"We're alive." Gong Yu said.

"Yes."

"You probably wonder how I learned to shoot."

"You don't have to tell me anything about your past." Bronze said.

"But I want to tell you. I have to tell you. He forced me to learn," Mr. Gong said, "and he had guns all over the house, and there was a shooting range in the yard of his house." He used to ask me to go down and watch him shoot. ”

The flames and smoke jumped even higher.

"He knows how much I hate this. Even when I covered my ears, every gunshot made me winc. That would make him laugh. Later he decided that letting me shoot was the real thing to do. Sometimes, I think the reason he taught me how to shoot a gun was because he liked to put loaded guns around me, laugh at me, and ask me if I dared to pick one up and shoot him. He just loves the thrill. He took great pains to make me understand what he would make me suffer if I was stupid enough to try my job. Then he asked me to learn how to use a shotgun. The gunshot was louder, and the recoil was more painful. That's how I killed him with this kind of gun," Gong Yu said, "with a shotgun." ”

"Don't talk about it."

"The two-pronged one is the same one I used tonight."

"Don't talk about it." Bronze kissed a teardrop on her face. "From now on, the past doesn't exist."

"Does that mean your past doesn't exist anymore?"

"What do you want to say?"

"Have you lost that openness you've found here? Are you really getting back to where you were? Are you sealing yourself up again, feeling like you're separated from everything else like you used to? ”

"It's not separated from you," said bronze, "it's not separated from this." He pointed to the sun above the mountains, to the yellowing aspens in the basin, to the lush dwarf pines in the hills, to the shimmering red and orange glow of the highland desert and to the dark yellow northwestern evergreen shrubs of the desert. But there are some things in my life that do make me feel alienated, and these are things that I don't want you to know and that I don't want to remember. ”

"Trust me, I feel the same way."

"I'm never going to ask you about those things again," said Bronze, "and if you don't want to tell me, you'll never have to say those things." I can only imagine the horror and panic you went through. You came to Santa Fe to try to avoid the gangs, knowing that I could help you. You see me as a savior and want to hold me. Is that taking advantage of me? If yes, I'm glad you did—because if it weren't for that, I'd never have met you. Even if I knew you were using me, I would willingly let you take advantage of me. ”

Bronze reached into the back of the car and pulled out the travel bag that contained the 1 million. "For a while, after I got you out, I thought you and I were staying with me for this."

Bronze took his bag and walked towards the fire.

Gong Yu seemed taken aback. "What are you going to do?"

"I told you I had a good use for this thing, and I was going to use it to destroy the past."

"You're going to burn the money?"

"Officer Blue is right, if we spend this money, we will always feel dirty."

Bronze holds the bag above the fire.

"1 million?" Gong Yu asked.

"Money with blood. Do you really care if I burn it? ”

"Are you testing me?"

The bottom of the bag began to smolder.

"I want to get rid of the past completely," Bronze said.

Gong Yu hesitated. Flames danced along the bottom of the bag.

"Last chance." Bronze said.

"Let it go," Mr. Gong said.

"Are you sure?"

"Throw it in the fire." Gong Yu walked towards him. "For us, the past is over from now on."

……

These things that happened on the bronze body, Pu Su naturally did not know.

After returning from the farm, he received a secret letter from Gu Ji's trustee. In addition to telling him that everything would be fine after arriving in Chongqing, the secret letter also told him that Pu Su was about to enter the 76th inside, and there was more than one military commander lurking. It's just that so far he only knows that a veteran agent codenamed "Taishan" has been infiltrated for a long time, and another agent codenamed "Dagger" has just joined, and "Dagger" has been sent into the entire archive of No. 76, and Gu Ji, who has just arrived in Chongqing, happens to be accessed. Therefore, in the secret letter, he told Pu Su that the real name of the "dagger" is "bronze".

That's right, just when Gu Tong and Gong Yu were about to live a small life in Santa Fe for the rest of their lives, the military commander found him. The reason seems to be because of the disappearance of Lao Yang and Xiao Li who came to him to understand the situation, but after reporting truthfully, Bronze gradually felt that things were not so simple.

