Chapter 63 Escaping Alive, Ilissa Makes Her Move

Xu Feng’s figure darted through the dense forest, his radar locking onto the two glowing dots behind him the entire time.

He did not run far away; instead, he took a wide detour and silently returned to the vicinity of the battlefield.

He needed to confirm the enemy's movements and... the life or death of that left-behind mute.

Hiding on a high slope and peering through the gaps in the branches, he took in the entire scene unfolding in the mountain hollow at a glance.

Onoda and Ito had retreated to the mouth of the cave.

Ito’s coughing grew heavier, sounding like an old, broken bellows.

Onoda was tending to the wound on Ito’s neck, his movements meticulous, but his face was as dark and gloomy as if water could be wrung from it.

As for Tanaka, who had lost a hand, he lay inside the cave, his life or death unknown.

The mute, forgotten by them to the side, was still slumped on the ground, trembling all over like a withered leaf in the autumn wind, clearly frightened out of his wits.

The Japanese soldiers had not killed him.

Xu Feng felt a slight sense of relief in his heart.

It seemed these few Japanese soldiers were currently too preoccupied to bother with an insignificant captive.

Looking at Onoda’s expression, Xu Feng knew that the arrow he had just fired, though failing to take the man's life, had successfully planted a seed of fear in his heart.

This proud Japanese military officer had had his edge blunted.

For a short time, they likely would not dare to act rashly again.

Temporarily safe.

Yet Xu Feng felt not a shred of ease.

This confrontation gave him a completely new understanding of this gang of Japanese soldiers.

They were not a mob, but well-trained, fiercely determined regular troops.

Especially that Onoda; meticulous in thought and ruthless in execution, he was an extremely dangerous adversary.

Escaping by the skin of his teeth today was thanks to favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and unity of people.

Next time, he likely would not have such good fortune.

……

Shangba Town, temporary garrison camp of the Soviet army.

In the office, Alyssa was pacing back and forth irritably.

Her leather military boots creaked loudly against the wooden floorboards.

The war was over, but the cleanup work was far more tedious than the fighting itself.

Handling Japanese prisoners, pacifying the local mood, suppressing remnant forces... Every day brought endless reports and endless meetings, making her—a captain accustomed to charging into battle amidst bullets and artillery fire—feel as though paperwork was driving her mad.

She picked up the enamel mug on her desk and drained the vodka inside in one gulp.

The fiery liquid slid down her throat, only then slightly calming her irritated mood.

"Report!" the voice of Andrei the sentry came from outside the door.

"Enter." Alyssa slammed the enamel mug heavily onto the desk.

Andrei pushed the door open, saluted, and wore a rather odd expression: "Comrade Captain, there are some Dragon Countrymen outside who say they want to see you."

"Not seeing them!" Alyssa refused without a second thought.

These past few days, far too many locals had come to her to "solve problems"—complaining about trivial matters between neighbors, making a fuss over nothing, exhausting her patience.

"But, Captain..." Andrei said, looking somewhat troubled. "They claim to have extremely important military intelligence to report to you. And... the person leading them is the exact same one who came last time to report that Xu Feng's... wife is a spy for the Neon nation."

Alyssa’s brows instantly knitted into a tight knot.

Wang Erhu?

That scoundrel with a slippery tongue and a wretched gaze, whose very sight disgusted her?

Was there still no end to it?

A surge of anger flared up from the bottom of Alyssa’s heart.

Last time, wrongly accusing someone's wife of being a spy had made her run around in vain and lose immense face.

And now he dared to come back? Did he really take her, a Soviet captain, for a mere decoration?

"Throw him out!" Alyssa’s voice was as cold as a Siberian gale.

"He says... this time the report isn't about Xu Feng's wife, but about Xu Feng himself," Andrei added, biting the bullet. "He claims he has conclusive evidence proving that Xu Feng is colluding with the Japanese soldiers hiding in the mountains."

Alyssa’s movements came to a halt.

She slowly turned around, a flicker of suspicion flashing in her azure eyes.

Xu Feng... colluding with Japanese soldiers?

That sounded even more absurd than his wife being a spy.

"Comrade Captain..." Andrei watched Alyssa's shifting, unpredictable expression and asked quietly, "Should I... chase them away?"

"No." Alyssa remained silent for a moment, then finally shook her head. "Let them in. I want to see what kind of venomous poison this damned snake can spit out from his filthy mouth this time!"

She wanted to see what tricks Wang Erhu actually had up his sleeve.

Soon, Wang Erhu, accompanied by Fatty and Skinny, was led in by Andrei.

As soon as the three of them entered the room and saw Alyssa sitting upright behind her desk, exuding an aura that kept all strangers at a distance, their calves involuntarily began to shiver.

