A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

From that day on, Gui'er came to Song Xichen's office after school every day and waited for him to go home together. Song Xichen specially prepared a small table for her in his office for her to do her homework. When doing her evening homework, Gui'er liked to stand by the window and look at the busy street downstairs. This street can be said to be the most prosperous street in the city, with department stores, coffee shops, cinemas, nightclubs, big hotels, pawn shops, and banks. In modern terms, it is the CBD of the city.

That day, Gui'er came to the police station as usual after school. The police officers in the police station were already quite familiar with Gui'er. They greeted her with a smile and said, "Little Gui'er, you are here to wait for your master to get off work again." Gui'er also answered with a smile. Everyone liked this thin and short girl with fair skin and a pair of big eyes that blinked like a deer. A female employee even gave Gui'er a bag of biscuits.

Gui'er sat at her little table, eating biscuits and doing her homework. She had almost finished her homework and thought Song Xichen would be off work soon, but she didn't see him for a long time.

Song Xichen would occasionally leave work late, usually to attend meetings. Gui'er assumed he was in a meeting today as well, so she walked out of the office and into the conference room. Confused, she found the room empty and went to the officer on duty, "Hello, uncle, where is our eldest young master?"

The two police officers on duty looked up and saw that it was her, then smiled and said, "Oh, are you looking for your eldest young master? He's out on a mission to catch the bad guys. Please wait patiently. Here, I'll give you a snack." Then he took out two small walnut cookies from the drawer, wrapped them in paper and handed them to her.

Guier took it with both hands and said, "Thank you." Then she returned to Song Xichen's office.

While eating walnut cookies, she leaned over the windowsill and looked down. The streets seemed busier than usual today, with many more people in short jackets. Gui'er suddenly felt a little uneasy. She decided to ask about Song Xichen's whereabouts. Just as she left the office, she heard a loud boom. Gui'er realized it was an explosion, and it was not far away, because even the building shook slightly.

She hurried to the police station entrance and found the street in chaos. The people in the short coats were all running in the same direction. The officers inside the station were also in a panic. Someone shouted, "There's an incident at the Paramount! Quick, send reinforcements."

Soon, several high-speed three-wheeled motorcycles drove out of the police station and sped towards the direction of the explosion. Gui'er hesitated whether to follow them, but when she thought about it, she was just a nine-year-old kid and could do nothing, so she had to retreat.

As soon as Song Xichen returned to her office, she heard a crackling noise coming from the street. She quickly leaned over the windowsill and looked down. She saw two groups of people shooting at each other with Mauser pistols. One man in a black leather jacket and a peaked cap was particularly skilled, shooting down several people in a row, killing everyone opposite him. Gui'er had never seen such a scene before; it felt like watching TV.

The man in leather jacket looked around and saw that no one was chasing him, so he turned around and slipped into the alley next to the police station that led to the school. Guier suddenly had an idea and ran downstairs and followed him into the alley. The alley was paved with blue bricks. Because it led to the school, many students usually passed through here, so it was very clean.

Guier walked into the alley and suddenly saw drops of bright red blood on the ground slowly extending forward. She carefully followed the bloodstains and came to an abandoned storage room in the school. The bloodstains stopped here. She slowly walked into the storage room. She didn't know why she came in. Even if she encountered such a thing in her original world, she would avoid it.

Suddenly, a large hand swept Gui'er over. Before she could utter a sound, her mouth was covered. A few seconds passed, and the person holding her seemed to relax a little, their grip slowly loosening. Only then did she see the other person's face clearly, and she understood why she had the courage to follow him. This person looked so much like Song Xichen. The same height, the same build, even a bit of a similar temperament, with the same deep facial features. Although it was clear from his appearance that he was not Song Xichen, it was inexplicably made people feel that they must be related. If someone told Gui'er that this was Song Xichen's biological brother, she would believe it.

This person looked at Gui'er and felt a little strange. This little girl had followed him all the way here, and he caught her without seeing fear in her eyes. This was the first time. He looked at Gui'er and asked, "Why are you following me?"

Gui'er was staring at the man in a trance when she suddenly heard him ask her a question. She didn't know what to say and could only say, "I see you're injured."

The man was stunned for a moment. At this time, Gui'er saw the gun in his hand and suddenly began to feel scared. She quickly thought of a solution in her mind. She took out her handkerchief and handed it to the man, saying, "Bandage it."

The man roughly grabbed the handkerchief, reached into his leather jacket, and then let out a muffled groan. He must have been injured inside. Guier asked cautiously: "I know a teacher in the school has some emergency medicines. Do you need me to notify him to come over?" Then he turned around and wanted to walk out.

The man grabbed Gui'er's shoulders and said, "No need." For a moment, the air seemed to freeze. After a long while, the man let go of Gui'er, leaned down, and whispered in her ear, "Go, go back to where you came from through that alley, and don't look back."

Guier nodded and walked forward. She was actually very worried that the man would shoot her in the back, so she ran out of the storage room and ran back to the police station in one breath.

When we returned to the police station, we found that there were many police officers dressed in civilian clothes in the lobby of the police station, some of whom were injured. It turned out that the people wearing short jackets on the street just now were police officers in disguise, and these police officers were from several police stations. This should be a large joint operation.

Gui'er hurried back to Song Xichen's office. Song Xichen had already returned to his office. His clothes were disheveled and his face had several scratches. Several of his men were talking, and one of them said, "Director Song, our plan was very thorough this time. We caught most of the people, but it's a pity that the bandit leader escaped. It's mainly because we don't know what I look like."

Song Xichen seemed to be in a bad mood and waved his hand to let them go.

After his men had left, Song Xichen looked up and saw Gui'er sitting quietly at her small table. She was a small girl in a school uniform, with fair skin and big, twinkling eyes staring at him. His irritable mood seemed to disappear in an instant.

He waved to Gui'er and asked her to come over. Gui'er walked to him obediently. He leaned over and gently rubbed Gui'er's face with his hand and asked, "Where did you go just now?"

Gui'er hesitated for a moment and told him what had just happened. Song Xichen's face changed drastically and he stood up and rushed out.

Gui'er heard Song Xichen running downstairs, gathering people along the way, and a group of people rushed from the alley to the school.

But they soon returned empty-handed. Song Xichen quickly walked over to Gui'er and looked her up and down. He was relieved to find that she was not injured. Song Xichen said to Gui'er, "That man might be the bandit leader we are chasing. Why did you follow him?"

"Because he looks a lot like you," Guier said