Chapter 108: 32nd Night 24th

Chu Wang stared at the blood on her hands and Yan Sang's lips, not knowing whose blood it was, feeling a little lost. She sensed the increasing number of people around her looking at her, as if they were anticipating a resounding slap. Her fingers twitched, the almost uncontrollable feeling that if she didn't give him a slap, she would be letting everyone down.

Chu Wang's mind was briefly bewildered. She looked up at Yan Sang, who was staring at her intently, as if awaiting her punishment or judgment. For a moment or two, seeing him in such a state of disgrace, she even felt that only a hard slap across his pale, bony face, a slap that would satisfy the entire audience, would bring this unexpected farce to an end. If not, everyone would be left in a stalemate, unsure of how to disperse, and the protagonist would be unsure of the next move.

After a heart-wrenching, one-sided, forced kiss, the simplest way to express the heroine's inner struggle and pain is to end with a slap in the face. This seems to be how it's played in movies.

She thought about it carefully, but still felt it shouldn't be this way. She realized she had caused him so much pain. Perhaps he had too high expectations of her. Gods might not have been too demanding when they treated mortals as fellow beings, but they had unknowingly placed too high expectations on them.

She could either deify him forever, pampering him as one of a kind, or become another deity, sharing the same altar with him. Unfortunately, she had disappointed him. She was only human, and she gradually began to find herself unable to do either. It was her fault, and she owed him an explanation. It wasn't something that could be simply resolved with a slap in the face or a burst of tears.

She always wondered if she owed him a kiss, a kiss that, at the perfect moment, would transform a plain, fleeting story into a love story. It seemed like that kiss should have come long ago, perhaps while eating ice cream on a summer spree boat, on a weekend bus to Sanssouci Palace, sharing a slice of stinky goat cheese on a Bavarian pasture, or getting drunk on rum with sailors on the docks of Marseille from Berlin; or when they were overjoyed at ordering delicious breakfast bread in Oxford Village, or under the streetlights on Christmas Eve after walking hand in hand through the snow to visit neighbors... Those moments hadn't come. Perhaps someday, but not now; thus, all that heart-stirring love story would only exist in countless love letters across the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. But this kiss had appeared here, like a vow of a turning point or an end. She didn't understand what it was, but it was definitely not a slap in the face that could hastily end things, or begin anew.

It appeared at such an inopportune time, just as she was thinking about what made him so angry at her, the slap had missed the best opportunity, indicating that this farce had no satisfactory ending and the story had no good result, which was why everyone was stuck here.

It was not until she saw Sakuma coming towards her that she realized: it was this incident that caused the story that happened in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1927 to not continue, so she owed him a long talk and explanation.

But such an explanation included the fact that she shouldn't have been in that cold little house in Shaoxing five years ago, and also included everything she knew about him from birth to death. How could she begin to tell this outrageous story?

She saw his breath, which had been full of energy, gradually fade away due to her inaction, and the fists clenched at his sides gradually loosened. She reached out to grab it, but he took a step back and fiercely blocked it.

She heard Mia say, "How will this end?"

She heard Zhenzhen say to Miya from behind: "Shouldn't I have stopped Young Master Si instead of Yunyan?"

Miya said, "My sweetheart kissed someone else in public. If it were me, I would have probably fainted from crying."

She heard Sakuma say to Yunyan, "Are you crying so hard?"

Everyone fell silent.

Sakuma walked between the two people who were in a stalemate, looked her over, and said with a smile, "Have you resolved your personal affairs? If so, is it my turn and Ms. Lin's turn?"

Zhenzhen yelled, "Stay away from her!"

Sakuma, hands behind his back, turned back and smiled, "If this matter isn't resolved and it's exposed, it's going to be tough on everyone. Since today's a good day, I've come to Miss Lin to settle this privately. Are you sure you don't want me to ask for her opinion?" Then he turned and said, "Recently, a two-year-old child went missing. The Municipal Council discovered that the person who took him away was a British soldier, and the order was given by a captain."

Chu Wang didn't move.

Sakuma continued, "They've already gone to the stables. It's all right if you don't see them, but once you do, you can't imagine what's going to happen, right?" He tutted his words, "What lively girls they are."

She asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Sakuma looked up at his watch, squinted his eyes and said, "How about this. It's only ten o'clock now, you accompany me to watch a horse race, so that they are always in your sight. How about our extraterritoriality?"

