Chapter 6

As more and more roosters joined in the crowing, the sky gradually brightened, and the night finally passed, bringing light to the world. However, for the young couple in the "haunted house," the arrival of daylight did not change much. The prolonged struggle had drained both of their energies, and they were now barely holding on by sheer willpower.

Bai Liusu's eyelids had been fighting to stay open, and Ouyang Yun was also losing his energy. The woman had buried her head in his shoulder, too exhausted to even speak sarcastically. This couldn't go on, he thought. If they continued like this, would they starve to death here? If he died this way and turned into bones in this position, who knew what future generations would think of him? If he became a fossil, wouldn't he be disgraced for eternity? Ouyang Yun's gaze inadvertently fell on the worm nearby, and he felt a chill. He tentatively asked, "How about we make a deal?"

Bai Liusu remained silent.

"The death of the Northeast Tiger is also very sad, but it shouldn't be blamed on me, right?"

Shen Jian's body lay nearby, already stiff, with the wound on his head congealed, looking terrifying. Bai Liusu thought back to a few hours ago when he was still protecting her, covering her escape, and now they were on different paths, one alive and one dead. Her heart ached as if stung by a venomous insect, and tears streamed down her face. Her voice hoarse, she said, "Traitor, stop pretending. If you hadn't brought the Japanese here, how could Brother Shen have died—"

"Traitor? Who are you calling a traitor? If I'm a traitor, then there are hardly any good people left in China."

"I don't care. If you hadn't moved here, none of this would have happened."

"You really know how to twist things. This place should belong to the Chen family, right? The Chen family asked me to move here! Hey, if I'm not mistaken, you have two accomplices dead outside. If the police see them, we'll all be implicated."

"Hmph—We might as well die together. If you die with me, it will be a way to avenge my brother!"

Ouyang Yun was frustrated. He remembered someone's words and felt the same for the first time—women and small people are the hardest to deal with. His gaze swept over the burlap bags, and an idea came to him. He said, "But these burlap bags, sigh."

Bai Liusu turned her head, looking at the burlap bags, her brows slightly furrowed, as if remembering something.

Ouyang Yun was waiting for this moment. He immediately tried to turn over, but as soon as he moved, the girl also moved. At this point, she was still on high alert. Thus, the two of them engaged in another desperate struggle, exhausting the little energy they had just gathered. They both panted heavily again—

Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the courtyard, followed by a scream— "Ah!" Both were startled and held their breath, listening intently. Then, Ouyang Yun smiled.

—It was Chen Jiayao and her boyfriend—

"Tiange, it's too scary, so many dead people."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here."

"Should we call the police?"

"No, don't call the police, Jiayao, I'm inside, come in quickly." Ouyang Yun shouted when he heard they were about to call the police.

"Brother Ouyang?" Chen Jiayao's trembling voice indicated she was very scared. The two of them came in, and Chen Jiayao, upon seeing the scene inside, fainted before she could even look at Ouyang Yun. Her boyfriend, Chu Tiange, had some courage and, facing the room full of corpses, showed no fear. He quickly caught her. However, when his gaze fell on the entangled pair, he was stunned—his mouth opened wide enough to fit a large egg: "You two..." he stammered, his face turning red, seemingly unable to speak.

Ouyang Yun and Bai Liusu's current position was very intimate and ambiguous, indeed very suggestive.

Ouyang Yun coughed twice, pretending not to see his expression, and said, "I'm Ouyang Yun, a friend of Jiayao. You're her boyfriend?"

"Yes, I'm Chu Tiange. Brother Ouyang, what's going on—"

Chen Jiayao slowly came to, seeing blood and corpses everywhere, she immediately buried her head in Chu Tiange's chest. Then, she mustered the courage to look back and saw Ouyang Yun with a mournful face. Seeing him tightly hugging a woman, her face turned red, and she buried her head in her boyfriend's chest again, urging him to leave quickly.

Don't look at what you shouldn't!

Ouyang Yun knew they had misunderstood and was at a loss: "What kind of look is that? I, I almost died because of her! Help me get this woman off, Jiayao, do you know her?"

Chu Tiange's mouth finally closed, but his eyes widened. After a moment, he saw the situation and was surprised again, his mouth forming an "O." Chen Jiayao peeked out from her boyfriend's arms, mustered the courage to look, and finally understood what was happening. Her gaze accidentally fell on the corpses on the ground, and her red face turned pale. She murmured, "Brother Ouyang, how did this happen?"

Ouyang Yun, remembering the urgency, said to Chu Tiange, "Are there any dead people outside? Bring them inside quickly, sigh, I'll explain later."

Chu Tiange said, "There's a car at the door, and two dead people in the courtyard."

"Close the gate, bring the dead people inside, quickly."

Chu Tiange, holding Chen Jiayao, went out. This guy was quite brave and soon carried the two male corpses into the room. Ouyang Yun saw that the dead were all wearing blue clothes and knew they were Northeast Tiger's gang. With all the people present, dead or alive, the possibility of a leak was eliminated, and he felt relieved.

Seeing that Ouyang Yun knew the newcomers, Bai Liusu's face changed. She tried to bite his neck several times, but he avoided her. She had long decided to die, thinking it would be good to be with Brother Shen. She gave up resisting and let Chu Tiange tie her up, saying coldly, "Kill me!"

Ouyang Yun didn't have time to deal with her, threw her on the bed, and stabbed the heart of the unconscious ninja, retrieving all the steel needles. Then, he pulled Chu Tiange out and called Chen Jiayao into his room, omitting the part about the burlap bags and explained everything that happened last night.

Chen Jiayao's face turned pale, and she gasped repeatedly. After a long time, she calmed down and noticed the scar on his face, saying, "You're injured, are you okay?"

