Mr. Jiang:
I have received your last letter and I have also seen the attached report card of my third child. My third child is very weak in some subjects, especially English. Your English level is also mediocre and it is difficult for you to teach him. It is better to hire a tutor. (No female tutors allowed!)
…
The water of Qingyi River has warmed up, and the crabapple flowers in Leshan are in full bloom in March. I am sending you one of the first batch of blooming crabapple flowers with this letter. If you want to see more, come to Leshan in person.
Flower sender: Jing Mingchen

Jing Mingchen put the letter into an envelope and put it in the drawer temporarily, planning to go to the county town to mail it tomorrow. Before closing the drawer, she took a look inside. There were more than a dozen letters neatly stacked in the drawer, all written to her by Jiang Gubei. Since the first letter exchange two years ago, they have maintained a monthly correspondence, which has become a habit.
Suddenly there was a noise outside, Jing Mingchen pushed the door open and saw Aunt Shen talking to a young man in the yard. The young man was wearing a white gown, holding a straw hat and a walking stick, and had a pretentious and elegant demeanor. When he saw Jing Mingchen coming out, he called her in surprise: "Miss Jing, you are here!"
It turned out to be Le Ling, the noble man I met in Kunming that year.
Aunt Shen was very surprised: "You two actually know each other?"
Jing Mingchen hurriedly told Aunt Shen about how Le Ling helped him in Kunming that year. Aunt Shen was comforted after hearing it: "You little thing is not completely broken. At least your mother is a little comforted in the underworld."
Le Ling was unhappy: "What are you talking about? What did I do to become a bad person?"
Aunt Shen became excited and poked Le Ling's face with her finger: "You didn't do anything, so what's on your face?"
Jing Mingchen took a closer look and found that there were several bruises on Le Ling's face, as if she had been beaten.
Le Ling himself looked nonchalant: "Yes, yes, I am a bad guy. I robbed, killed, raped, and plundered. I did all kinds of evil things. I got the slap on my face when I was caught committing a crime. Is that okay?"
Seeing him like this, Aunt Shen didn't know what to say. She just let him walk around in the nursery and went back to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
After Aunt Shen left, Le Ling smiled again. He asked Jing Mingchen, "Did you find the person you were looking for that year?"
Jing Mingchen was about to answer, but someone interrupted her: "Of course, the person she found is right in front of you."
It’s Jiang Gubei.
He strode in and walked towards them, grabbed Jing Mingchen's wrist, and calmly pushed her back: "My name is Jiang Gubei, Miss Jing's fiancé. May I ask your name?"
Hearing the word "fiancé", Le Ling's face froze. After a long while, he answered reluctantly: "My name is Le Ling, I'm a businessman, and I met Miss Jing once in Yunnan."
After the greetings, the two returned to Jing Mingchen's room. Jing Mingchen complained to Jiang Gubei: "You were so full of thorns just now."
Jiang Gubei didn't take it seriously: "That guy named Le Ling is not a good person. I saw him a lot when I was in Shanghai. He has oily hair and powdered face, and his behavior is artificial. His eyes are frivolous and his demeanor is slick. At first glance, he is a gigolo who lives on women."
Jing Mingchen was surprised: "You really know how to judge people!"
She told Jiang Gubei what she heard people say about Le Ling in the restaurant that year, not to gossip about her, but after hearing what Jiang Gubei said, she remembered "Mrs. Xu" and "Deputy Minister Xu". She felt that Jiang Gubei should know about this matter, so she asked: "Do you think that this Deputy Minister Xu is the brother-in-law of Mr. Jin in your business, that is, Mr. Xu from the Central Bureau of Investigation?"
Jiang Gubei groaned for a moment. "Deputy Director Xu does have a wife who has been separated from him for many years. Rumor has it that she is in Yunnan. Could it be that Le Ling is really her lover? When I return to Chongqing, I will ask Ah Da to check it out."
Jing Mingchen asked him again: "Why did you come to Leshan suddenly? I haven't sent out my letter this month yet."
Jiang Gubei said, "The Jiang family is going to build a house in Leshan, and I'm here for business. Where's your letter? Since it hasn't been sent out yet, just show it to me."
