Chapter 21: The True Facts of the Tragedy

  "Zhibang, quickly tell me, where have you been these past few days? Why weren't you at home that day?" Leizhengyin pulled Zhao Zhibang into his own home and pressed him onto the chair by the door, anxiously asking. At this time, only Leizhengyin was left in the Lei household. Some days ago, he had sent his wife and elderly parents back to their hometown in the countryside. His only son, Leiting, had enlisted before the war broke out and was now retreating south with the army.

  "Because of the plague in Tianjin, just as I was preparing to return, I was taken away by Dean Smith of Mary Hospital, and it wasn't until this morning that I found out from the newspaper about my father and them..." She couldn't continue speaking, overcome with emotion.

  "Who would have thought that one of the young men on that day would be you?" Lei Zhengyin comforted Zhao Zhibang, who was grief-stricken and speechless, for a few moments before asking himself in confusion. "I had always thought that all of you were killed! I didn't expect you to still be alive..." Lei Zhengyin wiped away his tears and choked out the words.

  "Uncle Lei, who is this person that hates our Zhao family so much? Is it really because of **?"

  "Ah!!!!!!" Lei Zhengsheng's face was shocked after hearing Zhao Zhibang's words.

  "It's absolutely impossible! Not at all!"

  "How can you be sure it wasn't them? Didn't the newspaper say that the case was already solved and it was the Communist Party's doing?"

  "This is absolutely impossible..." Looking at Zhao Zhibang, Lei Zhengsheng shook his head firmly.

  "Uncle Lei, it's so late, where are you going and what are you doing?" Seeing Lei Zhengyin's expression, Zhao Zhibang suddenly thought of the things that happened when he met Lei Zhengyin in the Zhao family courtyard just now.

  "I'm going out to investigate the truth of the matter!" Leizheng Sheng wiped his face with his hand, took a deep breath and let out a long sigh before continuing.

  "What is the truth of the matter?"

  "I absolutely cannot allow these beasts to slander us like this..."

  "What? Uncle Lei... ... Zhao Zhibang was a bit confused by Lei Zhengsheng's words."

  "Alright, I'll tell you the truth. I'm actually the Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and we would never be able to do such a cruel thing!" Lei Zhengyuan said after hesitating for a moment.

  "You"

  "Not bad, I had already joined the party back in the Northwest Army days, your dad knew about it too, and he secretly helped me a lot, but... uh... "

  "Was that done by the Revival Society of the Nationalist Party?" Although Zhao Zhibang was shocked by Lei Zhengsheng's identity, compared to the tragic destruction of his own family, it was not worth mentioning. What he most urgently wanted to know now was who had killed his entire family.

  "I reckon this is also impossible. Your father detests the Japanese, he wouldn't do something that would betray the country, and I believe you won't either. Just because you married a Japanese woman, the Revival Society people came to kill you both, I think it shouldn't be like that. Even if they really had such intentions, now is not the time for them to act on it. According to my information, the Revival Society's Special Affairs Department is currently being upgraded to the National Government's Military Statistics Investigation Bureau, so during this period of time, they don't have the time to do something like that."

  "Oh, look, this is what I found at your house the other day..." Lei Zhengsheng looked at Zhao Zhibang and suddenly remembered something. He got up and walked to the cabinet by the window, took out something and handed it over for Zhao Zhibang to see.

  "Bayonet?" It was a bayonet used by soldiers on a rifle, although it had been burned by the big fire and its color had turned somewhat greenish, but it was still very sharp.

  "Not bad, this bayonet is specially equipped for the Japanese army's Type 38 rifle"

  "Japanese? Uncle Lei, are you saying that the ones who killed my whole family were Japanese?" Zhao Zhibang had stayed in Japan for four years, so he naturally knew where this dagger came from. When he took it over from Lei Zhengsheng's hand, he felt a vague sense of something in his heart.

  "Not bad, I've been investigating secretly these days. On the day your father and his family were killed, a Japanese person appeared at the entrance of your alley. Although only one of them accidentally said a sentence in Japanese, according to the boss who escaped from Northeast China, it was absolutely authentic Japanese accent. Because they were too far away, and the two people spoke very softly, he only vaguely heard something like 'Yanagawa'... This surname is only unique to Japanese people." Lei Zhengsheng finished speaking and looked at Zhao Zhibang for a while.

  "I think these Japanese people are still here for the things your father buried in Northeast China?" Seeing Zhao Zhibang's expressionless silence, Lei Zhengyin thought for a moment before continuing to speak. It seems that Lei Zhengyin and Zhao Chuanfu's relationship is indeed not shallow, otherwise he would not have told Lei Zhengyin about such a thing.

  "Liuchuan... Liuchuan..." At this time, Zhao Zhibang's eyes had already begun to wander, and he hadn't heard a word of what Lei Zhengsheng was saying.

  "Zhibang, what's wrong with you? Are you okay? Do you know that person named Liu Chuan?" Lei Zhengyin asked, looking at Zhao Zhibang's puzzled expression.

  "I don't know, I don't recognize..."

  "Oh, okay, it's already very late today. You can stay here for now, and we'll discuss plans tomorrow. Just bear with the mess in that room for tonight, I'm alone at home and haven't cleaned up in a long time." She then pulled Zhao Zhibang to a small room next door.

  Zhao Zhibang lay on the 'bed', muttering the name of Liu Chuan, recalling what had happened that day. Suddenly, he understood why all this was happening, but he didn't want to believe it.

  "Inosuke Masao, Yanagawa Tsuguo, you despicable scoundrels, wait for me, Zhao Zhibang will definitely make you pay with your blood!" Thinking of this, he couldn't sleep anymore and sat up, trying his best to recall things related to Inosuke Masao and Yanagawa Tsuguo. However, after thinking for a long time, he realized that he didn't even know where they were stationed. Only then did he realize how difficult it was to take revenge. He painfully grasped his hair, his lips already bleeding from being bitten, thinking about avenging his family but not even knowing where the enemy lived. In his heart, he despised his own incompetence.

  Just as he was blaming himself, the two words "military doctor" suddenly popped out of his mind. As the saying goes, "you can run away from a monk, but you can't run away from a temple." When he thought of this, he suddenly felt a kind of inexplicable pleasure, which made his spirit shake. It was a feeling of rejoicing in revenge and being heroic.

  He got up from the 'bed', walked to the wall, pushed open the window, and looked at the stars twinkling in the night sky outside. In his heart, he said: "Dad... mom... you must protect your son's revenge for you." Thinking of this, his heart ached again and tears flowed down.

  He carefully pushed open the door, walked to the edge of the wall cabinet, took out the Japanese dagger found by Lei Zhengsheng from inside and put it in his arms, then went out and disappeared into the night.