In the smoke-filled room, Chen Pike, who was tired of crying, fell back into a not-so-good dreamland with the comfort of Mei Xiang and Qiushi.
Wei Ran, who had finally smoked the last cigarette of the day, lay down on the iron frame bed next to Andy at Mei Xiang's insistence.
It only took Wei Ran less than 20 seconds from the time he closed his eyes until he started snoring slightly, less than a minute apart. Andy on the bed next to him also fell into a deep sleep.
Meixiang and Qiushi looked at each other and whispered, "You can sleep for a while, I will guard them."
Hearing this, Qiushi nodded, yawned, walked to the edge of the wire bed, lay down and closed her eyes.
"This world..."
Meixiang shook her head secretly, sat on the small stool next to the painting jar, picked up a book and turned to the page with the bookmark, reading quietly by the light of the desk lamp, but she could not calm down her mind no matter what.
.
I don't know how long it took, but when Wei Ran was awakened by the sound of silence, he found a gray-faced Tao Canhua sitting on the stool next to the painting vat.
On the steel wire bed that was originally next to Chen Xiuyu, there was still a person lying on the bed with his back completely blackened and covered with burns and scalds.
At this time, Meixiang was holding a tin box and applying burn ointment to the person lying on the wire bed. Looking at the other side, Qiushi was serving Andy and drinking pungent Chinese medicine.
"Woke you up?"
Qiushi glanced at Wei Ran, stood up, brought a bowl of Chinese medicine and put it directly to his mouth, "The medicine for treating fractures has been warmed up. Drink it in one gulp. I'll give you some candy later."
"I will do it myself"
Wei Ran took the porcelain bowl from his mouth with his left hand, drank it all in one breath, and then let Qiushi stuff a piece of rock candy into his mouth.
After chewing the rock candy, Wei Ran asked Tao Canhua, "Canhua, how is the situation outside?"
"Oh! Don't mention it!"
Tao Canhua sighed heavily, "Our people were about to knock down all the Japanese concessions, but the Japanese used planes and artillery. Our people suffered heavy losses. I followed Uncle Mute and Brother Guan all afternoon.
Carrying the wounded."
"Is this Guan Bingwen?"
Wei Ran then unconsciously looked at the man who was across the bed from him and facing the other side of the bed, with his back covered with burns.
"He was slapped on the back by a burning door panel while trying to save a child from a private house. He and the mute uncle also beat several Japanese to death."
Tao Canhua shivered with lingering fear, and said through gritted teeth, "Later, the Japanese reinforcements came, and our people had no choice but to withdraw outside the city.
When Uncle Mute and I ran back with Brother Guan, Nankai University had been bombed several times, and the Japanese planes and cannons kept firing over there. I also saw... saw...
well!"
Tao Canhua sighed heavily, slapped his thigh hard, then tightened his grip on the hem of his tattered gown, and burst into tears as he burst into tears.
"Canhua, you go up first."
Mei Xiang calmly ordered, "After you go up, you and the mute uncle each take a good bath, and give the dirty clothes to Yang Ma to burn. Have a good rest these two days, and maybe you will have to play the piano and sing for Mr. Ueda sometime."
Where is my son?"
"Sing a song to it?!"
Tao Canhua, whose eyes were red, gritted his teeth and said, "Now that I see the Japanese, I wish I could eat them alive!"
Shaking her head helplessly, Mei Xiang said seriously while applying medicine to Guan Bingwen who was in a coma, "Having the courage to fight with the Japanese with real swords and guns is a hero, but it is more difficult to be able to endure hardships and suppress hatred and make friends with the enemy.
.
Canhua, look at the people in our study apartment. Except for the mute uncle, no one has actually been on the battlefield. Those are not things we are good at.
If we want to do something, if we want to help, we can openly establish a good relationship with the Japanese so as not to let them suspect us, and even make them regard us as friends.
Only then can we provide a safe enough haven for those who risk their lives fighting.
You won't get a good reputation by doing this, and you might even be called a traitor, but the more you do this, the less the Japanese will suspect us, and the people we hide here will be safer, right?"
Hearing this, Tao Canhua opened his mouth with tears streaming down his face. Finally, he wiped away his tears and nodded, got up and left the basement.
"Mrs. Huang is dead"
Falling into the quiet basement again, Andy suddenly said, "Really? Weiran?"
"yes"
Wei Ran sighed, holding back the bitterness of the increasingly strong Chinese medicine in his mouth and said, "Mrs. Huang died. She died on the operating table that I am responsible for."
Hearing this, Mei Xiang trembled as if struck by lightning, looked at Wei Ran with red eyes, and then looked at Andy, holding back her grief and asked, "Feng... Where is Mr. Feng?"
"I don't know. I didn't see him last night, and I didn't see him during the day either."
