Seven Seas Beacon Fire

In this regard, Akiko believes that she has already achieved some progress - the people around Li Che have become used to her being the little princess of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Now, when she walks through the naval port with her breakfast box, the officers she meets next year will greet her. The nickname "Sakura Girl," which originated from Princess Zhu Miaoyun, has also become popular in the port.

Although it seems that Li Che's expression was slightly subtle when he first heard this title and learned where it came from.

Just as Mingzi arrived at the entrance of the Navy Guesthouse (where Li Che was staying) in Leizhou Port and was about to enter, she ran into a person who had just come out of the guesthouse.

This person has become well-known in Leizhou Port recently. It is said that there are three princesses in Leizhou Port now. In addition to Princess Yongning Zhu Miaoyun and Mingzi herself, the remaining one is the fourth princess of the Song Prince's Mansion.

The Fourth Princess once broke through the Federal Navy's maritime blockade in a submarine, arrived at Leizhou Port to seek help, and requested the Ming army to take action and send troops as soon as possible. Such behavior, whether in the past or present, is enough to make her a heroine. After all, in the history of human warfare, people like Qin Liangyu and Joan of Arc are extremely rare. Hua Mulan and the women of the Yang family are ultimately just fictional characters from storytelling. Now, such a living example is right in front of us. The Fourth Princess from the Song Prince's Mansion has obviously quickly won the praise of the officers and soldiers.

Since Zheng Guanyin arrived at Leizhou Port, she has been busy with two main things. The first is to contact wealthy merchants and banks in the southeast region in the name of the Song Prince's Mansion to raise funds for the war that is taking place on the other side of the sea, and to call on people from all walks of life to donate money and materials through radio and newspapers.

If that woman in the Federation had put in even a tenth of the sincerity and effort that the Fourth Princess had, many pilots wouldn't have to worry about their beloved aircraft sitting in someone else's bank account when they need them for training and combat.

However, apart from supporting a series of efforts in the anti-Japanese war in Yanping, the only other thing that the fourth princess seemed to care about was Li Che.

Or to be more specific, whenever the fourth princess had free time, she would take the initiative to visit Princess Yongning, and whenever Princess Yongning met with Li Che, she would always find various reasons to ignore Li Che's various hints and just stay by Princess Yongning's side.

Mingzi wasn't stupid; she could tell that Zheng Guanyin was guarding against the Crown Prince like a wolf. This wasn't hard to understand—the entire Zheng Song Royal Palace still insisted on flying the banner of the Ming Dynasty on Borneo, and the Yanping Kingdom still claimed to be the Yanping Kingdom under the Ming Empire. The previous provisional government—the one that the current Prince Jin had treated like an insect and eliminated—had been publicly denounced as traitors by the Zheng Song Royal Palace.

Although the Zheng and Song Princes' Mansions have not used such language to criticize the Jin Princes' Mansions, it is clear to anyone with discerning eyes that the two of the three great princes of the Ming Dynasty still have significant differences on this issue. It is just that they have temporarily put aside these past grievances under the banner of resisting the Japanese invasion.

The Zheng-Song Prince's Mansion was an absolute royalist party because they actually had real fiefdoms. The legal basis for these fiefdoms, such as Yanping and Luzon, came from the investiture granted by the Ming Dynasty.

Clearly, Zheng Guanyin was very worried that Li Che might force Zhu Miaoyun into doing something bad, especially after the Fourth Princess realized that Princess Yongning was somewhat heartless. Zheng Guanyin was even more worried that Princess Yongning would be sold out by that shrewd grandson and then count the money for him.

In Zheng Guanyin's eyes, it was still unclear how the Prince of Jin's mansion would deal with this former dynasty princess. This fourth princess was clearly prepared to protect Zhu Miaoyun at all times, which truly made her a loyal and virtuous woman of the Ming Dynasty.

However, all of this had little to do with Mingzi. She didn't have much contact with this Zheng Guanyin. When they met, they would usually just nod to each other. Mingzi would usually visit Zhu Miaoyun when the Fourth Princess was not around.

Today, Zheng Guanyin showed a slightly anxious expression. Unusually, she took the initiative to quickly greet Tokugawa Akiko after seeing her. Upon reaching her, she asked, "Have you seen Princess Yongning and Prince Li... and His Highness the Crown Prince?"

Akiko also looked enlightened: "Is His Highness the Crown Prince not here right now?"

Mingzi, having already figured out the Crown Prince's schedule by delivering breakfast to him recently, said, "Generally speaking, unless His Highness receives an urgent military message at night, he should just be getting up and washing up by now. What, Fourth Princess, are you looking for Princess Yongning or His Highness the Crown Prince? If it's Princess Yongning, she shouldn't be up yet..."

