Chapter 39: The Cold Forest of Sharp Teeth

  That's Yang Huai's turtle voice, how could Lin Feng be unfamiliar with it!

  Lin Feng suddenly turned around and saw a man wearing a black satin jacket, with a Japanese military hat on his head, pushing a bicycle with one hand and holding a white iron megaphone in the other, shouting as he walked. Who else could it be but Yang Huai?

  "Hey, isn't this Brother Lin?"

  Lin Feng saw that it was indeed Yang Huai, and a wave of disgust rose to his head. Just as he thought of turning around to avoid him, Yang Huai had already seen him and spoke first.

  Lin Feng didn't answer, standing on the street and waiting for Yang Huai to walk up to him.

  Although Lin Feng was quite displeased with Yang Huai, they had often played together in the past. It was a bit difficult to suddenly become strangers, so he still gave face to their previous relationship and waited for a while to see what Yang Huai would say.

  "Lin, I heard you've been feeling unwell lately and have been staying at home. How come you're out today? You look pretty good!" Yang Huai said with a shameless grin, "If I had known you were okay, I would have gone to the warehouse to find you."

  "No way, absolutely not!" Lin Feng flatly refused Yang Huai. "You're a big shot now, my little temple can't accommodate you!"

  Lin Feng finished speaking and turned around to leave.

  It's said that Lin Feng also gave Yang Huai a bit of face, so there was no need to continue arguing, and they simply went their separate ways.

  "Wait, Brother Lin!" Yang Hua pushed his bicycle to chase after him for a few steps, and grabbed Lin Feng's collar through the bicycle. "Brother Lin, I was just about to come to your place myself, but since we met here, I won't go now. You can pass on a message to Uncle for me: Mr. Ito has invited him to attend this morning's meeting at Walnut Garden at 10 o'clock. Make sure he doesn't forget to go."

  Walnut Garden is not an orchard, but a place name, located in the southwest corner of the county town, with flat terrain, and has a large auditorium, which was built by the National Government during the "New People's Movement".

  Later, people generally referred to the auditorium as Walnut Garden, and Yang Huai's meeting place was also referring to this auditorium.

  Go inform Lin Qingyuan to attend the meeting, this is a task personally handed over by Ito to Yang Huai, but this kid met Lin Feng on the street and wanted to take a shortcut, completely ignoring Lin Feng's unfriendly attitude towards the Japanese army.

  Let me go and deliver this message to my father for you, how did Yang Huai come up with such an idea!

  Lin Feng was enraged as soon as he heard it, and with a swing of his arm, he opened Yang Huai's hand and said: "I still have something to do, you go tell my dad yourself!"

  Lin Feng finished speaking and didn't care about Yang Huai's reaction, he left with a flourish.

  To be honest, Yang Huai was indeed a bit afraid of Lin Qingyuan. This man had been in the position of Chamber of Commerce president for a long time and had an aura of authority about him. Moreover, he was Lin Feng's father and always looked down on them as juniors, often lecturing them and having a temper that didn't allow anyone to refute what he said, regardless of whether it was right or wrong.

  No matter what Yang Huai thinks, it's none of Lin Feng's business.

  Lin Feng had his own things to attend to, first of which was wanting to go take a look at Feng Jie, but he estimated that Chunfeng Building wouldn't be open yet, as places like that usually only started operating in the afternoon.

  Lin Feng thought it had been a long time since he went to De Yi Building, and he could take advantage of this gap to have a good meal. For the past few days, due to his injury, he had been abstaining from greasy food and only eating bland dishes, which really didn't taste good in his mouth, making him very hungry.

  Ling Feng went east, and De Yi Building was also located on Fuqian Street, just across from the current Japanese gendarmerie headquarters of the original county government.

  Lin Feng was just strolling along when suddenly there was a big commotion on the street, pedestrians scattered and ran away, and the shops by the side of the road "rattled" as they closed their doors.

  What's going on?

  Lin Feng grabbed a middle-aged man who ran up beside him and asked: "What's wrong, why is it so chaotic?"

  The middle-aged man struggled a few times, unable to break free, his face anxious and impatient, very annoyed. However, seeing that the young man who was holding onto him was dressed in unusual attire, he didn't dare to be too presumptuous, and hastily said: "Young master, quickly return home, the Japanese soldiers have arrived."

  Lin Feng found it strange. Didn't he just see a Japanese patrol passing by earlier? And yet, people weren't in such a state of panic!

  "Japanese soldiers aren't always patrolling on the streets?" Lin Feng asked out of curiosity.

  "That's different, this group isn't a patrol team, they're arresting people, grabbing anyone they see, smashing any door they come across, very vicious. You'd better hurry back home, don't get into trouble!"

  The middle-aged man finished speaking and took advantage of Lin Feng's momentary loosening of his grip to break free and run away in a hurry.

  The Japanese army was brutal, and Lin Feng had heard some old soldiers mention this when he was in the security team.

  Lin Feng never expected aggressors to have kind intentions, but he didn't expect them to reveal their ferocity so quickly either.

  Following Ito's previous approach, he should have used gentle tactics to gain a foothold, but how did he suddenly change his policy after just a few days? Is it that the Japanese army has made a new move?

  Lin Feng stood still, puzzled by the sudden change of the Japanese army, deep in thought, and unexpectedly ignored the middle-aged man's advice.

