The bus stopped in the plaza in front of Songjiang Railway Station.
The doors opened, and Song Kening and Lu Zhiyu got off one after another.
The railway station plaza was packed with people: travelers dragging suitcases, migrant workers squatting in corners smoking, tour guides holding little flags, and groups of young people sitting on the ground while waiting for their trains.
Song Kening looked up at the station sign.
The three large characters “Songjiang Station” glowed red against the night.
“Let’s go.”
Lu Zhiyu started walking.
Song Kening followed him across the plaza and into the railway station.
Lu Zhiyu headed straight for the self-service ticket gates.
He took out his ID card and placed it over the scanner.
Beep.
The gate opened.
He turned his head and glanced at Song Kening.
Song Kening stood there.
She didn’t have an ID card.
The bag left behind by the vicious female supporting character contained nothing but a household registration booklet.
She took it out, held it against her chest, and walked toward the manual inspection channel.
There was a moderately long line.
Most of the people waiting were elderly passengers with children or travelers from other places carrying various identification documents.
Song Kening joined the end of the line and stood on tiptoe to look ahead.
The staff member was slowly checking everyone’s documents one by one.
She glanced toward the self-service gates where Lu Zhiyu had gone through.
He was standing on the other side, waiting for her.
For some reason, she felt relieved.
Finally, it was her turn.
She handed the household registration booklet through the window.
The employee flipped through it before looking up.
“Where’s your ID card?”
“I lost it. I haven’t had time to replace it yet.”
The employee checked the information in the household registration booklet again before handing it back.
“Go ahead.”
Song Kening took it and entered the waiting hall through the small side door.
Lu Zhiyu was still waiting for her.
When he saw her come in, his gaze lingered on her face for a moment.
He said nothing and turned to walk ahead.
The waiting hall was even more crowded than the main lobby.
All the seats had long since been taken.
People were sitting or lying everywhere—in the aisles, beside the pillars, wherever they could find a little space.
Song Kening looked around and finally spotted a small empty area in the corner.
She pulled Lu Zhiyu over.
“Let’s stay here. There aren’t as many people.”
She put the plastic bag containing the bathrobe on the ground and sat down directly on top of it.
Lu Zhiyu looked at the bundle of plastic bags on the floor, then at her.
He remained standing.
Song Kening tilted her head up at him.
“Why are you standing? Sit down. We still have two hours to wait!”
In the end, Lu Zhiyu sat down beside her.
His posture remained perfectly straight.
His legs were slightly apart, his elbows resting on his knees.
Even sitting on the floor, he somehow looked as though he were sitting on a custom-made luxury sofa.
Song Kening ignored him.
She dug the two large cups out of the plastic bag and stood up.
“I’m going to get some hot water.”
Holding both cups, she made her way through the crowd and followed the signs to the hot-water room.
She filled both cups to the brim with boiling water and carefully carried them back.
When she returned, she handed one to Lu Zhiyu.
“Have some water.”
Lu Zhiyu reached out and took it.
He didn’t drink.
He simply held the cup in his hand.
Song Kening then took out the bag of bread that was about to expire.
She opened it and held it out to him.
“Have something to eat. We haven’t eaten all day.”
Lu Zhiyu looked at the bag of bread.
The production date was printed on the package.
After today, it would expire tomorrow.
He lifted his eyes toward Song Kening.
She was squatting in front of him, holding out the cheap bread.
Her eyes were bright, and there was a small smile on her lips.
“You need to eat enough to have the strength to make a comeback.”
Song Kening pushed the bread a little closer.
Her eyes were too pure.
So pure that she didn’t look at him as a bankrupt, destitute man.
She didn’t look at him as a stray dog abandoned by everyone.
He took a slice of bread, tore off a piece, and put it into his mouth.
The bread was dry and coarse, but his stomach did feel a little better.
He hadn’t eaten anything all day.
From waking up in the morning and discovering that his company had been sealed, to spending the entire day running around trying to borrow money and being rejected everywhere, to selling his suit and buying a phone…
He hadn’t even had a sip of water all day.
Lu Zhiyu silently ate the bread.
It reminded him of the orphanage.
Thanks to the country’s well-developed public welfare policies, the orphanage had been like a boarding school. The conditions were decent, and they had never lacked food or clothing.
He had never wanted to live under someone else’s roof or depend on the kindness of others.
He didn’t want to look at anyone’s expression while trying to survive, so he had refused to be adopted by any family.
Still, there had been a kind person who sponsored him.
He had never met them.
Every month, they faithfully provided him with additional living expenses.
That continued until middle school, when he earned his first pot of gold.
After that, he never accepted their support again and eventually repaid them many times over.
In his first year of middle school, he improved the circuit design of a charger, increasing its charging speed by 30% while reducing its cost by 20%.
He sold the patent to a small factory and earned the first real money of his life.
Then came power banks, data cables, earphones…
And eventually, chips.
Together with Zhou Yuqing, he had built NEX step by step into a trillion-yuan conglomerate.
But today, the company was gone.
His assets were gone.
And the brother who had once fought alongside him was gone too.
He had nothing left.
