【April is a short month, with the first day being Jia Shen, April 26, Tuesday; Beginning of Summer, the tenth day of the fourth month (May 5); Grain Full, the twenty-sixth day of the fourth month (May 21).】
The beginning of Summer, the tenth day of the fourth month (May 5), was the original host’s birthday! Beginning of Summer! So the original host was also named “Shen Zhixia”!
As her fingers brushed over the words “Beginning of Summer,” Shen Zhixia felt a tingling sensation run across her scalp.
She flipped the calendar forward to “Bingzi Year, 1996 AD.”
【March is a short month, with the first day being Yiyou, April 18, Thursday; Grain Rain, the third day of the third month (April 20); Beginning of Summer, the eighteenth day of the third month (May 5).】
The beginning of Summer, the eighteenth day of the third month (May 5), was her own birthday!
Shen Zhixia did not know how to describe what she was feeling at that moment.
Not only did the original host have the same name as her, but they even had the same zodiac sign!
Could all of this really be just a coincidence?
Or was this the reason she had transmigrated into novels?
Thirty-six years apart, two seemingly parallel destinies had overlapped just like this.
In her previous life, she had spent her entire life alone, but after coming here, she had met a family who genuinely cared for and cherished her.
Then what about the fate of that other “Shen Zhixia”?
Based on the vague description in the synopsis, the original male lead of the novel should have been a scumbag named “Zhou Shaokang.”
She had been able to transmigrate here because the original host was despised by Zhou Shaokang after he went to college.
Without Zhou Shaokang as her excuse, Zhao Meiyun wanted to marry her off to a fifty-something-year-old bachelor in exchange for a bride price.
With nowhere left to turn, the original host threw herself into the river.
And that was how the present-day Shen Zhixia came to be standing here.
It had been a long time since Shen Zhixia had thought about the contents of that synopsis.
She had almost forgotten that she was a transmigrator.
So far, she had not even met anyone named “Zhou Shaokang.”
The person standing beside her now was Lu Huaiyuan.
The synopsis had never mentioned the name Lu Huaiyuan.
Did that mean her arrival had already changed the course of events?
Perhaps there would never even be a “Zhou Shaokang” in this world anymore.
At this point, Shen Zhixia no longer wanted to concern herself with the matter of transmigration.
She was already very satisfied with everything she had now.
“What are you looking at?”
A deep voice suddenly came from behind her, accompanied by the faint scent of soap.
Lu Huaiyuan had somehow already finished washing up and was now standing behind her.
Shen Zhixia suddenly snapped back to reality and closed the calendar.
“Nothing. I was just organizing some of my previous study materials…” Shen Zhixia turned around, then suddenly froze.
“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?” As if realizing that the question sounded inappropriate, Shen Zhixia quickly added, “It’s still chilly in the mornings and evenings!”
Without waiting for Lu Huaiyuan to answer, she slipped past him and headed outside. “Hurry up and go to sleep. I’m going to wash my face.”
Watching Shen Zhixia flee, Lu Huaiyuan raised an eyebrow slightly, and an almost imperceptible smile flickered in his deep eyes.
He had done it on purpose!
Over the past six months, because she was young and busy preparing for the College Entrance Examination, the two of them had never crossed any boundaries.
But he had thought that the feelings in her heart were the same as his.
It was only when she called him “family” that he realized something was wrong.
It turned out that in the heart of this little girl who had suffered so much since childhood and lacked a sense of security, Lu Huaiyuan was merely a reliable “family member” who could provide her with shelter.
He did not want to be just her family.
After all, he was not the only one who could be her family!
Lu Huaiyuan lowered his eyes, concealing the possessiveness surging within them.
He wanted to be her lover.
He wanted those clear eyes of hers to hold more than gratitude. He wanted them to contain the stirrings of a woman’s heart as well.
He wanted her to experience the same uncontrollable pounding of the heart whenever she was with him.
Since she had yet to understand those feelings, then he would personally, little by little, help her open that part of her heart.
He was not in a hurry. They had plenty of time.
