Chapter 483

Zhu Yuyan’s location is on the edge of Hiroshima, next to the county highway.

From here you can only see a white …… horizon in front of you.

It is the flat, endless, can see the sky – leveling.

The line of white near the horizon would be the ruins of the fallen city.

Ah, this sense of blankness,full of the romance of doom and the brutal beauty of war, combined with the human figures lying on the highway, it’s a picture of reality.

Unfortunately no journalists could appreciate this beauty, they all preferred to run in in their airplanes to get some overhead views – supposedly they’d see little Japanese figures running in all directions from the sky.

Though there was now a truce, the shadow of the bombing still lingered over them.

Grief, too much grief.

At present, as far as she knew, there was no relief.

There were only a few Japanese on either side of the highway, partly going in, partly fleeing.

Those who are going in may be volunteers from other parts of Japan, coming to relieve the disaster. Or they could be thieves from other parts of Japan, coming to make money.

Those who fled outward were dragging their families, carrying their luggage and children, and alone.

Many bodies remain buried under the rubble and have never been cleared.

Near the center, most of the people should have died in an instant.

But those in the outer ring died slowly. Some of them had been hit by the shockwave, probably breaking bones somewhere, and had been struggling but hadn’t been able to wait for help, so they died slowly.

Others were buried by collapsed houses and other buildings, and they had the best chance of being rescued, but still most of them died inside.

There were only a few lucky ones who were on the street, or in an empty lot, or in some other open area, and were only harmed by the glare, the heat, and the shockwaves, and they struggled not to die, but eventually waited for help, and were taken to temporary hospitals that had been cleared out of the way, where they breathed their last.

Others were dug out of the rubble by family members and neighbors who rushed back, or even dug themselves out.

Another is that there are underground bomb shelters in places like schools and hospitals, and in the one-in-a-million chance that some people ducked into them and survived with all their whiskers intact.

Some of these people were on their way out, some were still struggling inside.

None of this was any of her business, her duty was to take care of these people who had been sent to her.

The Japanese government didn’t care about everything, Zhu Yuyan had the honor of meeting the people sent by the Japanese government to offer condolences.

But the object of condolence was an international person like her, not a Japanese national.

…… With this kind of government, it is amazing that the Japanese people can still survive until recent times, their lives are really hard.

So she doesn’t really have to feel too guilty about the little thing she did here right? See, obviously their own government kinda doesn’t treat the Japanese as human beings either.

There are a lot of internationals out there, and there are a lot of people like her who use the Japanese as a test.

In the spirit of experimentation, Zhu Yuyan recorded the age and gender of every Japanese sent in, as well as the development of their wounds.

Many of them had clearly seemed to have no problems with their skin when they were sent in, and the most they had was bloodshot eyes and then watery eyes – supposedly broken crystals – and then their eyeballs would suddenly become deflated.

They also had problems with their ears. At first she’d just noticed that too many of them ignored her words, and later in the process she’d noticed that almost all of them had some kind of black stain on the outside of their ears before she guessed that they were presumably deaf.

Worse, of course, were the skin ulcers.

At first there was just a slight redness, then she would notice that their skin looked like paper mache and broke extremely easily. What had been reddened skin would suddenly turn white, and then it would break down in a big way within an hour, infection ensuing.

The current environment is not at all sterile and safe, and within four hours of the breakage, their wounds are covered with a yellowish pus, as if the pus had formed a membrane, which is quite frightening.

Then the person begins to run a high fever. There was no thermometer to take measurements, but it was visible, their breathing quickened, it was difficult to breathe, and their heart rate increased.

Death would come within a week.

This last week, of course, is an extremely painful week.

There were individual differences in exactly how many days it took to gag, and it was difficult for her to make more detailed judgments under the circumstances.

She silently kept a large notebook of every case, and had it not been for her lack of conditions and knowledge, she would have even dared to do a deconstruction here to see if there were any more serious lesions in their brains, hearts, kidneys, livers, and other organs.

Then she befriended more aspirants.

There were scientists, weaponizers, and doctors from various countries who joined here. She was thankful that her language was quite rich, at least she remembered how to say “hello” in Russian, and could say “yogurt dumplings”, which was enough to make a friend out of a large Russian man. Not surprisingly, the two chatted about their ideals and realized that they had the same ideals, which made them even more comrades.

If they are comrades, why hold back?

