Chapter 5: XiaGuan Railway Station

  November was the time when Xuanwu City turned cool, and after a layer of autumn rain, the temperature dropped sharply. As soon as he got off the train, a gust of autumn wind swept around him, bringing fallen leaves with it. Dong Zhiyu pulled his thin woolen coat tighter, and the pear-wood box in his hand seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist, damp and chilly.

  Originally, for someone like her, the government wouldn't have sent anyone to pick her up from the train station. It was already a good treatment that she had to find her own way there and arrange her own accommodation. However, due to Tang Shengming's connection, Chen Shunzhen, the wife of the future Foreign Minister Chu Minyi, who would be her superior in the future, actually sent her driver to pick her up. As for Chen Shunzhen, she was the adopted daughter of Wang Zhongming's mother-in-law and Chu Minyi obtained his position as Foreign Minister due to this relationship, which gave him considerable influence within the puppet government.

  On the other side, driver Xu Genbao took a glance at Dong Zhiyu, then looked at the photo in his hand, and after comparing them back and forth, he confirmed it was her. He hastily stepped forward and greeted: "Excuse me, are you Miss Dong from Shanghai?" Xu Genbao spoke with a local accent from Xuanwu, a familiar dialect that Dong Zhiyu hadn't heard in years. After confirming each other's identities, Xu Genbao quickly took the pear-wood box and led Dong Zhiyu out of the station.

  "Thanks, Master Xu," Dong Zhiyu replied in the same dialect, walking towards the exit with a stride. She was probably more familiar with this station than the driver.

  "Miss Dong is also from Xuanwu!" Xu Genbao quickly followed up, hunching his shoulders and about to say something else, when suddenly a chaotic sound of footsteps came from the other side. Several men in black uniforms were hurrying towards the exit with a man in his 40s, everyone fell silent, staring blankly at them.

  It wasn't long before everyone returned to normal, with only a few people whispering to each other. Since the Japanese army occupied Xuanwu City, this scene was no longer surprising. Dong Zhiyu quickened her pace towards the exit, and she was very curious about who this person was being escorted by Wang's traitorous agents.

  At the exit gate, there were several Korean soldiers leading wolf dogs, killing and checking passing passengers. When they encountered suspicious people, they would take them to one side. There were also some North Koreans wearing black uniforms shouting and assisting on the side, with a false bravado.

  Xu Genbao showed his fake government work permit, and the other side beckoned him to pass through. Dong Zhiyu was about to follow when he was stopped by a Japanese soldier. Xu Genbao quickly stepped forward, bowed and explained to the person in black uniform beside him. The person in black uniform listened and spoke with the Japanese soldier in a mixture of Japanese and Chinese. Dong Zhiyu glanced sideways at the scene and saw that several men in black uniforms had taken a middle-aged man away, pushing him into two cars which then drove off.

  The dark-uniformed agent's words seemed to have left the Hei soldiers still hesitant, so Dong Zhiyu directly explained in the Hei language: "I am Dong Zhiyu, an English translator of the Second Translation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Xuanwu Government, sent by the Shanghai Special Operations Headquarters. This is a pre-printed seal from the Printing Bureau, please take a look, Mr. Huang."

  The soldier of the dark kingdom finally understood, picked up the letter and symbolically swept a glance at it, then looked her up and down again, and beckoned her to pass.

  The sky had darkened, the sun had set behind this city, leaving only a last streak of crimson on the horizon. On the empty square in front of the station, several cars were parked, and along one side, a row of rickshaws were lined up. As soon as the train arrived, the rickshaw pullers collectively stretched their necks, like they were being pulled by an invisible string, and ran towards the exit where people were sparsely scattered.

  Dong Zhiyu turned around, gazing at the building behind her. On the three-story main station building, from top to bottom, a row of bold black characters read: Xuanwu Xiaoguan Railway Station. This was what she was familiar with. Looking further up, on the semi-circular tower top, a white background with red sun flag of Huo Guo fluttered in the wind. At first glance, it was shocking and Dong Zhiyu felt as if her eyes had been scorched by the red sun on the white background, her anger and resentment simmering.

  It's been three or four years since the war began, and I haven't returned to my hometown. In the past, every Qingming Festival, I would return with my aunt to sweep the tomb, but this time, standing in the wind and rain at the train station, I was suddenly slapped with such a humiliating flag... Just as I was thinking about it, Xu Genbao carefully approached me and whispered: "Miss Dong, it's getting cold here tonight, please get on the car quickly, Madam is waiting inside."

  "Which Mrs?" Dong Zhiyu asked in surprise.

  "Mrs. Chu, Mrs. Chu Minye's wife."

  Dong Zhiyu turned around, feeling surprised in her heart. Originally, the wife of the Minister of Foreign Affairs had sent a car to pick her up, which was already special treatment. Now, Mrs. Chu had come in person, which was even more unreasonable... Could it be that this Chu Minyue was "Quē"? She had this flash of thought in her mind, and now she had to think about the people of the pseudo-Xuanwu government, but after thinking again, it seemed unlikely. The Xuantong Si told her that "Quē" was also responsible for winning over and recruiting the troops of Jiang's puppet regime, which was something that a Minister of Foreign Affairs without military power could not do. It seemed that those people in Shanghai No. 76 had a lot of face in the Xuanwu government, and the puppet regime in Shanghai relied on them. Thinking this way, she followed Xu Genbao to the car.

  Chen Shunzhen wouldn't have personally come to pick up such a small translator, but Xu Lai, the wife of Tang Shengming from Shanghai, personally called her and asked her to take good care of her niece Dong Zhiyu in the future. With this added layer of human relationship, she sent a car to pick her up. Before leaving, she changed her mind and decided to come herself, firstly because Zhu Minye had something to do at night and wasn't home, so she was free anyway, and secondly to repay the favor from Shanghai.

  She saw from afar that the driver, Xu Genbao, was leading a young woman in this direction. She had a slender build, which made her originally moderate height seem longer. Her hair was cut straight across her shoulders, a bit longer than the style popular among schoolgirls, but shorter than long hair. As they approached, she saw that the woman's attire was quite different from ordinary women. She wasn't wearing a cheongsam or the kind of fitted jacket and skirt that schoolgirls wore. Instead, she had on a white blouse over a gray woolen sweater, with a deep gray woolen skirt that fell below her knees and low-heeled leather shoes that revealed a pair of slender legs like scallions. Over this outfit, she wore a plain-colored plaid wool coat. This getup was really Western-style. She remembered seeing some foreign female teachers dressed in the same way before. Suddenly, she recalled Xu saying that his niece had previously attended a church school for girls run by foreigners in Shanghai, and it seemed that this was where her style came from.

  As she walked up to the car, Chen Shunzhen opened the door and got out. "Miss Dong, have a smooth journey?" he said, extending his hand.

  Dong Zhiyu reached out with both hands to greet her, "Madam Chu, you have already honored me by sending a car for me. Now that you've taken the trouble to come yourself, I'm even more ashamed and unable to accept." Since she detected that the other person was not a local, she responded in the official dialect of Yan State.

  The author has something to say: Yan State: The birthplace of Mandarin? Just that imperial city.

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