Chapter 18

18

Lin Guisheng had indeed retired from public life, and she was indeed just an ordinary person now.

But she still had her old connections.

Her ex-husband Huang Jinrong was certainly out of the question, but the young subordinate she had once mentored had now become a titan in his own right.

Time was of the essence, and any delay could invite trouble. Lin Guisheng immediately made a phone call to summon “Little Du^[1].”

“I promoted Little Du with my own hands, and he owes his rise to me. Though this matter is confidential, entrusting it to him is the only choice that puts my mind at ease,” she told Wen Yan.

Wen Yan nodded. Although he had his suspicions about who this “Little Du” might be, when the man actually arrived in person half an hour later from Lin Guisheng’s single phone call, Wen Yan still felt a sense of unreality.

This was the renowned Green Gang boss of history. Though historical accounts held mixed reviews of him, and he was certainly no gentle soul, he was currently the only person in a position to help Wen Yan.

“Elder Sister, are you alright?!”

The “Little Du” in Lin Guisheng’s words was actually Old Du. He looked Lin Guisheng up and down, letting out a sigh of relief only after seeing she was unharmed, before turning his gaze to scrutinize Wen Yan.

A gaze as sharp as a hawk and predatory as a wolf sent a jolt through Wen Yan’s heart. He instinctively averted his eyes, not out of a guilty conscience, but because under such aggressive scrutiny, it was difficult for an ordinary person not to shrink back.

“And who is this?”

Lin Guisheng said, “A youngster from Mayor Wu’s family. It was because of him that I called you.”

Old Du was puzzled. Ever since Lin Guisheng retired after the fallout, let alone Mayor Wu, not even Old Chiang^[2] could have easily moved her. Yet someone had actually come knocking, and a young man at that.

“Elder Sister, you were vague on the phone, so I thought something had happened. Calling me here in the middle of the night, what on earth is…”

“This matter is very important, and it wasn’t convenient to discuss over the phone. That’s why I called you over.”

Lin Guisheng nodded toward Wen Yan. “Tell him the whole story again.”

Having calmed down from his initial frantic desperation through their earlier conversation, Wen Yan was much more composed now. He concealed the source of his information as before and recounted the events in full, including how earlier that night, the Japanese had approached Zhang Yuanji hoping to take books from the Commercial Press to Japan for an exhibition.

“After that Japanese man was turned down, what struck me more than shame or annoyance was his arrogance, as if my granduncle had rejected a supreme honor, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Back then, I began wondering whether that Asai Sui had also known about the bombing plan all along. Perhaps he wanted to ship the books out beforehand so that once the Commercial Press was reduced to ruins, those books would never return, naturally becoming Japanese cultural relics.”

As Wen Yan spoke, Old Du’s expression grew increasingly grim, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter.

“Can you really not reveal your source?”

He asked the exact same question Lin Guisheng had.

Wen Yan said, “I can swear on my life that if there is a bombing at the end of the month, the Japanese will definitely bomb the Commercial Press.”

His tone was so absolute that Old Du gave him a deep, searching look. Countless thoughts flickered in Old Du’s eyes; like Lin Guisheng, he seemed to be relying on his vast experience to fill in the blanks about the complex web of factions behind Wen Yan.

But when Old Du spoke, he rejected Wen Yan’s plan right away.

“There are no tall buildings on either side of the library, so staging an explosion to affect it from outside won’t be easy. At most, we could cause an explosion inside the library itself.”

Wen Yan asked, “Wouldn’t that alert the enemy?”

Old Du said, “That is why we must contain the incident within a controlled scope and make it look like an accident, while also convincing Old Mr. Zhang to temporarily close the building for repairs. Enough, leave this matter to me for now. If I need Young Master Shen to do anything, I’ll send someone to contact you.”

With just a few words, he settled the matter and took the responsibility entirely upon himself.

Before Wen Yan could even react, Old Du asked again, “Since your intelligence says the Japanese are going to bomb the Commercial Press, knowing their nature, they won’t stop at just one library, will they?”

“That’s right. The information I received is that they are about to launch an attack on Shanghai, which could cause casualties among both military and civilians. But even if I spoke out about this, no one would believe me, and they might even arrest me in the end.” Wen Yan spoke the truth and pushed his luck further. “Mr. Du, you possess vast influence and resources. Could you think of a way?”

Old Du gave a wry smile. What way could there be? Was he supposed to tell Old Chiang?