Zhenzhen took two steps forward and was suddenly pulled back by Miya.

Chu Wang looked down and saw Yan Sang's clenched fist, the bones clearly visible, as if he was about to swing it at Sakuma's face. She reached out again, and this time he didn't dodge, letting her gently squeeze the back of his hand. A small, cold hand.

He immediately put it down and walked out the door.

Sakuma smiled, brushed past Yan Sang and followed.

The two walked out of the hall one after the other. Yan Sang turned around and rushed out to block them, asking loudly: "Who do they think you are?!"

The servant who was storing clothes outside the hall was a little surprised.

"A dark charcoal grey double-breasted coat." Chu Wang said to Pu'ou calmly. Pu'ou was even more surprised by her calmness, but at the same time, he was comforted by it. He turned around and took the coat bag from the cabinet and handed it back to her.

She took out her clothes, put them on, raised her head slightly, and said to him, "So, what's the difference between me and them?"

He stood there in a daze.

She had already followed the Japanese officer downstairs.

——

Miya, still relatively calm, dragged the pale Zhenzhen upstairs. When she found Mr. Jiang, tears suddenly flowed down her face. She grabbed Mr. Jiang's sleeve and asked, "Where's my brother? Where did my brother go?!"

Mr. Jiang stared into her eyes for a while.

"Chu Wang was taken away by Sakuma...to the horse farm." Although Zhenzhen's face was pale, she spoke for her very calmly.

"The major just called him away." Mr. Jiang took her hand from his sleeve, thought for a moment, and immediately asked someone around to invite Mr. Huang. Then he took Miya's hand and asked Zhenzhen to follow Mr. Huang downstairs.

A Ford car just drove out, and just as Sakuma opened the door for her, she heard Mr. Huang call out from behind, "Miss San, please stay."

Chu Wang's hair fell on her cheeks, which was a bit sad and beautiful, but she smiled at her and it was resolved. She adjusted her hair and stopped: "Mr. Huang."

When Sakuma saw Mr. Huang approaching, he changed his accent to uncharacteristic Chinese and said respectfully, "Hello, Mr. Huang."

Mr. Huang nodded slightly, ignoring everyone. He walked forward and, with a snap, clasped a large diamond bracelet around Chu Wang's arm. Everyone except Mr. Jiang was startled, and even Sakuma raised an eyebrow, staring at the bracelet, which was almost thicker than her arm.

Chu Wang was startled. Before he could say anything to refuse or accept, Mr. Jiang spoke first, "Mr. Huang gave you this as a token of his heart. Just accept it."

"Yes." She nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Huang."

Sakuma also smiled and said in strange Chinese: "Don't worry, Mr. Huang. We will bring Miss Lin back the same way we took her there."

Mr. Huang smiled and nodded.

Sakuma made a gesture of invitation and invited her to get in the car.

The car door closed, and she turned to look out the window. Everyone was there, except Yan Sang and Xie Zeyi.

Sakuma sat beside her, smiled and exhaled, "You have so many friends. Unlike me, I don't have many friends."

She touched the heavy bracelet on her arm and asked, "What are you going to do with them?"

Sakuma's face darkened, then he smiled again and said, "Horse racing is the only game I enjoy in Shanghai. Since I sincerely invited you here, it's because I sincerely want to make friends with Miss Lin. I said I won't do anything to you, and I will never hurt you."

"What about them?"

"It all depends on how you plan to entertain me. There are always women in the concession who are eager to fight for status and are willing to sell themselves for the sake of luxury. You can tell these kinds of women apart after just three dances at a dance hall. For those who are still reserved, taking them to the horse farm for one or two rounds is enough." Sakuma chuckled, "But these two women today are quite different. Do you know what the difference is?"

She looked at Sakuma.

"Look at your eyes," Sakuma said, half-smiled. "Even when you're trying to please me, you still look like a hero going to die bravely, just like you."

She gnashed her teeth in hatred.

"Of course, I was just joking. I really like your eyes, and seeing them today just reminded me of you. I like you very much, Miss Lin, and naturally I like them too."

The car stopped outside the Caoma Racecourse. Sakuma opened the door and walked out, muttering, "Let me see my number five." He smiled and took a few steps before snapping back to his senses. He returned, grinning and holding the door open for her. "Forgive me, how could I have forgotten you?"

She stayed away from him and got out of the car. A cool breeze blew, and she put her sleeves in her pockets and felt them.

