Di Ming

Chapter 10 Royal Family
Hearing that Zhu Yin had agreed to let her go to the outhouse, Ning Caiwei breathed a sigh of relief, her face flushed slightly, and her expression became a little shy.

After returning to childhood, he seems to have become less cunning and more easily embarrassed.

Even worse, they've become timid.

Without Zhu Yin's company late at night, she really didn't dare to go to the outhouse outside the courtyard alone.

Zhu Yin was very perceptive; he noticed the woman's embarrassment and, with high emotional intelligence, said:
“If I need to use the restroom at night, I might need you to come with me. Sigh, I’ve aged backwards for twenty years, and I’ve become more timid. I used to be able to take on several strong men by myself, but now? I feel completely unsafe in front of adults.”

"Not to mention these deep mountains and forests. The Jurchens built fences, of course, to guard against danger."

Hearing this, Ning Caiwei smiled with relief, her embarrassment vanishing, and said with deep feeling:

"Yes, yes. Take me for example. I used to have a master teach me martial arts, and I was considered an amateur Taekwondo expert. I didn't think of myself as a weak woman. But now... sigh."

“Let’s go.” Zhu Yin was the first to crawl out of the animal skin rug. “Put on another sheepskin; it’s too cold outside at night.”

The two got off the kang (a heated brick bed), opened the door and went out, first taking down the lamp on the lintel.

It is an ice lantern.

Impoverished Jurchen people, unable to obtain lantern paper and lantern gauze from the Han people, generally used ice lanterns.

Of course, ice lanterns can only be used in winter.

Hollowing out the ice and lighting a lamp inside not only blocks the wind but also allows more light to pass through than Han Chinese lanterns, making them crystal clear and preventing them from melting from the lamp flame.

Jurchen hunters often used ice lanterns to hunt and fish on winter nights.

However, ice lanterns are outdoor lights and cannot be brought indoors, as they would melt from the heat of the kang (heated brick bed).

We have now entered the Little Ice Age.

Winter nights in Northeast China are even colder.

The two men, dressed in the owner's fur coats, were still shivering from the cold outside.

Inside the fenced courtyard, on the west side of the screen wall, a solitary ice lamp is lit, used for warding off evil spirits.

This is called a screen wall.

The screen wall blocks the door of the main house, so that evil spirits will not disturb the owner.

Before the two had even left the courtyard, the dog left behind by the owner was alerted.

When the Jurchens went hunting, strong dogs followed them into the mountains, while older and younger dogs stayed behind to guard the house.

The Boroly father and son took two of the strong young hunting dogs with them, leaving only this old dog.

Seeing that the guest had gone to the outhouse, the old dog stopped barking and lazily went back to its kennel.

The snow was still falling, and the courtyard was quiet, with the faint sound of a baby babbling.

The two pushed open the tall gate, carrying ice lanterns, and helped each other to find the outhouse.

The eerie, chilling atmosphere of the deep mountains and forests swept over everything.

The small village of twenty or thirty households is like a small boat in a sea of ​​forests.

The surrounding mountains were as black as a city, and from the nearby forest came the roars of wild beasts.

The vast, desolate atmosphere made the two feel as if they were in the primordial era.

Zhu Yin felt his own insignificance and let out a barely perceptible sigh.

"I've actually come to this era, to this place."

Ning Caiwei had no time for sentimentality; she was reluctantly checking the outhouse.

The Jurchen people's outhouses were very simple dry toilets, with a pit underneath and wooden planks on top.

Once you fall...

Thinking about this, Ning Caiwei felt a chill run down her spine.

Fortunately, it was too cold, so there were no flies or mosquitoes and no foul smell.

Ning Caiwei carefully looked at the outhouse and saw the precarious wooden planks and the dark, murky latrine beneath them. She asked pitifully:

"Really here?"

Zhu Yin smiled wryly and retorted, "Otherwise what? My dear Ning, having a latrine is already a blessing. In the Jurchen tribe, people would just relieve themselves wherever they were."

"To tell you the truth, most of the outhouses in China during the Ming Dynasty were like this, including those in the Central Plains."

Ning Caiwei, who was naturally fond of cleanliness, frowned slightly and said in a weak voice:
"Alright, I guess I'll just have to go with the flow. But... what if I fall in? There was a King of Qi in the Spring and Autumn period who apparently drowned in a latrine?"

Zhu Yin was very understanding of her; after all, she was a woman, and she had previously been worth hundreds of millions, so the psychological gap was too great.

