By the time the Yu family mother and son arrived at the He mansion, the household was already in chaos. He Mengmei and He Ningzheng had gone out to handle the relocation of the Shanghai factory’s supplies, while the women of the household were packing their belongings. Part of the goods had already been shipped to Chongqing previously, and the remaining portion was gradually being packed into trunks and cases as well, waiting only for a departure date to be confirmed before being shipped out of Shanghai all at once.

Hearing that her in-laws had arrived, Mrs. He heaved a great sigh of relief and came out personally to greet them. “I just sent Steward Yu to go pick up my in-law and her son—I didn’t expect you to come in person.”

Mrs. Yu smiled and clasped Mrs. He’s hand, and the two sat down together on the sofa. At first glance, the He mansion seemed chaotic, but on closer inspection, everyone in the household, high and low, had their own clearly assigned duties—it was clear that in order to cope with unexpected developments, arrangements had been made in advance.

Seeing this, much of the panic in Mrs. Yu’s heart subsided. She said slowly to Mrs. He, “When I was young, I went with Hongdou’s father to open a shop in Beiping, and happened to run right into the Northern Expedition. Those months in Beiping, I was scared out of my wits by the hail of gunfire, so much so that even now, the moment I hear about fighting, my heart starts racing. When I heard in the middle of the night that war had officially broken out, I didn’t think twice and just rushed over here—I’m sure I must seem laughable to you, my in-law.”

Mrs. He had the servants bring tea, and sympathetically clasped Mrs. Yu’s hand. “Anyone would feel distressed running into times like these. The Master and I woke up at four in the morning and still haven’t had time to eat, our hearts in our throats, worrying the fighting might reach the concession. Hongdou has only just become pregnant—naturally you’re even more worried than we are. Yunqin told us a few days ago that he feared Shanghai might fall, and he’d long urged you to come to Chongqing together with us. Now that the fighting has broken out, I don’t know if you’ve made up your mind yet.”

Mrs. Yu didn’t beat around the bush, nodding. “I understood what Yunqin and Hongdou meant a long time ago. Besides, now that Hongdou is pregnant, there’s even less reason for the family to be split between two places. We’re already packing things up—Chongyi and I don’t have much luggage, we can leave the moment word comes. It’s just that a few of the old servants at home without children or family have nowhere to turn, so they’ll probably need to come along too.”

Mrs. He laughed and sighed. “My in-law truly is a generous person. I’ll have Steward Yu go to your house right away to move the luggage—when the time comes, the Yu family’s servants can go on the same boat to Chongqing as the He family’s servants. Oh, and Hongdou and her Fourth Sister-in-law are upstairs packing—the servants have been too busy packing to report your arrival, the child probably doesn’t even know you’re here yet.”

With that, she personally led them upstairs to find Hongdou, while keeping in mind that He Yunqin still hadn’t come home. While the three of them—mother, son, and daughter—were talking, she stepped out to instruct the steward to go look for him.

Ever since the fighting had officially begun, Hongdou’s heart had been in turmoil all morning, worrying both about He Yunqin and about her own family. She’d turned on the radio set, and every minute brought a new piece of news, nothing settled at all. The newspaper hadn’t been delivered yet, and she couldn’t go out herself—she had no idea whatsoever how the fighting was actually going.

Seeing that she couldn’t reach He Yunqin, she’d anxiously sent Steward Yu to the Yu residence. She hadn’t expected her mother and brother to arrive first thing in the morning—her heart settled halfway at once. She hurried to bring her mother inside to sit, and said in a low voice, “Shanghai hasn’t been sealed off yet, the fighting hasn’t spread to the concession. If things get worse and worse, whether we’ll even be able to leave is another matter. In a moment I’ll have Steward Yu and the others escort you back—you and Brother hurry and pack up everything at home, and when the time comes it can all be sent to the ship together with our things.”

Yu Chongyi saw his sister’s brow knotted tight and asked her, “Yunqin still hasn’t come back?”

Mrs. Yu, not having seen her son-in-law since arriving, had assumed He Yunqin was busy with other matters. Hearing her son say this, she froze for a moment.

