Jinghong Tower

Xiao Mingming is from Jincheng. She has relatives in Jincheng, but no one is waiting for her in Jincheng. The person who hoped that she could live a bright and healthy life is long gone.

"Sister, if I go back to Jincheng, my father and stepmother will sell me again. Sister, can I go with you? I can cook, wash clothes, and take care of children. I can do everything."

He Mingyue thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then you can go to the capital with me."

A few days later, He Mingyue and He Shaolin's team returned to the capital. With He Zongqun's great victory and the complete incorporation of the Dark Lord's troops and territory, this desert mission came to a successful conclusion.

This trip did not include the Jinyiwei including He Mingyue. There were a total of eight people in He Shaolin's team when they went, but only five people when they came back. Among them, He Shaolin's eldest son He Duofu, and two other young men from Hejia Village, stayed in the desert forever.

The day after He Mingyue returned to the capital, Lu Chang also returned.

Only then did He Mingyue realize that she brought back one Mingming, but the other Mingming did not come back.

Zhong Yi was discussing matters with several of his men in the yamen when a report came in that Lu Chang, the chief manager of Jinghong Tower, wanted to see him.

Zhong Yi was stunned. He and Lu Chang had no friendship. They were not even acquaintances. Why would Lu Chang come to see him?
However, he quickly asked someone to invite Lu Chang in.

Lu Chang did not come alone. She was accompanied by a girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old. The girl looked clean and had a pair of clear eyes that were not tainted by dust.

After the greetings, Lu Chang explained his purpose: "Commander Zhong, the threshold here is high, and ordinary people can't get in. My little sister wants to see you, but I'm afraid she won't be able to get in by herself, so I dared to bring her here. Commander Zhong, do you mind?"

Zhong Yi frowned. He did not hear wrong. He sensed a strong hostility in Lu Chang's tone.

Zhong Yi didn't care. There were too many people who disliked him. Even among the Ran army, only a few people liked him. Of course, most of these people who liked him were outliers in the eyes of others. In other words, all normal people disliked him.

Zhong Yi turned his gaze to the little girl Lu Chang brought with him: "You want to see me?"

The little girl stepped forward and bowed to him. "I am Ruyan from Jinghong Tower in Hangzhou, and I am also the leader of the Fuzhou Operation Support Team. After the Fuzhou Operation, I carried out other tasks. Therefore, it was not until now that I came to the capital to ask for an audience with Zhong for instructions."

The other task Ruyan mentioned was to cooperate with Zongqi's attack on Fujian. This operation lasted for several months. Therefore, Ruyan could not come to the capital with Lu Chang until Lu Chang went to Fuzhou to spend the New Year with Zongqi.

Zhong Yi narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a deep voice, "Continue."

He knew that it was Hangzhou Jinghonglou that provided support to Lu Mingming, and he also knew from the intelligence that Lu Mingming was dead. According to the rules, now looking at the little girl named Ruyan in front of him, Zhong Yi had a hunch that she came for Lu Mingming.

Ruyan said, "I wrote the report on the Fuzhou operation. The space is limited, so I didn't write it in detail. I came here to report to Mr. He and Commander Zhong in person. Before coming to you, I had already met Mr. He. Now I come to see Commander Zhong and want to tell him about the Fuzhou operation."

Yes, before coming to Jinyiwei, Ruyan had already met He Ran. She was so excited that she cried while talking. In order to calm her down, the boss He asked Xiaoli to bring a lot of snacks. She ate the snacks for a while and read a joke in the evening paper. Finally, her emotions stabilized and she said everything she had prepared along the way.

Now that she had come to the Jinyiwei, she had completely calmed down. Besides, the commander Zhong in front of her was really not exciting at all.

Ruyan's normal state returned to her original state, and she narrated every detail of the Fuzhou operation in her still childish voice.

She talked about the sadness of that night, she talked about Mingming's courage in going deep into the tiger's den, she talked about how Mingming pushed her away when the crossbow arrows shot at her, she talked about how Mingming used that strange big firecracker to smash herself to pieces at the last moment.

"That loud bang shook the world. The surviving guards could only find her body parts and could not confirm her identity at all. No one knew who the assassin was that night. They even thought it was someone from the four great families. But how painful it must have been when that big firecracker exploded on her body."