Cao Ma came out, speaking pidgin English with a forced smile, and invited them both inside: "Lord Sakuma, the other two gentlemen have already gone in."

Sakuma turned sideways and gave Chu Wang his gaze: "It's not that easy to invite a beauty like me."

Cao Ma looked at her and bent down: "Of course, of course."

Cao Ma led the way, and she followed him into the house, hands in her pockets. A stove sat in a simple hallway, and behind a counter hung a dozen or so red and black signs with numbers engraved on them.

Sakuma pushed a handful of cash onto the counter.

Cao Mamei smiled and said, "Old rules?"

Sakuma leaned lazily on the counter, "Ladies first. Let the ladies choose first."

She stared at Cao Ma.

Cao Ma immediately understood and explained, "Ma'am, we have thirteen horses here tonight. Their names are the numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10 on the signs above. Newbie, good luck. Pick one for the gentleman and let him win the whole race."

Sakuma said, "Cao, please watch carefully. This is the amount of money I'm betting on."

Cao Ma raised his eyebrows and took a look, then immediately smiled and said, "Two, two."

Sakuma smiled at her and said, "Take your pick. If you lose, it's mine, and if you win, it's yours."

She stared at him and asked, "Why two?"

"Let's test our luck," Sakuma lowered his eyes, "let's see if our female scientist is lucky enough."

"I only believe in data, not luck."

"Let's have some fun after work." Sakuma said with a smile.

She looked up at Sakuma and said, "I don't take human life lightly. I don't gamble."

As she turned to leave, she heard Sakuma's voice saying, "They're in my hands now. If they were sent to Nanjing, do you know how they would be treated?"

She paused.

Sakuma added, "Our Officer Xie, his superiors should already be here, having a heart-to-heart talk with him about the missing boy, right? A two-hour horse race? Is that enough time for you to think about it?"

She gritted her teeth, turned around and asked, "Where are they?"

Sakuma said with a smile, "Do you really have to go and take a look?" Seeing her expression, he smiled, "Cao Ma, lead the way."

Cao Ma responded and led the two along the open-air terrace to the long corridor on the shady side of the compartment. A stream curved along the corridor, bamboo shadows swaying; past it, a stable. A small window high above faced two rooms, each containing a woman. The view through the small window was not particularly clear, but I could make out they were standing in a very strange posture, as if their necks were being lifted by something.

In one of them, there was a small silver longevity character on the royal blue cheongsam. She shuddered and turned to ask Cao Ma, "Is this a horse ranch?"

Cao Ma glanced at Sakuma and said with a respectful smile, "How could there not be several horse training rooms in the stables? If the wild horses we just brought in are not tortured into obedience, how could they run away?"

Sakuma chuckled and said, "Human strength is much weaker than that of a horse."

Cao Ma laughed and said, "So, horse training cannot rely on physical strength, but requires nerve torture, intimidation through form, color, and sound, hunger, thirst, whipping, and drug injection..." After thinking for a moment, he bowed again and said, "Major knows better than me."

"How do I know better than you?" Sakuma laughed. "The horses here are practically insane. That's why I never go to any of those white people's horse farms. I only come here. Your horses are the most interesting."

She felt like a large part of her body was hanging in the air above her stomach, and her whole body seemed to be floating. Her voice was a little weak as she asked, "How do we bet?"

Sakuma then remembered her and turned around and said, "How about this. You pick two and I'll pick one." He pointed at the two houses and said, "If your horse is faster than mine, I'll let them out. How about that?"

She stared at him and asked Cao Ma: "Mr. Cao, tell me the number again."

"Two, four, five, seven, nine, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-three, twenty-four."

She thought for a moment and said, "Ten, seventeen."

Cao Ma nodded, "Hey. Where's the Major?"

"Old rules."

"Okay, number five, right?"

The two of them sat down in the high, screened-off stands. This offered the best view, a view of the entire spectator audience and the horses charging head-on. As the thirteen horses burst out from the track, Sakuma's eyes lit up, and he sighed with relief. "After so many years in Shanghai, everything has lost its joy. If there's anything left, it's horse racing."

He thought of their great emperor, who was infertile, and his unmarried wife, who, he was told, later became a biologist. She devoted herself to science, working with the emperor to develop in vitro fertilization, donating her own eggs for him. This benefited her and his family. Later, the boy died, and his entire family mourned for three days. He remembered his mother, who had asked him to express his regret and apology to the emperor at the investiture ceremony, in front of thousands of soldiers, for the two-month-old embryo. He did so. He was moved to tears by his own and his family's absolute loyalty to the emperor.

