Chapter 5: Marriage

The streets of Pengcheng were crowded and bustling. Houses of varying heights dotted the landscape, with towering buildings visible in the distance and low-rise, two- or three-story structures lining the streets nearby.

Fu Wei rode his bicycle, carrying her through a stretch of water. The bridge was packed with a sea of black bicycles, mostly the classic "Twenty-Eight" heavy-duty models, though a few newer women’s bikes—the kind without the horizontal top bar—could also be seen.

Fu Wei’s tall, lean frame made him particularly conspicuous among the army of cyclists, and many on the bridge cast their gaze toward the two of them.

Lin Xuexia hugged Fu Wei’s waist with one hand while the other rested gently on her lower abdomen. Listening to the frantic thumping of her own heart, her hand trembled with irrepressible excitement.

She knew she was pregnant.

There were not just two people on this bike, but four—she, Fu Wei, and their two children.

In her previous life, birth control policies were strictly enforced. Obtaining a child required all sorts of documentation. Back then, she had become pregnant out of wedlock, and there was no way she could keep the baby. She couldn’t openly go to a large hospital for an abortion either; she had no money, and she was too timid and terrified of the scandal reaching her home village. She didn’t care about her own reputation, but she feared ruining her younger sisters’ prospects.

So, she had been forced to go to a small, poorly equipped clinic. Because she didn’t know she was carrying twins, the procedure wasn’t performed cleanly, and she suffered lasting health complications.

For an ordinary family, twins were a blessing, but they also carried grave risks. Her own mother had suffered a difficult labor with twins in the village, leaving her with chronic health issues and the inability to conceive again.

Lin Xuexia bit her lip hard, her eyes brimming with tears. She had once believed she would never be a mother, but the heavens had granted her a chance to be reborn, allowing her to return to the past and make amends for her regrets.

She looked at the shimmering water beneath the bridge and the distant green mountains and white clouds. Wiping away her tears, she began to plan for the future.

"How much debt do you have?" Lin Xuexia asked. In her previous life, she had wanted nothing to do with Fu Wei at this time and had hidden away working in the factory, completely unaware of his situation.

She only knew that Fu Wei had struggled, that he had been cheated out of construction payments, and that he had sold his house to raise capital for a fresh start.

Fu Wei had regretted selling that house more than once.

He had lived in that building with his fellow veterans, and it was where he and she had first shared an intimate moment... It held so many of his memories. By the turn of the millennium, he had bought back the land for demolition and redevelopment.

Lin Xuexia thought that if Fu Wei’s debt wasn't too heavy, they could keep the house and find other ways to make money to scrape through these hard times. In her past life, Fu Wei had eventually recovered those construction payments.

"I don't have any debt." Fu Wei gripped the handlebars tighter. It was as if he had heard a command to "stand at attention." He immediately straightened his posture, puffing out his chest and pulling in his stomach, as tense as if he were facing a promotion review.

Afraid that Lin Xuexia would misunderstand, he explained, "I work in construction. Others owe me for the projects. I fronted the capital, some of which I borrowed, but I paid off all the debts and the workers' wages yesterday."

"Now, it's only others who owe me, not the other way around."

The man’s nervous, cautious demeanor was a novelty to Lin Xuexia. How could she put it? She had never seen Fu Wei look so "green" before.

At this time, Fu Wei had only been out of the military for a few years and was still deeply immersed in the camaraderie of his old unit. He had his fellow veterans living in that house, as if they were still in their old company, maintaining the same management style. At first, it had been comfortable, and everyone was full of drive, easing the transition from military life back into society.

He and his comrades hadn't wanted anything else; they just wanted to earn big money in the south to support the families of those who had died or been disabled in service. With the national treasury in a difficult spot at the time, subsidies for martyrs' families were meager. They wanted to earn enough to ensure their fallen comrades' families could live well.

But as the money grew, so did the friction. Some began to act out of selfishness, and some of the veterans' relatives were not good people, squandering pensions and subsidies on gambling... A complex web of factors caused the resentment within the construction team to reach a breaking point, eventually leading to their collapse.

Fu Wei had been devastated by this, but it spurred his rapid growth in the following years, making him more polished and his business more successful.

"To get married, we need a house, a place to live," Lin Xuexia said.

At those words, Fu Wei slammed on the brakes, feet planted firmly on the ground, his mind racing. "I won't sell it."

"I won't sell the house." He repeated it quickly, his heart hammering against his throat as if it might leap out. Blood surged through his veins; the man who had felt dead inside just yesterday was suddenly brimming with energy.

He was going to make money to marry his woman!

"My name is Lin Xuexia—'Lin' as in woods, 'Xue' as in falling snow, 'Xia' as in the glow of the clouds. I’m currently a worker at the Ocean Electronics Factory, and I’m from the countryside."

"Fu Wei—'Fu' as in master, 'Wei' as in the State of Wei from the Three Kingdoms. I used to be a soldier, and now I work in construction."

Lin Xuexia gave a soft hum, her hands clasped together around his waist.

***

Fu Wei opened his mouth, his heart full of things to say. He wanted to spill every detail of his life to Lin Xuexia like beans from a bag.

But he had never been in a relationship and didn't know how to act around a girl. He was afraid he might be too "aggressive" and scare her off, or say the wrong thing and make her unhappy with him.

The young soldiers under his command had dated, and according to them, girls were easily angered. They would throw a tantrum over some unknown mistake, and one had to be thick-skinned and know how to coax them.

Being thick-skinned wasn't hard for him, but he didn't know how to