Just then a servant said from outside, “Second Young Madam, Inspector Wang is here, says he has an urgent matter to discuss with you.”

Hongdou rose abruptly. She hadn’t been able to reach Wang Bide since last night, and had simply assumed he was together with He Yunqin. She hadn’t expected Wang Bide to come to the door himself—an urgent matter? What matter? She felt deeply uneasy, and without thinking said at once, “Please show Inspector Wang to the small study, I’ll be right there.”

With that she hurried back to her room to throw on a coat suitable for receiving guests, and said to her mother and brother, “Mother, Brother, wait for me here, I’ll be right back.”

At the small study, Wang Bide was pacing back and forth. Turning to see Hongdou, he was about to speak, but seeing the servant behind her, he swallowed his words back down.

Hongdou dismissed the servant and asked Wang Bide in a hushed voice, “Inspector Wang, what’s happened?”

Wang Bide hesitated at first, but after a moment made up his mind and said to Hongdou, “These past few days I’ve turned up a great deal. It looks like I finally have a lead on who killed Bai Haili—I wanted to warn He Yunqin to be on guard against this person, but last night once the fighting broke out, the French Concession went under martial law, and I can’t find him or Ruide anywhere. I had no choice but to come to the He mansion.”

Hongdou’s heart leapt into her throat. “They’re not in the French Concession?”

“No.” Wang Bide swallowed. “Hongdou, I know how deep the feelings run between you and He Yunqin—there’s no point hiding some things from you, so I’ll just tell you plainly: yes, He Yunqin and I share the same ‘ideals.’ Recently Yunqin and Ruide and the others have been searching for a batch of supplies, and at one point we suspected this batch was hidden in some Western-style house in Shanghai. From our investigation so far, we’ve narrowed it down to seven such houses. Of these, five have had reports of hauntings, all in the French Concession. The remaining two have no haunting reports—one is that house of yours on Tongfu Lane. I don’t know where the other one is, but I’d guess it’s in the International Settlement.”

This matched exactly what He Yunqin had said the night before. Hongdou looked at Wang Bide carefully. “Inspector, I had assumed you were together with Yunqin and the others.”

Wang Bide smiled bitterly. “I may be part of this organization, but to use Ruide’s words, my ‘awareness’ is too low—my main task in the organization is gathering leads. For a major matter involving so many parties like this one, only a handful of people in charge know the specific details.”

Hongdou was stunned for a moment. If her mind weren’t so weighed down with worries, she might almost have laughed. Wang Bide’s personality was casual and unrestrained, sometimes even self-centered by nature—the activities this organization engaged in were simply too dangerous, and when facing a thorny situation, unless one’s convictions were extremely firm, it really was easy to waver.

“From what I learned last night, various factions have already started making moves. After the fighting broke out at dawn, I took advantage of the chaos to search around the French Concession, and found that the houses all showed signs of small-scale demolition—clearly He Yunqin and the others had already been there last night, and then left. My guess is they’re in the International Settlement right now, but unfortunately, because the concession suddenly went under martial law, I can’t reach them for the moment. And on top of that, right now a great many ordinary people are flooding into the International Settlement and French Concession to escape the fighting—if Wu Ruhai’s men or the enemy’s people are mixed in among them, that would be trouble. It’s nearly seven o’clock now, and the organization still has no word from them. I’m only worried that He Yunqin and the others might be ambushed.”

Hongdou was quiet for a moment, then said, “You said just now you’ve found a lead on Bai Haili’s killer—whose door does it lead to, exactly?”

Wang Bide took out a stack of photographs from inside his coat. “As you know, two people have died recently in the haunted Western-style houses—one was a nurse named Shi Chunli, the other was Bai Haili. To figure out how Shi Chunli died, Ruide got her autopsy report from the French Concession police, and even went specially to ask around at Shi Chunli’s home about her symptoms while she was alive. In the end we didn’t find out much, but because we suspected she’d taken some drug that severely damages the heart muscle while she was alive, he made up a list of suspicious imported drugs for me. Afterward I went to investigate several medical institutions in Shanghai, and unexpectedly discovered that the mailing address on one of the orders was exactly that house of yours on Tongfu Lane.”

