She read his book and always felt that the notes he wrote in it must represent his thoughts. She read quite a bit and felt through the lines that this Xie Wen was a misanthropic cynic, dissatisfied with the status quo, resentful of living in this toxic world. His words revealed a longing to break free, to escape this place.

It felt like that type of young man who is solitary and extreme, lacking maturity, wanting change, yet lacking the courage and boldness, simply continuously expressing his indignation in his books.

But in her interactions with this man in the past few days, though they were few, she felt he was too dissimilar to the person in the books, thus she was deeply puzzled. Can a person really change so much?

So she was somewhat eager to come and verify for herself.

"The me in these books represents the past me, but does not represent the current me, after all, several years have passed." Third Young Master Jun went back to looking at the map, no longer paying attention to him.

Ye Lu couldn’t find any fault in what he said for the moment; he was right, enough years can indeed bring about drastic changes in a person, which can’t prove anything.

Maybe it was just overthinking on her part.

She looked at him for a long time and couldn’t help but smile bitterly to herself, how could it possibly be him.

If it were him, how could he remain indifferent upon seeing her so heartbroken, so faint, if it were him he would have died of heartache already, how could he bear to let her suffer!

She was just trying to find an illusory reflection in other men.

Sigh, it would be better to leave this mountain village, leave this place of heartache, sooner rather than later.

"I won’t take these books after all." She lost interest, stood up, her face pale, ready to leave.

Seeing her so despondent and sorrowful, Third Young Master Jun couldn’t help but speak out.

"I heard you’re not feeling well, with poor medical conditions in this area, you should leave early for the safety of a big city. After all, you wouldn’t want those inside your belly to suffer, right?"

"Thank you for your concern." Ye Lu replied politely, her gaze lifeless, not wanting to say more. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She stepped out the door, walked to the middle of the courtyard, saw the verdant greens covering the yard, filled with vegetables, filled with hope, her heart grew even heavier.

Her eyes inadvertently fell on a trellis covered with gourd vines, she saw a pair of seed-pod flowers that had just wilted, sprouting two little tender gourds, she suddenly paused.

Her hand subconsciously touched her belly, suddenly recalling what the man had just said, and what was said before at the clinic, her face frozen, her eyes filled with all sorts of suspicion, her breathing halted.

She turned abruptly, lifting her skirt, and ran back into the hall at a fast pace.

Third Young Master Jun heard the rapid footsteps and saw that she actually started running, scared to the point his heart seemed to stop, feeling very annoyed inside. She was pregnant, how could she dare to run like that? What if she accidentally fell?

He pretended to reach for something on the shelf, stood up, took a few steps forward, ready to catch her in case she fell.

"What’s wrong, did you forget to take something with you?" he asked, puzzled.

Ye Lu ran up to him, panting heavily, her eyes bright and piercing, staring unblinkingly at him.

Third Young Master Jun immediately felt a sense of foreboding.

She suddenly reached out, seized his shoulder, disregarding her heaving chest, her voice urgent and thick with accusation: "You just said ’them’."

Third Young Master Jun’s heart shook, cursing his slip, he understood the implied meaning of her abrupt sentence.

The ’them’ she referred to was his inadvertent slip of the tongue when he was trying to comfort her earlier.