Ruyan thought that her tears had all dried up in front of Mr. He. She thought she could soberly and calmly tell Zhongyi everything that happened that night, but she was wrong. She overestimated herself. At this moment, when she recounted it all again, she was still in tears.

Zhong Yi had a blank expression on his face, and his eyes were like two pools of stagnant water, without a single ripple.

After Ruyan finished speaking, she took a deep breath and took out a porcelain pillow from the backpack she was carrying. Just now, when she came in, the Jinyiwei at the door almost confiscated the porcelain pillow as a dangerous item.

"Before Sister Mingming entered the palace, she asked me to give you the contents of this porcelain pillow. I brought the pillow with me. Sister Mingming left nothing behind. This pillow is her only relic. She was a member of your Jinyiwei, so I brought this pillow to you. If you Jinyiwei think it takes up too much space, you can give it to me."

After saying that, Ruyan took a step forward and placed the porcelain pillow on the Eight Immortals Table next to Zhongyi.

Zhong Yi didn't reach out to touch it. He looked at Ruyan and said, "Thank you."

Zhong Yi looked at Lu Chang again and said calmly, "Thank you, Mr. Lu, for bringing this child here. I am busy with official business, so I will not stay any longer."

Is this an order to evict us?

Lu Chang rolled his eyes. Zhong Yi wondered if he thought his Jinyiwei Yamen was a good place and that not everyone would be willing to come.

"You're welcome. We'll take our leave then."

After saying that, Lu Chang took Ruyan out of the Jinyiwei Yamen.

Walking out onto the street, Ruyan heaved a sigh of relief and said to Lu Chang, "Sister Lu, so that's the Jinyiwei's yamen. This place is really depressing. How come Sister Mingming is such a good person, she ended up being a Jinyiwei."

Lu Chang didn't know Lu Mingming, but she knew He Mingyue: "You haven't met the other people in the Jinyiwei. Not everyone is like this Envoy Zhong. For example, He Mingyue is a very interesting person. I heard that she has returned to the capital. I'll send someone to invite her to Qinghuan Tower for a drink. I'll introduce you to her then."

However, neither Lu Chang nor Ruyan had expected that three days later, they would not only meet He Mingyue in Qinghuan Tower, but also another Mingming, Little Mingming.

At this moment, Zhong Yi waited until she could no longer see Lu Chang and Ruyan before she stretched out a finger and gently and carefully touched the porcelain pillow.

The porcelain pillow was the kind that could be easily bought on the street. It had a pattern of a boy holding a lotus on it. It must have been made in a small workshop. The workmanship was very rough, and it felt uneven under the fingers.

But Zhong Yi touched the porcelain pillow inch by inch, as if it were a rare treasure. The uneven touch gave him the illusion that the pillow was alive, and he enjoyed this illusion.

I don't know how long it was before he reached into the porcelain pillow, where there was an envelope.

It was a letter, a letter written by Lu Mingming to him. It was also the only correspondence between Lu Mingming and him.

He suddenly felt scared. In his two lifetimes, he had done many earth-shaking things, but at this moment, he didn't dare to open a letter.

He sat there holding the letter for a long time, and finally, he unfolded it.

".When you see this letter, I must be dead. Ruyan said that before she came to Fuzhou, her grandmother Xiu Gu asked everyone in the aid team to write a suicide note. Ruyan said that she wrote several suicide notes, but even so, she still felt it was not enough because she had many friends and she had too many words to leave for these friends.

Today, I also have to go on a mission, and I may not come back once I leave.

I want to write a suicide note like Ruyan, but I have no friends, so I'll just write a letter to you.

When we left the capital, you told me that if I returned alive, you would marry me.

At that time, I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t know whether I was happy or unhappy.

But now I know, I finally know what I am thinking.

I want to tell you, I don’t want to.

Yes, I don't want to marry you.

If I can come back alive from this mission, I will not stay in the capital, let alone marry you. I will go to a place where it is warm like spring and sunny. I will buy a yard where I can get some sunshine. For the rest of my life, I will stand in the sunshine. "

Ten days later, Ruyan was leaving the capital and returning to Hangzhou. Lu Chang, He Mingyue and Xiao Mingming went out of the city to see her off.

Xiao Mingming happily told this sister who hit it off right away: "Sister Ruyan, I am going to study at a women's college. When I can write, I will write to you. You must remember to write back to me."

Ruyan touched her little head and said, "Okay, sister will wait for Xiao Mingming's letter. Sister will definitely write back to Xiao Mingming."