"Don't worry, Caiwei, it's not that easy to fall in. You're just squatting, not dancing. Don't be afraid, finish quickly and come back soon."

After saying this, the little man turned around, stood guard at the door of the outhouse, and faced the forest.

He stretched out his cold hands and touched the snowflakes in the dim light, his gaze deep and his thoughts surging.

He wrapped his sheepskin coat tighter around himself and shakily pulled out his lighter.

At that moment, he was like a profound poet, but the next instant—

He struggled to unzip his pants. That's the good thing about men; they can urinate standing up, and they don't have to be so fussy—it's much more convenient for them than for women.

Just say now.

Ning Caiwei needed to use the restroom.

But he... he was just taking a piss, why would he need to use the outhouse so late at night?
The cold urine fell to the ground and turned into ice beads.

It doesn't look like urination, it looks more like sprinkling ice.

See you a long time!
Inside the outhouse. A single lamp flickers dimly, a woman stands like a deer.

A rustling sound arose, accompanied by a barely audible sigh.

It's like standing on the edge of an abyss, or walking on thin ice!
Fortunately, Ning Caiwei came out in a short while.

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but it was no easy feat.

In just a short while, her bottom went numb from the cold.

Damn it!

After relieving themselves, the two carried the ice lantern back to the courtyard.

In just a few minutes, it was almost frozen solid.

Climbing onto the warm kang (heated brick bed) and crawling into the animal skin mattress, he finally came back to his senses.

"Can't sleep? Let's talk?" Ning Caiwei tilted her head. "You're a Chinese who returned from overseas, right?"

After what just happened, she felt closer to Zhu Yin and wanted to understand him better.

Zhu Yin nodded. "You investigated me? Yes. Yes, I am indeed a returned Chinese citizen..."

Zhu Yin no longer concealed anything and slowly recounted some of his experiences.

He was born into a Chinese family in Southeast Asia. His grandfather said that his ancestor was Emperor Jianwen, Zhu Yunwen.

The Zhu family has passed down a family secret through generations:
During the Jingnan Rebellion, three days before Zhu Di captured Nanjing, Emperor Jianwen knew that the situation was hopeless and irreversible.

He sailed down the Yangtze River to the South Seas, enduring hardship and wandering among the various countries of the South Seas.

My grandfather said that he was the 20th generation descendant of Crown Prince Yiwen and the 19th generation descendant of Emperor Jianwen.

Because he exceeded the twenty-character generational limit set by the founding emperor, he was no longer referred to by the generational limit, but instead by the two-character name Zhu Yin.

His grandfather, Zhu Yongze, and father, Zhu Shengmei, are still among the twenty generations of the direct line of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, he was just a Chinese man who was ostracized and grew up under the shadow of anti-Chinese genocide.

At the age of twelve, during a riot involving the robbery of Chinese people, he killed a Southeast Asian native who was trying to kill him.

This is probably how my life will end.

But one day, a mysterious Chinese man who was on a business trip to Southeast Asia developed a strong interest in Black Tiger.

The man told him that Black Tiger was an extremely rare breed of special police and military dog.

The man wanted to take Black Tiger back for training. This was Black Tiger's chance.

So he took Black Tiger with him to China. Later, Black Tiger eventually became a special military dog ​​serving in secret.

Black Tiger's performance was outstanding, earning him two first-class merit awards. His only flaw was his attachment to his former master.

Therefore, the higher-ups decided to investigate him.

As a result, he not only passed the test and successfully returned to his hometown, but his talent as a secret agent was also discovered.

As a result, he was specially recruited as an agent of the secret service right after graduating from university.

When he took up his post, Black Tiger, who had already served in the secret service for eight years, finally retired and retired to enjoy his retirement.

Speaking of which, Black Tiger is considered a "senior".

Ning Caiwei listened intently. She had indeed investigated Zhu Yin, but she hadn't expected that he was a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even more unexpectedly, his return to China was related to Black Tiger.

"So, you're a member of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family?" Ning Caiwei asked, intrigued.

"The Ming imperial family?" Zhu Yin was a little confused. "I don't know whether they count as imperial family or not."

"To be honest, the Ming Dynasty had already been gone for hundreds of years when I was born, so what kind of imperial family am I?"

"To be honest, I am indeed a descendant of the Jianwen Emperor. I am a descendant of the Ming Taizu."

"Ugh, the more I think about it, the more absurd it seems. It feels so absurd."

Ning Caiwei's eyes lit up slightly, and she said in a low voice:

“I think you are a member of the royal family.”

"In a broad sense, you are still qualified to succeed to the throne, right?"

(End of this chapter)