Shengjing Noble

Chapter 739 Twin Spies

At midnight on July 15th, the moonlight was gnawed by the heavenly dog ​​until only a circle of blood remained.

Su Lanyin held Xiaoman's hand tightly and stood in the middle of the cellar of Fu Mansion. The seven keys of the Steinway piano in front of them were glowing with a faint blue light.

"Mommy, I'm scared." The butterfly birthmark under Xiaoman's collarbone flickered like the resonance of piano keys, "That grandfather said... he needs my blood to open the door."

Su Lanyin protected her daughter behind her and looked at Father Fu who was chained.

The old man's cloudy eyes suddenly turned, and he mechanically repeated: "The pendulum returns to its position... The blood key is unsealed..."

The cellar door was slammed open, and Fu Mingchuan rushed in with a gun, followed by Gu Huaian, who was covered in blood.

"The entire mansion is surrounded." Gu Huaian spat out blood foam from his mouth, "It's the Japanese Army Special Operations Team, led by-"

"Kobayashi Haraji." Fu Mingchuan added in a cold voice, his eyes falling on his father, "It's time to settle accounts for what you did in Nanjing."

Father Fu suddenly struggled violently, and the chains rattled.

The old radio on the wall turned on automatically, and a hoarse Japanese broadcast came: "...The Imperial Army will implement the 'Sakura Bloom' plan at midnight tonight..."

Gu Huaian's face suddenly changed: "It's a poison gas attack! They want to use Xiaoman's birthmark frequency as a detonation signal!"

The piano started playing automatically at this time, and the third variation of "Moonlight" echoed throughout the cellar with a strange rhythm.

Xiaoman suddenly broke free from Su Lanyin's hand and walked towards the piano like a sleepwalker. The light beam from the birthmark connected with the seven lasers emitted from the piano keys, projecting a map of Shanghai on the wall.

Seven red dots are flashing at important locations such as the Bund and Shilipu Wharf.

"It's too late." Fu Mingchuan ripped open his shirt, revealing an old scar on his chest - the shape was surprisingly half a butterfly, "Lan Yin, remember what Bai Wei said? Birthmarks can only be activated in pairs."

Su Lanyin suddenly remembered Bai Wei's last words: "Mother Fu protected us mother and daughter..." She trembled as she touched the scar on Fu Mingchuan's chest. When their skin touched, the scar and Xiaoman's birthmark lit up at the same time.

There was a loud sound of gears turning from deep in the basement, and a secret door slowly opened.

Foul air gushed out, and inside were seven neatly arranged skeletons of children, each with a silver butterfly specimen embedded in the collarbone.

“This is…” Su Lanyin’s stomach cramped.

“The first six key carriers.” Fu Mingchuan’s voice was hoarse, “My mother discovered the secret, so she had to die.”

When the church bells struck eleven, they rushed into the basement of St. Ignatius Church.

Under the blood moonlight reflected from the stained glass window, Su Wanying was inserting the needle into Mr. Fu's neck.

"Stop!" Su Lanyin raised her gun and shot, but the bullet was blocked by Shen Qingge who suddenly appeared with his folding fan.

"Surprised?" Shen Qingge tore off the human skin mask, revealing the face of the waitress in Baiwei KTV. "Nightingale is never alone."

Father Fu twitched violently under the effect of the drug, and suddenly roared in Japanese: "Pendulum system activated!" The ground of the church cracked, and a sophisticated meteorite device rose up. The core position was exactly the groove that matched Xiaoman's birthmark perfectly.

"We have finally waited for this moment." Kobayashi Genji stepped out from the shadows, pointing his saber at Xiaoman. "The empire has spent twenty years cultivating a biological key that can control meteorite radiation."

Fu Mingchuan suddenly laughed: "Are you sure you can control the pendulum?" He snapped his fingers, and Fu's father's pupils suddenly contracted, and he mechanically pressed the button of the watch. The meteorite device suddenly reversed, and all seven red dots pointed to the Japanese consulate.

"Impossible!" Kobayashi Haraji roared, "That night in Nanjing in 1937, it was clearly..."

"You've clearly used drugs to control my father?" Fu Mingchuan pulled open his father's collar, revealing the trace of a micro-injection syringe on the back of his neck. "The latest reversal drug developed by the Military Control Commission, it's quite effective, right?"

A melee broke out in an instant.

After Su Lanyin protected Xiaoman and hid in the confessional, she saw Su Wanying rushing towards her with a knife.

