After coming out of Wuyi Lane, the two of them went to stroll around the Imperial Examination Hall of Jiangnan and Confucius Temple.
By the time they finished a round, the lights of the city were already coming on.
Both of them were hungry, so they had dinner at the "Jiang Youji" snack shop near Confucius Temple.
After Luo Ziling and Yang Qingyin went in together with their followers Ye Xiaoli and Shi Yidan, they ordered a whole bunch of things—fried dumplings, duck blood vermicelli soup, braised duck heads, crispy sesame cakes, assorted vegetable buns. When a big table full of Jinling snacks was served, Yang Qingyin didn’t stand on ceremony and started eating first.
Luo Ziling was also eating very happily, while Ye Xiaoli and Shi Yidan didn’t put most of their energy into eating, but into carefully observing the surroundings.
The area around Confucius Temple was packed with tourists, and for them, who were responsible for security, this was exactly the kind of place they dreaded entering.
As soon as they saw that dense flow of people, they felt a headache coming on.
But they were embarrassed to say this out loud.
Anywhere fun is bound to be crowded—they couldn’t very well make Luo Ziling and Yang Qingyin go hang out in places with no people, could they?
All they could do was stay constantly on guard, keeping themselves in a state of maximum alert at all times.
Fortunately, nothing happened.
After Luo Ziling and Yang Qingyin finished strolling and taking in the night view along the Qinhuai River, they went back to the hotel.
They’d been walking all afternoon, and Yang Qingyin’s stamina was starting to give out. Luo Ziling was afraid she’d get too tired, and he was also worried that staying too long in such a crowded place might lead to some accident.
The next day, the two of them got up very early.
After they got up, they had a simple breakfast and then went to visit Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.
They went to Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum first.
Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was packed with tourists.
Since admission was free and Mr. Sun’s fame was immense, every person who came to Jinling to travel would come here to visit.
Hand in hand, they climbed the steps. After reaching the top and standing there to sigh with emotion for a while, they headed back down.
Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum covered a larger area and charged admission, so the number of visitors inside wasn’t as dense as at Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.
After leaving Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, they walked to Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.
Though she’d been exhausted from walking yesterday, after Luo Ziling gave her a good massage and she slept soundly, Yang Qingyin didn’t feel tired at all when she got up today.
"What common features do these two mausoleums have?" As they were buying tickets to enter Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Luo Ziling asked Yang Qingyin a question.
Yang Qingyin was taken aback for a moment. After thinking, she replied, "They both bury a great man."
"It should be that the great men buried here had almost the same kind of goal they fought for," Luo Ziling said very earnestly.
"Mm, you’re right!" Yang Qingyin agreed with him. "Zhu Yuanzhang drove out the rulers of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty and founded the Great Ming Dynasty. That was the last glory of us Han People in the feudal era. Mr. Sun led a revolution and founded a new era. They’re both national heroes."
"Zhu Yuanzhang was really remarkable." Luo Ziling pointed at the buildings of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in front of them and said seriously to Yang Qingyin, "Nothing in his life was ’cheated by hacks’ at all, yet he ended up founding Great Ming—that’s really admirable. When Zhu Chongba was young, many people in his family starved to death. With no way out, he had to become a beggar, then a monk, and finally joined the rebel army. In the end he defeated Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang and drove the rulers of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty back into The Gobi Desert. He should be the only one who rose up in the South, fought his way north, and ended up ruling Huaxia. The other rulers basically all secured a foothold in the north first, then marched south to seize the realm."
After thinking for a moment, Yang Qingyin asked Luo Ziling, "Do you think, if you’d been born in ancient times, in an age of chaos, would you have had any chance of seizing the realm?"
"I imagine that if one day I time-traveled back to the last days of some dynasty, I’d definitely try to find a way to seize the realm, then build a powerful Han empire and spread Han culture all over the world."
Yang Qingyin stopped walking and stood facing Luo Ziling, looking at him with a smile. "Looks like you have ambitions of being an emperor?"
"’Awake, to wield the power of the realm; drunk, to pillow my head on a beauty’s lap’—isn’t that every man’s dream?"
Seeing Luo Ziling speak with such heroic flair, full of emotion, Yang Qingyin rolled her eyes at him. "What’s so great about being an emperor? Three palaces and six courts, three thousand beauties in the harem..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Luo Ziling cut her off. "Yang Qingyin, why are you randomly getting jealous? When did I ever say I wanted three thousand beauties in my harem?"
"Isn’t that what you meant?" Yang Qingyin reached out and pinched Luo Ziling. "You already have thoughts of being emperor—don’t you?"
"Men and women really look at things differently!" Luo Ziling shook his head with a regretful expression. "What I’m thinking is: ’Why shouldn’t a man take up his beard and hook, to recover the passes and mountains of fifty states? After a hundred battles in yellow sands in golden armor, I will not return until Loulan is broken.’ What you women think is: ’Three thousand beauties in the harem, three thousand favors on one body.’"
"And who was it that said he wanted to wield the power of the realm awake and lie drunk on a beauty’s lap?"
"I’m not going to be lying on the laps of three thousand beauties, am I?" Luo Ziling looked at Yang Qingyin with a wronged expression. "That was just a metaphor, do you understand?"
"Hmph!" Yang Qingyin snorted and stopped arguing with Luo Ziling about that.
When they walked up to Zhu Yuanzhang’s tomb, Luo Ziling pulled Yang Qingyin over and they bowed very solemnly.
Yang Qingyin looked at Luo Ziling in surprise.
"Zhu Chongba’s achievements far surpass those of his ’neighbor’!" Luo Ziling looked at Yang Qingyin with a half-smile. "He was the one who truly restored the rightful line of Huaxia, someone who deserves the respect of all later generations. You study history, so you must know that Comrade Zhu Chongba, together with his brothers, drove those arrogant and brutal steppe people back to the north. The glory of the Han People shone again; his historical achievements aren’t something his ’neighbor’ can compare to."
"If you respect him that much, why are you still calling him Zhu Chongba?" Yang Qingyin rolled her eyes at Luo Ziling again.
"Zhu Chongba was his original name—we can also call him Zhu Baba." Luo Ziling chuckled as he said, "Back then, it wasn’t even easy for Han People to get a proper name. Common folk who didn’t go to school or become officials didn’t even have names; they could only be named based on their birth date, or the sum of their parents’ ages, or their rank in the family. Mr. Chongba’s father was called Zhu Wusi, and because he was eighth in the family, he was called Chongba. Ha, what kind of era was that! Fortunately, Mr. Zhu Baba succeeded and founded the Great Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Di became emperor, he swept across The Gobi Desert, campaigned south against Vietnam, and undertook the Seven Voyages to the Western Seas. Even if it was the last glory of the Han People in the feudal age, the final glory was still glory. So he really was great."
"If one day you also reach the pinnacle of officialdom, do you think you could be as great as he was?" When she asked this, Yang Qingyin’s expression was very serious.
"You think I could reach that position?" Luo Ziling looked genuinely surprised.
Yang Qingyin said nothing, just quietly looked at Luo Ziling.
Luo Ziling took a deep breath. "If things really turn out like that, then I’ll strive to be even greater than he was!"