If I hadn't been in the café that day, wouldn't everything have been different? Shen Manjun wouldn't have had to accompany me from place to place, and he wouldn't have been unhappy because of me later. Now that the times have passed, there is a black spot outside the window, and the former prosperity no longer exists. Zhang Yucheng slowly retracted his gaze, and half of the cigarette in his hand had burned out. Then he took out the pocket watch given by Shen Manyun from his breast pocket and sat there quietly reminiscing about the past.

The mirror surface of the old-fashioned pocket watch is slightly reflective, and on the inside of the cover carved with a shield, there is a black-and-white photograph taken in the mid-autumn of the 24th of the Yin Kingdom. Among them, Shen Manjun was wearing a lake-blue cardigan and was smiling at her husband behind the camera. The baby girl in her arms wore a tiny burgundy beret and stared stupidly at her mother's beautiful eyelashes.

However, earthly bliss often foreshadows a tragic scene, just as the very beginning of life is destined for death. As for the happiness and joy that rippled in those sunny days, one day it will gradually fade away with the endless river like a red fall.

The following year, there was a severe drought, and the disaster situation in many places in the north was severe. The poor harvest has brought the supply level back to wartime, while the economic depression has led to soaring prices in the country. Famine and plague were raging in all provinces of the country at the same time, killing hundreds of people every day. Hungry and ragged refugees are flooded, and greased and whitewashed prostitutes greet customers in the streets. The people in Yongjin City are all in danger and look panicked all day long.

It was a humid and sultry summer night, and the sound of rickshaw wheels was mixed with the sound of street sales. The hydrangeas in front of the court are in full bloom, and the chatter on the branches is endless. The cyan creeper and the fiery red Triangle plum intertwined in the walls of the multi-storey western-style building, and the brand-new black sedan parked on the left side of the patio was driven away by the visiting doctor. I gradually recovered my health under Shen Manyun's careful care, while our daughter, who had not yet been caught, eventually died in the plague. During this period, the gold bars that Shen Manjun hid in his suitcase will decrease, and our days will begin to become tight.

Time has come to the twenty-sixth year of the Yin Kingdom, and the cold and freezing of this year have just begun. After Fenghai Radio Station played a cigarette advertisement from Tianfengguo in the song, it switched to an evening news full of noise: "The following is a report from the Glorious Society, due to the intensification of the snow disaster in the north this year, the disaster relief materials originally scheduled to be shipped to various provinces and cities in the middle of this month have been postponed, and I hope that all citizens will support each other...... "I sat next to the radio and put down the newspaper, and said to Shen Manyun quietly: "There are already people in Yongjin City who have started to eat tree bark. I want to go to Ri and Chang to exchange some silver taels, and then go to Sicily Town to buy some food for the winter. ”

At that time, Shen Manjun was sitting on the edge of the bed writing lesson plans, and the dim electric light reflected her thin side face. Since last year's poor situation at home, she has been working as a teacher at Westling University, earning a modest income to support her family. Then Shen Manjun took the silver ticket hidden under the pillow, stepped forward and stuffed it into my breast pocket, and pulled the creases on the corners of my clothes for me, and said, "By the way, buy some needlework and thread." Your cardigan is a little torn, I'll change it for you when I get back. ”

"Manyun, you've suffered with me all these years. ”

"What did you say, when did I complain about you?" Shen Manyun raised her head slightly, looked at me with clear eyes, and asked incomprehensibly, "What's wrong with you today?" However, I just looked at my wife in front of me with affection, and then left a kiss on her forehead, and then walked straight downstairs, pushed open the door and stepped into the cold wind.

Lu Shaoqian, who secretly organized the strike movement, was shot, and the bloody photographs were published in the most prominent position in the Pioneer newspaper. Half of his body was lying on the table, his handsome side face soaked in blood. There was a finger-wide bloody hole in the top of his forehead, which was the mark left by the bullet as it passed through.

The man sitting across from him raised the muzzle of his gun, most of his face shrouded in the shadow under the brim of his hat. I don't have a deep friendship with Lu Shaoqian, so I can't talk about sentimentality in my heart. Since we have chosen the revolution, we must be prepared to sacrifice ourselves for this purpose at any time. That's one of the reasons why I didn't agree to him to join the Black Flag Party back then. However, what really sent chills down my spine was the "V" character left on Lu Shaoqian's forehead by the murderer with bloodstains. This is the common code used by agents in the Special Investigation Bureau, and the meaning behind it represents: plan changes, retreat quickly. It is clear that among us there are people who have betrayed the revolutionary friendship and walked on the heads of their colleagues to glory and prosperity. Who could this man be, and where would he be next?

The chill around me grew heavier, and the howling cold wind blew through my hair from time to time. This time, I really have to go to Rihechang. It's just that I not only have to go to the black market with a silver ticket to buy food for the winter, but I also have to get some guns and ammunition from old acquaintances. In any case, the city is no longer a place for me to live in peace, and I must be prepared to respond to crises at any time. However, if God could give me a chance to do it all over again, I would never leave Shen Manyun there alone. Because only an hour later, I received a call from her in Rihechang.