"That woman scratched me, but I'm not disfigured, right?" Ouyang Yun touched his right forehead, which had already scabbed over.

"Should be fine."

Since seeing Bai Liusu's face, Chu Tiange's expression had been strange. He said, "Why does she look familiar?"

"Phoenix?" Ouyang Yun didn't know the woman's name.

Chu Tiange slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I remember, there's a wanted poster for her in the city, she's a notorious thief!"

"A notorious thief? Her?" Ouyang Yun frowned, not quite believing it.

Chu Tiange was excited, "Should we turn her over to the police? There's a thousand silver dollars!"

Chen Jiayao's heart was pounding, her pale face looked exhausted, and she said worriedly, "So many people died, what should we do?"

Ouyang Yun sneered, "Stir-fried!"

"Stir-fried?!"

"Ha, I'll handle it. You help me keep it a secret. As for this notorious thief, I won't turn her in. Since the Japanese want to kill her, she must be a good person. The police now, ha, I don't think they represent justice!"

Chu Tiange clapped and cheered, "Brother Ouyang, I like what you said! Let's do it your way. Thank you for saving Jiayao, we came to find you yesterday to thank you in person, but you weren't here—" He leaned close to Ouyang Yun's ear and whispered, "Brother Ouyang, are you a Communist?"

Ouyang Yun was taken aback, "Why do you say that?"

"Who else but a Communist would dare to play with the Japanese like that?"

"Actually, I just came back from America. Oh, I'm so hungry, let's go have breakfast first."

After drinking two bowls of soy milk and eating a steamed bun, Ouyang Yun leaned back in his chair and said, "Finally, I feel better."

Chu Tiange had already eaten his fill and asked, "Brother Ouyang, you grew up in America, so you should have American citizenship, right?"

"American citizenship? Am I crazy? We are the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor, why should we be Americans? I hate those yellow-skinned bananas the most!"

Chu Tiange and Chen Jiayao looked at each other, clearly not understanding the relationship between bananas, America, and Chinese people.

Ouyang Yun, feeling good, explained, "Americans are white, right? We Chinese have yellow skin. Think about it, if a yellow-skinned Chinese person has American stuff inside, isn't that like a banana, yellow on the outside and white on the inside?!"

Chu Tiange's eyes lit up, and he slapped the table, shouting, "High, Brother Ouyang! Listening to you is better than reading ten years of books!" He glanced at Chen Jiayao and said, "But I don't know why some Chinese still want to be bananas." As soon as he finished speaking, he yelped in pain.

Ouyang Yun saw Chen Jiayao's hand pinching his waist and laughed.

Chu Tiange, nearly six feet tall, was very muscular and looked like he had practiced martial arts. However, in the face of the "waist pinch," even the bravest hero seemed to have no choice but to beg for mercy.

After Chen Jiayao disciplined him, her face regained some color, and she asked Ouyang Yun about his future plans. Being a girl, she was meticulous and thought it might not be wise for Ouyang Yun to stay in Beijing after getting involved in such a serious incident.

Ouyang Yun didn't care. In chaotic times, there were certain advantages. He didn't think it was a big deal to kill a few Japanese with ill intentions. "First, I'll find a school to learn the language of my country, and then, being a professor seems nice."

He wasn't just talking aimlessly. To be a butterfly that could stir up a hurricane, he needed to gather a group of smaller butterflies around him. Then, when big and small butterflies flapped their wings together, that—

"Go to school? Be a professor?" Chen Jiayao's eyes widened, and after a long moment, she blinked. Chu Tiange's mouth opened wide again, almost dropping his jaw to the table. Both were college students and had many excellent teachers, so they had a set of standards for professors. This person, they thought, didn't seem to have any qualities that would make him a professor, or even a lower-level teacher. How could they not be surprised?

"Yes, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Chen and Chu suddenly felt like laughing, but looking at his calm face, they couldn't bring themselves to laugh—somehow, they felt this person wasn't the type to lie shamelessly. Chen Jiayao asked, "Which university did you graduate from? Harvard? Stanford? Or Yale—"

"Harbin Institute of Technology." The full name is Harbin University of Science and Technology.

"Harbin Institute of Technology? I've never heard of it. Can you show me your diploma?"

Ouyang Yun frowned. This document was in his old file, locked in a file cabinet decades in the future, and he couldn't retrieve it. "I'll go to school first. Which university in Beijing has loose student management?"

This was a strange question, and Chen and Chu couldn't follow his train of thought. The former thought for a moment and said, "In terms of management, our school is the most relaxed. Our principal is very open-minded."

"John Leighton Stuart?"

"You know?"

"I've heard of him." Ouyang Yun smacked his lips. "Then, I'll go to Yenching University."

Seeing his confidence, Chen Jiayao tentatively said, "The entrance exam for our university is very difficult."

"No matter how difficult, it won't be too hard for me." Ouyang Yun smiled, thinking that as a high-achieving military academy graduate from the 21st century, who had been called a genius since childhood, if he couldn't get into a regular university in the 1930s, he might as well jump into the Yangtze River.

Chen Jiayao, seeing his certainty, didn't want to discourage him and said, "The entrance exam is in July every year. It's only April now. I'll try to get you last year's exam questions to review."

"Thanks." Ouyang Yun smiled and said, "During this time, I want to explore the city. Oh, don't tell anyone about what happened in the courtyard."

Chu Tiange immediately promised, "You can count on me."

Chen Jiayao's face turned pale again, thinking of the dead bodies.

Chu Tiange: "Brother Ouyang, thank you again for saving Jiayao."

"Small potatoes—"

"Small potatoes?"

"It means it's no big deal."

"Oh, Brother Ouyang's English is pretty good."

"Of course, I came back from America!"

...

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