Chapter 101 025 Night 17
Miss Xu came again on Thursday.
After returning from Chu Wang's visit, she consulted with someone and had a pickpocket from Zhabei District make three master keys. After the "doctors" from the mill hospital left at night, the only guards on duty at the mill were the Japanese. Last night, she carefully avoided the Japanese soldiers and, alone in the "Garden of Terror," went from building to building, using master keys to unlock the iron fences on the top floors, staying there all night.
"Because Building C is completely off-limits to outsiders and is heavily guarded, it was the first building I went to after dark."
Just thinking about that place made Chu Wang's hair stand on end. Just hearing Miss Xu talk about it made her feel terrified, not to mention a girl sneaking into a dark bacteria laboratory alone at night.
"The mechanical sounds I'd heard before were coming from Building C. After checking them out, I discovered they were centrifuges and dryers, both used to produce bacterial spores. Going down to the basement level, I found the freezer. There, I saw several dead babies and fetuses, marked with the date they were delivered. It was today. What were the dead fetuses used for? I pondered this for a long time in the basement level, and it occurred to me that the cells of fresh corpses, especially those of recently deceased fetuses and infants, have a sensitivity similar to that of normal living organisms."
Chu Wang listened quietly without saying anything.
"Every room in Building C is a laboratory, but no data has been preserved. I spent almost the entire first half of the night in Building C. Besides seeing many of the most sophisticated microscopes and a batch of low-viability anthrax bacteria, I also saw the so-called 'blood meal.' But you know what? I tested it with colloid test paper, and the antibodies inside are not from cows or other mammals. But maybe they belong to those stillborn babies."
"Building B is the specimen room, storing the strains and bacterial cultures sent from Building C. To keep these strains here, it must maintain constant humidity and pressure year-round, with negative air pressure, automatic purification, and resistance to strong vibrations. Most of the voltage in the wiring and circuits connected from the Huashang Electrical Company is used to keep all the equipment in this building running smoothly. In the dead of night, the only sounds in Building B are the rushing water, air, and humming electricity in the pipes in the walls. The generator set is located below Building B. So even if the entire city of Shanghai loses power, it can automatically supply power to Building B. I quickly glanced at a few strains. Written in Japanese on them were the words: 033, Ishii Culture Medium."
"At the time, I had no idea what the two strains were made of, and there weren't any microscopes in Building B for me to examine. I had to take the strains to Building C, which was too dangerous. I have to admit they were very thorough. They wouldn't leave any clues in Building B, because I saw barrels of kerosene on the top floor, placed in the corridor, surrounded by flammable materials, to help them burn down the entire building in the event of an emergency, making it easier to destroy any evidence. So I went to Building A again, and I saw their 'nurses' often walking through the corridor with stacks of brown paper bags. I didn't have much time left in the second half of the night, and I didn't have time to go to the printing room or the dining room, so I went straight to the archives."
"033 is a traditional bovine blood powder culture medium, while Ishii...is human blood powder! They use bovine blood as feed because of its high protein content, but why use human blood? How many people would be needed to feed the strains with bovine blood instead of human blood? If it were just the dead fetuses and infants in the basement of Building C...I can't imagine. How many babies are born and how many die in Shanghai every day?...I tried to steal some information, but I thought, absolutely not! Even if they only exposed the information from Building A, with their meticulousness, I can imagine that they would have every reason to claim: 'The poor people around Shanghai are suffering from diseases because of... The living environment is filthy, and the work and rest schedule is extremely poor. The rainy season, now in its infancy, is highly susceptible to potential dangers in the Shanghai Concession. So they're developing vaccines against infectious diseases like smallpox and plague, and they need human blood, not cow blood. So they're collecting dead babies from everywhere! 'Even I can imagine it, so they have every reason to explain it this way! Unless all the evidence in the spinning mill hospital is filmed, it's impossible to convince the outside world that a laboratory could produce so many pathogen culture media just to produce antiserum proteins! And where did they find so much human blood, the 'feed' needed for so many culture media?'
In fact, Miss Xu didn't need to explain; she already knew the difference between 033 and Ishii medium. This was later recorded in textbooks as the most sinister subject of the era, but speaking from the mouth of a Chinese medical student living in the present day, it was far more shocking than it would have been in later generations.
She looked at the sleeping child on the sofa, and suddenly a more bizarre thought came to her mind: "Among these 'dead babies', could there be one or two 'accidents'?"
"What accident?"
"They weren't completely dead when they were brought here, and somehow survived. Or, perhaps the baby brought to the hospital wasn't dead at all..."