Jing Mingchen hurriedly blocked the drawer: "That won't work. How can I read the letter in front of you?"
Jiang Gubei hugged her around the waist and put her on the table to sit down. He smiled proudly and opened the drawer with one hand to take out the letter: "I won't read it in front of you. I will read it quietly at night."
He noticed a stack of manuscripts and asked, "What is this?"
Jing Mingchen took the opportunity to grab it and said, "I translated A Tale of Two Cities. There are too many things going on in the nursery. I have only translated a few chapters in the past year. I guess it will take me a long time to finish it."
It turned out that she still remembered what she said last year about translating the Chinese version of "A Tale of Two Cities" for him.
Jing Mingchen thought of something else, and her eyes looked melancholy: "I wonder how Miss Guan is doing."
Since leaving the nursery, Miss Guan has not received a single letter. No one knows where she has gone or how she is doing now.
As the saying goes, a raging fire will bring about the blooming of flowers. A quiet place will become even quieter, and a lively place will become even more lively. First, Le Ling came, then Jiang Gubei came, and soon after, people from Sihai Film Company also came.
Sihai Film Company came to the nursery to shoot a documentary. They wanted to make a documentary about the national war of resistance, and the nursery was also within the scope of the shooting.
For a moment, the small nursery was as lively as a garden in early spring.
After being blocked by Jiang Gubei with the word "fiancé" that day, Le Ling was discouraged for only one day, and then she became more and more attentive to Jing Mingchen. Jing Mingchen didn't know his purpose and could not help but avoid it.
One day, Le Ling asked Jing Mingchen: "Do you look down on me like everyone else?"
Jing Mingchen hurriedly explained: "No, I definitely didn't mean that."
Le Ling didn't believe it: "Then why do you avoid me like the plague? I know I come from a bad family, but I was forced to do that. I wasn't born a bad person."
He told Jing Mingchen about his life story. He was born in a poor family. When he was young, his family could not afford to support him, so they signed a life and death agreement and sent him to the opera troupe. He studied opera for ten years, and endured all the hardships he could imagine. He never expected that he would lose his voice when he was a teenager. He prayed to God, but his voice was still ruined. His dream of becoming a music boss was completely shattered. The opera troupe saw that his future was ruined and kicked him out. He lived for opera all his youth and had no other skills. He sang the role of a young man, Liu Mengmei and Li Yi. He only knew how to talk about love. Life is like a play. He brought his weak character on the stage to the stage. He couldn't carry anything on his shoulders or lift anything with his hands. No one wanted him to be a laborer. Fortunately, he had a handsome face that rich ladies liked. Mrs. Xu took a liking to him at first sight, recruited him, provided him with food and clothing, and gave him a position in her own transportation company.
Jing Mingchen felt a little sympathetic when he heard this: "You are no longer the lonely boy you were back then. You now have some savings and connections. Have you ever thought about leaving Mrs. Xu and starting your own business?"
Le Ling smiled bitterly: "Do you think I don't want to? Is Mrs. Xu really sincere to me? She just treats me like a lapdog!"
He rolled up his sleeves to show his arms: "Look at my body covered with bruises, do you really think I got beaten because I did something bad? It's just that I offended Mrs. Xu. Mrs. Xu has a violent personality, and she will beat me if I don't do what she wants."
Jing Mingchen was shocked: "Why don't you leave her now!"
Le Ling shook her head: "I don't dare. If I stay with her, I will get beaten at best. If I leave her and anger her, I might even lose my life."
He leaned close to Jing Mingchen's ear and whispered something, and Jing Mingchen's face turned pale.
He said: "I personally saw Mrs. Xu ordering her men to kill people. There was no other reason, just because they had borrowed money from her at high interest rates and had no money to pay back. They were beaten to death."
The Sihai Film Company staff only stayed in the nursery for a week, and the filming was over. After seeing them off, Le Ling reluctantly returned to Kunming. Jiang Gubei had also almost finished his business in Leshan, and was leaving for Chongqing the next day.
When standing at the door to see off the people from the film company, Shen Bei felt quite melancholy: "The excitement came and went quickly, just like flowers, suddenly they all bloomed, and suddenly they all withered."
