1937, the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month.

French Concession, No. 46 Hualien Li, Betton Road.

After three consecutive days of rain, snowflakes suddenly floated in the sky, and pedestrians on the street were in a hurry. There were less than ten days left to celebrate the New Year.

With a "bang", the door of Anping Clinic was pushed open suddenly, and the cold wind swept in with snowflakes.

The one who came in was a policeman in a black uniform. He was thin, not tall, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a kind of honesty. After entering, he turned around skillfully and brought the door with him.

"Brother Anzi, Anzi..."

"Worry and don't scare my little cute." A not-too-long corridor leads to a small room inside with a sign of "disposal room" hanging on it.

The clinic is not big, so you can only use all the limited space.

"Okay, I'll wait for you to finish your work." The policeman looked not old last year, but he was a little ungrateful, with a scumbag on his left cheek. He was the best friend of the owner of this clinic, Meng Hao.

Meng Hao is only in his early 20s this year. His son inherits his father's business and works as a second-class policeman in the police station in the Betton District of the French Concession. He is a small character who is called to drink.

"Be good, little girl, be careful next time. I have already sewed this wound on you. Remember, don't touch raw water these days. I will prescribe some anti-inflammatory medicine for you, take it on time, and come and change the medicine in three days." Lu Xiyan silently told the child's head seriously.

"Thank you, Dr. Lu." The girl's mother said gratefully.

"It should."

After seeing off the mother and daughter, Lu Xiyan turned around.

"Haozi, please smoke less, it will be bad for you." Lu Xiyan walked out of it, took off his mask, stretched out his hand, and pulled off the cigarette roll that Meng Hao was holding.

"Is there anyone who runs a clinic like this? Today is not worth the money, tomorrow is not worth the money. If this continues, will you drink the northwest wind?" Meng Hao muttered.

"It's okay, you are supporting me." Lu Xiyan took off his white coat, "You're still here today. Is there anything wrong?"

"Bad, I can't even support you myself, I'm still supporting you. It's not that the New Year is coming, and you're only one person left now. Our old man asked me to come and have a look..." Meng Hao said contemptuously.

"Are you here to let me stay with you guys?"

"That's what it means, are you going?" Meng Hao asked with his eyes glaring.

"Go, dare I say I won't go? If Uncle Xiangsheng gets angry, I don't want to be muttered by him all day long." Lu Xiyan smiled, picked up the cigarette that he snatched from Meng Hao's mouth and took a sip.

"And said, why did you get the slap?"

Meng Hao is his best friend and follower who grew up together. Although he was separated for a while because he went abroad to study, the relationship between the two has always been very good.

"It's good to know, uncle's affairs..."

"Forget it, it's all over, I've been thinking about it. It's not easy to be able to live in this chaotic world. How can there be so many demands?"

"Let's go, why are you going to sauté mutton!"

"Please?"

"If I ask, I will ask. Do you think I can't afford it?"

"You are a policeman who never eats and drinks and gets a card. It's hard to support yourself with a small salary. Where can you get the money to treat you? I'll treat you..."

“…”

Old Yan’s mutton restaurant.

"Brother Anzi, have you heard that? The Japanese killed people in Nanjing and were red-eyed. The Yangtze River was full of corpses. That was so miserable. The people in the corpse fishing team could catch more than a dozen corpses floating down from the upstream every day..."

"Drink, don't talk about state affairs." Lu Xiyan's eyes suffocated and he picked up the wine glass.

"Brother Anzi, have you listened to me?"

Lu Xiyan was silent. He had a deep hatred towards the Japanese. How could he remain indifferent?

"Damn it, since the Japanese entered Shanghai, our Chinese have been having a hard time. The Japanese have been arresting anti-Japanese elements all day long. Needless to say, the public concession, just talk about the incident the afternoon before yesterday..." Meng Hao drank two drinks and started to complain again.

Lu Xiyan didn't say a word, but he still ate wine and food.

"Hey, leave some for me..." Meng Hao suddenly realized something was wrong, why was there less and less mutton in the pot?

"Boss, cut me half a pound of mutton and a pound of wine..."

"Stop, drink less, the wound on your face has not healed yet."

"You don't know my alcohol tolerance yet. What's this?" Meng Hao hummed indifferently. The guy brought a plate of mutton and came up with a pot of wine.

Meng Hao started to talk more after drinking more.

"Brother An Zi, it's not me who brags with you. My skills, these five or six people are not my only opponent!" Meng Hao boasted.

"Then what's going on with the wound on your face? Are you shaking while walking?"

"The day before yesterday, a few Japanese plainclothes broke into our French Concession and disrupted public order. I happened to meet him and beat him up..." Meng Hao was very excited when he said that his face was injured.

"You were beaten up by someone?"

