Nan Qianqian looked at the man opposite her and suddenly wondered whether changing her strategy and saying she wanted to become his little brother had been far too hasty.
She couldn’t help swallowing.
Could she take those words back now?
With such a handsome man in front of her, she wanted to try a little harder!
“Why do you want to marry me?”
Fu Nanxun slowly asked again, his deep black eyes dark and unreadable.
Hearing the man’s question, Nan Qianqian fell into a brief silence.
How was she supposed to answer?
Could she really say directly, “I just want to cling tightly to your powerful thigh, and another tiny part of the reason is that I’m attracted to your looks?”
Or perhaps say that she was doing it to repay her old father’s debt of gratitude?
…No, no, no!
“It’s a long story.”
Nan Qianqian looked troubled, still organizing her words in her head.
“Then make a long story short.”
Fu Nanxun watched the conflicted expressions changing across the face of the person opposite him, his dark eyes impossibly deep.
“Ahem. Then I’ll keep it short! Ahem… You’ve probably heard that I used to like that educated youth you saw today.
“But didn’t I injure my head a few days ago? That knock finally knocked some sense into me. A man like that, who has absolutely nothing going for him, isn’t worth liking.
“My dad has always wanted the two of us to be together anyway. And when he brought me to see you that day, I also felt that you were a very ideal marriage partner.
“You’re single, and I happen to be old enough to get married, so I thought—doesn’t this mean Heaven itself is trying to match us together? Besides, my dad likes you a lot, so it’ll be easy for everyone to get along in the future. I also… quite like you, so I want to marry you.
“And I think I’m pretty good at taking care of people. If we get married, you can be responsible for being beautiful as a flower, and I’ll be responsible for earning money to support the family.”
Nan Qianqian rattled everything off in one breath.
By the time she reached the end, even she didn’t know what nonsense she had just said.
Her watery eyes stared directly at the man, and she didn’t even dare breathe too loudly, afraid she might miss even the slightest change in his expression.
Because every single reaction would affect what she did next.
She had absolutely no confidence in her heart.
She didn’t know whether the man would believe the passionate speech she had just delivered.
“You like me?”
Fu Nanxun’s voice was cold and indifferent, but a teasing expression appeared on his handsome face.
He almost wanted to laugh at her line about how he could be responsible for being beautiful as a flower while she earned money to support the family.
She really was strange.
But that sentence—
I also quite like you—
inexplicably made him feel a trace of pleasure.
Even though everything she said sounded like complete nonsense…
What could he do?
A voice inside him kept telling him:
If she wants to put on an act, then play along with her.
Since her goal was to marry him, why shouldn’t he agree?
However, since she was the one who had willingly walked to his side, if one day she wanted to run away…
Then she would first have to see whether he agreed.
Nan Qianqian looked into the man’s whirlpool-like black eyes.
Something flashed through them for a brief instant, but before she could see it clearly, it disappeared.
“Of course I like you. Look, you’re handsome, and you’ve even served in the army. Soldiers are all real men who defend the country. Your character must be beyond reproach. So it’s perfectly normal for me to like you, right?”
Nan Qianqian had never thought she had any talent for flattery.
Now, however, she felt that perhaps she could develop that skill a little more.
“You don’t care that my leg might never recover and that I could be crippled for life? And you’ve seen where I live. If you marry me, you might not even be able to eat your fill in the future.”
Fu Nanxun spoke slowly.
Nothing could be read from his expressionless face.
“Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, your leg will recover. Besides, I’m not that shallow.”
Nan Qianqian shuffled closer and stood in front of Fu Nanxun like an eager little lackey.
A faint smile curved her pink lips as she continued, “Fu Nanxun, you’re so capable. You definitely won’t let me go hungry in the future, right?”
If she had been allowed, Nan Qianqian would have wanted to grab his arm and shake it a couple of times.
It wasn’t that she was overly confident.
Who could blame Heaven for favoring her and giving her a portable space?
Become crippled?
Impossible.
Food?
