Chapter 109: 033 Night 25
Sakuma felt something cold and hard poking his stomach. He lowered his head for a moment, then raised his hands in surprise. "Oh, a British revolver. Six rounds. I'm dead."
"I only beat beasts. You are not worthy of that word." As she spoke, she held the trigger with her index fingers of both hands and pressed her thumbs alternately on the firing pin, pointing at Number Five who was sprinting madly on the racecourse.
"Haha?" Sakuma grinned. "How far do you think this crude wartime pistol can hit?"
"Number Five can't win."
"Five hundred meters, the trajectory is off to the left. Hitting a fixed target fifty meters away is all you can do by instinct. And such a fast-moving target?" Sakuma pointed his index finger at Number Five and chuckled. "Ms. Lin, are you sure you know how to use a revolver? Would you like me to teach you?"
This was the first time in her life that she had ever used a gun. She interlocked her four fingers on the trigger and firing pin, and was even a little confused about whether she needed to load the gun first, let alone what the firing pin at the end of the gun was used for. The running track was not very wide. On the throwing court in the center of the playground, several white officers were playing with pretty women and throwing balls; the horses in the outer circle neighed, and the stamping of their hooves was accompanied by the illusion of a slight earthquake. Number Five ran really fast, and went away in a flash, kicking up dust and sending his horsehair flying high. Its eyes were wide open, its pupils contracted, its mouth slightly open, its tongue sticking out, and saliva dripping from its mouth as it galloped. The first time she used her thumb to press the firing pin, Sakuma burst into laughter. When she reached out to grab the gun, Number Five had just run to the stands only twenty meters away. She squeezed the trigger hard -
After a loud gunshot, Number Five was startled and immediately raised his front hooves, rushing out at an even more astonishing and bizarre speed; the sound of the gunshots was drowned out by the horse's hooves, and it was not until the frightened neighing of the horse was heard that the women on the pitching court gradually turned their eyes to the outside field.
It missed. She hadn't even considered the possibility of hitting. She hadn't expected the recoil from the revolver to be so fast and violent, numbing her palms and shoulders, and causing her to stumble back a step.
As expected, Sakuma was amused by her embarrassment. "There are still five bullets left." He pointed to his solar plexus and encouraged with a smile, "Kill number five within five shots, and the remaining bullets can be left to me."
She looked up at Sakuma, raised the gun with both hands again, and pointed it at Number Five who was running around on the racecourse like a headless fly.
It is on the verge of collapse, going crazy, or is on the verge of going crazy. It is highly sensitive and cannot be stimulated in the slightest.
Number 5 caught everyone's attention, and from the backstage came the exclamations of men and the screams of women. When Sakuma suddenly woke up and rushed over to grab the gun, she had already pulled the trigger again.
Bang!
Dust flew up from the ground a few inches away from Number Five, who suddenly jumped up and rushed towards the audience.
Bang!
A louder crash echoed across the racecourse, accompanied by the sound of bones breaking and the horses' painful cries. The scattered spectators in the stands rose to their feet, staring at Number Five, struggling to stand on the second step, blood trickling down the steps and onto the dusty track below.
The rest of the horses continued to run, completely unaware that the leader among them had nearly killed himself due to his insanity. Countless companions died every day, and they were no longer surprised.
Circle after circle.
Number Five stopped where he had fallen after the second shot and could not get up again.
She turned around suddenly and pointed the gun at Sakuma.
Sakuma slowly raised his hands above his head.
"Number Five can't win! Let them go!" Chu Wang's eyes were red with excitement, and his voice was trembling, "Let them go."
He compromised expressionlessly, "Okay, okay."
He then turned and opened the door behind the spectator seats, then walked towards the stables with a heavy, steady gait. He pulled out his key and was about to unlock the door when his aide came towards him. Seeing the gun-wielding girl behind him, the aide reached for his weapon, but was stopped by Sakuma. The aide was suspicious for a moment, but at Sakuma's beckoning, he leaned over and whispered the news from the mill hospital.
After hearing this, Sakuma suddenly turned around and looked at Chu Wang from outside the stable door, and burst into laughter.
——
In the northern part of the city, a fire broke out in the Hongkou Concession along the Yangjingbang River, instantly illuminating the blackout night in the concession.
