A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Dingxiang lowered her voice to Gui'er, pretending to be mysterious. "Director Zhou's wife was run over by a car. Then I heard he had a concubine, but didn't the government forbid concubines? She stayed in his family as a servant. But this concubine's family was very rich, so they made her go back to her parents' house for money. If she didn't get it, she wouldn't be given food. Later, the concubine couldn't stand it anymore and ran away. Her family was afraid of being held responsible, so they moved out overnight. Director Zhou took over her family's property, including the shop and house, and made a fortune."

Gui'er's scalp tingled when she heard this. She said, "Are you serious? He works in the government."

Ding Xiang curled her lips and said, "If he didn't work in the government, who would be afraid of him?"

That's true. Gui'er continued to probe, "Director Zhou stole Director Wang's girlfriend and now he's bragging about it at the Marshal's Mansion? That's out of the question."

Ding Xiang said, "That's not the case. I heard they came because they had something to discuss with the Marshal. The Marshal invited them to have a simple meal."

Guier knew that Dingxiang would not be able to find out the specific details, so she nodded and let her go.

Although she figured out the relationship between the characters, the most important thing was not found out, so Guier decided to think of another way.

The next morning, while having breakfast, Gui'er said to Sha Yanxiao, "Brother Yanxiao, I heard that the teacher that Director Zhou brought with him yesterday was originally going to marry Director Wang."

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "Now that you have nothing to do, you're interested in gossip? Aren't you going to study medicine?"

Gui'er said quickly, "Of course I'll go. I'll go with you in a minute. You can take me with you."

After finishing breakfast and getting in the car to set off, Sha Yanxiao said to Gui'er with a serious expression, "Director Zhou came here to ask father to pay attention to communism and intensify the crackdown."

Gui'er's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly feigned ignorance: "Haven't we already wiped out all the bandits here? Besides, why is he, a central government official, so concerned about our bandit suppression efforts?"

Sha Yanxiao sighed and said, "My father told me that when Director Zhou met with him, he mentioned that the Communist Party was rampant here and criticized us for not doing enough to crack down on it. My father gave him a large sum of money to get away with it."

Gui'er was puzzled: "Why should I give him money?"

Sha Yanxiao said helplessly, "You know that the high-ranking officials now all adhere to the policy of pacifying the country before resisting foreign aggression. Anyone who fails to implement this policy will be held accountable."

Gui'er felt her heart pounding. Director Zhou was indeed not a good person.

Sha Yanxiao sent Gui'er to Zhenxiufang and then went to the military camp. Gui'er entered the door, waited for more than ten minutes, then ran to the door with a broom, pretending to sweep the floor and observing for a while.

Shopkeepers Zhang and Liu noticed something was wrong and quickly asked her, "What's wrong?"

Gui'er then told all the information she had heard.

Shopkeeper Liu was furious and banged on the table in the pharmacy lobby, cursing, "Bald Chiang, you traitor! You didn't fight the Japanese, you fought your own people."

Shopkeeper Zhang was so frightened that he quickly covered his mouth.

Guier also looked around nervously. Fortunately, there was no one in the pharmacy and there were not many pedestrians on the street.

Shopkeeper Zhang said, "What's the point of this? Let's quickly call Director Song over to discuss it."

Shopkeeper Liu put up a sign that said "Special Price on Fetal Restoring Medicine."

Soon Song Xichen came to the drugstore in casual clothes. Manager Liu asked the shop assistant to look after the store, and he brought Manager Zhang, Gui'er and Song Xichen to the compartment between the drugstore and Zhenxiufang.

Gui'er told Song Xichen all the information she knew.

Song Xichen also became serious after hearing this and asked, "Did Sha Yanxiao say what measures he would take?"

Gui Er thought for a moment and said, "No, they just said that the Marshal was afraid that Director Zhou would report him, so he spent a large sum of money to bribe Director Zhou."

Shopkeeper Zhang asked, "Director Song, do we need to move?"

Song Xichen frowned and said, "It's not that simple. We don't know their specific movements yet. If they move, it won't just be here, but all the daily transportation stations will have to move."

He thought for a moment and said to Gui'er, "Guier, go back and find out what Sha Yanxiao has to say. I'll also ask someone to investigate."

Gui'er said, "Okay." Then she thought for a moment and said, "Xu Wenjie came here with Director Zhou. If there were any actions, wouldn't he have reported them to our superiors? Why didn't we receive any information?"

Song Xichen pondered for a moment, nodded, and said, "I find this strange, too. I'll try to contact our comrades in Nanjing right away."

Gui'er also wanted to take action immediately, but she announced to others that she came to the pharmacy to be an apprentice. It was too suspicious for her to run back home in the middle of the journey to find someone for information. So she had to patiently stay in the pharmacy until Sha Yanxiao sent someone to pick her up in the afternoon.

There was no need to go to the main courtyard to eat that day. After Gui'er and Sha Yanxiao had dinner in their own courtyard, they started chatting with Sha Yanxiao for no reason.

"Brother, why don't we have to go to the main courtyard to have dinner with the guests today?"

Sha Yanxiao held the newspaper and said without looking up, "Director Zhou was just passing through here and has already gone to Shanghai. Besides, he extorted a huge sum of money from our father. I'm afraid he's already itching to bite me when he thinks of him."

"Are you saying that Director Zhou came to our house specifically to extort money? He wasn't really trying to investigate the Communist Party?"

"How can I put it? If he could investigate, he would definitely want to. But he's not from here, so how can he investigate here?"

"But he has warned father. Should we investigate?" Guier asked cautiously.

Sha Yanxiao put down the newspaper, patted Gui'er's head and said, "Our family has no interest in those political parties. As long as they don't cause trouble on our territory, we don't bother to care about them. It's such a waste of time now, why are you still bothering with such a wasteful and costly thing?"

Gui'er heard this and wondered, "Does this mean he's not going to care?" But she didn't dare to ask a question too hard, for fear of attracting Sha Yanxiao's attention.

The next day, when they arrived at the Zhenxiufang, Gui'er told Zhang and Liu, both locals, what Sha Yanxiao had said. Liu sighed and said, "The Sha family has been running Jiangcheng for many years. Although their ideological awareness isn't high, they're still relatively open-minded. The fact that we haven't experienced the White Terror here is probably due to the Sha family's philosophy of not offending either side."

Soon Song Xichen also came over, his expression obviously much more relaxed. He said, "I've contacted Nanjing. Xu Wenjie reported his whereabouts. He said he was on a business trip to Shanghai and was just passing through Jiangcheng. He didn't have a clear work purpose."