Chapter 248
In the deep winter, Jiangcheng seemed to be wrapped in a huge piece of wet cotton cloth between heaven and earth.
In the early morning, the fog was so thick it could have been wrung out of water. The door of the Li Family Grocery Store creaked open a crack, and the owner, Old Li, poked half his head out. A layer of frost instantly formed on his graying eyebrows. Squinting, he couldn't even make out his own sign across the street; all he could see was a blur of white.
"This fog has been going on for almost a month," he muttered, shrinking his neck and casually breaking off a small piece of the steamed bread in his arms and stuffing it into his mouth. This was the last bit of food for the family.
Ever since the mayor and his fellow officials absconded with their money overnight, Jiangcheng has been left without a mother. The wealthy had already hired boats, using their gold and silver coins, and fled south along the canal outside the city. Those left in the city now were mostly impoverished people like Old Man Li, or those like teacher Chen Mo, whose ancestral graves were buried in the hills outside the city, unwilling to abandon their roots.
Fear is like this fog, penetrating every pore.
For the first few days, the sentry post at the city gate was manned by a few self-organized young men who took turns guarding it. But when sporadic gunfire came from the east, coupled with days of food shortages, the young men dispersed. Some said that the Japanese team had set up camp a few miles outside the fog, but the fog was so strange that they dared not enter rashly.
It's not just the fog that's "weird".
Yesterday evening, half a freshly slaughtered pig went missing from the home of Wang the Butcher in the west of the city. With red eyes, Wang the Butcher spent half the night cursing around town, saying it must be some traitor taking advantage of the fog, trying to curry favor with the Japanese. But despite his rants, no one dared to go out in such awful weather to investigate.
Old Man Li was just looking at his empty rice jar, worrying about it, when he suddenly heard a series of tiny footsteps outside, like someone walking on tiptoe. His heart tightened, and he quickly blew out the oil lamp, pressed himself against the cold wall, and peered out through the crack in the door.
In the thick fog, a blurry black figure was seen moving slowly along the wall. The figure was wearing a bulky cotton-padded jacket and seemed to be carrying something bulging on his back.
Was it a thief? Or... Old Man Li's heart was in his throat. He gripped the door bar tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
At this moment, the shadow suddenly stopped, as if it had noticed something. Then, a very soft, tearful groan came from the fog.
Old Man Li's heart sank. He recognized the voice of Aunt Zhang, the widow who lived next door. Aunt Zhang's husband had gone out to look for food last month and had never returned.
He gritted his teeth, yanked open the bolt, raised the door bar, and shouted, "Who!"
The shadowy figure was startled by the sudden shout and turned to run, but his foot slipped and he fell heavily to the ground. The thing on his back fell out with a "clatter" and rolled to the feet of Old Man Li.
In the dim light, Old Man Li could see clearly—it was half a bag of cornmeal and a few hard steamed buns. And the person lying on the ground was none other than Aunt Zhang. Her hair was disheveled, her face smeared with mud. Seeing Old Man Li had caught her, she simply collapsed to the ground and sobbed.
"Uncle Li, I really have no other choice..." She wiped her tears, "The child hasn't eaten for three days. I... I thought about borrowing some from Mr. Chen's house, but his door was locked tightly..."
Old Man Li looked at the cornmeal on the ground, then at Aunt Zhang's lips, which had turned purple from the cold, and slowly lowered the door bar he had raised. He sighed, bent down, and helped Aunt Zhang up. "Alas, we're all miserable people. Let's go outside the city. I heard there's a kind and wealthy family building a house there. If you work there, you'll have food to eat."
Lu Daju, who provides food for half of the city and protects Jiang Cheng's safety, is now having a hard time. The positive and negative energies in his body repel each other and fight each other. He also has to use the energy to form a mist to protect Jiang Cheng. He feels like he will vomit blood in the next second.
Rong Zhou is adding to the pressure. Lu Er has been running around outside for so long without any problem, but Rong Zhou causes big trouble as soon as he goes out. Even his original world is experiencing a repulsive force. It's really laughable.
Lu Daju felt pain from the inside out, with pulling, resisting and squeezing every part of his body, making him collapse on the lounge chair in the garden, unwilling to move a finger.
Even in this situation, I still have to comfort my future father-in-law.
Lu Er leaned sickly on the couch.
"Boss Lu, I have a favor to ask of you." He opened the box. There was no gold, silver, or jewelry inside, only a set of neatly folded costumes - the sleeves were light pink, embroidered with tiny pearl flowers, and it was obvious that they were worth a lot of money.
"I want to take a picture," he said, "wearing this." Yuan Caidie picked up the costume, her fingertips gently brushing the beads on it. "The troupe has disbanded. I've thought about what you said for a long time. You won't harm me. Before I leave, I want to keep a memory of you."
Lu Er was silent. He wanted to boast that he would protect Yuan Caidie as long as she stayed with him, but now, he couldn't be sure when he would be excluded from the world, and he couldn't make any promises. He could only make a retreat in advance and go south to Macau and Hong Kong.
Take your gold and silver and go there to seek a place to stay.
Wang Yuqing also came to say goodbye, holding his priceless camera.
"You are..." He vaguely guessed something.
Wang Yuqing took a deep breath, as if making a great decision: "I will go to join the Communist Party."
Lu Er sat up straight. He only knew that Wang Yuqing was a member of the Kuomintang.
"Before, I was delivering intelligence to them." Wang Yuqing's voice trailed off, filled with deep guilt. "I thought I was defending my country, but in the end... because of my intelligence, they came up with the idea of blowing up the Yellow River."
His eyes welled up. "That's when I realized that the group I was following wasn't one dedicated to saving our country and our people. They were only focused on vying for power and profit, and didn't care about the lives of ordinary people, just like those officials who had run away!"
Lu Er was silent. How could he not know what those people were like?
"Later, Mr. Rong brought it up, and I also spent a long time observing various sources of information." Wang Yuqing's voice softened, a glimmer of light in his eyes. "It made me understand who truly wanted to save China and the people."
"The war situation is chaotic now. I want to join their team and do something for the people."
Every spot in the courtyard was a beautiful sight. Yuan Caidie had changed into her stage costume. Under the light, he applied a light touch of powder and dabbed rouge on his cheeks. Instantly, the "Boss Yuan" who had captivated everyone on the stage was back. But his eyes were devoid of the playful charm he had in the play, only a heavy sense of reluctance to leave.
"There aren't many people left in this city who I can talk to. It's a shame that Mr. Rong is not here. It's a bit of a pity."
"You sit, and I'll stand. Just think of it as... leaving a memory for Jiang Cheng."
Only then did Lu Er realize that the person with a blurred face sitting on the wooden chair in the collected photo was himself.
"Are you ready?" Wang Yuqing raised the camera and looked at the person in front of him through the viewfinder.
Yuan Caidie took a deep breath and nodded.
"Crack—"
The shutter sound was particularly clear in the quiet yard.
By the time the photos were developed, it was already dark.
It was a black and white photo. In it, Lu Er wore an ordinary cotton robe, sitting with a remarkably upright posture. Yuan Caidie stood behind him, dressed in pink, her sleeves cascading down, a faint smile on her face. But that smile, in the black and white image, seemed a little blurry and lonely.
Lu Er didn't know how his great-father-in-law, who decided to settle in the south, later returned to the north, how he met his great-grandmother, and how the daughter she gave birth to became the mother of his wife.
No one knows what will happen to Wang Yuqing who decided to go to Yan'an. It's just that the population of Jiangcheng is getting smaller and smaller, and the house he built in the mountains could never be completed.
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