"How is that possible? Just those Eastern Japanese, roving legs, and little dwarfs, why are they my opponent?" Meng Hao came to his face mysteriously and asked in a low voice, "Brother An Zi, do you know what those Eastern people come to our French Concession to do?"

"What are you doing?"

"Hehe, arresting people, and it's still a woman. This woman stole some valuable items from the Japanese Navy Club. It is said that she disguised herself as a geisha and mixed in. She left without anyone noticing. By the time the Japanese discovered it, it was too late. So many men could not catch a woman. It was so funny!" Meng Hao laughed with gloating.

"You can speak softly..."

"What are you afraid of? This is the French Concession, my territory."

"How do you know that this Japanese lost something?"

"Now, they failed to catch the French Concession, and we just need people. Now we are fighting with the French guys who are ahead."

"If you want me to tell me, you should not get involved in this kind of thing in the future and let Uncle Xiangsheng worry about you?" Lu Xiyan reminded, "I'm full, eat slowly, I'll settle the account, remember to go back early."

"Go, I'm just a few steps..." There was still a lot of mutton in the pot, so I couldn't bear it.

Lu Xiyan took his coat and scarf, came downstairs, greeted the boss, opened the door and walked out.

Anping Clinic is a two-story building with a place for medical treatment downstairs and Lu Xiyan's nest upstairs. However, the upstairs and downstairs are not connected, so you have to go around and go up from the ladder in the alley behind.

There are not many pedestrians on the street.

The snow has fallen and the ground has become white, and I step on it.

Crunch, crunch...

Take out the key and open the door and turn on the light.

There was a sound of getting up in the room and the light lit up.

"You're back." He tiptoed to meet him.

A very beautiful young woman, with a peacock-shaped face, white and red, her eyes are very big, as if she can speak, with long shoulder-length hair and slightly curled ends, which is very fashionable.

The owner was not here, the weather was suddenly cold, and there was no heating at home. The woman could only sit on the sofa in the small living room and wait.

"I went out for dinner with your brother just now." Lu Xiyan locked the door with his backhand, then walked over and explained.

"What did he say to you?" Meng Fanxing reached out and gently stroked a strand of hair between his eyebrows, and a hint of concern appeared on his thin face.

"I didn't say anything, and I didn't tell him. He didn't know yet. He had a fight with the Japanese on the street the day before yesterday and rescued his sister by chance?" Lu Xiyan put the newly-cooked wontons on the table.

The clear soup wontons, dripping two drops of sesame oil, and then adorning these corianders, is so fragrant and extremely tempting.

Gugugugu...

She hadn't eaten for the whole day and was so hungry that she couldn't help but scream involuntarily after such a stimulation.

"Is this my purchase?" There was a sense of joy in the surprise.

"Um."

"It's not a big deal for you to live here with me. It's almost the Chinese New Year. Are you really not going to go back?" Lu Xiyan sighed, sat down opposite him and asked.

"Shepherd's purse and meat stuffing?"

"What's wrong? Don't you always like to eat this stuffed stuffed?"

"I haven't eaten this big wonton for a long time. When I was a child, every holiday, my mother would make a bun for me and our whole family. Brother Anzi, you are here too. Once we were naughty and fought with flour..." Meng Fanxing couldn't stop eating wontons, and tears rolled down. Note①

Childhood memories...

"Are you really not going back? You have been leaving for three years. Uncle Xiangsheng retreated two years ago and let Haozi take his position. He has been in poor health in the past two years. He has suffered from asthma when it is cold and cannot even go out of the door."

When Meng Fanxing heard this, his eyes turned red instantly, and a trace of deep guilt appeared.

"Brother Anzi, stop asking, okay?" He buried his head and took a sip of the soup.

"Okay, I won't ask, but you are not a long-term solution for me after all, and you have to find a way to solve it." Lu Xiyan was silent for a while and nodded.

"Eat slowly, do you have hot water?" Lu Xiyan asked as Meng Fanxing looked as if he was voracious.

"If you are not here, I dare not boil water, for fear of being discovered."

"I'll go and boil some hot water." Lu Xiyan went to take care of the stove, and the temperature in the room rose a lot.

"Brother Anzi, I will leave after two days when I finish the matter."

"It's okay, I can live here for as long as you want. Anyway, I'm alone. It's still the same rule tonight. You sleep in the bed and I sleep in the living room."

Meng Fanxing looked at Lu Xiyan who was leaving with a quilt and pillow, and wanted to speak but stopped, and finally turned into a sigh.

Note ①: There are big and small wontons in Shanghai. If the not specified in this article, they refer to large wontons.

Lu Xiyan: His original name was Lu An, and Lu Xiyan was his name changed by himself later.

Meng Fanxing: His real name is Meng Junmei, Meng Fanxing is her current name.

Some of the addresses and characters in this book are fabricated. Please do not check in accordingly, thank you!
Chapter completed!