Ruan Xia wasn’t aware that Song Tingshen was paying attention to her strange behavior over the past two days. Actually, there was no reason she would have to worry about this. Even if she acted differently than before, there was no one that could prove the soul in this body had been replaced.

  Right now, the National Radio and Television Administration had forbidden the idea of transmigration and reincarnation from appearing in radio shows and television dramas. Also, in real life, if someone’s personality drastically changed, it would catch the attention and suspicion of the people close to her, but it wouldn’t occur to anyone that this change was related to something supernatural.

  Anyways, the novel’s Ruan Xia hadn’t been close to anyone, which was a good thing for her right now.

  —


  Although Ruan Xia had booked train tickets, she had booked the soft sleeper type. Once they switched from the subway to the train, they could go to sleep. When they woke up the next morning, they would be back in their home city.

  The cost of these tickets weren’t cheap.

  She had already decided on taking the train back last night. Thus, she had gone out and brought two sets of new bedsheets. Now that they had gotten onto the train, she could temporarily put down her worries.

  Ruan Xia wasn’t a stickler for cleanliness. She didn’t have a problem sleeping on the bedsheets provided by the train when she had gone on vacations in the past. However, she was worried that Song Tingshen might have mysophobia. Thus, once they reached their compartment, she opened her luggage and replaced the bed sheets for him like a hardworking honeybee. As she was doing this, she hummed a bit.

  The soft sleeper could be considered clean enough. There weren’t many other people sharing their compartment either. Back when Song Tingshen had been attending a college in the capital, he had taken the train then. Ten years had seemingly flashed by in an instance. Now that he was once again taking a train instead of an airplane, he wasn’t against the idea.

  Anyways, this was probably a novel experience for their son?

  Ruan Xia had washed these sheets yesterday. After she had laid out the sheets for both beds, the chubby kid took off his shoes and rolled around in the narrow sleeper bed.

  She felt a bit guilty for making the big boss take the train with her, but she also felt relieved that most of the potential trouble was behind them now, so she was in a pretty good. She took out previously purchased food from her bag and said to Song Tingshen, “I’m guessing that you probably won’t like the food that’s available on the train, so I brought bread and bottled water. I was planning on getting takeout, but food that hasn’t been refrigerated and reheated might cause diarrhea. If you’re still feeling hungry after eating the bread, I’ll go buy you an instant noodle cup and get hot water for it. Just bear with this for today.”


  She was being over-the-top solicitous.

  Even the chubby kid, who was only three-years-old, could sense this. When Ruan Xia went to the bathroom to wash her hands, he leaned over on his dad’s shoulder and said, “Mom seems to be sucking up to you.”


  Song Tingshen furrowed his brow. “Where did you learn those words?”


  The chubby kid calmly answered, “Grandmother’s neighbor said that Aunt Wang, the one who does Chinese square dancing, was sucking up to grandmother.”


  Song Tingshen: “.……”


  The chubby kid continued to ask, “Dad, haven’t you noticed that mom is sucking up to you?”


  Song Tingshen wouldn’t act coldly aloof in front of his son. He smiled and said, “You can’t say those words about your mom.”


  The chubby kid thought for a while before saying, “Dad, don’t ignore mom. Mom is a girl. Teacher said that boys should protect girls and go along with what they want to do. Dad, we’re both boys, only mom is a girl. So, we have to protect her and go along with what she wants to do.”


  Song Tingshen gently pinched his son’s chubby cheeks. “Okay, dad understands.”


  “Do you really understand?” The chubby kid questioned.

  Song Tingshen patiently answered, “Really.”


  Chapter 23 – He walked over to them. He hesitated for a moment before picking up a nearby blanket and gently covering Ruan Xia with it. (1)

  Song Tingshen wasn’t hungry anymore after eating the bread while Ruan Xia still felt hungry after snacking on bread.

  Watching as night descended, Ruan Xia felt happy that they would be home soon, so she had a bigger appetite than before. She bought two cups of instant noodles and a cooked ham sausage.

  Ruan Xia had especially loved eating instant noodles when she was a child. During her childhood, when her grandfather had asked her what she wanted to eat on her birthday, she would answer that she wanted to eat instant noodles. In child Ruan Xia’s heart, there was nothing more delicious than instant noodles.

  Once she started high school, she moved to the city to live with her parents. She had to study at night because the coursework was heavy. While she ate most of her meals at the cafeteria, eating instant noodles was a regular occurence too. Later, for a long while, instant noodles became a junk food that she had no interest in eating.

  Although she wasn’t a poster child for healthy living, she really didn’t eat much instant noodles as an adult.

  But right now, the instant noodles smelled delicious and tasted as good as it smelled.

  Little Song Shuyan took a big sniff. Drooling, he looked at her cup of instant noodles. Children were always full of curiosity about the foods that adults eat. For example, right now, he gulped and asked, “Mom, can I have some?”


  Before Ruan Xia could answer, Song Tingshen strictly and impartially said, “No.”