Jing Mingchen, however, did not see it that way: "That is not true. After the crabapple blossoms, the peony blossoms. After the peony blossoms, the pomegranate blossoms. They say that the flowers have bloomed until the tea leaves fade, but after the tea leaves fade, there are still chrysanthemums. They say that after the chrysanthemums bloom, all other flowers die, but don't we still have wintersweets in winter?"
Shen Bei smiled and said nothing.
A crisp bell rang closer, and the postman stopped on his bike at the entrance of the nursery: "Mr. Shen, just in time, your letter and package."
Shen Bei took the letter and the package, looked at the postmark on them, and said to Jing Mingchen with a smile while opening the letter: "The letter sent by the Air Force Group is most likely a letter from Yue'er. This child is really homesick. It's only been half a month since the last letter."
As she took out the contents of the envelope, her smile froze on her face.
The letter fluttered to the ground, and the crabapple petals fell with the wind, and with a sigh, gently fell on the big words "Death Notice".
The package sent along with the letter contained Yi Ming Gong's relics.
He didn't have much belongings, just a few sets of clothes, a diary, a pen, and a few photo frames.
In several photo frames, there are photos of himself, a group photo with his classmates when he graduated from Jiangqiao Aviation School, a photo with his mother, and a photo of his parents when they were young.
Jing Mingchen's eyes moved to a photo frame and he was suddenly stunned.
That's her photo.
In the photo, she was sitting at the piano and playing. It was that night in Yichang... His comrade-in-arms took a photo of her when she was unaware. Later, the photo came into his hands, and he kept it in a frame and placed it on his bedside table with his closest relatives and friends.
Holding the photo frame, Jing Mingchen couldn't help feeling a little confused.
Suddenly, a long whistle sounded in the distance. Jing Mingchen was startled and the photo frame in his hand fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Jing Mingchen squatted down to pick it up, but was stunned again when he picked up the photo.
After a while, two lines of hot tears rolled down from her eye sockets.
On the back of the photo were written two lines of powerful words: The day when the North conquers the Central Plains, I will dance with you.
The night in Yichang many years ago seemed to reappear in front of her eyes. The handsome pilot looked at her with a smile and said to her: I hope I can ask you to dance with me again in the future.
She also heard her own solemn answer: When the war is won, I will dance with you.
She still owed him a dance, but he would never come to dance it.
She knelt on the ground holding the photo and cried for the whole afternoon.
When Jiang Gubei returned to the nursery from the county town, Jing Mingchen was still crying.
As soon as Jiang Gubei entered the nursery, he heard that the director's son had died in the war. He walked into Jing Mingchen's room, took the photo from her, saw the inscription on the back, sighed softly, held her hand, pulled her up, and helped her stand.
He gently wiped away the tears on her face and whispered, "Just treat me as him and dance with him the dance that he owes me."
He took a step back, bowed slightly, and held out his hand to her: "Miss Jing, I am Yi Minggong, a soldier from the Air Force Group. I hope you can dance with me tonight."
After receiving the notice of Yi Minggong's death in action, Shen Bei fell ill.
She has been a widow for many years and raised her son alone. Her son was her spiritual support. Now that the support has collapsed, her world has collapsed with it.
She was already in poor health, having had lung disease for many years. This time the disease came on fiercely. A month later, the doctor walked out of her room and shook his head at Jing Mingchen: "It will be in these few days."
Jing Mingchen's nose felt sore. She walked into the room and smelled the scent of approaching death as soon as she entered.
Shen Bei was lying on the bed, with the pillow propped up high, looking at a photo frame, which contained a photo of her and her late husband when they were young.
Seeing Jing Mingchen coming, she smiled weakly: "You are here, what did the doctor say? You don't have to hide it from me, I know, I am dying. Actually, it's nothing, my husband and Yue'er are gone, I have nothing to worry about in this world, it's good to reunite ."
She stroked her late husband's face in the photo, her eyes full of tenderness: "My husband and I were engaged when we were children. Later he went abroad to study, but I was still a country girl picking mulberry leaves. I thought he would follow the trend and cancel the engagement, but he didn't. I was very nervous when I married him. I thought we would never get along, but we were actually very loving. I liked him the first time I saw him, and he later told me that he was also very happy when he saw me for the first time. I have seen many country girls whose engagements were canceled. I feel very lucky to have met my husband, but I didn't expect that he would leave me after a few years."
