Have a safe journey

“Then you…” Ji Yuxing began to speak, but then hesitated.

"I won't regret it."

As if he already knew what he was going to ask, Zhang Chenglin still answered his question.

“To them, my existence is a nuisance.” Zhang Chenglin turned to look at Ji Yuxing again, a faint light in his eyes, but not obvious: “The Party can’t do without me.”

“Now that the Kuomintang headquarters has been moved to Shanghai by Zhuang Yanbin and Jiang Rusu, the Kuomintang people can no longer tolerate me.”

"This is Zhang Chenglin's fate."

After Zhang Chenglin finished speaking, Ji Yuxing was shocked and looked at him in disbelief.

Having known each other for several years, Ji Yuxing knew that outsiders generally perceived him as very low-key and seemingly indifferent to everything.

But Ji Yuxing knew that he was definitely not that kind of person, otherwise he wouldn't have maintained contact with Sheng Dongsheng while he was still studying at Cambridge, and after returning to China, he would have served the Party's construction cause without the slightest hesitation.

Even today, the Party organization has not given him a legitimate identity.

Ji Yuxing remained silent for a long time. Just when Zhang Chenglin thought he wouldn't speak again, he suddenly said, "But isn't Jiang Xiaoxiao still in Shandong?"

*

The next afternoon, Jiang Xiaoxiao went to Zhang Chenglin's house.

"How strange," Jiang Xiaoxiao said as soon as she entered the house, acting as if she were in her own home. She wandered around Zhang Chenglin's yard, inside and out, and then, without going inside, stood by the rockery in the center of the yard and said to Zhang Chenglin, "Young Master, what made you think of inviting me to be your guest?"

Zhang Chenglin turned to look at her, but before he could speak, Jiang Xiaoxiao cut him off with a single sentence: "You used to avoid me like the plague."

Zhang Chenglin: "..."

You've already said everything, what am I supposed to say?

Not hearing Zhang Chenglin's voice, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but turn to look at him: "What? Is this how the young master's mansion treats its guests?"

Looking at her carefree smile, Zhang Chenglin asked helplessly, "When are you going back to Shanghai?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao blinked, her gaze unfathomable, her tone filled with disbelief: "You went to all this trouble to call me here just to ask me when I'm going back to Shanghai?"

“No,” Zhang Chenglin answered, then said nothing more, as if he would stop talking to Jiang Xiaoxiao if she didn’t answer his question.

Jiang Xiaoxiao had been his aunt for over twenty years, so how could she not know what kind of bad temper her nephew had? She could only compromise and say, "Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, Guanyu's wedding is in a few days, and I have to go back in advance to help out."

"After all, you know how many people will be coming."

Zhang Chenglin nodded, indicating that he understood.

Jiang Guanyu, the eldest son of Jiang Rusu and the eldest grandson of Jiang Yuanxing, holds a prominent position in the Jiang family.

At that time, both Jiang Yuanxing's and Jiang Rusu's connections will converge in Shanghai, making Shanghai the most dangerous place.

After all, the headquarters of the two major political parties are now in Shanghai, so no one dares to be careless, and no one is without greed.

"Can you take my mom with you when you leave?"

After hearing Ji Yuxing's words last night, Zhang Chenglin thought about it for a long time before finally making that decision.

If he can't persuade Jiang Xuyin, someone else can.

There aren't many people like this; Jiang Xiaoxiao is one of them.

If anyone besides Jiang Xiaoxiao could make the same decision as Jiang Xuyin, it would be Zhang Deyue.

“Too many people want your mother to go back to Shanghai,” Jiang Xiaoxiao said, her smile fading, her face, though adorned with exquisite makeup, now serious and earnest. “Including me.”

“However,” Jiang Xiaoxiao changed the subject, her gaze turning sharp as she looked at Zhang Chenglin, “for her now, Shandong is no different from Shanghai.”

“Yes,” Zhang Chenglin said after a moment of silence, his voice carrying a hint of melancholy that Jiang Xiaoxiao hadn’t quite caught: “Zhang Deyue dedicated his life to the greater good of the nation and to his own selfish interests, but even as he left this world with a tarnished reputation, this vast Republic of China did not belong to him in the slightest. My mother was just herself; she should always have been that carefree young lady of the Jiang family in Shanghai.”

"She stayed in Shandong, and when the war broke out, Zhang Deyue was able to protect her."

"But I... am not Zhang Deyue."

Jiang Xiaoxiao was surprised by his words. She had always prided herself on knowing Zhang Chenglin well, but only at this moment did she realize that Zhang Chenglin was no longer the child she remembered.

As he said, he began to shoulder the great responsibility of the nation and the safety of his family.

"If she goes back to Shanghai, will you go back?"

For the Jiang family, led by Jiang Yuanxing and Jiang Xiaoxiao, Jiang Xuyin was very important, but Zhang Chenglin was just as important.

Unlike everyone who wanted Jiang Xu to return to Shanghai, almost no one wanted Zhang Chenglin to return to Shanghai.

For many years, Chang Cheng-lin has cultivated an image of being idle and incapable of achieving anything significant, making him the ideal KMT "puppet" in the eyes of many ambitious but powerless individuals.

Therefore, if Chang Cheng-lin, who had already left Shanghai and posed no threat to the current KMT leader, were to return to Shanghai without warning at this time, he would certainly become a thorn in the side of many people.