The darkness had lasted nearly two months. When the towering flames lit up the sky and the river north of Yangjingbang, some people were still dancing and chatting in the brightly lit Cathay Hotel, while others had already boarded the bus back to the Lin residence, weeping.
At one in the morning, workers at the textile factory walked home in the freezing wind. As they passed the textile factory hospital, Japanese soldiers and self-defense forces were fleeing the fire. British troops, along with the Municipal Council fire brigade, entered the hospital and, before the fire spread any further, rescued a Chinese trainee nurse who had been locked in the iron bars on the top floor of Building C. Whether due to the severity of her burns or her instinctive attempt to protect something in her arms, she was rescued with extensive burns and tissue fluid leaking out. She was huddled up in a ball and taken to the Red Cross Hospital by the British.
Perhaps no one besides her and her organization would know that two of her companions had perished in the fire tonight. If she were to survive, she could still live in the Shanghai Concession Hospital, which was teeming with Nanjing's spies. However, her two companions, whose lives were already on the wanted list, would have to perish in the eternal night along with the hospital's instruments, embryos, strains, specimens... all the evil that was contained within.
This organization was still a fledgling, at a disadvantage in the multinational espionage wars of the Great Powers, in the code wars of military longwave radio. Someone was waiting for them to fall into a trap. Even though hope was slim, even though they knew death was inevitable, they went anyway, just to ensure that the tiny candlelight in the dark night could finally light a prairie fire.
No one expected that the captain would suddenly appear and give an order to let the two teams that had been waiting for a long time rescue the candle from the raging fire.
This didn't seem like the way history was supposed to be, but in the dark night of one in the morning on April 2nd, it happened suddenly.
No one seemed to be able to explain why the British troops who seemed to have descended from the sky suddenly came to the rescue of the almost burnt female doctor.
Sakuma couldn't figure it out, until he saw the revolver in the hands of the Chinese girl before him, with its English letters engraved on it. He couldn't imagine what the world would look like tomorrow morning after the photos in the camera were released to the public. How would the Japanese ambassador and the great Emperor punish him and Fujima for their dereliction of duty today for the burned-down spinning mill? The ultimate outcome of this game would most likely still be the defeat of this weak nation. Even with the faintest hope of victory, he had a very interesting thought.
Number Five was dead, and his only remaining interesting toy was right in front of him. She was much more interesting than Number Five.
He thought of a game, a game like using a cat wand to tease a cat, or using a frisbee to tease a dog.
He paused as he reached for the stable lock, then clenched his hand. After a moment's thought, he unbuckled his belt and tossed the key into his waistband. With a clatter, the key landed in his crotch, midway between his legs.
After completing this series of actions, he approached her with his hands spread out, an almost sinister smile on his face, "Come and get it."
She was forced to take a step back.
He pointed down. "The key is right here."
As he took a step forward with a smile, he suddenly heard two women's screams behind him. He paused, then followed the screams with a smile, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, I told Cao Ma long ago that no matter what the result of this horse race, after it's over, I'll come and teach that disobedient beast a lesson. I didn't expect my lovely Chinese girl to cause my number five to lose, baby. It's a pity that I seem to be going back on my word again. So, are you angry? You still have four bullets."
He pointed between his eyebrows. "Come on, shoot right here, right here, for my goddamn betrayal. Take that pistol with that officer's name on it and shoot right here. I'll tell you how, come on!"
He reached out and grabbed her wrist, pointed the gun at his own forehead, and shouted, "Bang!"
Her hands holding the gun were shaking violently.
"You've never killed anyone, have you? Then let me tell you something," Sakuma laughed, his face wrinkled as he tried to recall something. "The first shot you fire, the first person you kill, will be unforgettable for you! One shot, and you'll remember my face forever. When that officer is buried with me, you'll remember what ultimately sent him to hell! It feels so good! What? Why didn't you shoot? When that officer handed you the gun, he was also handing you his life. What did the British say about the Chinese when they first arrived on Chinese soil? 'From the inside out, from their manners to their customs, they're disgusting. From their language, bloodline, religion, and character, they're all inferior. It's no wonder that the Chinese are discriminated against and treated so harshly.' Hahaha, look at how they justify their crimes? Are you going to kneel down and put your pure hands down my pants just for this elegant butcher?"
