Chapter 21: Night-Blooming Jasmine

  Chuan Qi couldn't fall asleep, his heart felt like it was missing something. First, a mosquito circled around him, attacking him in turns, although he swung his palms multiple times, he couldn't make it retreat. Then, a gust of wind blew on this moonlit night, bringing the faint fragrance of mountain flowers into the window, entering his nostrils, seeping into his heart, making him feel excited for the first time since mistakenly entering the "wolf's den".

  Although he had long been accustomed to the bloody smell of the execution grounds, Kawachi's nose was not immune to the fragrance that filled his nostrils. So, he got out of bed, dressed and went out, treading on the moonlight like water, in the opposite direction of the white birch forest, searching for the source of the scent. Little did he know, this search would lead to a huge problem. As a result, an insurmountable chasm appeared between him and Michiko.

  From Mount Fuji to Yokohama Port, and then to Manzhouli in China, for 17 long years, Kawabata had never been so romantic that he couldn't sleep at night thinking about the mountain flowers. As a stevedore of Yokohama Shipping Company, all he had was a belly full of acid and a body odor that could kill fresh flowers. And as General Itagaki's personal interpreter, every day his nostrils were filled with the smell of blood from anti-Japanese radicals that lingered in the air for a long time.

  "After becoming a bandit, I'm so romantic to look for flowers at night. Maybe this is what the Chinese call 'a beggar playing with a sparrow, finding joy in hardship'. Kawahime self-deprecatingly followed the direction of the fragrance and climbed towards the hill on the right side of the training ground, occasionally turning back to glance at the increasingly distant demonic cave."

  When I reached the top of the mountain, the bright moon that had just hung over the mountain pass was already climbing high and beginning to move westward. Under the moonlight, those near or far mountains looked like giant fortresses.

  The mountains were fully exercising their imagination, with the trees in the east and west like thousands of horses and soldiers, with flags waving and shouting, with charging and breaking through, with lurking and waiting to strike, a magnificent war scene.

  The original intention of Kawaki's military career was to become a triumphant general on the battlefield, like Ittō Heihachirō, writing a glorious war history for an Imperial Army soldier with the blood of Chinese soldiers, achieving fame and fortune, stepping into the triumphal arch, being welcomed by Emperor Hirohito in person, making that principal Miyagi look at him with reverence, making that "Buddha" who looked down on people regret it, then finding Sakuraba Sakura again, letting her give birth to children for him in wealth and glory.

  Unexpectedly, after lying in the trenches and tasting bitterness for so many years by General Itagaki's side, just as I was about to apply to work at the grassroots level, that woman's bird-like speech contest made me fall into a trap, doing this devilish, endless job.

  The utterly meaningless war scene before his eyes made Chuanji feel extremely disheartened, and his interest in viewing the flowers also vanished. He sat down on the ground with a thud, his dull eyes staring at the dark green forest of oil pines on the mountain slope, and he burst into tears.

  The bright moon in the sky encountered an obstacle while moving west, a cluster of broken cloud like a mushroom cloud, black and white like two different troops, hand in hand surrounded it. After the bright moon quickly passed through the blockade line of the cloud, the mountain top became bright again, and the magnificent battlefield was presented before the eyes of the cavalry.

  The bright moon seems to have been damaged in the battle with the mushroom cloud, and the penetrating power of the moonlight has weakened. A misty curtain rises at the place where the mountain head meets the horizon, causing the war fantasy that Chuan Qi yearns for to gradually disappear.

  As he was about to leave the mountain, another refreshing gust of wind blew by, and the intense floral scent wafted up again. This fragrance was like a beautiful woman, placing him in a dilemma where he couldn't bear to part with it, yet staying would be pointless.

  However, the river rider eventually followed the increasingly intense fragrance into a thicket of shrubs. With the help of moonlight, he saw clusters of night-blooming jasmine growing luxuriantly.

  This was the most fragrant wildflower that Chuanji had ever come into contact with since birth. He sat down beside a cluster of night-blooming jasmine, constantly twitching his nose and greedily savoring the beautiful gift given by nature.

  At this time, Yoshiko had already arrived at the hut and gently knocked on the door without getting a response. She stretched out her hand to push it, and surprisingly, the door wasn't locked. Her heart secretly rejoiced, thinking that Kawaki must have done it intentionally, and a warm feeling suddenly spread throughout her entire body.

  In order to make herself more ladylike, she tried to make Kawachi think that she and Shinjou Aya were submitting to the circumstances out of necessity. To put it simply, just like every imperial citizen who contributed to the Greater East Asia Holy War, one cannot be disloyal to the Emperor just because they are afraid of death.

  Mizuko gently pushed open the door, using the moonlight to quietly undress, then sat on the bed, wanting Kawabata to take the initiative, and herself to easily fall into his arms, letting happiness come flooding in quickly.

  However, Meizi sat for a while and didn't make a sound. This severely hurt her self-esteem, and the true face of a strong woman appeared again. She reached back with her hand, but the bed was empty, giving herself a fright.

  Where did Kawaki go? Of course, Yoshiko wouldn't think that he had the leisure to appreciate the flowers on a moonlit night, and just assumed he went somewhere convenient.

  She thought to herself, isn't this a great opportunity to test Kaito? They say women are like flowers, and now she would place a fragrant bouquet on the bed, just as a one-time test for him as a rookie agent. Of course, what she really wanted was to give Kaito a surprise. However, considering the distance between them, she felt that she was being a bit too optimistic.

  Mizuko lay still for a long time, but there was no movement from Kawaki. The fragrance of her body attracted several flower-legged mosquitoes, which turned the small hut into a battlefield, flying repeatedly towards the patch of snow-white illuminated by the moonlight.

  Since lying down is not their match, why not get up and fight against these hateful guys? Meiko jumped out of bed and drove the mosquitoes back and forth.

  A man who got up at night to urinate heard the sound of "pa pa pa" and thought that the black team and white team were fighting, so he curiously crept to the side of the hut to take a peek.

  The moonlight shines on the small cottage, the bed is empty with no one in sight, while a white-flowered body keeps walking back and forth, two big white rabbits keep jumping in front of my eyes.

  The man suddenly felt a surge of heat, and he had never felt so hungry before. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, crept into the wide-open door, pounced like a wild cat catching a chicken, and wrapped his arms around the white-flowered pillar, starting the long-awaited training.

  In the birch forest, two crows are carefree and loving each other, their tender cooing sounds spreading far and wide.

  That bright moon has slipped into a bank of clouds again. It's unclear whether the cloud layer is too thick or the moon is too shy to come out, but the sky and earth are shrouded in darkness.