Lu Chang said to Ruyan, "On my way here today, I met someone from the newspaper office. He Yamin asked her to inform you that Lu Mingming's deeds will be drawn into a comic strip and spread all over the world."

Although the newspaper office had sent someone to interview her a few days ago and even drew a portrait of Lu Mingming according to her description, Ruyan was still very excited when the matter was finally confirmed. She grinned, and as she laughed, two lines of tears burst out of her eyes.

At this moment, the sound of horse hooves came from far away. When it got closer, He Mingyue saw the knight on the horse and frowned, "Xiao Cui? Why is he here?"

Others don't know this Xiao Cui, but He Mingyue is very familiar with him. Xiao Cui is someone that He Mingyue likes to be around.

"Xiao Cui, do you have a mission?" He Mingyue was curious. Having said that, He Mingyue knew in her heart that Xiao Cui's mission was to run errands for Zhong Yi.

Xiao Cui got off the horse and said, "Great! Miss Ruyan hasn't left yet. We finally caught up. All along the way, I was worried that Miss Ruyan had already left."

Now Ruyan has no good feelings towards any of the Jinyiwei members except He Mingyue.

Hearing Xiao Cui say this, Ruyan was annoyed: "You just started on the road."

Xiao Cui touched his mouth. Actually, before he became an Imperial Guard, he used to be a very likable young boy. But he didn't know what was going on. Ever since he became an Imperial Guard, he became gradually hated by everyone. Just a random word he said would make people want to beat him up.

"That's not what I meant. I'm just worried about Miss Ruyan returning to Hangzhou. By the way, I'm following the envoy's orders to bring this to Miss Ruyan."

As he spoke, he took out something from his back, which was an exquisite brocade box.

Ruyan was stunned. What does this mean? Did the Jinyiwei give her a gift?
She subconsciously opened the brocade box, and inside was the porcelain pillow with the boy holding lotus.

"Ah? It seems that you Jinyiwei really think this takes up too much space. It doesn't matter. I will take it back to Hangzhou and treasure it like a treasure."

Ruyan sneered that these Jinyiwei were too cold-blooded and heartless.

Xiao Cui slapped himself on the face. He almost forgot the master's instructions.

"Our envoy said that it is difficult to see sunlight in Jinyiwei all year round. Miss Ruyan, please take this porcelain pillow away and put it in a sunny place. The owner of the porcelain pillow will definitely be very happy."

Ruyan was stunned.

She vaguely remembered that she had once told Mingming that she had lived in the sunshine since she was ten years old. At that time, Mingming seemed a little envious.
Not long after, a new issue of the comic book was printed and published and displayed in bookstores of all sizes.

"Look, there's a new comic book out. Wow, the sister on the cover is so pretty."

"That's right, this must be a heroine."

"I know, I know. Her name is Lu Mingming. She was the one who killed the traitor Jing Chongguang who committed regicide and rebellion."

"Oh my god, she is so powerful. Jing Chongguang actually died in her hands."

Zhong Yi, dressed in casual clothes, walked on the street, and heard exclamations from time to time. This was just the story those people had heard. When they opened the comic book and saw that thrilling night, and Lu Mingming's heroic act of detonating a bomb and blowing himself to pieces in order to erase his identity, almost everyone who read the book shed tears.

This is not a story, this really happened.

The naval battle in Fujian made Zong Qi and the Ran Army navy famous throughout the world, and will surely be recorded in the history books and leave their names in history.

From then on, Zong Qi became a famous general. Even now, he is known as a rising star.

As for Lu Mingming, she became known to the world only after this comic book was published.

Two months later, a cemetery was built in the suburbs of Beijing, and He Ran personally wrote the inscription "The noble spirit will last forever".

Most of the tombs in the cemetery are cenotaphs, and some even have their clothes and hats intact, such as Lu Mingming. The only relic she left behind was the porcelain pillow that Ruyan took to Hangzhou.

In her tomb was a fourth-rank military officer's uniform. He Ran posthumously conferred on her the title of fourth-rank General Xuanwei.

Also buried in Haoyuan were He Shaolin's eldest son He Duofu, as well as He Shunguang and He Dayong who died in the desert operation.

Their bodies remained forever in the desert, and buried in Haoyuan were their old clothes and the official uniforms they had never worn. (End of this chapter)