Chapter 49: Memories of Candied Hawthorn

  "Ice sugar gourd, delicious ice sugar gourd..." A voice calling out to buy ice sugar gourd suddenly entered Huo Yao's ears. He unconsciously stopped in his tracks and looked over in the direction of the voice, looking at the strings of bright red ice sugar gourds. A smile suddenly appeared on Huo Yao's face. He pulled Yan Zi and Zuo Caiyun's hands and ran to the middle-aged man selling the sugar gourds. Smiling, he said: "Uncle, I'll buy two strings of ice sugar gourd."

  "Great!" Seeing a customer coming in, the middle-aged man happily took down two strings of ice sugar gourds and handed them over to Huo Yao's hands.

  The firework handed the candied hawthorn to the middle-aged man, who paid for it. Then he gave two strings of candied hawthorn to Yanzi and Zuo Caiyun respectively, smiling at them: "One string per person, eat!"

  The swallow had never eaten rock sugar gourd before. For this snack, he had never dared to indulge in it. The swallow held the rock sugar gourd in his hand, feeling inexplicably excited, yet wondering why he hadn't bought a string for himself. So the swallow happily said to Huo Yao: "Brother, you buy another one, why don't you eat it yourself?"

  Fireworks smiled and said: "The hawthorn sugar gourd is sour and sweet, the hawthorn core inside is big, I actually don't like to eat it."

  Zuo Caiyun also asked strangely: "Then why did you want to buy it?"

  His face was filled with nostalgic expressions, and he said happily: "I remember when I was a kid, my friends and I would all have to take out our own pocket money to buy a string of candied hawthorns. We'd sit together in the corner, each eating one piece at a time. Every time I see candied hawthorns, I think back to my happy childhood, I think of those brothers of mine, and I just can't help but want to buy a string."

  The swallow used her tongue to add a touch to the last ice sugar gourd, then handed the string of ice sugar gourds in front of Huo Yao, smiling and saying: "It's so sweet, brother, you come and have one too."

  Huoyao bit off a piece of candied hawthorn from the string Yanzi was holding. As soon as he put it in his mouth, Zuo Caiyun handed her own string of candied hawthorn to Huoyao's face. Huoyao also bit off a piece and held it in his mouth. With a smile all over his face, he mumbled: "Today's is especially sweet, especially delicious."

  Swallows, Zuo Caiyun saw the mischievous look of Fireworks and handed him ice sugar gourds one after another. Fireworks' mouth was really full, and he hurriedly shook his head and dodged. The three of them frolicked non-stop for a while, forgetting the gloomy mood caused by hearing the miserable cries outside the Little Devil's military camp earlier. Fireworks also seemed to have returned to his childhood, back among those little friends.

  While chasing and playing, the swallow suddenly stopped moving. Staring blankly at a group of fake soldiers in front of her. Huoyao and Zuo Caiyun also stopped playing. They followed Yanzi's gaze and saw Li Yang, who was helping Da Niu and Er Niu escape at the city gate, walking towards the entrance of the wine house on the opposite side surrounded by a group of fake soldiers. Li Yang kept turning his head back, secretly looking in Yanzi's direction. Huoyao curiously asked Yanzi: "That person said he was the brother of Da Niu and others, what kind of person is he?"

  Until Li Yang and the fake soldiers all walked into that wine house. The swallow was dazed for a long time, bowed his head and bit down an ice sugar gourd. Only then did he sadly say to Huo Yao in a low voice: "He is my brother."

  "Your brother." Huoyao and Zuocaiyun both felt very surprised. Weren't Yanzhi's parents killed by the little devils? How did his brother become a puppet soldier? How did he become a running dog for the little devils? Huoyao thought to himself, "No wonder Daniu and the others were so angry with Liyang, it turns out that Liyang didn't avenge his own parents, but instead surrendered to the enemy."

  Seeing the distressed swallow, Huo Yao wrapped his arms around the swallow's shoulders and said with a serious face: "Swallow, you're mistaken, I'm your brother."

  Zuo Caiyun walked up to Yanzi, handed him his candied hawthorn and smiled: "Have one of my candied hawthorns, we are brothers forever."

  Swallow bit down a left colorful cloud's ice sugar gourd. Strongly enduring the tears that flashed in her eyes, she smiled and nodded. Putting all the unpleasantness aside, she pretended she never had that brother who mistook his enemy for his father.

  Suddenly, a loud shouting voice came from the other end of the street. Huoyao and others saw that the crowd on that side was running around in all directions, with a group of fake soldiers chasing after them. Among the fleeing crowd, there seemed to be the figures of Daniu, Erniu, Wang Xiaolong, and Wang Xiaohu. Huoyao sighed and shook his head, saying to Yanzi and Zuocaiyun: "It seems that Daniu and others have caused trouble again. Let's hurry back, we still need to get some things ready with the help of Yanniang."

  At night, the little demon's military camp. A room with a "Wu Yun Chang Jiou" sign, Noda wore a white practice uniform, holding a samurai sword, shouting "Ya, ya" as he desperately slashed and chopped at several training partners.

  Suddenly, Ozawa Tsuguo opened the door of Noda's training room and walked in. Noda was in another fierce slash, then turned his hand to put away the samurai sword, and waved to those who were practicing with him, letting them retreat. Noda returned to the resting place, sat down, wiped the sweat from his face with a towel, and gently wiped the samurai sword.

  After those who accompanied the practice left the training room of Noda, and after the door was closed, Sawa Tsuguo walked up to Noda. He opened a document and reported to Noda: "The transmitter has been delivered to Yamamoto's hands and a telegram has been sent to confirm."

  Noda nodded slightly. It turned out that Noda thought the last failure of surrounding the guerrilla team was because Yamamoto couldn't deliver the message to himself in time, which allowed the guerrilla team to escape at the end. So Noda sent a telegraph machine to Yamamoto, wanting Lao Yingzhai to keep in touch with him at all times.

  Kazuo Ozawa continued to report: "Received reliable information, Liu Tao's guerrilla force has now grown to 200-300 people. They have reorganized the guerrilla force into a formal New Fourth Army and established a certain mountainous base area."

  Noda furrowed his brow. He couldn't help but think, "Just the other day when we were mopping up the guerrilla troops, there were only about a hundred or so people, how did it suddenly become two or three hundred?"

  Ozawa Tsuguo reported again: "Liu Tao dispatched a special warfare squad to rescue those resistance fighters who were about to be beheaded by us. And... the woman that the military department has been trying to capture is also among that special warfare squad."

  "Oh" Noda slightly raised his head, with an expression of utter disbelief on his face.

  Kozue closed the document and continued: "This afternoon, one officer and two soldiers were killed. I think those people have already infiltrated into the county town."

  "Hmph!" Noda snorted a few times, then suddenly tossed the towel in his hand upwards and swung his katana several times. The towel immediately turned into countless fragments that fell to the ground. Noda's face turned iron-blue as he said, "These people really look down on us, the Great Japanese Imperial Army."

  Ozawa didn't dare to speak, and Noda continued in a cold voice: "Go inform the first squad to ambush near the prison. I'll catch them off guard, and those resisting elements will have no way out."

  "Hey" Ozawa Tsuguo was about to leave, but he was stopped by Noda. "Wait a minute" Noda called out to Ozawa again. Ozawa had no choice but to stop in his tracks and turn around to face Noda once more. After thinking for a moment, Noda sneered and said: "Don't bother notifying the first squad, too many people will only make it easier for news to leak out. You go prepare a small team of soldiers for me, I'll lead them personally. I want to catch those resistance members with my own hands, especially that woman."