"Mr. Xu was a man of great ambition. He wanted to publish a newspaper to enlighten the people, but he was imprisoned by the Qing Dynasty for violating the newspaper law and was sentenced to lifelong ban on publishing a newspaper. After he was released from prison, he left me in sorrow and anger. A few years later, the Qing Dynasty fell, and I thought, Mr. Xu's life was really hard, but he didn't survive those years. I thought, since publishing a newspaper was his long-cherished wish, I, as a widow, should inherit his business. I didn't have much education and could only recognize a few words. In order to publish a newspaper, I went to school again, raised Yue'er and studied at the same time, and finally published a newspaper 20 years after Mr. Xu passed away. The newspaper my husband published back then was also called "Zhenshi Daily"."
When she talked about the past, her gray face radiated a pearly glow. Jing Mingchen looked at her. When this fifty-year-old widow said the word "sir", her eyes were filled with not only respect and admiration, but also girlish shyness. In front of her lover, she was always a teenage girl with admiration in her heart, but behind her lover, she could be a strong mother and a warrior.
Jing Mingchen never thought that Mr. Shen, who looked weak and frail, would have such an experience.
Shen Bei pressed the photo frame against her chest and said, "I am an old-fashioned person. I don't understand the free love and independence advocated by your generation. My world revolves around you. I have always felt that I am worthy of you, but I didn't expect Yue'er to die before me. I was unable to preserve the bloodline of the Yi family for you."
Jing Mingchen held her hand and comforted her softly: "Although Commander Yi died young, he preserved the bloodline for thousands of families. Your husband would be proud of him."
Shen Bei smiled weakly and closed her eyes.
That night, Shen Bei passed away.
When she died, Jing Mingchen was by her side. In her last moments, Jing Mingchen saw her suddenly open her eyes, with an admiration and attachment that was difficult to describe in words. She gently said, "Sir, you are here," in the tone of a girl in her first love, and then closed her eyes forever.
The crabapple blossoms in Leshan Nursery have faded.
A month later, the new appointment letter was delivered and Jing Mingchen was appointed as the new dean.
She moved into the dean's room, where Shen Bei died a month ago.
Pushing open the door, she seemed to see Shen Bei again in the dim light. Shen Bei was wearing a plain plaid cotton cheongsam, with her back slightly hunched, writing a letter under the dim light of the oil lamp.
Jing Mingchen felt a lump in his throat and burst into tears.
One day in August, an old friend suddenly came to the nursery.
In fact, you can say he is an old friend or a stranger. Jing Mingchen knew his name and had met him once, but that was all.
The person who came was Lin Xianyu, whom I met in the Chongqing Theater during the Spring Festival that year, and the "battlefield deserter" and "Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics spy" in my second sister's words.
Why did he come to see him? Jing Mingchen was puzzled.
Lin Xianyu had a solemn expression with a hint of melancholy. He asked Jing Mingchen in a low voice, "I have something to say to Miss San. There are so many people in the nursery that it's inconvenient to speak. Miss San, can you find a quiet place?"
Jing Mingchen didn't understand what he meant, but still said, "Then let's go to the riverside."
The two of them walked in silence all the way to the riverside, looking at the Buddha across the river. Lin Xianyu stopped and sighed: "Miss Third must not remember me."
Jing Mingchen forced a smile: "Not at all, I saw you last time at the theater and I had a deep impression of you."
Lin Xianyu shook her head: "No, the first time I met Third Miss was not in the theater, but Third Miss just doesn't remember it. Speaking of which, Third Miss is my lifesaver."
Jing Mingchen was puzzled, Lin Xianyu smiled faintly: "In 1937, I was fighting on the battlefield. I was injured once and was sent to the Army Hospital for treatment. When I was taken out of the car, I was no longer breathing. The other nurses thought I was dead and wanted to send me directly to the morgue. It was the Third Miss who insisted that I could still be saved, so Xianyu was able to save my life."