With the space in her hands, she wouldn’t starve.
No house?
She would work hard, earn money, buy a piece of land, and build one.
As long as she first changed the original owner’s old path, then her future fate would be hers, Nan Qianqian’s, to decide.
“Mm.”
Looking at the delicate, soft person in front of him, a wave of heat swept through Fu Nanxun’s chest.
Unexpectedly, he felt that this feeling…
Was actually rather nice.
“The weather today is bright and clear, everywhere is such a lovely sight, such a lovely sight…”
At this moment, Nan Qianqian was like a happy little swallow, the smile on her pink lips impossible to hide.
She skipped happily along the road while singing.
She didn’t care that the people looking at her seemed to be staring at a fool.
She simply ran straight toward home.
She was genuinely overjoyed right now.
Because Fu Nanxun had agreed to marry her.
Although this surprise had come so suddenly that she had been caught completely off guard.
Nan Qianqian shook her head and stopped thinking about anything else.
Whatever.
As long as he agreed, that was enough.
Right now, she only wanted to hurry home and tell her mother so they could discuss the wedding.
“What?”
Li Cuihua had originally been sitting beside Nan Qianqian’s bed.
She suddenly shot to her feet with an expression of complete disbelief, her dark eyes widening into perfect circles as she stared at Nan Qianqian.
“Mom, sit down. Even if you’re happy, you don’t have to get this excited!”
Nan Qianqian grabbed Li Cuihua’s arm and pulled her back down onto the edge of the bed.
She thought to herself, why was her mother even more excited than she was?
“Qianqian, why don’t you think it over again? Mom is telling you, once you really get married, there’s no medicine for regret.”
She hadn’t been excited just now.
She had been frightened.
Although she had already known about this possibility in the morning, she had still been hoping the whole thing wouldn’t work out.
Li Cuihua looked worried as she held Nan Qianqian’s hand, still refusing to give up on persuading her.
“Qianqian, listen to Mom. Mom won’t steer you wrong.”
Her daughter had changed for the better now.
But the one thing that hadn’t changed was that once she decided on something, she would never let go even if it killed her.
As her mother, Li Cuihua only hoped that her daughter could live well in the future.
She didn’t want to watch her willingly push herself into a pit of fire.
“Mom, I won’t regret it. Don’t worry. If I’m bad at judging people, don’t you trust Dad’s judgment? Look, didn’t he choose the kindest and most beautiful wife in the entire village?”
Nan Qianqian hugged Li Cuihua’s arm and shook it coquettishly.
She knew that her mother had always been worried about her, afraid that she would have a hard life in the future.
At this moment, Nan Qianqian’s eyes felt slightly sore.
She thought about how lucky she was.
In this era, mothers like Li Cuihua who doted on their daughters this much were truly rare.
“You little girl, stop sweet-talking me.”
Li Cuihua didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
She really couldn’t outtalk this girl.
Who on earth had she taken after?
She hadn’t been like this before!
“Mom, really. Fu Nanxun is very good. Once you spend more time with him, you’ll understand. He was a soldier. He was educated by the country itself. How could someone like that possibly be bad?”
Seeing the corners of Li Cuihua’s lips rise slightly, Nan Qianqian pressed her advantage.
Who would have thought that her mother’s softened expression would instantly change again?
“Qianqian, did you tell him that after you get married, you’ll still live at your parents’ home?”
Nan Qianqian froze.
It seemed she hadn’t told Fu Nanxun that.
However, once they got married, the two of them definitely couldn’t continue living in that thatched hut.
Originally, she had thought that there were spare rooms at home, so they could squeeze in.
But then she thought about it again.
She was a married woman.
If she brought her husband back to live at her parents’ home, with two older brothers, sisters-in-law, and two children already there, she was afraid her parents would end up being gossiped about.
“Mom, I think after I get married, I’m planning to move out. This—”
“No. I don’t agree.”
Li Cuihua instantly became agitated again.
She stood up so abruptly that she nearly dragged Nan Qianqian off the bed with her.