On the first day that Jinyan Tang was closed, the entire Hezhou was also closed.
No one knows why, but the entire city of Hezhou is under extremely strict inspection. Even people with facial injuries have to have their bandages removed for a thorough inspection before they are allowed to pass.
The Japanese were the first to be shocked by such an unusual behavior, because after all, they were guilty.
Kenji rushed into Kuromiya Keiko’s room and said in a somewhat aggressive tone as soon as he entered, “Keiko, do you know that Duan Yelin has developed a special medicine! If the General knew about this, he would be very angry! No, we have to take action now.”
Kuromiya Keiko was sitting in front of the mirror. She was wearing a white cross-collared dress, no makeup, no hairpins, and was completely clean.
Kenji hadn’t seen Kuromiya Keiko in anything other than black for a long time and was a little dazed for a moment until Kuromiya Keiko slowly turned her head.
“So how do you want to do it?”
Kenji’s eyes were poisonous. “The spy we planted next to them has come back to report that the physician next to him has become a special commissioner, and the information about military medicine is in his hands. Humph, Duan Yelin has also sent a lot of soldiers to surround his house, so there must be something wrong. We have to find a way to get rid of him! Getting rid of him… is easier than getting rid of Duan Yelin.”
As he spoke, he felt very depressed: “Assh*le! I spent all my efforts to put spies in Xiaotong Guan, and now she was kicked out of the blue. What bad luck! This person is very tight-lipped. It seems that even the two brothers of the Duan family don’t know the information. Our people can’t find out anything at all.”
He was cursing and swearing with some Japanese in between.
Listening to Kenji’s complaints, Kuromiya Keiko stood up, walked to the window, looked at the wind blowing the branches outside the window, and said in a voice similar to talking to herself, “…He actually used this method to divert attention. He is really a smart person. If I had half of his wisdom, maybe… he would not die.”
She lowered her head and stroked the four Buddhist beads on her wrist, turning them one by one.
Because the voice was too soft, Kenji didn’t hear clearly and frowned and asked, “What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Kuromiya Keiko raised her head and smiled faintly. “Since the General is waiting impatiently, let’s put all the viruses we developed in Hezhou to use. Tonight, ask all the researchers to take the reagents and get in the car. I will personally drive them to where they should go.”
Seeing that she was fine, Kenji felt much happier thinking that Chang Ling’s death had not affected her too much.
“Alright, I’ll go right away!”
That night, a truck slowly drove out of the Japanese consulate and stopped at the door. Kenji looked at the researchers carrying boxes of medicine on the truck and Keiko Kuromiya, who was driving, and said with some concern, “Are you going alone? I’m a little worried. Can I accompany you?”
“Too many people talking will only cause trouble.” Kuromiya Keiko had a stern face and did not agree to his request.
Kenji still wanted to say something, but when he saw that Kuromiya Keiko’s face was a little pale, he wanted to say something else to please her: “Keiko, this is the first time I see you wearing white clothes… you look so beautiful, it’s like Shiromuku.”
Shiromuku is a Japanese wedding dress.
Kuromiya Keiko’s eyes darkened, and she said nothing.
“When you come back and everything here is done, I will ask the General to give you to me! When the time comes, I will let you wear the dignified Shiromuku, and I will treat you well!”
The hair at Kuromiya Keiko’s temples was blown up by the wind. The ends of her hair danced in front of her eyes, making her eyes itchy, and she wanted to cry but couldn’t.
Finally, she smiled and said, “Then wait until I come back and talk about it.”
Kenji is Japanese, so he doesn’t know what white means to Chinese people.
His wedding dress is my mourning dress.
She stepped on the accelerator hard, and the people in the car shook, and everyone followed her away in a cloud of dust.
Kenji waited for the whole night, but Kuromiya Keiko did not come back. Instead, at noon the next day, shocking news reached Xiaotong Guan.
The news was that a forest 20 miles away was on fire, and when the soldiers went to check, they found that a truck had flipped over a cliff, killing all the people on board. The truck was burned by an oil barrel explosion, and the reagents on the truck were all reduced to ashes.
The dead were all Japanese, one woman and thirteen men.
When he saw the bodies, Duan Yelin didn’t recognize the others, but he could still recognize Kuromiya Keiko from the beads on her hand.
