Indeed, the person sitting beside Cheng Yu was none other than Shen Qian.
She seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief. As she stroked her swollen belly, maternal tenderness flashed across her face.
Another woman beside her, dressed as a married woman, smiled at the sight of Shen Qian and asked,
"How many months along are you, sister?"
Shen Qian's hand paused in its stroking, and she smiled amiably.
"Seven months."
The woman exclaimed in surprise,
"Oh? Seven months? That's quite a big belly! You might have a difficult delivery, sister. Which baby is this?"
Shen Qian seemed quite practiced at talking to people like her. She smiled shyly.
"My first."
The woman covered her mouth in surprise again.
"Your first?! You're having children awfully late, sister. When I got married, I gave my husband two big, healthy boys within two years. You don't look all that young, either. Isn't your husband anxious?"
Listening to the woman chat with Shen Qian about everyday matters, Cheng Yu could not help glancing at her. She looked to be in her thirties, while Shen Qian still looked seventeen or eighteen, just as she had back then. He wondered what Shen Qian actually looked like in that woman's eyes.
"Speaking of your husband, are you here alone, sister? Where is he?"
Shen Qian spoke exactly like a woman confiding in a kindly older sister after an argument.
"Ah, him... I'd rather not talk about him. I don't want anything to do with him right now. Once he realizes he was wrong, he'll come looking for me himself..."
Hearing this, Cheng Yu nodded inwardly. Her answer was ambiguous, indirectly suggesting to the woman that her husband was aboard this very boat, and that the couple were merely sitting apart after a quarrel. If