Summer has just begun, and the sun is scorching along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea. Seeing the sweat and disappointment on the face of the Land Rover. Shizuko Takahashi suggests going to a café for a cold drink to cool off and take a break.

The café is no longer the scene of the past, without the slogan "A grain of rice equals a bullet, save for jihad"; There is no tofu residue called "substitute food". There was no long queue to buy a boiled sweet potato for the tooth sacrifice. There are nickel-plated beverage carts, "White Horse" whiskey with ice water, Coca-Cola, vending machines, and "slot tigers", all of which are things that the people of Chungang have never heard of and dare not think of. Even the singing voice in the microphone is rusty and Western. Like five fingers pressed together on the harmonic and chaotic tune of the organ. The singer must be a girl in a dress, sheer pantyhose, permed short hair, and holding a fully automatic camera. What about the "Moon in the Deserted City" with shamisen and Hawaiian guitar accompaniment? What about the "Song of the Carriage"? Hmm, what about the girl with a bow tied on the back of her kimono?

"It's embarrassing for you to look at me like that."

"Ah, I'm sorry, that's rude, I'm thinking about something else."

Shizuko wanted to divert Lu's attention and satisfy her curiosity, so she asked Lu, "I heard that you came here to work at the age of fifteen, why?" ”

"The Japanese army captured me. When they were sweeping, I was suffering from malaria and couldn't run. ”

"You were the Eighth Route Army at that time?"

"No, common people, go to school and herd sheep at the same time. To herd sheep is to drive the flock out to graze and then drive them back. ”

"You have a lot of sheep?"

"I don't have one. Let it be released to others, three in this family and five in that family, and let it out in a group, and rush back to their respective homes. ”

"You are a common man, why should you be arrested."

"The Tojo Cabinet passed a decree to requisition labor from China. Because all the young and middle-aged people in Japan have gone to serve in the army. Maybe you don't believe it. At that time, the men of Chungang were gathered, and there were not as many people in the park in front of them. ”

"It's terrible! I read from a book printed by the Japan-China Friendship Association that the Japanese army had committed terrible crimes in China, and I am really sorry. ”

"You don't need to apologize, I have fought gun-to-knife and killed enemies with the Japanese army; But I also have Japanese friends, friends who share weal and benement. Of course you are friends. ”

"Who was your first Japanese friend?"

The first friend was called Kenji Ito.

Land Rover's hometown is an anti-Japanese base area. When he was a member of the children's regiment, he often worked as a guide for the troops at night and delivered information. One night, the village chief asked him to lead a team of more than a dozen martial arts workers to the newly built stronghold of Weizhuang. Huzi's aunt is married in Weizhuang, and he can find it with his eyes closed.

The village chief led him to the oil room where the martial arts team rested, and handed him over to Captain Zhao of the martial arts team. Captain Zhao often travels in this village and is very familiar with Huzi. He deliberately said to the village chief: "I told you to find a good and reliable guide, why did you get this kid?" ”

This hurts Huzi's self-esteem! How high did he jump, and asked Captain Zhao, "What are you talking about?" How am I bad? How is it unreliable? ”

"You don't obey orders and listen to commands! Last time, I went to touch the Hejiasi Puppet Military Region Department, and I asked you to come back before the start, why did you sneak up on the stronghold......"

"Who hasn't made a mistake yet! Eight roads are not interested in prejudices. ”

"Okay, Wei Zhuang has your aunt, aren't you more talkative? The village chief, change people as soon as possible. ”

"I'll get it if I don't go into the village today."

"That's not going to work either."

"What do you say?"

"I'll call you back halfway, and you'll come back."

"I obey orders!"

"I can't believe you."

"The big husband is a word, let's hook!"

When Huzi and the captain were hypocritical, the other team members were silent, only two people wearing purple cloth and white sheep's belly handkerchiefs on their heads muttered and laughed quietly, but Huzi didn't care to listen to what they said. After the captain hooked him, he pointed to a military satchel in front of the two men and said, "You help carry that one on your back." Huzi walked over and picked up the satchel and was about to carry it on his body, when one of the bespectacled ones suddenly stood up and said, "Your child, don't work too hard, my top is good!" ”

This frightened him, and he stared at the man for a long time, and said to himself, "Mother! It's a devil! "Turn around and run. At this moment, the whole room laughed, and Captain Zhao grabbed him and said, "Just such a little courage to resist Japan, he is not a devil, he is a comrade." ”

"How can you talk to the devils who come to sweep?"