In the days that followed, Lu Huaiyuan would tease Shen Zhixia from time to time.
For example, whenever a bicycle passed by them, he would naturally put an arm around her and guide her out of the way. Sometimes he would pretend to straighten the loose strands of hair beside her temple, only for his fingertips to “accidentally” brush against her cheek. Even when they passed a puddle, he would take her hand as though he were afraid she might slip and fall.
He would always change clothes right in front of her, asking which clothes would go well with a particular pair of trousers. Sometimes he would claim that he could not find his underwear and ask Shen Zhixia to help him look for it. Every morning, he would even get up and work out on the balcony.
All this blatant display of masculine charm made Shen Zhixia’s heart beat more and more uncontrollably.
Time flew by amid this ambiguous yet faintly sweet atmosphere.
The procedures for Shen Zhixia to become a worker at the factory went exceptionally smoothly.
She easily passed the internal examination for the state-run factory and was assigned to work as a clerk in the factory office’s logistics department.
Her household registration was also successfully transferred to the factory.
During the first few days, she was actually somewhat uneasy.
But her family kept encouraging her and affirming her abilities, and little by little, she became more confident and composed.
With a formal job and a respectable status, along with Su Ya’s constant nourishing soups and pampering, Shen Zhixia was like a white magnolia that had shed its withered leaves, finally blooming in full.
Meanwhile, Lu Huaiyuan used his decisive methods to clear out the remaining goods in the county and successfully moved his business to the city.
In the blink of an eye, it was already late August.
Shen Zhixia had passed the cultural examination for Qinglan University’s Night University in the city and received her admission letter.
As a government-sponsored trainee student, she did not have to report to work for the time being. She only needed to complete her studies at the Night University before returning to work at the factory.
That evening, the moment Lu Huaiyuan stepped through the door, he saw Shen Zhixia sitting beneath the grape trellis in the courtyard, reading a book.
The afterglow of the setting sun filtered through the gaps between the vines, casting dappled light across her fair profile.
Her eyes were lowered as she intently turned the pages of the book in her hands.
Lu Huaiyuan stopped in his tracks, and for the first time, he suddenly felt a sense of danger.
His little wife was no longer the scruffy little girl in patched clothes who had once stolen his pears along the mountain path.
She was like a piece of beautiful jade that had been cleansed of its dust, radiating an increasingly dazzling light.
In just a few days, she would be going to the city to attend university!
Although he had moved his business to the city and could provide her with a comfortable life, the lack of education and unruly nature ingrained in him seemed to be separated by an invisible chasm from the scholarly world she was about to enter.
There would be plenty of male university students on campus wearing glasses and looking highly knowledgeable.
With their discerning eyes, they would certainly notice how wonderful Shen Zhixia was.
No, he had to do something!
Once the sense of danger arose, it grew wildly in his heart like weeds.
Lu Huaiyuan, who feared neither Heaven nor Earth, was experiencing the feeling of being anxious about losing someone for the first time.
He took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the irritation in his heart before striding toward her beneath the grape trellis.
Hearing his steady footsteps, Shen Zhixia raised her head from the thick pages of her book.
Her clear, bright eyes still held traces of the concentration she had been absorbed in while reading.
When she saw him, the corners of her lips naturally curved upward, and her voice was gentle and lively. “You’re back?”
Those four short words were enough to make the little beast that had been baring its claws in Lu Huaiyuan’s heart a moment ago, driven by anxiety, instantly become docile and obedient.
He nodded, walked over to her side, casually pulled over a bamboo chair, and sat down before speaking in an unhurried tone. “Let’s go to the city in a couple of days.”
“So soon?” Shen Zhixia closed her book in surprise. “Isn’t school not starting until the beginning of next month?”
“I have some other things to take care of first.”
“Okay.” Shen Zhixia assumed he had his own business to deal with, so she readily agreed.
The moment Lu Huaiyuan saw her expression, he knew what she was thinking.
She had never asked much about his business affairs.
But it was fine to let her misunderstand for now. Otherwise, there would be no surprise!