Anesthetic? No Need!

Shen Yan pushed open the teahouse's wooden door and walked back inside.

The proprietor was wiping down a tea table with his head lowered. Without so much as looking up, he seemingly casually jerked his chin toward the back courtyard.

Small business owners in Shanghai knew better than anyone how to read people-they never asked what they shouldn't or looked where they shouldn't.

Shen Yan nodded slightly and walked quietly through the front room, heading straight for the private room in the back courtyard.

The wooden door was ajar. He pushed it open gently, then pulled it shut behind him, cutting off the sounds outside.

Su Wan stood awkwardly in the room, twisting the hem of her clothes in both hands. When she saw him enter, she immediately straightened her back. The anxiety and anticipation in her eyes were impossible to hide, and her voice trembled slightly:

"Officer Shen, please save my comrade!"

She took a deep breath and spoke rapidly:

"A few days ago, the agents suddenly raided our liaison station, the day you saved me. He was shot in the abdomen while covering our retreat, and the bullet is still lodged inside him. The wound has become inflamed and started festering these past few days, and he's delirious with fever. If we don't do something, he really won't make it!"

Shen Yan looked at her.

"The medicine can only heal the wound. If the bullet isn't removed, he won't live three more days."

He came straight to the point, addressing the crucial issue as he looked at her:

"Can you remove a bullet? Can you stitch a wound and stop the bleeding?"

Su Wan's face turned pale, and she quickly shook her head.

She was only a liaison responsible for passing messages. She had never even learned proper bandaging, much less emergency surgery, and didn't dare touch a matter of life and death like this.

"Is the attic safe? Do outsiders come and go? Has there been any activity at night?" Shen Yan pressed in a low voice, his tone leaving no room for doubt.

"Safe! Very safe!" As if she had caught hold of a lifeline, Su Wan nodded hastily and answered in a rush. "It's in the most secluded corner of the shantytown. Even the homeless don't usually go there. I've stood guard for two days and haven't seen a single stranger come near!"

Shen Yan frowned deeply.

This was definitely not normal.

After a search on such a massive scale a few days ago, nobody had paid attention to the shantytown, the easiest place to hide?

They had laid the bait and were waiting for a big fish to bite.

After a moment's thought, he had a plan. He pulled a small red medicine bottle from his system space:

"Give him half a drop when you get back. Just enough to keep his condition from worsening. Don't give him more-if the wound heals, I'll have to cut it open again to remove the bullet."

He paused, glanced at the darkening sky outside the window, and added:

"Don't go wandering around when you get back. Pack what you need. You have to move immediately after the operation."

Su Wan hurriedly took the bottle and clutched it to her chest, her eyes instantly reddening. She bowed deeply to Shen Yan:

"Thank you, Brother Shen! I'll be careful!"

She dared not delay. Following Shen Yan's instructions, she slipped out through the side gate of the teahouse's back courtyard.

Night fell completely over Shanghai.

The streetlights in the streets and alleys glowed faintly yellow, and patrols of Japanese and puppet-regime agents remained dense. Dressed in civilian clothes, Shen Yan followed the minimap to the outskirts of the Fangua Lane shantytown in Zhabei.

Fangua Lane, originally called the Yao Family Settlement, was located in Zhabei, Shanghai, immediately east of Shanghai Railway Station. It was a major shantytown along the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. During the August 13 Incident of 1937, Japanese artillery reduced the original lanes here to scorched earth. Later, refugees from Jianghuai poured in, building "ground dragon" shacks from bamboo poles, reed mats, and scrap iron to live together.

Standing at the edge of the shantytown, Shen Yan looked at the densely packed, makeshift shacks before him and quickly considered his options.

He brought up the system panel:

"System, I want to add a function to the minimap. Classify people by color-white for civilians, yellow for traitors and Japanese, red for the Communist Party, and, hmm... add cyan for the Kuomintang."

[Ding! The minimap's range can be expanded and a color identification function added. This function costs 500 Good and Evil Points. The host currently has 569 Good and Evil Points. Confirm upgrade?]

Shen Yan's heart trembled at the expense.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and confirmed, then exchanged all his remaining points for bullets.

Seeing his current Good and Evil Points displayed as 0, he felt he had never been so cleaned out.

The wind blows the eggshell away; money goes, and peace remains...

He hoped he could recoup his losses tonight.

He opened the minimap. Its upgraded range now covered a radius of 1,000 meters.

Following Su Wan's description, Shen Yan made his way forward step by step.

Half an hour later, two conspicuous yellow dots appeared at the edge of the map.

"I knew it."

Without betraying any reaction, Shen Yan changed direction and continued onward.

After making a circuit, he saw more than twenty yellow dots blinking around Su Wan's hiding place, surrounding it tightly.

A trap waiting to be sprung.

I hope your trap is sturdy enough.

He quietly approached the back of a shack where agents were hiding. After briefly checking their positions, he raised his gun and repeatedly pulled the trigger, firing the entire magazine.

The straw walls did nothing to stop the bullets.

The dots on the minimap flickered, and as bodies fell, they gradually dimmed and disappeared.

[Ding! The host killed two Japanese Special Higher Police agents and gained 150 Good and Evil Points!]

Hmm, by the looks of it, there's more to earn tonight.

