Chapter Ten: The Grand Mansion of the Red Residence

  The capital, one building after another rising from the ground, everywhere is a bustling construction scene, among the endless streams of bicycles on Chang'an Avenue, cars can also be seen everywhere, showcasing the Republic's new changes.

  Lu Zhong and Du Xiaohu are now standing in front of Tiananmen Square taking a photo together. This has been Du Xiaohu's wish all along, hoping to take a photo with Lu Zhong at Tiananmen, but he never got a response from Lu Zhong before. Today his wish came true, Du Xiaohu grinned and kept smiling foolishly.

  Lu Zhong shook his head and said, "Tiger, you're too easily satisfied. However, this is a good thing. When people are too greedy, they often can't control themselves!"

  Du Xiaohu chuckled and said: "How can't you control yourself? I couldn't possibly tie you up and take a photo with me, could I?"

  Lu Zhong smiled and said: "That's right." Hu Zi was simple-minded and didn't know what he was saying.

  The square is crowded with people, bicycles whizzing by from time to time, groups of three or two pedestrians walking together, mostly in white shirts, all sorts of fashionable clothes such as bell-bottom pants and T-shirts can be seen, and rural women wrapped their heads in scarves are not uncommon either. This was an era of great change after all.

  Over there, someone was spitting on the ground, and a square manager wearing a red armband was issuing him a fine. Several people gathered around to watch the commotion. The old man who spat was speaking in a Northwestern dialect, but it was unclear what he was saying.

  Lu Zhong sighed in his heart. If he hadn't lived through two lifetimes, he wouldn't have felt this way. The people now were so simple and lovely. Ten or more years later, money was the top priority, benefits came first, and officials failed to set a moral example, instead becoming a catalyst for the deterioration of social atmosphere. Looking back, it's truly moving.

  "Let's go." Lu Zhong made a gesture to Du Xiaohu, and the two walked towards the "parking lot", where rows of bicycles were parked in an orderly manner. On the side road, a Volga with a military license plate was parked.

  This was the car sent by his mother, Han Jing, to pick them up. After picking them up from the train station, Du Xiaohu arranged for them to take a photo in front of Tiananmen, and then took a detour.

  "Hey, buddy, nice car!" Next to them, a man and woman walked over. The man was quite handsome, with sunglasses, bell-bottom pants, and a denim shirt. The woman was also very pretty, with a big afro, denim shorts, and snow-white legs exposed. They were absolutely the trendy couple of this era. The two seemed to have been staring at the car all along, and when they saw Lu Zhen and Du Xiaohu getting in, they came over to chat them up.

  The girl with the explosive hairstyle had her lips painted blood red, and she had a different kind of temptation. She pouted at Lu Zhong and asked, "Is your family a high-ranking official? If not, you must be a military district staff officer?"

  In today's era, the gap between classes is not as difficult to cross as it was later on, especially for these free-spirited young men and women. Moreover, in the imperial capital, who doesn't have a few relatives or friends in official positions? Who hasn't seen the world beyond their village? So these two young people didn't think twice about striking up a conversation with the "high-ranking" young master.

  In Lu Zhong's eyes, these two have similarities with the non-mainstream of later generations, all are headache groups. He smiled and said, "Two gentlemen, see you later."

  Turned around and got on the car with Du Xiaohu, Volga sped away quickly and soon turned over Chang'an Street disappearing from sight.

  The trendy guys and girls scolded Lu Zhen for a while with words like "what's so great about it", then went to find new fun.

  ……

  The red walls and grand courtyards of Beijing are the most mysterious and powerful symbols in the world.

  Volga walked through streets and alleys, with fewer pedestrians along the way. Some alley entrances began to appear armed police officers.

  After passing two checkpoints, Volga stopped in front of a large courtyard. On the steps of the gate, a woman in her 40s wearing a green military uniform stood upright, with a straight waist and an air of dignity. Her green uniform and red collar were extremely bright and eye-catching.

  This woman is Lu Zhong's mother, Deputy Director of the General Staff Guard Bureau, Han Jing.

  Han Jing had been gazing into the distance, and when Volga appeared within her line of sight, her excited body was trembling slightly.

  At the Security Bureau, Han Jing was a famous "Iron Lady" with high prestige. She usually didn't smile or talk much, and the soldiers of the security team were all afraid of her.

  Of course, this is also due to Director Han's illustrious experience.

  Director Han comes from a prestigious family, and she was a member of the Young Pioneers as a child. Her military service is almost as long as her age, and she has participated in different degrees in the Sino-Indian War and the Sino-Soviet War. She was promoted to Major General naturally, but was actually delayed by two years due to the influence of older family members.

  The General Staff Guard Bureau, commonly known as the 8341 Troop, is responsible for guarding the Party Central Committee (Politburo Standing Committee) and the Military Commission leadership. The soldiers under the Guard Bureau are all elite professional military personnel. However, whether they were soldiers or officers, in front of Han Jing, they would often be so intimidated that they didn't dare to breathe loudly. Even during the most difficult period of the Cultural Revolution, few people had seen Director Han's emotions expressed on his face.

  But in the face of Lu Zhong, all these disguises collapsed. When Lu Zhong got out of the car, Han Jing could no longer control herself and quickly walked down the steps, staring at her son who was saluting her. Han Jing's eyes suddenly turned red, and only in front of Lu Zhong did she become unusually weak.

