A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1155 Preparing to Escape

When Gui'er arrived at the school gate, it was already in chaos. The students were like startled birds, running around in all directions with their schoolbags in their arms. Some were calling out the names of their classmates. Normally, there would be a row of small vendors here, and everyone would leisurely gather around to buy food, drinks, and toys, while some would laugh and go home with their friends.

The street vendors were long gone, and the students were anxiously searching for their families who were supposed to pick them up. Some cautiously went back in small groups. A few timid students, unable to find their families, squatted in a corner and cried. The school staff frantically tried to comfort them, but were also overwhelmed by the situation.

The rickshaw drivers seized the opportunity, weaving through the crowd and shouting, "To Kowloon! Ten dollars!" "Want to go to Sheung Wan? It'll be too late to get there soon!" The prices were several times higher than usual, but people were still willing to take them.

Gui'er was pushed forward by the crowd, her foot tripping over someone's book, almost causing her to fall. She looked down and saw an open New Testament, its pages covered in mud, likely dropped by a student in a panic. Her heart tightened, and she gripped the notebook in her arms tightly; she couldn't lose it.

"Miss! Over here!"

A familiar voice pierced through the noise. Gui'er looked up and saw A-Cheng standing by a car not far away, waving at her on tiptoe. The car door next to him was open, and his other hand was tightly pressed against his waist—he must have just fended off a few homeless people who had surrounded him. Gui'er felt a warmth in her heart and pushed her way through the crowd, her shoes getting stepped on several times.

"Brother Cheng, you didn't leave..." she gasped for breath, before she could finish speaking, Cheng helped her into the car.

“How could I leave? It’s a mess outside. I have to make sure you’re safe. If you don’t come out soon, I’m going to go in and look for you.”

As Acheng closed the car door and was about to walk around to the driver's seat, Gui'er suddenly caught a glimpse of the Liu family's black sedan parked diagonally across the street. The car door was wide open, and several bodyguards in black suits were escorting Liu Lanfang into the car.

Today, Liu Lanfang wore a pomegranate-red cheongsam with a pearl flower pinned to the collar. Her face showed no sign of panic; instead, she seemed to be attending a grand banquet, a slight smile even playing on her lips. She raised a hand to smooth her hair and said to her bodyguard, "Hurry up, my father said we need to go home quickly and talk to him after the commotion outside has subsided." Her tone betrayed a barely suppressed excitement, as if this conflict was merely an excuse for her to watch a show in a different location.

"Isn't that Liu Lanfang?" Acheng saw her too, and frowned. "Her family is quite composed."

Gui'er didn't speak, only feeling that the pomegranate red stood out starkly against the gray sky. In the same chaotic world, some struggled in the mud, while others waited to reap the benefits. She turned her head and looked at the increasingly chaotic street scene outside the window. The explosions in the distance rang out again, this time closer, making even the car windows tremble.

"Drive, Brother Cheng, let's go home," she said softly, her fingertips icy cold.

The car had barely left the school gate when it was jammed by the crowd at the intersection. Gui'er rolled down the window, the cold wind stinging her cheeks. The scene before her was even more horrifying than inside the school—the glass facade of the department store across the street was mostly shattered, with broken glass mixed with debris piled up on the roadside. Several ragged children were squatting there picking up scattered candies, being chased away by police officers with batons.

"It looks like the road ahead is blocked; we'll have to take a detour." Ah Cheng turned the steering wheel and entered a narrow alley, the wheels crunching over the broken bricks scattered on the ground. In the alley, a woman sat on her doorstep, crying, holding her baby who was whimpering from hunger. Next to her, a man was frantically pounding his fist on the wall, where a propaganda poster from a few days ago, "Defend Hong Kong," was still pasted, its edges blackened by the gunfire.

As soon as she stepped out of the alley, she heard a burst of rapid gunfire, and Gui'er instinctively shrank back. She saw several British soldiers carrying rifles, their helmets askew, shouting incomprehensible commands, followed by a group of panicked civilians fleeing in terror. A newsstand on the street corner was overturned, newspapers scattered everywhere, the headline "Japanese Army Approaching the New Territories" blurred and trampled.

As they passed the dock, chaos reigned. Several small, swaying sampans were moored along the shore, crammed with people trying to escape. Some were punching each other for a spot, while mothers were hoisting their children above their heads to hand them onto the boats, their cries drowning out the sound of the waves. Suddenly, a deafening explosion rang out, and a towering fire erupted from the nearby oil depot, billowing black smoke that obscured half the sky. The crowd scattered like ants being burned. Gui'er quickly closed the car window, her heart pounding.

Ah Cheng drove the car very fast, swerving around a collapsing arcade, the tires almost slipping: "Miss, hold on tight!" Suddenly there was a "clang" from the back seat. Gui'er turned around and saw that the water bottle she had brought out that morning had fallen, the water inside spilled all over the ground, reflecting the flickering shadow of the firelight outside the window, like a pool of broken blood.

Just as we were getting close to the villa area, a rumbling sound suddenly came from the sky, and a bunch of bombers flew overhead.

"Miss, get out of the car quickly." Gui'er didn't react in time, but A-Cheng grabbed her and ran out of the car, finding a corner by the roadside to hide.

Other passersby also scrambled to get out of the way, but fortunately the Japanese plane only flew low overhead and did not drop any bombs.

Only after they had flown far away did everyone feel a lingering fear. They ran out from their hiding places, looked up in the direction the Japanese plane had flown, stood there blankly for several seconds, and then, after a few seconds, they came to their senses and hurriedly left.

Gui'er finally breathed a sigh of relief when the car drove past the familiar iron gate and into her own yard; her back was already soaked with cold sweat.

"We're home, Miss." Ah Cheng's voice trembled slightly, and his hands were still shaking even after he turned off the engine.

Gui'er nodded, pushed open the car door, and stumbled as soon as her feet touched the ground—her legs had gone numb from the tension.

"Miss, Miss, you're finally back! I heard the Japanese devils are attacking the New Territories right now. They bombed Kai Tak Airport, and many of our neighbors have already fled. Those who haven't fled have nowhere to go. What should we do?"

Gui'er looked around. Since coming to Hong Kong, she had been living in this exquisite villa. Now that things had come to this point, she probably had no choice but to leave. After all, in her understanding, once the Japanese invaded this place, they would definitely burn, kill, and loot, and these wealthy residential areas would be their primary targets.

"Quickly, pack your things. Except for the four people you can keep with you, move all the other valuables to the basement. Brother Cheng, go find some lime bricks to seal the basement door."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, but then they immediately understood what she meant.