northernbook Chapter 1165 Forced into Hard Labor
Chapter 1165 Forced into Hard Labor
"They surrendered?" Dingxiang's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground. "The British just... surrendered like that?"
Gui'er stood frozen in place, her mind buzzing. She thought of the Union Jack flying in the school and the British troops swaggering along the docks. It turned out that the so-called "resistance" had ended so quickly, and she couldn't quite accept it for a moment.
A slight noise came from upstairs, and she quickly shut her mouth; everyone held their breath.
Footsteps approached from afar, and Wu Mingqiang appeared at the stairwell, clutching a bunch of wilted greens and a wrinkled radish in his hand. His face was even more unpleasant than when he left, and there was a new scratch on the corner of his mouth.
"Did you buy the vegetables?" Dingxiang asked instinctively.
Wu Mingqiang didn't speak. He put the vegetables on the ground, squatted in the corner, and took two deep breaths. His voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded: "I didn't buy them. There was a house in the next alley with its door open. I saw these two things on the table and wanted to knock and ask if I could buy them... But when I pushed the door open, I found a family of four lying on the ground, their blood all black..."
He wiped his face, his knuckles turning white from the force: "The radish was still covered in mud, like it had just been picked from the garden... I didn't dare linger, I grabbed these two things and ran back."
The basement fell silent instantly. Gui'er stared at the bunch of greens, the leaves still bearing traces of brown, and a wave of nausea washed over her. She realized that in this chaotic world, even a bite of fresh food could be bought with one's life.
Zhu Zhiming silently picked up the radish, walked to the bucket, and rinsed it with the murky water. The sound of the water was particularly clear in the silence. "As long as it fills my stomach, that's enough," he said softly, as if comforting someone else, or as if convincing himself.
Wu Mingqiang looked up at Gui'er, his eyes filled with exhaustion: "Don't worry, no one saw me. Tonight... let's cook some vegetable porridge."
They spent another day in the basement, and the situation was actually no different from the previous few days.
The next day, Wu Mingqiang, along with Acheng and Zhu Zhiming, went upstairs to try opening the door and go out to check on the situation outside.
Gui'er and Dingxiang stayed in the basement to wait.
As time ticked by, both of them grew increasingly restless. The dim light at the top of the stairs flickered like a weight on their hearts. At first, they could faintly hear the sounds of doors opening and footsteps above, but later there was only deathly silence, and even the sound of the wind outside the window seemed eerie.
"What if Qiang and the others..." Dingxiang's voice trembled, but before she could finish speaking, Gui'er pressed her hand down. "Don't think like that. They're three grown men. They'll be fine." Gui'er comforted her, but her fingertips were icy cold—in this world, a man's strength is utterly insignificant in the face of a gun.
Time seemed to stand still, each moment agonizingly slow. Gui'er counted the cracks in the wall in the darkness, and when she reached the thirty-seventh, she finally heard the sound of a door opening above the basement. Then came heavy footsteps on the stairs, and three figures appeared at the entrance, each looking as if they had been pulled from the mud, their clothes stained with dark brown grime and emitting an indescribable fishy stench.
"You're finally back! We were so worried, afraid something had happened to you." Dingxiang rushed over, but seeing Wu Mingqiang's ashen face, she swallowed her words back.
Wu Mingqiang leaned against the wall, panting for a long time before finally saying in a hoarse voice, "The Japanese blocked the door as soon as we opened it, forcing us to move the bodies... They cleared the streets one by one. Some houses had their doors locked from the inside. When they pried them open, they found that the whole family was dead, and there were flies buzzing around..."
Zhu Zhiming squatted on the ground and gagged a few times: "Many of them were children, their small bodies huddled in the corner... The Japanese didn't care at all, they just made us throw them onto the truck like firewood."
Acheng splashed some water on himself, trying to wash away the smell, but the more he washed, the stronger it became: "The surrounding streets are mostly empty. Any decent-looking house has been broken into, all the valuables have been looted, and the worthless things have been smashed to pieces. There was a girl from one family who couldn't escape, and she was... dragged into an alley by several Japanese soldiers. When we passed by, we saw her mother holding her there, crying. She wasn't even properly dressed, and she was covered in wounds..."
“Now women don’t dare to go out,” Wu Mingqiang wiped his face. “Those with hair have all cut it off, and their faces are covered in soot, looking like beggars, for fear of being targeted by the Japanese. Those people who fled from the mainland a while ago are now running towards Luohu Bridge like madmen. They’re even willing to hitchhike on trains or swim to get back to the mainland, saying that it’s safer to hide in their hometowns than here.”
Gui'er's heart sank like a stone: "What should we do? Can we go to the surface now?"
"Let's wait and see. It's too dangerous to go out now. But the three of us can live upstairs so people don't think it's an empty house. You and Dingxiang, the two girls, can stay in the basement for a few more days."
Gui'er nodded helplessly.
"By the way, guess who I saw?" Wu Mingqiang sneered. "The British have all been imprisoned in concentration camps, but the Chinese and Indian detectives were kept on and put into some kind of 'Hong Kong Police Force,' which is basically a puppet police force. Long Xing is still around, but he's out of office. The Japanese brought in a traitor from the mainland named Liu Mingkun to be his superior. That guy is all smiles and grovels to the Japanese, but he's ruthless to his own people. When Long Xing saw me, he secretly told us, when the Japanese weren't looking, that we absolutely mustn't cause any trouble, especially to be wary of those newly established gendarmerie investigation teams."
“The Military Police?” Gui’er frowned.
“They’re just some local thugs who snuck in,” A-Cheng chimed in. “Thugs who used to be too cowardly to show their faces are now wearing uniforms given to them by the Japanese and are even more ruthless than the Japanese themselves. There are also the two gangs, Anle and Fuyixing, who used to be nobody, but now they’ve joined the Japanese and become thugs, robbing and arresting people. They’re even more active than the Japanese themselves. Longxing said they’ve already taken a lot of lives.”
They were arrested as soon as they went out to clean up the corpses. Although they didn't bring anything back, they learned this information.
Gui'er said, "Given the situation outside, let's hide for a few more days."
Wu Mingqiang remained silent. Acheng sighed and said, "Those bastards who arrested us said that we have to continue cleaning up the bodies tomorrow. If we don't go, we'll be considered rebels..."
The basement fell silent again, save for the flickering flame of the kerosene lamp. Gui'er looked at the indelible stains on the three men's bodies and could almost smell the blood in the air. Surrender wasn't the end; it was the beginning of another ordeal—wolves in sheep's clothing were more terrifying than gleaming bayonets.
Zhu Zhiming suddenly whispered, "When I was moving the body just now, I saw some leftover vegetable porridge on a table in one of the houses, just like the one we cooked last night..."
No one responded. Gui'er clenched her clothes tightly, her nails digging deep into her flesh. In this chaotic world, to survive, one had to rely on the deaths of countless people.