The Bravest

Watching Teacher Liu running out of the school gate quickly, Lin Jie shook his head helplessly: "Why are you so nervous? Are you afraid that I will act like a hooligan? It's not as pretty as my Wu Lian." He took out his bicycle and rode home.

"Why are you so late?" Ye Wulian took the briefcase from Lin Jie and took it into the bedroom before coming out. She had already seen Lin Jie eating in the restaurant, and she nagged distressedly: "Hey, wait for me to warm up, you haven't had a regular meal in the past two months. How can you be a traitor? You always teach me that you have to work three days and dry the nets for two days, and you have to make appointments with people to go shopping, play cards and listen to operas. Now, except for a few maids, I have become a traitor's wife."

When Lin Jie heard this, he put down his bowl and chopsticks and slapped his forehead: "Oh, I was wondering what was wrong. Ask if there is a little girl brought up from the old family next time, and then find a nanny who can cook." After saying that, he started to eat again.

"Are you really looking for it?" Ye Wulian asked in surprise.

"I need to find someone. After tomorrow, I'll let Li Jing come back to be your bodyguard and run errands for you." Lin Jie said seriously while eating, "I overlooked it. I'm the section chief of the intelligence department, the director and director of the welfare home, and I need two bodyguards around me. You're my wife, and a lady from a wealthy family, but you don't have anyone to serve you. Is that reasonable? Apart from a decent set of clothes, you don't look like a member of the Military Control Commission, but more like a member of the Communist Party."

Lin Jie was just making a metaphor, but the word "Communist Party" still startled Ye Wulian, and she started coughing exaggeratedly: "Cough cough cough Hahaha, this is the Communist Party, are you addicted to framing others last time!"

"Don't laugh. I mean I made a lot of money. The Japanese know that. Everyone at No. 76 knows that. Apart from the house, I also live the life of a clerk. It's abnormal in the eyes of those who are interested. Don't forget, luckily I still have a suit for the wedding, otherwise I will be in trouble tomorrow."

"Yeah, why was I saying that I'm not as good as those ladies? So that's how it is. I'll buy some more jewelry." After Lin Jie said that, Ye Wulian realized that she seemed to have not kept up with the changes in her life and was indeed careless.

"Oh, by the way, I also need to buy some perfume and spray it at night. It smells nice and feels comfortable to hug you," Lin Jie started joking to make Ye Wulian happy. He was already used to this.

However, he didn't know that Ye Wulian had been overcoming herself and was much better than before. She believed that she would soon accept Lin Jie's further progress. Now, hearing Lin Jie teasing this, regardless of being in the restaurant, she hugged Lin Jie tightly from behind, rubbing her body against Lin Jie's back, and whispered in Lin Jie's ear with hot air, "Xiao Jie, don't you feel uncomfortable with the fragrance? Otherwise, I will find you a beautiful maid to serve you together, okay?" The last few words were dragged out very long and sticky.

Lin Jie regretted it and could only say with a chuckle, "Wulian, I'm full. Put away the dishes and chopsticks. Haha, don't let anyone see it."

"Humph, you're still talking nonsense. There are only two doors between us. How can anyone see us? Go take a shower and go to bed."

……

"Wulian, don't wear cheongsam to tomorrow's ceremony. It might be dangerous." Lin Jie and his wife were still talking about work while lying on the bed. Lin Jie told Ye Wulian about what happened today.

"Did you hear anything? The Military Control Commission shouldn't take action in the welfare home. After all, it's under the banner of charity." Ye Wulian was puzzled.

"I didn't hear anything. During the evening meeting, I was afraid that there would be too many people and the children would run around. So I changed the original plan and only asked the older ones to go out to welcome them. I didn't expect that the Japanese teacher would use Gangcun's words to stop me. Why did Gangcun ask so many children to welcome them? Isn't he afraid of causing trouble? Haha, if the Military Control Commission didn't come, the Japanese might come on behalf of the Military Control Commission. They have done a lot of framing this matter."

"Then you should pay attention."

"Well, it's okay. The Japanese won't let me die. At most, it's a token of their appreciation. But if something happens to you, no matter whether I was on the opposite side before, it will be impossible for me to be on the opposite side in the future. So you might be one of the targets. But there's no way not to go. It was my suggestion to bring my wife along. Everyone is trying to use an open conspiracy. You'd better bring the gun with you, just in case. You can also say that I gave it to you, so it's acceptable." Lin Jie was alert, but he couldn't help but let Ye Wulian take the risk.

"It's okay, you'd better not bring the gun. I'll just follow Mei Zi closely. You pay attention to your position. I don't know when I will attack. If the gun goes off, I will lie down immediately. You better be careful." Ye Wulian is experienced and is an old agent.