Wang Erhu forced himself to act calm, squeezing out a fawning smile even uglier than crying, bowing and greeting in his broken Russian, "Hello, officer, hello, officer..."

Alyssa couldn't even be bothered to raise her eyelids. She tapped her fingers gently on the desktop and spoke coldly in standard Dragon Country speech: "Wang Erhu, I remember warning you last time. If you ever dare to waste my time with false intelligence again, I will twist off your head with my own hands. It seems you don't much cherish it."

The icy words made the temperature in the room drop by several degrees.

Wang Erhu trembled in fright, hurriedly waving his hands as cold sweat poured down his face: "No, no, no, officer! You've misunderstood! This time it's definitely true! One hundred percent true!"

As he spoke, he placed the cloth bundle he had been carrying onto the desk and opened it up.

"Look!" He pointed at the contents of the bundle as if displaying some rare treasure. "Salt, matches, and this bottle of Shaodaozi liquor! All of these were forced upon us by Xu Feng to buy! He said they were to be sent up the mountain as supplies for the His Majesty's soldiers hiding there!"

Fatty and Skinny frantically nodded and chimed in alongside him, looking precisely like two pestles pounding garlic.

"Yes, yes, yes! We saw it all! Xu Feng... he's a traitor! He's long since colluded with that bunch of Japanese in the mountains! The Japanese help him hunt, and he provides them with a hiding place, food, and drink!"

"We originally wanted to sneak out to report, but he discovered us and wanted to silence us! We risked our lives to escape! Officer, you simply must uphold justice for us!"

The three of them sang in harmony, speaking with tears and sobs, as if they had truly suffered an unimaginable grievance.

Alyssa listened quietly, her expression completely blank. Her gaze slowly shifted from Wang Erhu’s ugly face to the so-called "evidence" on the desk.

A pack of salt, a few boxes of matches, a bottle of cheap Shaodaozi liquor.

On the strength of these things alone, they wanted to convict Xu Feng?

If it were anyone else, Alyssa might have believed it long ago.

After all, Wang Erhu’s rhetoric sounded seamless, complete with both "witnesses and physical evidence."

Yet the target was Xu Feng.

He needed to cooperate with a few defeated Japanese soldiers to go hunting?

That was quite simply the most ridiculous joke she had heard all year.

The corners of Alyssa’s lips curled upward in a faint, imperceptible sneer. But she did not let it show.

She stood up, her tall figure carrying a unique military oppressive aura, and walked slowly toward Wang Erhu.

She reached out, picked up the bottle of Shaodaozi, and sniffed it beneath her nose.

The pungent smell of alcohol made her frown slightly.

"Are you certain everything you've said is true?" She stared straight into Wang Erhu’s eyes, her voice low yet carrying the weight of a thousand jun.

Wang Erhu felt his scalp tingle under her gaze, but matters had progressed to this point; he had no choice but to bite the bullet and push forward.

He straightened his chest, slapping it heavily with a dull thud: "True! Absolutely true! If I've uttered even half a lie, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!"

"Good." Alyssa nodded and placed the bottle back onto the desk with a sharp snap.

She turned around and gave an order to Andrei at the door: "Andrei!"

"Present!"

"Assemble a reinforced squad with the best weapons! Assemble downstairs in five minutes!"

Andrei froze for a moment, but immediately responded in a loud voice: "Understood, Comrade Captain!"

With the order given, an expression of wild ecstasy instantly appeared on the faces of the three men.

It worked!

This tigress had finally taken the bait!

Alyssa turned back to give Wang Erhu one final look, her blue eyes flashing with a cold, sharp light that he could not quite comprehend.

"Wang Erhu, you'd better pray that everything you've said is true."

"Because if we fail to find the Japanese soldiers you mentioned on the mountain, or if I discover any discrepancy between the truth and what you've claimed..."

She paused, enunciating each word with crystal clarity:

"I will personally execute you by firing squad, and with this gun," she patted the exquisite Tokarev pistol at her waist, "I'll blow your head into a rotten watermelon."

The smile on Wang Erhu’s face instantly froze.

A rush of cold air surged straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

Looking at Alyssa’s breathtakingly beautiful yet ice-sculpted face, he felt for the very first time that he might have pushed this game a bit too far.

However, once an arrow was loosed from the string, there was no turning back.

He could only grit his teeth and squeeze out a smile even worse than crying: "You... rest assured... abso... absolutely not..."

Five minutes later, a military truck flying a red flag roared out of the Soviet camp, kicking up a trail of dust beneath the respectful gazes of the townspeople, and sped away in the direction of Old River Gou Village.

In the truck sat twelve fully armed Soviet soldiers, each with a solemn expression and a murderous aura.

Wang Erhu, Fatty, and Skinny were squeezed right in the middle of these gods of death, crammed into the bumping truck bed, feeling both exhilarated and terrified.

Xu Feng, your time of death has come!