"He's a Japanese comrade."

"There are still comrades in Japan?"

The man with glasses took Huzi's hand and said, "We are comrades." Anti-war coalition, understand? ”

Huzi didn't understand. However, since Captain Zhao and his comrades are marching and resting with this devil comrade, it is probably not much danger. He didn't run away, but he returned the satchel to the one who wore glasses, that is, a comrade, and he was still a devil, and he didn't want to carry a satchel for a ghost comrade.

It's a month of blackheads. The southeast wind blew the salad of the green gauze tent, like the sound of the tide of the sea. At first, they walked in the traffic trench, and at each intersection, Huzi explained to Captain Zhao the signs to identify the direction when he returned: here you have to carry the two poplar trees on your back, and there you have to go around the edge of the broken kiln to the left, there is a dead end, and where is the fake trench...... When he was only two miles away from the stronghold, he could see the searchlight on the bunker. He led them out of the sorghum fields, and crawled over the alfalfa fields to the back of a mound of graves. He pointed to the front and said: "The road to the south is to the front of the village, and there are puppet army cards at the entrance of the village during the day, and at night they all get into the turret, pull up the suspension bridge, drink and smoke white noodles." The north side of the road to the back of the village is passing in front of the barbed wire fence of the Japanese army, because no one dares to walk on the grass vines. But if you look closely, you can still recognize the path. ”

Captain Zhao praised him twice and told him to go back, he snorted twice, didn't dare to play tricks, and climbed into the alfalfa field again, crawling and crawling, feeling that someone was pulling the corner of his clothes. He looked back, there was no human figure, there were two things shining blue in the black ground, he was startled, and later realized that it was the glasses of Comrade Devil. He whispered, "What work?" ”

Comrade Devil stuffed a soft paper bag in his hand, put his arm around his shoulder, and said, "Our good friend, goodbye." He turned around and crawled away again. Huzi touched the paper bag, there were a few hard pieces of things in it, he raised it to his nose and smelled it, spraying incense. I pulled out a piece and licked it with my tongue, hey, it's candy. He quickly put it in his mouth, and as he snorted, he crawled out of the alfalfa field, stepped over the sorghum field in three steps and two steps, jumped into the traffic trench, and he sat down against the root of the trench. He promised the captain that he would not go into the village with them, and he did not say that he was not allowed to listen to the movement.

The candy was fragrant and sweet, the southeast wind blew lazily, there was no movement on the other side of the stronghold, wait, wait, wait, his eyelids became heavier and heavier, and when he heard the gunshot, he didn't know how much work he had slept. The old sleeve, ***, smack, like knocking on a bucket! Czech machine guns like fried beans. There was a sound, and the sound stopped, and it all stopped. I heard someone shouting, and the voice came with the wind, intermittently. But I don't understand a word, well, it's Japanese. By the way, the buzz is the voice of that devil comrade. It's grunting, it's fast and it's not clear, it's a! It seems to say a few words over and over again: "What is Sang, what is Nasai!" ”

The gun went off again, the horn hook, the horn horn, the horn horn, it was the 38 big cover and the crooked handle, needless to say, it was from the gun tower, and the "comrade devil" could be heard shouting in the gunshot.

The shouting was interrupted. It became the shouts of the Japanese troops, the chaotic footsteps. Huzi didn't feel good. On the way back to the village, the gunshots fell cold, but the footsteps were getting closer and closer, and when he heard that he was almost behind him, Huzi hurriedly flashed into a fork in the ditch and lay down on the ground to hide.

The people reached the fork in the ditch. I only heard:

"Here, I'll recite a paragraph."

"Slow down, slow down."

"Is that okay?"

"Thank you!"

Huzi heard that it was the returning martial arts team and drilled out. Captain Zhao saw the fire: "It's so dangerous, you don't want to go home yet?" But as soon as he turned around, he stopped him again, and asked with a pleasant face: "The nearest fortress village here is Hu Lou, right?" How far away? ”

"Four miles to the land!"

"Do you know the way?"

"My sister lives in Hulou, and she is a fortress household."