While talking, Wei Ran had already stood up and walked to Guan Bingwen's side. He checked it under the light and changed the subject and said, "Fortunately, the burns are all on the back, and they have been treated. All we can do now is apply medicine on time.
Already."
"Canhua has just delivered the medicine." Meixiang changed the subject and pointed to an extra wooden box not far away, "Mr. Walker helped get it."
"how are you feeling?"
Wei Ran approached Guan Bingwen's face and asked. He had noticed that the young man had woken up. The tears dripping from the corners of his eyes not only left clear traces on the face full of ashes, but also made them wet.
The pillow he soiled.
"It's okay, I'm okay."
Guan Bingwen, whose hair was curled by high-temperature perms, responded with a hoarse voice, and then more tears welled up. He gestured tremblingly with his two hands that were also slightly burned, "I can't save you."
Keep him alive, that kid...he's so young."
At that moment, Wei Ran felt that his hair was standing on end.
Trying to get rid of all the bad memories in his mind, Wei Ran shivered and opened the cigarette case, only to see that it was empty. He groped for the Camel cigarettes he bought at a high price before going to bed, tore them open, stuffed one for himself, and gave it to
Guan Bingwen stuffed one, hurriedly lit it, and slowly sat on the cold terrazzo floor, leaning on the wire bed.
"We have to do something" Andy said as if talking to himself.
"We really need to do something." Mei Xiang nodded, and the two women looked at each other, as if they both saw something in their eyes.
After Wei Ran finished smoking a cigarette with Guan Bingwen, Tao Canhua, who had changed into clean clothes, entered the basement again. Behind him, Cao Duba followed.
"Little...aunt"
Tao Canhua changed his tune promptly and said, "Moli said, it's late at night now, and the Japanese don't seem to have any intention of entering the British Concession, so you can go up and take a shower or something."
"I'll be down later," Mei Xiang reassured Andy, then greeted Qiushi and walked out.
Before the two girls could climb up, Cao Mute called Tao Canhua for help, carefully cleaned Guan Bingwen's body, and helped him put on a pair of pajamas that were wide and easy to move around.
This was not over yet. The two men also moved the wooden refrigerator at the end of the passage outside the door and all the ice cubes stored inside into the house. Then they hung a curtain where the refrigerator was originally placed and placed two
Enamel spittoon with lid and bucket of soot.
Although the conditions of this toilet are a bit crude, it is still adequate - although you will inevitably be stared at by the suffering Jesus on the wall when you poop or urinate.
When the two of them helped tidy up the inside and outside, and pulled out an extra wire bed and set it aside, Meixiang and Qiushi, who had taken a bath, also rushed back with two food boxes each.
After all, the war was still going on outside. Although the meals that Meixiang and Qiushi brought out from the food boxes were extremely rich, and Jasmine even brought in a pot of chicken soup made by an old hen a little later, no one had much appetite.
After finally filling his stomach, Wei Ran lay on his side on the bed that belonged to him. He looked at the curtain blocking Andy and thought it was inappropriate. He simply turned over and looked at the other bed.
Chen Xiuyu was lying on the bed, and Guan Bingwen was lying on the wire bed between the two beds.
"Three or four days ago, traitors came to our school pretending to be reporters and tried to kidnap members of the student union in the name of interviews."
Guan Bingwen, who was lying on the bed, was fascinated by the picture of Ghost Valley going down the mountain painted on the blue and white porcelain vat directly in front of the bed, and continued talking to himself, "Later, a third-grade senior disappeared, and when the war came,
We don’t know whether we will live or die. On the 27th, a car of Japanese soldiers came to the gate of our school again and destroyed all the anti-Japanese slogans we hung. Later, they forced the police to drive us all out of the school.”
Sniffing hard, Guan Bingwen hammered the metal bedside, and asked with humiliation and anger, "Isn't this our country? How can we allow them to be arrogant on our land!"
"It will drive them away"
Wei Ran said affirmatively, pressing hard on the burn on his arm with his hand, feeling the burning pain seriously, closing his eyes and whispering, "We will drive them away, we will definitely drive them away. In the future, China will
There will no longer be concessions in the land, there will no longer be a need to rely on foreigners for support, and no one will dare to bombard our schools."
"Will there ever be that day?" Guan Bingwen, with humiliation written all over his face, looked at Wei Ran with tears streaming down his face and asked.
"meeting!"
While Wei Ran tightened his grip on the burn on his arm, and in the increasingly severe and clear pain, he answered with more certainty, "There will be a day, there will be a day!"
"It would be great if that day comes..." Mei Xiang, who was sitting by the painting vat, murmured to herself, her big eyes filled with humiliation already full of yearning.
"Yes, there will be a day..." Andy, who was separated by a curtain from Wei Ran, also muttered in a low voice. The delicate face that was once full of dusty air was already full of perseverance.