He was too young, and had already seen too much blood. When he enlisted, he swore his undivided loyalty to the Emperor. He killed when the Emperor ordered him to. When the General told him to kill, he struck faster than a bitch. With so many lives on his hands, the vibrant colors gradually lost their stamina, and killing no longer gave him pleasure. The Chinese were either increasingly docile—kneeling at the sight of a knife, clambering up at the sight of a trousers; or they were too fragile, biting their tongues the moment you captured them. His rank couldn't rise too fast or too slowly. He didn't know where he would end up, and life was slowly losing hope. He drove around trying to stimulate himself: sex, torture, necrophilia... He tried everything, but nothing was appealing.

He came to Caoma once, and that day he had a batch of newly born wild horses. He blindfolded them, played sharp scraping noises in their ears, drugged them, and tied them up. He then brutally slaughtered their useless companions in front of them, skinned them, and threw them into a frying pan. He starved them for three days, then fed them for three days, then ferociously whipped them.

These are horses on the verge of a mental breakdown, so sensitive that if you prod them even a little bit, they will go crazy immediately.

Here are the best running horses, but also a group of mentally ill horses.

That was his own taming process, a top-notch killing machine, driven to near insanity by excitement. He could even foresee that one day, they would face an even greater massacre, right here on the land he was standing on, a land they had once submitted to, but which had finally been ruled by a foreign race, turning them into a people of the lowest order, with inherent slavery. They would use their highest etiquette to influence them.

He looked at the old, weak and sick people who were squeezed together and trampled on each other, and stared at the number five horse that was leading the other horses by almost a whole lap on the racecourse. He was almost moved to tears.

He reached out to grab the person next to him, his latest favorite toy, a Chinese woman who was no different from how he loved Horse Number Five. He wanted her to be moved with him, but he grabbed nothing.

Number 10 and Number 17 are also among the elderly, weak and sick.

He laughed heartily and patted the empty seat next to him: "Sit down."

She put her gloves in her coat pocket, leaned against the railing, and stared at the racecourse motionlessly.

Sakuma leaned back against the chair, his head propped up, looking at her profile, which seemed a bit innocent despite her cold eyes. He saw the swell of her breasts beneath her coat, the curve of her body beneath her skirt, and the shapely, smooth ankles. Suddenly, a surge of heat surged down his spine, and he could barely resist the urge to get up. The bracelet on her wrist caught the light, stinging his eyes. He pounded his fist hard on the railing.

Damn it! Such a beautiful toy, what a shame, he can't even touch it.

"Why are you so anxious? Major Fujima isn't even anxious," Sakuma said, gazing at her with a smile. "Look, he's sitting in the stands across from us, watching the horse race with us. How can a small underground party's spies and intelligence be any match for a massive empire? Those two women were so stupid, thinking they could stop him. Little did they know, it was Major Fujima who was holding up their intelligence."

She stared at No. 5, who was leading the way, without saying a word.

"Number 10 and Number 17 can't win. Why do you have to go and see them? If you don't, they will die quietly like the countless other names that die in the spinning mill every day. They can't save the people in the spinning mill, and you can't save them either. So don't worry, sit down and watch my lovely Baoer Number 5 run forward like a son of a bitch." He frowned, stood up, and moved towards the corner where she was standing. "If you still have to worry, how about this, you give me a kiss and touch, and promise not to tell anyone, and I will let them go. Okay?"

Chu Wang put her hands in her pockets, leaning motionlessly against the corner of the railing, watching Sakuma slowly walk towards her.

Sakuma leaned her hands on the wall beside her. Because she was wearing high heels, she could only look up and speak in a low voice, "I picked this place specifically. There's all the sound of horses' hooves and neighing down there. No matter how you shout later, no one will hear you, and it won't embarrass you. How is it?"

She straightened her windbreaker, looked up at the face so close, and asked, "I kept my word. So will the Japanese troops withdraw from Hongkou and the Manchurian Railway as promised?"

Sakuma looked up and laughed as if he had heard a really funny joke. "Your government loves us, how could they bear to let us go? Chinese girls are so easy to fool."

She then asked, "If number 10 and number 17 surpass number 5, you won't let them go?"

