Chapter 39: Shura Leaf Empty

  Under the night lights of Beiping City, the lanterns had just been lit, and some people who were struggling to make a living were still rushing about. On a street not far from the Rokoku Restaurant, a Chevrolet sped by quickly. Inside the black sedan sat three men, with the driver being a sharp-faced man named Feng Shan, who was an agent of the Japanese North China Garrison's Tokko Special Police Unit. Feng Shan was a native Beiping resident, and since the Japanese army had entered Beiping City, this good-for-nothing young man with a scarred body had defected to the Japanese side. Relying on his status as a local, he accompanied the Tokko agents in capturing anti-Japanese patriots all over the city, and more than 50 of them had been thrown into prison through his efforts.

  He started squatting at Tenkyo Bridge at 2 pm, following his superior's orders to monitor so-called suspicious individuals on the bridge. As a result, he ended up busy for nothing all day, and not only were there no suspicious individuals, but even the usual thugs who made a living in the area around Tenkyo Bridge had disappeared. He thought that after finishing his shift, he could go home and have a couple of drinks, but his superior, Sasaki, insisted on going to Rokoku Restaurant for dinner, saying that their beefsteak was authentic.

  "Bang!" A large wooden box suddenly fell from somewhere and landed right in front of the sedan, Feng Shan quickly stepped on the brakes, "Squeak" The car skidded to a stop with screeching tires. Sasaki and his other attendant were thrown forward in their seats. "What the...?!" Sasaki adjusted his glasses, looking displeased, and pointed at Feng Shan's back, demanding an explanation.

  "There was a wooden box blocking the way ahead, I'll go move it." Feng Shan cursed silently in his heart and stiffened his scalp to answer Sasaki's questions, getting off the car with a thud to move away that troublesome wooden box. Just as Feng Shan got off the car, a bicycle slowly rode towards him from the opposite direction, ridden by a young man wearing a student uniform, with the brim of his student cap pressed very low, and even Feng Shan, who was closest to him, couldn't see the young man's face clearly.

  Feng Shankui, who was in a hurry, didn't have time to think about it. If it were usual times, he would definitely stop the young cyclist for questioning. But now, as he was rushing to Rokoku Restaurant with Sasagawa, Feng Shankui simply didn't bother to take a closer look at the cyclist.

  The bicycle stopped right next to the sedan's left rear door, under the bewildered gaze of three people. The young man got off the bike, pulled out a cigarette from behind his back with his right hand, leaned against the sedan, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a string of smoke rings in a very elegant manner. He muttered to himself: "On a dark and windy night, it's perfect for killing people!" Then, surprisingly, he said in Japanese: "Sasaki, I'm here to take you home."

  Sasaki, still sitting in the rickshaw, didn't show any panic. In fact, panicking would be useless. The three of them had gone out to eat without bringing guns, and since they were already blocked by others, it was better to maintain the dignity of an Imperial Army man rather than begging pitifully. "Who are you? We don't know each other, why are you blocking our way with a gun?" Sasaki pointed at the young man as if he had done something wrong.

  Sasaki is just putting on airs, it's a self-loving episode that Japanese military officers are used to. As for his Japanese sentence, it's just a small trick he uses to test the other person's identity. The whole city of Beiping is full of Japanese troops and secret agents, Sasaki believes that this young man dare not shoot recklessly, once the gun sounds, the Japanese troops in the city can rush over at any time, by then, this young man will also be unable to escape.

  That young man laughed, under the reflection of the car lights, those two rows of white teeth were particularly eye-catching. He smiled and said: "I came just for you." Before he finished speaking, the shotgun in his hand was already cocked, his thumb holding down the trigger, "Chacha" and a burst of bullets shot out. In the darkness, one could clearly see the muzzle flashes bursting out from the gun barrel, the hot bullets flashing with light piercing into the bodies of Sasaki and his Japanese entourage.

  "Bang" "Bang" "Bang" With the sound of bullets entering flesh, the two bodies on the back seat convulsed repeatedly, and a burst of blood mist exploded from the bullet holes all over their bodies. Poor Feng Shan, at first thought he had met someone his master knew, but when he found out that this young man actually shot and killed his own master, the gun was then aimed at him. Before he could even kneel down to beg for mercy, he was hit by multiple bullets, only able to let out two groans before following his master to report to the underworld.

  The sound of gunfire echoed far away, and the few pedestrians on the street disappeared. The young man who fired the shot didn't seem to be in a hurry. With one magazine of bullets, he took out three guys, but he still seemed unsatisfied. He casually blew away the remaining smoke from the muzzle, sniffed the smell of gunpowder coming from the barrel, and happily shook his hand, muttering to himself: "The recoil is a bit strong, if you don't tilt it, it's really hard to control the accuracy."

  The young man glanced at his watch, then searched the three of them for any valuables before getting on his bicycle and riding back down the street in the direction of Rokoku Restaurant. Just as he was leaving, a team of three-wheeled motorcycles came speeding over, and from those motorcycles jumped more than ten fully armed Japanese soldiers, led by a lieutenant.

  Only the bodies of Sasaki and his two men were left at the scene, with no other clues. The helpless Japanese lieutenant had to seal off the street and start directing the soldiers to search extensively. At this time, the young man who shot and killed Sasaki and his men earlier had changed into a white Western-style suit and was leaning against a White Russian woman's chest drinking wine in the bar of the Six Nations Hotel.

  This young man, Ye Kong, is a Chinese-German, his father was once a laborer who participated in World War I to support France and was later captured by the German army and settled in Germany. Ye Kong's mother was also Chinese, a Chinese living in Germany, Ye Kong, who received German-style education and Chinese cultural influence from an early age, had possessed German-style rigor and Chinese tenacity. This unique quality of his was valued by a German military officer, and at the age of 15, he was specially recruited into a German military academy to study. After several years of study, Ye Kong brought out the Chinese people's endurance to the extreme, not only completing his studies at the military academy but also obtaining dual degrees in mechanical engineering and chemistry.

  Since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Ye Kong had been paying attention to the news of his hometown through newspapers and radio. Until a year later, Ye Kong was eighteen years old, after obtaining his parents' consent, Ye Kong returned to his hometown alone and started his own killing journey. Japanese people and traitors were all targets for Ye Kong. Anyone who was discovered by him became a dead body, because Ye Kong always used bullets to shoot the target into a bloody pulp, and he had never missed a shot. Therefore, he was called "Ashura" by the high-level Japanese military.