He was a disabled military officer who doted on his research work in the Northwest.

Beijing.

Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The best laboratory in the country.

It would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted.

In her past life, she risked her life to get through that door, taking exams for undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees, overcoming each hurdle one by one. By the time she finally stood in the national-level laboratory, she was already thirty years old.

And now—this body is only eighteen years old.

If I could go to the capital with my mentor so early...

Almost instinctively, she began to plan: the saline-alkali microbiology project could use a control group in the constant-temperature incubation room of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences; water quality analysis could be performed with gas chromatography accurate to the ppb level; and the strain bank must have the salt-tolerant strains she needed—

But another thought then popped into my head.

Mu Qinghan's leg hasn't healed yet, so she can't walk.

She froze for a moment.

The thought came to her so quickly that she didn't even realize it.

She found a reason for herself: he had just given her the bracelet, and his leg was still recovering. If she just left, what would that look like? Would she be ungrateful?

She calmed herself down and told herself that it wasn't that she couldn't bear to part with Mu Qinghan.

Rather, it means having a conscience.

"No rush," she said casually. "Let's talk about it after you've completed your experiment."

"Don't try to fool me, this is such a great opportunity!" Lu Yanzhi said, displeased. "I'm serious, you're wasting your talent staying here!"

Where to?

A cold voice came from under the corridor.

The two of them turned their heads at the same time.

Mu Qinghan stood beside the pillar in the corridor, leaning on her cane.

I don't know how long I stood there.

He didn't look well.

To be precise, it was so black that ink could drip from it.

Actually, when Lu Yanzhi came to the Mu family's backyard to check on the vegetable garden half an hour ago, Mu Qinghan's attitude was quite good, even more so than before.

Ever since the day she formally handed the bracelet to Shen Tang, Mu Qinghan had been in a very good mood, extremely good. So good that even Xiao Li thought it was abnormal—why was the commander humming so much lately?

Shen Tang took his hand.

Although we only held hands once.

Although I never touched his hand again after that.

But that feeling: the warmth of their intertwined fingers, her tacit consent in not pulling her hand away, the walk from the kitchen door to the stove—it was enough for him to savor for a long time.

So when Lu Yanzhi came to see the vegetable garden again today, Mu Qinghan, unusually, did not have a dark expression, and even asked Xiao Li to pour him a cup of tea.

Lu Yanzhi accepted the teacup with a sense of flattery, wondering why Commander Mu was being so easy to talk to today.

What he didn't know was that the reason Mu Qinghan's attitude towards him had improved was quite simple:

My wife and I have already held hands.

You pose no threat to me.

I'm a magnanimous person, I won't hold it against you.

But now—

"The sky is high enough for birds to fly freely"?

"Go to the capital?"

"Come with me?"

Do you think I'm dead when you dig at the foundation of the wall in front of me?

Mu Qinghan's good complexion of the past few days vanished instantly, visibly darkening.

Lu Yanzhi felt a chill run down his spine from that look and subconsciously took half a step back.

"Commander Mu... Commander Mu." He gave a dry laugh, "I was just discussing some academic matters with Shen Tang—"

"Going to the capital to conduct experiments?" Mu Qinghan's voice was flat, but each word carried a thin layer of ice. "Who approved it?"

"It's not...it hasn't been approved yet...it's just an idea."

"Ideas." Mu Qinghan repeated the word.

His gaze shifted from Lu Yanzhi to Shen Tang.

Shen Tang was squatting by the vegetable patch, looking up at him with her eyes blinking. Her expression, caught red-handed, was completely innocent, as if it had nothing to do with her.

"You want to go too?" he asked.

"No, I just said there's no rush—" She puffed out her chest proudly, feeling that her answer was incredibly clever, and thankfully she hadn't agreed immediately.

"I'm asking if you want to go," he repeated.

Shen Tang looked at his expression—his jaw was taut, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his lips were pressed into a line.

He's clearly jealous.

She suppressed a laugh: "Brother Qinghan, that was an academic exchange—"

"Academic exchange, sure." Mu Qinghan repeated, without arguing with her anymore.

Instead, she turned to Lu Yanzhi, her tone polite but chilling: "Professor Lu, your experimental data is excellent. You are free to write to whomever you want, and you don't need to report back to us if you want to return to Beijing."

