Chapter 2: You Can Get Divorced After Marriage

However…

Her searching gaze met a pair of crimson eyes.

The violent rise and fall of Gu Qingye’s chest proved that he was far from calm.

He was a soldier, a man who had survived a hail of bullets.

That amount of alcohol and medication was nowhere near enough to make him lose his reason. If he had not still been recovering from his injuries, his physical reaction would never have been so severe.

He had thought his parents merely disliked him, but he could not understand why they had drugged him, still less why there was a strange woman in the room.

Lu Youyou was stunned—or perhaps she was simply mesmerized.

Short hair, swordlike brows, a straight bridge of the nose, and eyes as dark as lacquer and ink. Even the dim light could not obscure his deeply chiseled, striking features.

This was a man overflowing with virile charm.

Even lying in such a crude, dilapidated room, he radiated an oppressive presence impossible to ignore.

Sweat slid from his temple and disappeared into his sideburns. The excessive force straining his muscles had drawn them into distinct contours, while winding veins gradually surfaced beneath his skin.

Every inch of his body seemed to proclaim that a fire burned within him, yet he remained composed.

Lu Youyou even felt that his composure could devour a person.

She swore he was the most breathtakingly handsome man she had ever seen.

But!

What good was a handsome man when he was destined to die young?

She still had to save him—and she did not even know whether she could save him at all!

Thinking of her parents, whom she would never see again, her dog, her flowers and plants, and the countless zeros in her bank account…

Lu Youyou felt grief well up from the depths of her heart.

“Ugh…”

Why was her life so tragic?

Before the kitten-like whimper could turn into loud sobs, a large hand covered Lu Youyou’s mouth.

Perhaps because he had handled firearms for years, Gu Qingye’s palm and fingertips were covered with thin, hard calluses.

“Be quiet!”

There were still tears in Lu Youyou’s eyes, and they fell one by one onto Gu Qingye’s hand.

In truth, she had already calmed down. She simply could not stop crying once she had begun.

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

Gu Qingye had just returned from the front line. He had been granted leave because of his injuries. Had someone leaked the news, or was there some other reason?

In less than a few seconds, dozens of possibilities had already flashed through his mind, ranging from a rural scandal to a foreign spy…

Lu Youyou drew a deep breath.

She even felt grateful that she had been kidnapped as a child. At least she could still remember what it meant to remain fearless in a crisis.

She had no doubt about the perceptiveness of a battle-hardened soldier. Besides, she was shouldering the immense responsibility of saving his life. Rather than inventing a story, she might as well tell the truth.

Her soft lips brushed his palm. Just as Lu Youyou was about to speak, she realized that her mouth and Gu Qingye’s hand were still in intimate contact.

Gu Qingye withdrew his arm with lightning speed, clenching his hand as he tried to ignore the warm, moist sensation lingering against his palm.

“My name is Lu Youyou. I’m an educated youth assigned to Qiaoshan Village. Before I left for the countryside, my parents said they had asked the Gu family to look after me…”

Lu Youyou cautiously studied Gu Qingye, but his cold, stern expression did not change in the slightest.

“I… well… I accidentally overheard Gu Shuchen saying that he couldn’t have children, that the hospital couldn’t treat him, and something about borrowing… borrowing seed…”

Nine parts truth and one part lie. Other than the claim that she had overheard him—which was fabricated—everything else was true.

As she spoke, Lu Youyou recalled how disgusted she had felt while reading that scene in the book.

Damn that awful author!

That scheme had been completely useless against Gu Qingye!

Just to pile on the melodrama, the author had forced two minor characters into a night together—and dragged her into this wretched place as well.

Lu Youyou’s emotions had yet to settle. Coupled with the choked sobs following her tears, she looked like a delicate pink peach blossom ravaged by wind and rain.

She was as alluring as it was possible to be.

Gu Qingye’s gaze inadvertently swept over a patch of fair, tender skin. He immediately pulled the quilt over, attempting to conceal the springlike spectacle before him.

