In the strong white light, before Wei Ran had time to see his surroundings clearly, he heard a thunder and the sound of rain, and also smelled a faint smell of Chinese herbal medicine.
He blinked hard, but when his vision returned to normal, he frowned. At this time, he was wearing a pair of shorts and standing shirtless in the foyer of Xuqing Letter Apartment, under the awning of the gate less than two meters away.
, a dam that is one meter high and half a meter wide has been built with red bricks, cement and sandbags on both sides of the wall at the highest point of the entrance steps.
Across this small flood control embankment, the majestic heavy rain was hard at work watering the accumulated sewage in the yard amidst the thunder and lightning. The water that looked relatively clean was already less than one meter away from the wall of the small courtyard.
distance.
But look at the flood control embankment at the door. Almost a third of the outside is already soaked in water.
So this was late August of 1939? The Tianjin Flood?
While muttering to himself, Wei Ran looked up at the gloomy weather, then looked behind him, only to find that the hall on this floor was empty at this time.
He glanced at the iron gate again, almost soaking his whole body in the flood, and then turned around and walked into the hall on the first floor, checking every room on the first floor.
What was quite interesting was that he found that in the room where Tao Canhua originally lived, there were already several large water tanks that seemed to have been placed in the yard before. In addition, there was also a stove that was burning water in the room.
On the briquette stove, there were thirty or forty hot water bottles on the table against the wall, as well as several flowerpots with green onions or peppers.
Go to the back door of the kitchen on the first floor and take a look. There is also a waterproof dam set up on the steps outside the door.
However, the flower bed on the west side of the small building that hides the basement vent was not protected by the flower bed built in 1937 to block the basement and the rain shelter above the head that was wide enough to extend outside the courtyard wall.
In the water.
Even, in order to prevent the courtyard wall next to the flower bed from collapsing, several door bars as thick as a calf and pieces of thick wooden boards were used to support and protect it.
Not only that, behind the windows of each room on the first floor, flood defense embankments were built with sandbags in advance. At the door of the storage room, preparations were especially made.
Where have everyone gone...
Wei Ran muttered to himself while glancing at the stairs leading to the second floor, then stepped over the flood barrier prepared in advance at the door of the storage room, and followed the steps into the basement.
The news is mixed. Perhaps due to the protection of the flower bed built in 1937, there is no water in the basement. But even so, the surrounding walls are already covered with water as if it has caught up with the south sky.
Zhu. Some of the solid wood floors beneath my feet have been soaked and turned up, exposing gaps as wide as a finger.
In addition, all the items that were originally placed in the basement that could be moved have been moved, leaving only some tables, chairs and benches.
Glancing at the top of the stairs, Wei Ran moved the wide mirror with familiarity, only to find that the wooden door leading to the hidden basement had been locked with a padlock, and the door and the cracks were still covered with thick paint.
a layer of asphalt.
After pushing the frame back to its original position and fixing it, he quickly ran out of the basement and closed the door of the storage room as well.
However, before he could decide whether to go to the second floor to take a look, there was a series of strange noises coming from the direction of the yard that were not clear in the heavy rain but could not be ignored.
After a moment of hesitation, Wei Ran quickly ran to the foyer, hid behind the ajar door and carefully took a quick look, and then took a second look, and then confirmed that the iron gate of the study apartment was at this moment.
Outside, a small boat full of people was docked.
At this time, there was a man in a raincoat whose appearance was unclear on the boat, untying the iron chain on the door.
"who?"
While Wei Ran shouted loudly at the other party, he also took out the flashlight from the metal book and shined the beam at it.
"it's me!"
During the heavy rain, the person responsible for opening the door responded loudly, "It's me! Tao Canhua!"
"Come in quickly!" Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief and extinguished the flashlight beam.
Not long after, the iron chain on the iron fence door was untied, and the small boat, which was always being used to scoop water out, struggled to open the iron gate and floated into the yard.
After the people on board the boat scrambled and used iron chains and padlocks to lock the unblockable iron gate, the boat slowly docked at the edge of the flood control embankment on the steps.
