A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1061 Doing Something

Gui'er frowned as she looked at them, and A-Cheng also bent down and picked up a few.

Some of these articles focus on Hong Kong and South China, condemning Britain for "exploiting the blood and sweat of the Chinese" and "occupying Hong Kong and plundering its resources," calling the Hong Kong British authorities "tools to oppress the Chinese," and calling on the public to "oppose Britain and expel Britain."

Some of these accounts used the British military's defeats in the European theater, specifically mentioning the fall of France, to exaggerate Britain's "declining national power and inability to protect its own interests," suggesting that the Japanese military exercises were "a prelude to the liberation of Hong Kong."

Some directly claimed that the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway and Hong Kong, controlled by the British army, were "transfer stations for aiding Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan," and that the Japanese military exercises were aimed at cutting off the British and American supply lines to China, causing the Chongqing government to "lose foreign aid and be forced to surrender."

Some even instigated conflict between Hong Kong's Chinese community and the British authorities, claiming that "the British army only protects its own interests and disregards the safety of the Chinese," and encouraging Hong Kong people "not to risk their lives for Britain" and cooperate with the Japanese army's actions. While some of this was true, Gui'er knew that Britain and Japan were birds of a feather, and that Britain, at least, wouldn't use such brutal methods as the "Three Alls Policy."

She looked around and saw passersby picking up the cards, some even reading them aloud. Some people upstairs also ran up to pick one up and read it, and there was a lot of discussion.

"Brother Cheng, let's go." Gui'er sighed, took the flyers, got into the car, and returned to school.

Lin Pei-shan did come today.

She and several classmates were sitting in a circle, having a lively discussion about the Japanese military exercises.

Gui'er went over to her and asked, "Are you alright?"

Lin Peishan excitedly grasped her hand and said, "It was terrifying! My mother wouldn't let me leave the room, saying that the Japanese had attacked. Later, my father went out and inquired around, and they said it was just a military exercise to increase our bargaining power with the British."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Look, Japanese planes dropped these on my way here." Gui'er angrily threw out the few leaflets she had picked up.

The students all took them to look at.

"Oh my god, you ran into a Japanese plane. Luckily, it wasn't dropping bombs," Lin Peishan said, holding her hand.

"This is outrageous! It's a complete distortion of the truth!" a male student said, then crumpled the flyer into a ball and threw it forcefully on the ground.

"Look at the Japanese devils' posture. Even if this is just an exercise, they might really attack next time. Didn't you see how blatant they've written it on their leaflets?" Liu Lanfang, who was also there, said, holding up one of the leaflets.

“I think so too, it was bound to happen sooner or later,” Gui’er said.

“I have relatives in the New Territories, across from Yuen Long and Lo Wu. They rushed to my house overnight from Hong Kong Island or the mainland, abandoning their farmland and fishing rafts. However, my house is not big enough to accommodate so many people, so one of my uncles went back to his own house, pasted air raid shelter strips on the doors and windows, reinforced the walls, and dug a simple air raid shelter behind the house. He came over during the day and dared not approach the Shenzhen River. He said he was often awakened by gunshots and passwords from the other side at night, and he even had auditory hallucinations and insomnia.”

“My family are Singaporean citizens. My father and mother discussed selling our property and trying to buy tickets back to Singapore, but tickets were hard to come by, and I still had to go to school here. Those damn Japanese. I also know that some of our relatives have stored gold and passports in bank safe deposit boxes in preparation for an emergency evacuation; however, some uncles and aunts believe that Britain will compromise and maintain social distancing, but we have prepared an emergency kit at home.”

Everyone was talking at once, seemingly discussing something, but they hadn't really come to any conclusions and were still uneasy.

Just then, the school bell rang, and the teacher walked into the classroom and said, "Students, due to the special circumstances, the school has adjusted its class schedule, and the number of classes will be reduced by half. After school every day, please go home as soon as possible and reduce outdoor activities. The government is already handling the situation, so please don't be afraid. If you have time, we hope that some students can help out by distributing the air raid pamphlets printed by our school and spreading knowledge about disaster prevention. Citizens are eager to learn about defense and first aid knowledge."

Half of the students in the class raised their hands, and Gui'er did too.

After class, Gui'er and Lin Peishan received 100 copies of the air defense manual from their teacher. Lin Peishan asked, "Shall we go out and distribute them?"

Gui'er thought for a moment and said, "That's too aimless. Other classmates probably think the same way. I think we should take it home and distribute it to our neighbors. If there are any left, we can distribute them near my shop and give one to each of the surrounding businesses. That way, after they've read it, they can put it in their shops for their customers to see."

Lin Pei-shan smiled and said, "That makes sense, I'll do that too."

Gui'er took the car home first, and after arriving at her neighborhood, she knocked on the door of each house and delivered a safety manual.

As soon as the car stopped at the entrance of the villa area, they saw Old Li, the butler of the Zhou family, the owner of the shipping company, directing the servants to move wooden crates into the garage. Gui'er rolled down the car window and handed over an air raid pamphlet: "Uncle Li, this is a safety manual printed by the school. Please show it to the husband and wife."

Old Li took the brochure, rubbed his fingertips on the cover, and smiled cautiously. "Thank you, Miss Sha. My husband just had the shipping company reserve a yacht yesterday, saying that if things get chaotic, we'll go to Macau to take refuge." He gestured towards the next house, "The Wang mansion is even more impressive. I heard they moved their safe to the underground vault of HSBC, and even packed up the antique ornaments in the garden."

Gui'er nodded and walked towards the Western-style building diagonally opposite. It was where Mr. Zhang, who ran a trading company, lived. Behind the iron gate and carved railings, several workers were erecting barbed wire on the wall. Mrs. Zhang, wearing a Xiangyun yarn cheongsam, stood inside directing the work. Seeing Gui'er, she took off her sunglasses and took the manual: "This stuff is quite useful. The other day I went to HSBC and saw many people exchanging US dollars. They all said the Hong Kong dollar might be unstable." She raised her hand to smooth her curly hair. "I had a tailor rush-make several durable short jackets. If you really need to run around, a cheongsam isn't very convenient."

Moving to the back row, we found a detached villa belonging to Mr. Zhou, who owned a textile factory. Bougainvillea climbed the walls of the yard, and the garage door was open, revealing a brand-new Austin sedan. Mr. Zhang was personally stuffing a canvas bag into the car when he saw Gui'er handing him a brochure. He laughed heartily, "Miss Sha, you're so thoughtful! I've prepared some canned food and medicine. If a war breaks out, we'll first head to the estate in the New Territories. There are wells and fields there; we can hold out for a while." He pointed to the air-raid shelter diagram in the brochure, "This thing is useless. Our house has a thick foundation; if all else fails, we'll hide in the basement."

After going around the circle, the brochures were almost all handed out. Finally, the brochure was given to the elderly lady who was a businesswoman who had returned from Southeast Asia and was next door. The lady took the brochure and asked her where she could buy a gas mask, saying that her family was having nightmares every night. Gui'er also told her about the relevant stores.