Lu Zhiyu lowered his eyes, tore off another piece of bread, and slowly ate it with the cup of plain water.
He glanced at Song Kening beside him.
She was holding her cup of water and taking tiny sips.
In her other hand was a piece of bread, which she nibbled little by little like a tiny hamster.
Her cheeks puffed slightly as she chewed, and her eyes narrowed with satisfaction.
She was clearly enjoying it.
Lu Zhiyu looked at her, his gaze growing deeper.
Song Kening had also been in the same orphanage as him.
Later, she was adopted by a family.
He only learned afterward that the family who adopted her was the same family that had once sponsored his living expenses.
She had become a school bully in fifth grade and was expelled from school.
After that, she behaved like a street punk, wearing heavy makeup and dressing provocatively, always sharp-tongued and unpleasant toward others.
Perhaps that was precisely why, when the family moved overseas, they hadn’t taken her with them.
They must have been thoroughly disappointed in her.
Later, she worked at a KTV selling alcohol.
She had always wanted to climb into his bed, but he’d seen through her intentions every time.
He never expected that she’d actually succeed the night before.
But the person before him now…
Her face was clean and natural.
She wore a simple floral dress, her hair tied into a neat bun, and she was eating cheap bread.
When she smiled, her eyes curved beautifully.
Her voice had a soft, slightly sweet lilt.
She knew how to manage money.
She would even haggle over a single yuan.
Aside from her face, she was completely different from the Song Kening he’d known before.
Lu Zhiyu withdrew his gaze and looked down at the bread in his hand.
He couldn’t understand it.
She had always been so vain and obsessed with money.
Why was she still following him?
Was it for money?
He had none left.
Was it for him?
He knew himself well enough.
His face was indeed handsome, but this woman definitely wasn’t the type to fall hopelessly in love with someone just because of their looks.
Lu Zhiyu’s eyes suddenly turned cold and dark, like a deep, bottomless spring.
Even the brother he trusted most had betrayed him.
How could he trust this woman, who already had a history of scheming against him?
He didn’t believe that Song Kening could suddenly turn over a new leaf overnight.
He had to figure out what she was really after.
Pretending to be harmless while hiding one’s true intentions?
He could play that game too.
Song Kening finished her slice of bread and took a few more sips of water.
Then she suddenly remembered something.
She turned to Lu Zhiyu.
“Oh, right!”
Lu Zhiyu looked at her.
“What is it?”
Song Kening moved closer.
“Your ticket is a hard seat, while mine is a sleeper. We’re not even in the same carriage!”
Lu Zhiyu gave a quiet “Mm.”
“How can that work?”
Song Kening became anxious.
“What if you leave me behind?”
“I’m in the sleeper carriage by myself while you’re in the hard-seat carriage. What if you get off the moment the train arrives at a station? Where would I find you?”
Lu Zhiyu looked at her without saying anything.
The more Song Kening thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
He desperately wanted to get rid of her troublesome presence.
What if he waited until she fell asleep and secretly got off?
She would be completely alone in this unfamiliar world.
She had no ID, no money, and no idea how to survive here.
More importantly, the child would have no father.
She couldn’t possibly let the child be born without a father, could she?
The child in the novel was already destined to develop autism.
If the child didn’t even have a father around, wouldn’t that make things worse?
No, absolutely not.
She couldn’t let him get away.
Song Kening grabbed his arm.
“You have to come to the sleeper carriage.”
Lu Zhiyu lowered his eyes and looked at the hand gripping his arm.
Then he raised his eyes to look at her.
His expression remained indifferent.
Song Kening said,
“Just tell the conductor that I’m pregnant and need a family member to accompany me.”
“Besides, there are seats in the sleeper-carriage corridor. You can sit there. Anyway, you can’t run away. You have to stay where I can keep an eye on you.”
Lu Zhiyu stared at her for several seconds.
Then he suddenly spoke.
“Song Kening.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you love me that much?”
Song Kening froze.
Lu Zhiyu’s tone revealed no emotion.
“You won’t go after some other rich man. Why are you so determined to stick with someone like me, who has nothing left?”
Song Kening blinked.
Love him?
No, no, of course she didn’t love him.
It would only be three years of hardship.
The novel had said that three years later, he would make his comeback with a fortune worth hundreds of billions and return in overwhelming fashion.
If she stayed with him for those three years and took care of everything behind the scenes, wouldn’t it be perfectly reasonable to ask for some compensation when he became successful and they divorced?
One hundred million yuan?
Hmm.
One hundred million should be reasonable.
After all, he would be worth hundreds of billions.
A hundred million would be nothing to him.
By then, she’d have a hundred million yuan.
She could return to the real world and make sure her entire family never had to worry about money again.
No, wait.
If a hundred million yuan suddenly appeared in her real-world bank account, she’d probably be investigated.
Forget the money.
If she still hadn’t found a way back to the real world by then, perhaps he would help her find a way home, especially if he appreciated that she was willing to divorce him voluntarily and give him the chance to be with the female lead—the person he was truly destined to be with.
After all, he was the male lead of this world.
He was intelligent and capable.
Maybe he really could help her find a way back home.
She’d get multiple benefits from one arrangement.
Perfect.