  He wouldn’t control what Ruan Xia ate, but their son was different.

  Song Tingshen definitely wouldn’t allow his three-year-old son to eat this type of junk food. Even for something like ice cream, he would put restrictions on how much ice cream his son could eat.

  Ruan Xia also felt that it wouldn’t be good for young children to eat instant noodles, so she lied, “It doesn’t taste good at all.”


  The chubby kid couldn’t quite articulate his feelings. “But it smells yummy!”


  He had a nose and could smell the instant noodles, so don’t try to trick him by lying. Be a little more sincere and honest.

  Ruan Xia thought for a moment before answering, “There are some foods that smell good, but don’t taste good, and other foods that smell bad, but taste especially good. For example, stinky tofu, snail powder, durian.”


  The chubby kid obviously wasn’t that easily fooled. He stretched out his fat fingers and said, “Let me try a bite and I’ll know if it tastes yummy or not.”


  “Little kids can’t eat this food. If you eat it, you’ll get diarrhea and will need to get a shot too.” Ruan Xia said in an exaggerated tone, “The needle is really thick and big, and it’ll pierce right through you tender skin.”


  Perhaps, it was the fear of a nurse giving him a painful shot, the chubby kid shrank back a bit. He stopped asking to eat instant noodles.

  Although Song Tingshen was reading emails on his cell phone, he still paid attention to the conversation between Ruan Xia and their son.

  He didn’t know what had happened to Ruan Xia to bring about these strange changes in her behavior, but it was nonetheless a positive thing that she was willing to be close to their son now.

  He had always known that no matter how good of a father he was, it wouldn’t be an adequate replacement for a mother.

  Little Wang had an outgoing personality, but when he saw his kindergarten friends with their parents, he would ask him, “Why isn’t mom coming?”


  Right now, Song Tingshen could only hope that Ruan Xia wasn’t doing this on a whim. After all, it would be better for a child’s development to have both of his parents want to spend time with him.

  The train would occasionally pass through a tunnel and make rumblings sounds. As Song Tingshen looked at emails on his phone, Ruan Xia watched cartoons on her phone with the chubby kid. She was really rich right now, so she didn’t have to worry about using her phone’s wifi.

  Song Tingshen was over 1.9 meters tall, so he was very cramped when he lied down on the sleeper bed on the train. Ruan Xia and the chubby kid squeezed together and fit on the other sleeper bed.

  ~ Table of Contents for TVM’s advance chapters ~

  Chapter 24 – He walked over to them. He hesitated for a moment before picking up a nearby blanket and gently covering Ruan Xia with it. (2)

  After waiting for the chubby kid to fall asleep, Ruan Xia suddenly said, “I won’t do something like this again. I know you must be feeling very doubtful about my actions today, but don’t worry. This will be the last time.”


  Right now, she knew the plot so she wanted to change it. Song Tingshen had avoided his tragic end, which meant that the story had changed. Even if it was only a minor change in the context of the novel’s plot, once any deviation occurred to the storyline, she couldn’t accurately predict what would happen next. She could save him this one time, but she probably wouldn’t be able to save him a second time. What the situation would be like in the future and what would happen in the future, that would depend entirely on Heaven’s will.

  Hearing these words, Song Tingshen only murmured an acknowledgement.

  Although it was true that her behavior was very strange, he was okay with accommodating with her whims at the current level.

  “But, there’s still one more thing I want to say to you. Perhaps, a dream might not mean anything, but there is a grounded reason for my worries. Little Wang and I both depend on you for our livelihood.” Ruan Xia calmly said these words. Her words did some truth in them. The novel Ruan Xia and the little Song Shuyan relied on Song Tingshen. “You frequently go on business trips. Even if it’s not for my sake and only our son’s, I hope that you can take good care of yourself when you’re away from home.”


  These were her genuine thoughts.

  In the novel, after Song Tingshen had died, the novel’s Ruan Xia had found someone that loved her and was willing to provide her the lifestyle that she wanted, but what about their son?

  In the end, should people live for themselves or their loved ones? No one could give a clear answer to this question.

  Song Tingshen didn’t expect this type of words to come from Ruan Xia.

  He stayed silent for a few seconds before finally slowly saying, “You don’t have to worry about this.”


  Ruan Xia thought; it didn’t matter if she was feeling reassured or not. The important thing was Song Shuyan.

  Although she had already mentally prepared herself for the possibility of being a single mother if Song Tingshen died, it wouldn’t be that same to Song Shuyan. Even though she was willing to raise Little Wang, in all fairness, it would leave behind an unerasable shadow in a child’s heart if his father died early. Just like how a father couldn’t replace a mother, a mother couldn’t replace a father in a child’s heart either.

  The two of them were unfamiliar with each other to begin with. Ruan Xia had already used all her words to express her feelings and thoughts. It was unusual for Song Tingshen to reply too. After this short exchange, there was only silence left.

  What she should say, what she should do, she had done it all. As for what would happen in the future…… it was beyond her control.

