He tilted his head slightly toward the restaurant, his eyes betraying no emotion:
"Business is tough. The Chase family moved to Hong Kong."
I recalled what they'd been discussing earlier—about President Chase holding British citizenship and colluding with the Japanese.
"Could the Chase family really have been working with those Japanese agents?"
"The Chase family as a whole has no reason to. Perhaps only one member of the family was complicit..."
Victor hadn't figured it all out either, so he wasn't about to jump to conclusions.
With traitors in the military, he could shoot them however he pleased. With the Green Gang, he could strike without hesitation.
But with foreigners, his jaw would tighten with suppressed frustration.
The Chengs had foreign protection. Even if they committed the most heinous crime, the most Victor could do was expel them from the country.
He knew the history—that was why he felt the same powerlessness I did in this era.
Even though I knew he'd refuse, I still held his hand. "Victor, why don't we find a safe place and hide? Think of Grace—she's just found out she's having a baby."
He pulled his gaze back, his lashes dropping to shadow those dark irises.
"Don't worry, Rose. There are still two years."
He told me that the German weapons he'd purchased with such enormous sums weren't just guns—they included design blueprints and engineers.
That was why the agents were so frantically trying to locate his armory.
He wanted his armory to go from producing ten thousand rounds a day to a hundred thousand. He wanted it to build not just firearm components, but artillery, tanks, and aircraft.
His armory was his greatest asset.
He didn't want to give up on two years. He refused to simply sit and wait for death.
5.
Fresh roses, red wine, candlelight, a solo violin—all the romantic elements I could have imagined.
Floor-to-ceiling windows, a sweeping view of the river—only, the vista belonged to a century ago.
This was the candlelit dinner that had been derailed by unexpected trouble the last time.
He pulled out my chair like a gentleman. "Please."
I couldn't stop looking around, still feeling a bit self-conscious.
Victor understood. He dismissed the two waiters and the violinist.
The dimness of the entire floor, suffused with the aroma of food, enveloped me.
Victor sat within arm's reach, the flickering candlelight between us.
"Rose, if I told you I'd seen you long ago, would you believe me?"
"In a dream?"
"Like a dream, but real."
"When did you see me? Like the time you suddenly appeared in my home?"
He smiled faintly. "Perhaps when I was about ten?"
I burst out laughing. My first thought was that Victor's lying skills had improved.
I took a big gulp of wine. "When I was ten, I looked completely different from now. Are you sure that was me?"
He laughed. "When did I say you were ten at the same time?"
He knew I didn't believe him and didn't bother explaining. He just smiled, eyes lowered, refilling my glass.
"Rose, thank you."
"Thank me for what?"
"For walking into my life and redeeming me."
We drank and talked.
"Do you know why I chose this place?"
I shook my head, watching him.
"This river—it's the one thing that hasn't changed in a hundred years. If we needed a witness, this river would be the perfect one..."
"I don't care what era it is. As long as it's from you, I love it."
I was a little drunk by then. In such romantic warmth, I shut out the turbulent world outside, as though I'd found a hidden paradise, a peaceful little universe.
"Victor, today is the happiest day of my life."
He looked down and smiled.
"It could be even happier."
He produced a small velvet box from his jacket.
He opened it to reveal an exquisite ring.
"Rose, marry me."
His eyes reflected the candle flame. In the warm amber light, my hand began to tremble for no reason.
To steady myself, I downed the red wine in front of me in one go.
I was happier than I'd ever been, yet tears slipped from my eyes before I even noticed.
"Okay."
My voice was shaking, so I drank Victor's wine too.
He looked down, took my hand, and slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly.
I lifted my hand. The side of the band was inlaid with a ruby, the setting sweeping upward to cradle a diamond in a seamless whole—like a white-centered, red-edged rose, just beginning to bloom.
My vision blurred, and another tear fell with a soft plop.
"Victor, I only ask one thing of you."
His own eyes held a glimmer of moisture, yet he smiled.
"You know I'd agree to a hundred, to ten thousand."
"Just this one. If you promise me this, I'll listen to everything you say from now on."
He nodded seriously and said yes.
I continued, "I only ask that you never leave me. Never, ever leave me—not for a minute, not for a second."
