As a TV series that accompanied many childhoods, the image of Little Soldier Zhang Ga is familiar to many people.
Times have changed, and when we grow up and look at this story with a rational eye, we find that while Ga Zi is kind, he also has quite a few flaws.
When Wang Xu told Yu Zecheng, he only thought about the matter of the fake special envoy and forgot about Ga Zi's impulsiveness.
Unexpectedly, due to this oversight, Shopkeeper Qiu was almost finished off, and the shot that hit him was actually fired by one of their own.
"It was Ga Zi's gun. No wonder, no wonder!" Wang Xu said "no wonder" twice, showing that he wasn't surprised by this turn of events at all.
Yu Zecheng's face darkened even more, but he couldn't say anything, his expression becoming incredibly strange.
Wang Xu patted his shoulder nonchalantly, instead comforting his old partner, saying, "Forget it. Although the plan wasn't perfect, it was close enough. An exposed agent is like a duck on the table; we'll just get rid of him next time we have the chance."
"That's all we can do." Yu Zecheng nodded, his gaze filled with melancholy.
Unfortunately, now was not the time to talk. After chatting with Wang Xu for a few moments, Yu Zecheng went inside to take care of Shopkeeper Qiu; he really couldn't trust Ga Zi to handle things.
As soon as the three went inside, only Wang Xu and the despondent Da Huang were left in the courtyard.
Glancing at Da Huang, Wang Xu suddenly realized that with such a big commotion on his side, Xu Jiazhen might have noticed something.
Xu Jiazhen wasn't an agent; she was just an ordinary, strong-willed woman.
It was exactly this kind of person who didn't understand secrecy. If she saw what was happening here and let it slip, it would be trouble.
"I hope I'm overthinking it!" Wang Xu quickly climbed back onto the top of the wall and looked toward Xu Jiazhen's room.
In his line of sight, an oil lamp was lit in Xu Jiazhen's room. Through the reflection in the window, he could see a woman walking around inside.
The reflection was Xu Jiazhen's. Wang Xu stared for two minutes, and her silhouette never stopped moving.
Seeing this, Wang Xu couldn't help but wonder if Xu Jiazhen had seen something and was considering whether to report it.
No, she wouldn't report them. Xu Jiazhen was strong-willed; one could tell what kind of person she was just from today's roast chicken.
A woman with such integrity would rather give up the dog that had been with her for years than owe someone a favor. To say she would report to the Japanese was as unlikely as saying Yu Zecheng had betrayed the organization.
Shaking his head, Wang Xu climbed down the wall and entered Xu Jiazhen's courtyard.
The moment his feet hit the ground, Da Huang, back in his own courtyard, suddenly started barking wildly.
Startled by the barking, Wang Xu looked up at the window. Sure enough, hearing the dog, Xu Jiazhen poked her head out.
"Da Huang!" Xu Jiazhen called out instinctively, only then remembering that Da Huang was no longer her dog.
Strangely enough, as soon as Xu Jiazhen called out, Da Huang stopped barking, allowing Wang Xu, who was crouching under the windowsill, to breathe a sigh of relief.
"This Da Huang, could he have seen me climbing the wall and been warning his owner?"
Hiding under the windowsill, Wang Xu looked back at his own house.
Then he thought, it's just a dog, how could it be that smart?
Da Huang looked thin and old, just a local dog, and didn't seem particularly bright. He must be overthinking it.
"Qiu Xia, don't scare Mommy. Open your eyes and look at Mommy. I have the chicken leg you like here."
Before Wang Xu could stand up, the conversation in the room caught his attention.
It was early summer, and because of the heat, the window in Xu Jiazhen's room was wide open.
Wang Xu slowly looked up into the window and saw Xu Jiazhen wearing only a camisole, leaning over the bed to wipe the sweat off Qiu Xia.
From this angle and position, Wang Xu's eyes widened.
You have to understand, the actress playing Xu Jiazhen was a famous busty goddess with an incredibly good figure.
How could a single camisole cover such a figure, especially while she was leaning over?