"That's not convincing," Ms. Xu frowned. "We've analyzed that if they want so many fetuses and infants, some of them might be children from Zhabei District refugees who can't raise them due to family reasons. Most of them are female fetuses. A normal male baby, raised to twelve years old, is enough to support the entire family. There's no reason for them to give up. The larger number of male embryos and infants in the hospital are likely from Si Ma Lu. Do you understand what I mean? A child that young wouldn't even remember how he was brought to the hospital or how he survived. If his mother were found, would she admit it?"
After hearing what Miss Xu said, Chu Wang fell silent.
This was not the era she was familiar with. It was the era that existed in history books and in the words of the Japanese people, in which a nation was "ruled by foreigners" for nearly three hundred years; it was the darkest era with a broken backbone.
The reason why the Japanese renovated the spinning mill hospital in Shanghai was because they knew from the beginning where they would get so many babies and embryos: the parents were backward and destitute, and because of a tiny short-term benefit, perhaps one or two silver dollars, or perhaps their son could get a low-paying job in the Hongkou Concession, this little money was enough for the whole family to survive the entire winter; Shanghai also had a huge sex industry chain. In this era of poor contraception and medical conditions, countless new lives "had to" be born every day... All these lives that were struggling to survive were gentle and obedient, tenacious and resilient; they were lambs who voluntarily offered their bodies for the knife and the most foolish ants, and they were all the sum of all the crimes committed by the powers who plundered the leased territories and disregarded the lives of the Chinese people.
"We must take pictures. Take pictures of all the evidence before they notice and burn everything with kerosene. Even at night, when all the staff have left, the Japanese patrols will still guard the place and not let anyone in. I think we only have one chance..."
Ms. Xu handed her a piece of paper with the following words written on it:
"On Friday night, Major Fujima Daiji, who is in charge of the spinning mill, and more than ten captains and lieutenants will go to the Sino-Japanese-British banquet. This is a great opportunity. We have invited two ladies to the banquet, and try to keep Fujima busy for as long as possible to leave enough time for me and the others..." She glanced at Chu Wang's face and added: They have received extremely professional training and are here voluntarily.
She knew that Ms. Xu, like the other two women, was willing to become a fervent martyr when needed by the organization. She was also aware that when she treated others according to her own standards, she would inevitably be biased.
Chu Wang asked, "Is there anything you need me to do?"
Ms. Xu shook her head. "No, no need. You've already done enough... How is Zhenzhen doing after that incident last time?"
She called Zhenzhen's home several times. Mr. Xue, well aware of his daughter's emotional state, simply told her to rest at home for a few days. Since she was busy herself, he didn't bother her anymore.
Chu Wang asked curiously, “Why don’t you ask Miss Shen?”
Miss Xu did not answer.
"Because she went from being a perpetrator to a victim, and then almost became a perpetrator again, does she deserve it?"
"Maybe you will think I'm unreasonable, but... Director Shen's protection and tolerance of his daughter's perpetrators is the biggest accomplice in encouraging them to bully this country. He could have stood up. His whole family deserves it. I'm sorry Zhenzhen." She glanced at Chu Wang, "I know you will find people like me difficult to understand, but I'm sorry. I respect you, but I don't ask for your understanding. Miss San, thank you for the information you provided." After she finished speaking, she picked up her coat and left.
After Miss Xu left, she immersed herself in the darkness, lit only by a flickering candlelight, pondering her words. She could only hear the boy's faint breathing. In his sleep, his mouth, defenseless, blew a breath, like the muted vocal cords of the obedient citizens of this city and this country. Their docile endurance and their unwavering dignity were known to the world. At this very moment, across the ocean, Chinese gold prospectors in California, victims of collective violence, became targets of humiliation under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Angel Island Immigration Station was their processing base. Anti-Chinese sentiment extended far beyond the United States, including Canada, Brazil, Indonesia...
If this nation finally refuses to speak out, will it have to watch helplessly as the few martyrs throw themselves into the flames?
She gently patted the boy's cheek. He opened his eyes slightly in the darkness. She asked, "Do you remember your mother?"
He hummed vaguely and looked at her in confusion.
She took out all the food from the refrigerator and piled it in front of her, almost pleading, "Please think about it carefully, okay?"
The little boy opened his eyes wide, his ignorance making her feel pity and heartache. Coaxing a child is always a trivial matter that requires both patience and skills, which is exactly what she is least good at.
"Forget it, let's go to sleep." She said almost desperately. (m.)138TXT
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