With a wave of his hand, the other bodies were sent back to the Japanese consulate, but Kuromiya Keiko’s body was taken to a tree outside Faxi Temple and buried.
Duan Zhanzhou rushed over after hearing the news and said, “Now that the virus has been destroyed, we can rest assured.”
“Rest assured?” Duan Yelin’s worried expression did not diminish at all. “This destruction is just a temporary delay. The virus war between Nanjing and Guangdong has already started, and it is very tragic. Although the Japanese have no way to deal with it now, but they can still bring in more viruses. But now, we can ensure that we will not be overwhelmed before the war.”
“So you still have to get the special medicine?” Duan Zhanzhou took out a lighter and tried to light it a few times without success. Finally, a spark came out. He took a puff and said, “I’m afraid the person you locked up won’t hand it over obediently. According to the rules of the military, only when an epidemic or war breaks out and the special commissioner has not authorized it can the commander-level officer take the medicine without authorization. So are you planning to keep him locked up until the deadline? That’s really too passive.”
This reminded Duan Yelin, “You are right, it is useless to just lock him up.”
“And don’t you think Xu Hang is too quiet?”
“Too quiet? Being guarded by dozens of gunmen, what else can he do?”
“Ge, don’t forget that Xu Hang killed Wang Ronghuo, crippled Yuan Sen, and made Zhang Yaochen commit s*icide under heavy guard. Before you discovered his true identity, he was always confident of victory. How can you guarantee that he hadn’t already set up his plan?”
Duan Yelin thought of something that he hadn’t noticed before but now found strange: “…I suddenly remembered that some time ago, he suddenly dismissed all the servants in the house, except Chan Yi, and they all left the house. Now some of them are still staying in Hezhou, and some have already left the city!”
“When did it happen?!”
“Before he went to Lincheng.”
It is not possible to suddenly dismiss all the servants for no reason. With Xu Hang’s wisdom, he must have some ulterior motive.
Duan Zhanzhou immediately followed this clue and made a reasonable deduction: “If someone among them took the certificate and code given by Xu Hang and went to the medical institute to take over the batch of special medicine and then hid it, you would have lost this bet. There are not many servants in his garden, so their identities should be easy to find. I will send people to focus on hunting them down now to avoid any more trouble!”
Jinyan Tang had been sealed off a few days ago. Duan Yelin had people guarding it. He would deliver fresh food every day, but no one was allowed to leave. There were only the little monk, Chan Yi, and Xu Hang inside.
Xu Hang probably also knew Duan Yelin’s methods. This was a tug-of-war between them. From the beginning until now, he had never tried to break out and had been staying inside quietly.
According to Duan Yelin’s instructions, the soldiers only watched from outside, and no one would go in to check, so no one knew what happened to Xu Hang, and the people inside didn’t know what the situation outside was either.
Duan Yelin’s heart grew colder as he listened to the soldiers’ reports of “nothing unusual” every day. He might still have a little hope that Xu Hang would lower himself and beg for mercy.
It was impossible to think about it. It was just a daydream. He asked Duan Zhanzhou for a cigarette. “Anyway, I don’t have a better way. I know how hard his mouth is. I can only defend him tightly. If I guard Hezhou and Jinyan Tang like an iron barrel, he will be helpless.”
Duan Zhanzhou handed him a cigarette and said, “You can’t bear to hit him, nor can you bear to kill him, but you can only lock him up, right? Heh… haven’t you quit smoking for a long time?”
Duan Yelin took a long puff, and the mellow and dense taste was a taste he hadn’t tasted for four years. The numbness of pain caused by alcohol and tobacco was really deep into the bones. He smoked too quickly, coughed twice, and laughed dryly: “There is no reason to quit smoking anymore. From now on… I can smoke to my heart’s content.”
Perhaps it was because he, as an elder brother, could not show too much sadness in front of his younger brother. Duan Zhanzhou understood this very well, so when he was halfway through smoking, he snatched Duan Yelin’s cigarette and twisted it out: “I advised you not to be too attentive to him before, but you didn’t listen. Now there is nothing you can do. Ge, sometimes when people die, you will find that compared with life, deception is really nothing. It is always better to hear that someone is deceiving you and playing you around than having them die. Otherwise, life is like a desert, which will kill you with thirst.”
Duan Yelin leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
Desert?
His heart was already filled with flying sand and rocks, and not even a peony could bloom.
