Now that Bai Lu was reborn—and reborn before getting married—she was absolutely certain she would not marry Jin Jialiang again. She never wanted to live through those suffocating days ever again. Forget that nonsense about “one must know how to show gratitude” or the idea that she had to repay Jin Jialiang with her hand in marriage just because he saved her. Didn’t Jin Qiu save her too? In fact, he had sacrificed even more for her. If she was going to repay a debt of gratitude, it should be to Jin Qiu, not Jin Jialiang.
Jin Jialiang was only after her beauty, unlike Jin Qiu, who truly cared for her.
In reality, the person Bai Lu liked was Jin Qiu. She had liked him since middle school. Though he might not have been conventionally handsome, he wasn’t ugly, and his smile was incredibly bright.
The reason she liked him was quite dramatic. Bai Lu had been beautiful as a child, and as she grew up, she became even more stunning. In middle school, she attracted a great deal of attention. Because of her family background, no one dared to approach her directly, and many simply harbored secret crushes.
However, there were local hoodlums who didn’t care about status or consequences. They cornered her at a bus stop one day, and Jin Qiu happened to see it. He stepped in to rescue her, and from that moment on, Bai Lu secretly fell for him.
Jin Qiu and Jin Jialiang were childhood friends from the same village, though their families were not related. They became close simply because they went to school together.
When Bai Lu learned that Jin Qiu and Jin Jialiang wanted to enlist in the army after middle school, she quietly sought help to ensure they were successfully recruited. Meanwhile, she attended a vocational secondary school for nursing and became a nurse. After several years of hard work, she eventually became an excellent professional.
Even after being brought to a remote forest farm in Heyi County by Jin Qiu and Jin Jialiang and changing her name, Bai Lu used her skills to establish herself in the local hospital.
In truth, Bai Lu had never forgotten that high-spirited youth. So, when the two of them suddenly appeared before her, she was inwardly overjoyed. She just hadn’t expected Jin Jialiang to be the first to propose marriage. She had hesitated, but seeing that the person she actually liked seemed to have no interest in her, she hadn’t explicitly refused Jin Jialiang, mostly out of a sense of gratitude.
She and Jin Jialiang had no formal engagement ceremony, nor had they met each other’s parents. Everything was just a verbal agreement that Jin Jialiang had broadcasted to everyone. There were still more than four months left before their “wedding.” She not only had to find a way to get Jin Jialiang to break off the engagement himself but also had to settle her family’s creditors so she could act openly and honestly.
At noon, Bai Lu and Wen Nuan took their lunch boxes to the cafeteria. Passing the information desk, they were stopped by the nurse on duty. “Bai Lu, there’s a telegram for you.”
“Thank you.” Bai Lu reached out and took the telegram. Seeing Jin Jialiang’s name on the kraft paper, a strange glint flashed in her eyes.
Jin Jialiang’s abilities were inferior to Jin Qiu’s. After a few years in the army, he was discharged. Just as the local forest farm was undergoing a major development and needed manpower, he applied to work there. He was just an ordinary employee, so his salary wasn’t high—only a few dozen yuan a month. However, his family thought he had struck it rich. Whenever anything happened, they turned to him for help. He acted like a “wealth-dispensing boy,” handing out money left and right, never saving a single penny for himself.
In her past life, after they married, he expected Bai Lu to provide the money for him to spend. In reality, he wanted to scrape every cent out of her hands. Bai Lu knew that once money entered his hands, it never came back, so she used her money to support colleagues in need or help patients who couldn’t afford their medical bills. She refused to give Jin Jialiang a single cent, which caused him to harbor deep resentment toward her.
But she was only following his lead; he had no reason to blame her.
Jin Jialiang’s current trip back to his hometown was because a cousin was getting married and had invited him to the wedding. In truth, it was just an excuse to get money from him. As long as he went back, they would find a way to squeeze some cash out of him.
Jin Jialiang loved the feeling of being flattered and failed to realize that others were just using him. He would rather disadvantage himself than refuse anyone who came to him for help. To outsiders, he was a “saint.”
But this type of person is unsuitable for marriage, as he would never consider whether his wife and children were hungry or broke; he only cared about how outsiders perceived him.
This telegram from Jin Jialiang was to ask Bai Lu to send a bicycle voucher to his cousin.
Bai Lu let out a cold laugh. What nerve—asking for her bicycle voucher? In his next life, maybe! Even if she had one, there was no way she would give it to his cousin. Wouldn’t it be better to buy a bicycle for herself?
Arriving at the cafeteria, they got their food and sat down. Wen Nuan said with a face full of envy, “Bai Lu, your fiancé is so attentive. He sent you another telegram, as if he’s afraid you’ll forget him.”
Bai Lu lowered her head and sneered. Jin Jialiang wasn’t being attentive; he was possessive and exploitative. In his eyes, she was a nanny meant to serve him and sacrifice for his family. Fortunately, she was reborn before the wedding. With the date set for the end of the year, she could use this time to maneuver and break off this marriage properly.
If she had been reborn after the wedding, when she couldn’t get a divorce even if she wanted to, that would have been truly miserable!
After finishing her day’s work, Bai Lu returned to the dormitory. She tiredly opened her wardrobe to get clothes for a shower, only to remember that most of her things were kept at Jin Jialiang’s house. She decided to skip the shower for now and go retrieve her belongings first.
Jin Jialiang’s house had been allocated to him by the forest farm because they were getting married, but they weren’t supposed to move in until after the wedding. Currently, both Jin Jialiang and Bai Lu lived in shared dormitories provided by their respective workplaces.
Since Bai Lu no longer planned to marry him, the house would eventually have to be returned to the workplace—unless he found a new bride and kept the wedding date.
The road was pitch black, so dark you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face. Bai Lu carried a small flashlight as she hurried toward the house. Midway, she took a fall—she had never been good at riding a bicycle—and bled a little. Then, unknowingly, she became bound to something called the “Myriad Realms Mall.” It was a blessing in disguise.
In her past life, by the time the new century arrived, Bai Lu had owned a smartphone. She was an educated woman and had learned how to use it quickly. She knew about apps like “Meituan Selection” and “Pinduoduo Grocery,” but she had never heard of this “Myriad Realms Mall.” Was it a new software developed after her death?
Bai Lu looked into the “Myriad Realms Mall” and found it was almost identical to the selection apps she had used before, except this mall had a trading system. She could trade with the Myriad Realms Mall itself. Furthermore, it had a “Myriad Realms Warehouse” where she could store items.