Chapter 134: Part 6
War is not about soldiers, it is about fate.
She can discuss war with the mentality of a gamer, but if war really comes, she cannot pretend that the two weapons in her hand are just two firing buttons on the game console, and that billions of casualties are not just a bunch of data.
The overwhelming evidence of Japan's crimes during her time did not, out of national hatred, teach her generation to obey the country's orders as destiny and treat the lives of others as insignificant. Even if they were later condemned for playing with human lives, they would only feel guilty for not having served their country wholeheartedly, not the slightest guilt for the lives of others.
This is the mind and humanity given to her by her country and her era, and therefore it is fundamentally different from Sakuma who was educated in militarism.
This sin was too grave. Unless she could one day become Sakuma, she would press both launch buttons without hesitation, and after the lives on that island thousands of miles away turned to ashes, she would leave, her deeds complete, smiling and raising her glass with the calm joy of a complete victory in the game.
It's a pity that her country did not educate her to be a killing machine.
I don’t know whether this is a blessing or a curse.
Her country has five thousand years of kindness and morality that are deeply rooted in its bones. It will not be destroyed by personal narrow-mindedness or by three hundred years of foreign rule.
That’s why Xu Shaoqian could understand.
What if one day the residents of that island finally paid the price for the sins of the decision makers, with thousands of tall buildings collapsing, corpses floating all over the city, and the land where people lived and worked hard to drink and eat becoming desolate ruins, with the survivors barely surviving with their mutilated and mutated bodies? What if her actions shocked the world, and thousands of rescuers rushed to the radiation zone from all over the world to mourn the dead and save the survivors, how many of the thousands of innocent people would be harmed by the hidden tumor she had planted?
From the moment she lets go and does it, all the consequences will be borne by her alone.
By then, she might not be able to have a clear conscience.
She can either be a completely kind and noble saint, or a complete devil.
Her painful struggle at this moment meant that if she failed to transform herself into the real Sakuma before that time came, at the moment when the whole country's conscience was torn because of her, she would surely collapse under the heavy pressure and be destroyed by her own hands.
Fifty percent of them just passed, but fifty percent of them were the worst students because they were unable to fulfill their responsibilities and had no courage to accept failure.
Xu Shaoqian, who knows how to use "nuclear weapons" to make China invincible in the arms race for at least the next twenty years, has already admitted that the use of violence in war is harmless, and he is probably not a saint.
Be it benevolence and righteousness, or be it great love, throw them all away.
At this moment he was just her teacher, and he didn't want to see her destroy herself in self-blame and guilt.
“How can a physicist serve his country?”
"You must understand your responsibilities and be able to bear the pain you deserve."
“It’s a dangerous road.”
"Since you can bear the weight of this controversial blade, you can also bear the pain of it piercing your heart."
Of course, she couldn't be both Lin Zhi and Sakuma.
But when Xu Shaoqian gave her three seconds to think, her answer was: "If I can't avoid the fate of becoming an executioner, I would rather put a rubber bag over my head."
If this is her final answer, then this will also be her final outcome.
In the end, she handed in an answer sheet that disappointed him terribly.
After returning from the School of Science, she lost count of how many sleepless nights she'd missed. Her room was so quiet that as soon as she closed her eyes, countless images of Lin Zhi would cross her mind, repeatedly questioning her. She'd simply moved to the small living room, where the kitchen was downstairs and the dining room was next door. At night, the boiler room would hum until two or three in the morning. A few hours later, before daybreak, the Ge Mansion's lower-ranking maids would quietly prepare breakfast and newspapers. Even through the wall, if she pricked up her ears, she could hear their laughter and chatter, a lively scene.
The small living room had its drawbacks. Hanging throughout it were autographed pictures of celebrities from around the world. At night, when the moonlight streamed in, she would stare into the eyes of one great man after another. On a lucky day, their bell-like eyes could mesmerize her for hours.
Two weeks later, seeing her drastic weight loss and dark circles under her eyes, Suixi couldn't help but mutter, "I'm afraid all dresses will be a size bigger."
