Chapter 31: Meeting Eliza Again—A Love Triangle?
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The car door swung open, and a figure leaped down from the driver’s seat.
It was a woman.
An extraordinarily tall woman.
She wore a crisp Soviet captain’s uniform, the Sam Browne belt accentuating an astonishingly slender waist, while her full bosom strained against the fabric.
Beneath her military cap, golden curls were neatly pinned up, with a few unruly strands falling beside her ears.
Illuminated by the flickering firelight, her face seemed like the finest work of God.
A high, straight nose, snow-white skin, and, deep within her eye sockets, a pair of sapphire-blue eyes that swept coldly across the noisy courtyard.
Her appearance left everyone present staring in stunned silence.
In all their lives, they had never seen a foreigner like her, let alone a female officer.
The sharp, forbidding air of someone who tolerated no strangers, combined with the exotic aura radiating from her, created such an oppressive presence that everyone instinctively shrank back.
Xu Feng’s heart, however, sank to the bottom at that very moment.
He knew this woman.
He would recognize her even if she had been reduced to ashes.
Eliza.
The combat instructor at the special training camp outside Moscow, who could smile as she ordered them to run thirty kilometers carrying fifty kilograms on their backs. The woman everyone called the Siberian Blonde Demon.
What was she doing here? And how had she become a stationed army captain?
Before Xu Feng could sort through his thoughts, another figure came tumbling out from the other side of the jeep.
It was Wang Erhu.
His piglike face was now covered in a vicious, obsequious grin.
Like a hyena that had caught the scent of blood, he followed behind Eliza. The moment he saw the chunks of meat boiling in the great pots in the courtyard—and Xu Feng, whom the villagers were treating as an honored guest—his eyes turned scarlet.
That was the pig he had suffered a beating to obtain! And now it had become a feast Xu Feng was using to win people over!
“Captain! It’s him!” Wang Erhu’s voice was as shrill as a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Limping into the crowd, he thrust a finger almost against Xu Feng’s nose.
“He’s Xu Feng! And that woman is the Japanese spy he’s been hiding! The two of them have been spreading lies and buying people’s loyalty. They’re obviously plotting something!”
The courtyard exploded into an uproar.
The villagers looked at one another, the joy and drunkenness on their faces swiftly replaced by fear and suspicion.
They looked from the imposing Soviet captain to Wang Erhu’s venomous face, and finally, every gaze settled on Xu Feng.
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A Japanese spy?
The words struck every heart like a poisoned thorn.
Eliza’s gaze finally fell upon Xu the Dog.
When she saw the sharply defined face illuminated by the firelight, carrying a trace of cynical amusement yet edged with vigilance, her ice-lake-blue eyes churned with a storm.
It was him!
It really was him!
The troublemaker at the training camp who had always ranked last in theoretical studies, yet in practical exercises had managed to take down three of her assistants with a single entrenching shovel.
The bastard who had been punished to scrub the stables all night for brewing liquor without permission, only to show up the next morning with dark circles beneath his eyes, grinning as he offered her a wildflower he had secretly plucked beside the stable.
The man who, on the eve of graduation, had drunk himself senseless, clung to her military boots, and spent the entire night singing “Katyusha” in atrocious Russian…
Eliza’s heart felt as though a great hand had seized it in a crushing grip, leaving it sore and swollen.
The longing accumulated through countless nights and days had finally found an outlet, only to be blocked by the absurd scene before her.
How had he come to be here? And why was he with a woman accused of being a Japanese spy?
She forced down the turmoil in her heart and resumed the coldness and authority expected of a soldier.
She knew this was not the time to reminisce.
With the entire village watching, she had to handle Wang Erhu’s accusation according to regulations.
Xu Feng was looking at her, too.
Four years had passed, and the Blonde Demon seemed even more… alluring.
She still wore that same expression, as if she might devour someone alive. Yet the military uniform outlined her fiery figure far more effectively than the training clothes she had worn back then.
But he had caught the complicated emotion that flashed through her eyes.
He knew this situation had become a serious problem.
The notebook wrapped in oilcloth against his chest felt like a red-hot branding iron, scorching him from within.
“Take him—and the woman—with you.”
Eliza’s voice was cool and emotionless. She spoke in stiff yet fluent Chinese.
She did not look at Xu Feng. Instead, she pointed her chin toward him and Lin Xue.
Two tall Soviet soldiers immediately stepped forward. The muzzles of their PPSh submachine guns dipped slightly, radiating an unquestionable threat.
The atmosphere in the courtyard froze solid.
The villagers who had only moments ago been calling Xu Feng their brother now instinctively retreated several steps, terrified of being dragged into the matter.
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Those who had accepted Xu Feng’s private portions of meat lowered their heads even further, wishing they could crawl into a crack in the ground.
Human nature was truly something.
A single pig could buy it—and a single rifle could make it vanish in an instant.
Lin Xue instinctively backed away, clutching Xu Feng’s arm tightly as her body trembled.
Xu Feng took her icy hand in his, gave it a gentle squeeze, and offered her a reassuring look.
Then he turned toward Old Uncle Zhang at the courtyard gate, the very old man who had helped him arrange the feast moments earlier.
Old Uncle Zhang’s face was full of anxiety. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but beneath the dark, gaping muzzles of the Soviet soldiers’ guns, he ultimately dared not speak.
“Let’s go.”
Xu Feng offered no resistance. He faced the two soldiers calmly, his voice so composed that he sounded as though he were speaking of something unrelated to himself.
He knew resistance would be futile. It would only make matters worse.
Eliza’s gaze never left Xu Feng’s face.
Seeing him remain so calm and unhurried, as though he could not care less, inexplicably filled her with anger.
That bastard—he was always like this!
Wang Erhu was almost laughing aloud with triumph.
He puffed out his chest, feeling that the wounds on his face no longer hurt quite so much.
He walked over to the pot of pork still bubbling away and shouted arrogantly at the villagers, “Take a good look, all of you! This is a traitor who’s sold out his country! He sheltered Japanese spies and tried to buy your loyalty with a few scraps of kindness! But look at him now—the Soviet captain has arrested him! Serves him right!”
Xu Feng and Lin Xue were escorted on either side through the silent crowd toward the cold jeep.
The fire still burned, and the aroma of meat still lingered in the air, but the grand whole-pig feast ended abruptly in a way no one had expected.
Before being shoved into the vehicle, Xu Feng glanced back.
He saw Wang Erhu’s smug, spiteful face. He saw the villagers’ expressions—some frightened, some evasive, some gleeful at his misfortune.
He also saw the woman called Eliza standing at the boundary between firelight and darkness, gazing at him from afar with an unfathomably complicated look in her eyes.
The jeep roared, turned around, and drove away, leaving the noise and chaos far behind.
The night in Old River Ravine Village had descended into complete disorder.