At the critical moment, Gu Huaian, who should have been unconscious, jumped down from the beam and stabbed Su Wanying's throat accurately with the dagger.

"Sorry..." Gu Huaian coughed up blood and smiled, "I am the real 'Nightingale'."

The church dome was suddenly illuminated by searchlights, and more than a dozen military helicopters circled in. Kobayashi Haraji laughed wildly and pressed the detonator in his hand: "Then we will die together!"

There was no expected explosion, only the meteorite device made a sharp buzzing sound. Xiaoman's birthmark suddenly broke away from the skin and floated in the air, turning into countless light points pouring into the device.

All the stained glass windows burst at the same time, forming a huge map of Shanghai under the moonlight - seven red dots were being extinguished one by one.

"The radiation frequency... has been rewritten?" Kobayashi Genji staggered back.

Fu Mingchuan pulled the trigger: "It's motherly love."

When the bullet pierced through Kobayashi Genji's brow, Su Lanyin saw Bai Wei's shadow appear above the meteorite and gently hugged Xiaoman, who was made up of light spots.

When the morning light penetrated the smoke, Su Lanyin found Fu Mingchuan in the ruins of the church.

He was kneeling in front of Mr. Fu. The old man had a saber stuck in his chest and was holding an old photo tightly in his hand.

"Mother...has always known..." Father Fu coughed up blood and handed the photo to Fu Mingchuan, "She voluntarily drank the poisoned wine...just to protect this..."

The photo shows the young mother Fu holding the infant Fu Mingchuan, with Bai Wei standing behind her.

Turning it over, there was a line of beautiful handwriting: "My sons Mingchuan and Yin'er, should be like the bright moon shining on each other."

"So that's it..." Su Lanyin gently touched Bai Wei's teardrop mole on the photo, "That's why Mother Fu insisted on us getting engaged."

Father Fu suddenly grabbed Fu Mingchuan's hand: "The list... is in the pendulum..." His final gaze fell on Xiaoman, "This child... can hear the voices of the dead..."

The funeral was held seven days later.

When Mr. Fu's coffin was buried, Xiaoman suddenly said, "Grandpa said there is something under the piano in the cellar."

They found a diary in the secret compartment of the piano, which recorded how Father Fu risked his life to rescue seven children who were used as experimental subjects on the eve of the fall of Nanjing in 1937.

The last page reads: "My wife Bai Wei, if you see Yin'er, tell her that her father never gave in."

"So the birthmark is..." Su Lanyin suddenly realized.

"Radiation mark." Gu Huaian came over with a cane. "The Japanese experiment of 'cherry blossom branding' was to create a living antenna that could receive meteorite signals. Ms. Bai Wei reversed the technology and turned the birthmark into a shield."

Fu Mingchuan silently burned the diary in front of his parents' grave.

In the firelight, Xiaoman suddenly pointed to the sky and said, "Grandma and grandma said they can finally die in peace."

Su Lanyin looked up and saw two clouds like butterflies spreading their wings, gradually dissipating in the morning sun.

May 1949, on the eve of the liberation of Shanghai.

In the garden of Fu Mansion, ten-year-old Xiaoman is playing "Dawn", a piece of her own composition.

Su Lanyin leaned on Fu Mingchuan's shoulder, holding a newspaper with an eye-catching headline: "Patriotic businessman Fu Mingchuan donates all military equipment to New China."

"Do you regret it?" she asked softly, "giving up everything in Shanghai."

Fu Mingchuan played with the stopped gilded pocket watch: "The secret that my father has guarded for his entire life has finally found its home." He suddenly wrapped the watch chain around Su Lanyin's wrist, "But there is still one last step."

Xiaoman's piano playing suddenly stopped.

She turned to look at her parents, her birthmark glowing with a faint golden glow in the sun: "Dad said he would take us to Hong Kong?"

"It's just a temporary stay." Fu Mingchuan picked up his daughter, "We will come back when the scientists of New China have completely cracked the meteorite radiation." He looked to the north, "After all..."

"After all, the roots are here." Su Lanyin replied, her fingertips brushing across the pearl earrings on her chest.

A breeze blew by, and the earrings swayed gently, as if Bai Wei was responding softly.

The piano sounded again, this time it was a cheerful march. Fu Mingchuan suddenly pulled Su Lanyin to dance the waltz, and Xiaoman smiled and tapped the beat with her feet.

The sunlight penetrated the leaves of the sycamore trees, casting mottled shadows on them, very much like the lighting on the Paramount stage during Bai Wei's last solo dance.