  Because of this son, he was separated for 16 years. During this time, Han Jing could have found him back because except for Lu Zhong's birth, the Han family was implicated by a certain marshal and after a few years, their situation had already improved. After the vice commander got into trouble, Mr. and Mrs. Han were among the few big shots in the military who remained unshakeable.

  However, at that time, the political movement was surging, and high-ranking cadres were in danger every day. No one knew when it would be their turn, and the Lu family's situation was not good either, on the verge of collapse. Therefore, Lu Tianhe and Han Jing discussed and decided that it was better not to bring their son back for the time being, lest something happened to both families, and their son's childhood would be spent in darkness. It was better to live a poor life, at least they could have a normal and carefree childhood.

  So it wasn't until the chaos truly ended that the two of them finally found Lu Zhong, but unexpectedly, their only son was like a stranger to them, leaving the strong-willed Lu Tianhe disheartened and Han Jing's heartbroken.

  Although Lu Zhong has two sisters, in the hearts of Lu Tianhe and Han Jingxin, this son occupies an extremely special position.

  No matter how rebellious the son is, no matter how uncultured or rude he is, they think it's all their own fault and feel guilty about this son.

  And the son was fighting bloody battles on the front line of South Xinjiang, inch by inch, and the whole regiment almost exhausted itself, but finally held back the main force of the Vietnamese army, allowing our army to successfully carry out the largest annihilation battle in the Nanshan campaign, ending the Nanshan campaign with one blow and strongly recovering the peaks of Nanshan that were originally occupied by the Vietnamese army.

  The son's company was awarded a collective first-class merit and was awarded by the superior "Attack like a fierce tiger, defend like Mount Tai" the Tiger Company flag.

  All of this shows that the son is extraordinary, and he has the blood of both the Lu and Han families flowing through his veins!

  However, his son never wanted to take a second glance at them.

  Yesterday, Du Xiaohu called and said that Lu Zhong would be returning home today. Han Jing was so excited that she couldn't sleep all night, but when her son truly stood in front of her, she became timid and couldn't say a word of the many things she wanted to say. She silently led the way, taking her son back home.

  Lu Tianhe put on a brand new Lenin suit, although he didn't go out to wait for Lu Zhong like Han Jing did. In his heart, however, he was excited and even unusually restrained himself from scolding his eldest daughter who was dressed in gold and silver. Normally, if he saw his eldest daughter with her noblewoman airs, he would have already been blowing his top and glaring at her.

  Lu Zhong has two sisters, elder sister Lu Jiaju and second sister Lu Jiajia.

  Among them, the second sister Lu Jiajia is two years older than Lu Zhong and is currently studying in the UK; the eldest sister Lu Jiakui's partner had long since retired and started his own business, and now has a small fortune, and is one of the earliest groups to own a private car in Beijing. Of course, now private cars need to be affiliated with a unit, otherwise, they cannot get a license plate.

  It's said that Xiao Di is back, so Lu Jiaju naturally pulled her husband Hu Deli to run back to her mother's house. Although she was sharp and bitter towards outsiders, just like her mother, the one she loved most was Xiao Di.

  When he saw Lu Zhong enter the living room, Lu Tianhe's heart whispered, "This kid has grown taller again." In fact, he himself also knew that this was his own illusion.

  "Where's Grandfather?" Lu Zhong asked after greeting everyone as he entered the house.

  Lu Jiaju smiled and said, "You want to argue with Grandpa again? Unfortunately, he's gone to Beidaihe. Don't you know that every year at this time Grandpa goes to Beidaihe? He left a few days ago."

  Lu Jiaju pouted and said: "With Grandpa being so biased, I knew that if you came back, he would definitely not let you leave."

  "What's with the way you're talking?!"

  Lu Jiajun chuckled twice and then didn't dare make a sound, but instead raised an eyebrow at Lu Zhong, meaning to tell him to follow her.

  Lu Zhong returned to the Lu family only a limited number of times, and each time he was very out of place. He would often just find a small hut to stay in, and wouldn't bother with his cousins or siblings.

  Lu Jiaju thought he was still the old-fashioned type, so she made eyes at him, wanting to go into the house and chat with Lu Zhong. In the past, it was only her who could communicate a few sentences with Lu Zhong.

  Lu Zhong suddenly sat down on the sofa and smiled at Lu Jiaju: "Sister, I'll come back once a year to chat with Dad and Mom."

  Lu Tianhe, Han Jing, Lu Jiaju and Hu Deli were all stunned. No one could have expected that Lu Zhong would suddenly say something so reasonable.

  Lu Zhong turned his head and said to Han Jing: "Mom, you haven't changed much, still so spirited."

  This "mom" was called out so naturally, but it struck Han Jing like a thunderbolt. She trembled and suddenly ran into the study, where stifled sobs could be heard.

  Even at home, Han Jing's emotions rarely overflowed, let alone cried. Even now, she was still not used to shedding tears in front of others, so she ran into the study room. Although these "others" were just her husband and children.

  Lu Jiajing was reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha, thinking to herself that her mother had finally seen a clear sky and bright moon after holding on for so long. Lu Zhong, that little scamp, had changed his ways, and it was a relief for her parents who no longer had to worry every day. These two were originally hot-headed and prone to making a big fuss, but they had always been driven crazy by Lu Zhong's antics, never having a moment of peace.

  Lu Tianhe gazed at Lu Zhong, with a hint of confusion in his eyes. He had met countless people, but he knew that one's character couldn't be changed just by saying so.