Chapter 6: Promise Me You’ll Marry Me in the Next Life

When Zhou Jingnan was thirteen, he had been a beloved child who had the whole world at his feet—until an accident took everything away from him.

He was badly injured and left unconscious in the pouring rain. A little beggar girl found him and took him in.

She was poor and hopelessly naive. Whenever she managed to beg for something good to eat, she gave it to him while she scavenged through trash cans for herself. She had only one tattered blanket, yet she always gave it to him.

The girl was incredibly stingy. If she dropped even a single coin, she would crawl around searching for it. And yet, she spent every penny she had saved to buy medicine for him.

Once, he asked her what she wanted most.

Her eyes lit up immediately.

“I want the prettiest pink dresses, the biggest mansion, and so much money I could spend it forever!”

He secretly promised himself that once he made it home, he would buy her an entire room full of pink dresses and give her ten mansions.

But then his injuries suddenly took a turn for the worse.

The little girl risked her life stealing money to save him and was brutally beaten.

It was at that exact moment that the Zhou family finally found him.

Half-conscious in the back of the car, he thought he caught a glimpse of the little girl.

Then everything went black again.

When Zhou Jingnan woke up half a month later, a crucial part of his memories was gone.

He became a sickly orphan, raised under his grandfather’s protection and bound by an arranged engagement to Zhao Wanyi.

Zhou Jingnan lowered his head and looked at the woman sleeping peacefully in his arms.

Every now and then, she even let out a tiny snore.

He chuckled and gently kissed her forehead.

How strange.

How could a girl who had spent more than ten years wandering through life, battered and bruised by the world, still have such a soft heart?

She was silly, noisy, greedy for money, and constantly loved to act spoiled…

And yet, she made him want to spend the rest of his life spoiling her.

Because of the cinnabar mole between her brows, and that adorably stingy nature of hers…

He had finally found the little girl from all those years ago.

The first time he saw Jiang Yifu again as an adult, that tiny cinnabar mole between her brows shattered the seal around memories he had buried for years.

So she was the little beggar girl who had once used her crumpled coins to buy the medicine that saved his life beneath a freezing bridge.

That was why Zhou Jingnan deliberately approached her, secretly transforming himself into a first-class “green tea” man just to capture her attention.

He knew she was desperate for money to save a seriously ill child.

He knew she had secretly sabotaged their condoms.

He knew she had quietly gone for a pregnancy test.

He knew everything.

But he had never once blamed her.

The reason Zhou Jingnan had never promised her a wedding was because his health was simply too poor.

He couldn’t bear the thought of her becoming a widow while she was still so young.

When she ran away, he had secretly paved the way for her escape, forcing Fu Tubai to protect her like some kind of “FBI witness.”

He thought he could let her go if it meant keeping her safe.

But the moment he saw her return and cry beside his hospital bed, he finally understood.

He had won.

She loved him far more than he had ever imagined.

After the storm finally passed, the baby was four months old.

Zhou Jingnan suddenly became frighteningly restrained.

No matter how sexy a “battle outfit” I wore, he remained completely motionless, like a monk deep in meditation.

My pride couldn’t take it.

I announced that I was sleeping separately and threw his pillow out of the bedroom.

But that very night, the moment I heard a knock at the door, I surrendered.

Zhou Jingnan stood there with his shirt half-unbuttoned, a black armband around his arm and tactical straps crossing his body—a dangerously seductive sight that should have been illegal.

He carried me to the bed and leaned down to whisper against my ear in a low, husky voice.

“Fufu, do you know what kind of fruit I like best?”

“Peaches… lychees…” I answered, my face burning.

“Wrong.”

His lips curved into a teasing smile.

“Little cherries.”

Pregnancy hormones had made me more sensitive than ever.

Amid that endless springtime haze, Zhou Jingnan suddenly spoke with unexpected tenderness.

“Jiang Yifu… I love you.”

Every year, I went to Puji Temple and prayed for him to live to a hundred.

The Bodhisattva must have heard me.

But apparently, only half of my wish came true.

At fifty, Zhou Jingnan left this world forever, leaving me and our children behind.

On his deathbed, he held my hand tightly, his eyes filled with a helpless tenderness.

“If you ever remarry… you can only marry Lin Zhenghui. But don’t bring him to visit my grave. I’ll be jealous.”

“Zhou Jingnan, I’m not marrying anyone! In this life or the next, I only want you!”

He gently brushed his fingers over the cinnabar mole between my brows one last time before closing his eyes.

Snow blanketed Beijing for an entire day and night.

I hated winter.

I hated snow.

And I hated every day I had to live without him.

But I kept my promise.

I lived well and devoted the rest of my life to raising our children and grandchildren.

Ten years after he was gone, Lin Zhenghui, Xu San, and then Fu Tubai also left this world one after another.

Eventually, it was my turn.

I lay on my deathbed, surrounded by generations of children and grandchildren.

Through the hazy veil of old age, I suddenly saw a familiar figure.

Zhou Jingnan looked exactly as he had all those years ago—handsome and slender, holding a black umbrella as he stepped through the falling snow.

He reached out his hand to me.

“Fufu. I’m here to take you home.”

Happily, I placed my hand in his warm palm.

Then I smiled softly and closed my eyes.

“Zhou Jingnan… In our next life, I still want to marry you.”

“Okay.”

THE END