She pulls out her casebook and the big man pulls out his records and photos – he’s better!

She says it’s a shame that she doesn’t have enough skill to deconstruct it, and she thinks that the internal organs and other organs might have changed as well.

Dahan: “I can.”

She said briskly, “I can provide some …… objects.”

With the purpose of experimenting for greater clarity, she thought that the male bodies were larger, and that larger bodies could be seen better when there were no shadowless lights, so she and Dahan worked together to make a diagnosis among the patients, and then the ones she picked all gulped down nicely. The big man cut naturally, and she had a balance ready to weigh them, finding the experiment more and more accurate.

The experiment also proved her speculation that some of the internal organs had different kinds of deterioration, some were whitish – she speculated that they might be cooked – and some were blistered – what was the cause of that? Some of the veins had also become oddly shaped around the edges, like something strange was bulging inside.

She couldn’t tell, and neither could Dahan, who got some formalin and soaked the organs in it, ready to take back to the lab for further experimentation.

Before Dahan leaves, he has a cup of tea with her.

Dahan: “What a powerful weapon that is.”

She says, “Yes. This is also a rare opportunity to experience how powerful it is.”

Dahan: “My country will eventually have it.”

She says, “So does my country.”

Dahan exchanges names with her and hugs her before parting.

Dahan: “Can we take a picture together? As a souvenir.”

She says, “Sure. Why not?”

They took a picture together and parted ways.

–But two months later, they met again in another makeshift hospital.

Dahan smiled broadly and presented her with the developed photo.

Dahan: “See you again, how was the last hospital?”

Zhu Yuyan: “The patients died out, we couldn’t save any of them without enough medicine.”

Dahan patted her shoulder, “Don’t feel too bad, there are many patients here too.”

Compared to the last hospital on the road, this one was much better because they had beds and quilts. Though only some of the patients had beds and the other half had quilts.

Also, they still had to lie in the open air.

Also, it’s starting to snow.

Yes, it’s snowing, and the patients are lying in the open air.

The internationals are staying in tents.

Of course there were some real angels who were happy to give up their tents – Dahan was one of them.

She even went in to visit the patients who were staying in his tent, and if she didn’t see them today, she might not see them tomorrow.

She invited Dahan to her tent for tea and introduced him to Su Chunjun.

Zhu Yuyan: “My husband.”

Su Chunjun smiles, “I just realized why my wife’s Russian has suddenly become better these days, she wasn’t a serious student before.”

The big man smiled and hugged him, “Your wife is very beautiful, you should be more careful.”

There are more medicines here, but it is still the case that only some people can use the medicine, most of the medicine …… is sold secretly, penicillin is still very expensive internationally, and some countries and regions still can not produce their own.

Of course she knows, and of course she will not bother about other people s business.

–Nor should others meddle with her.

She met the Chinese here by accident! They had come to rescue the Japanese.

Zhu Yuyan was worried that they were genuinely here to help the Japanese — and it turned out that they were actually really here to help the Japanese.

…… You see, our own family members are really stupid and sweet.

The big man made an introduction for them, very unexpected, but also expected, Su Chunjun was contacted, at the same time, she was also contacted, and even the person who came to call her “orchid”.

Looking at Su Chunjun’s normal expression, she gave him a bewildered look and said to the visitor, “…… I’m not, you’ve got it wrong.”

The visitor smiled and nodded, “Then I will address you as comrade.”

Zhu Yuyan wanted to ask why she would really come to care about the death of the Japanese, but she also felt that there was no need to ask this, she thought for a moment and said to the visitor, “This weapon is very powerful, and the damage it causes is very powerful …… Do you want to see my casebook?”

The visitor was both surprised and happy as she nodded her head and said, “Of course, I would love to take a look …… and learn a little bit more about the advancements of other countries.”

Zhu Yuyan nodded, “Yes, we need to learn and pay more attention.”

She handed over the casebook to this person, as well as the photos she had ripped off from Dahan, and the photos of those strange entrails, she handed them over to this person.

Zhu Yuyan: “Send it back immediately, don’t delay, study it right away, I’ll continue to record it here.”

This person said solemnly, “We will carefully study every piece of information you and your team members send back, keep it well, and won’t fail to live up to your sacrifices! Do you have any wishes that you would like us to fulfill for you? Do you want to find loved ones? Now that the country has gotten better, we are searching for many people who were separated back then, if you need to find your loved ones, we can do it!”

