PFC Chapter 1014 Wait for me to come back and take you away
Chapter 1014 Wait for me to come back and take you away
A faint, unbelievable light suddenly burst forth in Li Shouren's previously lifeless eyes. He looked at the gold bar in his hand, then abruptly looked up at Old Mr. Chen. His cracked lips trembled as he tried to say something, but no sound came out.
Before he could react, Mr. Chen continued urgently, his tone filled with sorrow and profound helplessness: "Shouren, since you were able to get food from the Japanese, you must have a way to ask the Japanese to save people!"
I know this is difficult... It's like asking a tiger for its skin... But it's the only way I can think of right now that might save the child's life!
"Regardless of whether the child can be saved in the end..." He paused, his voice growing even lower, "You have to think about yourself, and about the children who are still alive!"
He looked around at the dilapidated courtyard and the terrified little faces inside, and said with a heavy heart, "This Nanjing city is now a ghost town! It's purgatory! If you stay, today there's Manager Wang, but tomorrow we don't know if there will be Manager Zhang or Manager Li!"
You can't even survive yourself, how can you protect so many hungry mouths? Look at this world! Look at the state of affairs here!
He pointed forcefully to the desolate ruins outside the courtyard: "Once the matter of the children... is settled, you find a way to take Widow Sun and these children and leave! Get out of the city as soon as possible!"
"The countryside, the mountains, anywhere is fine, the farther away from this awful place the better! I can't stay in this city anymore!"
Mr. Chen's words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Li Shouren's otherwise stagnant heart.
The hope of saving Xiao Juan, however slim, the hope of having to bow down to the enemy, and the possibility of escaping death with the children, were like two extremely sharp thorns, piercing his numb nerves.
He looked down at his daughter, who was barely breathing in his arms, then looked up at the heavy gold bar in his hand, a bar that would tempt anyone. Finally, his gaze swept over Widow Sun, whose face was streaked with tears and whose eyes had regained a faint hope, and the shivering children in the house.
A complex and resolute determination, mixed with immense grief, humiliation, and despair, yet forcibly ignited by a sliver of survival and a desire to save, surged violently within his cold chest like magma!
He hesitated no more.
He carefully wrapped Xiao Juan tightly in that tattered cotton-padded coat, and clutched the cloth bag containing the gold bars tightly in his hand, as if it were his only lifeline.
"Thank you, Mr. Chen! When I return, I will take you with me," Li Shouren said hoarsely.
"Alas... I'm old and can't walk anymore. Taking me along will only be a burden to you." After saying this, Mr. Chen gestured for the butler to help him up, and under Li Shouren's complicated gaze, he slowly walked out of the courtyard.
Li Shouren moved slowly, extremely slowly.
His body had become unusually stiff from sitting for a long time and being cold; every joint made a soft "creaking" sound when it moved, and his movements were sluggish, like a marionette.
He carefully adjusted the position of his daughter in his arms, as if she were just asleep and he was afraid of waking her.
Then, he struggled to stand up, his legs so numb that he almost fell again. He grabbed the wall to steady himself.
He silently walked to the corner of the courtyard and used a broken earthenware pot to scoop out a little bit of icy, bone-chilling well water.
He found a relatively clean rag, dipped it in cold water, and returned to Xiaojuan's side.
He knelt down and began to wipe the dried, blackened bloodstains from his daughter's face and neck with utmost gentleness, bit by bit, and with unwavering focus.
His movements were so careful, filled with an almost religious reverence, as if he were polishing a priceless treasure.
The icy water froze his fingers until they were red and stiff, but he didn't care.
He wanted to keep his Xiao Juan clean and tidy.
After wiping away the bloodstains, he took off his thickest and only relatively intact cotton-padded coat, even though it was also covered in filth and torn in many places, revealing the dark gray cotton wadding.
He carefully and tightly wrapped the cotton-padded coat around his daughter's thin, cold body, and gently tied it with the last strip of cloth, as if to completely isolate her from this cold and cruel world.
After doing all this, he held his daughter, who was barely breathing, tightly in his arms once more, as if she were becoming one with his own flesh and blood.
Xiao Juan's body was so light, as light as a feather, yet so heavy that he could hardly bear it.
He turned around, his gaze sweeping over the widow Sun, who was slumped on the ground, her eyes vacant, as if she had aged ten years overnight. Then he glanced at the children in the room who were peeking out through the crack in the door, their eyes filled with immense fear and confusion.
His lips moved: "Wait for me to come back, and I'll take you away!"
Then he took a step forward.
Step by step, I trod on the rubble and broken stones amidst the ruins, making a monotonous "crunch, crunch" sound.
He walked slowly, but his steps were exceptionally firm, without any hesitation.
He walked towards the city center, towards the place where the glaring Japanese flag fluttered and where the Japanese military police were stationed. Just yesterday, he had been thinking about getting away from that direction. Numbly, yet resolutely, he walked towards it.
The cold wind whipped up his tattered clothes and tousled his hair, but he was oblivious.
His entire world consisted only of the faint breath in his arms and that unknown destination, which might be the end.
Widow Sun struggled to climb to the door frame, leaned against the doorpost, and watched Li Shouren's faltering and desperate back, which seemed to have been ripped out of its soul, grow smaller and smaller and more blurred in the biting cold wind, until it finally disappeared around the corner of the broken walls and was swallowed up by the endless ruins and the gray sky.
She could no longer hold on and slid weakly to the ground, burying her face in her knees, sobbing uncontrollably, her thin shoulders trembling violently.
Watching Li Shouren disappear into the ruins, and then looking at the terrified children inside, she covered her mouth tightly, tears welling up again. But this time, besides sadness, there was also a faint, almost invisible, hopeless expectation for the word "departure" in her eyes.
On the edge of a precipice, an unexpected helping hand and a heavy load of gold suddenly turned the tide into an unknown, perhaps even more cruel, direction.
The twilight, like blood, was splashed across the fragmented outline of Nanjing.
This was not a magnificent sunset, but some kind of ominous, solidified dark red, as if the entire sky had been stained by the wounds of this city, exuding a deathly sorrow.
The cold wind, like countless invisible files, scraped across the broken walls and ruins, emitting a wailing shriek, swirling up the snow and black ash on the ground, and hitting my face with an icy chill.
Li Shouren trudged through this cold sea of ruins, his steps uneven.
Leaning forward, almost hunched over like a bow, he used all his strength to fight against the bumps under his feet and the immense weight in his arms.
Each step he took was accompanied by the cracking sound of broken bricks and tiles, and his own heavy, labored breathing, like that of a broken bellows.