With a roadblock in front and pursuers behind, Ada had no choice but to stop the car.
The door of the car behind opened, and two people got out and walked towards their car. Jiang Gubei lowered the window and greeted the people: "Director Ye, what do you want to talk to Jiang about?"
The person who came was none other than Director Ye of the Three Youth League in the past and Director Ye of the Party Communications Bureau today.
Director Ye was wearing a spotless white Mao suit, looking gentle and elegant, but in his hand he held a small Browning pistol, with the black muzzle pointed directly at Jiang Gubei: "Mr. Jiang, it's nothing serious, but there are some things that the Party Communication Bureau wants to find you to understand the situation."
Jiang Gubei sat in the car without moving: "I wonder what this is about?"
Director Ye touched his chin and said, "Mr. Jiang is a smart man. With your social status, what else could the Party Communication Bureau secretly ask you about? We are old friends. Let's speak frankly. Some time ago, the Party Communication Bureau arrested a friend from Yan'an. He provided us with a lot of interesting information. For example, a playboy named Jiang Tao was originally a Yan'an agent. During the years he was on the Yunnan-Burma line, he provided convenience to Yan'an. For another example, this Jiang Tao is still in contact with his former boss, and his boss is secretly communicating with Yan'an..."
Jiang Gubei interrupted him and said calmly: "I'm afraid I'll never come back after I leave."
Director Ye nodded and said, "Don't worry, we won't implicate your family, especially your lovely fiancée. We will create a beautiful car accident and explosion scene, and make sure that even your fiancée won't be able to tell the difference."
Jiang Gubei pushed open the car door and got out. Ada shouted "Sir" and was about to stand up. Director Ye raised his gun and pulled the trigger quickly. In an instant, a flower of blood bloomed on Ada's heart.
Jiang Gubei was pointed at gunpoint all the way until he got into Director Ye's car.
There was no interrogation, no forced confession, nothing. He thought they would execute him secretly, but unexpectedly, in the end he was just thrown into Tilanqiao Prison.
His treatment in prison was not bad either. He was held in solitary confinement in a small room.
For three whole years, no one came to see him. The only thing that kept him company was the small crabapple bookmark. They allowed him to keep it, and he kept it close to his heart, as if it was her. Whenever he couldn't stand the torment of loneliness, he thought of her, and when he thought of her still living in a corner of the world, his eyes would be filled with tears, and courage would burn in his chest again.
He originally thought that he would stay in this silent cell until he died.
Until one day in April, Director Ye suddenly came to see him and said to him: "Mr. Jiang, I'm afraid the world is about to change. I'm leaving and going to Taiwan. But before I leave, there is one thing that gives me a headache, and that is you. What should I do with you? Originally, you should have died three years ago. I decided to spare your life, but I didn't expect that you would become a burden today. It is definitely impossible to take you to Taiwan. Perhaps, I should follow the order given by my superiors three years ago?"
But Director Ye did not kill him after all.
One night three days later, he was blindfolded and taken out of the prison. He thought, perhaps this night when the night owls howled was the day of his death, perhaps, the wilderness overgrown with weeds was his final resting place.
Unexpectedly, Director Ye simply pulled off the black cloth on his head, fired a shot into the sky, and said to him: "Go, go back to Wuhan, there are people waiting for you."
He didn't ask why, he just turned and ran.
He disguised himself and left Shanghai. When he arrived outside Wuhan, he found out that Wuhan was also at war. He waited and waited, and finally the war was over and the People's Liberation Army entered the city. He followed the People's Liberation Army into the city, and then he saw the girl standing upstairs.
As time goes by, the world has become old like clothes, but she remains the same as before.
Jing Mingchen held him for a long time, as if he was a dream and he would wake up as soon as he loosened his hold.
After a long time, she finally believed that this was not a dream. Reason returned to her mind and she asked Jiang Gubei: "Why? Why did Director Ye let you go?"
As soon as she said this, she thought of the answer herself.
She remembered Miss Guan's visit two months ago.
"Only women can be like this. For the sake of pure love and admiration, they are willing to be slaves, serving their lost youth, the beauty they never had, the good education they were not blessed with, and the bright future they never had in their miserable lives."
Once, in Leshan, when they were leaving, the charming and beautiful Miss Guan said to her: "Miss Jing, you look a lot like my sister... If she were alive today, she would be about the same age as you."
At the same time, Shanghai, Longhua Airport.
Miss Guan stood on the gangway, staring blankly in the direction of Wuhan. The wind was strong at high altitude, ruffling her long hair. She grabbed the collar of her coat with one hand, but still couldn't stop the cold wind from blowing straight into her heart.
This was a plane flying to Taiwan. In the cabin, Director Ye was resting with his eyes closed, waiting for her. He knew that she would not run away and she would definitely come in.
