“I’m just worried that if the child doesn’t have a father, they’ll grow up being called a bastard. That wouldn’t be good for the child’s development,” Song Kening said.
Lu Zhiyu’s entire body stiffened.
Bastard.
He suddenly remembered his school days.
Whenever he got into fights with his classmates, their parents would point at him and curse:
“Bastard! Unwanted bastard! Your own parents didn’t even want you!”
Lu Zhiyu lowered his eyes, hiding the fleeting emotion in them.
He didn’t say anything else.
He simply stuffed the last piece of bread into his mouth and slowly chewed.
Song Kening had no idea what he was thinking.
She only noticed that he had suddenly fallen silent, making the atmosphere feel somewhat strange.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, when the station announcement suddenly sounded.
“Attention, passengers. Train K527 from Huacheng Songjiang to Yangcheng Baiyun is now beginning ticket inspection. Passengers traveling on this train, please proceed to Gate Three for boarding.”
Song Kening immediately stood up.
“They’re checking tickets! Let’s go!”
She quickly stuffed everything back into the plastic bags.
Lu Zhiyu picked up all four bags and carried them toward the ticket gate.
A long line had already formed.
The crowd moved forward slowly.
Song Kening clutched the household registration booklet tightly in her hands and shuffled forward with the line.
Finally, it was their turn.
After their tickets were checked, they followed the passageway toward the platform.
The platform was brightly lit.
A green train stood quietly beside the tracks.
The words “Songjiang—Baiyun” were painted in white along the train’s body, the lettering somewhat faded and worn.
Song Kening entered her carriage.
The sleeper carriage was more crowded than she’d expected.
The narrow aisle was barely wide enough for one person to pass through, with three-tiered bunks lining both sides.
Various smells mixed together in the air—the scent of instant noodles, sweaty feet, cigarette smoke, and the unmistakable stale smell unique to old trains.
She found her berth and asked Lu Zhiyu to put the plastic bags on the luggage rack above the aisle.
Lu Zhiyu stood in the passageway.
At 1.9 meters tall, he made the already cramped space feel even more suffocating.
After putting the bags away, he frowned.
His nostrils twitched slightly.
Instant noodles.
The smell of feet.
And some indescribable stale odor.
They all mixed together and rushed straight into his nose.
Lu Zhiyu instinctively wanted to hold his breath.
Song Kening saw the disgusted expression on his face and couldn’t help laughing.
“What? Does it stink?”
Lu Zhiyu said nothing, but his expression said it all.
Song Kening patted his arm with the air of someone speaking from experience.
“You’ll get used to it once you’ve smelled it long enough.”
Lu Zhiyu glanced at her but didn’t argue.
Song Kening pulled him toward the connection between the carriages.
“Come on. Let’s find the conductor and tell her you’re my family member and need to accompany me.”
The two walked through several carriages before finding the conductor’s rest area.
Song Kening stood outside the door, gathered her emotions, and knocked.
The door opened, and a middle-aged woman in uniform poked her head out.
“What is it?”
Song Kening immediately put on a weak expression.
One hand rested against her lower back while the other covered her stomach.
“Um, ma’am, I’m pregnant, and I’m not feeling very well.”
“My husband is worried about me being alone in the sleeper carriage. Could you let him stay here with me? He has a hard-seat ticket.”
The conductor looked her up and down before glancing at Lu Zhiyu standing behind her.
Lu Zhiyu’s face was simply too striking.
The conductor took another couple of looks, then glanced at Song Kening’s hand resting on her waist.
“All right, all right. Go ahead. Just don’t disturb the other passengers.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Song Kening repeatedly thanked her before pulling Lu Zhiyu back toward their carriage.
When they returned to the sleeper carriage, Song Kening lowered the small fold-down seat by the window in the aisle and patted it.
“Sit here. You can even look at the scenery.”
Lu Zhiyu glanced at the narrow little seat, then at her.
In the end, he sat down.
Song Kening giggled and patted her chest.
“Don’t worry. Once I wake up, I’ll let you lie down on the berth.”
Lu Zhiyu said nothing.
Song Kening returned to her berth and lay down.
The train whistled.
The carriage rocked slightly before slowly pulling away.
Outside the window, the platform began moving backward.
The brightly lit station gradually disappeared into the distance.
The lights inside the carriage had already been turned off, leaving only the dim yellow nightlights along the aisle, casting the entire carriage in a hazy glow.
The passengers in the other berths had already fallen asleep.
Loud snores could be heard, accompanied by the rhythmic clanking of the moving train.
Late at night, when everything was quiet, people’s emotions became more sensitive.
Song Kening stared at the underside of the berth above her.
Suddenly, she felt an emptiness in her heart.
She knew that this world didn’t belong to her.