  Deng Linfeng was startled awake by a burst of "bang bang" sounds, and a large number of Japanese soldiers had already arrived, driving away a group of civilians with bayonets while smashing the doors of houses on both sides of the street, regardless of whether they were residential or commercial, breaking them open one by one, pulling out the people inside and throwing them into the crowd on the street, herding them together as they moved forward.

  The streets were in an uproar, with the Japanese military's fierce yelling and cursing, the civilians' discontented protests, the women and children's fearful wailing, combined with the Japanese soldiers' banging on doors "boom boom" echoing, all blending into a chaotic cacophony.

  A woman holding a baby was smashed out of a civilian house by Japanese soldiers with rifle butts, stumbling and falling to the ground, the baby in her arms flew out of her hands and fell on the street not far away.

  At this time, a large number of civilians who were being driven by the Japanese army with bayonets had walked over. The people walking in front saw the baby on the ground and stopped their feet, and the people behind also followed suit.

  The Japanese soldiers saw this and knew that the civilians were not moving because of the baby on the ground. A sergeant walked over, stretched out his hand with a knife, and in the midst of the woman's mournful cry and the crowd's screams, he stabbed the baby and sent it flying away.

  "My child!" The fallen woman hadn't even gotten up from the ground before she let out a heart-wrenching cry, one hand helplessly stretching out in the direction the baby had flown off in, as if wanting to grab the baby back and hold it in her arms once more.

  The "obstacles" blocking the road were cleared by the military police, and the Japanese army continued to wield bayonets to drive the civilians forward.

  Lin Feng saw the scene in front of him, as if it came from hell, and saw his compatriots suffering from the inhumane treatment of the Japanese army. His heart was filled with rage and indignation, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

  "Lin Feng, Lin Feng, you've been boasting all day that you're the number one in Xiping County and no one can rival you. You claim there's nothing you can't handle, but now your own people are being bullied by those little rascals, what can you do about it? Useless!"

  Lin Feng was wailing in his heart, the conviction in his heart collapsed, and for a time he lost his direction and became disheartened.

  "Ah-ya!"

  Lin Feng, who was lost in thought, suddenly had a rifle butt slammed into his back. He stumbled forward and merged into the crowd of civilians. He quickly turned around to see that a Japanese soldier was now standing where he had just been, pointing a bayonet at him with wide, angry eyes staring over.

  "I curse your ancestors for eight generations!" Lin Feng cursed angrily and made a move as if he was about to rush over and fight to the death...

  "Little brother, little brother, forget it, forget it." A man in his thirties hugged Lin Feng, who was acting impulsively, and repeatedly persuaded him, "The other person has a gun, we're unarmed, as the saying goes, when under someone's roof, one must lower their head, bear with it for now!"

  Lin Feng listened to the advice of others, and his mind also calmed down a bit. In the end, he didn't do anything stupid. Along with many ordinary people being driven away by the Japanese army, they headed west.

  After walking for a while, Lin Feng basically understood the purpose of the Japanese army, which was to drive people to the walnut garden. Adding to what Yang Huai had shouted earlier that Ito wanted to hold some kind of meeting there, it was estimated that they were forcing everyone to attend this meeting.

  Walnut Garden Auditorium, actually is a large auditorium built from north to south in a square, this large auditorium was built like a large theater, it's more accurate to say that it's an open-air theater rather than an auditorium, but at that time the National Government called it an auditorium.

  Above the stage of the theatre, there was a Blue Sky with a White Sun emblem. On the right side of the emblem were the words "National Government", and on the left side were the words "Xiping Assembly Hall". However, they are no longer there now. In their place is a flag in the middle, with the words "Sino-Japanese Amity" on the right and "Co-prosperity in Greater East Asia" on the left.

  Lin Feng As the crowd was driven here, the surrounding walnut garden had already been heavily guarded by Japanese troops with three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, layered defense, light and heavy machine guns were all facing the direction of the venue.

  There were already some people in the venue, anxiously standing in front of the stage of the opera house.

  On the stage, a row of tables and chairs were lined up, with Ito sitting spiritedly behind the middle one.

  There were also people sitting behind other tables, including Japanese and Chinese.

  The only empty space was behind the table on Ito's left side, and it was unclear who it was reserved for.

  The area closest to the stage also had a few tables and chairs set up, where several country-dressed men were already seated.

  It seems that this conference, which was prepared by the Japanese army, is indeed quite a big deal.

  Lin Feng stood bored in the crowd, observing Ito sitting on the stage.

  All that could be seen was Ito sitting there with a smile, watching the increasing number of people below the stage. On the surface, he appeared to be in high spirits, but Lin Feng still caught a glimpse of the faint anxiety in his eyes from his occasional quick glances at the empty seat beside him.

  "Who was that seat left for? Why did Ito attach so much importance to it?" Lin Feng pondered silently in his heart.

  At this time, a bespectacled man walked out from the backstage and hastily went towards Ito. Lin Feng recognized this guy at a glance, who was exactly the interpreter he had met outside the west gate when entering the city that day.

  The interpreter walked over to Ito's side, leaned in close and whispered something in his ear, after which Ito's expression changed instantly.

  Ito turned his head and said something to the interpreter. Lin Feng couldn't hear it, but saw that the interpreter nodded and left.

  After the interpreter left, Ito stared tightly at the empty seat with both eyes, his face getting tighter and tighter, as if the seat had annoyed him very much.

  It's just an empty seat, it's inanimate, of course it can't make Ito angry. It seems that the one who really annoyed him is probably the person who should be sitting there but hasn't arrived yet. Who is this person?