Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Zhang Haiyan looked at Bai Yu. The girl’s feelings for her sister were sincere, but based on her behavior just now, both sisters appeared to be murderous monsters.

Zhang Haiyan had never been biased when it came to beautiful girls, nor did he agree with the saying that minors shouldn’t die for committing major crimes.

The girl’s childish expression and worry in her eyes as she waited for news of her sister would normally make people feel pity for her. But in Zhang Haiyan’s eyes, she was a venomous snake with its head lowered. He couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the snake’s heart now.

“Your sister is still in Xiamen. Her life is in our hands,” Zhang Haiyan lied without hesitation. “Don’t worry, she’s well taken care of. But you’ve killed so many of us. If I can’t go back alive this time, your sister will die a miserable death.”

“How do I know if what you’ve said is true?”

Bai Zhu had probably died at sea. She might’ve escaped from the ship using the lifeboat, but the probability of her being able to go ashore and arrive in Xiamen was too low.

“You can trust me because I got off the Nan’an alive. It’s impossible anyone else would know of her whereabouts,” Zhang Haiyan said.

Bai Yu looked at him resentfully. “I can let you go. What should I do to get my sister back?”

“You won’t come to a good end if you betray Mo Yungao,” Zhang Haiyan said. Even though she had such strong skills, it was still very easy to manipulate her since she was so young.

“He won’t know. I’ll say that you jumped off the train.”

Zhang Haiyan laughed and looked at the alarm bell beside him. “I won’t leave until I achieve my goal.”

I’m just like a good-looking playboy, he thought to himself. If I keep pushing for what I want, this little girl won’t be able to think carefully.

People who killed their opponents without hesitation definitely weren’t good at handling real pressure, after all. And no matter what the occasion, the pressure of letting their opponent survive was surely greater than killing them once and for all.

Bai Yu looked at him, “What do you want?”

“I want to know where you plan on releasing the plague in each city,” Zhang Haiyan said. “If you let the plague break out in these cities, I guarantee that your sister will be infected as well. Do you see, Bai Yu? I’m doing something good. I’m a good person who’s trying to help you reunite with your sister.”

If your sister is still alive, Zhang Haiyan thought to himself, I’ll kill you both so that you can reunite with each other.

Bai Yu continued looking at him. After they stood in this deadlock for a while, she finally asked, “You want to prevent the plague from breaking out?”

“Correct.”

“Our team is going to bring the plague water and pour it into each city’s main water source. The people in our team are free to move around, so the division will send them a telegram when it’s time to act. They’ll wait a day after they receive the telegram before starting the process.”

“What if they don’t receive the telegram?”

“They’ll release the plague next Monday at noon. I’m to lead the team in Nanjing,” Bai Yu said. “But it certainly won’t happen then."

“Why?”

“You just handed the telegraph room the telegram that will release the plague.”

“What?!” Zhang Haiyan was stunned.

“The telegram you just gave the guard was a secret order,” Bai Yu said. “Since the commander gave it to you, he wanted you to be the one to deliver it. That’s the kind of person he is.”

Zhang Haiyan turned around and rushed to the door. The wind blew in as soon as he opened it and he immediately pushed the door to the telegraph room open, only to find Zhang Haiqi there. She had snapped the transmitter’s neck.

“Mother, what are you doing here?”

“Mo Yungao ran away,” Zhang Haiqi said.

She went to chase after him as soon as he ran, but the snakes were very fast and attacked her. By the time Zhang Haiqi ran out of the door, Mo Yungao was long gone. Her next thought had been to kill the transmitter.

Zhang Haiyan rushed over to see if the telegram had been sent and was relieved to find that the telegraph hadn’t been turned on yet.

Zhang Haiqi asked him what was wrong, so Zhang Haiyan quickly explained the whole thing while Bai Yu looked at them from door of the other train car.

Zhang Haiqi looked at Bai Yu and then said to Zhang Haiyan, “It’s better to get rid of her.”

