Chapter 60 Qingyun woke up crying in the middle of the night because she missed him.
The answer was almost certain, and my tender heart felt as if it had been gently pricked by a fine needle.
Jiang Mingxue pursed her lips, clearly already knowing, but still asked:
"What's wrong, Colonel Rong? Are you asking a question you already know the answer to, or is that a violation of military regulations?"
She pulled the blanket tighter, leaned back in her chair, and sighed deliberately: "We've only been married for a year and a month, and you've already lost the patience to answer questions."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a low, husky laugh, like warm water washing over pebbles, so light it almost seemed to melt into the electricity.
A smile drifted through the receiver, and even the tone of his voice softened with a hint of compromise:
"Okay, then I'll patiently explain it to Mrs. Rong again."
Jiang Mingxue held her breath, her fingers gripping the phone tightening unconsciously.
The other person was silent for a few seconds, then spoke again in a calm and somewhat solemn tone:
"C is the first letter of China, and M is the first letter of the character 茗 (míng)."
He paused for a moment, then continued:
"Mrs. Rong, there's no doubt, M is you."
It's one thing to guess it yourself, but it's quite another to hear it from his own mouth.
Jiang Mingxue's heart seemed to be racing uncontrollably. She pressed her chest down and asked calmly, "Why is it an M, and not an X?"
Rong Chengzhou continued to patiently explain to her:
"I think the fragrance of tea in the mountains suits you better than the white snow of winter."
"茗" refers to the tender buds of the tea tree, implying a refined and gentle nature like tea.
This was indeed her grandfather's original intention when he named her.
Her apprentices usually addressed her by the name "Ming," and she herself preferred this name.
Her lips and eyes curved slightly, and she unconsciously fiddled with the blanket between her knees, momentarily forgetting to respond.
The deep voice came again:
"Is Mrs. Rong satisfied with my answer?"
Jiang Mingxue snapped out of her reverie, her eyes slightly lowered, and replied to him with a reserved air:
"Hmm, it's alright."
Rong Chengzhou stood on the path, a smile gently escaping his throat, drifting across the vast fields:
"I'm glad Mrs. Rong is satisfied."
The cool breeze in the fields bent the stalks of the green ears of grain, startling the grasshoppers on the blades of grass.
He smiled, and Jiang Mingxue smiled silently in response.
No need to speak, no need to meet.
You can then sense the other person's current mood.
--
Since that night, Rong Chengzhou has been out of contact again, and has not contacted her for five or six days.
Jiang Mingxue wasn't in a hurry. She stayed at Songyunting for a few days and gradually adapted to life without Rong Chengzhou.
As usual, she went back and forth between two points: eating, sleeping, seeing patients, and studying, repeating the work she had done for many years.
During this time, Madam Rong and Jiang's mother wanted to visit her, but she declined, citing that she was too busy with work.
She wasn't pretending to be strong; everything she said was the truth.
Even if Rong Chengzhou isn't home, she will live a good life.
Seeing that she was in good condition, the people around her gradually felt relieved.
Rong Chengzhou was gone for more than ten days, during which time news of him was scarce.
Jiang Mingxue didn't know if he was safe, but he was carrying her jade pendant, so she believed he was safe.
On the tenth day, Ning Jialing specially brought her a bouquet of flowers and told her the good news: "Jiangjiang, I passed the IELTS exam and I'm going to study abroad in the next few days."
Jiang Mingxue was genuinely happy for her: "Congratulations, you're about to take off."
The little girl's face radiated confidence: "Yes, thanks to your guidance, I was able to figure it out."
"If you can't go against the adults, then become an adult yourself." She repeated what Jiang Mingxue had told her before. "Actually, my brother helped me to go abroad smoothly."
Jiang Mingxue looked at her with a smile in her eyes: "Your brother?"
Ning Jialing blushed: "It's Ning Yanze. I've found out he's not so bad lately."
From Ning Jialing, Jiang Mingxue learned that Ning Guohui originally disagreed with Ning Jialing going abroad, wanting her to join the company and seize shares. However, after Ning Yanzhe successfully took over the Ning family's business, he used unseen means to strip Ning Guohui of his power and imprisoned him in the villa where he had once been imprisoned.
The Ning family underwent a dramatic change overnight. Ning Guohui had raised a tiger only to have it turn out to be a threat. He thought his illegitimate son, who had always been submissive, would be an obedient puppet, but in the end, he was locked up in a dark attic by his own son.
After all, they were father and daughter, so Ning Jialing pleaded with Ning Yanzhe for mercy, and he promised her he would let her live.
Afterwards, Ning Yanzhe transferred one-third of his shares to Ning Jialing and voluntarily funded her to study abroad, arranging for her to attend the most prestigious school and have the best living arrangements.
The relationship between the two half-siblings was thus eased.