Behind him, from the stables, came even more shrill screams. Through the small window, she could clearly see a rope stretched high, stretched so high that it lifted the figure in the royal blue cheongsam by two inches, and her nerves were also on edge. She felt the sweat trickling down her cheeks as she saw Sakuma's distorted face right before her, becoming increasingly hideous as the screams continued.
This was also Number Five, a man so sensitive he could become insane. She wondered, would four bullets be enough to drive him insane? For a moment, she almost had a vision of that night at the institute's gates, Xie Zeyi approaching her, holding her in his arms and saying, "I leave my life to you." She was also going crazy, realizing that she was now to Sakuma what Number Five was to Cao Ma. She pulled the trigger at his left shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mr. Xie," she thought. When she heard the bullet scrape past flesh, her entire body numb from the recoil. The remaining consciousness in her mind, apart from being able to say sorry to Xie Zeyi, was simply enough to discern how much of the subcutaneous tissue, muscle mass, and bone the bullet had penetrated.
He is worse than an animal, not even a human being. She watched Sakuma scream while covering his bleeding left shoulder, and the scream gradually turned into a crazy laugh. When the adjutant rushed in, he took out his pistol with his healthy right hand and pointed it at his adjutant, laughing and shouting: "Get out, let her shoot! Otherwise I will kill you immediately!" She heard Sakuma smiling at her with two rows of white teeth, pointing at the gun, and then pointing at his crotch, "One shot is not enough, shoot again. - Shoot?" He laughed wildly at her again, "Even if you come, we will destroy all evidence with a fire, including the three stupid animals in the hospital. Just like you understood early on that even if you built the reactor, we would not withdraw from China. And your captain, in addition to being suspected of trafficking and desertion, he can also A crime of killing a Japanese major. Why are you crying? Are you afraid that he can't bear it? Or are you crying for your cowardly and incompetent country? Hahahaha, your country doesn't love its people, your country shelters us, and they disregard your lives. You obviously know this, and Xie Zeyi knows this, otherwise he wouldn't give you his gun. Why do you have to come, pretend not to see them, let them be like a beast, like one of the tens of millions of inferior beasts that die silently on this continent every day, isn't it good? Why did you come here with me, our hypocritical and great female scientist? Your life is much more valuable than theirs-"
She clutched the gun, trembling, salty fluid trickling through her eyes and into her mouth. More sweat than tears, she thought, almost falling to her knees when the very movement suddenly infuriated Sakuma, as if his Number Five had disappointed him, was no longer fun, and he needed to punish her with a whip.
As Sakuma lifted her up by her hair and slammed her against the wall, repeatedly yelling at her to shoot him, she was thinking, yes, why did I have to look at the two of them at the party, why did I have to follow them to the racecourse. Isn't living a good life better than anything else? She had been thinking a long time ago, isn't it good to live a good life? Relying on a little gold finger to be an ordinary rich woman, enough to support him through his downfall; she should have sailed to Paris with him in the summer of 1927, so that they could travel thousands of miles together, and maybe even write a romantic love story, as if this could make her forget the tragic story that was about to happen on this continent, as if by covering her eyes, she could pretend that none of this would happen.
Has anyone ever said that the life of a female scientist who may be able to save a country is more important than the life of two young and lively girls from the underground party, so when someone asks you to save them, you have the right to choose to sit back and do nothing?
Has anyone ever said that history has already happened, and when you see the slaughter and destruction, you can turn a blind eye?
No one can use a button to decide whether to exchange the death of one person for the survival of five hundred people.
But if an old lady freezes to death in the cold winter, no one will tell you that she has died quietly like countless other lonely elderly people who cannot survive the severe winter.
But when you learn that she is dying, you just need to look at her, just one look, and you can't just stand by and watch.
Just as she knew clearly that in this dark era, a tiny spark of fire would never be able to reverse the story and start over again, just like the countless fires that had been extinguished in history; she still had to try it no matter what.
