67 Rising Vision | Civilization Exists, the Nation Exists
Lin Yiyi's phone call took longer than cooking rice.
The chicken soup had boiled three times, and the fragrant mist of the white rice had reached the ceiling, but she was still curled up in the corner downstairs, crying and laughing in front of her phone.
It was probably today that she saw her sister's happy face, a light like the Milky Way falling into a speck of dust. She counted her lover's shortcomings like pebbles among a grain of rice. Halfway through, she remembered that those pebbles had once struck tiny sparks. A belated hug, a clumsy comfort, a light deliberately left burning until dawn just to wait for her.
So quarrels, regrets, and reconciliation, like three strands of rope twisted together, flowed back and forth in her heart and on the corners of her lips along the radio waves.
I used to compete with my classmates, comparing family backgrounds and gifts, but never comparing who was sweeter.
However, how can sweetness be compared?
Now Lin Yiyi suddenly realized that the sweetness in ordinary life should not be the same.
The same starry sky is vast and boundless, but what falls into the corners of everyone's eyes should be completely different spots of light, incomparably bright.
So, the complaints of crying and laughing, the love that was both bitter and sweet, followed the weak signal of the mobile phone and quietly completed the tide again and again in her heart.
Upstairs, in the open kitchen.
Jiang Yu took off his down jacket and put on a loose gray sweatshirt. The sleeves were casually rolled up to his forearms, and his muscle lines were faintly visible in the hot oil and steam.
He leaned forward slightly, stirring the ribs in the pot with his chopsticks. The ribs made a crisp sound, and the amber sweet and sour sauce quickly climbed up the crevices of each small piece. He tilted his head to taste it, his eyebrows raised slightly, and casually added another half spoonful of vinegar, his movements as quick and precise as a sniper's shot.
On the other side of the stove, Lin Weifeng, wearing a creamy white apron and her hair loosely tied into a bun, a few strands of hair at her temples, dampened by the steam, clung to her slightly flushed cheeks. She was looking down at a clay pot, where the broth gently simmered, the sweet aroma of matsutake and corn rising through the white mist.
Lin Weifeng scooped up a little soup with a wooden spoon, blew on it carefully, and handed it to Jiang Yu's lips. Jiang Yu lowered his head and tasted it from her hand, and the corners of his eyes instantly curved into crescents.
This was their first time cooking side by side.
It always takes longer to make soup. During this time, Lin Weifeng took off her apron, went to the bathroom to wash her hands, and put on some makeup.
After the sound of water stopped, she came back with light steps, put her arms around Jiang Yu from behind, and her hands moved restlessly up and down his waist, like a naughty cat, starting to "disturb" him from showing off his cooking skills.
Jiang Yu tilted his eyes slightly, his voice low and smiling, "Ms. Lin, if this continues, I'm afraid Chef Jiang won't get a five-star rating."
"Isn't it okay for me to give it to you?" She answered bluntly while leaning against his back.
When the sweet and sour pork ribs had finished absorbing the juice, Jiang Yu picked up a piece, held it in his palm, blew on it gently, and handed it to her mouth.
Lin Weifeng reluctantly loosened his arms and began to taste it.
"It's delicious, the taste of plum pork ribs!"
"Still eating?"
Lin Weifeng shook his head and said softly, "Save it for lunch."
“I do a lot.”
"My mouth wants something else now."
Having a tacit understanding can sometimes be an embarrassing thing.
Jiang Yu understood immediately and raised his eyebrows and said, "Lin Weifeng, this is your house, how dare you?"
"Can't I just eat vegetables?" She winked. "What are you thinking?"
"Oh oh oh, okay, okay, then I'll stir-fry some artemisia." Jiang Yu smiled weakly.
Lin Weifeng held him down and added softly, "There's still time, no rush."
The balcony window was wide open, and the warm sun after the snow poured in from the glass, falling on the shoulders of the two people and the edge of the pot.
The spatula and soup spoon occasionally collided, making a crisp clinking sound.
The sweet and sour taste of sweet and sour and the mellow aroma of bone broth entwined in the air, like two silk threads that refused to separate, and also like their entangled gazes.
Lin Weifeng said: "What I am more anxious about is to see your wound."
Jiang Yu: "You have to take off your clothes."
"Let's go to the room then?"
Jiang Yu looked up at her boudoir and said, "Do you remember? I've been there."
"Isn't it just standing by the door?"