His situation is going to become very dangerous.

But then again, no matter what, the Jiang family still exists in Shanghai, and Jiang Yuanxing will protect him no matter what.

“No,” Zhang Chenglin said without hesitation, his tone firm: “Zhang Deyue is such a capable person, how could his son be a coward?”

*

Jiang Xiaoxiao left, taking Jiang Xuyin back to Shanghai.

On the day they left, Zhang Chenglin personally saw them off at the airport.

Before boarding, Jiang Xiaoxiao asked him with a smile, "You little rascal, you're really not coming with your auntie?"

Jiang Xuyin stood beside her, looking at Zhang Chenglin with an emotion he couldn't understand.

“I will come back,” Zhang Chenglin said with the arrogance often seen on the faces of seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys, “but it’s not the right time yet.”

"Take good care of my mother," Zhang Chenglin said to himself without giving Jiang Xiaoxiao a chance to speak, "Have a safe journey."

As Zhang Chenglin turned to leave, his gaze lingered on Jiang Xuyin for a moment. That single glance contained a torrent of emotions, making Jiang Xuyin's heart skip a beat.

“The older, the more…” Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at Zhang Chenglin’s back as he walked away without looking back, sighed, and was about to speak when she saw Jiang Xuyin’s equally dazed gaze as she looked at Zhang Chenglin’s back. The words she was about to say stopped abruptly.

No one in this world loves their son more than a mother.

Similarly, no one in the world loves Zhang Chenglin more than Jiang Xuyin.

Zhang Chenglin used all his strength and means to lead Jiang and Xu to what he considered the safest place.

When he turned around and walked back into the dark vortex, he did so without hesitation.

After an unknown amount of time, so long that Zhang Chenglin's figure had disappeared from Jiang Xiaoxiao's sight, Jiang Xuyin finally spoke: "Let's go."

“Okay.” Jiang Xiaoxiao paused for a moment, then quickly followed her.

Jiang Xuyin followed Jiang Xiaoxiao back to Shanghai, and Zhang Chenglin no longer had such deep concerns and ties in Shandong, so he was able to follow Tan Yuanbo to the battlefield without any worries.

"Will you regret it?" Ji Yuxing asked Zhang Chenglin, who was resting with his eyes closed, on the way back.

Zhang Chenglin turned to look at him. He knew Ji Yuxing was asking him if he regretted not going back to Shanghai with Jiang Xiaoxiao. He gave a soft "humph" from his nose and didn't answer his question.

Ji Yuxing opened his mouth as if to ask something, but before he could speak, Zhang Chenglin interrupted him, saying, "Instead of thinking about these trivial things, why not think about how to deal with Jiang Guanyu's wedding?"

Although Zhang Chenglin and Jiang Guanyu are cousins, they are not particularly close. When Zhang Chenglin lived with Jiang Yuanxing as a child, they saw each other quite often. Later, Zhang Chenglin returned to Shandong. When he was studying abroad, Zhang Chenglin was in Cambridge, England, while Jiang Guanyu was in Paris, France, and the two rarely saw each other.

Therefore, the relationship between Zhang Chenglin and Jiang Guanyu was neither good nor bad from beginning to end. Apart from their kinship as "cousins", they were at most childhood playmates.

After hearing Zhang Chenglin's words, Ji Yuxing casually took out a pen and notebook from his jacket pocket and began to scribble and draw:

"Today is November 24th, and Jiang Guanyu's wedding is on November 28th. There are still four days left. Jiang Xiaoxiao and your mother have already returned to Shanghai. People from both parties are definitely already in Shanghai, keeping an eye on the Jiang family's every move."

"As for the others... those in China are preparing to go to Shanghai on the 26th or 27th, and those abroad are almost on their way. The Jiang family will definitely have a lot of visitors in the next few days."

"Jiang Rusu and Jiang Yuanxing are both too high-ranking. As long as the invitation is in place, no one will refuse to give them face, and no one will dare to refuse them. So let alone four days from now, Shanghai is very dangerous even now."

"By the way, when are you going to Shanghai?" Ji Yuxing drew a relationship diagram of the people who would be going to Shanghai in his notebook, then looked up and asked Zhang Chenglin, "Shouldn't you go back to help with your family's affairs beforehand?"

"Are all those servants in the Jiang family just freeloaders?" Zhang Chenglin looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Do I have to go help them?"

"I'm already being kind enough to show up; one shouldn't be too greedy."

After saying this, Zhang Chenglin chuckled and then turned the conversation to Ji Yuxing: "Don't you think so?"

Ji Yuxing raised an eyebrow, hesitated, and nodded: "Mm."

“I reckon Mr. Sheng and Lao Tan will be calling us to prepare in the next couple of days,” Zhang Chenglin said, then paused, “Mr. Sheng should be going back a day earlier.”

Ji Yuxing nodded: "Then it's probably tomorrow?"

“Let’s wait for news,” Zhang Chenglin shook his head, indicating that he didn’t know either. “If Mr. Sheng leaves tomorrow, he will call us to Old Tan’s house tonight. If he leaves the day after tomorrow, we will go to Old Tan’s house tomorrow.”

Ji Yuxing had the same idea as Zhang Chenglin. He looked down at the paper in his hand that had already drawn the relationship diagram, glanced at it a few times to make sure he had memorized it, tore it into countless pieces, and stuffed it back into his pocket.