Bai Yu immediately retreated into the darkness and Zhang Haiyan said, “I still have things I’d like to ask her.”

“She’s a little liar,” Zhang Haiqi said.

Zhang Haiyan froze for a moment and Zhang Haiqi continued, “Trust me, a woman knows these things at a glance. There’s nothing to say to her.”

Zhang Haiqi picked up the corpse with one hand and threw it off the train, but she suddenly heard the guards’ voices. Mo Yungao must’ve notified them of the situation, which meant that their surprise attack had failed.

“Hold them off for three minutes,” Zhang Haiqi said to Zhang Haiyan before immediately sitting in front of the telegraph and starting to send a telegram to Zhang Qishan.

Zhang Haiyan stepped out and closed the door to the telegraph room, noticing that the lights in the opposite car were on. The car was full of guards armed with Browning M1910 pistols, which were called Flowery Little Guns at the time. This kind of gun looked elegant, but packed a lot of power.

Zhang Haiyan immediately ducked his head, avoiding the four or five bullets that hit behind where he had been standing just now. He flipped under the train and unscrewed the coupling that connected the train cars together.

The two cars immediately separated, but the inertia kept them from quickly breaking away from each other.

Zhang Haiyan turned over, aware that his feet were almost touching the railway ties. A guard moved to jump to the telegraph car, but Zhang Haiyan grabbed his feet and caused him to fall directly onto the rails.

The sound of bones being crushed made everyone shiver.

The people behind him didn’t dare make any more attempts to jump and focused on firing at the bottom of the train car instead. Zhang Haiyan use his deformed and aching hands to climb to the bottom of the Zhang family liquor car.

A guard stuck his head down and shot at him, but was instantly blinded when Zhang Haiyan shot a blade out. He died right on the train car’s coupling, while Zhang Haiyan almost fell off himself.

The engine car was on the other side of the liquor car, so the two cars moved further and further away.

Zhang Haiyan flipped over and climbed to the top of the car. He wanted to take a running jump onto the top of the telegraph car, but the distance was too great. Seeing that he was about to fall onto the rails and be crushed to death by the incoming telegraph car, Zhang Haiqi opened the door and came out. She had the telegraph wire in her hand and quickly threw it to him.

As soon as Zhang Haiyan caught it in mid-air, Zhang Haiqi jumped off the train. The train was traveling over a tall wooden bridge that had a lake below it. Zhang Haiqi reached out her hand and pulled Zhang Haiyan into her arms, hugging him as they fell headfirst into the lake.

The guard above fired at the lake, but pistols had a limited range and lost power in the water. The guard yelled for the train to stop.

The two people floated to the lake’s surface and immediately swam to shore. They had excellent swimming skills, so they reached the shore quickly.

“So that girl was lying to me?” Zhang Haiyan asked Zhang Haiqi.

“Yes. She had a face that looked like she’d been lying since she was a child.” Zhang Haiqi took out her cigarettes, but they were all wet. “She wasn’t going to tell you the truth. She just wanted to know the information about her sister.”

“Fortunately, I’m also a liar. What did you send to Zhang Qishan?”

“I didn’t send anything. I just rigged and adjusted the frequency of the telegraph stations,” Zhang Haiqi said as she looked at the train.

Back on the train, the two disconnected sections came to a halt. Mo Yungao went to the telegraph car and told a guard to send a telegram. “The situation has changed. Inform all our people in the cities that the time and method for executing the plan are adjusted as follows….”

As the guard began to send the telegram, all the telegraphers in the telegraph room of Zhang Qishan’s residence began to copy Mo Yungao’s orders.

“It’s been confirmed that the telegram was sent from Mo Yungao’s military frequency,” the lieutenant said. “All plans and personnel information are available to us.”

Zhang Qishan looked at the telegram. “Notify those in Nanjing that I won’t be going. Let’s go to Beihai. Before dawn tomorrow, we need to capture Mo Yungao’s people in Guangzhou, Changsha, and Wuhan in one fell swoop. Before we reach Beihai, we’ll spread false news of a strange disease.”