A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1162 Basement Refuge

Wu Mingqiang, along with Acheng and Zhu Zhiming, moved all the luggage they brought to the basement on the first floor.

Gui'er went in and took a look. She found that there was a square room down there, about two meters high. The space was about the same size as the bookstore on the first floor. There were a few tattered burlap sacks and some rice crumbs scattered on the floor, which showed that this place was indeed used to store rice before.

After moving everyone's luggage, Wu Mingqiang then moved some tables, chairs, pillows, blankets, and mats, while Acheng took a screen and two wooden buckets.

Dingxiang looked at them, frowned, and said, "Why did you bring these things down here?"

"Look at what you're saying. We don't know how long we'll be down here. You young ladies need to use the restroom, right?"

"Brother Cheng is so thoughtful," Gui'er praised.

Wu Mingqiang slapped his forehead and said, "That's right, I didn't think of that either." So he ran up again, found some wooden planks and carved out a small cubicle. In the cubicle, he made a bed with long benches and bed boards and said to Gui'er, "Gui'er and Dingxiang can sleep here. We men can just make a makeshift bed on the floor with mats."

Gui'er nodded, then looked up at the stairs leading to the entrance and said, "Brother Wu, is this entrance safe? Won't someone find it? And what if a bomb comes and the house collapses? Won't it crush this place? Then we'll be crushed to death inside."

Wu Mingqiang glanced at the internet and said, "We probably won't be able to find out, because it was carved along the floor pattern, unless the Japanese move in and take over our house. But I have a backup plan, you see."

He pointed to a spot on the wall, and Gui'er looked closely and found that light was actually coming through it. Curious, she walked over, but as soon as she got closer, she smelled a stinking ditch. She quickly covered her nose, frowned, and asked, "Could it be...?"

Wu Mingqiang nodded and said, "Yes, it's the sewage ditch. If this place really collapses, we can escape along it."

Acheng and Zhu Zhiming then carried down some furniture, kerosene lamps, a kerosene stove, a small can of kerosene, and a radio from upstairs.

By this time, almost all the supplies that could be moved to the basement had been moved.

Dingxiang said, "Now that everything is done, let's go upstairs."

Acheng rolled his eyes and said, "Are you out of your mind? Didn't you hear the cannon fire getting closer? The Japanese, the British, and the volunteer army are probably fighting just a few blocks away."

Wu Mingqiang nodded and said, "You women stay here. We'll go up and seal the main door from the outside in. We'll also board up the windows upstairs to prevent them from being smashed."

Gui'er held her breath and listened intently. In the distance, besides the rumbling of cannons, there were also intermittent gunshots, which were indeed getting closer and closer.

"Alright, then you all act according to the situation. If you see anything amiss, get down immediately."

Several men nodded, picked up hammers and nails, and went upstairs again. Soon, the sound of wooden boards being used to seal the door could be heard overhead.

Gui'er and Dingxiang remained in the dimly lit basement, barely able to see anything thanks to the light coming in from the entrance.

"Miss, shall I light a kerosene lamp?" Dingxiang said, seemingly bored and making conversation.

"Let's not order any yet. We don't know when this war will end, so let's use these things sparingly."

In Gui'er's memory, the Hong Kong British government surrendered quickly, but the subsequent Japanese occupation period was the most difficult. She still didn't know if she would have a chance to escape to Macau, so she had to find a way to conserve resources.

As they were talking, suddenly there was a loud "boom," and Gui'er felt the ground shake and her ears were ringing.

"Oh my god!" Dingxiang screamed in fright.

Gui'er looked up and saw in the dim light that the ceiling of the basement was covered in dust.

"Miss, is this... is our place going to collapse?" Dingxiang asked in a trembling voice.

"No, it must have been a shell that landed nearby. It didn't hit us. If it had, this place would have collapsed long ago. Don't worry." Gui'er didn't need to look to know that Dingxiang was pale and quite frightened, but she didn't have any better words to comfort her.

"Quick, quick, quick, come down!" she shouted as she ran down the stairs.

Wu Mingqiang hurriedly led Acheng and Zhu Zhiming down the stairs, covering the entrance with a cover plate to restore the disguise. The entrance to their basement was located at the triangular spot under the stairs. In addition to the cover plate that looked similar to the original floor, there was also a carpet and some tattered burlap sacks for disguise. Normally, it looked like a lot of junk had been thrown into this useless corner. If Wu Mingqiang hadn't told Gui'er about the basement this time, she wouldn't have been able to tell from all the times she had been there.

"That bomb just landed at the street corner. Damn it, I just boarded up our second-floor windows, and the glass shattered. All that work for nothing," A-Cheng said angrily.

"It's good that everyone is alright," Gui'er comforted her.

Everyone fell silent, some sitting and some standing. Now, apart from a few star-like bright spots on the wall near the sewer, the basement was pitch black.

However, people's hearing is particularly acute in the dark. They can hear every gunshot except for the booming sound of cannons, and can even roughly determine the location of the gunshot.

The sounds of gunfire were intermittent, sometimes suddenly erupting in unison.

At this point, Wu Mingqiang said, "It must be the Japanese who have launched the attack."

Starting from December 18th, the basement became Gui'er and the others' refuge. They dared not turn on the lights during the day, relying only on the dim light coming through the stairwell to see. The group huddled in their respective corners, straining their ears to listen to the sounds above them.

Several men would occasionally walk to the stairs and peek out through the cracks in the floorboards. However, since the door lock was nailed shut, they couldn't actually see anything.

Time seemed to stand still. The group of them lost track of day and night. Occasionally, Wu Mingqiang would turn on his flashlight to check the time. When it was time to eat, they would take out the pancakes or steamed buns they had prepared earlier, heat them up briefly on the kerosene stove, and then eat them with hot water.

Dingxiang would open a can of food for Gui'er, sometimes beef, sometimes fish. The vegetables were potatoes and sweet potatoes that Wu Mingqiang had prepared beforehand, which kept well. There were no leafy greens available because the Japanese army had imposed a blockade on supplies from the mainland several months ago, cutting off the vegetable supply. So Wu Mingqiang bought some dried goods to replace them, such as shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and dried bamboo shoots. Dingxiang would make a small bowl of soup from it and serve it to Gui'er.