Fu Tingshi had been waiting for Lin Ruochu for quite a while. Ever since he left the Lu household, he had been looking for a chance to speak with her, only to find that the opportunity was only presenting itself now.
Lin Ruochu had assumed Fu Tingshi would have already left. After all, with a scandal like this exploding, he and Lu Yichen could no longer remain friends, so she hadn’t expected to run into him right here.
Waiting until Lin Jianguo and the others had walked far out of earshot, Lin Ruochu approached him. “Why haven’t you left yet?”
Fu Tingshi answered honestly, “Comrade Lin, I was waiting here for you.”
Lin Ruochu looked at him in confusion. “Is something the matter?”
“Comrade Lin, have you called off your engagement with Lu Yichen? Don’t worry, I will take responsibility for you. If you’re willing, you can come follow the troops with me.” Fu Tingshi’s expression was dead serious, completely devoid of any falsehood or insincerity.
In her past life, Fu Tingshi had done everything out of a deep concern that Lin Ruochu’s reputation would be completely ruined. He understood that if they hadn’t managed to wipe the slate clean and keep anyone from suspecting they were caught in an illicit affair, Lin Ruochu’s fate would have been utterly catastrophic.
That was why he had shouldered all the blame to protect her dignity, ultimately resulting in his own transfer and demotion.
Lin Ruochu knew that Fu Tingshi wasn’t just spouting empty words; he truly meant every single syllable.
However, she gently refused him. “Comrade Lin, both of us were victims in this incident, so you don’t need to take this to heart. You don’t have to carry any burden.”
“No. Since things happened between us the way they did, I have a duty to take responsibility for you.”
Lin Ruochu tried to reason with him. “Comrade Lin, this whole thing was purely an accident. You don’t have to take it this seriously. What are you going to do if you meet a female comrade you actually like in the future?”
A female comrade he liked? Fu Tingshi didn’t have anyone like that right now, but he knew for a fact that his decision hadn’t been made on a whim. He was a man, and a man was supposed to take responsibility for Lin Ruochu.
As for the future, once he had a wife, he wouldn’t let himself fall for anyone else; he would simply pour his heart into loving Lin Ruochu.
These were all thoughts locked inside Fu Tingshi’s mind. Out loud, he merely said, “I’ve never liked any female comrade before. From now on, I’m going to like you.”
What on earth was happening here? Lin Ruochu felt her brain struggle to process the sudden shift. Was this… a confession?
Lin Ruochu shook her head internally. Fu Tingshi was simply too honest and straightforward for his own good, which was why he felt such an intense urge to take responsibility.
Realizing she couldn’t reason with Fu Tingshi right now, she decided to table the topic for the moment. “With the massive scene I just made with Lu Yichen, if I suddenly end up closely linked to you right after, Lu Yichen will inevitably try to pin the blame on us. Let’s talk about this later.”
Fu Tingshi thought about it for a moment and nodded, shifting his focus to a more pressing issue. “Have you and Lu Yichen submitted your marriage application yet?” That was the single most crucial question.
The moment the marriage application was brought up, a chill ran straight through Lin Ruochu’s bones.
In her past life, Lu Yichen had returned on leave specifically to hold the wedding banquet, which meant he had already submitted the official marriage application papers. She had no idea what stage that paperwork had reached by now.
Military marriages during this era were notoriously rigid; if the soldier refused to grant a divorce, dissolving the union was exceptionally difficult, if not downright impossible.
Lin Ruochu didn’t even dare to imagine: if the marriage application she shared with Lu Yichen had already been officially approved, did that mean she was destined to be shackled to Lu Yichen all over again?
If she wound up tied to Lu Yichen once more, what was even the point of her being reborn?
If things came to that, Lin Ruochu was genuinely terrified she wouldn’t be able to resist hacking Lu Yichen to pieces with a few well-placed knife blows. If she couldn’t find a legal way to shake him off, her only option would be to turn him into a widower.
Noticing the air around Lin Ruochu suddenly drop to freezing temperatures as she stood there in dead silence, Fu Tingshi asked anxiously, “Comrade Lin, are you listening?”