"Her Highness the Princess is not in the room right now," Zheng Guanyin interrupted Tokugawa Akiko. "And the Crown Prince is not here either. Don't you know where they went?"

Tokugawa Akiko tilted her head slightly: "Fourth Princess, you jest. I'm not His Highness's personal maid, how could I possibly know where His Highness is? As for Princess Yongning... isn't His Highness more concerned about her whereabouts than I am?"

Zheng Guanyin glanced at Tokugawa Akiko. She hadn't expected that this woman from Yingzhou not only spoke Chinese well, but also that she now spoke with a barbed tongue.

"So you're not a personal maid after all. I thought you were a maid sent to the Prince of Jin's residence by the Tokugawa Shogunate."

Tokugawa Akiko was not angry at all because of Zheng Guanyin's words: "I am working in that direction."

Zheng Guanyin felt as if she had punched cotton, so she snorted and walked to the horse being led outside, preparing to go directly to the headquarters to check the situation.

After watching Zheng Guanyin leave, Tokugawa Akiko stared thoughtfully at a car parked in the courtyard of the Navy Guest House.

For some time now, there have always been two cars parked here.

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"Where are you suddenly taking me by car?"

Zhu Miaoyun felt increasingly uneasy as she sat in the car.

Early this morning, while Zhu Miaoyun was still sleeping in as usual, her maidservant rushed in to wake her and told her that His Highness Prince Shisun had sent someone to deliver a message to her.

He said that there had been a great victory at the front and that the war had been going smoothly for some time. He was going to relax a little today and therefore planned to drive to the city for a while. He asked Zhu Miaoyun if she was interested in coming to the city with him.

Women, regardless of time or era, always have a strong interest in shopping. Since arriving in this world, Zhu Miaoyun initially hid her identity and went into hiding. Later, after actively revealing her identity, she stayed by Li Che's side for various reasons. Although she has now traveled to both the north and south of the empire, she has basically been either on the road or in military camps. Zhu Miaoyun has really not experienced the cities of this era much.

Especially now that she's in the south, even though she's traveled to so many places both domestically and internationally, whether for tourism or as a volunteer, she's never actually been to the south before. It wouldn't be bad to experience it now.

However, after getting into the car, Zhu Miaoyun quickly noticed something was wrong after her initial excitement wore off.

Because today, Li Che was driving alone. Although there were several large carts following behind them, which should have been carrying their guards, people of Li Che's status usually had dedicated drivers when they traveled.

This made Zhu Miaoyun notice something unusual, but even under such circumstances, it didn't stop Princess Yongning's little head from wandering into other thoughts—such as a Soviet joke about "I don't know who's in the car, but I know Comrade Brezhnev is driving him."

More importantly, after the car left Leizhou Port, it shouldn't have taken too long to get to the city center—the distance between the city center and the port area isn't far. However, after driving for a while, we didn't see the city center at all; instead, the greenery seemed to be getting better and better, which meant we were clearly heading towards the suburbs.

What does this guy want from me today?

Zhu Miaoyun couldn't help but steal glances at Li Che, then pretended to be calm while secretly glancing at the car door handles.

"Don't overthink it. Are you worried that you're like Nicholas II's family in the basement? Although we're not driving too fast, we're still going around 50 kilometers per hour. If you jump out of the car like this, we'll probably have to start over."

When her little secret was suddenly exposed, Zhu Miaoyun was naturally startled. Her hand, which had already touched the doorknob, was pulled back as if she had been electrocuted. Her heart was pounding like a deer. At this moment, Zhu Miaoyun truly realized that the feeling of a deer pounding like a deer wasn't just for love, but also for ghosts!

Li Che's sudden, unannounced opening of his mouth was like something out of a ghost!

"I..." Just as she opened her mouth to stubbornly refute that she hadn't thought that way, Zhu Miaoyun suddenly remembered... what the guy next to her had just said.

The Nicholas II family in the basement?

Our Princess Yongning is not someone who doesn't watch the media or read the news. After the crown of Tsar Ursus fell in the north, the newly established Ursus Federation has not yet executed Nicholas II and his family. Although they are under strict guard in a manor outside St. Petersburg, the whole family is indeed still alive.

The relationship between Nicholas II and the basement should have been unknown to everyone in this era except himself. It's like hearing someone make a ridiculous joke about prison in front of you before Kobe Bryant's plane crash. The only explanation is that this guy is also a time traveler!

Zhu Miaoyun's back was almost pressed against the car door. It seemed that keeping as much distance as possible from the guy in front of her made her feel safer. In this situation, without her being mentally prepared, a fellow countryman from another time traveler meeting another countryman was not only tearful, but also quite frightening.

After all, who knows whether they'll encounter Xiao Yan or Tang San?