Sakuma stared at her seriously and said, "If you let me kiss you, I'll promise to let them go. Otherwise, I'll take you to watch Fujima and his Self-Defense Force kiss them one by one."

She raised her head and breathed softly on Sakuma's approaching face.

——

When Yan Sang saw her being taken away by the Japanese on the balcony, his first reaction was almost instinctively to run back to the second floor of the banquet hall and knock on each door one by one.

When he heard the noise outside, Zhu Ercha had already called Xie Zeyi into the locked compartment, where he drank tea in silence for more than ten minutes.

It was not until he heard frantic knocking on the door outside that Xie Zeyi looked up at Zhu Ercha.

As he stood up to open the door, Zhuercha coughed and finally spoke.

"There was a complaint recently filed against you at the Municipal Council. A two-year-old Chinese boy went missing, and you asked Bian Jieming to take him away. Where did he go?"

"That's an orphan."

"Are you sure?"

"I never do anything without certainty, you know that, sir."

"Then what about the other thing? How sure were you? You took advantage of the fact that there was no superior stationed at the Municipal Council tonight and arbitrarily transferred two teams of people to the Spinning Mill Hospital."

"It is true."

"What are the consequences?"

"Bring out three people or a photo as evidence."

"Zoetse. I'm asking about the consequences. The consequences of your actions, both for you and for us."

"You've seen what Japan has done in the concessions in recent years, sir. Sooner or later, its ambitions for power will be sufficient. There will be no place for Britain here. Japan must leave the concessions."

Zhu Ercha stared at him. "Whose perspective are you considering? The Empire? Or what?"

"Of course it's the Empire."

Zhu Ercha sneered, "I'm afraid you have already been biased?"

Xie Zeyi remained calm: "Zoetse swears allegiance to the empire until death, and will not show partiality."

Zhu Ercha laughed twice and turned around. "You've been in the concession for two years. You hold higher military authority in Shanghai than I do. Don't you understand the intertwined interests of the six nations in the Municipal Council? If the photographs can truly serve as evidence of the Japanese's inhumane behavior in this country, how can you be so confident that the incident won't escalate into another April 12th or May 30th Incident? If then, as an officer implicated in the case, Japan and the six nations' envoys hold you accountable, the Empire won't be able to protect you, Zoe. Do you understand? If the people of this land truly awaken and Japan is truly destroyed, we will all be destroyed too. Zoe, think of your family. From your grandfather's generation on, every penny your family has made has been at the expense of hundreds of Chinese lives. You were born on a pile of Chinese bones, weeping in grief as this country was divided up. Now that you've returned here, do you dare say you haven't taken a few lives? As long as one Japanese is brought to justice, Zoe." Zhu Ercha turned his head and looked into those black pupils. "As long as one Japanese is brought to justice, none of us can escape."

"Yes, sir, I understand." Xie Zeyi smiled and lowered his head, but ignored him and turned around to push the door open to leave.

"Zoe!" Zhu Ercha's face changed drastically. "This is the International Settlement! Nanjing unconditionally protects the supreme interests of the six foreign powers in the concession! You are sitting here today drinking tea and chatting with me. Naturally, I asked those two teams to assist the Japanese army in negotiating the misunderstanding and reconciliation between Britain and Japan. You just lost your mind for a moment. Don't let this make you miss the big opportunity!"

Xie Zeyi paused as he opened the door.

"Zoe, think carefully about who is right and who is wrong." Zhu Ercha's voice trembled, and then he lowered his voice, half commanding, half begging, "You are a smart person, Zoe, you understand better than I think."

"This is the International Settlement, and it's also Chinese territory." Xie Zeyi smiled at him, "I understand it very well."

Zhu Er looked at the direction he left and threw the teacup in his hand violently.

Xie Zeyi closed the door and saw Yan Sang outside, who looked extremely embarrassed.

He glanced at the blood on his lips, his expression changed, and asked, "Where is she?"

Yan Sang's voice was hoarse. "She went to the horse farm with the Japanese. You...you should go find her quickly."

"I understand." Xie Zeyi nodded, walked downstairs quickly, pushed open the door of the banquet hall and went out.

Yan Sang followed closely behind.

He did not rush out immediately, but stopped at the counter at the door to pick up clothes, called the servant and asked, "Did Miss Lin San take her coat away?"

Puou nodded and said, "I left after getting my coat."

He hummed, opened the door and went out.

Bian Jieming's car just drove over.

"To the Spinning Mill Hospital," he said.