Lu Youyou was too distraught to notice her surroundings, but Gu Qingye was different. Almost the instant the door opened, he had risen and positioned himself in front of the bed.

On instinct, he used the quilt to cover Lu Youyou’s scantily clad body.

Unfortunately, this cold-faced military hero had handled guns and carried artillery, but he had never touched a woman.

The force of his gesture sent Lu Youyou tumbling over.

And, by sheer coincidence, when his arm came down, it landed squarely on something soft and rounded.

Warm, yielding, yet resilient…

A second bolt of lightning struck without warning, and Gu Qingye withdrew his hand at lightning speed for the second time that night.

Lu Youyou lay face-down on the bed, her cheeks flushed.

First the old witch had groped her chest, and now Gu Qingye had smacked her bottom.

It hurt so much. Were soldiers’ hands always this heavy?!

Lu Youyou lifted her head—and only then noticed Gu Shuchen and his mother standing in the doorway.

Of course. Since they had plotted to borrow seed, they naturally had to get her into Gu Shuchen’s bed first. The next morning, they could pretend to discover, quite by accident, that an unmarried man and woman had secretly tasted forbidden fruit.

In those days, once a woman lost her chastity, she could only marry. The Gu family could use that fact to keep their improper new daughter-in-law under their thumb.

“You…”

Madam Zhang was both shocked and frightened.

She had expected to see an unconscious woman and a man asleep from exhaustion.

Ever since Gu Qingye had joined the army and left home, he had returned only a handful of times over the years. Zhang Caifeng had never seen this unfamiliar version of him.

His pitch-black eyes were veiled in frost—cold and solemn.

He was a soldier fully on guard, ready at any moment to deliver the enemy a fatal blow.

The strange atmosphere made Lu Youyou instinctively move toward the source of safety. She scooted over, wrapped both arms around Gu Qingye’s arm, and hid most of herself behind him.

Soldiers were the beloved sons of the people, and she was one of the people.

Gu Qingye’s entire body tensed. Never in his life had he experienced anything like this.

A soft, delicate body pressed close against him. An indescribably rounded softness was firmly wedged against his arm, while shallow breaths brushed against it at irregular intervals…

His clenched fist tightened even further.

The sight sent Gu Shuchen into a jealous rage.

He had long since regarded Lu Youyou as his woman. The moment he imagined what might have happened in the room, a ghostly fire seemed to blaze inside him.

And Lu Youyou actually dared to display such complete physical and emotional dependence!

For the sake of carrying on his family line, he had been forced to borrow another man’s seed—but he could not bear to see his own woman betray him!

“What are you doing!”

Anger made Gu Shuchen blurt out whatever came to mind. He even forgot that neither he nor the original owner of this body had formally established a relationship with Lu Youyou.

With a sense of safety beside her, Lu Youyou’s frozen mind finally began to turn again.

Inspired by a sudden stroke of genius, she summoned tears at once.

“Auntie Gu, what happened to me? Why did I suddenly faint?”

Lu Youyou wiped away the tiny pearl at the corner of her eye and looked at Gu Qingye with an admiring, affectionate gaze.

“Was it Big Brother Gu who carried me in? My parents always said that soldiers were the most lovable people. Today I finally know they were telling the truth.”

With a shy expression, she wrapped herself in the quilt and hugged his biceps even more tightly.

“Auntie Gu, you said you wanted to introduce me to someone. Were you talking about Big Brother Gu?”

Even if she had deliberately confused the identities, Lu Youyou did not believe this mother and son would dare admit to their disgraceful scheme so soon.

Zhang Caifeng had mentioned several times that she hoped Lu Youyou would become her daughter-in-law. Fine, then—that was exactly what she would do. The man she chose was the one she was currently holding.

She had fallen in love with this soldier at first sight. What was wrong with that?!

She could not fly. If she wanted to save Gu Qingye, she had to stay with him, at least for the time being.

For an educated youth and a soldier, the only way they could be together was for her to follow him wherever he was stationed.

They could divorce after getting married. If she failed to save him, she would die anyway.