Chapter 16 Chapter fifteen

Father Engelman walked back from the safe zone at two o'clock in the afternoon and took out five or six catties of rice from his robe.After Fabio finished cooking the porridge, she called the women and schoolgirls into the dining room.Father Engelman told them that just the day before yesterday, Japanese soldiers blatantly abducted dozens of women from the safe zone.They used very indecent methods. First, they created an incident of capturing Chinese soldiers, and then led the leaders of the safe zone to the gate of Jinling Women's College by diverting the tiger away from the mountain. gone.Father Engelman said that the living conditions in the safe zone are worse than the churches, overcrowded, feces are everywhere, epidemics continue to occur, and there are occasional conflicts among refugees for food, clothing, housing and transportation, so the leaders of the safe zone don’t feel that there are more than a dozen people. Girls who are 12 years old are safer in a safe zone than in a church.Miss Whitling and Father Engman agreed that the ambulance would come to the church tonight and transport the school girls to Dr. Robinson's house.

What happened at four o'clock in the afternoon on December 21, 1937, was recorded by my aunt Meng Shujuan after she escaped from danger.Years later, she rewrote it again.What I read is her account rewritten in mature words.After all, I am not a great historian like my aunt. I am a novelist. When I read such a record, I cannot help imagining it with the thinking of a novel.Now, according to my imagination, I restore the event with the text of the novel. It gets dark early in December in Nanjing, and at four o'clock it is as dark as a summer dusk.In addition, it was a cloudy and rainy day, and the early morning did not transition into the daytime, and it directly entered the twilight.

Father Engelmann was dozing off in the reading room—he had moved there, so that he would not have to spend an extra share of firewood burning the fireplace in his residence, and so that he could hear Fabio Adornado going downstairs. The sound of going in and out of the building, the sound made him feel at ease, and felt that he was indirectly accompanied by Fabio, and Fabio was indirectly emboldening him. Fabio came running from the landing, shouting: "Father! . . . " This is the sound of soul flying away. Father Engelmann tried to get up from the armchair, but his legs gave way and he fell back.Fabio was already at the door.

"There are two trucks coming! I saw them from the clock tower!" said Fabio. Poor Fabio looked like a child with no ideas at the moment. Father Engelmann stood up, and the long knife wound on the chest of the velvet robe exposed the inner lining of the robe. It was a deep red lining, like a wound.Poor himself, he was also a child with no ideas. "Go and get everyone ready. Don't make a sound, and don't come out even if the house is knocked down." He said, changing into the black priest's robe worn at the funeral, and picking up the staff. In the yard, Engman’s eyes were already filled with yellow, and the Japanese soldiers in yellow uniforms were sitting densely on the wall, like a flock of yellow-haired monster birds that suddenly fell from an island disaster.

The doorbell started ringing.This time shyly, he rang once, paused for three seconds, and rang again. Engman saw that Fabio had come out of the kitchen, and he knew that the women and the female students had been notified.He raised his chin to Fabio, meaning: It's time, it's your turn. Father Engelman and Fabi Adornado went to the door side by side and opened the small peeping window. This time, instead of a bayonet protruding through the small window, it was a mass of fiery red.Engman saw clearly that the major held a pot of Christmas red towards the small window with his left hand, and held the command knife with his right hand.

"Why the bell? You don't like going through the front door," said Father Engelmann. "Please accept our apology," said the Major.At the same time, his riding boots made a pleasant sound, and then he bowed deeply, "For disturbing the priest last night." To apologize for these two sentences, it was hard to practice English for him for a while. "More than a hundred soldiers with guns and live ammunition to apologize?" Father Engelmann. The translator appeared, a refined traitor in his fifties with gold-rimmed glasses. "Christmas is approaching, and the officers and soldiers came to celebrate the festival for the two priests," said the translator.This time his master just smiled, and the lines were matched by him. It seemed that he had made up the lines in advance and memorized them by heart.