Gradually, she lost sight of Sakuma's frantic laughter and the screams in the stable, and even less of the sounds of fighting and gunfire outside. She saw Sakuma's smile transform into a single, white tooth in her vision, pointing at the key between his legs. Almost instinctively, she raised her pistol and pointed it at him, but trembling too much to pull the trigger. As her vision was blurred by the red, sticky fluid flowing from above, she seemed to see Sakuma, shot in the left calf, fall backward, laughing. She saw him fall to the ground, shouting something behind her, when someone from behind firmly grasped her gunhand, pointed it between Sakuma's legs, and guided her index finger to pull the trigger. She saw Sakuma's face twisted with pain and gratification before he collapsed, and her vision seemed to be torn apart from his face.
This time, the recoil of the revolver didn't seem to be particularly strong.
As she fell backwards into someone's arms, she suddenly thought with a smile.
——
After the stable door was opened and the British army rescued the people in the stable, Bian Jieming was already on his way to bring the Red Cross doctor.
Two British soldiers were giving first aid to the two frightened Chinese women and the bleeding Sakuma. Chu Wang's forehead wound had been bandaged briefly. No one dared to move until they were sure she had no other injuries and the doctor arrived.
Xie Zeyi held her in his arms, not daring to move. Blood oozed from the bandage on her forehead, her eyes were covered with blood, and she was sweating profusely, occasionally talking nonsense.
Mr. Xie, are they still alive?
Um.
Mr. Xie, where is Miss Xu?
Still alive.
Mr. Xie, will they protect us?
“Yeah. Definitely. So will I,” he said. “So will I.”
Mr. Xie, I didn't mean to shoot. I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
There is no reason to take back what is given to you.
He said, then carefully kissed her cheek and nose.
She smiled and nodded, then suddenly burst into tears again, mumbling a bunch of words in a low voice.
He moved closer and listened quietly.
Once, there was an earthquake, and I was living next door to a city where hundreds of thousands of people were buried alive. That city narrowly escaped disaster, and its inhabitants fled in all directions, celebrating their good fortune. I was one of them. That night, it rained, and I suddenly remembered that I had once been to that city where a hundred thousand people were buried. When it was still intact, it had also rained. I had seen many people there, still alive, not buried in the earth. Like me, they held umbrellas, surrounded by their loved ones. Whenever I thought of that rain, I remembered what they must have been like when they were alive, but I could do nothing. At first, I could choose not to do anything, but I couldn't. I'd always wanted to visit Jinling. I'd always wondered if it was like Shanghai, with its morning stalls selling fried cypress and wontons, its fish market where women gathered for company, its old ladies selling white jasmine flowers, its textile workers rushing home from their late-night shifts. Mr. Xie, I've always wanted to visit Jinling...
When you get better, I'll take you there in a few days, next week, okay? Xie Zeyi said softly.
Gradually, he began to have trouble understanding what she said.
Mr. Xie, I've always wanted to visit Jinling City when I had the time. To see those three hundred thousand people. Perhaps they'd smile at me as we passed beneath the sycamore trees. Perhaps it was the rickshaw driver who gave me a ride, the vendor selling duck blood soup, or someone handing me a gardenia by the roadside... Seeing their warmth and vitality, I can't pretend I've never seen them. In my first physics class, the professor told me that World War I was a war between chemists, and World War II was a war between physicists and biologists. While everyone around me was busy vying for research projects, looking for jobs or boyfriends, and getting green cards, no one ever asked me how a physicist could serve his country. How could a physicist serve his country? And yet, just a moment ago, I was still a student. On deadline day, I presented my first draft of my thesis to the professor, who scolded me profusely... Mr. Xie, look, I haven't even finished my practice yet, so how could I suddenly be thrust into the forefront of the battlefield? This topic hasn't been tackled before. How could I possibly forge ahead? But I see pairs of eyes staring back at me, their eyes wide open, their lives hanging on my shoulders. But I don't know if this is right. I can't even bring myself to understand how I, who treated those people with the worst malice before all this happened, am any different from Sakuma. I can't tell anyone. The only person I can talk to, if I say a few more words, is slandered and maliciously implicated. I'm filled with resentment, and I long to share it with someone...
She spoke a bunch of nonsense while grabbing the buttons of his clothes, soaking most of his military uniform with tears. Xie Zeyi listened and thought she was just talking nonsense.
When the sound of a car parking was heard outside, she had already closed her eyes and stopped talking. It was not known whether she was tired of crying or had fainted.
Xie Zeyi's hands were numb and unconscious, but he still held her tightly in his arms, shouting frantically outside:
"——Bian Jieming!"
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