A few minutes earlier before the agreement got sealed.
On the fence outside the courtyard of the Lin family was packed with people.
Even the children playing by the well had gone quiet, staring at the tall officer and the divorcee sitting face-to-face under the fig tree.
Everyone thought it was over when Lin Qingya mentioned taking her son with her into her new marriage. They thought the soldier would frown, make some excuse, and leave.
No man in his right mind would agree to marry a divorced woman and take her child along.
But Han Yuzhe's eyes didn't waver. His voice, low and even, cut through the murmurs.
"You won't leave the child at your brother's house?"
The tone wasn't accusing, just a calm question.
Lin Qingya froze. For a heartbeat, she saw the faces of the villagers and relatives from her previous life. The same faces that had said the same thing.
"Leave the boy here, Lin Qingya. Let him grow up in the village. You'll just burden your new husband."
She had listened to them once.
She had left her son behind for three months.
And for the rest of his life, he had never stopped hiding food under pillows, inside schoolbags, even beneath the car seat when he grew up to own his own car.
A boy who had once had everything became a man who hoarded crumbs and she had been the one to plant that hunger.
Not again.
Her voice was firm, shaking only slightly as she said, "Impossible. Wherever I go, my son goes. I won't leave him behind."
The whole courtyard stilled.
The crowd watching and her elder brother peeking in through the small space between the door.
Everyone expected the man to scowl, maybe turn on his heel. But instead, Han Yuzhe's gaze softened almost imperceptibly. He looked at the child hiding behind her skirt, then back at her.
"What other conditions do you have?"
For a second, Qingya thought she'd misheard. He hadn't rejected her and he'd also invited negotiation.
Inside the room, Zhou Qiaolan, her elder sister-in-law, was the first to react. "Quick, quick! Go inside and talk properly. Don't sit here for the whole village to hear!"
The crowd stepped closer to the window as the two stepped into the small sitting room.
It was a modest space: cracked tiles, a tea table, and faded curtains fluttering in the hotel breeze.
Han Yuzhe sat upright, back straight as though still in the army. Qingya poured him water but he didn't drink.
He spoke first.
"You have a house in the city?"
"In the outskirts, Yanguan District," she said carefully. "A courtyard house my ex-husband and I bought during our marriage."
Han nodded slowly."That's under our bureau's jurisdiction. I can arrange the household registration transfer easily once we marry. You'll have it under your name before long."
He said it so simply.
Qingya's heart skipped. In her previous life, that same house had been worth millions after the city redevelopment. It was her second chance at security, and this man was casually handing her the key.
Still, she forced herself to remain composed.
"There's my son too. His registration-"
"We'll transfer his with yours," Han interrupted. "No child should live apart from his mother no matter the age."
He didn't even blink as he said it.
The room fell quiet except for the rhythmic drip of water from the kitchen basin.
Qingya studied him carefully, the line of his jaw, the steady hands folded on his knees. This man was rigid as steel, but maybe, just maybe, there was a little bit of warmth inside.
....
Qingya took a breath. "Officer Han, I should be honest about my situation too."
He raised an eyebrow. "Please do."
"I'm not marrying for comfort. I'll need to work later, once I settle. I also have my own property. The courtyard. I'll need a written agreement stating that it remains my premarital asset."
He just blinked once. This was a woman who understood things clearly.
Outside the window, the villagers were whispering furiously to the ones who weren't near the window.
"She's setting conditions."
"Is she out of her mind?"
"Who does she think she is; the mayor's daughter?"
But inside, Han only leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"Understood. You want written proof. We'll draft it when we file the marriage papers."
Qingya blinked. "You're agreeing just like that?"
"I am used to follow clear terms," he said. "If we're to live together, better to set rules early than fight later."
His logic was clean.
Encouraged, she pressed on. "Then another thing. I want a say in raising your children. But if I scold them, you must ask why first. I want us to discipline all of them together, not against each other."
"I like the idea of that."
Outside Zhao Qiaolan nearly bit through her kerchief. "What are they still talking about? It's been half an hour already!"
Her younger sister-in-law, earsdropping on the door beside her, scoffed. "She will probably scare him away with her big-city talk. 'Written proof,' she says. Doe she think she's doing him a favour?"
But when the door creaked open again, both women straightened up.
Han Yuzhe emerged first, his expression unreadable. He adjusted his cuff, then turned toward Qingya, who followed a step behind holding her son's hand.
"I agree to all her terms," he said simply.
Gasps rippled through the courtyard.
The younger sister-in-law's jaw feel open. "You what?"
Han continued, his tone clipped but courteous.
"However, I'm newly transferred and haven't secured housing yet. Yanguan is close to my unit. I'll stay temporarily at comrade Lin's house after the marriage until quarters open up. I'll pay rent in the meantime. "
Rent?
The younger sister-in-law nearly fainted.
Paying rent to your wife?
But Lin Qingya didn't look shocked. She nodded, as calm as ever.
"Then that's settled."
....
As the crowd dispersed, someone whispered from behind the granary wall.
"Did you hear? He agreed to everything."
It was Zhou Xinyi again, she had decided to leave only after Han Yuzhen left. Hiding behind her scarf, listening through the cracks in the wooden boards.
She felt cold, even under the blazing sun.
Her plan had been simple: push Qingya toward Han Yuzhe, so she could chase after Yun Hao freely.
But she hadn't expected the man she once scorned to bend for another woman.
He never agreed to my conditions. He never once smiled at me.
The thought gnawed at her like rust.
But there was no time for regret, not when her next move was already in motion.
That same evening, she would make sure to visit her old acquaintance in the city, a man with too much money and too little patience, to whisper a few poisonous truths about Lin Qingya's "missing property."
...
Two days later, a young Policeman rode into Linyang Village on a motorcycle.
He stopped outside the Lin courtyard, dismounted, and handed Qingya a small leather bag.
"From Comrade Han for Comrade Lin," he said briskly, saluted, and left.
Inside were two neatly folded pair of khaki trousers and T-shirts, one white and one blue. Beneath them sat a pair of small, genuine leather shoes.
"City goods," Zhou Qiaolan gasped, touching the soft fabric with awe. "This set alone could cost thirty yuan!"
Zhou Qiaolan lamented in her heart how foolish her sister was.
Really, very foolish!
Qingya's eyes softened as she looked at her son.
"They're for you," she said.
The child's eyes went wide. "Really? They look so good."
But Han's note tucked beneath the shoes made her eyes softened considerably.
"For the child who cared more of his mom's protection than his own."
That night, as rain pattered gently on the eaves, Qingya couldn't sleep.
She kept replaying what she had heard from her brother's house three nights ago.
Through the thin walls that night she had heard them clearly.
"You were the one who caught that bastard Lu Jianhao and the woman together," hissed her younger sister-in-law. "Two thousand yuan isn't enough. Go ask for more."
"Keep your voice down," her husband muttered.
"Don't tell me you don't dare ask for it! That woman he is with works at the city cooperative. She's afraid of loosing face. Push her harder!"
Qingya's pulse quickened.
Lu Jianhao. Her ex-husband.
So her brother and his wife had blackmailed him and his mistress for hush money uh.
Two thousand yuan, enough to buy a small house in the suburbs was enough for her brother to care less about her pain.
And yet they hadn't said a word to her. They had taken money for their silence while she had been mocked and gossiped about by the whole village.
Her fists clenched tightly under her blanket.
Her sister-in-law had planned to visit where the mistress worked the next day to threaten her for more money.
This time, Qingya intended to confirm her suspicions of who exactly that woman was. And so the next morning she followed her sister-in-law.