A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

A man in his thirties, wearing an ill-fitting suit, slicked-back hair, and a top hat, led seven or eight young men in their twenties. Their rough cloth jackets were open at the collar, revealing crooked tattoos on their chests—some depicting the character for "courage," others a tiger descending a mountain—darkened by sweat. They each carried either an iron ruler or a rusty short knife, blocking the road.

The man in the suit, who was leading the group, said coldly with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, "This is our territory. Assembly and demonstrations are prohibited. Disperse!"

"We are patriotic students, why are we not allowed to march? Do you think we don't know who your masters are? Get out of our way right now!" shouted a boy at the front of the line, and immediately more people responded: "Get out of the way! We want to protest!"

The thugs shoved and pushed the students in the front row, waving their weapons in the air. Gui'er, who had already retreated into the arcade, was still being jostled about by the crowd when she suddenly heard the sound of a camera shutter behind her. She turned around and saw Liu Shaolin standing on the arcade at the street corner, frantically taking pictures with his camera held high, his hat brim pulled low.

"Charge!" someone shouted, and the students surged forward like a tide. The thugs' iron rulers, wooden sticks, and even short knives struck people with dull thuds. When a girl was knocked to the ground, someone immediately bent down and helped her up.

The procession finally broke through the blockade and arrived at the square. Someone jumped onto a makeshift platform and shouted through a tin megaphone: "The Japanese army massacred Nanjing, and our compatriots' blood flowed like rivers! We can no longer remain silent!" The slogans from below were deafening, and even passing rickshaw drivers stopped their vehicles, waving their whips and shouting along.

Suddenly, police sirens blared in the distance, and several black police cars sped up. The officers began to disperse the crowd, and the students were forced to scatter; some ducked into alleys, while others continued to hold up wooden signs and argue with the officers.

Seeing that things were not going well, Gui'er quickly ran over, pulled Lin Peishan into a narrow alley, and heard the sound of breaking glass and shouts behind her. Her heart pounded.

After hiding for a long time, the commotion at the alley entrance gradually subsided. The two peeked out and saw broken wooden signs and torn leaflets scattered in the square. Several students were being escorted into a police car by the police, and the boy in the back seat was still banging on the car window, shouting "Resisting Japan is not a crime."

"That was terrifying..." Lin Peishan gasped for breath, clutching her chest, her eyes red-rimmed.

"Are you guys okay?"

The two were startled, but when they turned around and saw that it was Chen Zhongyu, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"We can't go through the main street, let's take the alleys back," Chen Zhongyu said, leading the two of them forward.

"Ouch, I twisted my ankle. I must have hurt myself just now." Lin Peishan limped forward a couple of steps, glanced back at them, and said, "You guys go first, or the three of us will get arrested."

"How can we do that? We'll go together, come on." Chen Zhongyu stepped forward and took Lin Peishan's arm, letting her hold his shoulder. He then called Gui'er to follow, and quickly walked forward.

The alleyways were intricate and complex. After walking for about ten minutes, they finally stopped when they could no longer hear the noise of arrests.

"This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous! Someone must have bribed the police station to obstruct anti-Japanese activities," Chen Zhongyu said indignantly.

"Luckily we all escaped. I wonder what will happen to the classmates who were caught?" Gui'er asked worriedly. "Brother Chen, is there anything else on your end?"

She actually wanted to ask Chen Zhongyu how the liaison work he had mentioned earlier was going, but it wasn't convenient to say it directly in front of Lin Peishan.

"Things have come to this point, you should go back first. Gui'er, just do your job as I told you before. Go on, be careful." Chen Zhongyu waved his hand, turned around and walked towards another alley.

Gui'er had no choice but to say to Lin Peishan, "Let's go too." But when she turned around, she found Lin Peishan standing there, her face flushed, staring at Chen Zhongyu's back with love in her eyes.

Gui'er shook her head helplessly and waved her hand in front of Lin Peishan's eyes: "Hey, here, here, let's go, it'll be troublesome if the police find us later."

Lin Peishan then came to her senses, and Gui'er grabbed her hand and hurriedly ran towards her school.

Back at school, I heard from other students that a total of thirty or forty students had been arrested, about a dozen of whom were from their school. Two of their classmates had been arrested, and the teachers were actively trying to rescue them.

"This so-called rescue, could it be that they want to pay a ransom?" Gui'er was already very familiar with these kinds of tricks.

"How did you know? But those senior students don't seem to come from wealthy families. I heard they have to pay at least 100 silver dollars, so the teachers of the classes where the arrested students were enrolled went with Professors Xu Jing and Meng Haoliang, who initiated the activity, to negotiate with the police."

"Xu Jing and Meng Haoliang? I think you've mentioned these names before. Are they that influential? Do you think the police station will listen to them?" Gui'er was still thinking about Chen Zhongyu's plan to contact his comrades. She suspected that Chen Zhongyu might be contacting these two people. If so, they were being far too high-profile.

In the end, the arrested students were released. It is said that some were released by their parents paying money to bail them out, while others were released with the help of professors from the school. Those arrested students became respected figures among their classmates and became even more actively involved in various anti-Japanese activities.

When Gui'er returned from the demonstration, she wrote a very detailed report, covering everything from the reasons for the demonstration and the process to the arrest of the students.

She was overjoyed, hoping that her report would generate a greater public response and might even help rescue her arrested classmate.

As a result, he hurriedly delivered it to the newspaper office, only to be thoroughly criticized by Editor-in-Chief Zhao.

Editor-in-Chief Zhao said, "How can you write about something like this in such detail? Do you want our newspaper to go bankrupt?"

Gui'er looked bewildered and said, "I was just telling the truth. You said I didn't need to write it in such detail, so how should I write it?"

"Is that even a question? Just say that some students were causing trouble somewhere and were arrested by the police. Then Liu Shaolin will publish this photo." With that, Editor-in-Chief Zhao took out a photo and slammed it on the table.

When Gui'er looked at the photo, it was of several students being escorted onto a prison van in a disheveled state.

"Well, editor-in-chief, while it's true they were arrested, they were protesting the atrocities committed by the Japanese army. It was for..."

"I don't care what their motives are. The only way to get the newspaper published is by writing articles like this. Otherwise, someone will definitely come knocking on our door, understand?"