Chapter 23: Comfort Women (Part 1)

  On the second day, the gloomy winter of Jiangnan was bone-chillingly cold. Dong Zhiyu wrapped herself in a thick scarf and hat, put on her gloves, and set off on her new bicycle. Today, she had scheduled two important tasks for herself.

  Bought some fruit on the way and rushed to Wunai's home first.

  Since Wu Naiju was poured tea by her colleague the day before yesterday, Dong Zhiyu has not had the opportunity to meet with her and try out her attitude. Moreover, they are all colleagues, so it is reasonable to go and comfort her.

  Wu Naijun still lived with her parents, a girl in her twenties, who was already an old maid at that time. Entering the Wu's house, one could see that everything was luxurious and grand, it had been heard before that the Wu family rose to prominence after the warlord era, the decoration of this house was very trendy, like all the popular things nowadays, compared with the original Dong's house, it was completely two different styles.

  Wu Naijun's mother was playing mahjong with several ladies, and had no time to attend to her, so she let the maid take her directly to Wu Naijun's boudoir. As soon as they entered, they saw Wu Naijun lying lazily on the bed, her plump arm pressed against the pillow, like a lotus root segment.

  "Wu Jie." Dong Zhiyu called out at the door.

  Wu Naijun raised her eyes, seemingly smiling but not quite, "Dong translator, come in and take a seat."

  As they spoke, the maid brought up a few plates of dry fruit tea snacks. Wu Naijun looked at these plates and a faint smile floated to the corner of her mouth, wanting to say something, but thinking about it, she gave up again.

  "How is Sister Wu's body?"

  "It's almost fine now, I'll go to work tomorrow," he said, looking at Dong Zhiyu again, "How have you been these few days? Is the department busy?"

  "You're not here, so I'll just grab yours," Dong Zhiyu said with an unwilling expression, smiling slightly, "But it's only right."

  "It's all good, it's all opportunities," Wu Naijun also smiled and leaned in close, "I heard an American young man has been pursuing you?"

  Dong Zhiyu was secretly shocked, this had just happened last night, and Wu Naiju's news was too well-informed. It seemed that before herself, someone had already come to inform her of the situation.

  "Don't be ridiculous, foreigners are just making a fuss, Wu Jie you know them best, think of something to get rid of them."

  "Hehe," Wu Naiju smiled awkwardly, thought for a moment and said, "Hey, you say I'm fine, how did I suddenly get sick? The doctor says it's because I ate something wrong."

  Dong Zhiyu lowered his head, "Wu Jie... actually I've been worried, was it something wrong with the food that day at my place..."

  Wu Naijun poked her head out, "No way, Dong translator, nothing's wrong with you?"

  "I'm fine... but everyone's physical condition is different, who knows if the same thing would cause you to have an adverse reaction after eating it, while I'm fine after eating it... so I've been feeling anxious, like you got sick that night after going back..."

  Wu Naijun thought for a moment and gave up, she couldn't figure out the reason either, so she sighed, "The past is just the past, it's also possible that I caught a cold when I came back or ate something wrong during the day," as she said this, she glanced at Dong Zhiyu, "When are those Americans leaving?"

  "It's just a few days, but Sister Wu, if you don't mind, after you go to work tomorrow, I'll apply to Director Chu to transfer this task to you, I have other things to attend to."

  "Alright, I've been on sick leave at home for a few days. You must be very busy, Sister Dong." Wu Naijun's face gradually cleared up.

  After chatting for a while, Dong Zhiyu bid farewell. She had more or less figured out that Wu Naiju's scope was roughly this big, office politics plus some gossip about men and women.

  She left the Wunaiju's house and rode westward, leaving the city area. The closer she got to the riverbank, the stronger the wind was, blowing into her woolen scarf, freezing her teeth chattering.

  After passing by Coal Harbour, she tried hard to recall the route of yesterday's military truck, turning up and down on Upper and Lower Hornby Street, but then lost track.

  This place is quite desolate, with no residents or human shadows. On both sides are some dilapidated earth walls and low warehouses. Apart from these, there are only piles of withered yellow weeds and wasteland, like a purgatory on earth.

  Dong Zhiyu continued to explore along the highway, estimating that it was not far from here. Judging from Xu Genbao's tone, the house where the Chinese woman was being held should be nearby. Just as she was thinking this, the sound of a truck came from behind her, and she quickly turned into a field beside the road, hiding herself and her bicycle behind a pile of weeds.

  The truck slowly approached, but it was carrying a load of Japanese soldiers, whispering to each other with ambiguous expressions. Dong Zhiyu vaguely felt that these Japanese soldiers might be related to those Chinese women. After the truck drove away in a cloud of dust, she got back on her bike and followed from a distance. She saw the truck turn onto a small side road and come to a stop.

  Immediately afterwards, dozens of Japanese soldiers jumped out and were gathered by a captain-like person to form several columns in front of a row of tile-roofed houses.

  What's going on here? Dong Zhiyu was puzzled in her heart, this place didn't seem like a Japanese military training camp, and if there were women locked up in these tile-roofed houses, what did it mean for them to be lined up so neatly? Moreover, a whole truckload of soldiers had arrived all at once, but yesterday's truck had only had about ten or so women on it... Dong Zhiyu didn't want to think about it anymore and couldn't figure it out either.

  She came here today to investigate the situation, to see where the house with Chinese women was located and how the surrounding defense was. Since yesterday evening when Xu Genbao told her about that scene, she couldn't let go of it for a long time, and the anger in her chest still burned. She felt that rescuing these women was her own unshirkable responsibility, even if it meant sacrificing her own life.

  Last night in Yejing, she saw Huaijin and thought to herself: as women, would they be willing to join this rescue mission and save these women who have been forgotten by God?

  Besides, she also knew that as a military officer, Huai Jin must have received special training and had been on the battlefield. With her by his side, their chances of winning would definitely be higher.

  At this time, the door of the tile house opened and several Japanese soldiers who were standing at the head of the column walked in. The others remained in formation outside.

  Dong Zhiyu looked around the tile-roofed house and found that apart from the Japanese soldiers on the truck, there were only two guards at the entrance. This meant that under normal circumstances, this comfort station was not heavily guarded, and it should be possible to break in with weapons. She carefully made her way across the street and circled around to the back of the tile-roofed house, where she saw another Japanese soldier patrolling back and forth with a submachine gun slung over his shoulder.

  So, there are three Japanese soldiers guarding the tile-roofed house. If we can successfully ambush the first two, when the third one comes around, we'll have a good chance of taking him down too. Then, we can let these women escape. This place is relatively desolate, and nobody usually comes here. Everyone can scatter and run, as long as they find a place with houses, it shouldn't be a big problem. If they escape into the city, after all, this is a "peaceful" period, the Japanese won't dare to openly arrest people on the streets. However, if Huaiyin is willing to join us, and she has her car, which is a Jeep used by high-ranking Japanese puppet officials, it would be even more ideal to take them away.

  Dong Zhiyu was completely absorbed in his own infinitely expanding savior complex, unable to see that he was step by step walking into a dangerous abyss.

  Go find Huai Jin! She made up her mind and rode the car back and forth.