Chapter 47, Second Installment

The tickets were purchased in advance, and Lin Xuexia had already packed her luggage. Fu Wei picked her up around five o'clock in the afternoon to head to the railway station. They were taking a slow train that made numerous stops and required a journey of more than ten hours, expected to arrive at their county town around six or seven the next morning.

Upon reaching the county town, she planned to first go to the county high school to pick up her second younger sister, Yuxia, so that the three of them could return to the village together.

Fu Wei was dressed in a black shirt, black trousers, and black hiking boots, with a black leather jacket that gleamed under the evening lights. His tall and imposing figure cast a long shadow in the darkness.

Seeing him, Lin Xuexia could not help but smile. With his formidable and aggressive aura, Fu Wei looked every bit like a fierce harbinger of disaster.

Was he planning to accompany her back to meet her parents, or was he going to force a marriage?

"Hold the luggage for me." Lin Xuexia entrusted her belongings to him with complete peace of mind. Nowadays, railway stations were notorious hotspots for petty thieves, but with someone like Fu Wei around—someone whose sheer presence made even thieves bully the weak and fear the strong—no one dared to target him.

Fu Wei took the luggage and lowered his head to peck Lin Xuexia at the corner of her lips before they walked together to the railway station.

After sitting in the waiting hall for an hour, they boarded the train. They had purchased sleeper tickets; Lin Xuexia was in the middle berth, and Fu Wei was in the lower one. By the time they boarded, it was already seven o'clock. The train remained parked for another half hour before finally rumbling forward.

Outside, the shadows of the trees rushed backward like ghosts. A dozen minutes after departure, the lights in the carriage went out, and the crowded train was instantly plunged into darkness.

Fu Wei lifted Lin Xuexia up to the middle berth, tucked the quilt around her, kissed her forehead, and urged her to sleep early.

"You should get some rest too," Lin Xuexia said in a soft voice.

A smile curved the corners of Fu Wei's lips. This was already the second time he was spending the entire night with his future wife.

With his arms crossed, he leaned against the carriage wall and closed his eyes to rest.

The train made many stops along the way. The lights would flick on as a batch of passengers got off and another batch boarded. Lin Xuexia slept deeply; she only knew when the train stopped because the conductor announced the stations, but she never actually woke up.

By a little past five o'clock the next morning, Fu Wei woke her up. Wrapped in her coat, Lin Xuexia was carried by Fu Wei down to the lower berth.

Fu Wei helped her put on a thick outer coat to wrap her up. Ever since arriving in this region, the temperature had dropped by more than ten degrees. Even with the train windows tightly shut, wisps of biting, bone-chilling cold air still managed to seep inside.

They arrived at the station a little after six. Carrying their luggage, the two of them followed the crowd off the train. Outside, the cold wind howled, and many people shrank their necks in response. Fu Wei walked on her left, shielding her from the bitter wind.

After eating two bowls of noodles at the station, the two of them took a motorized three-wheeler to the county high school. By then, it was already past seven-ten. The school was having its morning classes, and the gates were tightly shut. Lin Xuexia asked the security guard for help: "Could you please help me find Lin Yuxia from Class X? Just tell her that her older sister is here to see her."

After waiting for another dozen minutes, Lin Xuexia saw a young girl running toward her.

With the sharp drop in temperature over the past two days, Lin Yuxia was not dressed warmly. She wore thin trousers and a light coat, with a blue sweater underneath. The sweater had been washed until it was pale, its loose weave offered little warmth, and the backs of her hands exposed to the air were red and chapped from the cold.

Lin Xuexia's eyes stung slightly. She knew how difficult things were for her younger sister, Yuxia. Although the county high school was the best in their entire county, conditions here were still far from favorable. In winter, the classrooms were freezing cold, and her sister suffered from frostbite every single year.

The school teachers did not speak standard Mandarin. When she took the high school entrance examination back then, there weren't even printed exam papers; instead, the teachers wrote the questions on the blackboard, and the students sat below, copying one question and answering it at a time...

Yet, under such conditions, Yuxia still managed to get into university.

In her past life, she had sent money home every month, but only ten yuan ever reached Yuxia. At the time, Lin Xuexia had scrimped and saved herself, believing ten yuan was more than enough. But how could ten yuan possibly be enough?

What was even more hateful was that the money she saved had been squandered on other worthless scoundrels.

"...Elder sister." In the gloomy and chilly weather, when Lin Yuxia saw Lin Xuexia, she could hardly believe her eyes. Was this beautiful young woman standing before her really her own older sister, Lin Xuexia?

When Lin Xuexia left a few months ago, she wore floral-patterned clothes with two black braided pigtails hanging over her chest. Back then, her skin was tanned dark, but her eyes were moist and bright, and whenever she smiled, the young men on the path ridges couldn't help but stop to look at her.

The current Lin Xuexia's skin had grown fair again, just like in winters past, but this fairness lacked the frozen, paper-white pallor of previous winters. As the cold wind blew, half of her cheeks flushed red while the other half remained stark white, and her naturally cherry-red lips were tinged with a bruised purple.

At this moment, she wore a thick coat, with long, dark, wavy hair cascading over her shoulders. Her skin was fair and radiated a soft glow, her lips were rosy, and she wore a white turtleneck sweater that gave her face an exceptionally gentle look.

"Yuxia." Lin Xuexia couldn't hold back her tears as she pulled her into an embrace. Seeing this young, naive sister who looked a decade younger than the one she remembered, she could no longer control her emotions.

Holding the girl in her arms, she realized how slender and fragile her entire body felt, lingering with a persistent chill.

"Older sister brought you some clothes." Lin Xuexia hurriedly rummaged through her luggage to pull out a black woolen sweater and urged her sister to put it on. "Try this on. It's very warm."

"And an outer coat. I bought you a thick coat, too."

Lin Yuxia clutched the warm garments to her chest. It was the first time she had ever touched such a soft fabric—so soft, light, and pliable. Even without wearing it, just holding it close made her feel as though the fabric radiated dry warmth, completely devoid of the damp, freezing chill characteristic of ordinary clothes.

The clothes were wonderfully warm, but Lin Yuxia cast a hesitant glance at the man