The real world where she’d lived for twenty-one years…
She had simply vanished from it.
What would happen to her parents?
She had even excitedly told her mother,
“I found a job in Huacheng! I start work on Monday. I’ll send you 2,000 yuan every month.”
Her mother had smiled and said,
“No need. Kening, save it for yourself. You can use it as your dowry later.”
She hadn’t even gotten the chance to send her parents her first paycheck.
Their new house had just been completed, but her older brother’s wedding expenses still hadn’t been saved up.
Her sister-in-law’s family had already urged them several times.
Her parents were so worried that their hair had begun turning white.
She had grown up in a small town.
Her parents worked tirelessly running a vegetable stall.
They had to get up at three in the morning to buy fresh produce and wouldn’t close their stall until seven or eight at night.
They always said,
“Let’s wait a little longer. Maybe we’ll sell a bit more.”
But how many people in a small town actually bought vegetables?
Most families grew or produced their own food.
Her parents had lived frugally and worked hard to put both her and her older brother through college.
She had finally graduated.
She had finally found a job.
She had finally been able to earn money and repay her parents for everything they had done for her.
And then?
Then she died.
No.
She hadn’t died.
She had transmigrated into a novel.
But to her parents, it was the same as dying.
Their daughter had just graduated.
She had left home on her first day of work…
And then they had never heard from her again.
What would they think?
Would they go crazy?
Would they search everywhere for her?
Would they think she’d been kidnapped?
Or that she’d gotten into some kind of accident?
They wouldn’t find her.
They would never find her.
Song Kening’s eyes suddenly filled with tears.
She desperately tried to hold them back, telling herself not to cry.
What good would crying do?
But her tears refused to listen.
One drop after another slid from the corners of her eyes and into her ears, leaving an itchy sensation.
She raised a hand to wipe them away.
It didn’t work.
The more she wiped, the more tears came.
She remembered the chestnut-braised chicken her mother used to make.
She remembered her father’s quiet back as he worked.
She remembered how her older brother would always secretly slip her some pocket money.
Those ordinary, trivial moments she’d once taken for granted…
She could never go back to them.
The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
She couldn’t stop herself from sobbing.
At first, it was only quiet sniffles.
Then it became muffled sobs.
And eventually, she could no longer control herself.
She curled up on the berth, her shoulders trembling as she cried her heart out.
“Why are you crying?”
A deep voice suddenly sounded beside her.
Song Kening opened her eyes.
Through her tear-blurred vision, she saw that Lu Zhiyu had somehow stood up and was now standing beside her berth, looking down at her.
Song Kening hurriedly raised her hand to wipe away her tears.
But the more she wiped, the more came.
She sniffled, her voice thick with tears.
“N-nothing…”
Lu Zhiyu said nothing.
He simply looked at her.
His gaze was faint and distant, as though he were looking at someone who had nothing to do with him.
But he didn’t leave.
He simply stood there, waiting for her to continue.
Song Kening sniffled again and quietly said,
“I just miss home.”
The moment she said it, more tears welled up in her eyes.
She simply stopped wiping them.
She let the tears blur her vision.
It was dark anyway. He wouldn’t be able to see clearly.
Lu Zhiyu remained silent for several seconds before suddenly speaking.
“Didn’t they move overseas? They didn’t want you anymore. But that was all because of your own actions.”
Song Kening froze.
She opened her mouth but didn’t know how to answer.
She knew that Lu Zhiyu had no idea that she had come here from the real world.
Could she tell him that she was actually a real, living, flesh-and-blood person from another world?
That she wasn’t the paper-thin fictional character Song Kening from this novel?
No.
Right now, Lu Zhiyu would only think she was crazy.
He wouldn’t believe her.
“I’m not talking about the home of my adoptive parents.”
She wiped her tears.
“I mean the home where I was born.”
Lu Zhiyu looked at her.
Something flashed briefly through his deep eyes, so quickly that it was impossible to grasp.
He didn’t ask anything more.
Instead, he reached into his pocket, took out a tissue, and held it out to her.
Song Kening stared blankly at the tissue.
After a while, she finally reached out and took it.
“Thank you.”
Lu Zhiyu said nothing.
He turned around, returned to his seat, and sat down with his back toward her, facing the window.
Song Kening clutched the tissue in her hand.
She wiped her tears.
Then she wiped her nose.
She turned onto her side and looked at Lu Zhiyu’s back.
For some reason, looking at that back suddenly made her feel a little less sad.
She held the tissue tightly in her palm and closed her eyes.
At the moment she drifted off to sleep, she made one wish.
She hoped she could appear in her parents’ dreams back in the real world.
She wanted to tell them not to be heartbroken.
Not to waste their time and money searching for her.
And to believe that one day…
she would definitely find her way home.