He emphasized the word "we," as if to draw a clear line. Shen Tang and I are us.

And you are an outsider.

"But Shen Tang's trip to the capital—there's no rush."

He noticed Shen Tang looking at him, paused, and perhaps realizing he had been too domineering, added, "She's still in school. The semester isn't over yet."

Lu Yanzhi: "But...she has to go to university eventually. What's the point of her staying here?"

"You don't need to worry about it," Mu Qinghan interrupted him, her voice low but firm, "She's going to university in Beijing, and I need to come back and arrange those things."

Lu Yanzhi opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Does it make a difference? It doesn't matter who arranges it; we're all going to the capital anyway.

"...Alright." The blind man also sensed something was wrong. Knowing when to yield, he wisely changed the subject. "Then I'll head back to the agricultural research station. I'll mail the letter tomorrow."

He slung his canvas bag over his shoulder, winked at Shen Tang, giving her a look that said, "You handle this yourself, I'm outta here," before slipping away.

The courtyard fell silent, leaving only the two of them.

Mu Qinghan stood under the corridor, looking in the direction Lu Yanzhi had left, without saying a word.

Shen Tang stood up, dusted off her hands, and walked over to him.

"Are you annoyed?" she said.

Mu Qinghan didn't look at her.

"No."

"Why is your face so dark without you?"

"Born that way."

Shen Tang smiled.

She reached out her hand—

I touched the back of his hand.

Just like that day. Very light. As if it were unintentional.

Mu Qinghan's body stiffened for a moment.

Then his fingers moved, slowly and tentatively, with a familiar yet still cautious touch, and grasped hers.

Shen Tang did not dodge.

The two people walked into the main room one after the other.

The sounds of canes and footsteps echoed alternately in the winter courtyard.

……

That evening, in the factory's residential area. The Shen family.

Shen Yao sat in her cramped little room, a crumpled map spread out in front of her.

She bought the map from a junkyard for two cents—several place names were circled on it in red pencil.

Guangzhou. Shenzhen. Fujian.

south.

She tapped her finger on "Guangzhou," then withdrew it and looked at the tin box on the bedside table.

The box contained the money she had coaxed from Shen's mother over the past few days: a total of one hundred and twenty yuan. Adding her own saved allowance and the change left over from the things Zhao Jianhui had bought for her, it totaled one hundred and sixty-three yuan and seventy cents.

Not much. But enough to buy a train ticket to the south, and to last another month or two.

"Yao Yao—"

Shen's mother knocked on the door from outside, her voice timid: "Dinner's ready."

"I'm not hungry." Shen Yao replied without looking up.

There was silence outside the door for a few seconds, then the footsteps faded away.

Shen Yao folded the map and tucked it under her pillow.

Her gaze fell on a small mirror next to the tin box, reflecting her face. The slap mark on her left cheek from Zhao's mother had long since faded, but she still felt that patch of skin was faintly burning.

The engagement was called off.

Zhao Jianhui went to prison.

The investigation team has left.

But the Zhao family is still around. Although Factory Director Zhao has been suspended from her post, her reputation is ruined, and she won't be able to find a decent man here, let alone try to find someone better.

She has to leave, go south. People there are quick-witted, and I've heard they've already started doing business. Finding a rich man there shouldn't be a problem.

Suddenly, she sneezed and shivered from the cold.

The fever started at night.

Perhaps due to excessive mental stress, Shen's mother was pacing anxiously outside, and Shen pushed away the water she brought three times.

"Yaoyao, have some water... Yaoyao—"

"Get out." Shen Yao's voice was hoarse. "Let me have some peace and quiet."

The footsteps outside the door faded into the distance.

Shen Yao closed her eyes.

My mind felt foggy, as if there was a wad of cotton stuck inside.

Suddenly, she saw "herself".

Another version of yourself.

The woman named "Shen Yao" was dressed in beautiful clothes and had a fashionable hairstyle. She stood in the middle of a field.

She wore a bracelet on her wrist, its surface smooth and lustrous.

Light emanated from the bracelet.

She waved her hand, and green plants sprouted from the barren land. She pointed to the saline-alkali land, where the white salt stains disappeared, revealing fertile black soil.