The waiting was so boring that it reminded him of the day three years ago when he received the order from his superiors.
The superiors instructed that Jiang Gubei was smuggling and colluding with the Communists. At a time when the war was at a stalemate, in order to prevent him from providing assistance to the Communists, Director Ye was ordered to carry out a mission to kill Jiang Gubei in Shanghai. Considering Jiang Gubei's social influence, the mission was carried out in secret, and then an opportunity would be taken to shift the blame to the Communist Party afterwards.
When he first received this order, he found it incredible.
Jiang Gubei, a big businessman who dominated the business world of the Republic of China, was rumored to be the vengeful son who forced his biological father to death. He always thought that Jiang Gubei was just a profit-seeking businessman, and at most a little romantic man when it came to love affairs, and had some heart-wrenching ambiguous entanglement with Miss Jing San.
Wait a minute, Miss Jing San.
As if he suddenly thought of something, he walked out of his boss's office and into the sun. He couldn't help but stop for a while with his eyes squinted.
Three days later, he carried out the task, but did not kill Jiang Gubei. Instead, he secretly imprisoned him in Tilanqiao Prison.
A few days later, he secretly took a man to the prison and let that man take a look at Jiang Gubei through the secret compartment of the prison. Then, he walked out of the prison and negotiated a deal with that man in just half an hour.
"How about you stay with me and I'll spare his life?"
"I can go and tell Miss Jing San the truth."
"Go ahead and see who is faster, you or my gun."
After what seemed like a century of agony, the man finally squeezed out a word from between his teeth: "Okay."
Three years later, he negotiated a second deal with the same person in the same place.
"The government is ready to evacuate, and I will follow the government to Taiwan."
"What are you going to do with Mr. Jiang in prison?"
"His death was reported in the newspaper three years ago. He is worthless to us and we have no intention of taking him away."
"You're going to kill him?"
"He has a chance to survive, and the chance is in your hands. You come with me and I'll let him go, how about that?"
The man gnashed his teeth and asked back: "Why do you think I would be blackmailed by you?"
He reached out his hand, clamped her chin, and whispered, "Because you are stupid, Miss. I still remember when you and your brothers and sisters read A Tale of Two Cities together when you were little. The third young lady liked Mr. Carton, the second young master liked Dr. Manette, but you liked Miss Percy the most. I still remember your favorite line."
"Only women can be like this. For the sake of pure love and admiration, they are willing to be slaves, serving their lost youth, the beauty they never had, the good education they were not blessed with, and the bright future they never had in their miserable lives."
He removed his hand and said coldly: "It was not me who made you a slave, but your own foolish spirit of sacrifice and Miss Jing San's eyes that resembled your sister's."
The plane is about to take off.
Miss Guan turned around and walked into the cabin.
The plane flew towards the small island on the other side of the mainland, surrounded by thick clouds and vast rivers and seas. From then on, she could never look back.
After three years, Jiang Gubei stroked Jing Mingchen's cheek again, his eyes full of tenderness and pity: "You love to cry so much, you must have shed a lot of tears in the past three years."
She loved to cry so much, and she was crying many times when he met her. In the lonely years in prison, he always thought of her tears. The old times turned her tears into amber, and he was a spider wrapped in amber. Thinking of her tears, he tossed and turned. How many tears would his crying little girl shed for his death, and who could wipe her tears when she cried?
A string of pearl-like tears rolled down from Jing Mingchen's eye sockets and crawled over Jiang Gubei's fingers. She smiled and answered him coquettishly: "I will cry in front of you, but I won't cry behind your back."
They walked home hand in hand, through the revelry crowds and waving flags. Time flies. They had thought that the period would be seven years, but in the blink of an eye, it was twelve years. Twelve years is good. The old people always say that twelve years is a reincarnation. After a reincarnation, the nation welcomes a big reunion, and they finally get their own small reunion.
The world has changed a lot, but your smile remains the same.
Let’s go home.
Passing by road after road, passing by tree after tree, looking at the spring scenery all over the city, Jiang Gubei said with regret: "It's a pity that the crabapple flowers have all withered."
Jing Mingchen answered him with what he had said to Shen Bei in Leshan that year: "After the crabapple blossoms, the peony blossoms, and 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? There are flowers all year round. As long as there are people to appreciate the flowers together, it doesn't matter what flowers are in bloom."
Hearing this, Jiang Gubei smiled. Isn't it true? With people to enjoy flowers together, why worry about the flowers not blooming? In the eyes of lovers, everything they see is like looking at flowers.
Just at this moment, a leaf fell down. Jiang Gubei reached out to catch it, and then put it on Jing Mingchen's hair.
"Flowers are blooming on the roadside, you can go home slowly, Mingchen, I'm back."