RWWAI 28

Chapter 28: Why Was the Timing Chosen for Three Years Into the Marriage?

Who ended up winning the drinking contest over on the men's side was something I had no way of knowing, but I did know one thing for certain: Luo Fan had gotten completely plastered.

This useless piece of work ended up being hoisted onto a carriage by two of the Minister of Revenue's footmen just to get carted home.

What an absolute embarrassment—even with all his cheating, he still managed to get this drunk.

The carriage was cramped with zero room for him to lie down flat, leaving me no choice but to prop him up so he could half-sit and lean against the corner of the carriage, while I parked myself right beside him to physically block him from sliding down.

Qin Miaomiao sat directly across from us, standing on high alert with a chamber pot she'd borrowed from Lady Lin, ready to catch it the second he started hurling.

The sheer disgust written across my face was glaringly obvious, prompting Qin Miaomiao to hurriedly step in and smooth things over:

"Madam, please don't be angry. With an occasion like tonight's, the guest seating was filled entirely with high-ranking, influential figures. Since My Lord was right in the middle of it all, refusing any of the toasts people brought over would have looked terribly improper."

Hearing that, I let out a dry, exasperated laugh and snapped:

"Do you think his official rank is low or something? Among everyone seated tonight, the number of people who could genuinely lord it over him can be counted on one hand! Didn't you see just now? Out of all those noble matuons packed into the hall, which one of them didn't hurry over to pay respects the moment they saw me? Clearly, he just lacked any sense of restraint and joined in the moment everyone else started getting rowdy. If not for that, how could he possibly drink himself into this sorry state?"

To protect his dignity, I couldn't even bring up the fact that he'd been cheating using tea, which only made my internal rage burn even hotter.

Right then, Qin Miaomiao actually used my own words right back against me:

"Didn't Madam say earlier? It's all about having fun..."

I stared at her in utter disbelief:

"Qin Miaomiao, whose side are you actually on anyway? Have you forgotten who personally goes out of town every single time to pick up the herbal medicine you need for your pregnancy? You and I are the ones who are sisters here; an outside man like him is an outsider when all is said and done! How can you turn around and side with an outsider, completely failing to tell the close from the distant?"

I'll admit—the only reason I insisted on going out of town myself to grab her medicine was because I had Doctor Zhou, that high-speed Ferrari of a physician, locked under house arrest back at the estate.

But logic goes right out the window when a woman's emotions are running high.

Qin Miaomiao instantly burst out laughing, grabbed my hands to soothe me, and cooed:

"I'm on Madam's side, completely on Madam's side!"

With that, she even played along with me, turning toward the completely dead-to-the-world Luo Fan and berating him with exaggerated outrage:

"My Lord is truly acting out of line! How could he do such a thing!"

Only then did I nod with satisfied approval and declare:

"If he had the capability to crawl back into the estate on his own two feet, he could drink as much as he damn well pleased and I wouldn't waste a single breath on him! But since we're the ones stuck cleaning up his mess, he deserves a good tongue-lashing! We've got to yell at him until it registers in his brain, until he doesn't dare pull this stunt again next time!"

To vent my lingering frustration, I even reached out and gave Luo Fan's forehead a sharp poke.

A tiny prod from me was all it took to make him lose his balance entirely, nearly sliding right off his seat.

Qin Miaomiao hurriedly reached out to steady him.

I muttered with a hint of nervous tension:

"Careful now, you're still carrying a child!"

Qin Miaomiao smiled and nodded:

"It's fine, I'm completely steady!"

Once we finally made it back to the commandant's estate, I had a few servants haul Luo Fan into the bedchamber.

To my absolute shock, the second this guy crossed the threshold of the bedroom, his soul experienced a miraculous temporary resurrection.

He suddenly snapped awake, shoved the servants aside, and pulled me toward him with a smug, triumphant grin:

"You didn't get to see it, but you should've watched how thoroughly I lectured those hypocritical, holier-than-thou civil officials until they looked like a bunch of whipped dogs!"

The two servants sensibly bolted out the door, pulling it shut behind them.

Watching him wobble on his feet like he couldn't even stand straight, I disgustedly yanked my arm free and retorted:

"You have the nerve to brag? Weren't you cheating with a magic system? How do you manage to turn drinking tea into a state this pathetic?"

Luo Fan narrowed his eyes and grumbled at me:

"You only helped me drink one flask, the rest I had to chug all by myself."

"That's still cheating!" I argued my case relentlessly.

Staggering backward a step, Luo Fan pointed a shaky finger at me and slurred:

"Believe whatever you want, point is I didn't lose tonight!"

I shoved him in the general direction of the bed and snapped unhappily:

"Keep dreaming, you absolute blowhard."

Luo Fan automatically stumbled toward the bed, plopped heavily down onto the edge, and muttered:

"Zhang Yue, have you ever thought about why Liang Jingjing's resurrection timing was specifically set to three years after her marriage?"

That completely unprompted question caught me completely off guard.

I blinked:

"Huh?"

Luo Fan casually untied his outer sash and explained:

"If they're all capable of picking their own respawn timestamps, why wouldn't Liang Jingjing choose to wake up right before her wedding? Wouldn't that solve everything once and for all in one clean sweep?"

My eyes widened in sudden realization.

Right!

If Qi Lu deliberately hand-picked the exact timing of his rebirth, why couldn't Liang Jingjing do the same?

With a hazy, lost expression in his eyes, Luo Fan looked right at me and said:

"Maybe... what Liang Jingjing actually regretted wasn't marrying Qi Lu in the first place."

"How is that even possible? Who in their right mind is born with a masochistic streak strong enough to want to marry trash like this?" I scoffed dismissively.

Luo Fan waved a hand and argued:

"That's not how you look at it! Think about it... living in an era like hers, if she hadn't married Qi Lu, wouldn't she just end up married off to some other random guy? Who's to say swapping him out wouldn't just land her in an even worse hellhole?"

That actually made a fair bit of sense.

Gesturing wildly with his hands, Luo Fan continued:

"Take me for instance! If I'd just up and died an unexplained death back in the modern world, I'd undoubtedly die foaming at the mouth with resentment. If I got a second chance at life, I'd want to wind up back two years earlier... right when the retail space I had my eye on was still putting up leasing signs. This time, I'd place a massive, high-stakes bet! I'd rent the damn place! If it flopped and went under, I'd accept my fate."

As he talked on, his eyes actually started turning red and welling up with tears.

Then, staring out at a patch of empty air, he murmured:

"But if I could genuinely pick any point in time, shouldn't I just crawl straight back into my mother's womb? Come back as a filthy rich second-generation heir this time around, dropping tens of millions like it's pocket change—never mind opening a single roast-meat shop, I could franchise a nationwide chain! Now that is foolproof and risk-free, isn't it?"

I chuckled in amusement:

"Would a person like that even still be considered you?"

"That's right!" he chimed in, raising his voice.

"That wouldn't be me anymore!"

If Liang Jingjing had traveled back to a time before her marriage and ended up with someone else entirely, she would have abandoned the very things she needed to confront and prove.

What she wanted wasn't simply to run away from Qi Lu, but rather to prove that even with Qi Lu standing right there in front of her, she could carve out her own identity and live life fully on her own terms.

--