A Love Never Lost Episode 20 Recap
> A Love Never Lost Recap
These people who came to see Liang Xiang were all hoping to ask him for a job change or to arrange a position. Li Renjun was more clever—he didn’t foolishly line up with the others, but specifically asked to see the old madam, smoothly entering the Liang household and chatting with Liang’s mother for quite a while before managing to come over to see Liang Xiang.
Li Renjun took out a silver note, saying it was a wedding gift from the Commander. Liang Xiang returned the money, stating bluntly that the lineage stemming from Prince Rui of the First Rank, to which he belonged, never accepted bribes—they relied solely on their own capabilities. After returning to his residence, Li Renjun didn’t know how to explain the situation to Yuan Shikai.
He simply decided to keep the silver note for now and would report to the Commander that Liang Xiang had accepted it. Liang Xiang spent his days thinking about how to restructure the military. Ideally, he needed a capable and trusted assistant, and the well-acquainted Li Renjun would have been a good choice. But the fact that today Li Renjun attempted to bribe him with five thousand silver taels deeply disappointed Liang Xiang.
Naturally, he no longer held any hope for him. In 1906, the Ministry of War was renamed the Ministry of the Army. The Training Bureau and the Court of the Imperial Stud were merged into it. The Ministry was now responsible for all national army administrative affairs, overseeing the capital and provincial military units, including the Banner and Green Standard forces.
It also examined military regulations and pay systems and handled all major matters concerning the army to strengthen national defense. The Ministry of the Army had recently purchased twenty-four German-made mountain guns. The Commander hoped to persuade Liang Xiang to allocate the mountain guns to the Third Garrison. Previously, he had sent Li Renjun to deliver money to Liang Xiang in an attempt to secure these guns.
Since Li Renjun failed to deliver the message, the Commander approached Liang Xiang directly. But Liang Xiang had already decided to allocate the guns to the Eighth Garrison under Lord Tieliang. Furious, the Commander returned to Baoding and summoned Li Renjun, firing five shots behind him. Li Renjun dodged the issue, and the Commander was indeed distracted. However, Li Renjun still didn’t understand how the bureaucracy worked, and this move ultimately affected the Commander’s judgment of Liang Xiang.
Unexpectedly, Liang Xiang brought Duo Mei along to pay a visit. He spoke frankly to Li Renjun, saying that the court had ordered autumn military exercises in Zhangde—Northern and Southern forces would be in opposition, with the Third Garrison against the Eighth. Liang Xiang had been appointed chief referee and was caught in a difficult position.
Li Renjun suggested that if Liang Xiang didn’t want to handle such dirty work, he might as well summon Yang Kaizhi back from Yanji to assist him. Yang Kaizhi, now serving as an assistant official in Yanji, had become a well-deserved frontier hero of the court, and no one dared question the legitimacy of his background. Yang Kaizhi returned to China by boat and first went to Shanghai to meet Song Baoquan.
After hearing Song Baoquan’s concubine mention Song Chen and Xie Shuhong, Yang Kaizhi revealed that Xie Shuhong already had a child. Xie Shuhong went to photograph the graduation class of Qingshan Practical Girls' School. Principal Shitada Utako was surprised to find that the female photographer was none other than Xie Shuhong. She also knew Xie Shuhong had a child and recognized how difficult her life had been.
From then on, whenever the school needed photography, they would reach out to Xie Shuhong. Song Chen came to Xie Shuhong’s shop to take a photo but was called upstairs by Wu Tianbai. When Wu Tianbai heard from Xie Shuhong that Song Chen was Song Baoquan’s son, he began to eye him, launching into a session of “ideological education” about the importance of money for the revolution. Song Chen was so frightened that he ran off immediately.
Wu Tianbai’s studio caught fire, and Xie Shuhong struggled to drag him downstairs. Wu Tianbai kept urging Xie Shuhong to take the child and leave first. But Xie Shuhong couldn’t worry about the child—she desperately pulled the disabled Wu Tianbai down the stairs. Just as they made it down, there was a loud “boom” from upstairs as an explosion erupted.