Mrs. Ge finally lost her patience. "Your respected teacher is irritating you so much because he won't come? What's the matter? Family matters or studies? If it's about these things, then you don't look like a magnanimous gentleman with both virtue and talent."
She had no choice but to say, "He was injured and needs a wheelchair to get around."
Mrs. Ge remained silent. After a long pause, she asked, "It's just a ceremony. No one else can do it?"
She didn't know how to respond. It was just a ritual, all the same.
As the wedding date approached, the guests listed on the invitation gradually arrived in Hong Kong from all over the country. As the sole representative of the bride's family, Mrs. Ge prepared the largest guest room in the mansion for Lin Zitong and Miss Xu.
Small mahjong and cocktail parties often took place downstairs and in the garden. Because of Miss Xu's physical condition, Lin Zitong had to attend most of the banquets alone. Furthermore, because the couple's wedding was a low-key affair, Lin Zitong had been secretly questioned by various women about her birth date and compatibility on no fewer than ten occasions.
However, as disciplined as he is, he still cannot shake his father's position.
Chu Wang also saw her three legendary uncles. Chu Wang's mother was the second child, and apart from her eldest brother who was over fifty, her two uncles each possessed a uniquely dashing demeanor. The second uncle had attracted many women, and the third uncle even received similar treatment as Lin Zitong.
Relying on original capital for a living, appearance and demeanor naturally come first. Mrs. Ge called it the behavior of a playboy who eats and drinks for free, and obviously she had never considered asking any of the three of them to support Chu Wang's hand wearing a white gauze glove.
"How about Mr. Huang?" Mrs. Ge asked tentatively. "After the Cathay Hotel, everyone thought he was your adoptive father. He was close to the Xie family, and later thanked you for the Xie Zeyi incident and rescued Zheng Yimin. How about him?" After a while, Mrs. Ge continued, "However, he didn't arrive at the dock until the morning of the third day, so he was a bit rushed. We need to discuss it with him early that morning."
She had no choice but to nod.
"Can you sleep well now?"
She went over to comfort the frowning Mrs. Ge, "When Xie Zeyi comes back and sees that I'm short on weight, will he return the goods?"
Suixi and Miqiu laughed together. Mrs. Ge spat at her, "Do you think you're buying pork at the market?"
Fortunately, she didn't lose too much weight.
Dresses were delivered one after another, and a few curious women waited in her dressing room for the bride to try them on. With Suixi's help, she tried on one dress after another, and the women outside stared at her in amazement. "The jacquard pattern on this brocade dress is so exquisite! How long must it have taken to embroider such intricate patterns?"
She had only walked a few steps in her clothes when Mrs. Ge stared at the folds on her skirt without saying a word. She immediately asked Suixi to take her back and change into another set.
The waisted fishtail tulle dress she wore to the lawn cocktail party in the afternoon was almost a tube top. Above it, there was a thin layer of tulle hanging on the shoulders; below the hem of the skirt were thick layers of tulle, gradually inlaid with round diamonds one by one. When they moved, the tiny sparkles made people dizzy.
A few of the relatives sighed: "The bride has an exceptionally thin waist."
Mrs. Ge said, "She has lost some weight recently."
Someone praised it, "It's everywhere it should be."
Another person praised: "Thinner is better. I guess when I was thinner, my clothes were too tight and not as flexible."
Mrs. Ge smiled calmly.
The evening gown for the after-dinner reception was a light yet heavy dark blue taffeta gown. The wine-red, translucent tulle front tapered to just below the collarbone, and the long dark blue velvet skirt cascaded down, slightly cinching at the waist. From the hips down, a layer of soft blue gauze skirt enveloped the dark blue velvet. The elegant, shallow folds of the gown intertwined and undulated, creating a serene and refined look, luxurious yet not ostentatious.
Of all the dresses, this one was probably her favorite.
The wedding dress from France arrived last.
Before this, just in case, Mrs. Ge specially asked several familiar Italian tailors in Hong Kong and Shanghai to design two different styles for her. She felt that one long-sleeved soft silk dress was not unique enough, and the other sleeveless strapless tube top dress was not solemn enough.