"Unsatisfied?"
“Not satisfied.”
Jiang Yu covered the small ribs and, turning around, picked her up as a princess, "I'm afraid you'll be too satisfied."
He hugged her so suddenly that Lin Weifeng felt the world suddenly become lighter.
She subconsciously put her arms around his neck, and the tips of her ears turned red: "Is the ribs okay?"
"Simmer it on low heat, it won't run away."
His voice was low and his eyes were gentle.
"Last time it was by the door." He lowered his eyes to look at her, his Adam's apple rolling. "Where do you want to go this time?"
Lin Weifeng buried her face in the crook of his shoulder and said in a muffled voice, "Check the wound first... then, we'll calculate slowly."
The door closed with a click.
Jiang Yu knelt on one knee beside the bed and gently set her down. His fingertips lifted the hem of her sweatshirt, a very light movement that still sent a jolt of electricity through her. She saw the sutured gunshot wound, dark red and slightly raised, like a winding underground river.
"Does it hurt?" Lin Weifeng asked.
He smiled, love surging in his eyes: "It hurts, I want a kiss to relieve the pain."
Before he finished speaking, Lin Weifeng raised his chin and placed a kiss between his scars.
The shadow of the hanging basket outside the window swayed in and fell on the backs of the two people's folded hands.
Jiang Yu slowly leaned over and held Lin Weifeng's breath in his mouth.
The standard male physique slowly pressed down, and the girl's mattress was soft, gently collapsing towards the center.
They rolled over and over in rhythm with their breathing, and accidentally knocked over a small storage basket at the head of the bed, and a small box fell to the ground.
Jiang Yu took a look and paused. It was...
Lin Weifeng's ears turned red as he explained in a low voice, "My parents agreed to go to your house before the Lunar New Year to sort things out. They thought you would come over often and that you might need this stuff, so they left a box."
The box lay quietly in the spot of light. Jiang Yu asked, "Are you going to use it now?"
Just as Lin Weifeng was about to answer, he heard the doorbell ring and Lin Yiyi came back.
The fifth day of the Lunar New Year is the day to welcome the God of Wealth. Jiang Sanlu led the fellow villagers of Jiangguan Village to the mountain to pray for blessings, and Jiang Yu recorded a video for her.
There are still piles of unmelted snow on the top of the mountain, and incense wrapped in red paper stands among them, and the incense is burning brightly.
Lin Weifeng was watching happily when he suddenly received a phone call wishing him a happy new year.
"Lawyer Lin, huh? Happy New Year."
The other party was obviously not familiar with her and was not sure whether the phone number was hers.
Lin Weifeng: "Who are you?"
"I am the asset manager of Xun Song's former residence. My surname is Wang, and my name is Wang Zhaohe."
Lin Weifeng said politely, "Hello, Mr. Wang, and Happy New Year."
Wang Zhaohe smiled brightly, "Lawyer Lin, I want to thank you."
"Thank me for what?"
"Because you and your husband pioneered the idea of renting our former residence for your wedding, it went viral! It immediately attracted so many couples that all the major wedding companies were asking us if we could provide the venue to plan a similar wedding according to their requirements."
His voice danced and he sounded very happy.
"That sounds like a good thing, but Mr. Wang called me, probably not just to thank me for attending the wedding, right?" She paused. "Besides, you must know that the person who signed the contract with Xun Song's Former Residence was not me, but my best friend, Ms. Sun."
"Yes, that's right. Ms. Sun also gave me your phone number."
"So, Mr. Wang, what do you want to ask? Feel free to ask."
"I know Lawyer Lin is deeply involved in cultural relic preservation," Wang Zhaohe said slowly and responsibly. "To be honest, we're considering opening Xun Song's former residence as a wedding venue. But it's quite old, and it houses a collection of valuable antiques. So, before we fully open it to the public, we'd like to ask for your legal advice."
He emphasized: "To be precise, we want to hire you as our legal advisor."
Lin Weifeng smiled and said, "It's my honor. Come to the institute in the new year and we can talk in detail."
"Okay, no problem."
Good things happened, Lin Weifeng was very happy, he threw himself on the bed, without even kicking off his shoes, hugged the quilt and rolled around like a cooked shrimp.
However, the good times didn’t last long. Lin Weifeng received a call from Ding Yang, which extinguished her joy like a bucket of crushed ice.
