Everyone in the village knew that the Zhou and Liu families had arranged a childhood engagement long ago.
Back then, the Liu family only had one daughter—Liu Wanwan.
The Zhou family also had just one son—Zhou Heshan.
Later, Liu Qingyue’s mother passed away. Her father remarried, and the new wife brought along a daughter—Liu Wanwan.
Even though the engagement was eventually set between Zhou Heshan and Liu Qingyue, no one could say for sure that things wouldn’t change.
What Liu Qingyue was saying… actually made some sense.
Could it be that Liu Wanwan liked her future brother-in-law and pushed her own sister into the lake?
If the Zhou family wanted to keep their childhood promise, they might simply marry Zhou Heshan to Liu Wanwan instead.
After all… it would still “fulfill” the engagement.
And honestly, it wasn’t hard to see why Liu Wanwan might be interested. Zhou Heshan was good-looking and already held the position of deputy battalion commander.
Being stationed on a remote island came with tough conditions—but also better pay and more allowances.
Could that be what she was after?
While the villagers were busy speculating, Liu Qingyue had already chased Liu Wanwan around, grabbing whatever she could from the ground and throwing it at her back, making her cry out in pain.
As soon as Liu Qingyue fell into the water earlier, someone had gone to call her family.
Now, her father Liu Dajun and stepmother Wang Chunhua had just arrived.
They rushed over after hearing she had fallen into the lake—only to find one daughter chasing and hitting the other.
Just as Liu Qingyue picked up a large stone and was about to throw it, Liu Dajun shouted:
“Stop!”
Hearing his voice, Liu Qingyue dropped the stone and pulled her clothes tighter around herself.
“What’s going on here?” Liu Dajun demanded, frowning. “We heard you fell into the water—why are you hitting your sister?”
At his words, a cold, mocking smile flashed through Liu Qingyue’s heart.
In her past life, she had treated this family as her own… and ended up being bullied miserably because of it.
When Wang Chunhua first married into the family, she pretended to treat Liu Qingyue well—only because Liu Dajun didn’t fully trust her yet.
But after years together, especially after she gave birth to a son, their bond grew stronger. Day after day, Wang Chunhua whispered into Liu Dajun’s ear—and Liu Qingyue’s place in the family became insignificant.
Just listen to his question now—he didn’t ask if she was okay after nearly drowning. Instead, he asked why she was hitting Liu Wanwan.
How ridiculous.
Liu Wanwan wasn’t even his biological daughter—she was Wang Chunhua’s child from a previous marriage, who only took the Liu surname after joining the family.
Yet he treated her better than his own flesh and blood.
At that moment, Liu Wanwan covered her face and began to cry.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she sobbed. “After my sister was rescued, she just changed completely and started hitting me!”
Liu Qingyue rolled her eyes. “She’s the one who has her eye on my fiancé and tried to get rid of me by pushing me into the lake. I was lucky someone saved me—why shouldn’t I hit her?”
Hearing this, Liu Dajun and Wang Chunhua instinctively glanced at Liu Wanwan, then immediately said in unison:
“This must be a misunderstanding! How could your sister possibly like Zhou Heshan?”
Liu Qingyue almost wanted to applaud them.
No surprise—after sharing a bed for so many years, they were completely on the same side, biased beyond reason.
“Your sister would never push you,” Liu Dajun continued, even tugging at her arm. Lowering his voice, he added, “You can’t say things like that. What if you’re mistaken? You’ll ruin your sister’s reputation. How will she get married in the future?”
Hearing this, Liu Qingyue clenched her fists and took a deep breath.
If it weren’t for everything she still needed to do… she might have beaten her father right then and there.
The truth was, Liu Wanwan hadn’t directly pushed her into the water.
But she had tricked her into going to the lakeside to look for something—choosing a particularly slippery spot.
And that was how Liu Qingyue ended up falling in.
If Liu Wanwan could scheme against her, why couldn’t she fight back?
“Chunhua, you’re finally here!”
Many villagers had gathered, including relatives of Wang Chunhua—chatty aunts and older women who all started talking at once.
“You don’t know what just happened! Qingyue fell into the water, and this soldier was the one who saved her!”
“Whatever the reason she fell in, she was rescued.”
“But during the rescue, he must’ve touched her… and who knows what was seen under the water…”
“And just now,” one aunt said excitedly, “when Qingyue wasn’t waking up, that soldier kept pressing his mouth to hers! Said it was ‘rescue breathing’!”
Lowering her voice, she added, “I think he did it on purpose—taking advantage of your daughter!”
Then she raised her voice again dramatically, “No matter what, he touched her and even kissed her—what are you going to do about it?”
She paced back and forth, pretending to be worried.
Hearing this, Wang Chunhua was secretly overjoyed.
If this was true, then her daughter finally had a chance!
She had always wondered why the marriage arrangement between the two families was given to Liu Qingyue instead of her own daughter.
Now things had changed.
Liu Qingyue’s reputation was ruined—but the engagement between the families couldn’t just be broken.
So wouldn’t it make perfect sense for her own daughter to take her place?
It would save face—and bring benefits.
Her daughter could marry into a good family and become the wife of a deputy battalion commander. After that, she’d be able to hold her head high in the village.
While she was lost in her thoughts, Liu Dajun stepped forward.
Even if he didn’t particularly favor his eldest daughter, appearances still mattered.
After all, Liu Qingyue was still officially engaged to Zhou Heshan.
“Who did it?” he asked sternly.
The villagers exchanged uneasy looks.
They had all seen the man who jumped in to save her—it was a soldier.
No one dared to speak.
At that moment, the man himself stepped forward.
“It was me,” he said firmly. “I’m a soldier. I was returning home when I heard someone calling for help, so I jumped in without hesitation.”
“What the villagers said is true. If this situation has caused any concern, I’m willing to take responsibility… and marry her.”
His words were steady and decisive.
Liu Qingyue looked at him, momentarily lost in thought.
In her previous life, he had also been the one who saved her.
He served in the same naval unit as Zhou Heshan—a deputy regiment commander.
Back then, after being rejected on the island, she had tried to end her life—and he was the one who saved her again. Eventually, they got married.
But because she still loved Zhou Heshan, their marriage had never been truly happy. She kept her distance, never opening her heart.
Their life together was polite—but distant.
Thinking back on it now, Liu Qingyue felt a deep sense of guilt.
If he hadn’t saved her… and married her… perhaps he wouldn’t have lived such a difficult life.
With that thought, Liu Qingyue stepped forward.
“I don’t think it should be handled this way.”
She looked up at Lu Fengting.
“You saved me out of kindness. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a normal part of emergency rescue. If I turn around and demand that you take responsibility, that would be repaying kindness with harm.”
She paused, then raised her voice deliberately.
“And besides, judging by your uniform, you’re in the navy, right? My fiancé is also in the navy. He understands how these things work and would never look down on me for it.”
“He’s reasonable. There’s no need for you to take responsibility.”
As she said this, Liu Qingyue felt a wave of disgust.
Because in her past life, Zhou Heshan had done many things that proved the opposite.
But saying this now served a purpose.
By publicly declaring him “reasonable,” she was setting a trap.
If he later rejected her or sided with Liu Wanwan, it would only expose him as hypocritical and narrow-minded.
This was her way of planting doubt—laying the groundwork for what was to come.