Chapter 427

It was the height of summer, and there were many more pedestrians on the streets of the Japanese Concession, and they were all Japanese expatriates.

They were already the third, fourth, or even the fifth or sixth batch of expatriates.

Zhu Yuyan sat in the car, through the Japanese guard post, the car slowly into the concession, she was in the car, but as if to Japan.

Not only the architectural style on both sides of the road, but also the people on the street.

The Japanese were very different from the Chinese, first of all, their mental outlook was different.

In terms of dress, there are two kinds of Japanese in the Concession, women wear kimono, men wear yukata, some wear suits, and there are more suits than yukata wearers.

After the Meiji Restoration, there was a trend of learning Western culture in Japan, and men were influenced by it far more than women, and in a more profound way.

Japanese men firstly changed the habit of shaving their heads, and secondly changed from kimono to western-style clothes – that is, they began to wear underwear and pants.

The suit had no place to hang a samurai sword, and the sword could only be held in the hand, which facilitated the search for samurai swords throughout Japan after the Meiji Restoration.

After the Meiji Restoration, too many samurai lost their masters, who had no jobs and did not care to earn money by farming or working as laborers as the common people did. The samurai, of course, had to live as samurai, serving the shogun or daimyo with all their strength and being respected as samurai lords.

However, the Meiji Restoration also brought Western weapons into Japan, and guns were much faster and more convenient than swords, and more deadly, so the samurai became obsolete.

However, after Japan became militaristic, all these samurai became even more formidable killing machines when they were reenlisted in the army.

Among the first Japanese expatriates were a number of original samurai or Japanese ruffians who aspired to the lucrative life of a samurai. They were the source of the Chinese people’s initial terror of Japan.

Now this was the fifth or sixth batch of expatriates, ordinary Japanese people who had been forced or tricked or sent to China by the Japanese government for other reasons.

She had learned about a conspiracy, or plan, of the Japanese government when she was in school with Japanese students, which was to send Japanese people to China, so that they would combine with Chinese people and have children with Japanese blood, and use these mixed bloods to take over China.

These Japanese expatriates were also sent for this purpose.

–As long as the Japanese live in this land, and more and more Japanese are here, then this will become Japanese land.

These newly arrived expatriates wore Japanese clothes and walked in Japanese style streets, Japanese businessmen had built new textile factories, and Japanese workers had moved here with their wives and children, where their wives would go to the Japanese-speaking shopping streets to buy food, and their children would go to the Japanese-speaking schools, and everything would be the same as it was when they were in Japan.

The fact that Zhu Yuyan also felt that this place looked like Japan rather than the land of China made the cheongsam-clad woman feel like an alien, and the fact that her automobile had the Japanese flag on one side and the flag of the Republican government on the other drew the attention of the Japanese expatriates around her.

There were also Japanese ronin who tried to rush over, but were quickly stopped by the Japanese’s own patrolmen.

After having seen no less than a hundred Japanese samurai, she felt that the Japanese samurai only had bloody limbs and chunks of flesh in their heads, and not the concept of human beings. They didn’t find killing to be cruel, on the contrary, killing was a joy to them, and just as the hounds were tamed to only run after their prey and to only tear it apart, so the samurai’s minds were only filled with the idea of killing.

They were professional killers trained in the Cold War era, where killing meant chopping people into pieces.

There is no denying that the Japanese samurai who did have a brain in there would have thought about saving their country, but it was Japan they were saving. To the Japanese samurai, the Chinese, were just enemies, worthy only of being cut into pieces of meat by them.

After the realization of this matter, she then look at the Japanese samurai will not sympathize with them by the Japanese government after the Meiji Restoration again and again to use and abandon, dog-eat-dog thing, smile on the line.

These Japanese expatriates on the street, their faces are full of hope.

Because they were sent to China to build a new life. A new land, a new home, a new business, everything is new.

And new is hopeful.

For the Japanese expatriates, they don’t really feel the misery and hardship that the Chinese are experiencing.

The same city, expatriates and Chinese people are like living in two worlds, one side is orderly, the other side is chaotic; one side of the vibrant, the other side of the white bones.

Zhu Yuyan looked at these happy Japanese expatriates, gradually, she could not feel their happiness.

In the past, she felt that she could look at the Japanese people and the Japanese militarists separately, but now she couldn’t.

Happiness really stung.

Through the marketplace filled with Japanese expatriates, deep within the Concession were rows and rows of deep houses.

Kazuo Yamamoto’s house was here.

There were two more Japanese guard posts in the neighborhood, one stationary, one patrolling, and there must be other hidden posts.

She had come in with only two escorts, one in front of the other sandwiching the automobile she was traveling in.

