Chapter 8 Chapter VII

The girls had already gone to bed, and after hearing Fabio's summons, they quickly put on their clothes in the dark and came down from the attic.As they entered the church hall, they saw Fabio seated before the organ and Father Engelmann in his funeral robes.They feel that the big thing is not good, and they can't help holding each other's cold hands. The little betrayals, small reconciliations, and small loves and hates that happened every day between the girls no longer exist at this moment. They are now a collective, a family. Because there is no organist - the organist and other teachers and students of the school have left Nanjing one after another, Fabi can only fill in the number at this moment.He studied music for a year in seminary and could play the organ a few times.The organ is upright, and it is usually used by the female students to practice singing. Now it is wrapped in an old blanket, and it emits notes of cold and cold.

Shujuan understood that someone must have died, and the sound of the piano wrapped in a blanket was to keep the funeral songs to a minimum. Only three candles were lit in the whole hall, and the black curtains were drawn on all the windows.During air raids, every building in Nanjing hung this kind of blackout curtain. Fabio played hoarsely, and the girls sang in whispers.They still don't know who they are mourning for, and they don't understand who they have lost, so they feel that the loss is getting wider and deeper.Nanjing and Jiangnan were lost, and the right to be a free citizen was lost, but it seems that not only Nanjing and Jiangnan were lost, but also the right to be a free citizen.This indescribable loss made them stand there one by one, like a group of helpless and innocent young rabbits who stood up in awareness of the danger of extinction.

Father Engelmann led them to read the prayer. Shujuan saw Father Engelmann and the crucified Jesus standing one behind the other, his shadow cast on the painted saint, and the charm and temperament of the saint superimposed on the face of the living priest. "Children, I didn't want to disturb you. But I have to prepare you. The situation is not going in a good direction." He repeated the news he heard on the radio in a low voice. "If the news is true—thousands of prisoners of war were shot to death in one fell swoop, then I would rather believe that we have returned to the Middle Ages. For the Chinese, the scandal of burying 400,000 prisoners of war of Zhao State alive in history, you probably don't know Strange. Don't be mistaken for the fact that history has advanced a lot." The priest stopped here.His voice is getting rougher and his Chinese is getting stiffer.

At night, Shujuan lay beside Xu Xiaoyu.Xiaoyu was sobbing constantly, Shujuan asked her what was wrong, she said her father was so powerful, there was no way out without him, why did she still throw her in this ghost yard at this time, without food, drink or charcoal pot. Shujuan whispered: "My parents are drinking coffee and eating bacon eggs in the United States at this time!" She found out a few months later that her mother was always on the news broadcast on the radio, and her father would lie silently next to the radio as soon as he came home from school. One sentence: "I don't know what happened to Shujuan?"

The telephones and telegrams in Nanjing were cut off. Shujuan's father managed to find an official from the Chinese consulate, and the answer he got was very vague. The situation in Nanjing was very bad, but none of the bad news could be confirmed.Her father managed to make a phone call to a friend's house in Shanghai. The friend said that there had been rumors in the concession that the Japanese army was on a rampage in Nanjing. Photos of some Li civilians being shot to death were also taken to Shanghai by the reporters who had withdrawn from Nanjing and circulated in the concession. .Just when Shujuan was next to her sobbing classmate and imagining them enjoying bacon eggs, they were inquiring about the boat tickets to return home. They were exhausted by regret and guilt, and held on to a Chinese belief: "A family must die together. .”

"If my dad comes to pick me up, I'll take you with me." Xiaoyu said suddenly, shaking Shujuan's hand vigorously. "Is your dad coming to pick you up?" "It will definitely come!" Xiaoyu was a little unhappy.How could she belittle her rich, powerful, and all-hands-eyed father like this? "Come tomorrow, it will be fine." Shujuan's eagerness for Xiaoyu's father is no less than Xiaoyu's.It's great to be Xiaoyu's close friend at this time, it's really a good time to get out of Nanjing from the siege of the Japanese army with Xiaoyu's great honor.

"Then where do you want to go?" Xiaoyu asked. "I will go wherever you go." "Let's go to Shanghai. The British, French, and American concessions don't know how to fight. Shanghai is better than Hankou. Hankou is dead, and they are all mainlanders." "Okay, let's go to Shanghai." Shujuan didn't dare to oppose Xiaoyu at this time, if Xiaoyu cast her favor on others, she would not be able to get her credit, and would stay in Nanjing, a city of the dead.Although she felt that she was losing her dignity by being so obedient to Xiaoyu, she thought that the days would be long in the future, and she would have time to make up for her face and make up for it twice.

