"Recently, the Japanese invaders of Eastern Japan coveted our Lu family's vast holdings. Knowing I was the family's only son, they even offered an enormous bounty to have me kidnapped, hoping to use my life to force you to compromise and betray our country for personal gain!"
"Concerned for my safety, you went to great lengths to arrange my passage and ordered me to sail overseas at once to escape this danger."
"Your loving care, dear sister, will forever remain in my heart."
"Yet when the ship reached Wusongkou, I gazed out the window at the mountains and rivers of my homeland, and turmoil suddenly surged within me."
"With our nation in peril and our homeland shattered, the invaders' iron hooves trample our beautiful land. How many of our countrymen have lost their homes and families!"
"How could I, Lu Zhenhua, a full-grown man, seek safety overseas and care only for myself?"
"If I did, even if I lived a hundred years, how could I face the ancestors of the Lu family?"
"And so I quietly disembarked at Wusongkou and, against the stream of fleeing refugees, rushed toward where the gunfire and shelling were fiercest."
"Along the way, I encountered a squad of retreating soldiers. Dried blood crusted their rifles, and torn holes in their padded coats exposed the ragged stuffing, yet they were still hoarsely shouting, 'Defend Modu to the death!'"
"I ran up and asked where they were going. They said they were heading to Sihang Warehouse to join Regimental Commander Xie."
"Without another thought, I distributed all the silver dollars you had given me for my protection among the elderly and children along the roadside, picked up a rifle abandoned on the ground, and followed them north."
"Dear sister, can you imagine that scene? The invaders' planes