“What do you mean by saying this, Second Young Master? Whether I followed Mr. Li before or later followed you, I have never regretted anything I did.”

“I know, but I’ll walk this road alone from now on. Your joining in would be a pointless sacrifice. Go on, if this is over, and you have the chance, go back and continue being my brother’s driver and take care of him for me.”

Hearing these words, which sounded like a deathbed confession, Li Gang, a man well past fifty, immediately had tears in his eyes and choked up, "Second Young Master, is this really something that has to be done? There are so many people, why should you be the one to sacrifice yourself?"

Li Gang was born into poverty and had little education. He struggled to survive in a chaotic world. It was nonsense for him to talk about understanding national righteousness. If he could, he would rather kneel and pray to Buddha for three days and three nights to let someone else die instead of his second young master.

What does the survival of the nation have to do with him? All he knows is that without Mr. Li and his second son, his entire family would have starved to death or been beaten to death hundreds of times over.

Chen Zhuo looked out the window without speaking; silence was his answer.

Finally, Li Gang took a step back, bowed deeply to Chen Zhuo, and said, "Second Young Master, take care." Then he left with heavy steps.

······

Chen Ke searched for Chen Zhuo for two whole days, looking all around but couldn't find a trace of him. At this moment, he finally understood what Chen Zhuo felt when he was frantically searching for him.

My heart felt empty, yet my nerves were extremely tense. Various emotions such as fear, terror, and panic filled every corner of my body like a sponge. The longer it went on, the more it swelled, until it felt like it was about to burst through my skin and explode, leaving a bloody mess, but it couldn't alleviate the empty pain in my heart at all.

But the more pain he felt, the calmer Chen Ke appeared on the surface.

At least when he got home, Zhou Shanhuai and Song Xiaowen couldn't tell that something was wrong with him.

When Chen Ke saw Zhou Shuya off, he knew that Zhou Shanhuai and Song Xiaowen must know something, otherwise they wouldn't have cooperated with Chen Zhuo so resolutely to send Zhou Shuya away.

It was only after Chen Ke probed a little that he realized Chen Zhuo hadn't told the old couple the truth at all. He only said that his family members might be in mortal danger when carrying out this plan, but in order not to arouse the suspicion of the puppet government, they couldn't all leave. So the family decided to send Zhou Shuya abroad under the pretext of studying abroad, while they would stay at home as "hostages".

The elderly couple had prepared themselves mentally when they decided to stay, but they had no idea that this plan would almost certainly lead to Chen Zhuo's death. So, their emotions had been relatively stable for the past two days, though they were somewhat nervously waiting for the danger Chen Zhuo had mentioned to arrive.

As the highest commander of the entire underground organization in Shanghai, Chen Zhuo, codenamed "Jiang Ying," was a thorn in the side of the puppet government and the Special Higher Police. Despite their repeated defeats in battles across the country and their own predicament, they were determined to capture "Jiang Ying" at all costs.

Because of this operation, the whole of Shanghai became tense and the streets inexplicably became deserted. The autumn wind swept up leaflets that had been scattered from somewhere, scattering them all over the streets. Without the shouts of street vendors and the comings and goings of rickshaws, the once bustling streets seemed to have suddenly lost their color and entered a black and white channel, desolate and bleak.

Chen Ke returned home empty-handed from the police station once again. When he got home, Song Xiaowen nervously grabbed him and said that there seemed to be many unidentified people walking around outside the house. He wondered if they were people sent to monitor them.

Chen Ke, thinking of the man in black who had been pretending to read a newspaper across the street but actually keeping an eye on their front door, smiled reassuringly at Song Xiaowen: "It's alright, Mom. He was probably sent by Chen Zhuo to protect us. Don't be nervous."

Song Xiaowen breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest, saying, "That's good, that's good. I was so scared that I didn't even eat lunch properly. But I noticed that they haven't eaten either. Should we send them some food?"

See, Song Xiaowen is such a kind-hearted person; he always thinks of others.

Chen Ke shook his head. "No need, Mom. They'll take turns resting. Do you and Dad want to rest? I'll chat with you."