She finally breathed a sigh of relief when she received the wedding dress designed by Mr. Saumur.
The long sleeves of silk tulle are gathered above the wrist and lightly folded. The connection to the wrist joint is a layer of ironed embroidered lace; the embroidered collar of Xiangyunsha lightly binds the beauty's neck, but not too much - a small V-neck is revealed below the collarbone: upwards, the collarbone props up the plain crepe satin collar with a slight arc; downwards, there is a decent and bold piece of white skin that complements the wedding dress; the V-neck extends the line of sight downwards, and the skirt is a very unique embroidered pattern, with a large skirt of twelve layers of tulle and a fishtail of six layers of tulle. From the chest to the hem, it is sparse and dense golden organza embroidery, which is beautiful to the point of being dreamy on the ivory plain crepe satin.
Compared with the wedding dress, Gu Qingski's accessories can only be regarded as a foil: a complex snowflake-shaped curved twelve-carat diamond bracelet, a peacock-shaped platinum hair ornament with twelve pearl tails and a pair of Pusilati dandelion earrings.
Chu Wang changed his clothes and walked out of the cloakroom, causing the women in the room to scream slightly.
Mrs. Ge, who was usually very picky, rarely showed a look in her eyes, and her gaze finally fell on her ears.
As usual, a small reception was held in the garden of the Ge Mansion that day, with all the relatives gathered. After viewing the bride's wedding dress, everyone dispersed, notifying those who had not had the opportunity to see her appearance in advance.
Everyone at the institute also received their tickets and arrived in Hong Kong at noon that day. Mrs. Ge specially set aside a reception room for her to entertain her friends. Mr. Henry brought afternoon tea, and upon their arrival, this group of eccentrics sent Auburn to present a small calculator they had collectively built as a wedding gift, saying with envy, "From now on, you will have a machine that can solve squares all your own!"
Looking at the huge calculator that looked like a desktop computer screen from the Windows 98 era, Chu Wang thanked him with trembling hands.
After snacking, everyone expressed a desire to experience the sunshine and beaches of the tropical Pacific Ocean. However, the Ge Mansion lacked the necessary vehicles to transport guests to Repulse Bay. It so happened that Miya, having been asked by Mrs. Ge to take her out for a walk early that morning, volunteered to call the three drivers from the Xie family. They quickly fled with the bride to the beach for a bachelorette party.
It was dusk, and the Repulse Bay Hotel's dance floor had already been set up. A dozen Plymouths and Cadillacs were parked outside. The servant opened the door with astonishment, thinking he'd never in his life welcomed so many strangely dressed white guests at once. They rushed into the hotel's ground floor, startling even the men and women who were there.
At first, everyone in the restaurant was still elegantly eating, drinking, chatting, listening to music, or telling jokes. After three glasses of wine, they all became extremely excited. Regardless of gender, they pulled their friends' hands and joined them on the dance floor, laughing and dancing to the blaring music. John danced passionately with his head resting on his head in front of Auburn's girlfriend, who stood at the edge of the dance floor, laughing and applauding...
Chu Wang had never known this crowd could go crazy like this. After taking a couple of sips of whiskey, someone patted her shoulder from behind. Thinking it was Miya, they casually took her hand and motioned for her to sit over. Then, turning around, she saw Miya, not far away, chatting animatedly with a white woman across from Mr. Jiang under the litchi-red light.
Looking back, I found that the girl behind me was wearing a flapper goose yellow dress, and her skin was tanned to a bright wheat color by the tropical sun. She was holding her shoes in one hand, and her bare feet were covered with sand; with the other hand, she was holding her, bending over and giggling.
She nearly spit out her drink. "Really!"
Zhenzhen hurriedly said "Shhh", took her hand and whispered, "Come, come here."
Pulled by Zhenzhen, she trotted out of the hotel through the dark passage behind the crowd, and went up the staircase to the second-floor terrace. The terrace was hidden behind two palm trees, and outside was the red-golden beach in the fjord in the afterglow.
There was a long row of more than thirty beach chairs on the terrace, with only a few people sitting on them.
Chu Wang interrogated her: "...Where did you come from?"