The past gradually surfaced in his mind, and Jing Mingchen suddenly realized: "It turned out to be you!"
She did remember such an incident, but the Army Hospital had a frequent flow of wounded soldiers at that time, and she was just a reporter who went there to interview them. At that time, Lin Xianyu was seriously injured, his whole body was wrapped in bandages, and his face could not be seen clearly.
Seeing that she finally remembered, Lin Xianyu's lips curled up slightly: "For Third Miss, this may be insignificant, and it doesn't count as much in the good things you have done, but for me, it is the grace of rebirth. I have always wanted to repay Third Miss."
Jing Mingchen waved his hand: "What's the use of repaying? You were a good man who killed the enemy on the battlefield and defended the country. It was because of you that others could live a stable life. If you were to say it, it was you who did me a favor first. But why did you become..."
Lin Xianyu knew what she wanted to ask. She wanted to ask how a passionate warrior could become a Central Bureau of Investigation agent. He did not answer, but said softly: "This time, I was asked by the Second Miss to bring a message to the Third Miss."
Second sister? Jing Mingchen perked up: "What did my second sister say?"
Lin Xianyu answered her: "The Second Miss said that he knew."
He knows? What kind of strange words are these? Jing Mingchen chewed on them for a long time before he realized that the last time he met his second sister, he asked her to bring a message to Mr. Shen’s childhood friend Gu Lingyu. The second sister’s “he knows” must mean this, and she brought the words to Gu Lingyu’s ears.
But why did she ask Lin Xianyu to pass on the message? The last time they met, she was quite disdainful of Lin Xianyu.
Jing Mingchen suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart, and she asked Lin Xianyu: "What happened to my second sister? Why did she ask you to tell her?"
Lin Xianyu did not answer her. He just looked at her silently, with sadness in his eyes.
After a long while, he finally spoke: "Miss Third...I am sorry for your loss."
The two words struck Jing Mingchen like thunder. Jing Mingchen was trembling all over. She couldn't believe it. After a long time, she finally shook out two words from her lips: "What?"
Lin Xianyu looked at her with pity: "Miss San, I came to Leshan to deliver a message and to announce the death of Miss Er. Miss Er passed away five days ago. Before she died, she asked me to come to Leshan to find you, to pass on her message and to announce the death to you."
Jing Mingchen felt dizzy, her throat became very dry, and every word she spoke was like a stone scraping her throat: "How did my second sister die?"
Lin Xianyu weighed his words carefully. He was silent for a long time before he slowly spoke: "Regarding the work of the Second Miss, the Third Miss and Mr. and Mrs. Jing probably only know that she works in the government. In fact, the specific work of the Second Miss is a special agent of the Military Control Commission. I met the Second Miss because of some frictions between the Central Control Commission and the Military Control Commission. But the Second Miss is not just a member of the Military Control Commission, she is actually an agent planted by the Communist Party in the Military Control Commission. The Second Miss has been lurking for many years without any mistakes, until not long ago, when there was a secret meeting of the Communist Party, the Central Control Commission learned the time and place of the meeting from an informant and rushed to arrest her. Unexpectedly, they caught the Second Miss who was left behind."
"The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Military Bureau of Investigation have always been at odds with each other, and there have been many frictions. When they saw that they had captured a Military Bureau agent, they naturally felt that they had caught something of the Military Bureau, and they were overjoyed. The Second Miss was secretly detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation, and they tried to pry something out of her. I also participated in this arrest operation and was one of the people who interrogated the Second Miss. The Second Miss and I had many frictions at work, and she always looked down on me, but at the critical moment, there was no one else she could trust, so she had to entrust me. Once when I was interrogating her alone, the Second Miss asked me that if she died in the Central Bureau of Investigation prison, she should ask me to come to Leshan and tell you the four words 'he knows', to inform you of her death, and to convey to you not to tell her parents about her death."
"Third Miss, although I don't understand the doctrine that Second Miss believes in, I must say that Second Miss is great. She was tortured but didn't give up a single person."
