A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1158 Temporary Escape

"Hold on tight!" A-Cheng roared, jerking the steering wheel. The car swerved past the edge of a stall, the sound of shattering planks echoing loudly. Gui'er instinctively grabbed Dingxiang's hand; Dingxiang's palms were sweaty, and she kept her eyes tightly shut, unable to watch.

The deeper we drove into the city, the fewer people we saw, but the silence was unsettling. Most of the streetlights were broken, with only a few windows letting out a faint glow that quickly went out. The once bustling streets now resembled a sleeping python, with unspeakable dangers lurking in the darkness.

As the car passed the Xingmin Daily building, Gui'er glanced over in that direction instinctively. The newspaper's sign was gone, and the door leading upstairs was wide open, the interior dark and gloomy, like a monster with its mouth agape.

"We're almost there." Wu Mingqiang's voice broke the silence. He glanced at Gui'er through the rearview mirror, his eyes showing some fatigue. "The house is in an old alley, very well hidden. Let's find a place to stay first."

Gui'er nodded. The wind outside the car window grew colder and colder, mixed with the faint sound of cannons in the distance, as if reminding them that the test of this chaotic world had only just begun.

Finally, they arrived at the building where Wu Mingqiang lived. The street was deserted by then, with only a few streetlights on and a few scattered kerosene lamps shining through broken windows, their dim yellow light like dying stars. The sound of cannon fire rolled in from the north, causing dust to fall from the roof tiles.

Gunshots rang out intermittently from the direction of the dock, mixed with cries and screams, like people struggling underwater. Some were fleeing, while most huddled in their homes with their families, anxiously listening to the commotion outside.

Although this is not a main road, it is a relatively busy street. It is usually quite clean and tidy, but now there is all kinds of garbage scattered on the street. It can be seen that many people must have fled from here to other places during the day.

“Miss, why don’t you go upstairs first and stay here for a few days? I’ll find a way to get you on a ship and leave Hong Kong as soon as possible,” Wu Mingqiang said.

"Everyone is quite tired today, let's take a rest first."

Wu Mingqiang and Acheng carried the luggage from the trunk and escorted the two upstairs.

Dingxiang went to the kitchen to check and found some of the supplies she had given Zhu Zhiming earlier. She said disdainfully, "The rice here is all brown rice, and the flour isn't the refined flour that Miss is used to eating. These canned goods are cheap. Why don't we just go back to the villa?"

"Are you out of your mind? Don't you know that rich people are easy targets for the Japanese? When they invade the island, the first thing they'll do is loot the homes of the rich. Staying in the villa district is just asking for death!"

“I’ll find some time to go back to the villa and get some supplies,” Wu Mingqiang said. “I left myself an escape route. There’s a well behind our villa, and I figured it wasn’t far from our basement, so I dug a tunnel through the well to the basement. Only I know about it.”

“Brother Wu, let’s rest first. Even if you’re going, check the situation first. It’s chaotic outside, with people running around everywhere. It’s dangerous,” Gui’er said.

This house is much simpler than the villa, but it was carefully renovated by Wu Mingqiang after he bought it. The first floor was once a bookstore, and some books are still displayed there. On the second floor, Ouyang Bao died in Dingxiang's room, and Dingxiang was too scared to live there. Acheng gave up his room, and Wu Mingqiang and Acheng lived in Dingxiang's room.

Ouyang Bao's body was moved to Gui'er's room and left there for half a day.

Dingxiang asked timidly, "Miss, aren't you afraid?"

Gui'er shook her head and said, "Ouyang Bao couldn't do anything to me when he was alive, let alone now that he's dead. Even if he comes back as a ghost, I'm not afraid of him. I have a clear conscience."

Wu Mingqiang nodded with relief and said, "What time is it now? The Japanese could attack at any moment. The most important thing for us is to survive. You should go and get something to eat. We've been running around all day and we're starving."

Dingxiang fiddled around in the kitchen for ages, managing to cook a pot of brown rice, which she ate with a jar of fermented black bean dace. Gui'er took a couple of bites; the brown rice stung her throat, but seeing Dingxiang and Acheng wolfing it down, she forced herself to swallow. Wu Mingqiang barely ate anything, just held a bowl of water, gazing out the window as if deep in thought.

After dinner, everyone rested. Gui'er lay on the hard wooden bed, wrapped in a thin quilt, listening to the occasional gunfire outside the window, unable to fall asleep.

Even though I'm physically exhausted, thinking about what happened today makes me feel energetic and excited. It could also be because of my anxiety about the future that I can't sleep.

She got up and went to the window to look out. There was no one on the street, only a few crumpled old newspapers being blown by the wind under the dim streetlights in the distance.

Gui'er's thoughts drifted away—she wondered if Tong Yujun, pregnant, had escaped Hong Kong safely. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. Song, was harsh, and her family couldn't help. In this chaos, who could protect her? And Zhu Zhiming—was he still in that courtyard? Was he still thinking about finding the murderer? With his current health, he probably couldn't even protect himself…

She turned over, reached for the notebook under her pillow, and ran her fingertips over the address written on it. A lump formed in her throat. In this chaotic world, human life was as worthless as grass. Let alone protecting others, it was hard to say whether she herself would even live to see tomorrow. But Tong Yujun's bulging belly and Zhu Zhiming's bewildered yet stubborn eyes kept flashing before her eyes, making it impossible for her to let go.

Another burst of gunfire rang out in the distance, making the paper windows tremble. Gui'er quickly moved away from the window, returned to bed, pulled the covers over herself, and clutched them tightly, silently praying: Please be safe... Once we get through this, there will be a way.

She tried to fall asleep, and in her hazy state, she seemed to hear Dingxiang turn over in the next room, muttering something; she probably hadn't slept well either. The night was still long, and this simple house had become their only haven in the chaos of the world, but they didn't know how long it could protect them.

The next day, Gui'er was awakened by shouts outside her window.

"Breaking News: Japanese troops have rapidly broken through the Drunken Bay defense line, British troops have hastily retreated, the Japanese have occupied Tai Mo Shan and Sha Tin, and are advancing into Kowloon, shelling residential areas."

Gui'er sat up with a start. She quickly ran to the wardrobe, grabbed a set of clothes, put them on, and ran out of the room.

Dingxiang was bringing out a pot of white porridge from the kitchen and placing it on the table, while Acheng was sweeping the floor with a broom.

"Miss, what's wrong...?"

"Brother Cheng, could you go downstairs and buy me a newspaper? I want to see the latest developments."