Zhenzhen laughed non-stop, "Stop talking nonsense. You don't dare go downtown, you just stay on the edge of the city, basking in the sun. I don't know how boring it is. Miya wanted to bring you from the mountains to Repulse Bay all along, but you were so depressed the moment you returned to Hong Kong. Why have you lost so much weight? Do you miss me?"
Chu Wang's head felt dizzy. "What about studies?"
She stuck out her tongue. "Even after going to England, I still have to take a year of English classes at a girls' school. I might as well find a teacher with an authentic Oxford accent to teach me one-on-one. That would give me another six months."
Chu Wang was dumbfounded: "Chelsea came to Hong Kong?"
She smiled and said, "Thanks to your good words, he caught up with me on the boat and started to act like a scoundrel. When we reached Penang, he dragged me off the boat. I called the Municipal Council and asked a certain husband to ask a Royal Navy lieutenant to personally transfer him to Hong Kong."
She exclaimed, "Huh?"
Zhenzhen propped her head up against the railing, squinting her eyes as she said, "Didn't Miya tell me that she wanted to 'lay on a lounge chair together and watch the handsome men on the beach when we're old'? What are you looking at me for? The beach."
It was the dead of winter, with the temperature in the early twenties, and the wind blowing from the beach made it cold.
She looked toward the beach: men, women, young and old, all seemed unafraid of the cold under the parasols, all dressed in the same summer outfit as Zhenzhen.
After the sun sets, shadows of young men and women entangled with each other can be seen under the trees on the left and right, and from time to time, you can hear their lingering whispers and giggles.
A little further from the beach, the view was much brighter and more open. Surfing had just spread from Hawaii to Australia, and had probably not yet spread from the United States to the Far East. With fewer recreational activities at sea, the excitement was concentrated on the beach. Many white people lingered in the twilight, unafraid of the cold, lying on beach chairs in a pair of large flowered shorts, their bare upper bodies revealing clumps of fuzzy hair on their chests.
Unconsciously, I recalled that when Xie Zeyi was on the island, he was also wearing unsightly floral shorts and carrying a bicycle with one hand. It was probably a bad habit he learned from American surfing.
As she was thinking, she heard the sound of Oxford-accented conversation approaching from afar. Looking up, she saw four long legs striding towards her: one in a white shirt and flowered shorts, the other in a white shirt and black trousers, a black military jacket in hand. It was Chelsea and Xie Zeyi.
Zhenzhen waved her arm beside her, and Chelsea strode over.
Chu Wang looked up and saw Xie Zeyi also staring at her. She couldn't help but pause and fell behind Chelsea.
The balcony railing was less than a meter high, and less than half a meter from the beach. Chelsea took the last few steps, a running start, and leaped onto the stone steps.
The onlookers in the hotel's upstairs guest rooms applauded.
Xie Zeyi didn't move much. He walked slowly towards her with his military boots on the sand, stood under the balcony and looked up at her.
Chu Wang said, "My bachelor party, what are you doing here?"
Chelsea, who could actually understand Mandarin, answered for him in English: "He was still in his uniform, with a gun in his pocket. He heard Madam was in Repulse Bay. He got off the boat and drove over here aggressively, probably looking for a duel."
Zhenzhen laughed.
Chelsea patted the railing and asked, "Why don't you come up, sir?"
Xie Zeyi smiled, "My wife has lost a lot of weight."
"Not bad." Chu Wang thought of the joke about the pork vendor. "How about losing weight? Should I take this opportunity to return it?"
Xie Zeyi opened his arms towards her and winked, "Just try it and you'll know."
The audience on the balcony upstairs came to watch the fun and started cheering.
She was stunned and repeatedly denied it, "She's wearing a skirt."
A curious person immediately stood up from the beach chair, called the servant, took the key and unlocked the small door on the iron railing.
The small door stood open facing the stone steps, only three or four steps away from her feet, warmly welcoming her brilliant appearance.
She had a headache.
In full view of everyone, Xie Zeyi took two steps up the stairs, and at the lower step, he put his arm around her waist and easily lifted her off the ground.