Snapping back to reality, Lin Ruochu forced herself to steady her nerves. She had already been reborn; anything and everything could be altered. She couldn’t afford to panic.
“I honestly don’t know,” Lin Ruochu admitted frankly. “The marriage application was submitted entirely by Lu Yichen. I haven’t heard any updates about the status.”
“Then we need to check. If the paperwork hasn’t been approved yet, we have to intercept it before it goes through.”
Fu Tingshi’s resolve to take responsibility for Lin Ruochu was already absolute, which meant that marriage application had to be blocked at all costs—otherwise, God only knew how long he would have to wait before he could submit his own marriage application for them.
Lin Ruochu was equally anxious, but she lacked direct contact with the military unit. “Comrade Lin, do you know who the marriage application is submitted to?”
Since Fu Tingshi was a fellow comrade and comrade-in-arms in Lu Yichen’s unit, he naturally knew the procedures inside out. “I know. Tomorrow, I’ll head into town to make a phone call and get that marriage application intercepted.”
There were no telephones in the village; anyone needing to make a call had to travel down to the township. It wasn’t that they couldn’t go right now, but the sun was already setting, and the round trip between the village and the township would take a considerable amount of time, leaving them no choice but to wait until the next morning.
“That’s our only option. I’ll head into town bright and early tomorrow morning to block the application.”
Only after settling that did Lin Ruochu remember to ask, “Comrade Lin, where are you staying tonight?” Fu Tingshi had originally come to attend Lu Yichen’s wedding, intending to lodge at Lu Yichen’s home. After everything that had transpired, he obviously wouldn’t be setting foot in the Lu household.
It wasn’t that Fu Tingshi hadn’t considered marching back to settle scores with Lu Yichen, but he lacked hard evidence, which meant Lu Yichen could easily twist the narrative to frame him, all while further staining Lin Ruochu’s reputation.
Right now, the mere sight of Lu Yichen made Fu Tingshi want to punch his lights out, which was why he had bolted from that room earlier and refused to look back at the Lu home.
Treating Lin Ruochu’s question as a sign of genuine concern, Fu Tingshi offered his first genuine smile of the day. “Don’t worry, Comrade Lin. I’ll stay in town tonight, and I’ll wait for you there tomorrow.”
“Alright then. See you tomorrow.”
With their plan tentatively mapped out, Lin Ruochu turned and hurried off to catch up with Lin Jianguo and the others. It wasn’t until her figure vanished into the distance that Fu Tingshi turned and set off down the path leading toward the township.
Jogging briskly all the way, Lin Ruochu finally caught up with her family.
The first person to speak up was Lin Zhiyuan. “Sister, who was that guy just now?” Over the short span of a few minutes, Lin Zhiyuan had already fully adapted to calling Lin Ruochu his older sister out loud.
Before, he had only ever thought of her as his sister in his heart, never daring to say it to her face. Now that he had actually spoken the words, he found himself feeling surprisingly light and happy.
“He’s one of Lu Yichen’s comrades from the military unit.”
“A comrade of Lu Yichen’s? Sounds like he’s probably no good either. What was he bugging you about?” Still harboring a deep grudge against anything associated with Lu Yichen, Lin Zhiyuan naturally cast an immediate, suspicious eye toward Fu Tingshi.
Subconsciously, Lin Ruochu rushed to his defense. “Comrade Fu is completely different from Lu Yichen. He’s a much more upright and righteous person.”
“Besides, didn’t I just call off my engagement with Lu Yichen? Lu Yichen already submitted their unit’s marriage application behind the scenes. Comrade Fu caught wind of what happened today and came to give me a heads-up.”
Hearing that explanation, Lin Zhiyuan’s impression of Fu Tingshi softened by a microscopic fraction.
Still, Lin Zhiyuan pressed the point with a warning. “That marriage application thing—you absolutely have to get it back. I’ve heard horror stories about how impossible it is to untangle a military marriage. Sister, you cannot afford to soften your heart this time.”
“Don’t worry. Tomorrow morning, I’m going straight to town to block that paperwork.” Though she voiced the promise aloud, Lin Ruochu secretly harbored plenty of doubts about her chances of success. She just prayed everything would go smoothly tomorrow.