Hongdou wasn’t surprised. She sat up straight. “But my brother has already confirmed that Miss Qiu doesn’t wear a size 39 shoe—it’s Mr. Xiang on the third floor who does.”

Wang Bide hadn’t expected Hongdou to already be ahead of him in the investigation. He was stunned for a moment. “Mr. Xiang really is a size 39? Good, that’s one thing. Also, the moment Bai Haili died, Chen Baidie immediately moved out of the Western-style house she’d sold at a high price earlier, and these past few days has been living in an apartment under Wu Ruhai’s name, with military officers escorting her in and out. Looks like she’s gotten in with Wu Ruhai.”

Hongdou’s brow furrowed slightly. Wu Ruhai not only had a colorful history of affairs but also had peculiar tastes—he didn’t like unmarried young women, but specifically preferred stealing away the wives of his subordinates. Among all women, he particularly favored married ladies. Chen Baidie was voluptuous and alluring; even if Wu Ruhai knew full well she’d had an affair with Bai Haili, given her looks, it wouldn’t be at all strange for him to take her in.

She just didn’t know whether her father-in-law knew about this.

“After Chen Baidie moved out, I kept watching her old residence, and discovered traces of several different groups of people. I guess they’d decided Bai Haili knew where the gold bars were, and wanted to go make trouble for Chen Baidie. But this woman is too slippery—in the blink of an eye she’d already found shelter under Wu Ruhai’s wing, and they had no way to get at her, so they gave up. But last night, after the fighting broke out at midnight, I happened to pass by that house looking for He Yunqin, and got out of the car to walk around the area—and at the back door, I found this.”

Hongdou took it into her hand—it was a gold fountain pen. She opened the cap; engraved neatly on the pen’s tip were two characters: “Zhendan” (Aurora University).

“My first thought was that He Yunqin had dropped it, but then I remembered that the fountain pen He Yunqin normally uses isn’t this kind of gold pen. And then, thinking again of that drug’s mailing address, I suddenly thought of someone living in your Western-style house—if it really is this person, then Yunqin and the others are in trouble.”

A film of cold sweat broke out across Hongdou’s back. “Mr. Xiang?”

Anxiety surged in Wang Bide. He scratched his head. “Xiang Qisheng also works at Zhendan University. Before, when Yunqin and the others were investigating Tongfu Lane, aside from discovering that Miss Qiu was an information dealer, they also found out that Xiang Qisheng is a member of a certain patriotic organization. The reason he often publishes those pedantic, extreme-sounding articles in the newspapers is precisely to use it as cover for his true identity—”

Hongdou immediately thought back to those articles in the paper before. No wonder she’d never been able to detect any “progressive spirit” in Mr. Xiang—it was because these preconceived theories had been influencing her perception all along.

“When we assassinated Wu Ruhai before, Xiang Qisheng cooperated with us. On the surface, Yunqin and the others have had no dealings with him, but privately they deeply admire him as a person. But as far as we know, this matter of the gold bars—the organization Xiang Qisheng belongs to has had nothing to do with it from start to finish. If Xiang Qisheng bought weapons on his own initiative, and also went scouting near Chen Baidie’s residence, I suspect he might actually have a double identity—which would make it worth thinking hard about why the assassination attempt on Wu Ruhai failed in the first place.”

Hongdou’s heart was in a panic; only by taking deep breaths could she keep her breathing steady. Her eyes fell on a radio set on the table, and she hurriedly stood and turned it on—sure enough, it was talking about the large numbers of residents flooding into the concessions.

Wang Bide continued, “There’s an old saying, ‘before troops move, provisions go first.’ Now that the war has started, both Wu Ruhai and the enemy will be eager to get their hands on that batch of gold bars, and their plans will inevitably be redrawn. What I’m worried about right now isn’t anything else—it’s that while we’re searching for the seventh house, Xiang Qisheng might deliberately approach us under the guise of being a patriot. Most of the people in the organization are carrying out other tasks; only He Yunqin and Ruide and a few others are in charge of the gold bars. Everyone wants to get a message to them, but no one in the organization knows where they are. Hongdou, of all of us, you’re the only one with a photographic memory. Think carefully—has He Yunqin ever let slip any information to you about the seventh house?”