Immediately afterwards, the people on the boat came down one after another under the leadership of Tao Canhua. They then helped Tao Canhua tie the wooden boat to the lamppost on the parapet of the steps.
After looking at these shirtless, soaked young men with dirty and embarrassed faces, Wei Ran turned his attention to Chen Xiuyu and Xu Keqin, who finally got off the boat, and to the people being supported by them.
, that little girl with a pale face and a thin figure, who looked to be seven or eight years old at most.
"Doctor Wei, she seems to have malaria." Xu Keqin wiped the rain from his face, "Please save her quickly, she has been shaking."
"Quick, come inside first." Wei Ran didn't dare to delay, calling the half-grown children to hurry inside.
After a while, the stairs leading to the second floor also heard the sound of hurried footsteps. When Wei Ran was the last one to enter and close the door, Mei Xiang, Qiu Shi, Jasmine, even carrying medicine boxes, wearing
Andy, who was wearing a white coat and a mask, wrapped himself tightly, ran down.
Behind these girls were Ma Yang and Uncle Meng who was limping!
"Is anyone hurt?"
While Andy was speaking, he had already placed the medicine box on the table and opened it. At the same time, Jasmine also placed the kerosene gas lamp she was carrying on the fireplace.
"There's someone here with malaria"
Wei Ran said, placing the little girl he was holding on his side on the table.
Hearing this, Andy immediately took out a medicine bottle, shook out a pill from it and fed it into the little girl's mouth.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Like an assembly line, Qiushi immediately brought a cup of warm boiled water to the little girl's mouth.
After the girl swallowed the pills in her mouth, Andy immediately pointed to the room that originally belonged to Cao Mute and urged, "Don't just look at it, take these children to check if there are any external injuries. Leave the ones with injuries behind.
If you are injured, please ask Uncle Meng to shave your hair first, then take a shower and then go upstairs."
"Come with me"
Wei Ran said hello, and took the young men except Tao Canhua, Chen Xiuyu and Xu Keqin into the room that originally belonged to Cao Mute. He asked them to take off all their clothes and checked them with a flashlight.
Ichiban.
Fortunately, except for one of these children who had a minor scratch on his heel, the others were all fine.
At the same time, Chen Xiuyu also walked in with a wicker box in his arms. There was nothing else in the box, only brand-new white towels and a wooden handle toothbrush rolled up in the towel.
"Listen to me"
Xu Keqin cleared his throat and said in a loud voice, "Miss loves to be clean, especially she can't stand the smell of sweat on her body, let alone bad breath. After you shave your head, Brother Pike will take you to the bathroom to take a shower.
Now everyone comes to me and gets a towel and a toothbrush. There is soap and tooth powder in the bathroom. Learn how to brush your teeth carefully with Brother Pike. From now on, you will brush your teeth once every day after breakfast and again after dinner. Who doesn’t do it well?
Brushing teeth, but no food!
Finally, after cleaning myself, I can go to Brother Canhua to get my big pants, sweatshirt and cloth shoes when I come out.
Now come to me to get a towel. After you get it, go to the hall and let Uncle Meng shave your heads, and then go take a shower."
"But...but there are women outside," a young man who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old said with a shy look on his crotch.
"No one is looking at you"
Xu Keqin said and handed a towel wrapped with a toothbrush to the other party, "Miss, they have already gone upstairs. You can go upstairs after they are cleaned up."
Hearing this, these half-grown men breathed a sigh of relief, carefully opened the door, and after some inspection, they went out one by one with their buttocks naked, and asked Uncle Meng, who was already waiting at the door of the bathroom, to
With the razor in his hand, he shaved off his long or short hair with a few strokes. Then he went into the bathroom in twos and twos under the command of Tao Canhua and Chen Xiuyu - just like Wei Ran and Chen Xiuyu.
Tao Canhua was exactly the same when he entered the job and wrote love letters to the apartment.
Not long after, the clean little bald boys came out again with bare feet. After their bodies were dried, they put on the large pants, coarse cloth undershirts, and round-mouthed cloth shoes prepared for them.