Setting aside how credible Wen Yan’s information was, even if Old Chiang believed it, that would bring up another problem. Old Chiang would surely ask: Old Du, how did you find out? Are you colluding with the Japanese, or are you colluding with the other side?

Even with someone of Old Du’s stature, he would end up covered in mud with no way to wash it off.

He suddenly began to understand why Wen Yan hadn’t spoken to his own family or consulted his uncle, the vice mayor, and had instead gone through countless loops and turns to seek out Lin Guisheng.

*

Wrapped in a blanket, Shen Po sat there through most of the night.

Still shaken from the shock, he yawned incessantly, yet found it completely impossible to fall asleep.

People around him bustled back and forth, either carrying supplies or supporting the injured; not a single person remained idle. Even the young man with the fractured arm who had chatted with him earlier was using his one good arm to help prepare instant noodles, pour tea, and do whatever else he could.

Shen Po finally felt uneasy sitting there doing nothing.

It wasn’t a sudden pang of conscience, but simply that he was bored out of his mind.

His phone was dead, and power was out in the earthquake zone. While emergency repairs were underway, the emergency charging stations prioritized those in desperate need of contacting loved ones outside; there was no way they would let Shen Po charge his phone just to play around and browse.

With no one left to chat with either, Shen Po had no choice but to drag his feet and get up, helping to boil water and carry supplies.

Dawn broke before long.

Apart from the initial chaos and the noisy clamor as rescue workers arrived and fanned out to save people, Shen Po did not witness the looting and scuffling he had imagined.

Once daylight arrived, a troop of soldiers entered in orderly formation to take over and begin excavation and rescue operations, finally allowing the makeshift rescue workers who had labored all night to rest and catch their breath.

Yet as Shen Po watched, he only grew more and more bewildered.

Could the relationship between the military and civilians a hundred years later truly be this good?

These men were not like the warlords, who would pocket ninety percent for themselves even when delivering a single bag of relief grain. Nor were the common folk afraid of them; instead, they brought forward whatever they had, eager to offer up the finest things in their homes, terrified these soldiers might go hungry or thirsty.

What kind of army was this?

What on earth had happened over the past hundred years?

When he took this confusion and asked Xiao Zhao, the young man he had been chatting with earlier, Xiao Zhao stared at him in silence for a moment once again.

“Teacher Wen, did you get your head crushed in the earthquake just now? Why don’t you catch a ride to the township hospital to get an X-ray?”

Shen Po had no idea what an X-ray was, but that was not his focus right now.

“I’m fine, just a little dizzy. It’ll pass in a bit. Just tell me.”

Xiao Zhao sighed. “What’s there to say? These are our soldiers, sons of our own people, the People’s Army. Isn’t this completely normal?”

That was precisely what was not normal!

No army had ever been like this!

Shen Po was sensible enough this time not to voice his thoughts. He knew that pressing on with questions that defied common sense might end with him being hauled off for examination.

So he retreated to a corner and quietly began searching keywords on the phone with its dangerously low battery.

The more he searched, the greater the shock in his heart grew.

Along with the keywords came modern weaponry he had never even heard of, the mushroom cloud that had shaken the world, and the sweeping transformations across this century. These were the bedrock of confidence for the people who had refuted him online, the very foundation of all the novel marvels he was seeing.

He finally understood why every single person here beamed with confidence, and why even a sudden catastrophe could not break their spirits or bend their backs.

Because the backs once bent low into the dirt had been straightened, little by little, year after year.

Once someone had tasted what it felt like to stand tall, they could never bend low again to live as a subservient person.

Still, the Republic of China couldn’t have been that bad, could it?

At least for the past twenty-odd years, he had lived quite well.

Shen Po thought quietly to himself, but then another voice rose from deep within, refuting his thoughts:

No matter how good the Republic of China had been, that goodness had never reached the villagers in such impoverished backwaters.

“Teacher Wen!”

A villager came limping over.

Judging by his familiar greeting and warm demeanor, he was likely the parent of a student who knew Wen Yan.

“What are you standing here in a daze for? Xiao Zhao just said you weren’t feeling well. Come on, hurry and come with us to the township hospital to get checked out. We have a vehicle ready!”

Shen Po was pulled to his feet in a daze, letting himself be pushed onto the vehicle, having temporarily lost the ability to react.

His mind was in turmoil. He desperately wanted to go back and escape this completely unfamiliar New World, yet he also knew that even if he did return, he might never be the original Shen Po again.