Hongdou’s heart began pounding violently. She unconsciously touched her belly. Of course she wanted He Yunqin to come home safely more than anyone—but before that, there was something she needed to confirm first.

The International Settlement.

The sky was not yet light; cannon fire thundered in the distance. Ordinary people were jolted awake from their dreams, dragging their families along, fleeing for their lives. At the entrance to the concession, sentry posts had originally been set up, but now, under the tacit consent of the British and American consulates, they stood essentially useless. Wails and cries rang out ceaselessly on the streets; everywhere there were surging crowds of heads. Anyone caught in the midst of it would find it heartbreaking within a single second. Even before the city had fully fallen, things were already this wretched—if the invaders’ iron hooves truly trampled in, the thought of caravan bells and thorny hardship alone was enough to make one’s heart tremble.

Having finally forced their way into the concession, the ordinary people had at last gained a measure of protection, but because it was close to the outskirts, there were very few places available to take shelter. The streets were shoulder to shoulder with people, every corner crammed full. He Yunqin and the others’ rickshaw was caught up in the crowd, unable to move at all. Fortunately, there were quite a few factories and foreign trading companies nearby, and the owners, hearing that the concession was taking in refugees and fearing the common people might loot their warehouses amid the chaos, had sent out quite a few of their own cars—so He Yunqin’s rickshaw, mixed in among them, didn’t stand out.

They drove to an abandoned old factory, where a church had set up a temporary food distribution station at the gate. Quite a few patriotic volunteers had come of their own accord to comfort the refugees. Those in the car watched for a moment; a young man behind them said with reverence, “That’s Mr. Xiang.”

He continued, “Brother He, normally no one at all comes to this place. Now that the fighting’s started, so many people have flooded into the International Settlement, and there are so many factories in the outskirts—searching them one by one would take far too much time. It’s about to get light, how are we going to contact the others?”

He Yunqin took a cigarette from his trouser pocket and lit it, gazing in the direction of the factory, without responding.

Ruide glanced at the young man and said, “Yu Rui, this is your first time carrying out a mission—when something happens, think more, ask less.”

Yu Rui smiled, a little embarrassed. “Understood.”

They came to a narrow street lined on both sides with tenement buildings. He Yunqin and Ruide stopped the car at an inconspicuous street corner.

Under cover of darkness, several of them abandoned the car. Passing by a closed shopfront, Ruide and Yu Rui slipped inside.

He Yunqin walked a little further against the flow of the crowd, when suddenly someone bumped into him. He heard a child wailing loudly, and someone said in surprise, “Oh, Mr. He, what are you doing here too?”

He Yunqin looked over—it was the Peng tailor couple. He smiled. “There’s a factory near the He residence—it’s too chaotic with the fighting, so I came to help move supplies. Where are you two headed?”

The Peng couple smiled obsequiously. “We’re planning to go hide out in the countryside for a while.”

By this time Yu Rui and the others had already gone upstairs. Not seeing He Yunqin come up, he looked down through a gap in the window, and saw He Yunqin standing on the steps talking with a family of four.

Yu Rui looked closely and couldn’t help an expression of surprise crossing his face—He Yunqin’s expression was clearly calm, but his right hand remained cautiously tucked in his trouser pocket the whole time. Judging by its shape, that spot should hold a gun.

Author’s note: Sorry this was late. I saw the private messages—it’s true this story’s film and TV rights sold back in March, but my recent lack of steady double updates has nothing to do with that, it’s mainly because I’ve been a bit busy and have exams coming up. I understand everyone wants to see the sweet, doting scenes, but I have to write this story according to my own vision. You can keep an eye on the Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter titles—if you don’t want to read these next few chapters, don’t buy them. Once the Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter title changes to “The Bright Moon Lights My Return,” that means Hongdou and He Er have been reunited. Just a Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter or two more to go.