  —


  Although the conditions on the train were so-so, Ruan Xia and the chubby kid still slept sweetly. But, Song Tingshen, who was sleeping in the neighboring sleeper bed, was unable to fall asleep.

  His sleep quality wasn’t good to begin with, and he frequently had bouts of insomnia. Right now, the combination of sleeping in the uncomfortable bed along with Ruan Xia’s earlier words and the rumbling sounds from the train left him unable to sleep even at 2 AM.

  He wasn’t worried about Ruan Xia’s unusual behavior, and he didn’t want to spend time to figure out what had caused this change in her. And yet, there were indescribable feelings in Song Tingshen’s heart because of her words and actions during the past two days.

  With his mind cluttered up with these messy thoughts, he wasn’t able to fall asleep until 3AM.

  —


  Although a soft sleeper wasn’t as noisy as a regular overnight train, once it was daytime, it wasn’t quiet either. Seeing that Song Tingshen hadn’t woken up, Ruan Xia whispered to the chubby kid, “Let’s keep quiet to not wake up dad.”


  Their movements were light, but they still woke up Song Tingshen when they were getting their toiletries. However, he didn’t open his eyes.

  Chapter 25 – He walked over to them. He hesitated for a moment before picking up a nearby blanket and gently covering Ruan Xia with it. (3)

  The chubby kid didn’t like to brush his teeth and looked as if he would rather bravely face off death than brush his teeth. Seeing how utterly serious Song Shuyan looked, Ruan Xia laughed in amusement.

  After the two came back from brushing their teeth and washing their faces, they saw that Song Tingshen was already awake. He went to the bathroom with his toothbrush and towel.

  It wasn’t convenient to wash up on a train’s bathroom, but for them, this was a rare experience, so it wasn’t that bad.

  Ruan Xia discovered that the chubby kid wasn’t in good spirits today. He had even coughed several times. Her heart thumped for a moment. In the novel, the housekeeper aunty had called Song Tingshen when the chubby kid had gotten a fever and she couldn’t contact the novel’s Ruan Xia. Song Tingshen, who cherished his son, naturally rushed back because of the housekeeper’s call.

  But, Ruan Xia could see the truth for herself right now. Even if the housekeeper had been able to contact the novel’s Ruan Xia, Song Tingshen would have still changed his plane ticket and returned home early if he knew their son was sick.

  And so, it wouldn’t be correct to say it was the novel’s Ruan Xia’s fault.

  The housekeeper aunty knew that Mr. Song was the one who had the final say in the household, so she would have probably informed Mr. Song regardless if she had been able to reach the novel’s Ruan Xia. No, the novel’s Ruan Xia would have called her husband too.

  So, if she hadn’t decided to bring Little Wang to City A, it was very likely that Mr. Song would have found once Little Wang fell sick today. Unless she was able to keep little Wang’s fever a secret, Song Tingshen would have taken an earlier flight……

  If that happened, it was very likely that he would have died.

  If she hadn’t come to City A and instead tried to earnestly caution him to not change his plane ticket, he wouldn’t have listened to her. After all, if she looked at it from his point of view, his wife didn’t love their child, his work had been concluded, and he would feel more at ease if he could be by his sick son’s side.

  Fortunately, she had come to City A and brought Little Wang with her. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure if she could successfully change the trajectory of the story. She didn’t dare to imagine what would have happened to Song Tingshen if she had chosen differently……

  As a competent father, Song Tingshen naturally noticed that Little Wang wasn’t feeling well too. After the train arrived at their destination, the family of three took a taxi and returned to their villa instead of going straight to the hospital. After all, it was common for young children to get sick. Even if they took Little Wang to the hospital, the doctor would only tell them to keep him under observation. It was only if his fever didn’t go down that the doctor would proceed to the next step, which was giving him a shot.

  Once they got home, Song Tingshen adeptly wiped down Little Wang’s feverish body with warm water and fed him water.

  Ruan Xia, who was standing at the side, could only help by recording Little Wang’s temperature fluctuations.

  It was only after today that she understood why her previous coworker had said that adults would suffer too when a child was sick. It was because when a child was sick, there was no way an adult would be able to rest.

  Ruan Xia and Song Tingsheng both stayed by Little Wang’s side. Neither one could put down their worries and go to their rooms to sleep.

  Little Wang had clearly been fine yesterday. How could he have gotten a fever overnight? Ruan Xia thought about it for a while, but she couldn’t think of a good reason. She could only assume that the novel’s plot was too powerful, and some things couldn’t be prevented.

  By the wee hours of the next day, Ruan Xia wasn’t able to stave off her sleepiness. She fell asleep next to Little Wang with the thermometer still in her hand.

  When Song Tingshen walked back into the room, this was the scene that he was greeted with.

  Even though Little Wang was sick, he probably sensed that his mom was by his side and subconsciously leaned towards her. The mother and son were lying in the bed with similar sleeping faces.

  He walked over to them. He hesitated for a moment before picking up a nearby blanket and gently covering Ruan Xia with it.