Faintly heard the doorbell ringing at the door.All the girls sat up within three seconds, and then squeezed to the window one after another.They saw Agu and Fabi running past under their window.A Gu came to the door first with a lantern in his hand, and Fabio chased after him, gesticulating violently at A Gu, asking him to turn off the lantern, but it was too late, the light of the lantern arrived earlier than anyone else, and followed The door crack reached the outside of the door. "I beg your lord, open the door, it's from the corpse burial team... This soldier is still alive, if your lord doesn't help him, he will be shot by the devil again!..."

Fabio deliberately said in pidgin Chinese: "Please go away, this is an American church, do not get involved in the Sino-Japanese war." "My lord..." This time it was a voice that bled profusely and was riddled with scars: "Please help me, my lord..." "Please go away. I'm very sorry." The members of the burying team raised their voices outside the door: "The devil will come back at any time! If he comes, he will die, and I will die too! Please do me a favor! For God's sake, I am also a believer!" "Please take him to safety!" Fabio said.

"The devils go to the safe zone dozens of times a day, searching for Chinese soldiers and the wounded and sick! Please!" "Sorry, there's nothing we can do. Please don't force me to violate the neutrality of this church." Several shots were fired not far away. The burial team member said: "Philanthropist, please!..." Then his footsteps went away along the wall. Fabio didn't know what to do. He couldn't let the Chinese soldiers outside the door bleed to death or go to the execution ground again, and he couldn't ignore the safety of dozens of lives in the church.

