But things were different now. She couldn't just abandon her senior. Furthermore, right before the plane crash, she hadn't been able to bring him in with her, which meant her spatial dimension rejected outsiders.
"Alright, don't overthink it, little one. You've got me here. No matter what happens, I'll find a way to keep you alive," Gu Yuan Yu said. Despite his confident words, he felt completely unsure. He covertly pressed a hand against his empty stomach. Even though he had gulped down several large mouthfuls of water earlier, what use was that?
Jin Qianqian felt a bit awkward thinking about their current relationship. Unsure of how to continue the conversation, she silently stared at the ground, her legs mechanically stepping forward.
"Eat this wild vegetable cake first. Look at you, you're nothing but skin and bones. If your current appearance didn't vaguely resemble how you looked when you first enrolled, I wouldn't have recognized you so quickly."
Gu Yuan Yu was deeply worried. Jin Qianqian practically looked like a walking skeleton. Back in the day, he and the other upperclassmen had put a tremendous amount of effort into gradually nursing this little girl back to a normal weight.
Jin Qianqian also recalled that year she spent in a daze. Completely consumed by her own grief, she had utterly ruined her health. Now, it seemed she was walking down that old path again.
She looked at Gu Yuan Yu curiously. "When did you get here? Were you here before me?"
As he walked, Gu Yuan Yu observed the plants by the roadside, hoping to spot some recognizable wild vegetables. All the while, he multitasked to answer Jin Qianqian's question. "It happened the moment he found water. He got too excited, lost his footing, and took a hard fall, hitting the back of his head. The original owner of this body must have died right then, which allowed me to take over for free.
"Fortunately, I was able to inherit his memories. Otherwise, I would have had to feign amnesia. Judging from your previous reactions, you must have kept the original memories as well, right?
"It's best if we keep a low profile for a while and avoid changing too much. You have to remember, the wisdom of the ancients shouldn't be underestimated."
Jin Qianqian nodded in agreement. Even though the flow of information wasn't as explosive as it was in the modern era, she still didn't dare underestimate anyone. If they showed even the slightest hint of abnormality, it could bring forth a catastrophic disaster for both of them.
"At least I'm lucky enough to still have the same name. It's different for you, though. 'Gu Yuan Yu' sounds like a girl's name."
Gu Yuan Yu shot a glance at the gloating Jin Qianqian. The corners of his lips curled up into a smile. "Perhaps it really is fate. This humble scholar studied for a few years, and the teacher gave him a courtesy name: Wenheng. Gu Wenheng. It doesn't differ by a single character from my real name."
Jin Qianqian's mouth fell open slightly. She had no idea there was such a coincidence.
But come to think of it, it made sense. She was currently in an era where 'a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent.' It was perfectly normal for a young rural wife to be ignorant of such things.
She gazed up at the sky with resentment. After more than a decade of arduous studying, who would have thought she would now be reduced to the equivalent of an illiterate?
"Wife, stop looking. It's not going to rain today." Gu Wenheng also narrowed his eyes, squinting up at the blindingly white sky.
Being called "wife" startled Jin Qianqian so much that her feet refused to take another step. "Senior, although our identities have changed, this isn't what either of us wanted. Let's change how we address each other."
Gu Wenheng threw her a sideways glance. "Do you think we can change anything, now or in the future? Besides, I seem to recall a certain someone shouting about how much they liked me not too long ago. You're not trying to back out now, are you?"
Jin Qianqian's gaze darted away evasively. She had assumed those were the final moments of her life; who could have anticipated such a bizarre twist of fate?
"Did I? You must have heard wrong," Jin Qianqian insisted stubbornly.
Gu Wenheng fell silent. She was still as shameless as ever!
Noticing that Jin Qianqian was gradually slowing down, Gu Wenheng matched her pace. "I know you're a bit of a germaphobe, but this isn't the time to act tough. You need to replenish your fluids immediately, or this body of yours definitely won't hold up.
"Don't worry! When I gathered the water, I made sure to draw from the middle layer of the stream.
"There's no pollution in this era, so the water quality isn't too bad. You're not going to catch whatever imaginary diseases you're worrying about."
Gu Wenheng once again unfastened the bamboo tube from his waist and handed it to her.
"But what dynasty are we in right now? Aside from the local town, this body's memory knows absolutely nothing about the outside world." Jin Qianqian once again lamented the inconvenience of being illiterate. She desperately wanted to know what kind of dynasty they had transmigrated into.
However, Gu Wenheng was determined to be stubborn with her. "Drink the water first, and then I'll tell you."
Gritting her teeth, Jin Qianqian squeezed her eyes shut and gulped down two mouthfuls. Mostly, it was because she truly couldn't hold out much longer either.
"It's a bit strange, actually." Seeing that she definitely didn't want any more, Gu Wenheng took the bamboo tube back, no longer forcing her. "This dynasty doesn't seem to exist in any of the history we studied. It feels like it's somewhere between the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and the current Royal Family has never been recorded in history."
Having said that, Gu Wenheng took a small sip of water from the very same bamboo tube. Jin Qianqian, however, stared blankly at it, her mind drifting.
Gu Wenheng raised an eyebrow and continued his explanation. "This is the Rong Dynasty, which hasn't been established for very long. The founding Emperor, Hua Zhidong, just passed away two years ago. The new Emperor, Hua Shunming, hasn't fully secured his grip on power yet. Rumor has it that the infighting at the top is incredibly fierce, which is why no one has come to provide disaster relief despite the famine raging here for years.
"As for the writing system, there aren't many changes. As long as you know traditional characters, you're not entirely illiterate."
At this point, Gu Wenheng purposefully flashed a wide grin at Jin Qianqian.
Fortunately, when Gu Yuan Yu was young, he had seen the village's old scholar fall into the river and tossed him a bamboo basin, saving his life. It was only because of this that he had earned the opportunity to attend school for free for a few years. Otherwise, he wouldn't be in a position to laugh at Jin Qianqian's expense right now.
Unfortunately, right after he passed the exams to become a child student, the old scholar had lost the strength to continue teaching. The old man had left him a few books before passing away.
With so many Gu Family Brothers, and with Gu Dashi and his wife growing older, it was absolutely impossible for them to find him another good teacher and pay the tuition fees.
Jin Qianqian was currently in no mood to deal with her senior's teasing. Her legs felt as if they had been filled with lead; every step she took was exceptionally heavy.
What made her feel even worse was the water she had just swallowed, which sloshed around in her empty stomach. Right now, she just wanted to lie flat on the ground and give up being this damned refugee.
The moment this thought arose, the willpower that had been sustaining her completely dissipated. She immediately collapsed onto the ground.
A flash of fear passed through Gu Wenheng's eyes. He quickly rushed over and looked down at her with concern. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
According to his memories, the young couple had only eaten a single wild vegetable ball from yesterday up until now, and they had shared that palm-sized portion between the two of them.
The food he had just offered to Jin Qianqian was their very last ration.
Jin Qianqian shook her head. "I really can't walk another step."
Gu Wenheng looked anxiously at the marching crowd ahead and the indifferent faces of the villagers passing them by.
If the two of them failed to keep up, no one else in the group would bother to ask a single question. In these times, everyone was struggling just to save themselves, and quite a few people had already been abandoned along the way.