Everyone knew there were chicken legs for dinner, and everyone was looking forward to it. Children who were healthy or only slightly injured couldn’t wait and ran to the tent entrance, lining up for their large chicken legs. After several meals, they knew that only by queuing up obediently could they get their food as quickly as possible.
“Little ones, hold your chicken legs tight! There’s only one per person—if you drop it, it’s gone!” The servers reminded them gently as they distributed the food, fearing their hands might be shaky, causing them to drop the meat and burst into tears.
Only after all the children and injured patients had received their portions did Bai Lu and Wen Nuan go to get theirs. Wen Nuan excitedly patted Bai Lu’s back. “Bai Lu, look how big this leg is! It’s twice the size of the ones I used to eat. I honestly think I’ll be full just from this one.”
Bai Lu smiled smugly. A bag of five chicken legs weighed two catties, which meant each was about 0.4 catties—nearly half a catty. How could they not be big?
Having received her leg, Wen Nuan held the transparent small bowl with both hands and raised it to her nose to sniff. She exclaimed childishly, “It smells so good! I’m going to feast now.”
“Go ahead and eat!” Bai Lu smiled. She carried her bowl to the corner where they rested. Just as she was about to eat, she thought of Jin Qiu, whose living conditions were even more distressing. His rescue team didn’t even have a temporary rest area, let alone someone to cook for them. They couldn’t even get a hot meal and had to rely on their own dry rations and water from the wild. Thinking that he would likely go to the river again tonight, Bai Lu stepped out with her chicken leg. Everyone was inside the tents eating, so there was almost no one outside. She found a spot and put the chicken leg into the ‘Myriad Realms Warehouse’.
Since she possessed the incredible ‘Myriad Realms Mall’, she could eat whatever she wanted. Jin Qiu and his team couldn’t. So, Bai Lu wanted to save this chicken leg for him, especially since she still had to give him the letters.
Much later, the kitchen staff brought over the chicken and broken rice porridge. They had diced the remaining chicken meat into bean-sized pieces and boiled it with the broken rice, so everyone had bits of chicken in their bowls.
At 2:00 AM, it was time for Bai Lu and Wen Nuan to rest. Since they had bathed in the river the previous night, Wen Nuan didn’t feel like going again, so Bai Lu went out alone. Likely seeing the light from her flashlight, another flashlight glowed in the distance.
Bai Lu had a premonition it was Jin Qiu, so she quickened her pace toward the light.
When the two beams of light converged, it was indeed the person she most wanted to see.
Bai Lu handed him the chicken leg she had taken out of the warehouse in advance. “A kind person donated chicken legs to our station today. Everyone got one.”
Jin Qiu looked at Bai Lu and shook his head. “You eat it.”
“I don’t like this kind of unflavored chicken leg. I prefer braised or roasted ones.” In her past life, although she raised their child alone and didn’t have much money, she generally didn’t refuse her son’s small requests. Since the child lacked a father’s love, she felt she had to love him even more on Jin Qiu’s behalf.
So, when their child got good grades and wanted barbecue or braised food, Bai Lu would usually fulfill the request. Moreover, their son was very sensible; he never ate alone and always shared everything with her.
“I’ll make them for you in the future.” By the time Jin Qiu had passed away in the previous life, it was already past the turn of the millennium. The country was strong, and people’s lives were prosperous. Most families had almost everything. He had naturally eaten the roasted and braised chicken legs Bai Lu mentioned; someone near their home even ran a business selling them!
Jin Qiu wiped a rock clean for Bai Lu to sit on, then squatted beside her to eat the leg. After a couple of bites, he held it up to her. “Want a bite?”
Bai Lu leaned in and took a tiny bite from the other side, then couldn’t help but laugh.
“Jin Jialing… what are your plans for him?” Jin Qiu asked after a while.
“I’ll let him take the initiative to ‘break off the engagement’ first. And then… I’ll save his life once. Regardless, he was a classmate; I can’t just watch him die. Besides, in this life, he might not necessarily cheat with Su Xueqing, so that tragedy might not happen. Of course, he could die in some other accident. Matters of life and death are hard to predict. It’s even possible that…”
“Don’t talk nonsense.” Before Bai Lu could finish, Jin Qiu stopped her.
In fact, she wanted to say that even they might…
After all, between “accident” and “tomorrow,” no one knows which will come first.
Bai Lu gave an awkward smile and asked, “What about you? Are you really going to retire early? Not stay for another two years like in the previous life?”
“If I don’t step down, others won’t be able to move up. And even if I don’t step down, I won’t be able to go any higher. I would just stay in this position. Rather than making things difficult for the leaders, I might as well leave and find a new path.”
He came from the countryside with no backing or connections. Reaching this position on his own was not easy. Because his body had accumulated many hidden injuries over the years, this was as far as he could go.
“Then what do you plan to do in the future?” Bai Lu asked curiously.
“That’s not the most important thing.” Jin Qiu shook his head.
Bai Lu became even more curious. “Then what is the most important thing?”
“It’s a secret.”
Bai Lu burst out laughing. “Still playing the mystery card with me.”
They then lapsed into silence, hearing only the buzzing of mosquitoes in the quiet night.
Jin Qiu occasionally reached out to shoo the mosquitoes away from Bai Lu, making her feel warm inside.
After a while, Bai Lu pulled out the letters and handed them to him. “After you go back, help me mail these. The contents are all the same; just mail them to these few addresses.”
Jin Qiu took the letters. “Are you going back soon?”
Bai Lu shook her head. “I don’t know. There are no new wounded for now. We should be heading back in a couple of days. I’m afraid I won’t be able to say goodbye to you properly then, so…”
“No need for goodbyes.” Jin Qiu looked at her earnestly.
Because they would meet again.
Bai Lu smiled, then tilted her head back to gaze at the starlit sky. She couldn’t help but sigh. In a few years, such a sight would no longer be visible in city night skies. Bai Lu didn’t realize there was nothing behind her; she leaned back and began to fall over. Before she could cry out, she was pulled into an embrace, crashing into a solid chest.
In that moment, she felt as if her heart was about to jump out of her chest. In the silent night, it seemed as if only their heartbeats and breathing remained.
Once Bai Lu had regained her balance, she saw that Jin Qiu still refused to let her go. She looked up at him and saw his eyes burning with intensity. She coughed once. “You should let me go now.”