After saying that, my breath caught.
His jaw tightened. In the end, he pulled me into his arms. "I promise. I won't leave you for a single second."
I drank a lot of wine. Wine drunk in happiness shouldn't make you lose consciousness.
But I don't know why—I passed out completely.
I only clung instinctively to the edge of Victor's jacket—whether at the restaurant, in the car, or back at the General's Estate.
I held onto him as though I'd seized hold of happiness itself.
As though I'd gripped destiny by the throat.
When I woke again, it was the next day at noon. My hands were still tightly clutching Victor's clothes, but he was nowhere to be found.
After getting up, I learned he'd gone off to war.
I was well on my way to becoming history's most pitiful warlord's wife.
On the very day after the proposal, Victor broke his promise.
The Su Army on the northern border had long been eyeing the Sungate region—because Sungate had originally belonged to them.
It was territory the Elder General had seized by force.
But the Su Army wasn't particularly strong at present. Many of their soldiers were opium addicts, and Victor hadn't taken them seriously.
But knowing that in two years these addicts would join forces with southern addicts to crush him in a pincer attack, he couldn't wait any longer.
He decided to lead the campaign north himself—to test his new weapons and, as a bonus, capture more territory.
I picked up the note Victor had left on the nightstand:
"Be good. I'll be back in a month. We'll have the wedding when I return."
I understood what he meant by "tomorrow has tomorrow's business." Tomorrow's business was war.
I stamped my foot in fury on the third floor.
"Liar! Big fat liar!"
Just yesterday he'd promised me he'd focus on the armory, on weapons—that he wouldn't throw flesh and blood into battle.
Grace knocked on the door and smiled. "So you're this angry? No wonder Victor didn't dare tell you."
Being called "sister-in-law" made me blush all over again.
"Grace..."
"We'll be family soon enough. Just call me sister."
Grace asked me to come downstairs for a meal.
But I had no appetite. "Sister, Victor probably hasn't left yet, has he..."
War was no small matter. Mobilizing troops and mustering supplies couldn't happen overnight.
At this hour, they were most likely still at the garrison.
Grace looked at me curiously. "Rose, what are you planning?"
"I want to call him. It'd be even better if I could go see him. I..."
6.
I couldn't tell Grace that I wanted this war not to happen.
Nor could I explain that in this stretch of history, no matter who won, the end result was always a lost war.
Even if he seized territory from another Chinese warlord, he still couldn't defeat the foreigners. He couldn't outrun fate.
The changing of eras inevitably produces its sacrificial victims.
It was just that when that victim became someone I loved, I lost the detached fervor of a bystander. All that remained was terror.
With every last ounce of strength, I fought to hold onto him, to keep him safe.
I was selfish. I wanted him to be selfish too.
At this thought, I blinked, and two tears rolled down my cheeks.
Grace sighed deeply. "Rose, do you think I don't wish they could just stay safely at home?"
In the end, Grace agreed to accompany me to the garrison.
She prepared some canned goods—to supplement their rations on the march.
When I saw Victor again, the sun was threading through clouds. Even the occasional shaft of light that broke through carried a chill. The parade ground was grim and forbidding.
He stood on a high platform, issuing military orders, his spirit soaring.
I watched from a distance for a long while.
Grace, accompanied by Oliver, went to visit the infantry regiment.
I returned first to Victor's quarters to wait for him. The room was simple but scrupulously tidy.
Among the books on the desk, one with a simplified Chinese cover stood out immediately.
"Modern History."
My heart seized with an inexplicable pang. No matter how many times we'd inadvertently touched on the subject, then deliberately veered away—
nothing had changed his ending. That ending was printed neatly on the page, sitting right there.
Perhaps on all those nights he hadn't come home, he'd sat alone in this room, reading and rereading the fate heaven had dealt him.
For a proud and untamed man, there could be no greater cruelty.
The door opened, and Victor's tall figure appeared behind me.
"Victor..." My voice went hoarse, tears welling in my eyes. "Didn't we agree to upgrade weapons first, then consolidate our strength? Why do you still have to fight? We're all Chinese—what's the point of squabbling over territory? If nothing else, save your energy for when you face the Japanese!"