Jiang Mingxue listened quietly, completely unaware that outside her ordinary life, a bloody power struggle was unfolding within the Ning family.
At the same time, she was somewhat relieved that Ning Yanzhe had listened to her words and had not extended his resentment towards Ning Guohui to Ning Jialing.
"Now that I've finished talking about my business, what about you and Rong Chengzhou? I've been waiting for over a month, when are you finally going to have the wedding?" Ning Jialing complained with a resentful look in her eyes.
Jiang Mingxue smiled and shook her head: "I don't know either."
Rong Chengzhou's return date is uncertain, and she cannot make that decision herself.
"Okay, I'll definitely be in London by the time you get married."
Ning Jialing sighed first, then raised her voice: "It's okay, even if it's on the moon, I can fly over to attend your wedding, let alone abroad!"
Jiang Mingxue smiled slightly and opened her arms to hug her:
"Thanks."
"Jialing, have a safe journey."
--
Before the lingering warmth of summer had dissipated, autumn quietly arrived.
At the end of September, a week had passed since their scheduled wedding date.
Rong Chengzhou has been gone for half a month.
On Friday, Jiang Mingxue saw patients at the clinic as usual.
The autumn rain pattered down, making the sycamore leaves glisten. The earth, mixed with the scent of fallen leaves, felt somewhat stuffy.
This autumn is much wetter than usual; this is already the third rain.
There were fewer patients than usual on rainy days, so I brewed a pot of hot tea and shared it with everyone during a break.
While several people were resting and drinking tea around the table, a commotion broke out in another consultation room.
"Where's the curator! Come out and give me an explanation!" A male patient's voice echoed throughout the clinic.
The apprentices and the doctor looked at each other, wondering what had happened.
Jiang Mingxue composed herself, put down her teacup, and stood up: "I'll go take a look."
"Sister Ming, we'll be with you!"
The cramped consultation room was packed with people. A menacing-looking middle-aged man stood in front of the consultation table, hurling insults at Dr. Fang.
"I've spent so much money here, but my illness hasn't been cured; in fact, it's gotten worse. Your clinic is profiting off human suffering!"
Dr. Fang, a gentle young doctor, tried to reason with me: "When I prescribed the medicine for you, I specifically emphasized that the treatment of chronic gastritis is a long-term process, and it must be taken strictly twice a day to be effective. If you take a month's worth of medicine for two months at a time, of course you won't see any obvious effect."
Jiang Mingxue walked to the door of the consultation room, roughly understood the situation, gave Xiao Liang a few instructions, and then went in.
Surrounded by many patients, the middle-aged man said impatiently, "Don't give me that nonsense. I've paid money here, so you have an obligation to cure me."
"I can't be bothered to talk to you. Where's the curator? Get your curator out here. I want my money back!"
The man shouted loudly, as if afraid the commotion wasn't loud enough, and picked up the teacup on Dr. Fang's table and smashed it towards the door.
Before the sound of shattering, there was a muffled thud, and the teacup hit Jiang Mingxue's forehead.
"Ah—! Sister Ming!"
"curator!"
"Dr. Jiang—!"
Everyone gasped in surprise.
Even the middle-aged man who was smashing things didn't expect someone to walk in just then.
The teacup fell and shattered at her feet.
A sharp pain shot through her forehead. Jiang Mingxue took a silent breath and covered her forehead.
Thankfully, it wasn't a shard of a teacup.
Xu Yan and Dr. Fang stepped forward to help her up, while several male apprentices who had come with Jiang Mingxue surrounded the middle-aged man to prevent him from hurting anyone else.
"Why are you hitting me?!"
The patients waiting for their appointments all voiced their criticism.
"How was I supposed to know she'd suddenly come in!"
"But you can't just smash other people's things."
"That's right, Dr. Jiang is really unlucky today, that hit was quite hard."
"Sister Ming, how are you?" Xu Yan asked worriedly.
Jiang Mingxue paused for a moment, letting down the stray hairs from her forehead to cover them: "It's alright, let's solve the problem first."
Xu Yan had no choice but to nod: "Okay."
She pulled away from Xu Yan's hand, took a step forward, her face slightly pale, but her voice remained firm:
"We have an obligation to cure you, but the prerequisite is that you cooperate with our treatment."
Seeing that there was no blood on her head, the middle-aged man, clinging to a sliver of hope, retorted, "How could I not cooperate? I take my medicine every day. Even if I reduce the frequency of taking the medicine as you say, it's impossible that there's been no effect after a year. I think you're just deliberately trying to make more money by not curing her!"
Jiang Mingxue chuckled, not in a hurry to refute, picked up the small instrument that Xiao Liang had given her, and suddenly raised it close.
"What are you doing?!" The man glared and backed away.
