🔑 New Month, New Passkey!
Ko-fi Supporters: The ad-free passkey for November has been updated! Please check your Ko-fi account or latest supporter post to click the new activation link and keep your ad-free access active.

A Prophet - Chapter 13 (Part 1)

Chapter 1 - Resurrection of "Second Sister-in-law Tian" 

November in the puppet state of Manchukuo was a world of swirling, heavy snow.

Inside cell 007 of the Japanese Fengtian Military Administration Office, Master Zu sat cross-legged on the detention room floor.

Suddenly, the iron door swung open. A Japanese female officer walked in, stopped right before Master Zu, and asked in fluent Chinese, "Master Zu, have you thought it through? Will it be cooperation, or non-cooperation?"

Master Zu looked at her and smiled faintly. "Cooperation."

"Good." The female officer's face broke into a smile. "There is an old Chinese saying: He who adapts to the times is a wise man. Since Master Zu can see through the current situation, that is progress."

As it turned out, on the day Master Zu was taken away by the municipal police, his identity was verified at the French Concession police station before he was escorted toward the Japanese-occupied zone of Wusong.

Master Zu felt a slight tremor in his heart. This was disastrous—the French and Japanese had colluded, and his life was surely forfeit!

Along the way, his mind churned violently. Reflecting on more than a decade in the underworld traversing the rivers and lakes, running here and there, and living a fugitive's life, what had it all been for? After his death, what would become of his faction? What would happen to his sworn brothers? Then, he thought of his departed family. They had long since crossed the Yellow Springs road, leaving him alone, isolated, and helpless. What had he come to this life for? He recalled the words Huang Farong had muttered while drunk a few days prior: "Farong's life is bitter, far from home; she thinks of Swallow Mother in the south and her birth mother in the north, with no one to turn to, utterly alone..." At least Huang Farong still had a birth mother to yearn for, while he was truly, utterly alone! At this thought, a profound sense of desolation washed over Master Zu's heart!

To his utter surprise, upon arriving at the Japanese military camp, the Japanese did not rush to execute him, instead shoving him into a heavy truck. After a week of jolting day and night, when Master Zu stepped out of the vehicle once more, he found himself deep in the vast expanses of the Northeast.

Shortly after, Master Zu was led into the Fengtian Military Administration Office.

"Master Zu, I trust you have been well since we last met?" No sooner had he arrived at the administration office than a female officer began interrogating him.

Master Zu took a look at her and found her terribly familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before. Pondering carefully, he thought, Oh! It's her!

"Aren't you already..." Master Zu blurted out.

"Dead, right?" The woman smiled. "This is where you Chinese lose to us Japanese: you have far too many traitors. As long as you are willing to spend money, anything can be achieved."

Master Zu chuckled softly and said, "Second Sister-in-law Tian truly possesses boundless magical powers."

This woman was none other than Yoshiko Nishida, who had "shot herself to death" in Guangzhou two years ago.

"Please call me Nishida," Yoshiko Nishida sneered. "Your China is already terminally ill. The day before the Secret Investigation Group cleared us out, we received a tip-off from an informant inside the Nationalist Party. That so-called Japanese female secret agent who committed suicide by shooting herself was actually a Chinese woman—a female Communist from Fujian. After being captured by the Nationalist Party, she was made a scapegoat, and it was never a suicide at all; it was a fabrication staged by the Secret Investigation Group. Just as your entire country was celebrating the eradication of the Japanese spy nest, we had already set up shop anew in Zhuhai. When a country's public servants can betray their nation for money, that country is already finished. Over the past two years, the reason we haven't made a move against Master Zu is that we wanted to follow the vine to unearth the melon and track down Wang Yaqiao. Yet Wang Yaqiao is truly formidable—elusive, tight-lipped, and well-informed—and on several occasions he led us on wild goose chases. Then there is Zeng Jingwu of the 'Jingwu Athletic Association,' who is also within our sights. He thinks he is clever, but he is wrong. If we hadn't deliberately leaked the assassination list, could those low-life gangsters and ruffians ever have gotten their hands on our military intelligence? You Chinese mostly fall into two categories: one is traitors who care only for their own interests and will sell out everything for money; the other is the likes of Zeng Jingwu, who know only how to fight and kill. Has he ever stopped to think whether killing one or two Japanese can change the grand strategy? The courage of ordinary men! The courage of ordinary men!"

These words left Master Zu downcast and grieved. A vast and magnificent nation was being played in the palm of a diminutive island invader's hand—faced with such a plight, what could be done?

After pondering for a moment, Master Zu suddenly asked, "Since you intended to kill me this time, why didn't you just strike directly instead of tricking me into the French Concession?"

Yoshiko Nishida smiled. "Master Zu is naturally clever and guards against everything everywhere. We had no desire to charge straight into 'Muliang' and openly engage in a bloody firefight with your hundred-odd brothers; only a fool would do that. After the 'September 18th Incident,' we occupied the entire Northeast. In 1932, we attacked Shanghai again, and since spring of last year, we have continuously wiped out the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army. Just as we were fighting continuously and desperately needed rest, the French seized the opportunity to step in, using Vietnam as a springboard to occupy all nine islands in the South China Sea. These islands may not be large, but their strategic locations are of the utmost importance. Whoever controls these islands holds the gateway to the Malacca Strait, thereby mastering the shipping lanes of the Pacific and Indian Oceans..."

Master Zu was well aware of this matter. In the spring of 1933, French troops sailed south to seize nine islands—including Taiping Island, Nanshan Island, and Zhongye Island—prompting strong protests from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government. This was the Sino-French "Nine Small Islands Incident" that shook the country and the world.

