In 1983, the provincial capital.
Fang Mujing stood in the corridor of the Military Region General Hospital all night, clutching the notice of critical illness of her younger brother.
At dawn, she married Qu Hua.
In this marriage, everyone wants what they want - he wants a substitute who can comfort his seriously ill grandmother, and she wants an identity that can save her brother's life. On the day she received the certificate, she went back to her work to distribute wedding candies and got the approval document for a key project that had been on hold for two years; he was so drunk on the wedding night that he shouted another woman's name.
"Each one should live his own life without interfering with each other." These were the only words she left for him on the wedding night.
Later he took it seriously, but she quit.
He thought she was picturing his family background, and she thought he just wanted that similar face. The two acted like a model couple in the compound of their work unit, sleeping separately at home, keeping in harmony with each other - until one day, Qu Hua found that the application form for transfer to Xinjiang in the drawer had already been signed with her name.
"Fang Mujing," he blocked the door, his voice tight, "Did you marry me in the first place so that you could be far away from me one day?"
She raised her head to look at him, her eyes as calm as a pool of stagnant water: "What else? What did Doctor Qu think it was for?"
He couldn't answer.
But he clearly remembered that when she was on a business trip last month, he followed her there on the pretext of running errands, just to give her a can of her favorite pickled radishes. She stayed up three nights in a row in the laboratory, while he sat on the hard bed in the guest house and waited for three days.
He couldn't say this.
It's like he couldn't say it - that year on the train, when she scolded the man who was occupying her seat, her eyes were as bright as fire.
He's not looking for a stand-in.
He has been looking for her for many years.
Intention: For my friends who are addicted to my sister and brother-in-law like me