Only a few tents had been set up here; this was likely a temporary medical station for the wounded. Other uninjured survivors must have been arranged elsewhere.
Bai Lu approached the tent with the rising smoke and asked from the entrance, “Excuse me, is this where food is provided for everyone?”
A man stepped out. “Yes.”
“Is there anything to eat now?” Bai Lu asked.
The man shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Then what are you doing right now?” Bai Lu pressed further.
The man continued to shake his head. “Nothing at all.”
Bai Lu looked up at the blue smoke drifting above and questioned him angrily, “Nothing? Then what is that smoke coming from? Are you volunteers here to help, or are you here to embezzle supplies? There are so many wounded in the tents, and so many doctors and nurses—you won’t even let people eat. Are you trying to starve everyone to death? Some of the medical staff have been here since last night, do you know that? When everyone collapses from hunger, are you going to go rescue the wounded? Where did you volunteers come from? I’m definitely reporting this to the authorities…”
“What are you going to report?” The expression on the man’s face suddenly vanished, replaced by a murderous glare as he looked at Bai Lu.
Suddenly, a rescue team walked over. The leader reached out, grabbed the man’s raised hand, and shoved him back toward the group. He said to the others, “Take him and the people inside to the police station. Investigate them thoroughly and see if they are actually ‘volunteers’.”
The familiar, long-awaited voice made Bai Lu freeze on the spot.
“Send two more people to the survivor settlement to find a few people who can cook and bring them here.”
Bai Lu stared blankly at Jin Qiu as he gave orders. She had never expected that he would come from so far away to participate in the rescue. Looking at the exhaustion in his eyes and the scars covering his hands and face, she knew he had likely been working non-stop since the moment he arrived.
Bai Lu’s throat felt so tight it was painful; she couldn’t make a sound. She stared at him unblinkingly, terrified that if she closed her eyes for even a second, he would vanish. She felt as though this was all a hallucination born from her intense longing for him.
In her previous life, after he passed away, she had thought of him every single day. When colleagues at the hospital or his relatives tried to introduce her to potential partners, she had refused them all. Though he was dead, he had always lived on in her heart.
Once his subordinates had left, Jin Qiu walked toward Bai Lu with a steady pace. “Nurse, come inside with me and see if there is anything to eat.”
With tears in her eyes, Bai Lu smiled and nodded. She followed behind Jin Qiu into the tent. Outside, the sky was gradually darkening, and the interior of the tent was quite dim. The two did not exchange pleasantries; they walked straight to the back of the tent.
There was a simple stove made of mud. The firewood beneath it was burning, and steam was rising from the pot. Jin Qiu stepped forward and lifted the lid. Inside, there were only a few small potatoes.
Bai Lu moved a fertilizer bag off a nearby crate and saw that it was filled with eggs. She was furious. “I knew something was wrong. When the tiger is away, the monkeys play king. They actually tried to profit during a time like this.”
Did they think that because this was the countryside and no one was paying attention, they could just fool everyone and fish in troubled waters? Unfortunately for them, the current Bai Lu was afraid of nothing. She hadn’t expected to run into Jin Qiu, but with the rescue team involved, those people wouldn’t be escaping.
Jin Qiu fished out a small potato and squeezed it. It wasn’t cooked yet. He set the small potatoes aside, then put the large potatoes from another crate into the pot. Once the pot was nearly full, he placed the small ones on top, added a few ladles of water, and replaced the lid.
Jin Qiu handed the small wooden stool the cook had been using to Bai Lu. “Sit.”
Bai Lu waved her hand hurriedly. “You’ve worked harder. You should sit.”
“Why be so formal?” Jin Qiu insisted on handing the stool to her.
“Wait for me here for a moment. I’m going back to the tent to get some things.” Bai Lu smiled, then turned and left with her lunch box.
A moment later, she returned with a tray. She first handed a piece of walnut shortbread to Jin Qiu. “You must have been hungry for a long time too, right? Eat something to line your stomach while I treat your wounds.”
Bai Lu first used gauze soaked in water to clean the dust and sand from Jin Qiu’s face. Only then did she use disinfectant on the wounds before finally applying medicine. Their faces were very close; they could feel each other’s hot breath.
Jin Qiu’s voice was dry and raspy. “I can finally see you again.”
“Me too.” Bai Lu trembled slightly. The tears she had been holding back for so long finally fell. Two people who had been separated for decades had finally met again.
Jin Qiu reached out with a rough finger to wipe away the tears on Bai Lu’s face. He said softly, “Don’t cry. It breaks my heart.”
“I’m not crying.” Bai Lu sniffled, then continued to treat the wounds on Jin Qiu’s hands. Jin Qiu watched her with a burning gaze. After a moment, he couldn’t help but ask, “Do you still like Jin Jialiang?”
“What?” Bai Lu looked up in shock, staring at Jin Qiu in confusion. She then frowned. “We were together for fifteen years. If you couldn’t tell who I liked, then you were a bit too indifferent toward me!”
At this point, Bai Lu felt a bit of anger. Then it clicked—could it be that he only agreed to Jin Jialiang’s proposal to marry her because he mistakenly thought she liked him? Or was it because she had rejected Jin Qiu for five years after Jin Jialiang’s death in her previous life, leading him to think she couldn’t let go of Jin Jialiang?
What a load of nonsense. While she didn’t exactly hate Jin Jialiang, she certainly despised him.
Bai Lu couldn’t help but poke Jin Qiu’s stomach. If not for his misunderstanding, she likely would have married him and wouldn’t have suffered for those extra eight years. It seemed the person responsible for her misfortune wasn’t Jin Jialiang, but this “presumptuous” man who didn’t even know how to confirm who she actually loved.
Jin Qiu reached out and caught Bai Lu’s mischievous hand. “Do you know how Jin Jialiang died?”
“How did he die?” Bai Lu asked, puzzled. Everyone said Jin Jialiang died in a workplace accident; no one knew the truth of his passing, and even if they did, no one had told her.
“He was night-swimming with a woman and fell to his death.”
“What?” Bai Lu found it bizarre. She couldn’t believe a man as stingy as Jin Jialiang would have a woman following him.
Then she realized that some men are only stingy toward their wives but generous toward outsiders. During the three years of her marriage to Jin Jialiang in her past life, he hadn’t spent a single cent on her—it didn’t mean he wasn’t spending it on other women.
“Do you know who that woman was?” Jin Qiu continued to ask.