Meng Lanjian should never have known about this dying wish.
78.
The sound of rain gradually became lighter and more intense. Lan Jian woke up from her dream in Lan Valley. In her daze, she wondered if Chongming had really been to Lan Valley, and Xiao Yingge had never been to X Country, could she pretend that nothing had happened?
In fact, all of this not only actually happened, but also brought about many cruel chain reactions.
When Meng Lanjian's mother, Ke Wandai, learned that Lanjian had accessed the manuscript code left by Yan Jisheng, which was a key manuscript for the development of the atomic bomb at the Nanlu Nuclear Research Institute, she immediately severed her mother-daughter relationship with Meng Lanjian.
Before Yan Jisheng committed suicide by jumping off the building, he had been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. In his hospital room, he instructed Ke Wandai that the manuscript must never be allowed to reach the people of Nanlu. It was the beginning of all the nightmares, and if the manuscript fell into Nanlu's hands, a war between the North and the South would be inevitable. Meng Lanjian was standing by the bed at the time. Her mother had hurriedly taken her to a small, visa-free country near Beiluan. She thought her mother had something important to discuss with her, but unexpectedly, she met the man she had never called "uncle" before.
The "uncle" who used to be dressed in a suit and tie, full of vigor, and who would always suddenly appear in private occasions to claim kinship with Ke Wandai and Meng Lanjian, only to be met with cold indifference by Ke Wandai, is now bedridden with a mournful face. His relationship with his mother no longer seems distant, but rather like that of comrades-in-arms, or like that of ordinary siblings who have never been separated for many years.
His words were laced with hatred, and Lan Jian understood the reason—
"Our uncle, Ke Youcheng, shamelessly sacrificed his own sister for profit, causing our family to be separated for over twenty years. He is undeniably responsible for the division between North and South. My life is over, and I cannot see the reunification of North and South, but..."
As Yan Jisheng spoke, he looked at Meng Lanjian. Meng Lanjian had never been looked at so meaningfully before.
The seriously ill Yan Jisheng's eyes were tinged with a faint yellow, cloudy yet with a sliver of forced clarity. His lips, however, were pale, the dead skin almost peeling off, but he couldn't drink water; he was about to undergo the last surgery of his life.
Perhaps sensing Lan Jian's resistance and unfamiliarity towards him, he concealed his loneliness by bowing his head and writing. His withered hands held an old fountain pen with a deformed nib, the ink flow was intermittent, and the handwriting was very disjointed.
“Wan Dai, before Father passed away, he learned of Lan Jian’s birth and left a memento for his only granddaughter. I’ve written it down here. You should digitize it along with the blueprints and store it in Lan Jian’s Xiuyun ship, in case anyone with ulterior motives finds it.”
What do these numbers represent?
"It's a military officer's ID number."
"Brother!" Ke Wandai pressed down on Yan Jisheng's hand, which was writing, with unusual seriousness. "You can't do this."
This was the first time Lan Jian had heard her mother call Yan Jisheng "brother".
At that moment, she even felt a little envious of her mother.
From a young age, she longed for an older brother, a blood relative, a brother who would unconditionally protect her. Although Xiao Ying was very good to her, he was far away most of the time, and she never called her other cousins "brother."
“Wan Dai, this is my father’s last wish. Lan Jian can choose not to accept it, but I must give it to him.”
Everything that happened that day was deeply etched in Lan Jian's mind, but she couldn't quite understand what Yan Jisheng said afterward. She only remembered that before she left the ward, Yan Jisheng asked her if she could call him "uncle".
Lan Jian looked at him and asked, "Did you really betray the Nuclear Research Institute?"
Yan Jisheng was taken aback for a moment, then slowly tugged at the corners of his mouth. His smile grew wider and wider, like a harmonica puncturing a painting and playing a clear and melodious tune. The laughter grew louder and louder, and Lan Jian clenched his fists and stared intently at Yan Jisheng.
Ke Wandai tried to pull Lan Jian away, but she stared intently at Yan Jisheng, refusing to leave. She interrupted his offbeat laughter, "Grandma said your name is Yan Jisheng because when you were born, there were people smuggling cultural relics on the southern border. Grandpa led troops to retrieve the Spring and Autumn Period halberd that had been lost overseas. To commemorate his military achievements, Yu Shiren, who was then the president of the North-South Federal Polytechnic University, personally taught his prized student Ke Xiuyun..."
The first child born to the emperor was named 'Jisheng'. You've been the son of Yan Zhenjun, the garrison commander for so many years, have you ever remembered that you are also the son of Professor Ke Xiuyun of the North-South Federal Polytechnic University?