But as they passed the guard post, the escort cars were also searched, and all the handguns were taken away, so only rifles could be brought. And the rifles couldn’t be repeating, only single shot rifles.

Not the first time she had been searched, but this was the strictest, even her handbag had been searched.

It was only after a twofold search that she was able to walk into the street where Kazuo Yamamoto’s house was located.

The street was empty, much less cars passing by.

Cars pulled up in front of the gates and honked their horns.

A moment later, the gate opened halfway and out trotted a group of soldiers.

At the head of the group was the captain, who walked to the front of the car, glanced towards it, and said to Zhu Yuyan, “Ms. Zhu, welcome, please get out of the car.”

Then he opened the car door and stood aside.

Zhu Yuyan gripped her handbag tightly and politely said, “Thank you.”

She slowly got out of the car, not bringing the slightest concealment to her every move, to avoid giving these Japanese soldiers a misunderstanding, which in turn would give them a reason to search or arrest her driver and others.

–Be careful.

She said mentally.

She got out of the car and naturally said to the driver, “Wait for me at the gate.”

Driver Chen nodded and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

She then nodded to the Japanese squad leader leading the group, signaling, “Please lead the way.”

Driver Chen watched with his own eyes as Zhu Yuyan walked in alone, surrounded by Japanese soldiers.

And he couldn’t follow, he could only park his car on this road under the surveillance of the Japanese soldiers.

After this group of Japanese soldiers had all gone in, two more groups of Japanese soldiers came out immediately afterward, twice as many as earlier. Split into two columns, they blocked the front gate, pointed at the three automobiles, and raised the bayonet guns in their hands.

Driver Chen’s nerves instantly tensed.

The men in the two escort cars also tensed up.

They were about to bring up their guns by reflex.

But Driver Chen hastened to stop them, “All stop!”

Everyone was unable to not be nervous and fearful in front of this row of bayonet guns.

Sweat hairs stood straight up.

Hearts beating furiously.

Cold sweat flowed.

However, Driver Chen clenched his teeth and did not give up his order to similarly end his gun to counterattack.

About the past ten minutes, from the door and slowly paced out a Japanese.

He smiled grimly as he walked behind the Japanese soldier and said with a smile, “Don’t be nervous, everyone, this is just our protective measure. As long as you guys don’t make any extra movements, we won’t shoot.”

Driver Chen cursed in his heart, but he knew that the more dangerous the Japanese soldier’s movements were, it meant that the Zhu Yuyan who went in was also in danger, and the more tense the situation was.

–But still, one cannot resist.

–Can’t destroy Ms. Zhu and Mr. Su’s plan.

–Even if they all die here, all shot by the Japanese, as long as Ms. Zhu and Mr. Su can be saved, it is a victory!

Driver Chen knew the day would come when he would be sacrificed.

For the sake of Ms. Zhu and Mr. Su, he was always ready.

Driver Chen slowly relaxed and turned around, both hands on the steering wheel, he calmly looked at the Japanese man standing behind the Japanese soldier, and loudly said to the people in the other two cars, “All calm down and stay alert.”

The people in the two escort cars were all selected, they were calm and collected, they were prepared for sacrifice, and they all knew to follow orders.

So even though this was tough, all of them slowly gave up their resistance at the command and took their hands off their weapons.

The Japanese man grinned widely as he watched all these Chinese give up, all waiting to die.

He raised his hands.

Driver Chen tried to close his eyes, but he closed them for a moment and then opened them again.

He wanted to watch, to die with his eyes open.

Japanese man: “Ready!”

The men in the car started to shake, some had tears welling up in their eyes, some tried to resist, but their hands were held tight by their companions.

Time passes slower and slower.

But the Japanese man was slow to wave his hand down.

Driver Chen turned his head to look and saw that there was one more person beside the Japanese man, and that person was saying something to the Japanese man, which made the Japanese man slowly put his hand down.

Finally, the Japanese man gave Driver Chen and the others a look, and went in with a huff.

After the Japanese man left, another Japanese man came out and said to the Japanese soldiers who were holding up their guns, “Put away your guns! Attention!”

The row of Japanese soldiers with their guns shouted “Hii” in unison, then put their guns back and stood at attention again.

The men in the cars, who were shaking in unison at the sound of “Hi-yi,” could not believe their good fortune when they saw that the Japanese soldiers had withdrawn their guns.

They were so excited about escaping from death that they couldn’t help but smile.

Only Driver Chen knew that this meant Ms. Zhu had succeeded.

But for her, the test had just begun.

He shouted, “Stay alert!”

After calling everyone back to their senses, he continued to vigilantly stare at the gate, hoping that Zhu Yuyan inside would have everything go well and come back safe and sound.