"You must not come back!" Shen Manyun on the other end of the earpiece immediately interrupted me: "I don't know who confessed our news, the gendarmerie has already parked the military car downstairs." When I heard this, I was shocked, and hurriedly said to her: "Don't be afraid, Manyun, the person they want to arrest is me, and I won't embarrass you." Leave them for now, and I'll come back to save you. At the same time, there was the sound of military boots in the corridor, as if a group of gun-wielding gendarmes had rushed up.

"Decay, in fact, I like you so much. Shen Manyun suddenly whispered to me: "In my life, I have never regretted what I have done for you......" However, at this moment, a sharp gunshot suddenly rang out. And I stood still, and gradually pursed my lips and burst into tears.

The night was hazy, and the dogs barked happily. One after another, olive-green military vehicles drove in this direction, and military policemen loaded with guns jumped from them. Later, the whistle was blown to summon the gendarmerie, and martial law was going on all around the lonely café. Machine guns were erected on a blockade of barbed wire, and red signal lights flashed at nearby intersections. The pillar of light emitted from the flashlight pierced through the darkness of the street, and the sound of military boots came to an abrupt halt. They were all dressed in crisp military uniforms and looked at the man sitting in the café with solemn expressions. The officer at the head pulled his gun from his holster and aimed the crosshair at his head.

When Zhang Yucheng stepped out of the threshold, a bullet suddenly flew in front of him. The glass in the doorway shattered to the ground with a screeching sound. Then the man raised his face slightly, and a malicious gaze appeared under the brim of his black hat, and the muscles on the side of his face were constantly shaking. I saw that this person was wearing the charcoal black officer's uniform of the gendarmerie regiment, and on his chest he was wearing the Purple Sun Medal, which symbolized the rank of colonel, and he looked handsome. And Zhang Yucheng slowly turned his head, looked at the other party coldly and said:

"Gu Honglin, we were brothers who were born and died together. ”

"Yes, it used to be. ”

"Shen Manyun was arrested by someone you sent?"

"That's true. ”

"Lu Shaoqian was killed by you?"

"That's right. ”

"You are a strange thing to me right now. After hearing this, Zhang Yucheng suddenly said sadly: "Why do you have to gain fame by killing your former colleagues?"

"Life is a lifetime, grass and trees are autumn. I don't want to be unnamed for the rest of my life. Zhang Yucheng, I'm different from you. You can live the life you want, and I don't have a choice. He replied, "Your parents died trying to rescue Lieutenant General Addiwe Mellon, so he has always treated you as his own." I had nothing but my bedridden mother and my father, who was an alcoholic. So I could only sharpen my will in those humiliating years and quietly wait for the moment when the fish jumped into the dragon gate. Later, the Red Tide movement struck like a wave of doomsday, and I had the opportunity of life for the first time. ”

"Even if you know that the Red Tide Movement launched by Saron is wrong, but you still want to help the abuse?" Zhang Yucheng said sadly, "the gendarmes on three-wheeled motorcycles patrolled the streets and brazenly demanded bribes from the old pear sellers, the frenzied gendarmes broke into the houses by the river, causing the raped women to cry incessantly at night, and the imprisoned workers were finally tortured into confessions and had to testify in court according to your wishes, making the names of the conservatives more and more widely involved." But tell me, who are the conservatives? Why do these people deserve to die?"

"If you want to achieve great things in ancient and modern times, you must first make sacrifices. Do you think I want to take refuge in Salon? If I don't do it first, I'll be the next person to be shot. Gu Honglin paused and continued: "As for what conservatives? The point is that we can use this name to make a steady stream of wealth. If you were given the power to turn the world upside down overnight, would you still be living in peace as before?

"Do you think that Saron is unaware of the stakes, even though the Red Tide movement has now become more and more intense in the country, and has even gradually begun to break away from Saron's control, he still does not dare to act rashly. For once the flame of sin is kindled, it can never be quenched.

"Lust is the best weapon in the world. It can kill people invisibly, and it is invincible. Therefore, everyone has a hidden side in their hearts, tacitly acknowledging each other but killing each other. The high-ranking officials in the millennium city knew this well enough to secretly collude with each other in a vain attempt to split the regime, the military and political representatives of the provinces looted the conservative property to expand their armaments and garrisons, and the radical capitalists took advantage of the opportunity to monopolize the market, driving up prices and manipulating the stock market.

"A truly stable government is built on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, as sacred and solemn as a mountain in a vast ocean. Once Saron declares the end of the Red Tide movement, the power-manipulating politicians will attack him. The military and political representatives of the provinces, who wield military power, were able to put him on the political stage, and naturally they had the same force to push him down. The ending of the former president Nguyen Xuan is a lesson for him. Truth yields to violence, and this is politics! Zhang Yucheng, in this cannibalistic world, one day you and I will no longer be young, and we will be bloodless but our mouths will be full of blood. ”

"You have betrayed the people and the revolution, and you will be abandoned by this era. ”

"Even if it were, you wouldn't see that day. After Gu Honglin signaled to attack, he quietly retreated, and the gendarmes on both sides of the street immediately swarmed up, raising rifles with bayonets to surround him.