The fall of most of the country does not mean that the system of the Nationalist government is completely paralyzed. In the fact that Gong Yu shot her husband, there is no way for Bronze and Gong Yu to deny it. In view of the fact that all the father and son of the Qiao family were killed, Gong Yu lost his role as a witness, and now he has become a lever for the military commander to blackmail them.

The opinion of the military commissioner is very clear: either Gong Yu will be imprisoned pending trial, or look at the attitude of the bronze.

In addition, Lao Yang and Xiao Li were previously in order to help the bronze, first Xiao Li was shot in the head by the killer sent by the Qiao family in Xining, and then Lao Yang was seriously injured in the truck transporting them, and then covered the bronze's escape.

The previous 1 million was not burned after the bronze finally confirmed Gong Yu's sincerity. Instead, he told Gong Yu that the 1 million would be given to Lao Yang and Xiao Li's families. Gong Yu also frowned after listening to the bronze's narration.

"Oh my God! It's all because I ......," Gong said.

All these factors are combined, and bronze has no choice in the end. After soliciting Gong Yu's opinion, he agreed to return to the military command, and was directly assigned by the Chongqing Military Command Headquarters, bypassing the Shanghai intelligence station and entering No. 76. Of course, his wife, Gong Yu, also came to Shanghai with him.

Their seclusion went into an indefinite postponement.

……

After writing a reply to Gu Ji with a special invisible ink. Every day, Pu Su either carefully avoided the tracking of people who didn't know whether it was from No. 76 or the military commander, or showed up with Li Qiuyun openly, went shopping, dined, and went to the bookstore to buy books in English and French to read. Of course, these are made for the people who follow them.

Everything he showed was in line with his identity and temperament as a returnee literati. is polite to everyone, especially when he is with his "wife" Li Qiuyun. "Darling, Darling......" shouted to his beloved wife next to him, and he would help his wife carry the packaging box when shopping.

Only Pu Su himself knew that in these days, the construction of the dockyard on the side of the workshop was coming to an end. All that's missing is a freighter with the right displacement.

The construction of the dock was a lot of work. Fortunately, now they have enough manpower, except for those who are responsible for special tasks, all of them eat and live in the workshop. On the one hand, this arrangement is to maximize efficiency, and the most important thing is to hide people's eyes. So many people would have attracted attention anyway if they had shifted in and out every year.

Even if the jurisdiction is in the French Concession, the patrol officers on the street are his henchmen, and Pu Su does not want to take risks. In particular, if the White Russians in the mansion enter this area of small ethnic factories in large quantities and frequently, it is very unreasonable.

So in the past days, hundreds of people ate and lived in the factory every day. The team members on the farm on the other side of the bank all take advantage of the night to pull the winch and sit on the raft to work overtime on the opposite side every night, and return to the farm before dawn. Two or three hundred men worked almost day and night, making the construction of the dock progress almost miraculous.

On the other side, the offensive and defensive structure and internal planning of the mansion were further improved under the leadership of Chinese and Russian experts, especially the duke.

It has to be mentioned that the Belarusian area, which was originally closed by default near the mansion, is actually not a concession plan, but a spontaneous phenomenon caused by the gathering of a large number of Belarusians. Before the installation of iron gates, the behavior of closing the alleys in the block actually did not comply with the relevant management norms.

It's just that the current situation on the battlefield in Europe has made the French people in Shanghai panic, and to a large extent, they no longer have the heart to carry out the same strict management as before. Almost all of the French dispatches were left to their own devices, and those loyal to the knightly honor of France were asked to be repatriated to participate in the war. The situation in Shanghai is not good, and the situation in the motherland is also precarious, so many French people are trying to get a ticket to the United States for themselves and their families.