Zhu Yuyan paused for a long time, but she finally shook her head.

“No need. If my loved ones are still alive, we will eventually meet again.” She said calmly.

The man added, “Your salary and allowances have been kept for you at the Party Committee, and will be handed over to you as much as possible when you return to China.”

Zhu Yuyan was surprised, not realizing that she would still be given her salary.

Zhu Yuyan: “…… Uh, is there a lot?”

The man smiled and said, “Not much, only a few hundred dollars, our bottom is still too thin, we will give you more rich returns later.”

Zhu Yuyan shook his head, “There is no need to keep it for me, it can be used to pay the party fee Well …… ah, by the way, can you adopt orphans? My foster father doesn’t have any children either, can I ask you to adopt a child for me? This money can be regarded as his maintenance fee. My adoptive father’s last name is Yu, so let this orphan’s last name be Yu, okay?”

The man was surprised and said, “Is that all you ask? To adopt a child for your adoptive father? Your adoptive father has already ……”

Zhu Yuyan: “He sacrificed his life and was killed by the Japanese to save me. Thanks to him, I survived.”

The man said solemnly, “We will definitely take good care of this child.”

Forty years later-

Zhu Yuyan’s florid white hair is cut to her ears, she wears a black hair band and combs it neatly, she wears a pair of placketed sweaters with big red grouped flowers, a white shirt inside, an orange silk scarf, a pair of black women’s suit pants underneath and a pair of black cloth shoes.

She turned around in front of the full-length mirror and asked, “Mr. Su, do I look good?”

Su Chunjun was still straight-shouldered, and his hair was gray, combed up just as neatly and with hair wax; he wore a striped blue shirt, a silver-gray Christmas wool vest, a pair of black suit pants underneath, a pair of black leather shoes, and a black blazer on his arm.

He smiled and said, “Beautiful, beautiful, hurry up, the car is waiting outside.”

The two of them went down the elevator arm in arm, someone was picking them up on the first floor, and there was a black Red Flag sedan parked outside the hotel.

Today is to pick them up to go to □□□, because Zhu Yuyan said they want to visit □□□, and also take a group photo in □□□□.

Zhu Yuyan took the standard tourists’ photo, but she also took a photo with the guards, smiling so much that her dentures were showing, and said to Su Chunjun, “Mr. Su, the guards are as handsome as you are.”

Su Chunjun also smiled happily, “I thought you had forgotten me.”

The two of them visited some famous sights and finally went to an orphanage.

At the main gate of this orphanage, there was a bronze plaque that read, “Grateful to the kind-hearted Mr. Yu, Mr. Su, Ms. Zhu, Ms. Dai, Ms. Jin, and Mr. Shi for their donations to establish this orphanage.”

Further inside, the director and staff greeted them, along with five young children, both boys and girls, who came up to give them both flowers and hugs, thanking them for their donations.

One girl said in a clear voice, “My name is Yu Wenwen.”

Another girl said, “My name is Zhu Jiangshan.”

A third boy said, “My name is Su Tan.”

The fourth boy said, “My name is Jin Sheng.”

They bowed together to the two men.

They said, “We all went to college this year, and we hope we can use what we have learned to help more people.”

After these children, the dean led them to the dining hall, which was at the same time the biggest place in this orphanage, with the walls covered with awards, medals, and trophies on three tables.

The director took out a thick book, opened it and said, “Every time we send a child away, we will take a picture of them. Here are all the children who have been received and sent away from this institution, some of them have become successful, some have left forever.”

Inside the book is a scrapbook of photographs, not just this one, there are more in the library, where Zhu Yuyan and Su Chunjun’s photographs have been left since the first child whose salary they donated. That child is now in Shanghai, arriving tomorrow. He is married and has two children, both of whom are now studying abroad. Because of Zhu Yuyan’s and Su Chunjun’s experiences, the children in this orphanage know that learning more can help more people.

Learning is their weapon.

Dean: “There are a total of one thousand one hundred and sixty-nine children, and I am the fourth dean.”

She bowed deeply to Zhu Yuyan and Su Chunjun: “I want to thank you for doing all this for the children!”

Zhu Yuyan helped her up, “It’s not just us, there are some others they can’t come over, I’ll bring your thanks to them. ‘

After finishing their trip to Beijing, they went back to England.

