Chapter 14: Ransacking the Enemy's Pharmacy

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“A dirty traitor, and carrying a gun too? Just knew he wasn’t any good. Take it away!” Li Haibo whispered as he skillfully stowed the turtle box into his personal infinite space. After a moment’s thought, he also gathered the corpse of the dead enemy soldier and stored it away.

Striding forward, he pulled open the drawer that had just been slammed shut by the enemy. The sight inside made him involuntarily gasp, “Well, well, is the medical industry really this lucrative?”

The drawer was packed full of gold bars and silver coins—over thirty gold bars of various sizes glimmered enticingly in the dim light.

“So these are gold bars! How beautiful!” Whether in his past life or this one, it was the first time Li Haibo had ever seen gold bars—they were truly captivating!

Without hesitation, he took all the treasures.

Next, Li Haibo set about erasing all traces.

A minute later, staring at the bloodstains on the table, he frowned deeply. “Damn it, there’s only this little blood on the table, why can’t I clean it up?”

After pondering briefly, he decided to take the table itself into his infinite space. Following that, he didn’t spare the chair, bed, bedding, clothes, or cabinet—everything was packed up.

Within a few breaths, the entire second floor was as empty as if a household had moved out. Li Haibo looked at the scene and slightly curled his lips.

There were still urgent matters to attend to, so he swept through the first floor, gathering all the medicines and equipment. While doing so, he marveled, “This medicine stock is quite complete. Most will go to the guerrilla fighters, but I’ll keep some for emergencies.”

Having finished, he put the door panel back in place and muttered, “Ah! Another cold case!”

With that, his figure vanished into the endless night.

...

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The following morning, severely sleep-deprived Li Haibo stifled his drowsiness and yawning as he began a new day’s work.

As usual, he patrolled with those three worthless men.

Within ten minutes, they entered a teahouse. Li tossed his gun to Yang Chun, telling him to clock out and help return the weapons, then found an excuse to ditch the three and slip away.

Once out of the city, he pulled out a set of plain clothes from his infinite space. After a quick disguise—felt hat, mask, and scarf—he hurried to Dingjia Village before noon to borrow an ox cart from Old Ding Nian.

Thanks to the good reputation he’d built by returning the cart last time, this borrowing went smoothly, requiring no collateral.

Meanwhile, beside the small earth temple, Zhou Zhenguo anxiously waited with the captain and political commissars.

Time ticked by, and Captain Li frowned, unable to restrain himself: “Comrade Zhenguo, are you sure Comrade Li Haibo said he’d arrive at noon today? That time’s already passed.”

Zhou Zhenguo answered without hesitation: “Absolutely sure! I heard it with my own ears. No mistake.”

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The captain’s expression showed doubt and worry as he murmured, “Then why hasn’t he arrived? Could something have happened?”

Zhou Zhenguo’s heart pounded, but he said, “Maybe he was delayed on the road! May the Earth God protect him from harm!” Folding his hands, he prayed earnestly to the Earth God.

Political Commissar Chen couldn’t help but chuckle: “Comrade Zhenguo, we are revolutionaries who believe in materialism. We can’t be praying to the Earth God when things get tough!”

Zhou Zhenguo was snapped back to reality, laughing awkwardly: “Heh, I was just too nervous.”

After a tense wait, a scout hurried over with news: “Report to the captain and commissar, an ox cart is coming ahead!”

“That’s great! Is it Comrade Li from last time?” Zhou Zhenguo asked with relief.

“Don’t know. He’s so heavily covered up you can’t see anything!”

They exchanged a glance. “Let’s go check!”

Walking a few dozen meters forward, they saw Li Haibo driving the ox cart. From afar, he called out loudly, “Comrades! I’ve missed you all!”

The guerrilla force’s numbers hadn’t changed much, but many unfamiliar faces had appeared.

Political Commissar Chen looked at Li Haibo, whose face was covered except for his eyes, and laughed: “You even disguised yourself. Quite cautious! We were careless. Next time, better not bring so many people to a meeting!”

Captain Li’s gaze fell on the slowly approaching ox cart, which was loaded to the brim with various medicines and equipment. He was momentarily stunned.

Turning to Zhou Zhenguo, he asked, “Comrade Zhenguo, how much money did you give Comrade Li? How did he manage to get so many supplies?”

Zhou Zhenguo replied decisively, “No money was given!”

The captain thought he misheard and repeated, “No money?”

Zhou Zhenguo nodded seriously. “Yep! The gold bars are still in my hands!”

The captain’s face twisted with difficulty as he clicked his tongue. “Wow, with this much, those three small gold fish bars are nowhere near enough! Commissar, do you have any funds left?”

Political Commissar Chen replied with a helpless smile, “Don’t you have some idea whether I have money or not?”

They thought they were whispering quietly, unaware that Li Haibo, with his super hearing, caught every word.

Captain Li was the first to step forward, grasping Li Haibo’s hands tightly: “Comrade Li, we finally got you here. Just now, Zhenguo was praying to the Earth God! The commissar even scolded him. I say, why pray to the Earth God? We should be praying to Comrade Li Haibo—he answers every call! Ha ha ha...”

Li Haibo smiled and waved his hand, then carefully examined the soldiers’ gear. “I wouldn’t say I answer every call, but I see a lot of new faces! And many of the weapons I lent last time are missing, especially the machine guns—not a single one left!”

Captain Li’s face stiffened, and he fell silent.

Political Commissar Chen approached with a smile: “Our guerrilla numbers fluctuate between fifty and two hundred. Most people stay a while before being sent along with personnel and supplies to the main force.

The people you saw last time mostly went with the doctors to the main Fourth Master’s force. The machine guns and most good weapons went with them.

Our Jiading guerrilla unit mainly supports comrades in Shanghai by transporting supplies and relocating personnel. We are not a frontline combat unit, so we don’t need many good guns.

The main force needs those guns more. Captain Li is still unhappy about this!”

Li Haibo laughed: “What? Captain Li is sulking?”

Captain Li shook his head with a wry smile: “Not sulking exactly. I’m an old comrade from the Red Army days—I have some awareness. But I was a machine gunner myself, and those machine guns we just got haven’t even warmed up before being sent away! It’s frustrating.”

Li Haibo sighed deeply, fully aware of how vital weapons were to the guerrillas. Lack of arms wouldn’t stop their resistance against the Japanese, but facing a hail of bullets with only knives and spears was a sure way to suffer heavy losses.

It seemed he would need to arrange a new batch of weapons to boost their combat capability and confidence in self-defense.

He couldn’t help but recall the weapon depot at the Zhabei Police Station—there were plenty of guns there. Though old, they were better than nothing.

Patting Captain Li’s shoulder, he said, “Don’t worry. With such a big Shanghai under our watch, there will be plenty of chances to acquire weapons.

Captain, commissar, all these medicines and equipment are here—let’s write an IOU!”

Political Commissar Chen quickly agreed, “IOU? Okay! Okay!” and hurriedly rummaged through his briefcase for paper and pen.

Captain Li, unable to contain his curiosity, asked, “Comrade Haibo, how much did these medicines cost?”

Li Haibo replied casually, “You know what? I borrowed them too!”

Captain Li’s eyes widened: “Ah! Borrowed from… whom?”