"Thank you, I appreciate it," said Father Engelmann. "Now can you ask your soldiers to step back from the wall?" "My lord priest, please open the door." The interpreter conveyed Shao Zuo's polite request. "Whether you open the door or not, what difference does it make to you?" "The priest is right. Since there is no difference, why not be polite?" said the translator. Father Engelman shook his head and led Fabi away. "Father, it is unwise to provoke guests like us," said the interpreter politely. "I thought so too." Engelman stopped, turned his head and said to the closed door, "It turns out that, for you, whether you are provoked or not, the result is the same."

Fabio said softly, "Don't make things worse." Father Engman said, "Is there any room for it to go bad?" He would never let these mad dogs in yellow uniforms come in through the front door.Letting them in through the front door raised them up to be human. He turned his head, and the courtyard in the twilight was already full of yellow military uniforms.A group of soldiers found the ax and broke the lock of the gate.The major strode in with a dozen soldiers, as if to take over the church. "Who will be searched this time?" asked Father Engelmann. The major bowed again.This nation is really red tape and polite.The translator said to Engelman in a very elegant sentence: "Your Excellency, we really came here with sincerity." He spoke English with a little bitterness, and the major accompanied the play with a painful expression: "How can we make up for the gap between us?" What about the crack?"

Father Engelman smiled slightly, his gray-blue eyes were freezing cold in his sunken eye sockets. "Okay. I accept your sincere apologies and congratulations. Now, let me remind you that the door to get out is there," the priest said.He turned his head and seemed to lead them to the door. "Stop!" said the major in English.He had been acting in pantomime and asked the translator to narrate him, and then he was in a hurry to speak. Father Engelman stood still, but did not turn around, with an expression of "I had expected this" from his back. The major instructed the interpreter viciously in a low voice, but the interpreter turned it over with a cheeky politeness: "Our festival celebration program hasn't started yet?!"

Father Engelman looked at the major, then at the flashlights that filled the yard.The twilight is getting dark, and it is gradually turning into night. Behind the light of the flashlight, there is a figure that is darker than the night. "Before Christmas, our headquarters will hold a party, and I will be invited to invite some distinguished guests." He took a large envelope from an officer with a briefcase next to him, with two Chinese characters printed on it: "Invitation card ". "Thank you, but I won't accept the invitation." Father Engelman didn't stretch out his hand, letting the beautifully printed invitation card be awkward between him and the Colonel.