Father Engelmann emerged from the night now, still in his funeral robes. "There are wounded Chinese soldiers outside, who escaped from the scene of the Japanese gun burial." Fabio said. Father Engelmann gasped, and it was obvious from a glance that he didn't have a single thought in his head either. "I beg you!" The wounded soldier spoke with a foreign accent, and every word came out of severe pain. "It doesn't matter if we don't open the door now. If the wounded soldier dies at our door, it will drag us in." Fabio said in English. Engelman looked at Fabi.Fabi is not unreasonable, but the church loses its neutrality and loses its protective advantage over female students. He can't take the risk. He said, "No. You can ask Agu to send him away, anywhere else." go." A Gu said, "That's like losing his life!" The wounded soldier groaned outside the door, the inhuman voice sounded like he was bleeding out. Looking from Shujuan's window, the two priests and A Gu dressed in black looked like three chess pieces on a stiff chessboard.Perhaps it was the confession that "the blood will run out" urged Father Engelmann to open the door.He decisively took the key from A Gu, opened the solid German lock with a clatter, pulled out the iron bolt, and removed the iron chain.Well, the heavy door opened, and the girls breathed a sigh of relief. But Father Engelmann closed the door again with a quicker and more decisive movement, shutting out the comer.He rattled and tried to lock it, but his movements were extremely inaccurate. Fabi asked him repeatedly, but he didn't speak. Finally, the lock closed again. "It's not one outside, but two! Two Chinese wounded soldiers!" he said.The priest clearly felt that his kindness had been fooled. The voice of the burial man sounded again: "There are devils coming over there! Riders!..." It seemed that he had pretended to walk away just now, pretending to leave the wounded behind and let go.His trick really worked. It was impossible for these foreign monks to ignore the wounded soldier who had experienced a shooting and was about to bleed dry. Father Engelman just caught the trick and opened the door.He lied that there was only one wounded, because he was afraid that there would be too many people and the church would not take him in. "I really heard the sound of horseshoes!" A Gu said. Even Shujuan knew that if the Japanese soldiers on horseback happened to turn into the small street outside the church, everyone inside and outside the door would be ruined. "How can you lie to me? There is obviously more than one wounded soldier!" Father Engelmann said, "You Chinese are still full of lies at this time?!" "Father, since saving lives, what's the difference between one and a hundred?!" Fabio said.He is the first head-on collision with his mentor. "Shut up," said the teacher. Although the people outside the door did not understand the conversation between the two foreigners inside the door, they knew that these few words were a matter of life and death for them. The member who buried the corpse was really anxious and said briefly: "The sound of the horseshoes is coming this way!" Father Engelmann pocketed the key and walked back the way he had come.He had just walked five or six steps when a black shadow blocked him. The shadow was alert and quick, and it could be seen that it belonged to an excellent soldier. Sophie next to Shujuan let out a puppy whimper.When a war breaks out, the yard will become a battlefield. "Open the door immediately!" The assailant approached Father Engelman, and a building in the distance seemed to be on fire, throwing light into the courtyard.In the light, the girls saw the soldier holding a pistol against Father Engelman's chest. Under the black robe and dry chest, the priest's heart was beating under the gun. Shujuan thought, if the soldier was more sensitive , must feel that the heart is beating crazy, and the chaotic pulse must have been transmitted to his hand by the gun barrel. Fabio snatched the key from Father Engelmann, opened the door, and let in a small, dark crowd. On a wheelbarrow lay a body plucked from blood, the wounded soldier who could speak. Holding a thick tree pole, the man pushing the wheelbarrow was a man in his fifties, wearing a black waistcoat. Not long after the door closed, a few Japanese cavalrymen ran past from the street, humming and laughing, and seemed to be in a good mood. The people inside the door all turned into mud tires, fixed in their respective postures, waiting for the Japanese soldiers in a good mood to go away.The fully armed soldiers hold their pistols in both hands, and the bullets will be fired as soon as the door is opened.It wasn't until the echo of the hooves of the horses was also lost in the night sky that people resumed their movements. Shujuan whispered to Xiaoyu, "Let's go down and have a look." "I can't go!" Xiaoyu held her back. Shujuan opened the lid of the attic by herself, and the wooden ladder extended down.She heard Xiaoyu say to other girls: "Look at Meng Shujuan! Find trouble if you have nothing to do!" Shujuan is very displeased with Xiaoyu's actions.It turns out that she just asked Xiaoyu to carry out a secret operation in private, and Xiaoyu immediately betrayed her.She descended from the ladder into the workshop, gently pushed the latch open, and opened the door wide enough for her to watch the whole situation. Shujuan would never be the one to be concealed under any circumstances. She knew that hiding from her was to take care of her, but she She never appreciated this kind of care, including her parents never letting her know why they quarreled at night in order to take care of her.Sometimes she looked at her mother's red and swollen eyes and asked her if she had been crying all night, but her mother smiled and denied it, as if she was irresponsible to her if she didn't hide it from her. At this moment, Shujuan was standing at the half-foot-wide doorway, and saw that the battle in the courtyard had not yet been decided.The wheelbarrow has become an attacking tank, rattling over the ground at the door of the church, and the soldiers with pistols are now their sharp-knife squad. Shujuan saw the strange black vest with a round white cloth on the chest, back, and she concluded that this It is the uniform uniform of the buried team members. "Agu, go and get the first-aid medicine immediately, get some more cotton wool and gauze, and let them take them away." Father Engelman's intention was obvious that no guests like them would be kept here. The man with the short gun did not put away his attacking posture, and the gun was still pointed at Father Engelman: "Where do you want them to go?" "Please lay down your arms and talk to me," said the priest solemnly, "Major." He had identified the ranks of the soldiers.The left hem of the soldier's uniform was dark, which was stale blood. He said, "Father, I am very sorry." "Are you going to use arms to make me take you?" Engelman said. "Because you speak with a weapon, you are