She lifted her feet into the air, fearing that she would fall. Forced into desperation, she involuntarily reached out and took the initiative to hold his head, crying out in her heart: How scheming!
There were bursts of shrill cheers from the hotel balcony.
Xie Zeyi took big steps and shook her weight along the way. He looked up and said, "It's a lot lighter." Then he carried her to the beach chair and put her down.
He squatted beside her and looked up at her without a trace of joking in his eyes. "What's going on?"
As night fell, Puou went to the beach and lit kerosene lamps.
Chu Wang smiled and said, "I am distressed that no one will hold my hand and walk towards you."
When Xie Zeyi smiled, his eyes were dotted with spots of light. "What does that matter?"
She lowered her head. "I just want a blessing."
"Is that person important?"
“Very important.”
"How important?"
She thought for a moment, "If I hadn't met Professor Xu, I would probably have become an old woman renting out several apartments in Paris to spend my retirement..."
Xie Zeyi smiled and said, "So? We can also go to the Champs-Élysées right now and buy a dozen apartments with gardens. I can collect the rent with you every month on crutches, and enjoy a comfortable retirement."
She smiled, stared into his eyes and sighed, "...If it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to get to know you seriously."
Xie Zeyi listened carefully and concluded, "Well, that is indeed very important."
Chu Wang smiled.
Xie Zeyi pulled up her drooping hand and kissed it, rubbing his thumb slowly on the back of her hand as he softly called out, "Mrs. Xie."
"Um?"
"What does Mr. Xie use it for?"
Her mind couldn't help but flash through all the wonderful uses of Xie Zeyi.
Before she could think of a perfectly appropriate response, Xie Zeyi continued, "From now on, if you're unhappy with someone or something, just introduce yourself as 'Mrs. Xie.' If someone ever seeks to hold you accountable, they must first remember that you had a Mr. Xie. Mr. Xie is your armor. When future storms come, just push me to withstand them. Mrs. Xie, when will you understand?"
This title can be used to play with it until the next life. Chu Wang thinks it is really fun.
Seeing that she didn't understand, Xie Zeyi sat up, rubbed her head, and smiled helplessly.
Chu Wang only thought that Xie Zeyi was comforting her during this conversation. Thinking deeply about it, it probably couldn't solve her most fundamental distress, so she didn't take it to heart.
She asked him some more questions, such as how Chelsea and Zhenzhen came to Hong Kong from Penang and what their plans were. Finally, they watched the boats in the distance rowing ashore in the night breeze. The gloom that had been lingering in her heart for several days was lifted, and she felt a rare sense of peace.
Logically, he should know nothing, but at this moment, Chu Wang always felt that the man next to her could understand her.
That night, the party lasted until ten o'clock, but the people in the hotel still hadn't had enough fun. A few drunks had to involve Chelsea and two drivers to get them out of the hotel and into the car.
The group split into several groups. Miya and Mr. Jiang drove Zhenzhen back to her residence. Several cars from the Ge and Xie families took everyone from the research institute directly to the Shek O Hotel. Chelsea and Xie Zeyi sent Chu Wang back home together.
As the groom, it was not convenient for Xie Zeyi to make a grand appearance near the crowded Ge Mansion. The three of them said goodbye at the fork in Earl Road, and their farewell words were "See you at the wedding the next day."
Chu Wang slept well for two days, which was rare for him.
The next day, Xie Zeyi was indeed very well-behaved and did not appear in Mrs. Ge's sight.
"The men probably also prepared a grand carnival night for Zoe." Miya said this when she and Zhenzhen showed up at Ge Mansion on time on the second night.
Mrs. Ge rolled her eyes at her and squinted at Zhenzhen: "How could your father's friends be missing from the wedding?"
Zhenzhen smiled slyly and said, "After accompanying her to the top, I immediately slipped away to hide in the cracks of Shek O Village."
"He even knows about the higher-ups, but Chu Wang himself doesn't know."
Chu Wang was slandered for no reason and felt quite innocent.
The four of them sat in her room and listened to Mrs. Ge explain the complicated wedding process in detail twice.
Chu Wang yawned continuously and managed to remember the general idea before falling asleep.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
