into Yan Ruizhi’s eyes. “There’s one more very important thing.”
“What?”
“Stop calling me Uncle!”
Yan Ruizhi did not remember how she got home. Her head was rather muddled.
“Ruizhi.”
“Ruizhi, what did he say?”
Yan Ruizhi had just come through the door, the thousand yuan in her pocket still warm and heavy, when the whole family gathered round her at once, Li Guiqin especially. She still had a spatula in one hand, and those burning eyes of hers looked ready to swallow her whole.
“I, I agreed.”
Yan Ruizhi said it and could hardly believe it herself. She swallowed. Seeing several of the people in front of her quietly let out a breath, she quietly hid a thread of bitterness in her heart. She said, “I’m not eating dinner. Mom, don’t call me, I want to be alone for a bit!”
Inside her room, once Yan Ruizhi had shut the door, she sat on the edge of the bed and thought about her last life, and about what had happened since she was reborn. In this life she had made up her mind to let Zhou Ze’an and the one he loved be together. She had thought she might marry again, but she had never thought she would end up tangled up with Zhou Ze’an’s uncle.
But since it had come to this, all she could do was take it one step at a time.
Dinner in the Yan house was a harmonious affair that day, but the Zhou house was in an uproar.
Zhou Ze’an, who had been so happy earlier after successfully breaking off the engagement, now dared not say a word. He kept his head down and played dumb. Du Tianzhen’s face was grim as she chimed in, “Mom, this can’t be agreed to no matter what. What kind of thing is this? An uncle marrying his nephew’s former fiancée? If this gets out, half the countryside will laugh their teeth out at our family!”
“You shut your mouth!”
Du Tianzhen looked at her mother-in-law, full of grievance, and muttered something under her breath, but right now nobody cared about her muttering. The whole family was talking about Zhou Mu, and Zhou Mu had only one thing to say. “Because of me, a female comrade’s reputation has been damaged. If this gets back to my unit it looks bad for me! Besides, Zhou Ze’an went around telling everyone that Yan Ruizhi and I were holding each other, and broke off the engagement over it. Mom, if I don’t take responsibility and something happens to that girl, my whole life might be finished!”
Zhou Mu successfully turned the attention elsewhere, and the Zhou family all rounded on Zhou Ze’an and Du Tianzhen.
Early the next morning, before the Yan family had even had a chance to go out to the fields, Zhou Mu and his parents arrived with a matchmaker.