Chapter 22 "Ling Jianwei, do you still want a wife...?"

Chapter Twenty-Two: "Ling Jianwei, Do You Still Want Your Wife?"

The air inside the carriage seemed to freeze, and the two remained silent.

The words had already been spoken, and there was no going back. Now, perhaps she and Ling Jianwei could no longer even remain ordinary friends.

Li Yue breathed carefully, lowered her eyelashes, and unconsciously placed her right hand on the doorknob.

I want to leave, I want to escape.

Ling Jianwei's gaze fell on her hands, his voice low: "How do you know it won't suit you if you don't try?"

Li Yue smiled gently: "It's good for us to be friends."

"What's so good about it?" The man's voice was like a block of ice, smashing to the ground and shattering into pieces.

Fortunately, there was no burden.

Fortunately, we can still contact each other.

Fortunately, I have a friend like him...

Li Yue felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. She turned the handle, and the car door opened a crack, allowing the cold wind outside to rush into the car.

Ling Jianwei's voice was slightly cool: "Don't get out of the car, it's cold outside."

Li Yue turned around and stared at him blankly.

But in this awkward moment, in such a confined space, she felt as if she were suffocating.

His voice regained some calmness: "Since you don't agree with this proposal, just pretend I never said anything, and we'll stay the same as before."

Li Yue: "..."

"Close the door and go eat first." He remained calm.

The atmosphere was too delicate, so we had to handle it carefully. Li Yue nodded.

At mealtimes, it was the same as before.

He didn't say much about other issues, but just served her food, letting her try this and that.

This man has such a strong will; even though he was indirectly rejected, he was still able to maintain such good manners.

Looking at him, Li Yue felt even more heartbroken.

But soon she realized she couldn't become a sentimental little woman; since they'd already talked things out, she should be more open and natural. So she took a deep breath and said to him, "Don't keep putting food on my plate, eat some yourself too."

Ling Jianwei looked at him meaningfully: "Eat more. The food won't be this good when we go to the countryside."

Li Yue stopped and stared at him blankly.

“What,” he laughed, “scared? It’s not too late to regret it now.”

“Who’s afraid?” Li Yue said. “I don’t have meat every meal at home either.”

An awkward situation was resolved through mutual concessions.

The two seemed to have returned to how they used to be.

On the way home to the affiliated compound, Li Yue asked him, "When are you going back to the camp?"

Ling Jianwei said calmly, "Tonight."

Li Yue's heart sank: "Leaving tonight?"

"I took leave temporarily to come back. It's the end of the year now, and there are all sorts of inspections to deal with. Plus, new recruits are joining, and we need to send people to the recruit training camp." He glanced at her. "I'm taking the night train, and I can get back to camp tomorrow during the day."

Li Yue pursed her lips: "I'll take you."

"How silly of you! If you take me home, how will you get home? Nighttime is not like daytime."

The car drove into the residential compound and parked on the side of the road.

Li Yue looked at him: "..."

Ling Jianwei raised her head slightly and smiled: "Hmm?"

"I'm going home now. Drive carefully and have a safe trip," Li Yue said.

“Ah,” he said softly, “you too, take care in the countryside.”

Li Yue's eyes were sore that she could barely manage a smile.

As soon as she got out of the car, Li Yue felt it was all over.

It's really over.

In the bleak cold wind, the man opened the car door, and a familiar voice sounded behind Li Yue: "Yue'er..."

Rarely, he only uttered the single character "月" (yue), which, due to the natural Beijing accent with the retroflex ending, became "月儿" (yue'er).

Li Yue turned around, and he strode over, his expression a mixture of defiance and a sense of exhaustion as he bid farewell.

He walked up to her, and as before, stroked her head, running his fingers down her hair to the ends of her braids. Finally, in a low, hoarse voice, he said, "No matter what, you must live well. And then, wait for me."

She didn't know what he meant by waiting for her.

But aside from nodding, she had no strength left to struggle.

Winter was truly bitterly cold, the north wind howled. Li Yue felt utterly drained of all her strength as she trudged heavily home…

Lying in bed that night, I glanced at the time and realized that Ling Jianwei must have already left.

The biting wind made the glass windows shake constantly. Li Yue couldn't help but fantasize: if she froze to death in the Great Northern Wilderness, could she travel back to reality?

However, Ling Jianwei does not exist in reality.

Thinking about it calmly, why didn't I agree to let him make it a real thing? As long as the higher-ups approved it, wouldn't that have been enough?

Although it's highly likely that we'll be stopped at the neighborhood committee—that Xie Hongping is no pushover—how much trouble could going to the countryside cause then? At least we can wait until after this winter to go to the Great Northern Wilderness, avoiding a whole winter of freezing temperatures. Isn't that better?

Li Yue sighed heavily.

My cousin said, "Sis, you've been sighing all night."

“I acted impulsively,” she said.

"What made you act impulsively?"

You wouldn't understand even if I told you.

"..."

She could still talk to her cousin on the surface, but she couldn't sleep all night. She stared at the ceiling with her eyes open, feeling that she had coldly rejected a gentle, considerate, and kind man who always thought of her.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; you'll never encounter it again for the rest of your life.

She didn't even know what she was worried about.

Was she truly afraid that her background would affect them? Or was she afraid that she couldn't give him the happiness he wanted? Or perhaps, she couldn't even see her own future, didn't know what she could do, and was simply unwilling to follow him and live a simple life as a military dependent.