This made Zhu Miaoyun start to examine her past. I don't think I did anything that would lead to my death in front of this guy, did I?

Ha people!

"So today was a test for me? You're also a time traveler? When did you start suspecting I was a time traveler?"

After calming down for a while, Zhu Miaoyun mustered her courage and fired off several questions in rapid succession. Meanwhile, Li Che, who was driving, gripped the steering wheel tightly on the straight road ahead, but spoke in a friendly tone: "I really wanted to take you out for a drive today, and then have a casual chat. I'm different from the kind of transmigrator you're thinking of. As for when I started to suspect you… I'm not entirely sure myself. Maybe it was when you told that mutant Soviet joke last time? Or perhaps some of the vocabulary you've used lately has become a bit too postmodern?"

Zhu Miaoyun remained silent, somewhat embarrassed. She felt like she had thought she was the only one who had transmigrated, so she was freely making jokes about Kun Kun in front of the natives, but she didn't expect someone to point out to her face, "Little Blackie, you've shown your true colors, haven't you?"

"and you.........."

"Who are you.........."

The two spoke at the same time, and after a moment of silence:

"You speak first."

After another moment of silence, Li Che slowly turned his head and looked at Zhu Miaoyun in front of him: "I want to ask you about someone."

what?

Zhu Miaoyun was dumbfounded. Shouldn't time travelers ask each other where they came from and what place they came from? Asking about someone?

Immediately, a somewhat outrageous idea popped into Zhu Miaoyun's mind.

No way?

"Excuse me, do you know a girl named Lin Yun? I lost her in Gaza."

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P.S.: Okay, now that my identity is out, please stop criticizing the romance scenes I wrote. Just bear with it, okay? Give me some face!

Also, it seems that the initial plan was for the female lead to have the same name in both her incarnations. Hmm, I should have changed that. If there are any changes, please let me know. This definitely needs to be changed.

It turns out that being in a relationship doesn't help at all when writing romance scenes!

Chapter 123 Tokugawa Akiko has many questions (2)

Behind Li Che's car, the Prince Jin's guards followed their grandson in military light trucks at a leisurely pace. The second-in-command of the guards, Yang Shiyi, and the first-in-command, Wang Ji, were now in charge of driving and sitting in the passenger seat, respectively.

Normally, for a guard like theirs, the captain and deputy captain should not ride in the same vehicle. Otherwise, if they were suddenly attacked and both the captain and deputy captain were killed immediately, then the command would be in trouble.

However, as everyone knows, regulations are not always easy to implement; in practice, various situations will inevitably arise.

On one hand, the arrangement of His Highness the Crown Prince's motorcade today was somewhat problematic. His Highness requested that all the cars follow behind him, and normally there would be a guard driving a car to lead the way. However, today's route was not heading towards the city but towards the suburbs, and the roads were very open, so there was no chance of a gunman suddenly appearing like in Sarajevo.

On the other hand, the guards that Li Zongdi prepared for his grandson were all elites selected from thousands of soldiers. These elites would not be like ordinary troops who would not know what to do after losing their commanders.

It was precisely because they were quite confident in the safety of the grandson in these aspects that the captain and deputy captain squeezed into the back of a truck and looked through the rear window of the car in front of them at what was happening inside.

No one in this world can resist the urge to gossip or share in the drama.

What will His Highness do after he coaxes the princess into the carriage? Just a little exploration of this idea is enough to spark the imagination.

After all, His Highness the Crown Prince has made so many unreasonable demands this time. To these guards, who have been unable to have contact with women for a long time due to the war and whose hormones are at their peak, is there any other choice?

People always look for something to lighten the mood in a boring life. So whether it's a doctor on the operating table or a soldier in the barracks, they can tell all sorts of risqué jokes with great flair. Therefore, when they encounter such a situation, they naturally feel it's their duty to help His Highness in this regard.

"What exactly does His Highness want to do by bringing the princess out? You all bet that His Highness is interested in the princess and wants to give her a surprise, but His Highness didn't ask us to prepare a surprise. Where exactly is this surprise taking the princess?" Yang Shiyi asked.

"Maybe the surprise is in the car?"

"But we checked the car before it left. His Highness didn't even hide a bouquet of flowers in it. What kind of surprise could there be? If you ask me, even if His Highness wanted to force himself on the princess now, what could the princess do but submit to him?"

"And you even tried to take advantage of him... Do you think His Highness has never seen or touched a woman before?" Wang Ji was speechless at the way his deputy was thinking. This kid was still a virgin, probably so obsessed with women that he was projecting his own thoughts onto His Highness.

"But the princess is very beautiful."

“There’s no shortage of beautiful women in this world.” Wang Ji rolled his eyes at Yang Shiyi beside him. “Perhaps His Highness simply wants to discuss some important matters with the Princess. That’s beyond our ability to speculate. Look, everything has been normal since we set off. I’m starting to think that this isn’t a romantic outing.”