The first stop from the train station was the church cemetery.

Zhu Yuyan bought two bouquets of flowers.

She first went to see Mrs. Zhang and placed the bouquet of the Queen’s flowers on her grave. This bouquet of flowers used by the Queen when she got married, Zhang Ma had said it was very pretty, so she always bought this to visit her.

By the time she was able to bring Zhu Yanshu and the others to England, Zhang Ma was no longer fit to travel long distances, and she was carried onto the plane by the medical staff. One year after arriving in England, she passed away, and her last words before she left were, “I don’t understand, so don’t say anything”, which she said to the English doctor.

Zhu Yuyan buried Zhang Ma in the cemetery closest to her home, where she sometimes came for a walk after dinner.

The second person buried here was Miss Jin.

She was already a little-known painter before she left. Not many of her paintings survived, less than twenty, all collected by Zhu Yuyan.

After she left, Zhu Yuyan organized an exhibition of her paintings, and after speculating the value of the paintings, she donated them all to the museum in one go.

Now, Julie Jin became a very famous painter, her departure is known as the loss of the world, her paintings are full of aura and feelings, she rarely painted people, mostly with the object to do the painting, the most appearing in the painting is the window, the scenery outside the window is always very beautiful, no matter it is the sunshine or rainy days, her paintings make people feel warm.

In people’s mouths, she was a respected lady, a well-educated lady, and she had an extraordinarily strong bond with her adoptive mother’s family.

–Those things were lost to her life forever.

From then on, all she was remembered for was that her name was Julie Roxter Beverly.

Zhu Yuyan sent the bouquet of flowers, and went back to the house on the arm of Mr. Su.

They had a large house in the suburbs.

On the first floor lived Ms. Zhu and Mr. Dai, on the second floor lived Zhu Yuyan and Teacher Su, and on the third floor lived Dai Yucan and Shi Wuwei.

The luggage had already been sent back by someone first.

Seeing them enter, everyone gathered in the first floor dining room waiting for them.

Zhu Yanshu was already ninety-nine years old, but she still looked like an old lady in her seventies or eighties, maybe people will keep a look for a long time when they get old – Zhu Yuyan thought.

Zhu Yanshu: “Finally, back.”

Mr. Dai came over and interjected, “I was waiting for you, Yusheng and York wrote letters back.”

Dai Yusheng is Mr. Dai’s youngest brother, currently teaching in Germany. York is the grandson of the young owner of the oil mill, who was adopted by Mr. Dai and is now working as a lawyer in the United States, quarrelling with people every day – Mr. Dai’s own words!

Mr. Day: “Civilized quarrels and collecting money, that’s what lawyers do.”

What a right thing to say.

Shi Wuwei is holding up Dai Yuchan, whose sister is glaring at her.

Because this time, she didn’t let her back in again.

Her sister always thought that she should stand in front.

But she equally thought that she should stand in the front.

Because she was in charge of almost everyone, she had to make sure she didn’t make a mistake.

They had a fairly quiet dinner.

Zhu Yuyan took out a photo she had taken and showed it to everyone: “This, that’s the Russian Bakrov who took the photo with me at the time, he’s actually a general! He kept the photo in his own home and then it was donated to their country’s historical library, and I was surprised to see it on this trip, it was so funny.”

She even had her picture taken with this one.

There were so many other photos she couldn’t even begin to tell you.

Everyone listened quietly, slowly murmuring.

It was Shi Wuwei who asked her, “Can we go back and take a look too?”

She had forcibly picked up Zhu Yanshu and the others more than thirty years ago.

Thirty years had passed by now.

She had become the most unreasonable person in this family, but everyone was willing to listen to her.

Zhu Yuyan looked at everyone and nodded with a smile, ”Yes, we can go back. We can move back, and we have to move Zhang Ma back as well, I hope she doesn’t mind taking another flight.”

Zhu Yanshu: “God, I thought I was going to have to live in a graveyard where all the neighbors speak English too, I keep feeling like Zhang Ma is cursing me underneath, she must still be saying she can’t understand a word she’s saying.”

Zhu Yuyan: “Don’t be ridiculous, our family has longevity genes, we’re sure to live beyond a hundred years old.”

Zhu Yanshu endeavored to glare up at her, “Thank you for your consolation, I’m overjoyed!”

Falling leaves always return to their roots, they could finally go back to their hometown.