"Ryukyu withdrew from the second phase of restoration of 'Framed Ladies', and it was removed from the list of exhibits for the Spring Artifact Exhibition."
Lin Weifeng investigated the reason and found it so absurd that it seemed like unofficial history.
In the core area of the Ryukyu Kingdom's capital, a pile driver at a construction site sank, revealing an ancient tomb.
The patterns on the tomb walls, the symbols carved on the bricks, and the broken pottery buried with the dead bear remnants of ancient China. Even the few fragments of artifacts that were looted bear the cinnabar cloud patterns of the Central Plains.
The Ryukyu authorities sealed off the scene overnight and only told the outside world that the excavation was "temporarily suspended."
Ding Yang smiled bitterly, "They refused to admit that their ancestors might have come from the East, so they simply put 'Framed Ladies' into the cold. After all, everyone knows that the folds in the ladies' clothing in that painting originated from Han Dynasty brocade."
Her voice was tense on the phone: "Lawyer Lin, what should we do with the bluestone statue?"
Lin Weifeng held the phone tightly, her smile had long since faded, but she believed: "There is a way."
Just look at the general idea, don't seek to understand it in detail.
There must be a way to deal with such a big thing.
Rushing and counting the days, the lawsuit for the recovery of the Flower Silk Book was almost due, and the Nandun judicial authorities were expected to issue their first response. Lin Weifeng looked forward to it.
Three days before the countdown, Lin Weifeng attended the museum's meeting on the touring exhibition of Liguo cultural relics to Jingjiang.
The theme of this exhibition is: As long as civilization exists, the country exists.
These six short words, like a blunt knife, split the illusion that "cultural relics are just exhibits."
On the day of the official exhibition, the event was a huge hit, with visitors flocking in, and Jingjiang TV station broadcast it live.
Lin Weifeng is already accustomed to working from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and he naturally explained to the camera the legal work the museum had done for this exhibition.
The person in charge of the live broadcast today was not Zhao Duan, but Zhao Duan’s new apprentice.
Zhao Duan remembered that during the last live broadcast, Lin Weifeng "acted on her own initiative" and "spoke wildly" in retrieving the silk book. This time, he specifically instructed his apprentice to leave some time for Lin Weifeng and let her emphasize the importance of the silk book.
Lin Weifeng accepted Zhao Duan's kindness and did not let his efforts go to waste.
With the promotion of public opinion, many people have come to realize that the folding maps, book binding and other daily behaviors that we use without noticing are all evolved from silk books. Silk books are one of the important sources of Chinese scholarship and are crucial to the development and reconstruction of civilization.
Even the Chinese ambassador to Nandun said, "Chinese cultural relics lost overseas were driven away from their homeland by the nation's weakness and chaos, and are now returning home with the nation's rejuvenation. We hope that more and more lost cultural relics will return home with dignity, bearing witness to China's prosperity today."
In the united public opinion work, Lin Weifeng received the "acceptance notice" from the Nandun International Court.
However, a "notice" was attached at the end: the Nandun authorities hoped that the plaintiff would keep the litigation process confidential before the judgment was made.
After Lin Weifeng informed the Jingjiang Museum, everyone thought it was feasible.
Jiangguan Village held an emergency village meeting. Some villagers felt the "notice" was arrogant and should not be kept secret, arguing that the other party should be drowned in saliva. Finally, after several village leaders analyzed the pros and cons and discussed Sun Tzu's "Art of War," everyone agreed to the confidentiality plan.
After acceptance, there is a long period of time to provide evidence.
However, Lin Weifeng is not alone.
The Jingjiang Cultural Relics Bureau indirectly joined this civil lawsuit. At the "International Seminar on the Protection and Return of Cultural Relics Lost in a Colonial Context" it hosted, they publicly accepted physical evidence from non-governmental organizations and government agencies around the world regarding the circulation of China's "Flower Silk Book".
These physical evidences include the box lid that was once used to hold the silk book, the loan label with the organization's logo and other information, which can prove the origin and circulation of the silk book, and create strong conditions for its return to China.
Piece after piece of evidence was delivered to Lin Weifeng, and document after document that had been successfully notarized and authenticated was piled into the file bag...
Before you know it, spring is almost over.
Should have made a date.
However, Jiang Yu is also busy at the border these days, cracking down on a transnational organization that traffics women.
Lin Weifeng opened his mobile phone and clicked on the items recorded in the reminder APP one by one, and found out that he could go to the airport to pick him up tonight.
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