"Could it be that the Crown Prince is planning something similar to what Chengji did...?"

Yang Shiyi's words made Wang Ji, who had just picked up his teacup to take a sip of hot tea, spit it out. He wished he could smash his teacup on the guy's head and crack open his skull to see how his brain was structured.

"You'll be ruined by your mouth sooner or later. What kind of analogy is that? Do you know what happened to Chengji in the end?"

"How would I know."

"To exterminate three generations of your family! It's only because I heard it and know you're a brainless fool that others would think you were implying that His Highness the Crown Prince is a brainless idiot like Cheng Ji, or that His Highness the Prince of Jin is like the Sima family of the Jin Dynasty?"

Realizing his slip of the tongue, Yang Shiyi gave a dumbfounded chuckle. But the next moment, his eyes lit up, and he slapped Wang Ji, who was sitting in the passenger seat, with his hand: "Look, look! There was no movement just now! Now the two of them are pressed together!"

"What? Let me see, let me see." Upon hearing this, Wang Ji immediately leaned over the car window and peered into the car through the rear window of the car in front. Although there was some distance between them, he could clearly see that the princess seemed to be hiding behind the car door in fear. He couldn't see the situation on the other side of the Crown Prince's side, but it seemed that the Crown Prince was still driving the car steadily.

"What's going on? Did the Crown Prince scare the princess with a ghost story?"

"You think you're some kind of godfather? Last time someone introduced you to a nurse at a clinic, and you took her to the market to buy pig hearts—a whole basketful of bloody pig hearts! Isn't that scarier than a ghost story?"

"Stop bringing up my weaknesses. I was just thinking that the girl is a surgical nurse, right? This food is a great way to practice and eat at the same time, killing two birds with one stone!"

"You must get it..."

"What? Why are you stuttering?"

"Look! His Highness and the Princess are all sticking together!"

Um? ? ? ? ?

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After driving around for a while, the car returned to the Navy's guesthouse without going anywhere else. However, this time, when the convoy returned, Tokugawa Akiko and Zheng Guanyin happened to be inside the guesthouse. When they saw the convoy driving into the courtyard from upstairs, the two of them and several attendants hurriedly came downstairs.

Although they had different motives, they were both extremely concerned about Li Che's unusual behavior today.

Tokugawa Akiko was the first to arrive at the courtyard downstairs. As soon as she came down, she saw Li Che park the car and get out. And in the passenger seat, as expected, was Princess Yongning, Zhu Miaoyun.

At this moment, Mingzi hadn't thought about what Li Che had taken Zhu Miaoyun out for. Sakura was simply preparing to go up and greet Li Che, because she knew that Li Che hadn't even had breakfast that morning. She was about to go up and ask him about his well-being.

Unexpectedly, after Li Che got out of the car, he went straight to the passenger seat and opened the door for Princess Yongning, who was sitting in the passenger seat. He even stretched out a hand in front of Princess Yongning.

Princess Yongning, who was sitting in the carriage, actually took the initiative to place her hand in Li Che's palm and got out of the carriage with Li Che's help. If this could be explained by the behavior of a gentleman and a lady, then as soon as Zhu Miaoyun got out of the carriage, Tokugawa Akiko noticed the princess's eyes.

Her Highness's eyes were clearly from crying; they were still red and brimming with tears, making her look incredibly pitiful.

Bridge Bean Sacks!

Princess, have you been crying? What happened? In Tokugawa Akiko's memory, this princess has always been very optimistic. In all the time they've known each other, she has never seen her cry, let alone be in a bad mood. For a princess of a fallen kingdom, this is almost too good a mindset.

But today, Her Highness the Princess is crying? What happened? Has some new bad news come for Her Highness lately?

No, things are looking up on the battlefield lately. Everyone is saying that the most difficult time is over, and the vibrant and flourishing state of everything seems to have returned. What could possibly make Your Highness sad?

His father died?

But his father died a long time ago, didn't he?

What happened next caused Akiko's brain to completely shut down.

They actually hugged each other!

Good heavens! I have never seen such a gentle expression on His Highness's face in so long!

His Highness whispered something in Princess Yongning's ear, and then Princess Yongning twisted like a maggot (from Mingzi's perspective), and even stomped her foot hard on Li Che's foot.

What on earth is going on? Before this morning, these two weren't this close or familiar with each other, were they?

To His Highness the Crown Prince, I was clearly the first one to arrive!

His Highness the Crown Prince is humorous and handsome, and His Highness the Princess, though carefree, is sincere. Knowing these two should have brought me double the joy, but why did things turn out this way? How did things develop to this point?