A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1047 Finding Refugees and Writing Reports

Wu Mingqiang pondered for a moment and said, "Long Xing is indeed cautious, which has been his way of dealing with people for many years. However, he needs me now because we are working on smuggling rice. We have successfully transported a batch and made a fortune. He is very satisfied, so don't worry."

Upon hearing this, Gui'er handed the manuscript to Zhou Hong. After reading it, Zhou Hong exclaimed, "I never imagined Guangzhou would become like this. It's just a sea away, yet it's like night and day." She didn't change a single word and published it directly.

This time, the article, because it described the living conditions of people in Guangzhou in detail, has generated an even greater response.

Lin Peishan told Gui'er, "Brother Chen also read your article and thought it was excellent. It awakened many people with conscience and made them more active in resisting Japan."

Gui'er said, "The newspaper has expressed its willingness to continue commissioning articles from me. Next, I may need to find some refugees from the mainland, listen to their stories, and continue to write articles for publication."

Lin Peishan nodded approvingly, then suddenly said, "Then you must be careful. Although they are all compatriots who fled from the mainland, there is a mixed bag of people among them. My father said that some people had already exhausted their family fortune when they fled here. They could only resort to petty theft and other dangerous means. Some women even ended up in prostitution. At this time, some people will do anything for money. You'd better bring your attendant with you."

Gui'er smiled and said, "Don't worry, I know. I'll try my best to find material from people I know."

When school was over, Acheng drove over to pick her up, and Gui'er told him about it.

Ah Cheng laughed and said, "Miss, finding someone like that is easy. Hong Kong is full of people who fled from the mainland. They hate the Japanese devils. They would be more than happy to expose their atrocities. For example, there's a small teahouse called Bai Xiang Lou near our Juzhen Pawnshop. The owner's nephew recently fled from the mainland. He's from Fengcheng. Why don't you ask him to come and talk to you?"

Gui'er was overjoyed. This was no longer just about materials; she also wanted to know the latest situation over there, so she quickly said, "Great, great!"

So Acheng turned his car around and went to Baixianglou, which was near his family's pawnshop.

As soon as Gui'er got off the car, a short, stout man in his forties came out to greet her and said, "Oh, the young master of Juzhen Pawnshop is here. It's rare for you to visit our shop. Come in, come in. I'll brew you a pot of Longjing tea to try."

Gui'er smiled and said, "Thank you, boss." At the same time, she was quite puzzled as to how the other person knew her, since she had never met him before.

As the boss spoke, he ushered her and Acheng into the room and led them to the second floor: "Come on, sit in the private room on the second floor. You can see the view of the street from there. It's much more comfortable than the first floor."

After Gui'er sat down, she smiled and said to the shop owner, "Shop owner, you're too kind. I rarely come to this pawnshop. I didn't expect you to recognize me."

"I heard the young master is a medical student, which is quite impressive. He's busy with his studies all day, so of course he doesn't have time to come over. But the shops on this street have received a lot of care from Butler Wu."

"So that's how it is," Gui'er suddenly understood. The other party was just using this opportunity to curry favor with Wu Mingqiang.

However, these areas were indeed within Wu Mingqiang's sphere of influence. Whether she liked it or not, this was the situation, and she couldn't do anything about it, so she simply decided to ignore it.

"Boss, I heard that your nephew fled from Fengcheng. I would like to ask about the current situation in Fengcheng. Could you please ask him to come out and tell me?"

Upon hearing this, the boss quickly said, "What's the big deal? That's right. I heard that Miss is from Jiangcheng, so we're practically from the same hometown. We should keep in touch more often. I'll call him up here right now. Ah Fa, Ah Fa, come up here, come up here. We have a distinguished guest looking for you. You should tell this Miss about things in Fengcheng."

A short while later, a tall, thin young man walked in. Gui'er was a little startled when she saw him. His face was dark, his cheekbones were high, and the flesh on his cheeks was sunken. What was most striking was his eyes. Normally, he was not an unattractive young man, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, but for some reason, there was a sense of fear in his eyes, as if he had been frightened and had not yet recovered.

Acheng saw him frown, stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you must be Afa, right?"

He looked at Acheng nervously and nodded mechanically.

Acheng smiled and said, "We're not here for anything else. We're from Jiangcheng. We heard you recently fled from Fengcheng and wanted to ask you about the situation there."

The young man's expression softened a little, but the feeling of being overly frightened had not subsided.

He said, "I have never been to Jiangcheng. I have lived in Fengcheng since I was a child, running a small bar with my parents."

Gui'er quickly said, "It's alright. I have friends in Fengcheng, so I'd like to know about the situation there. Could you tell me about it? Please have a seat."

Ah Fa sat down awkwardly and muttered to himself, "I don't really know what happened. Everyone said the Japanese were coming, so my parents hid all the grain and valuables in the cellar. They also closed the shop. Our whole family hid in the cellar. Soon after, we heard gunshots outside. My dad said he was going out to check the situation the next day, but he never came back. I wanted to go out, but my mom wouldn't let me. We survived on the grain we had for seven or eight days, but it was almost gone. We had no choice but to come out of the cellar and find that the houses of our neighbors and the exterior walls of our house had many bullet holes."

"At this time, my father suddenly came back and said that he had been hiding at a friend's house for the past few days because the Japanese were killing people indiscriminately in the streets. He dared not come back. He calculated that the food at home was almost gone and was afraid that something would happen to my mother and me, so he had no choice but to risk coming back. He said that he could not stay in Fengcheng and wanted to come here to seek refuge with my uncle. So we packed up the remaining food and valuables and set off before dawn, when the curfew had just been lifted."

"Any encounter with the Japanese along the way would have meant certain death. Halfway through, a fellow villager who was traveling with us was robbed by bandits because he was ahead of us. His daughter was kidnapped, and everyone felt sorry for her. So we pooled some money to ransom her. When we got the girl back, she had gone mad. My father had taken out money, and people found out he had money on him. Later, when we arrived in Guangzhou and asked a smuggler to take us by boat, the smuggler threatened us to hand over all our money or he would throw us into the sea. We had no choice but to hand it over. Halfway there, we encountered a Japanese patrol boat, and without saying a word, they opened fire on us. Half of the people on board were shot. In order to escape, the smuggler threw them into the sea, whether they were dead or not. My father was among them. Although my mother and I arrived in Hong Kong safely, my mother was so frightened that she fell ill and passed away a few days ago."