The role played by Lao Ren at this time is huge. At this time, the planning department of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, like the Board of Directors, proposed to renovate the gathering area and build a "roscht". Under the matchmaking and matchmaking of the old Ren, through a series of unsuccessful bribery, Alyosha finally got the planning permission, and judging from the drawings, the area of the future "borscht" is far beyond the scope of the appearance. The north side starts from Xiafei Road, the east faces Chongqing Road, the south reaches Xiangshan Road, which is now across the street from Pusu, and the west side is close to Jin Shenfu Road.

The "Luozon Lane" in the plan is divided into eight neighborhoods, which are divided by longitude and latitude, and are arranged in turn, "one neighborhood, two neighborhoods, three neighborhoods, and four neighborhoods......

The Duke and Pu Su agreed, and the center remained the current fortress. The expanded area was used as an outer cover and guard, leased to some ordinary residents and foreign employees, and scattered and planted by them like sand, as a peripheral guard and intelligence point.

After that, some of the team members that Pu Su asked from the border area will be stationed in a scattered manner. The so-called "Luozonli", of course, could not refuse the Chinese, after all, this is China. Just like the "Chinatown" in San Francisco, it is impossible for all Chinese to be Chinese. It's just a Belarusian gathering area, and the street pavements and style are more Russian. And the proportion of Belarusians is indeed relatively high here compared to the rest of Shanghai. Except for the Russian wing in the Public Concession and a small number of White Russians who were operating all kinds of underground operations there, most of the White Russians in Shanghai were concentrated in the French Concession.

The approval of the "Roscht" project is a symbol of great significance for both Pusu and Alyosha.

This was the first semi-official recognition of the gathering of Belarus by the French authorities in Shanghai. Judging by the name and location of the project alone, this is a commercial and political project that is fully compliant with any of the most stringent legal scrutiny.

The approval of the project is not only a declaration that Alyosha is representative of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, but also more than that. French law is typical of the European and American legal system, and the protection of private property is written into the constitution. Therefore, from now on, the owner can defend against any infringement of the rights and interests of "Luo Song Li". In the past, it was suspected of violating the management of the concession, such as sealing the door and locking the block, but now it is completely reasonable and legal.

In the future, things such as "Private industry, idlers are not allowed to enter!" "Such a sign can be hung at will. Gates can even be placed at the various and external junctions of alleys and streets. It is grandiose and famous.

Many of the enlarged parts are cluttered private rooms. The Duke proposes to invest a sum of money to re-plan, which is also an investment. At that time, the giants in Shanghai basically started by speculating on real estate, especially a few Jews. Also in a foreign land, the situation of the White Russians in Shanghai was far from comparable to that of the Jews.

It's not that Russians don't have a talent for business, or that they are so much worse than Jews. The main reason is that many of the Jews who came in the early days were evacuated from Europe in preparation and brought all the wealth they had accumulated to the Far East. So, they don't lack initial capital.

And in the White Russians in Shanghai, except for big soldiers like Alyosha, they are all refugees who have fled without exception. Even if he is as expensive as a duke, after fleeing from Moscow to Harbin and then to Shanghai in a hurry, he is almost penniless. Later, with some remaining savings, he opened a photo studio to chat and make a living.

And the economic situation of the duke in the White Russian community is already considered to be a very good kind. The vast majority of the Russian nobles who fled were able to log in to Shanghai in order to survive, even if they brought their wealth with them, they were also stripped of themselves the moment they entered Shanghai. The gangster who had been entrenched in the White Russian gathering area in Shanghai before was harshly sucking the bones of his compatriots and squeezing out the last silver coin from them.

Therefore, in view of the fact that the real estate market and rents in the Shanghai Concession are now reaching new highs, Pu Su asked Li Qiuyun to calculate the funds in hand and prepare to carry out the "Roscht" project with the Russian Chamber of Commerce with commercial investment. Taking advantage of the large-scale infrastructure construction, they can purchase a lot of tools and equipment, which can be used not only to build, but also to re-optimize the layout of the "fortress".

This means that the movements that attracted attention during the construction of the fortifications in the past will no longer need to be concealed in the large-scale construction in the future.