Shen Yan ducked through a hole in the wall, put all the bodies and guns on the floor into his space, and turned toward the next shack.

He repeated the process.

Shen Yan reaped his harvest at an unhurried pace.

In less than an hour, he had finished the cleanup.

The trap was gone.

After that circuit, his Good and Evil Points had shot past a thousand to reach 1,600. He had also gained over twenty Nambu pistols, more than four hundred rounds of ammunition, and thirty-two grenades.

Like thunder out of a clear sky, he had suddenly struck it rich, becoming a wealthy man in the blink of an eye.

Those little Japanese were worth more after all.

With that taken care of, Shen Yan wasted no more time and hurried to Su Wan's hiding place.

He took a bundle out of his space.

He knocked softly, three long knocks and three short ones.

"Open up, it's me."

Su Wan opened the door and led him inside.

The room was still cramped, cold, and damp. The smell of blood mixed with mildew hit him as he entered. A Yuan's fever had worsened-his whole body was burning hot, his lips were dry and cracked, and he twitched involuntarily from the intense pain in his wound from time to time. His breathing was so faint it was barely perceptible.

Su Wan stood by the bed, her palms covered in cold sweat. She watched Shen Yan open the bundle and take out a dagger, a pair of tweezers, and... a square brick?

She asked nervously:

"Brother Shen, didn't you bring any anesthetic? He definitely won't be able to bear it..."

Hearing that, Shen Yan picked up the brick that didn't play fair and wiped the dust from its surface with his sleeve.

He gave a crooked smile, his expression three parts coldness, three parts mockery, and four parts indifference.

His voice was utterly flat:

"Anesthetic? No need."

Before Su Wan could react, Shen Yan stepped forward and struck A Yuan on the head with the brick, clean and efficient.

There was a single dull thud.

A Yuan, who had been twitching nonstop, instantly went limp, falling into a deep coma without another movement.

Su Wan's eyes widened, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. She stared at Shen Yan in shock-

Hitting a gravely injured man with a brick-was that something a human being would do?!

"Keep watch. Cough if anyone comes near."

Without looking up, Shen Yan lit a candle and sterilized the tweezers and dagger. By the faint candlelight, he focused on the festering wound.

His fingers were as steady as a rock. The tweezers gently probed the wound and gripped the bullet with precision. With a slight movement of his wrist, he pulled it out intact, covered in pus and blood.

The whole process took only a dozen seconds or so, clean and efficient.

Next, he picked up the dagger and swiftly sliced away the rotting flesh around the wound. He looked less like someone saving a life than a roast duck chef showing off his knife skills.

After a while, Shen Yan looked at the messy wound, now bleeding fresh blood again, and nodded in satisfaction.

He took out the little red bottle and stuck it into the young man's mouth.

As the medicine went down, the mangled wound, which had been pumping blood, visibly stopped bleeding and closed, healing without a trace.

He still hadn't woken up.

It couldn't be helped. This brick didn't play fair, but it had strong principles-if it said three hours unconscious, not one minute less would do.

After putting away all the tools and wiping the blood from his hands, Shen Yan gave her instructions in a low voice:

"Your friend will wake up in another two hours. After that, leave immediately. This place has been exposed. I killed more than twenty Japanese soldiers around the perimeter. They'll definitely notice when the guard changes tomorrow morning."

Shen Yan looked out the window:

"Also, tell your leader-there's definitely a traitor among you. Both Japanese operations were far too precise."

He paused, his gaze falling on Su Wan's face:

"Don't tell anyone about me. If something urgent comes up, find the teahouse owner. He'll notify me. That's all."

Su Wan thanked him through a choked voice, and at last she couldn't hold back her tears.

After days of despair, she had finally seen hope of survival.

Shen Yan didn't stay any longer. He checked the room, made sure he had left no traces, then turned and vanished into the pitch-black night.

Three days later.

Aboard a small steamer bound for Northern Jiangsu, Su Wan sat squeezed among the refugees in the lower hold, swaying gently with the boat.

A Yuan sat beside her, his wound completely healed and color back in his face.

"Xiao Su, are we really leaving just like that? Aren't you going to say goodbye to him?"

Su Wan shook her head, gazing at the murky river water outside the cabin.

"If I go back to find him, I'll only cause him trouble."

A Yuan was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked:

"Who do you think... he really is?"

Su Wan didn't answer.

She remembered that afternoon, when he had risked his life, covered her mouth, pressed her against the wall, and whispered, "If you want to live, hide in there."

She remembered the little red medicine bottle and how the gunshot wound had closed in less than half the time it took to drink a cup of tea after she drank it.

She remembered the brick, how he had knocked A Yuan out with a clean blow and performed the operation without changing expression.

She remembered what he had said before leaving-

"Don't tell anyone about me."

Su Wan looked away and gripped the hem of her clothes.

She didn't know who he was.

But she remembered that face.

She remembered that bottle of medicine.

She remembered that afternoon, when someone had risked his life and called her "comrade."

The little steamer sounded its whistle and slowly pulled away from the dock.

The silhouette of Shanghai grew more distant, fainter and fainter.

Su Wan withdrew her gaze and looked toward the far end of the river.

She would come back.

Someday, she would return and say it to him in person-

Thank you.