106: Chapter 106 Hello, Mr. Rabe

Liu Guowei devoured the piping hot Braised Beef.

The warmth of the food finally brought a trace of recovery to his frozen, nearly numb body.

This was the first bite of hot food he had eaten in three days.

"Let's go."

Chen Xi's voice was brief and powerful.

He didn't give him any time to digest or reflect.

Professor Liu nodded and struggled to stand up.

Long periods of hiding and hunger made his legs feel like they were filled with lead; every step was wobbly.

"Follow me closely."

Chen Xi wasted no words.

He grabbed Professor Liu's arm and, nearly dragging him, pulled him into the endless darkness.

The [Chameleon Cloak] could perfectly hide himself, but it couldn't cover another person at the same time.

He could only choose the most primitive and dangerous way—using ruins and shadows to traverse the night.

(Too slow.)

(A moving target.)

Chen Xi's brow furrowed.

He had to deliver this important 'spark' to an absolutely safe place before dawn.

The only choice was the International Safety Zone established by Rabe and the others.

"Ha... ha..."

Professor Liu's breathing became heavier and heavier, like a worn-out bellows.

He was, after all, just a scholar who couldn't even truss a chicken.

"Ahead... turn left... hide for a bit..."

Chen Xi's voice was kept very low.

Dragging Professor Liu, he ducked behind a gap in a broken wall.

Almost at the same time.

The footsteps of a Japanese Army patrol approached from the distance.

"Baka... we found nothing... not even the shadow of a pretty girl..."

"Don't be in such a hurry... tomorrow we'll check the Jinling Women's College... there's plenty of good stock there..."

Filthy words, mixed with the heavy stench of alcohol, drifted in from outside the wall.

Professor Liu's body trembled violently from fear and anger.

Chen Xi's hand, like a steel pincer, pressed firmly on his shoulder to stop him from making any sound.

He looked through a hole in the wall, watching the patrol walk past.

There was no anger or fluctuation in his eyes.

Only a cold, record-like calmness.

As if he were looking at a group of corpses whose death dates had already been marked.

Once the patrol was far away, he pulled Professor Liu and continued on their way.

The rest of the journey was full of thrills.

They brushed past Japanese Army stragglers and patrols several times.

Each time, Chen Xi relied on his superhuman hearing and battlefield intuition to predict them in advance, leading Professor Liu to hide in the blind spots of the ruins.

When they finally reached the outskirts of the International Safety Zone, Professor Liu was completely exhausted, practically carried along by Chen Xi.

However, the sight before them left both of them stunned.

This was not paradise.

It was another form of hell.

Countless refugees, like driven livestock, crowded the entrance of the safety zone.

The air was thick with a pungent sour smell of sweat, vomit, and despair.

Cries, groans, and pleas were heard incessantly.

There were no expressions on the people's faces.

Only a soul-drained numbness.

"Get out of the way! Everyone get the hell out of the way!"

A series of rough shouts came from the crowd.

A squad of Japanese Soldiers was trying to forcibly break through the safety zone's crude defense line.

A tall white man spread his arms like a wall, standing firmly in front of them.

His face was etched with exhaustion, and his suit was covered in dust, but in those blue eyes burned an inviolable flame of anger.

John Rabe.

Chen Xi had seen his photo in the data provided by 'Great Wall'.

"This is the International Safety Zone!" Rabe roared angrily in accented German and Japanese. "According to the agreement, you have no right to enter! Much less the right to take away any civilian!"

The leading Japanese Sergeant smiled contemptuously.

He pushed Rabe aside, pointed at a young woman holding a child behind him, and said in stiff Japanese, "We suspect she is a spy for the Shina army! We are taking her back for interrogation!"

The woman was scared out of her wits, clutching her child tightly and letting out a shrill scream.

Rabe rushed forward again, blocking the woman.

"No! You cannot!"

"Move, you damn foreigner!"

The Japanese Sergeant completely lost his patience; he raised his rifle butt, about to smash it into Rabe's head.

The viewers in the Livestream room had their hearts in their throats.

【Save him, quick! Master Xi!】

【You can't let anything happen to him! He's a good man!】

Chen Xi hid in the shadows of the crowd, unmoving.

He only slowly raised the [slingshot] in his hand.

Swoosh—

A slight sound of breaking air, almost inaudible.

The rifle butt the Japanese Sergeant was about to swing down suddenly jerked.

The entire rifle, as if struck hard by an invisible force, flew out of his hands, drawing an arc in the air and landing far away.

"Clang."

The gun fell to the ground.

Everyone was stunned.

The Japanese Sergeant looked at his empty hands in disbelief, then looked around.

There was nothing.

It was as if he had just encountered a ghost.

The other Japanese Soldiers also looked at each other, their faces filled with terror and confusion.

This kind of unknown, unexplainable, and eerie event made them feel far more fear than a confrontation with real blades and guns.

"Get out."

A cold word, devoid of any emotion, came from the shadows of the crowd.

The squad of Japanese Soldiers, as if receiving a great pardon, scrambled and ran away.

Rabe also stood frozen, looking at everything in confusion.

Just then.

Chen Xi, supporting Professor Liu, walked out from the crowd.

He walked up to Rabe and said calmly in German so fluent it surprised the other man:

"Mr. Rabe, my friend needs a safe place."

Rabe looked at the young man before him, who was dressed simply but had an unusually calm aura, then at the middle-aged man beside him, who was clearly a high-level intellectual; wariness and curiosity intertwined in his eyes.

But in the end, he nodded.

Out of the most basic humanitarianism of a kind person.

"...Please come in."

Rabe stepped aside, making a path.

Chen Xi supported Professor Liu and walked into this final sanctuary, known as the 'Living Buddha's Ark'.

As soon as they entered the safety zone, an even stronger smell of antiseptic and blood hit them.

He saw that in a temporary operating room converted from an office, several doctors and nurses were performing surgery on a man shot in the abdomen, aided by a few dim, flickering oil lamps.

There was no electricity.

There were not enough medicines.

There were only endless groans from the wounded and the deep helplessness of the doctors in the face of death.