"Don't worry too much. I'll ask Liu Sheng to be more clever tomorrow. He's learned from me for two months, so he still has some good eyesight." Lin Jie comforted Ye Wulian and himself. "Go to sleep." Lin Jie turned off the light, and the bedroom became dim.

Perhaps because of his worry about tomorrow, Lin Jie unconsciously hugged Wu Lian closer, and Ye Wu Lian also kept leaning into Lin Jie's arms. Summer was coming, and the weather in Shanghai was already a bit hot and humid. Both of them were wearing relatively cool silk pajamas, and their bodies pressed together slowly became hot. Lin Jie's breathing also became heavier. It was just because his beloved had a mental illness that he did not dare to stimulate her, but Wu Lian had to hold her in order to avoid nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night. He was used to it, but tonight the two were too close to each other, and the weather was too hot. Lin Jie moved back a little, and Wu Lian leaned over again after a while. Lin Jie had to endure it, and kept thinking about the opening of the park tomorrow, over and over again.

I don’t know how long it took, Wu Lian seemed to fall asleep. Lin Jie gently withdrew his hand, got out of bed carefully, went out, found a cigarette, lit it, took a deep breath, and the smoke poured out of his nostrils, blurring Lin Jie’s face.

In the bedroom, Ye Wulian lay motionless with tears streaming down her eyes. She kept telling herself in her heart that it would be soon, her illness would be cured, and she would definitely compensate Xiaojie then.

……

At eight o'clock in the morning, a big red banner was hung above the entrance of the welfare home with the words "Japan-China Charity Welfare Home" in large letters. It read (warmly welcome people from all walks of life in Shanghai to guide our work). It was obviously Lin Jie's work.

Under the rostrum, Li Shiqun was talking to Lin Jie: "Xiao Jie, today is your big day, it's a pity that I can't accompany you." Li Shiqun was very sorry. He could see that Lin Jie was about to come to the fore, and he thought that he should be sitting on the rostrum today. "Director, you are joking. I am only representing the Special Agent Headquarters. I said this to the reporters, and I am not going to call you brother-in-law to Wu Lian."

Lin Jie's words still made Li Shiqun feel relieved. It seemed that Lin Jie was still on his side. Is the beauty trap so easy to break? Li Shiqun knew it. He had not completely forgotten Miss Kawashima Yoshiko. "Xiao Jie, it's almost time, let's go up."

"Director, I'll go up first." Lin Jie turned around and was about to go on stage, but suddenly turned back and whispered in Li Shiqun's ear, "Director, be careful later, there might be something wrong."

Li Shiqun's eyes fixed, "Confirmed."

"Not sure, maybe not the Military Control Commission." Lin Jie said, and walked towards the podium. Li Shiqun waved to a person and whispered a few words to him. After watching the person walk away quickly, he found his seat and sat down as if nothing had happened.

There were only three people on the rostrum. Lin Jie was the dean sitting in the middle. He searched the rostrum with his eyes. There were only about thirty seats below the rostrum. They were all heavyweight guests and their wives. Representatives from Britain, the United States, and France were present and sat in the first middle. The others were representatives and wives of the Japanese and the puppet government. Ye Wulian and Mei Zi sat on the side of the first row. All reporters entering the inner field were strictly checked. Lin Jie guessed that the person who wanted to take action should be among the ordinary guests on the periphery, because the Japanese allowed people from all walks of life to participate. The people on the periphery were just checked casually.

The opening ceremony was quite simple. The reporter asked a few questions, the director answered a few questions, and the guests applauded. It was all diplomatic rhetoric. The ceremony lasted for more than ten minutes and ended. The highlight had just begun. The teachers of the welfare home led a dozen children to welcome the guests accompanied by the director to visit the welfare home. The reporter followed along.

Ye Wulian was holding Lin Jie's arm and accompanying the American representative couple. Gangcun and Li Youmin were accompanying the British and French representatives and they walked slowly into the welfare house. The teachers and children who had welcomed them walked around the guests according to the planned schedule and quickly arrived at the playground to meet up. Then they entered in order of status, and finally the ordinary guests entered. At this time, there were fewer No. 76 agents who could enter the venue. They were all plainclothes. Those in uniforms to maintain order could only follow a small number of them, otherwise the atmosphere would be very awkward.

The directors of the board led the distinguished guests to the playground. The teachers and children who had gathered shouted different slogans to welcome the guests. It was noisy. Lin Jie used gestures to calm them down. The three directors just matched the representatives of the United Kingdom, the United States and France. They talked to the teachers at a distance. They were all nonsense, just to facilitate the reporters to take pictures. The wives of the directors led the wives of the guests to visit the younger children and gave them some small gifts. Because of the language difference, everyone communicated in poor Chinese.