While the children were taking a bath, Wei Ran also returned to his room, closed the door and took out the medical kit.
Fortunately, the medical box is not completely empty after all. Although the American medic's helmet, plasma powder and penicillin are still not there, the white coat is as new as ever, and there are also many drugs for treating malaria.
And 5 extremely precious equine tetanus antitoxin.
Without daring to delay, Wei Ran returned to Mute Cao's room with the medicine box. After carefully debriding the little guy with the injured foot, he performed a skin test and injected a precious injection of tetanus.
By the time he finished his work, the little guys outside had not finished taking a shower or shaving their heads.
"I'll take him to shave his head and take a bath later," said Xu Keqin, who had been accompanying him in the room.
"Then I'll trouble you."
Wei Ran had already put away the medicine box as he spoke, "By the way, what's the date today?"
"August 21st," Xu Qin replied immediately.
"No wonder..."
Wei Ran muttered to himself and continued to ask in a casual tone, "What's going on outside now?"
"Hey! Don't mention it!"
However, Xu Keqin, who was sixteen or seventeen years old, said angrily, "This is a big deal. The bastards are blocking the British and French Concessions. Now those bastards are not allowed in or out. And only refugees are allowed."
Come in, no food, drink or medicine is allowed. Seeing how they look, I wish all the refugees would flow into the British and French concessions."
"What about the disaster?" Wei Ran continued to ask, even though he had seen these situations in the historical archives of later generations.
"We heard from people who ran in that the water at the entrance of Quanyechang could be three to four meters deep, and the first floor of Zhongyuan Company over there was also flooded."
"I heard that it was the Japanese who blew up the dikes that caused the flood. Now there are corpses floating on the Haihe River."
The young man with an injured heel echoed, "Not only the Haihe River, but also Sanguier, there were many drowned people, and even the Qinghong Gang joined together to rescue people and provide disaster relief.
The hateful thing is that the Japanese concession has already built a waterproof dam, and I heard that they have started using water pumps to pump out water, and have driven out all the refugees inside."
“Not only that”
Xu Keqin gritted his teeth and said, "I heard that they also took photos. They took a lot of photos of them pretending to provide disaster relief and pretending to save people. After the photos were taken, those people who were rescued by them on the motorboat were pushed down again."
These are so stupid!
Wei Ran couldn't help but clenched his fists - even though he had read the same description in the historical archives before entering this time and space.
"Cousin" At this moment, Tao Canhua also opened the door, "Auntie asked you to go up to the third floor."
"I'll come right away"
Wei Ran responded and took the medicine box back to his room first. After closing the door and putting the medicine box back into the food box, he took the time to take out the usable things and quickly checked them.
Fortunately, all the things that Bai Guang could use before could be taken out and used. Even the broken right hand has recovered as before.
Not only that, the food box also contained the small PPK pistol he bought from Volker, the manager of a German bank, as well as the red ginseng slices he bought in the drug store and several pieces of small yellow croaker that he didn't know where they came from.
, and dozens of scattered pieces of ocean.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! To smoke, you have to buy cigarettes...
While Wei Ran was talking, he lit a Qianmen brand cigarette for himself. Before that white light, he had been buying a pack of Qianmen and a pack of Camel cigarettes from the injured Chen Gouyu every day, but he didn't know
Can this method still be used today?
Thinking of this, he pinched a piece of ocean from the food box and put it into his pocket. Then he put the food box away, put on a coarse sweatshirt, and then opened the door.
"Chen Dogfish" Wei Ran waved to Chen Dogfish who was busy at work.
"Hey!" Chen Xiuyu responded, put down the things in his hands and ran over in a few steps.
"Do you still have cigarettes there?" Wei Ran asked first.
"Yes, yes! I'll get it for you right now!" Chen Gouyu said and ran to Cao Mute's room.
"Come back" Wei Ran called to the other party, and before he could speak, he handed the other party the ocean in his hand.