Captain Zhao remembered. His brother-in-law asked the Japanese devils to pick them with bayonets during the sweep, and since then this woman has become a member of the "Anti-Japanese Youth Vanguard". She gave Captain Zhao that they ran through the traffic. Pungent and decisive, serving her in-laws, raising orphans, and actively participating in anti-Japanese work, she has never seen her frown in front of people, and she has ever complained bitterly.

"You take us to Hu Lou. The Japanese comrades hung up the lottery, so they had to find a place to bandage him and ambush him. ”

Huzi looked at the figure being carried, touched the candy in his pocket, and said embarrassedly: "Give me that satchel on your back." ”

"In the satchel is a Japanese leaflet, which has been scattered outside the base." Captain Zhao said, "It's weighty, don't toss him anymore." ”

Huzi brought the martial arts team to Hulou, handed them over to the anti-Japanese village chief, and jumped over the wall to his sister's house, where his sister's in-laws lived. ”

My sister woke up, opened the door and let him in, and asked uneasily, "Something happened at home?" ”

"Nope!" Huzi said, "I'm leading the way for the team, let's see you and your little nephew go back." ”

The elder sister lit the lamp, let him rest on the kang, took out two eggs from the grass hoard, put them in the kettle, boiled them for him, and asked him, "Which unit is coming?" ”

"Zhao Dacheng's martial arts team, an anti-war alliance has been colored......"

"What? What is an anti-war alliance? ”

"Look at you, backward and strong, or an anti-Japanese woman!" Huzi pursed his lips disdainfully and said, "The anti-war alliance doesn't know, it's the Japanese comrades who fight devils, and Japan also has the Eighth Route Army, do you understand?" ”

After eating the eggs, Huzi lay down on the kang and slept until midnight. There was no one in the house, they were all busy in the upper room, and when he saw that he had delayed herding the sheep, he didn't even say hello, and hurriedly ran home. The next day he developed a fever and then malaria. Lying in a fit of half a month, before noon that day, my parents went to the field to pick cotton, and the Japanese army suddenly appeared in Zhuangtou. As soon as he got out of the alley, he asked the Japanese soldiers to grab him like chickens, and he and six or seven of the captured people were tied to a rope and escorted to the railway station, where they were pulled on stuffy tankers until they reached Qingdao, where they were shaved heads, changed into gray overalls, and put a white armband on their left arm, which read: "North China Labor Association, coolies." Five days later, they were loaded into the cargo hold of the "Kyushu Maru" along with the bauxite shale ore and transported to the three islands of Fuso.

Lu Hushi briefly told this past story to Takahashi Shizuko, Takahashi Shizuko sighed after listening to it, she has been engaged in Japan-China friendship for several years, and she has also heard some friendly stories, but this is the first time that it is directly told by the parties concerned. For a variety of reasons, many of the friends of the Anti-War League did not share their experiences. In this society, there are various currents of thought. In that war, the Japanese warlords launched it under the slogan of "serving the emperor, winning glory for the nation, and surviving for Japan." Although the Japanese nation suffered a tragic sacrifice and many people have reflected on this, many people still discriminate against and hostile the Japanese who used their lives to oppose the war and form an alliance of struggle with the Chinese people.

Shizuko Takahashi doesn't have this bias, and she wants to know more.

"Have you never seen that bespectacled Japanese comrade again?"

"I've seen him, and he's told me a lot of things, but that's after I returned from Japan."

"Can you tell me too?"

"Leave it to the train, we should go to the station."

They walked out of the park and into the side street. This was the fourth time he had walked down the street in one day, and when he was about a third of the way through, Huzi's eyes narrowed as if they had been pierced by a bright light. After walking three times, I didn't even find that in the gap between the new building and the colorful signboard, there was a corner that had been forgotten by time, it was so small that the giant wheel of history actually leaked through the depression of the wheel teeth when it rumbled past.

It was a small wooden house only five meters wide and three or four meters high, and the planks were painted blue. On the triangular column-shaped billboard erected on the street outside the door, an old man wearing glasses with peach-shaped lenses is depicted. The old man's chest was written with the word "glasses" written in distorted lettering.

"Miss Takahashi, shall we take a look at this optical shop? Is there still time? Shizuko looked at the watch on her wrist and said, "Ten minutes, only ten more minutes." ”