Her breath hit the instrument's nozzle just in time, and the reading on the meter stopped at 89g/l. Jiang Mingxue raised the breathalyzer, her gaze falling on the cigarette hanging from his ear, and said unhurriedly, "I don't know how much medicine you've taken, but you've probably used a lot of cigarettes and alcohol."
She showed the data: "The alcohol in the last night still has an alcohol content of 89, which shows how serious your drinking problem is."
The surrounding patients pointed and whispered. The middle-aged man was taken aback, but stubbornly retorted, "You're talking nonsense! Your instrument is completely inaccurate, and my cigarette was just hanging there; I didn't even smoke it."
Jiang Mingxue smiled faintly: "Whether you've taken it or not, you know in your heart. It's your own body, and doctors have no right to interfere. But our prescription has cured thousands of patients with chronic gastritis. The length of your treatment is largely due to yourself."
A patient waiting for their turn couldn't stand it anymore: "That's right, he was smoking in the lobby just now, and he wouldn't listen when the young lady reminded him. This kind of person is just a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong."
"I remember it too, and the smell of alcohol was so strong when you got close, it was awful."
"Alright, stop getting in the way and get out of here. We're all in a hurry to see Dr. Fang for treatment."
"......"
The patients complained one after another, and unsurprisingly, the sentiment was overwhelmingly one-sided.
The middle-aged man's face turned ashen. Seeing that he couldn't win the argument, he snorted coldly and prepared to slip away, but Jiang Mingxue called him back:
"etc."
She lifted the stray hairs from her forehead, revealing a red and swollen wound: "The police have arrived. I need to get my head injury checked."
--
Jiang Mingxue handed the surveillance footage over to the police and gave a brief statement, after which the clinic quieted down.
The three crimes of causing trouble in public, intentionally injuring someone, and spreading rumors and defamation are enough to put him in jail for half a month.
Fortunately, there weren't many patients today, so it didn't cause any serious problems.
During the lunch break, Xu Yan came over with some ointment, her eyes red: "Sister Ming, please put some ointment on."
Jiang Mingxue nodded and smiled: "Thank you."
The fair forehead was struck hard with a blunt object. Only half an hour later, the redness and swelling had already begun to turn faintly purple, and the bruising was spreading. Although the surface was not broken, the subcutaneous tissue must have been severely damaged.
Xu Yan's hands trembled slightly as she applied the medicine, and she choked out, "I was almost scared to death, how could you still laugh?"
It hurt just looking at such a big teacup hitting her head, yet her teacher was able to handle the doctor-patient dispute calmly.
Jiang Mingxue chuckled lightly, her tone relaxed: "Everyone has their unlucky days. I just happened to run into one today. Luckily, I'm not that stubborn. The teacup didn't break, so I'm considered lucky."
Xu Yan was both laughing and crying at what she said, and didn't know what to say to her.
Medical disputes are common, and while they are not as serious in clinics as in hospitals, a few cases still occur every year. As the clinic director, Jiang Mingxue must be able to handle such emergencies.
Everyone else could back down, but she couldn't.
"Don't tell my family about what happened today," she instructed.
The Jiang family's butler would send a batch of medicine from the Chinese herbal medicine garden every now and then, and it was time to send it again in the next couple of days. Jiang Mingxue didn't want them to know.
Xu Yan nodded: "I understand, Sister Ming."
It rained all day, and there were even fewer patients in the afternoon. Jiang Mingxue was able to leave work promptly at five o'clock and drove back to Songyunting.
I ate earlier than usual today, but I didn't have much of an appetite. I ate a few bites and then grabbed my pajamas to take a shower. When I came out, it was completely dark, and the bedroom was pitch black.
I walked to the door and pressed the light switch. The French ceiling light above my head flickered for a moment and then went out completely.
When I pressed the switch again, it simply turned off.
The lights in the other rooms are still on, so the bulbs must have burned out.
As if things weren't going to go wrong, Jiang Mingxue pressed her temples, moved a human-shaped ladder from the storage room, found a replacement light bulb wick and a screwdriver, turned off the main power switch, climbed up with a flashlight, and removed the lampshade.
During her rounds, she always encounters problems, big and small, and replacing light bulbs is a routine task for her. After removing the light strip, she first tested it with a voltage tester. Since there was no response from the neutral and live wires, ensuring that there was no power, she then used a screwdriver to remove all the screws from the original light strip, connected the wires of the new light bulb according to their colors, wrapped several layers of insulating tape, and finally put the lampshade back on.
I turned on the power switch, and the bedroom lights came back on. I had gotten the gauze on my head wet while showering, and as I sat down at the dressing table to examine the wound, the bruises under the gauze were shocking; they hurt whether I touched them or not.
Jiang Mingxue cut a piece of gauze and changed the dressing on the wound.