"Since 1911, subjects of the Great Japanese Empire have begun surveying operations on these islands. When the French landed and drove our people off the islands, we were never going to let the matter rest. His Majesty the Emperor urgently summoned the French consul, and they laid down several conditions. One of them was that Japanese expatriates would be free to enter and leave the French Concession, and aside from conflicts with the French themselves, Japanese expatriates would enjoy judicial immunity. Our operation this time was arranged in the French Concession firstly to lower Master Zu's guard, and secondly to see whether the Frenchmen would honor their promise..."

Master Zu nodded, unable to help but marvel at the craftiness and treachery of the Japanese. "Since you already lured me out, why not send more men and kill me in one fell swoop?"

"Haha!" Yoshiko Nishida laughed aloud. "Does Master Zu really think those hitmen were Japanese? How could we ever send our own people to their deaths? The lives of us Japanese are precious. We paid to hire a few desperate Shanghai gangsters and slipped a few Japanese expatriate identification cards into their pockets so that if they died in the French Concession, the French would compensate us. If we truly wanted you dead, how could we have let you escape?"

"If you aren't going to kill me, what do you want?" Master Zu asked, bewildered.

"Master Zu, calm yourself. Since Master Zu has gone missing, Zeng Jingwu will inevitably be anxious to break the news to Wang Yaqiao, and we can follow the trail to find them. But that is not the most important thing. Most importantly, we need Master Zu..."

"You need me?"

"Mei Xuanzi is a clever man. When we arranged for him to meet you that day, it was so he could discuss cooperation with you."

"So you were the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes? To discuss cooperation?"

"Correct. If Zeng Jingwu hadn't arrived so hastily, Mei Xuanzi would have finished what he had to say. Now, I have no choice but to finish the rest of Mei Xuanzi's words for him. China and Japan share the same cultural roots. The brilliant theories and doctrines created by your ancestors were successively transmitted to our country, including the Book of Changes and the five arts of metaphysics. Aside from yourselves, Japan is the nation that has best inherited Chinese culture. Today, Western religions are swarming in alongside the imperialist powers, and traditional Chinese teachings are suffering devastating impacts. Since you Chinese people are unable to defend your cultural stronghold, we, sharing the same lineage, cannot just sit idly by and watch. The Opium War not only awakened you, it awakened us even more. As fellow backward nations of the East, we were also terrified, so we launched the Meiji Restoration. The First Sino-Japanese War proved that we succeeded. Since the nineteenth century, the imperialist powers have flocked in. If the Europeans and Americans can occupy you, why can't we? At least China under the rule of the Japanese Empire still preserves our shared, homologous culture! That is the difference between us and the Western imperialist powers.

"Right now, various forces are entrenched upon Chinese territory. This peaceful posture is temporary and will be broken sooner or later. Master Zu, think about it: is it better for China to undergo total Westernization, or to be ruled by the Great Japanese Empire? From a cultural perspective, what we are doing is not aggression; we are helping you."

Master Zu lowered his head in silence, slowly sorting through Yoshiko Nishida's words.

Popular posts from this blog

The Early Spring - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - The Rainy City That year, the rain in Beijing was heavier than usual, even heavier than in the south where Shang Zhitao had just left. The rain fell in a continuous drizzle, and faint clouds and mist lingered above the sky, making it hard to tell whether the scene was picturesque or desolate. Shang Zhitao was wrestling with her two large suitcases—one packed entirely with books, and the other filled with clothes and shoes, with nothing else inside. Traveling all the way from Nanjing to Beijing, the twenty-two-year-old had accomplished the monumental feat of her first independent migration. Fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead and cheeks, turning her face a flushed pink. Shang Zhitao felt as though she was about to melt. She calculated in her mind that she definitely had to go buy a fan tomorrow. The narrow partition room felt even more cramped because of these two suitcases. She heard the girl in the next room talking on the phone: "Should I go over to your ...
Read more

Against the Current - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Origins It is said that there was once a young boy in Jinling named Chen Wanquan. When he was five or six years old, he lost both of his parents, and his elder brother and sister-in-law sold him to the wealthy Lin family as a bondservant to work in an antique shop. As the days and months passed, he honed a sharp eye for authenticating antiques, calligraphy, and paintings. Because he had no property or family standing to his name, no respectable household was willing to discuss marriage with him, yet he had developed high standards and looked down upon ordinary maidservants. At the age of thirty, his employer promoted him to the position of third manager of the shop. A year later, out of benevolence, the Lin estate granted him a third-class maid named Mistress Xue, ordering the two of them to be wed. This Mistress Xue had originally worked exclusively on embroidery and sewing in the second branch of the household. Because she was quite attractive and possessed a competitive ...
Read more

The Early Spring - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Beginning of the Story Shang Zhitao boarded the bus early in the morning. As the city was just waking up, the bus wound its way through the thin mist. With earbuds in her ears, she looked out at the streets. How industrious the people living here truly were; even at this early hour, the sidewalks were already packed with hurried commuters. She was a commuter too, rushing along. She wore a white shirt dress today, cinched at the waist with a slim light-brown belt. Her hair was tied up high, and though she wore no makeup, she radiated a peerless, youthful charm. Sitting there, she looked quiet and well-behaved, just like the obedient child from next door that people always talked about—outstanding, yet not too flashy. Shang Zhitao had always been this kind of person since she was little. Her academic grades were only slightly above average, and her looks were similarly middle-of-the-pack. Because of this mediocrity, even with all her diligence and eagerness to lea...
Read more