listened to." Father Ingerman said, "Why don't you take a gun and tell the Japanese to listen to you?" The soldier is dumb. The priest said again: "Mr. Officer, I don't understand people who carry weapons. Please put down your weapons." The officer lowered his gun. "Who are you and how did you get in?" Fabi asked the gunman. "What's so difficult about getting in here? I've been here for two days." Said the soldier, "I'm Dai Tao, deputy major of the Second Regiment of the 73rd Division." There was a sound of biting ears, and the people who were facing each other lost their minds in an instant.Shujuan leaned forward a little, and saw five or six women headed by Hong Ling coming from the kitchen.Now they won't be called "suffocated" anymore!They saw the pile of blood and flesh in the wheelbarrow, and they all stopped whispering.It was also the first time for these women to realize that the peace in this yard was an illusion, and that it was also an illusion that they could laugh and play as usual. The blood flowing like a river outside finally flowed into the wall. "When did the Japanese execute the sentence?" the priest asked looking at the wounded soldier in the wheelbarrow. "Early morning." The burial team replied. "How many of you did the Japanese shoot?" asked the major. "There are five or six thousand." The sergeant on crutches said, in a voice of grief and humiliation, "We have been deceived! The Gou Ri devils said they would take us to Jiangxin Island to open up wasteland and farm. The boats are gone..." "Are you from the 154th Division?" the major interrupted him. "Yes, sir, how did you know?" the sergeant asked. Major Dai did not answer.The sergeant's dialect told him his unit number. "Find a warm place quickly and bandage his wound," said the major.It's like he captured the church and became the master here. The pusher and crutches were about to move when Father Engelmann said, "Wait a minute. Major, I saved you once just now." He pointed to the gate, "I can't save you again. There are more than a dozen The female students next year are taking refuge in the church, and if you stay here, it will give the Japanese an excuse to enter here." His Chinese is so precise that everyone who listens struggles. "They'll be shot again if they go out," said the major. Hong Ling interrupted at this moment: "The Japanese who killed a thousand swords!...Sir, let them squeeze in our cellar!" "No," said Father Engelmann loudly. "Father, let them bandage the wound first and see what's going on, okay?" Fabio said. Father Engelman said: "No. The situation here is getting out of control. There is no water, no food, and three more people... Please think about it, my sixteen female students, the oldest is only fourteen years old, What would you do in my position? You would do what I am doing, denying the soldiers access here. The soldiers would bring in the Japanese soldiers, is that fair to the girls?" His Chinese was painfully accurate the point. The sergeant said: "Without us, wouldn't the Japanese come in? There is no place they dare not enter!..." Ingerman paused.The sergeant's argument was forceful.In the eyes of the crazy occupying army, there is no restricted area, no sanctity.He turned to the colonel. "Colonel, please be considerate of my situation, and take them out. God bless you to get to safety. God bless you." "Push him in there." The major pointed to the kitchen for the burial team. "Give them a sip of water, and let me see his injuries." The major seemed to not understand Father Engman's Chinese at all. "Don't move." Ingeman stood in front of the unicycle, his open black robe turned into black wings. The major's gun was raised again. "Do you want to shoot? If you shoot, the church is yours. You can place them wherever you want. Shoot." Engman spent most of his life in China. An age without regrets. The major pulled the safety on the pistol. Fabi opened his mouth wide, but did not move, fearing that any movement would startle the bullets in the muzzle. The wounded soldier on the wheelbarrow snorted.Everyone can hear the groaning of what a painful dying life is.This groan also made people hear a milky voice, the voice of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy who had just changed his voice.The young soldier was in such pain, and people were still arguing endlessly. In the face of such pain, what else is important?Even life and death are not important. "Okay, let's deal with the wound first," Father Engelmann said. "The water is already hot!" George Chen has been quietly participating in this conflict and wrangling. Although he has not said a word, he has already stood his ground and started to prepare for the reception of the wounded on his own initiative. Now, the baptismal pool The last potable water in the house has been heated in the boiler. Chen Qiaozhi hastily led the way for the wheelbarrow, followed by the sergeant leaning on a tree branch.The kiln sisters have all come up from the basement at this moment, looking at the half-dead soldier and the lame sergeant without saying a word, can't tell whether it's disgust or fear, it's like a funeral and a welcome. Major Dai was about to follow, but Father Engelmann stopped him. "Give me your gun, Major." The officer frowned: What is this foreign old man thinking?The Japanese have not been able to disarm him yet! "If you want to enter the protection of the church, you must put down your weapons. The advantage of this church is its neutrality. Once armed personnel are stationed, this superiority will be lost. So, give me your gun." The major looked into his pale alien eyes and said, "No." "Then I can't let you stay." "I'm not going to stay, maybe just a day or two." "Stay here for a minute and you have to be an ordinary citizen. If the Japanese find you here with weapons, I can't defend you, and I can't prove the neutrality of the church." "If the Japanese really come in, I have no weapons and can only be slaughtered by them." "Put down your weapons, and you can take refuge here as an ordinary refugee. Otherwise, you must leave immediately." Major Dai hesitated, and then said: "I will only stay one night, and I will leave when I hear from the two wounded soldiers about the Japanese massacre of prisoners of war." "I said, not even for a minute." "Major, listen to the priest." Fabio said from the side. "You yourself are not seriously injured. When you go out from here, you have no food or drink, and there are Japanese soldiers everywhere. How far can you go? At least heal your injuries and let your body rest for a while before you go." His Jiangbei dialect is now used Reasoning is quite appropriate, it sounds like trying to persuade a pair of fighting brothers in the village. Major Day slowly closed the safety of the gun with a click.Then he turned the muzzle of the gun around, towards himself, so that the butt of the gun was towards Father Engelmann. Shujuan could see his reluctance, just as she had just seen the reluctance of the priest when he was forced to give in.