My Taoist nun girlfriend is from the Republic of China era, 1942.

Chapter 110 History Has No Ifs
Since she started reading books, Chen Xiaomiao's taste in watching TV dramas has changed.

From anti-Japanese war dramas to martial arts films, I've recently started working on historical dramas, both domestic and foreign.

This is clearly related to her burying herself in history books for almost half a month.

I don't know where she learned it from, but now when she watches a movie, she always takes out her phone first, opens a green-and-white app, and scrolls through it to check the rating.

"Lu Yuan, in this 'Ming Dynasty'! It's 9.7!"

"This 'Towards the Republic' is also good, 9.6!"

That evening, Lu Yuan accompanied her to watch Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor".

The film is very long, a full three and a half hours.

After the movie ended, the credits slowly rolled, and the room fell silent.

Chen Xiaomiao remained silent for a long time, staring intently at the black screen, her black-rimmed glasses slipping halfway down her delicate nose.

"What's wrong?" Lu Yuan put his arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear.

“Lu Yuan…”

She turned her head, her eyes full of confusion: "Why is this movie rated so high? It's 9.2 points."

"The ratings are given by others, they're not important. Don't always just look at the ones with high ratings."

Lu Yuan reached out and gently pushed her glasses back up, which had slipped down: "What do you think? Is this show good?"

"I...I can't say."

Chen Xiaomiao pursed her lips, her brows furrowed tightly into a deep frown.

She still clearly remembers that back in the temple, whenever Puyi was mentioned, neither her master Chen Qingfeng nor Brother Xiaoshu had a single good word to say.

One winter, my master, with a few peanuts and some newly brewed sweet potato liquor, pointed north and started cursing, his face turning red from the rant.

They cursed the last emperor as a "corrupt official who stole the country and a sycophantic slave," and a "sinner who severed the dragon vein and ruined the nation's fortune."

They even said, "Even if he is a Manchu, in the end his three souls and seven spirits will not return to their place, and he will have no face to see his ancestors of the Great Qing Dynasty after he dies."

But the character in this foreign movie... he looks like a pitiful person, doesn't he?
He ascended the throne at the age of three, becoming emperor without understanding anything.

They wanted to reform, but a group of old guys held them back.

They tried to escape, but ended up trapped inside the Forbidden City.

Later, he was taken to Northeast China by the Japanese and made a puppet emperor, as if every step he took was beyond his control.

In the end, he became an ordinary citizen. If he wanted to go back to his own "home" for a visit, he had to buy a ticket and then explain to people.

Looking at her conflicted expression, Lu Yuan couldn't help but laugh: "Do you believe your master's opinion, or do you believe the movies made by foreigners?"

Chen Xiaomiao answered decisively, "Then I will definitely believe my master!"

"That's it."

Lu Yuan rubbed her head.

That being said, it's still a movie that's over nine minutes in, leaving a lasting impression.

Although Chen Xiaomiao had some reservations about the characters and story in the movie, she had to admit that the scenes and music in the movie did have an inexplicable magic, like a little hook, tickling her heart again and again.

She had no interest in watching the next movie. She took off her glasses, rubbed her sore eyes, and mumbled as she went back to her room to wash up and go to sleep.

Lying in bed, Chen Xiaomiao tossed and turned, her mind racing.

One moment it's Puyi's lonely figure chasing crickets in an empty palace when he was a child, and the next it's his master Chen Qingfeng pointing north and cursing with a flushed face.

She tossed and turned like a pancake, but still couldn't fall asleep. She reached out and patted Lu Yuan, who was already lying down next to her.

"Lu Yuan, are you asleep?"

"Um……"

Lu Yuan gave a muffled response from his throat.

"I have a question for you."

"Speak." Chen Xiaomiao moved closer to him, her voice very low: "You know... if Puyi had been a shrewd and capable emperor, like Emperor Taizong of Tang or Emperor Wu of Han in the books, would the world have been different back then?"

At least for a few years, we wouldn't have to put up with the Japanese devils' wrath.

In the darkness, Lu Yuan remained silent for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle.

"History has no 'what ifs'."

He turned over to face Chen Xiaomiao.

"If we're talking about 'what ifs,' why don't you say that Empress Dowager Cixi was a good empress dowager? And going further back, why don't you say that Emperor Chongzhen was able to protect the Ming Dynasty? One person's role is limited."

He paused for a moment and asked her in return.

"Haven't you been reading a history book lately? What does it say again? What's it about social change?"

Chen Xiaomiao was stunned for a moment, racking her brains.

She only half-understood those sentences that were like gibberish, but in order to pass Lu Yuan's random checks, she still memorized a lot of them.

She hesitated, then began to recite slowly and deliberately: "The contradictory movement between productive forces and relations of production is the fundamental driving force for social progress and the replacement of old and new social systems."

"Yeah."

Lu Yuan's voice was exceptionally clear in the night: "If you can understand this sentence, you can understand a lot of things."

That's not something that can be solved by changing the emperor; the whole house is rotten, and patching it up won't help; it has to be torn down and rebuilt.

Chen Xiaomiao didn't say anything more.

Productive forces... relations of production... the house is rotten...

These words swirled in her mind, turning into a tangled mess.

She seemed to understand something, but also seemed to understand nothing.

……

The next morning, when Lu Yuan got up, Chen Xiaomiao was already sitting at the dining table.

But the person looked listless, with two faint bluish patches under their eyes. The black-rimmed glasses on their face made their face look even more pale, like a frostbitten cabbage.

As Lu Yuan poured the milk, he asked, "Did you think about it all night?"

Chen Xiaomiao nodded weakly.

"Have you figured it out yet?"

She shook her head listlessly again.

Lu Yuan laughed and pushed a glass of warm milk in front of her: "Alright, stop thinking about it. I'll make breakfast today, you can rest."

At certain stages, the more knowledge a person absorbs, the more confused and thoughtful they become.

During this period, Chen Xiaomiao has read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies, and the amount of information she has been exposed to is far more than the sum of her previous eighteen years of life. It is perfectly normal for her to have wild thoughts.

Lu Yuan fried two eggs and toasted a few slices of bread, making do with a simple meal.

After breakfast, Chen Xiaomiao was ordered by Lu Yuan to go back to her room to catch up on sleep, and she slept until after 10 a.m.

When she came out of the room, still half asleep, Lu Yuan was sitting on the sofa looking at his phone.

"Awake?" He put down his phone and waved to her. "Don't read this afternoon. I'll take you out for a walk to clear your mind."

Where are you going?

Chen Xiaomiao yawned, walked over and slumped into his arms like a boneless cat.

Lu Yuan kept everyone in suspense, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.

He leaned close to Chen Xiaomiao's ear, lowered his voice, and his warm breath tickled her ear.

"A place that will guarantee you an amazing experience!"

(End of this chapter)