"It was not until her death that the interrogators heard a vague name from her. Later, in the room where she was imprisoned, they found words written on the floor covered with straw, with fingers dipped in blood. It was the same name over and over again. The idiots were so happy that they immediately investigated the name. Hey, guess what, the investigation results came out that this person named Liang Tingyue was an officer who died in the Battle of Xuzhou as early as 1938. The useless people were furious after all the efforts they made to investigate only a dead person... Miss San, may I ask, who is this Liang Tingyue?"
Jing Mingchen's lips trembled: "He is the person my second sister likes but cannot get."
After a long silence, Lin Xianyu smiled faintly: "It's just as I expected. The second young lady admires a hero who died for his country. No wonder she despises a battlefield deserter like me."
Jing Mingchen murmured, "Mr. Lin, I want to be alone for a while."
Lin Xianyu nodded, saluted her, and turned to leave.
Jing Mingchen walked alone along the Qingyi River in a daze. She didn't know how long she had been walking. She only heard thunder in the sky and soon heavy rain poured down. She didn't dodge but walked in the heavy rain like a walking corpse. She wanted to cry, but no tears came out. She just felt her legs were weak and her heart was empty.
She remembered the year when she was entrusted by her second sister to deliver a sachet to Liang Tingyue. Her second sister, who had always been bright and lively, actually had some shyness of a little girl on her face. Only then did she know that her second sister, who looked free and unrestrained, had been in love with someone since her teenage years. From the moment she had an accidental glance at that person when she was in Huangpu, Guangzhou, she had admired that person and even enrolled in a military academy for him.
She still remembered that when she told her second sister Liang Tingyue's polite refusal, her second sister's eyes were full of disappointment, but with a forced smile on her face, she murmured, "That's good, from now on there will be no more shackles, and you can do it boldly without worry."
She didn't understand the meaning of this sentence at that time, but now she understands that what her second sister said was that since she couldn't get love, she could devote everything, even her life, to her cause.
She also remembered that on the night when Officer Xiao Liang returned to the battlefield, she woke up in the middle of the night and saw her second sister smoking through the small hole in the wall. She was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at the moonlight outside the window. Her back looked so lonely in the smoke.
Also, that year, before the second sister left Wuhan, she went to the nursery to donate a child. She didn't go there to donate a child at all. She just wanted to see Liang Tingyue's son. She donated Congwen and coaxed Congwen to call her "Mom", but until her death, she never heard Congwen's word "Mom".
Her poor second sister.
She had the best relationship with her second sister since she was a child. Her eldest sister was a dignified lady, and there was a big age difference between her and her. She always acted like a half-mother. Although her second sister always teased her that she was a fool, she would play with her. In the old house in Wuhan, her second sister's room was next to hers. The two of them secretly dug a hole in the wall. When they couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, they would pass notes to each other. All the things about Liang Tingyue were passed to her by her second sister through the hole. She and her second sister had a pillow fight, laughing and making noises, and the sky was full of feathers. It was rare to snow in winter, so her second sister got up early and went downstairs for a walk. With her hands full of cold air, she ran to her room, put her cold hands into her neck and told her to get up...
Jing Mingchen tripped over something and fell to the ground, face down in a puddle. He then finally burst into tears, clutching the fallen leaves and dirt.
She cried for an unknown amount of time, and then she felt a pair of warm hands holding her up in the darkness. She didn't need to look to know who it was. That person always appeared by her side when she needed warmth the most. Even if he was thousands of miles away from her, he always found a way to be by her side when she needed him.
She closed her eyes and leaned on his chest, crying: "My second sister is dead. She was killed by the Central Bureau of Investigation."
Jiang Gubei didn't say anything, but just stroked her hair silently.
After a long time, Jing Mingchen said, "My second sister asked Lin Xianyu from the Central Bureau of Investigation to come and tell me not to tell my parents about her death. Mr. Jiang, I was there when Qianmo died, and you and I were the only ones who knew that he was gone. I always thought I understood your pain, but only now do I truly understand how much pain you must have felt."
Jiang Gubei didn't say anything for a long time. He held her face in his hands, leaned in and kissed her lips lightly. Then he looked at her and said solemnly and softly, "Ms. Jing, your secret will be kept by me from now on."
Time flies, and it’s Chinese New Year again in the blink of an eye.