It's been raining non-stop, making me sleepy. I had another argument with someone today, and my head is still throbbing. I didn't even dry my hair properly before lying in bed, still half-wet, hugging my teddy bear to sleep.
The rain pattered against the windowpane, making a constant sound. The bedroom was damp and quiet, with only the clear sound of the rain. The girl was fast asleep, hugging her teddy bear, her delicate brows furrowed tightly, whether from pain or restlessness.
Rainy days are good for sleeping, but they also tend to bring many dreams. In my dreams, I vaguely smelled a familiar scent of cedar, but it was so faint that it felt like a hallucination.
Her eyelids drooped heavily, and in her hazy state, she reached out to grasp at that ethereal aura, but grasped nothing.
Jiang Mingxue felt as if she had fallen into an abyss, unable to tell whether she was waking up from a dream or still dreaming.
Above the abyss stood a man in a flight suit. She knew his name; she had seen him countless times.
She opened her lips, wanting to call out to him, but no sound came out.
She reached out to touch it, but there was a sheer cliff between them, and she couldn't reach it no matter what she did.
Her fingers gripped the pillow tightly. She tried to open her eyes, but her body felt as if it were being pressed under a boulder, and she couldn't wake up no matter what she did.
She stood in the abyss, watching helplessly as he flew into the sky, the faint scent of cedar disappearing with him.
There's nothing left.
She was so unhappy about the dream that she didn't want to continue having it.
I really don't want to do it anymore.
A clap of thunder struck the glass, causing the curtains to sway violently.
Suddenly, she woke up with a start, clutching Rong Chengzhou's pillow. Her chest felt like it was stuffed with a damp, cold cotton ball, and even breathing was painful.
Something seemed to be flowing from the corner of her eye. She paused slightly, mechanically raising her hand to touch her eye.
It is hot.
But the pillow was cold.
She reached out and touched it, and found that it was soaked.
The cedarwood was wet, so she couldn't smell it.
The room was pitch black. Jiang Mingxue stared intently at the ceiling with her eyes wide open.
She actually woke up crying because she was thinking about Rong Chengzhou in the middle of the night.
How could that be?
It's already been fifteen days; even the longest-standing habit should be broken by now.
How could that be?
Jiang Mingxue couldn't understand it.
But the tears in the corners of her eyes spoke for her.
She pulled out a tissue to wipe herself dry, but she couldn't wipe it all off.
Jiang Mingxue didn't cry when patients caused trouble, she didn't cry when a teacup hit her on the head, and she didn't cry when she was fixing a light bulb alone late at night.
At this moment, he curled up, buried his face in his knees, and his shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
......
Meanwhile, Ancheng was exceptionally dry, with not a drop of rain.
At four o'clock in the morning, Rong Chengzhou and Xing Kaiyu stepped off the machine bridge one after the other.
Xing Kaiyu was still exclaiming, "Brother Rong, you're too fierce! You almost grazed them just now, only three centimeters away! Aren't you afraid of crashing into them and crashing to your death?!"
Rong Chengzhou's expression was cold and his tone left no room for doubt: "The other side's bombers are about to enter our border, we can't back down."
Recently, reconnaissance and bomber aircraft from neighboring countries have been frequently spotted along the border. The border terrain is rugged and the weather is unpredictable, so only experienced and fearless pilots can undertake such missions.
Xing Kaiyu gave him a thumbs up, genuinely admiring him: "If you don't become a colonel, who can?"
Rong Chengzhou reached out and took off his flight helmet, holding it in his hand: "Who has your phone?"
Xing Kaiyu: "It seems to be with Xiao Zhao."
"What's going on, Rong-ge? You were the most enthusiastic to hand in your phone before, and you were the last to get it after getting off the plane. How come you've become a phone slave now?"
Rong Chengzhou ignored him.
He strode back to the encampment, retrieved the phone from Xiao Zhao, and turned it on.
The phone only takes a dozen seconds to boot up, but Rong Chengzhou felt it was very slow.
It's too slow, I need to get a new one.
I last messaged Jiang Mingxue two days ago. I wonder how she's been these past two days, and whether she's been eating well.
She must be asleep by now, but it doesn't matter. He'll let her know he's safe and sound, and she'll see him tomorrow morning.
The long ten seconds finally passed. Rong Chengzhou hadn't even had time to change out of his flight suit when he stood at the door of Xiao Zhao's dormitory and opened his phone to log into the system.
After a brief loading period, the phone displayed a series of messages.
There were his comrades, his parents, and many other people.
He didn't even open it; he went straight to Jiang Mingxue's profile picture from the top of his WeChat contacts.
Upon seeing the message on the screen, his dark pupils suddenly widened in shock.
The last message was actually posted by Jiang Mingxue half an hour ago:
Rong Chengzhou, I'm at Ancheng Railway Station. Can you come pick me up?
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