Chapter 28: Soviet Captain Iryna

That was no longer mere self-preservation; it was a lethal instinct carved into the very marrow of her bones!

Lin Xue stood frozen. She stared at her blood-stained hands and the wood-chopping axe, then back at the massive carcass of the wild boar on the ground, her eyes filled with disbelief.

She... she had actually killed a wild boar?

While she was indeed a sixth-degree master of kendo, she had almost no practical combat experience. Throughout her training, she had used nothing but bamboo swords; she had rarely even touched a real blade. When she did use a real blade, it was almost exclusively a scalpel. This was the first time she had ever engaged in a life-or-death struggle against a wild boar with a wood-chopping axe.

"Are... are you alright?" Xu Feng regained his composure, stumbling over to her side to snatch the axe from her grip and toss it aside. He grabbed her shoulders and looked her up and down. Only when he saw she was unhurt did he let out a sigh of relief.

But the very next second, his temper flared up.

"I told you to climb the tree! Who told you to charge in?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" he roared at her, his voice trembling with the lingering fear of what might have happened.

Lin Xue flinched at his shout, and her eyes instantly welled up with tears. Grievance, lingering terror, and the relief of having survived the ordeal all collided at once, and she could no longer hold it in, bursting into loud sobs.

Watching her cry, her face a picture of shattered composure, all of Xu Feng’s anger evaporated. He raised his hand as if to scold her further, but the words died in his throat. In the end, he could only let out a sigh of helplessness. He reached out to clumsily wipe the tears from her face, his touch uncharacteristically gentle.

"Alright, alright, don't cry." His voice softened. "I know you were trying to save me. It’s my fault; I shouldn't have yelled at you." He pulled her gently into his arms and patted her back. "We won, didn't we?"

Held in his embrace, Lin Xue felt the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat, and her sobbing gradually subsided. Yes, they had won. Two people had worked together to kill a crazed beast that even tigers would fear. The sensation was both surreal and overwhelming.

***

Xu Feng looked at the giant boar on the ground, feeling a wave of lingering fear, but even more so, a sense of absurd irony. Damn it all, he had thought he was bringing along a support character who needed protection, but as it turned out, he was traveling with a top-tier assassin capable of one-shotting the boss! This wife of his was a little too fierce.

***

Shangba Town.

As the largest market town for miles around, it was currently shrouded in a peculiar atmosphere. There were few pedestrians on the streets, and while most shops were open, there was almost no business to be found. On the walls, the propaganda slogans of the former Kwantung Army had been crudely ripped away, replaced by new notices written in awkward Chinese and Russian.

Several tall Soviet soldiers, slung with PPSh submachine guns, patrolled the streets in small groups. Their foreign features and upright military bearing made the townspeople instinctively keep their distance.

Wang Erhu, clutching his face—which was swollen like a pig’s head—limped along the stone-paved road. Every step he took caused him to wince in pain. He had walked the several dozen miles of mountain road from the village to the town for the better part of the day. The physical pain was secondary; the venomous resentment and humiliation in his heart burned like a fire, searing his very insides.

Xu Feng! Lin Xue!

He chewed on those two names over and over in his mind, wishing he could tear them limb from limb. After losing his bow yesterday and hearing that the pair of "dogs" had the audacity to go up the mountain again today, the last string of sanity in Wang Erhu’s mind had snapped. The fence-sitters in the village were useless; his only option was to report them to the authorities!

But which authorities? The lackeys in the town office who had been bowing and scraping to the Japanese just days ago were now tucking their tails between their legs, trembling at the sight of the Soviet soldiers. They were useless. After thinking it over, Wang Erhu realized he had to find the ones who truly called the shots now.

He stopped a peddler passing by with a shoulder pole and asked in a slurred voice, "Brother... tell me, where can I find the... the 'Russian' officials?"

The peddler was startled by his disfigured appearance and backed away before pointing toward a fine two-story building at the east end of town. "There. It used to be the Japanese military police headquarters, but now the Soviets have taken it over as their command post. If you want to find them, go there. But take my advice: don't go looking for trouble with those soldiers. They have quite the temper."

Wang Erhu thanked him, a malicious glint in his eyes, and walked straight toward the small building. At the entrance to the command post, two armed sentries stood ramrod straight, scanning their surroundings with vigilant eyes.

As soon as Wang Erhu approached, one of them blocked him with the butt of his rifle.

"Halt! What do you want?" the sentry barked in broken Chinese.

"Officer, officer, I... I want to report a crime! I want to report someone!" Wang Erhu tried to squeeze out a smile that looked worse than crying, pointing at his own face. "Look, I was beaten! And there’s a Japanese spy in our village!"

"A spy?" The two sentries exchanged glances, clearly sensitive to the word.

Just then, a crisp, powerful female voice drifted from inside the building, speaking in fluent Russian: "Ivan, what’s going on?"

A tall woman wearing a crisp Soviet captain’s uniform stepped out. She looked to be about twenty-six or twenty-seven, her beautiful golden curls neatly tucked under her military cap. Her features were deep and well-defined, and her blue eyes were as clear as a Siberian ice lake, yet they held the sharp, piercing gaze characteristic of a soldier. She was Elissa, a captain in the Soviet intelligence company stationed in Shangba Town.

"Reporting to the Captain, this man says he wants to report a Japanese spy," Sentry Ivan immediately stood to attention.

Elissa’s gaze fell on Wang Erhu, and her brow furrowed slightly. She had seen all kinds of people, but she had rarely encountered someone who wore "wretchedness" and "spite" as clearly on their face as Wang Erhu did.

"You say there is a spy?" Elissa switched to fluent Chinese, her tone carrying an unquestionable authority.

Hearing the woman speak the language of the Dragon Kingdom so well—and noting the insignia on her shoulder indicating her high rank—Wang Erhu’s spirits soared.

"Yes! Yes, Officer! A woman of unknown origin has come to our village. She looks like a painting, but she’s a mute! I suspect she’s a Japanese agent!"

"Just because she’s pretty and a mute?" The corner of Elissa’s mouth curled into a faint, imperceptible smirk of mockery.

"No, no, no!" Wang Erhu waved his hands frantically and began to embellish the events of the previous day. In his version, he was a hero upholding justice and exposing a spy, while Xu Feng was a vile thug shielding the enemy and acting unreasonably.

"That man named Xu Feng—not only did he stop me from exposing the woman’s true face, but he also beat me! Look at my face, Officer! He’s the one who did this! He even stole my family’s ancestral hunting bow! They must be in this together!"

Elissa had initially been somewhat impatient, dismissing this as just another petty squabble between rural villagers. But when the name "Xu Feng" left Wang Erhu’s lips, her body suddenly stiffened, and a flash of incredulous light flickered through her ice-lake blue eyes.