CH 6

I went to Yue Xiaoman’s house first to settle everything. Her old father behaved like a neurotic. One moment he was cursing his daughter as a sweeper, another moment he was saying that the school is responsible for what happened, and another moment he was crying on his knees and begging my father to save Xiaoman.

I thought Yue Xiaoman’s dad only had a straight face. It turns out that when faced with the wellbeing of his own children, any father has a side to him that people normally don’t see.

On our way back, I was silent but my father kept grumbling. “Bingqing, you’ve caused a lot of trouble this time. There’s always a reason to spend for you. The reason why I hastily married your sister to Captain Du was because the Colonel came to the house to propose marriage. Only after I told him that I had already promised someone, and it was the son of Major General Du, he was willing to give up.”

“Come on, Dad. Let’s not talk about it. Let’s think about how we can rescue Xiaoman.” 

I was annoyed and turned my head away. Through the glass window of the car, Qin Shiyue’s figure flashed by. I hurriedly ordered the driver Xiao Chen to stop and told my father to go home first as I met an acquaintance. 

When I got out of the car, I lost sight of Qin Shiyue. In front of me was a government office of the nationalist party. I wondered if he had come to report some information. I sat helplessly on the opposite step. Although I knew that Qin Shiyue was a secret agent infiltrated into the revolutionary party, I was pondering how to get in touch with the man whose code name was Tengu.

“Miss, do you want to buy flowers?” On the steps in front of me were a pair of black cloth shoes with edging. When I looked up, there was a young girl of my age, with big greasy braids wearing a white blouse with red flowers.

“Oh, good.”

“This magnolia flower is white and fragrant. It suits the young lady most. Would you like to smell it?” 

The enthusiastic flower girl didn’t wait for me to refuse and brought the flower to my nose. The flowers did smell good, but the fragrance was so strong that it made me drowsy. I shook my head off. The girl in front of me had a sweet smile that looked too eerie. 

It was too late for me to push the magnolia flower away. I felt my eyelids begin to sink and a voice in my ears seemed to be coming from the sky, further and further away.