From Wang Xu's perspective, he forgot all words of praise, only thinking: white, so white; good, so good. That splash of snowy white, that hint of pink... it was worth being shot for!
"Why won't the fever go down!" Unaware of Wang Xu, Xu Jiazhen pleaded softly while wiping Qiu Xia's face, "Qiu Xia, please wake up. Mommy won't hit you anymore. When we have money, I'll buy Da Huang back and buy you roast chicken again. Please, wake up quickly."
The little girl, Qiu Xia, lay motionless on the bed, her face as red as an apple.
At first, Wang Xu was enjoying the view as Xu Jiazhen's body swayed while she wiped Qiu Xia's sweat, but as he listened further, he realized something was wrong.
When she was six or seven, Qiu Xia had a high fever and became deaf and mute because they couldn't afford medical treatment.
Wasn't this exactly the situation? A persistent high fever and Xu Jiazhen having no money for the child's treatment.
Sure enough, seeing that Qiu Xia still wouldn't wake up, Xu Jiazhen got up from the heated brick bed and started rummaging through her things.
After quite a bit of effort that left the beauty sweating, she only managed to find a few notes of one cent, five cents, and ten cents at the bottom of a chest, totaling less than two dollars.
This amount of money could buy four bowls of wontons or ten meat buns at the market. But in an era where medicine prices were skyrocketing and ordinary people were afraid to fall ill, it wasn't even enough to step through a hospital's door.
"What should I do? It's not even two dollars!" Her smile could enchant ten thousand, her sorrow could last a thousand years.
Witnessing such beauty, and since Wang Xu was already concerned about Qiu Xia, he stopped hiding. He pulled out more than twenty Silver Dollars from his pocket and tossed them through the window. "Don't be afraid, I have some here!"
"Who's there?" Xu Jiazhen was only wearing a camisole, which for a woman in the republic of china era, was practically like being naked.
Hiding under the windowsill, Wang Xu saw Xu Jiazhen cover her chest with her hands and look over in panic. He quickly jumped over the wall to leave, not forgetting to call back before he left, "I'm a good person!"
In her panicked glance, Xu Jiazhen caught a glimpse of half of Wang Xu's face. How could she not recognize this "good person" as the neighbor who moved in today?
Unfortunately, by the time she chased him out with a shoulder pole, Wang Xu was long gone; he wasn't about to stay at the scene.
"Bah, hooligan!" Xu Jiazhen looked at the courtyard wall and then under her windowsill, her eyes full of shame and anger.
After all, she didn't know how long Wang Xu had been there, nor did she know that he had come over because Shopkeeper Qiu was being moved.
In Xu Jiazhen's eyes, Wang Xu had climbed over the wall just to peep at her.
Thinking of her daughter's serious illness and how she had been seen by an outsider while wearing only a camisole at home, the stubborn Xu Jiazhen couldn't help but cover her mouth and cry.
"Mommy, Mommy, don't hit Qiu Xia. Qiu Xia won't do it again."
"Da Huang, don't send Da Huang away, wahhh..."
Her daughter's cries came from the room, and Xu Jiazhen, who was sobbing softly, instantly forgot her own inner pain.
Her man, Xu Wealthy, had gone and never returned, and Da Huang, who had accompanied her, was gone too. Her daughter was Xu Jiazhen's only support.
Hearing her daughter's cries, Xu Jiazhen rushed back into the room, only to find that Qiu Xia hadn't woken up at all. Instead, she was delirious with fever, talking in her sleep with her eyes closed.
"Qiu Xia, Qiu Xia!" Xu Jiazhen grabbed her daughter's small hand and called out several times, but she couldn't wake her up.
She felt her forehead; it was even hotter than before. The little girl felt like a small furnace.
Xu Jiazhen didn't know medicine, but she was an adult after all and knew that a fever like this would be unbearable even for an adult, let alone a six or seven-year-old child.
What should she do? If she went to the hospital, she had no money.
Thinking of the predatory hospitals, Xu Jiazhen bit her lower lip hard, unable to come up with a solution.
And just then, she suddenly remembered that the man seemed to have tossed in a lot of Silver Dollars before he left...