"If I had forgotten, why would I have returned to Beiluan twenty years ago?"
"And what about the next twenty years?" Lan Jian smiled sarcastically. "After you returned to Bei Luan, you were busy trying to be your great hero of the North, engaging in heated debates with other politicians on political talk shows, and even trying to curry favor with that 'shameless uncle' you called, who had imprisoned your grandmother for many years. But how many times did you visit Langu while your grandmother was alive? Every time you came, you would hug her and cry, saying that seeing her made you sad. But your grandmother is your own mother! You say you feel sad when you see her, but did you never think that because of the war, she was forced to separate from her two own flesh and blood for nearly thirty years? Is there anyone in this world who has had a harder or more bitter life than my grandmother?"
"Menglanjian!"
Meng Lanjian's words left Yan Jisheng and Ke Wandai speechless. It was Meng Zhihe, who suddenly burst in, who stopped Meng Lanjian. Tears streaming down her face, Meng Lanjian leaned on her father's shoulder. She wasn't saddened at all that Yan Jisheng was dying. What saddened her was her grandmother, who would never return.
After a good cry, Meng Lanjian returned to school as if nothing had happened. The next day, her mother sent a message saying that Yan Jisheng's surgery was successful and, if the prognosis was good, he could live for another three to five years.
A week later, Yan Jisheng, who had been sent back to Beiluan for recuperation, committed suicide by jumping off a building on a stormy, rainy night.
He did not write a suicide note by hand, but he left a video message on his phone.
After the police handed him over to the Meng family, no one told Meng Lanjian that Yan Jisheng, in a brief review of his life, said in a video, "In the name of the lifelong advisor of the Beiluan Atomic Energy Commission, the first Beidi signatory of the Nuclear Peace Treaty, and the former director of the Nuclear Energy Research Institute of Nanlu University, I initiated a volunteer effort. I hope that my niece, Meng Lanjian, the last doctoral student of the only nuclear energy research institute in both the north and south, can represent the Beiluan Atomic Energy Commission in signing a new nuclear peace treaty with the Nanlu nuclear energy community."
Meng Lanjian should never have known about this dying wish.
The Meng family did everything in their power to suppress the video message that could potentially bring catastrophe to both regions. At that time, the border between the North and South was already unstable, with members of both the Northern and Southern factions stirring up trouble. Zhou Puzhao, serving in the army, was well aware that the situation had reached a dangerous point where conflict was imminent. He decisively sent the video message to Lu Jie, the leader of the Southern army. Lu Jie took the initiative to extend an olive branch of marriage. In his secret letter to Zhou Puzhao, he mentioned, "My father and Uncle Yan have long had a sworn oath, and the intention to form a marriage alliance has been brewing for many years. My son, Lu Dingyue, is currently doing research at the Nuclear Research Institute, and happens to be in the same laboratory as the youngest daughter of the Meng family. I hope that the two of them can get married as soon as possible, so as to dispel the thoughts of the treacherous officials in the North and South who want to provoke war."
Zhou Puzhao couldn't bring himself to speak to Meng Lanjian, so Lu Jie had to play the villain.
Therefore, Meng Lanjian only learned of Yan Jisheng's last wish on the day Lu Jie came looking for him.
—Yan Jisheng was indeed my uncle, but he had neither given me life nor raised me. He is dead, so why should I atone for his sins?
—Miss Meng seems to underestimate her importance to both the North and South. With just a few words, she drove her own uncle to his death. After he jumped to his death, she saw his dying wish that you inherit his mantle, yet you continue to enjoy a peaceful life on the southern slopes. Meng Lanjian, this world has no choice but to accept your fate!
Lu Jie deliberately spoke harshly, displaying the demeanor of an iron-blooded general who never held back in his words. He never knew that a few words from him could potentially ruin a girl's life.
No other reason in this world could have prompted Meng Lanjian to agree to the marriage.
The only factor that made her unable to resist the marriage was "war."
She did not want to see war break out, nor did she want more people in the world to be displaced and left destitute because of another war.
Marrying Chongming was not her wish.
Fate struck her unexpectedly, bringing the person she had longed for back into her life. But fate always likes to play tricks, allowing their marriage to have a brief period of happiness before ruthlessly shattering it, letting her taste the bitterness of a fleeting dream.
Her thoughts stalled again. Meng Lanjian suppressed the bitterness in her heart, took out paper and pen, and began to write a letter to Chongming.
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