"Father misunderstood, my officer did not invite you." The major said. Engelman raised his face quickly, and looked at the major with his head slightly lowered, his eyebrows and eyes respectful.He snatched the invitation and opened the envelope, his early Parkinson's hand trembling with foreboding.The major asked a soldier to light the priest with a flashlight.The invitations are for the girls in the choir. "We don't have a choir here," said Father Engelmann. "Don't forget, Father, you also said last night that there are no Chinese soldiers here." Fabio snatched the invitation from the priest, read it once, was stunned, and read it again.He couldn't believe his eyes the first time, and he couldn't read a word the second time.He threw the invitation on the ground and roared, "Live beast!" Jiangbei dialect was the best language of confession at the moment.Fabi turned to Major with a pale face: "I told you last time, all the female students in Wilson School were taken away by their parents!" "We studied the history of the famous Wilson Women's Church School. A small part of the female students did not have parents." The translator translated the meaning of the major in a polite and restrained manner, with the appearance of spreading out the reason for everyone. "The orphans were taken by the evacuated teachers," Fabi said. "No way, according to accurate information, I heard them singing here the morning before the fall of Nanjing. The Imperial Japanese Army has many Chinese friends. Don't think that we will be deaf and blind when we first arrive." Shao Zuo said through an interpreter. . Father Engelman remained silent all the time, it seemed that the bickering between Fabio and the major no longer interested him, and he had more important things to think about. Who betrayed these girls?Perhaps when he delivered this fatal message, he thought that the Japanese really wanted to hear the girls sing, and wanted to repent and atone for their sins.There were indeed some Christians and Catholics in the Japanese army.Those who betrayed the girls may not know that the Japanese soldiers are a group of perverts who actually believe in the nourishing power of virgins, and collect the newly germinated body hair of virgins to make amulets and hang them around their necks to keep them away from evil. Avoiding casualties... Father Engelman's mind was filled with these thoughts, and when he came back to his senses, Fabio was blocking the Major's soldiers with his body. "You have no right to search here!" Fabio said, "If you want to search, step on my dead body!" Fabio is already a martyr. Behind the flashlight, there was a subtle sound, and more than a hundred soldiers, with knives, guns, and limbs, entered a state of fierce fighting, their morale was high, and everything was ready.Father Engelman let out a long sigh, and walked up to the Major: "They are only teenagers, and have never been in contact with society, let alone men or soldiers..." A smile appeared on the Major's face in the darkness: "It sounds too good for my taste, what I want is the purity like the first snow." The major said: "Please rest assured, the priests. I guarantee the honor of the soldiers of the empire. After the singing, I will personally send them back." "Father, how can you believe his nonsense?" Fabio asked Father Engelman in Jiangbei dialect: "I can't let them do that beast thing!" "They won't accept the invitation," said Father Engelmann. The major said: "For them, this is a great thing, flowers, food, music, I believe they will not be so stupid, refuse our kindness, and finally make an unpleasant situation." "Mr. Major, the invitation came too suddenly. The children are not prepared yet. You must give them some time to wash their faces, comb their hair, and change into their dresses. Besides, you must also give me some time to tell them what happened and tell them not to Fear. You are their enemies, and it is very scary for them to go with the soldiers of the enemy country. If they take extreme actions and commit suicide, the consequences will be terrible." Father Engelman's famous eloquence was brought into full play at this moment. It seemed that he was standing on the sidelines of a third party, presenting the most convincing facts, not only for the sake of the major, but also for the female students. "You think these brutes really want to hear the singing?" said Fabio. "Father, how long do you think it will take for the children to be ready?" the Major asked through an interpreter. "Three hours should be enough." "No, one hour, all preparations must be completed." "At least two hours!" "no!" "Two hours is the minimum. You don't want to see a group of hungry, cold, unkempt, frightened girls go with you, do you? You want them to be clean and happy, right? I need time to persuade them that you don't Kill, don't set fire, don't rob or rape, right? Otherwise, what if they set themselves on fire?" Father Engelmann said. The earnest words of the old priest made the major think carefully for a few seconds, and said, "I'll give you one hour and twenty minutes." "An hour and forty minutes," said Father Engelmann with the air of God's indisputability. Father Ingerman won the negotiation. "At the same time, I ask Mr. Major to take the soldiers out. With your formation, how do you expect me to calm them down and eliminate their fear? They are not ordinary girls in society. Please imagine, the high walls of the monastery, their school and The monastery is very close, the school is their cradle, and they never leave the cradle. So they are very sensitive, very shy, and very timid. Before I prepared them well, these armed occupation forces would make All my persuasive words are of no use." Shao Zuo said something coldly, which was translated as: "I cannot agree to this request." Father Engelman smiled faintly: "Your strength is enough to surround a castle, and you are afraid that the little girl with bare hands will fly away?" Another extremely reasonable rebuttal, the Major stood unwillingly for a while, and ordered all the soldiers to withdraw from the church yard. "Father, I didn't expect you to listen to their nonsense!..." Fabio said angrily. "I don't believe a word of it." "Then why didn't you decline the invitation?" "No, they can search the children anyway." "What if we can't find it? At least we can try our luck!" "We can always try our luck later. Now we've won an hour and 40 minutes, and we have to seize every minute to figure out a way." "Find a way to save your own life?" Fabi rebelled completely. Father Engelmann was not angry, as if he hadn't heard Fabi at all.When Fabi gets excited, he can't speak English well. His pronunciation and grammar are terrible, and it is indeed difficult to understand.Father Engelman could choose not to understand him. "We're better off having over an hour than not having it." "I'd rather be killed than hand over the girls..." "I would rather." "Then why are you desperately refusing?" "Anyway, we can always fight to the death later, more than an hour late... Now go away." It was as dark as midnight outside, and Fabio left Father Engelmann.He turned his head and saw Father Engelmann walking in front of the crucifix and slowly knelt down facing the cross.Fabio didn't know at this time that when he was talking to the major, a thought flashed into the priest's mind.Now he wanted to bring back that flash of thought, take a closer look at it, and give it a calm analysis.