Jing Mingchen lived in fear for the past six months, fearing that his parents would know about his second sister's death. Fortunately, he was not discovered in the end. The Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics was concerned about Mr. Jing's status as a party and state veteran, and was afraid of causing unnecessary conflicts, so they concealed the news of his second sister's death. The Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics wished that this had never happened, so they also blocked the news from the outside. As for his parents, his second sister had been elusive for many years, so although she had not shown up for half a year, his parents did not suspect anything, and just thought that she was sent out on business again.
As the year drew to a close, letters from Jing Mingchen's mother urging him to return to Chongqing for the New Year came one after another.
Jing Mingchen was very conflicted. On the one hand, she felt that she should help her second sister and be more obedient to her mother. On the other hand, she was afraid that when she returned to Chongqing and faced her parents, she would think of her second sister, feel sad, and would not be able to hide it.
Finally, it was not until the day before New Year's Eve that she reluctantly returned to Chongqing.
As soon as she entered the door, she heard her mother's laughter. When she walked into the living room, she was surprised to find Lin Xianyu was there too.
She became nervous unconsciously. What was Lin Xianyu doing here?
Seeing her come back, her mother stood up and said angrily, "You still remember to come back!"
The mother turned around and smiled at Lin Xianyu and said, "Look, our daughters are all disobedient. The second daughter is like this, and the third daughter is also like this. "
Jing Mingchen exchanged glances with Lin Xianyu, who signaled her to stay calm. Jing Mingchen sat patiently for a while, and when Lin Xianyu said goodbye, he immediately rushed out under the pretext of seeing him off.
As soon as he left the Jing family's house, Jing Mingchen couldn't wait to ask, "Mr. Lin, why did you come to my house?"
Lin Xianyu said, "Nothing, I just came to tell Mrs. Jing that the second young lady is out of town on official business and can't make it back for the New Year, so she asked me to tell her."
Jing Mingchen looked at him suspiciously: "Why would my mother trust you?"
Lin Xianyu smiled faintly: "Have you forgotten that the second young lady once lied to your mother that I was her boyfriend. The second young lady has a strange personality. She doesn't tell her biological mother when she has something to say, but only tells her boyfriend. This situation is also very likely. Mrs. Jing really believed it."
Jing Mingchen felt relieved. She looked at Lin Xianyu and said, "You know my second sister very well."
Lin Xianyu smiled bitterly and shook his head. He looked at the bare winter trees not far away and said softly, "The Second Miss and I are both rivals and soulmates."
Jing Mingchen watched him leave, turned around and went home, and went upstairs to see his father.
After the strangers left, Mrs. Jing took off her mask and revealed her worried face. She sat at the head of Mr. Jing's bed and cried, "Otherwise, why would I ask you to come back for the New Year this year? Doctor Richard said that your father might not survive this winter."
My father's illness has worsened over the past year. Now he sleeps more than he wakes, and is only awake for one or two hours a day.
Just like now, Jing Mingchen and his mother were sitting beside him, but he fell asleep.
Jing Mingchen said to his mother, "You go and rest first. I'll stay here with Dad for a while."
The mother left as she said. Jing Mingchen sat by the bed and looked at his father. Suddenly, his father twitched in his sleep and mumbled a name.
He called, Minghuan, Minghuan.
Jing Mingchen burst into tears. She held her father's hand and answered him softly: "Dad, I'm here, I'm here."
In the evening, Richard and Gu Nanqiao came to see Mr. Jing. When Jing Mingchen saw them off, Richard said to Jing Mingchen, "Mr. Jing is not in good condition. If he can survive the Spring Festival, he may be saved."
What this means is that when a person is like a candle that goes out, it is during this Spring Festival.
Jing Mingchen's knees went weak and she sat on the ground. She hated this year. So many people left in this year, Yi Minggong, Shen Bei, her second sister, and now it was her father's turn.
She still remembers the last Spring Festival and how happy she was at that time. Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, the beautiful flowers would wither and the cooking oil fire would go out.
Mr. Jing died on the second day of the Chinese New Year, having just celebrated his birthday the day before.