She didn't know; perhaps it was a combination of factors, or perhaps the latter was the primary cause.

The next day, Li Yue still felt as if a heavy stone was lodged in her heart, making it hard to breathe.

She strolled aimlessly through the streets, and as she walked, she passed by Liulichang again.

Li Yue got off the car and strolled around the street. Before she knew it, she had entered the porcelain shop again.

The shop assistant actually recognized her and greeted her, "It's been a while since you've been here."

Li Yue: "I've been a bit busy. How's business lately?"

"Now is not the time to do business. As long as we don't starve, that's enough."

Li Yue glanced around and noticed that there were quite a few more Ru ware pieces, mostly bowls and plates.

"You've acquired quite a few Ru porcelain pieces?"

"After you left that time, the boss happened to go to Ping City and visited the factory that produces Ru porcelain. He brought back two sets."

Upon hearing the familiar place name, Li Yue frowned: "There are factories in Ping City that produce Ru porcelain?"

The young man said, "Of course, the Ru porcelain factories are basically all in that area."

Li Yue asked, puzzled, "Isn't it in Ruzhou?"

The deliveryman explained, "Ruzhou is an ancient place name. It's not called that now. It's called Linxian now. It's directly under the provincial government, but it's temporarily under the administration of Pingyi City."

Li Yue felt a sudden, sharp pain in her heart.

Linxian County is where Ling Jianwei's unit is stationed.

But she never imagined that it was the location of the ancient Ruzhou.

She didn't have time to examine whether the porcelain was well-made or not. She hurriedly said goodbye to the young man and ran to the library, where she found the place on the map of Zhongyuan Province.

The map was very detailed, even marking important communes. There was a commune called Qingquan, located on the outskirts of the county, where Ling Jianwei's unit was located.

Li Yue was completely stunned.

She had never imagined that Ling Jianwei was stationed there. When she first heard him say he was in Ping City, her first reaction was that the place was rich in coal, but she never thought about it or asked any further questions.

It turns out that she was only one step away from owning Ru porcelain, but she was completely unaware of it.

...

After leaving the library, Li Yue seemed to have suffered a huge blow.

She rejected Ling Jianwei, not only rejecting a good man, but more importantly, it seems she also rejected her own future.

She had no idea why she had traveled to this era after seeing a porcelain exhibition, or what it meant to her. For the past six months, she had lived a life of utter confusion and bewilderment.

However, at this moment, her mind was completely clear.

Since it was caused by Ru porcelain, she wanted to experience the consequences.

She wanted to learn how to fire Ru porcelain; she wanted to recreate ancient Ru porcelain. Perhaps, this was her mission in this time-traveling adventure.

But she has already rejected him. What should he do? Writing a letter is impossible; there's no time.

If I call him and tell him I regret it, what will his reaction be?

After thinking it over and over, Li Yue was getting really annoyed.

There was a noodle shop nearby. Li Yue went there first and ordered a bowl of beef noodles. She picked up a mouthful of noodles without tasting it and ate it.

I overheard some diners talking: "I received a telegram from my hometown yesterday saying that my family is coming to Beijing and I need to pick them up. I have to take the day off tomorrow to go to the train station."

Li Yue's eyes lit up. "Why don't we send a telegram?"

This is the best option after the telephone. Making a phone call involves going through multiple layers of switchboards and takes a long time, while sending a telegram is much faster and should be enough...

After finishing her noodles, Li Yue took a car directly to the Telegraph Building.

-

The sky over Beijing was very low, as if it were about to snow, and the telegraph building's business hall was bustling with people.

Li Yue had never sent a telegram before. After observing for a while, she followed someone to fill out a form, writing the recipient's address and what she wanted to say. Telegrams were charged by the word, three cents per word including punctuation...

Li Yue took a form, pulled out her pen, and was about to write when she realized she didn't know how to write.

A man writing a form nearby ran out of ink in his pen and asked to borrow it from her. Li Yue generously lent him the pen.

After writing down the address, the man added a sentence: "Father is critically ill, return immediately. Brother."

Li Yue sighed when she saw this sentence, which was full of human suffering.

The other person returned the pen and politely thanked her. Li Yue smiled, took the pen, but still didn't know how to write.

Unable to write, she went for a walk outside and came up with many telegrams in her mind:

Ling Jianwei, do you still want me?

Ling Jianwei, I'll go with you to the army.

Ling Jianwei, I don't want to go to the countryside anymore.

...

It's not that it's impossible, but it's always just not quite right.

Finally, standing at a crossroads, I inexplicably remembered a popular saying on the internet: "Old Xu, do you want a wife?"

This is a line from the later old movie "The Herdsman".

So, Li Yue went back into the telegraph service hall and wrote these words on the telegram form with the address already written on it:

Ling Jianwei, do you still want your wife? Li Yue.

After handing over the order, the salesperson glanced at the line of text, suppressed a laugh, but still ruthlessly calculated the price: "Ninety-three cents in total."

Li Yue obediently paid the money and asked, "Approximately when will the other party receive it?"

"Normally, the postman will deliver the telegram tomorrow."

Li Yue nodded: "Okay, thank you, comrade."

As she stepped out of the telegraph building, snowflakes began to fall. Li Yue wrapped her coat tighter around herself, feeling much more relaxed.

But she couldn't help worrying. She wondered what Ling Jianwei's reaction would be when she saw the telegram tomorrow. Would she also reject her heartlessly?

well.

...