"Doctor Wei," Chen Gouyu, who was not good at speaking, quickly waved his hand, "What are you doing! I..."
"Take it"
Wei Ran couldn't help but put the Dayang in his hand into the opponent's hand, "You know what I smoke, right?"
"I know, I know!"
Chen Gouyu tightened his grip on the coin, turned around and ran into Cao Mute's room. After a while, he delivered a bag of Qianmen, a bag of camels, and a box of matches.
After taking the cigarettes and matches and putting them into his pocket, Wei Ran stepped up to the second floor, and then he saw a scene that surprised him.
At this time, the banquet hall on the second floor was filled with mats one after another. On each mat, there was a blanket and pillows made of various things.
In the living room with a long Western-style table, a small blackboard that is not too big has been hung on the wall. At this time, Jasmine was taking a dozen children to read in the living room.
Looking at the living room, there is a briquette stove next to the floor-to-ceiling window, with a large pottery pot on it, in which some kind of Chinese medicinal decoction of unknown purpose is being boiled.
Without stopping, Wei Ran continued to walk upstairs, only to find that there were also many people on the third floor, including Mei Xiang, Andy, Miss Qiushi, and several little girls of different ages.
Just like downstairs, there are also mats spread out on the floor of the living room, with neatly folded blankets placed on them.
Not only that, there was a large, colorful parrot standing on a shelf by the window facing the terrace, walking back and forth.
Seeing Wei Ran coming up, Mei Xiang and Andy, who seemed to be busy distributing something to the children just now, looked at each other and said while walking towards the bedroom, "Come in."
"Is it appropriate?" Although Wei Ran said this, he followed him without any delay - this was his first time entering Mei Xiang's bedroom.
"When will you be talking nonsense?"
Mei Xiang shook her head helplessly and sat directly on the edge of the double bed. Andy, as if on purpose, first let Wei Ran sit on the only single sofa, and then she sat on
She sat on the armrest of the sofa and put her arm on Wei Ran's shoulder. At the same time, she took the half-smoked cigarette from the cigarette holder Wei Ran was holding, put on her own tortoiseshell cigarette holder and started smoking.
After Mei Xiang also lit a cigarette, Wei Ran asked, "What's the order for my cousin to call me up?"
"You and Canhua have to go out for a while."
Andy switched to German and said, "Xiaoguan just sent the news. There are two wounded people there who need to be picked up. I'm worried that something might happen to Canhua alone. How about you follow him later?"
"Okay." Wei Ran nodded happily.
"Bring this also"
Meixiang said, reaching out and taking out two large yellow croakers from the drawer of the bedside table and handing them to Wei Ran, "Let Xiaoguan be replaced by Da Yang, and divide it into several portions and give them to the porridge factories outside the concession. It can be considered that we have used up a piece.
A meager strength."
Hearing this, Wei Ran reached out and took the two heavy gold bars and put them into his pocket, "Is there anything else to do?"
"Go quickly and come back quickly"
Before Mei Xiang finished speaking, a bolt of lightning flashed outside the window. Immediately afterwards, the lights in the room also went out, and the little girls outside the room also let out a cry of surprise.
"Let's go out and take a look," Andy said, not forgetting to pat Wei Ran's face gently, and then he and Mei Xiang walked out of the bedroom in the dark.
After pinching the two gold bars in his pocket, Wei Ran walked out of the bedroom and started walking downstairs in the dark.
When he went down from the third floor to the second floor, he heard a boy say in a low voice in the darkness, "You know that weird thing that happened in the French Concession two years ago, right?"
"What about the girl in the red skirt?" Another little boy also asked in a lowered voice.
"What a red dress, that's a bloody dress!"
The little boy who started the topic corrected him, "I'm not going to fool anyone. I heard that the woman was originally wearing a white dress, snow-white! She was hung upside down on the porch, and there was blood all over her body.
After it dried, I dyed the skirt red.
You know about the big traitor Meng Dazai, right? I remember that his third wife was the first to see him. She was so frightened that she couldn’t hold back her pee and pee, and she went crazy the day she returned."
