Five years later.

The world has changed dramatically again. The heart of Europe flies the swastika; The puppet Manchukuo of Puyi appeared in Northeast Asia, and Chang Kaishen was forced to change course and open his guns outward; In the winter of 1936, a mutiny occurred in Japan, in which several ministers were killed, and two veterans of the Paris Peace Conference, Saionji and Nobuaki Makino, were nearly killed. Europe and Asia, like two out-of-control tomb beasts, rush out of the grave step by step.

In the twenty-sixth year of the Republic of China, 1937 AD, the seventh day of the seventh month of the Gregorian calendar.

Ye Kenan, a famous detective in the capital, rode a white horse, wore a cyan robe, wore a top hat, and wore a pistol at his waist, just like a chivalrous man in the former Qing Dynasty. The majesty of his youth has turned into dust. Two years ago, he had just celebrated his fiftieth birthday, and the beard on his lips was getting darker and darker, except for a few gray hairs on his temples. It has been many years since his daughter-in-law passed away, and Ye Ke is a single, not that no matchmaker has sent a photo of a big girl or a little widow, but he has never seen a straight eye.

At dusk, Ye Kenan went out of Guang'anmen alone and rode to Wanping City. The 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army is stationed in the city, which is on high alert, and no one is allowed to approach at night. Ye Ke dismounted, took advantage of the night to walk around the city, and walked along the northern city wall of Wanping.

This is the most dangerous option, Fengtai in the north of Wanping City is close at hand, and the 1st Wing of the Japanese North China Garrison Army is stationed. The Japanese army had besieged Beiping from three sides. Lugou Bridge and Wanping County have almost become the only passage to the outside world in Beiping. Song Zheyuan's 29th Army was trapped in the lonely city, as well as the Nanyuan base outside the city. As for the arsenal built in the era of the Beiyang warlords, it has long been completely demolished because of the change of dynasty. As a detective of the Beiping Police Department, Ye Kenan was ordered by the director to come to Lugou Bridge to investigate the situation.

Although it was the height of summer, the situation on both sides of the Yongding River was as solemn as late autumn. In the quiet of the wilderness night, the crickets chirped vigorously. The Lugou Bridge with 11 holes and arches spans the Yongding River since the Dading period of the Jin Dynasty, and is the longest ancient stone bridge in North China. Marco Polo once praised this bridge, and Westerners called it "Marco Polo Bridge". The Lugou Bridge is also a necessary place for Beijing to go south to the Central Plains, and all the emperor's coffins buried in the Qing Xiling Tomb must pass through the Lugou Bridge - the last one is the Guangxu Emperor.

At the east end of the bridge is the "Lugou Xiaoyue" of Emperor Qianlong's imperial pen, but there is no trace of moonlight when you look up. Ye Kenan stepped on the bridge cautiously, and if he was used as a spy by the Chinese and Japanese soldiers, he would definitely be shot indiscriminately and turned into a hornet's nest.

Rumbling artillery fire rang out from the north of the Lugou Bridge. Ye Kenan hid under the stone lion on the bridge railing, and found that the area around Fengtai, where the Japanese army was stationed, was full of flickering lights. If it is not a war, at least it is a military exercise with real knives and guns. Several tracer bullets rose from the sky, almost illuminating the Lugou bridgehead.

Despite the smell of gunsmoke wafting through the air, the ancient Lugou Bridge remained silent. Out of the corner of Ye Kenan's eyes, he saw a thin figure passing by. He immediately pulled out his pistol, thinking to himself that it must not be a Japanese scout from the short East, right?

The figure turned around three times in one step, with a ponytail trailing behind his head, a big burden on his back, and a long-handled umbrella.

Ye Kenan raised his pistol and shouted in a low voice: "What person? ”

"Chinese!"

The voice was like a girl, and with the help of the searchlight on the Yongding River, Ye Kenan saw that there was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old beautiful girl on the Lugou Bridge, dressed in the common big girl costume in Beiping City, floating in the dark night like a ghost.

"Who are you?"

In the end, it is a detective, and he will not let his guard down when he sees the girl, and he asked with the muzzle of the gun as usual.

"I ...... I am a student at Peking Girls' High School, who are you? ”

Although this girl's Chinese is standard, it is not a Beijing film, I think she came from the south.