The Jing family had been prepared for this, so they were not panicked when the time came. However, no matter how long they had prepared themselves mentally for the death of a loved one, it was still heart-wrenching when the event came.
The Jing family had two men, Mingyu and the eldest brother-in-law, to take care of the outside affairs, and the mother and the eldest sister to take care of the inside affairs. Jing Mingchen, an unmarried girl, became an idle person, and only had to kneel in front of the mourning hall to observe mourning.
Mr. Jing was a veteran of the Legislative Yuan and had taught at a university. There were countless celebrities from the political, business and academic circles who came to pay their respects. Jing Mingchen knelt on the ground, watching pairs of leather shoes come and go in a daze, until a pair of shoes stopped in front of her and said to her: "Mingchen, take care of yourself."
Jing Mingchen's tears flowed down, and she choked up and replied, "I know."
This was the first time she met Jiang Gubei after returning to Chongqing. To her, he had an invisible power. She could feel comforted just by standing there, even without saying anything.
During the war, even funerals were kept simple, and Mr. Jing's funeral ended quickly.
On the night of the burial, the Jing family gathered in the restaurant for dinner. Mrs. Jing looked around and suddenly burst into tears: "Where on earth did that dead girl Minghuan go? How could she be so unfilial that she didn't even come back to see her father after he died. If she is so unfilial, she might as well just die out there."
Jing Mingchen lowered her head, her hands tightly grasping the tablecloth. She gritted her teeth and tried hard to hold back her tears, not daring to cry.
She recalled that before her father passed away, when she was the only one around him, he suddenly came to his senses and asked her, "Little girl, tell me honestly, is your second sister gone?"
He had been bedridden for three years and had no chance of hearing anything, but there was a telepathic connection between father and daughter. My second sister had a twisted personality and loved to argue with her mother, but she was obedient and admired her father.
Jing Mingchen knew that he couldn't hide it from him, so he nodded in agreement.
Dad sighed, "Among the three of you sisters, I've always been most worried about her. Your eldest sister is a lady from a wealthy family, and she's chaste. As for you, Dad has always believed that you're lucky because you're a fool. But your second sister is like a fire, always burning herself excessively. Dad was always worried that she would burn out, but I didn't expect that she would actually die before me."
Tears glistened in his eyes. "Xiao Nannan, I'm sorry for you. Keep this a secret from your mother. She can't stand losing two relatives in a row. Even though she likes to bicker with your second sister, she actually loves you very much in her heart."
She promised her father that she would keep the matter secret for the time being, and would find a way to tell her mother slowly after her mother's pain subsided a little.
She had promised two people, so she had to keep it a secret. Even though her mother kept saying that her second sister was dead outside, she couldn't say a word for her.
Everyone finished the meal in silence amid their mother's sobbing and then went back to their rooms.
Jing Mingchen lay in bed with her eyes open until midnight but could not fall asleep. She got up carefully, dressed, went downstairs and walked out of the house.
She walked towards the direction of the North Mansion. It was already past three o'clock in the morning. She thought Jiang Gubei must be asleep. It didn't matter if he was asleep, and it didn't matter if she couldn't see him. As long as she was close to him, she felt comforted. She needed comfort so much right now.
She didn't expect that the lights in the North Mansion were still on.
Jiang Gubei's study on the second floor exuded warm yellow light. She stood outside the door and looked at it for a long time, then rang the doorbell.
Soon someone came downstairs to open the door. It was Jiang Gubei. He walked towards her with big strides, pushed open the iron door and held her cold hand: "You're here."
Jing Mingchen smiled up at him: "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
Jiang Gubei led her inside: "I'm waiting for you, I know you will come."
He pinched her fingers and whispered, "Mingchen, I want you to know that no matter when, there is always a light here that is on for you."
Jiang Gubei had already ordered someone to clean up the guest room for Jing Mingchen. Jing Mingchen went to sleep after washing up. After walking such a long way to the Bei Mansion, she was really tired and soon fell asleep.
When she woke up the next day, it was already bright outside. The sun shone through the light green curtains, and mottled light and shadows fell on her arms. Jing Mingchen lay quietly for a while until a maid knocked on the door: "Miss Jing, dinner is served downstairs. Do you want to get up and eat?"