"No!"
Another young man also added with embarrassment, "I heard from the fortune teller Blind Li that the woman's soul was taken away by a Taoist person. In order to prevent her from being reincarnated, they even used a big black tea tray to drain her blood."
All caught.
It is said that after all the blood on her body dries, she will turn white, whiter than the white-striped chickens displayed in the butcher shop!"
"Crack!"
Just at this moment, there was another thunder outside the window almost at the same time as the lightning. The bad boys who were hiding in the toilet on the second floor while peeing and telling ghost stories were also frightened and shouted "Oh my god!" and lifted up their pants and walked away.
He ran towards the restaurant where the oil lamp had been lit.
Standing at the corner of the stairs, Wei Ran smiled silently, continued walking downstairs, and found Tao Canhua who was arranging accommodation for the young men who had just been brought here on the first floor.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "When will we set off?" Wei Ran asked directly.
"hold on"
Tao Canhua pulled Wei Ran into the kitchen and answered in a low voice in the darkness, "Brother Guan said that when the rain stops, it's time to go pick him up."
"Do you know who to pick up?" Wei Ran also asked in a lowered voice.
"How did I know?" Tao Canhua immediately shook his head.
Hearing this, Wei Ran did not insist, but started to talk in a roundabout way.
After this communication, he also clarified a lot of things.
First of all, after being rescued by Wei Ran and Andy in 1937, Uncle Meng stayed in the study apartment and worked as a spoon chef under Mei Xiang's persuasion.
On the other hand, after the Japanese sealed off the British and French Concessions, Meixiang no longer left the British Concessions. She only organized two private dances at home every month, and also used the Love Letter Apartment to open a dance training center.
class.
Most of the people who come here to learn dancing are young men and women who live in the British and French Concessions. Basically, they come to participate in the dances held twice a month.
In contrast, it was the Miss Gu family. Ever since Mei Xiang attended the dance organized by Ueda in 1937, she gradually cut off contact with her. Not only that, even Tao Canhua no longer played the piano and sang for the Japanese enemy Ueda.
Qu'er, of course, won't be able to earn those few dollars.
Also cutting off contact with Mei Xiang were the Guan siblings and Little Su's mother, who regarded Mei Xiang as her own daughter - of course, only on the surface.
According to Tao Canhua, Chen Pike, who sells cigarettes in the Japanese Concession, and Xu Keqin, who sells cigarettes in the French Concession, are respectively tasked with helping Mei Xiang secretly contact Xiao Su's mother and the Guan family siblings.
If the flood had not been serious this time, in order to avoid attracting attention, these two young men might not have followed Tao Canhua back to the book apartment.
As the topic reached this point, the heavy rain outside also started to stop. Seeing this, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua did not dare to delay. They immediately paddled the small boat outside and left the yard, paddling in the dark toward the French Concession.
Soon after, when the boat stopped near a building, the originally closed window on the second floor was pushed open from the inside.
Immediately afterwards, two people wearing shorts and singlets, barefoot, but each holding an umbrella, stepped out and stepped on the small boat.
Just as the second person who came down sat down, Wei Ran didn't even have time to send the gold bars out. The window was also closed with a "snap!" from the inside, and then the curtains were drawn again.
"Long time no see, Wei Ran." Under the umbrella, a hoarse voice greeted Wei Ran gently.
"Feng...Mr. Feng?!" Wei Ran shouted the last two words in a low voice that only he could hear.
When the person greeting him under the umbrella nodded, he immediately lowered his head and looked at the person hiding under the other paper umbrella. As expected, it was indeed Cao Mute!
"Hong, my current surname is Hong." Feng Maoyun, who was hiding under the umbrella, said almost close to Wei Ran's ear, "Hong Ru."
"Where's this one?" Wei Ran, who was also hiding under the umbrella, pointed at Cao Mute.
"Of course he is still Cao Dumb." Feng Maoyun, whose pseudonym was Hong Ru, introduced with a smile, but his gentle tone was full of vicissitudes and emotions.