Ye Wulian walked with Meizi intentionally or unintentionally, while introducing the children's conditions to several ladies, while keeping an eye on the people around. Li Jing, who was arranged by Lin Jie, walked two or three meters away and pretended to help comfort the children, his eyes scanning around like a radar, his mission today was to protect the safety of the eldest sister-in-law.

On Lin Jie's side, Teacher Liu, the youngest and most beautiful teacher, was arranged to be the main lecturer. She enthusiastically introduced the number, age, food and accommodation of the children in the welfare home to the American representatives accompanied by Lin Jie.

At this moment, gunshots rang out from Gangcun's position not far away. Gangcun was shot in the left shoulder and fell to the ground. Gangcun shouted to lie down and pulled out his gun to fight back. He fired two shots and knocked down the opponent. He was shot again in the abdomen and passed out on the ground. Screams were heard at the scene and chaos began.

Li Shiqun, who had received Lin Jie's warning, also made arrangements. When the gunshots started, the No. 76 plainclothes officers on the scene all shouted, "Get down, get down!" Most of the guests in front were well-informed people, and some were even from the intelligence agencies. They reacted quickly and most of them immediately lay down on the ground. This exposed three obviously abnormal men. Li Shiqun, who had been wandering around, pulled out his gun and knocked down one of them, but before that, the man had already shot and hit Li Youmin. Another one knocked down two plainclothes officers with a gun and was shot three times. He didn't know whether he was dead or alive.

There was another man whose target was obviously Lin Jie. Since Lin Jie was in the middle of the front, the gunman's shooting angle was not good and he was blocked by Teacher Liu next to him. After a little hesitation, when the first gunshot was heard, Lin Jie saw out of the corner of his eye that someone on Teacher Liu's side had raised a pistol and pointed it at Teacher Liu and himself. No longer caring about the life or death of the American, Lin Jie immediately hugged Teacher Liu with one hand and threw him to the ground, pulled out the pistol from his waist with the other hand, and fired at the same time as the gunman. Since Lin Jie and Teacher Liu had already fallen to the ground, the gunman fired three shots and all the bullets hit the American behind him, while Lin Jie hit the gunman in the chest with two shots.

The scene was in chaos, with adults screaming and children crying. Lin Jie pressed Teacher Liu under him and did not dare to get up for a moment. He shouted loudly: "Director, protect that lady. Liu Sheng, tell the children to lie down and don't run around." His eyes looked back and forth among those who were still running around.

At the same time as the gunshots rang out, Ye Wulian pulled Mei Zi and several noble ladies around her to squat on the ground and huddled together, leaning towards the middle intentionally or unintentionally. Li Jing knelt on one leg on the ground in front of them, holding the gun in both hands and standing guard.

In less than a minute, people from No. 76 rushed in from outside the welfare home. Some of them protected the important guests and noble ladies, while others ordered everyone to squat on the spot and hold their heads with their hands. Soon, except for the crying of the children, the situation was under control.

"Ahem, Dean, are you okay?" When Teacher Liu first heard the gunshot, she was prepared, but it was her first time, and she was stunned. Suddenly, Lin Jie threw her down and pressed her to the ground, and then she reacted. The first thing she thought of was why this guy always took advantage of her, and then she remembered that something really happened. She didn't dare to move, and let Lin Jie hold her and press her to the ground. She didn't feel scared, but had a strange sense of security. It wasn't until the gunshots stopped for a while that she came back to her senses.

Hearing someone talking below him, Lin Jie still observed vigilantly. Under the command of Li Shiqun, some people from No. 76 had already protected the important guests and noble ladies here, and separated them from the reporters and guests who came in later. Then they slowly stood up. They did not meet up with Li Shiqun, but held their guns with both hands, facing outside, and whispered to Teacher Liu who had stood up behind him, "Quick, organize the teachers to take the children back to the dormitory building." At this time, Liu Sheng and Liu Yidao had come to form a flat triangle with Lin Jie, forming a simple line of defense, blocking the children and teachers behind them. After Li Jing got the situation under control, he protected Ye Wulian and Mei Zi and slowly retreated behind Lin Jie. The noble ladies saw it and ran to Ye Wulian. At Li Shiqun's signal, the two plainclothes officers from No. 76 also came to Li Jing's side and retreated together. Li Shiqun took a few plainclothes officers to protect the important guests and moved back. The others were controlled by the spies and were not allowed to move around, waiting for support.

The children at the back quickly ran towards the dormitory at the teacher's call, and the younger ones were carried by the older ones and the teacher.

After the children and teachers entered the dormitory building, Ye Wulian, his wife, and the guests retreated into the building, and the secret agents guarded the only entrance and exit of the building. Lin Jie and Li Shiqun breathed a sigh of relief. They began to arrange to send the injured to the hospital, including Gangcun who had already woken up. Li Shiqun also used the welfare home's phone to call the military police headquarters and No. 76 for support.

……