Ye Kenan also lit up: "Beiping Police Station, Ye Kenan." ”

"Inspector Ye? Are you the famous Beijing detective Ye Kenan? ”

"It's like a fake."

Ye Kenan took two steps closer to the other party, although this face was a little more mature, it still maintained a graceful and heroic posture, which made people impressed.

"Do you remember me?" The girl almost put her face in front of Ye Kenan's eyes, "You hugged me!" Kissed me! ”

"Presumptuous!" Ye Kenan's face was almost red, and he took a big step back, "You girl, how can you talk nonsense!" ”

"I was just over a year old that year, and my mother said that when you kissed me in Baqiao, Xi'an, I also on you."

"Are you ......" Ye Kenan's eyes widened, and he waited until the Japanese searchlight swept to the Lugou Bridge again, and then he could see the girl's face clearly, and she was a beauty, her eyes were like Ouyang Anna, but the bridge of her nose was like Qin Beiyang, "Are you - nine colors?" ”

"Well, my mom is Ouyang Anna, and my dad is...... Qin Beiyang. ”

"You are indeed the daughter of Qin Beiyang!"

Ye Kenan almost clapped his hands on the spot and screamed, seventeen years ago, when Ouyang Anna was going to marry Qi Yuanshan, he was still extremely opposed, and now he finally has an answer.

The seventeen-year-old girl grinned: "Now my name is Qin Jiuse." Two years ago, my mother sent me to Peking to study in a girls' high school to prepare for the National Peking University entrance examination next year. ”

"Oh, where's your mother? Don't you come to me when you get to Beiping? ”

"She's back to White Deer Plain."

Hearing the three words Bailuyuan, Ye Kenan frowned: "Your mother is not in Beiping, nor in Shanghai, but in Bailuyuan?" ”

"Well, but it's a secret, I'll only tell Inspector Ye about you alone."

"Okay, tonight is tense, the big battle is imminent, why did you come to Lugou Bridge?"

Jiuse looked up at the sky: "Hmm...... I'm here to enjoy the moon at Lugou Bridge, don't you see that the bridge head has the words 'Lugou Xiaoyue' written? ”

"Today is the thirtieth day of the lunar calendar, the time is wrong, and the moon cannot be seen in the sky."

Jiuse coughed embarrassedly: "Now that this is the situation, I'm afraid that in two days, I won't see Lugou Bridge again." ”

"Edit!" Ye Kenan smiled, as if interrogating a prisoner, "Let's make it up!" ”

The little girl scratched her head, and happened to touch a stone lion on the railing of the bridge in her hand: "By the way, people say that the number of lions on the Lugou Bridge can't be counted, so I'm here to count how many there are tonight?" ”

"Five hundred and two, I've counted!"

Ye Kenan blurted out, and Jiuse was speechless.

Suddenly, the stone slab of the Lugou Bridge shook slightly. The stone lion in front of the two also began to shake, as if it was about to roar. The Japanese shells came over? Ye Kenan dragged Jiuse to lie down, protecting the little girl's back with both hands. Jiu Se broke free from him, poked his head out of the railing of the bridge, and stared at the Yongding River flowing deep in the still water in the dark night.

Another tracer bomb flew across the sky, illuminating the water surface under the Lugou Bridge, revealing a turbid whirlpool, splashing white foam, like the jet of Baotu Spring, making a rumbling sound, even the heat and rotten egg smell of hot springs. Ye Kenan was extremely surprised, knowing the drought in the north, this Yongding River is no longer the land with abundant water and grass in the past, and most of the flow is cut off every year. The water is only one or two feet deep tonight, I'm afraid that even children can't drown, how can there be such a big movement?

Could it be that there is some monster hiding under the bridge?

Searchlights illuminate the night sky, and the water glows with layers of gold. Two glass-colored dazzling lights rushed out from the bottom of the Lugou Bridge in an instant, making Ye Kenan unable to open his eyes.

Qin Jiuse was lying on the side of the railing, only to see a pair of huge and friendless antlers floating in the Yongding River, like two towering trees with teeth and claws, but they were the color of white bones. The antlers were attached to the head of a wild beast, with a black and shiny shell, like the pig dragon in the southern Daze. Its terrifying eyes stared at the old man and the beautiful girl on the Lugou Bridge.