It seems the legend was true after all. A Japanese soldier from the Sakura Country really did hang himself here at Diaoshui Cliff.
Lin Moyang used the sickle in his hand to clear a path and reached the tattered military uniform. He gently poked at the shoulder boards with the tip of the sickle. Two five-pointed stars, one above the other—it was indeed a Lieutenant Colonel.
"Good grief, that's a high-ranking officer. What exactly is hidden here?"
Lin Moyang muttered to himself, then directed Shen Youwei to find a rock near the baskets and hide behind it. As for himself, he nested the two baskets together, aimed the bottom of the basket toward the uniform, and set it down about three meters away. After cutting a wooden pole about four meters long and confirming that Shen Youwei was well-hidden, he hunkered down behind the baskets and began to poke at the uniform.
"Damn those devils. It’ll be a disaster if there’s a landmine hidden under there!"
Lin Moyang grumbled as he probed with extreme caution. Fortunately, the entire process went off without a hitch. The uniform was eventually pulled into shreds, revealing an object wrapped in oil-sealed paper. The outer wax coating had melted and fused with the scraps of cloth and paper into a yellowish-brown mass.
To be safe, Lin Moyang decided to keep prodding at it before making any decisions. As he continued to peel away the layers, he soon caught a glimpse of yellowed paper underneath. At this point, Lin Moyang concluded that this was definitely not a bomb or any such thing. On the contrary, it was something worth protecting; otherwise, the soldier would never have bothered to wrap it so meticulously in so many layers of oil-sealed paper.
He called Shen Youwei over to the object. Lin Moyang cleared away the damaged outer layers and carefully opened the sealed paper. To his surprise, there was another layer inside. A sense of history from another time washed over him, mixed with a faint scent of cherry blossoms. This reminded Lin Moyang of a preservation technique from the Sakura Country—Shrine Cherry Blossom Resin!
"What kind of treasure is so precious?" Lin Moyang muttered, slowly opening the oil-sealed paper.
This time, what came into view was a stack of black-and-white photographs, with a notebook at the bottom. Lin Moyang picked up the top photograph, his pupils shrinking and his eyes widening. An expression of fury couldn't help but rise to his face. Shen Youwei, seeing this, picked up a photo to look as well and let out a startled cry, "My God!"
She almost threw the photo from her hand. The pictures depicted the Japanese invaders slaughtering and abusing the people of the Xia Country: beheadings, dismemberment, live burials, disembowelment, slicing in half... The crimes were monstrous, heinous, and utterly appalling.
Lin Moyang suppressed the rage in his heart to keep from hurling the photos away. He knew he couldn't throw them out. These were ironclad proofs of the Sakura Country invaders' massacre of his countrymen! Those devils would deny even the greatest atrocities; without this hard evidence right in front of them, they would just use their tongues to claim they were being framed. These things had to be handed over to the country!
Stifling his fury, Lin Moyang picked up the notebook at the bottom and opened it. It was brand new, with only one page written.
[May 13th, Year 17 of the Showa Era: Encountered a group of extremely fierce Xia Country guerrillas. Subsequent interrogation confirmed them to be the Wumeng Mountain 3rd Guerrilla Detachment. After five days of fierce fighting, we annihilated 83 enemy soldiers and took 31 prisoners. Spoils of war captured as follows: 22 Type-79 rifles, 5 single-shot pistols. All prisoners were executed on the same day. This photograph is recorded to commemorate the military exploits of Major Sato Ichiro.]
Lin Moyang could not read the language of the Sakura devils, but he could vaguely guess the general meaning. The Xia people this man slaughtered were guerrilla fighters defending their home and country—fine sons of the Xia Country who shed their blood to protect the land!
"May 13th, Year 17 of the Showa Era, encountered a group of extremely fierce Xia Country guerrillas..."
Just as Lin Moyang’s internal rage refused to settle, Shen Youwei, who had taken the notebook from his hands at some point, began tracing the handwriting with her finger. She sat on the ground with her back straight, her gaze sharp, following the movement of her finger as she read the characters out loud, word by word, haltingly. Despite the pauses, she did not stutter.
Lin Moyang looked at Shen Youwei in astonishment. "Xiaowei, you can read these characters?"
Shen Youwei nodded with a heavy expression. "I don't know why... but it feels very familiar."
From the moment Lin Moyang opened the notebook, she had felt that the text was familiar, as if it were etched into her brain.
"Besides these words, can you remember anything else?" Lin Moyang asked urgently.
Shen Youwei knitted her delicate brows, deep in thought.
"Hiss!"
Before even a minute had passed, she gasped, her expression turning painful.
"Stop!" Seeing this, Lin Moyang quickly spoke up to stop her. "It’s alright, it will slowly get better in the future."
"Mm!" Shen Youwei nodded, her eyes shifting to the photographs, a sorrowful expression appearing on her face.
Lin Moyang wrapped the notebook and photos back up. He searched the tattered military uniform but found nothing else. He removed the shoulder boards, placed them with the photos, and took off his own jacket to wrap them for protection.
"These are the proofs of the crimes committed by the Sakura invaders in our country. We will take them back and hand them over to the state so that these heroes can finally rest in peace!" His tone was filled with determination and resolve.
Shen Youwei nodded; she completely agreed with Lin Moyang’s intention.
Lin Moyang carefully placed the items back into the basket. Hearing the sound of water splashing against rocks nearby, he glanced in the direction the noise was coming from.
"Let’s go. Once we pass Diaoshui Cliff, we’ll head home."
With that, Lin Moyang led Shen Youwei and continued toward Diaoshui Cliff. Before long, a massive rock appeared before them. Lin Moyang climbed up first and then reached out a hand, signaling for Shen Youwei to take it. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually, she slowly reached out. The moment their hands locked, a flush of red bloomed on her cheeks, and she felt her ears burning.
Lin Moyang let go of her hand once he had pulled her up. As soon as he stood up, the sound of the rushing water became clear and resonant. They both turned toward the sound, then cast a backward glance at the path they had traveled. The bushes and trees were dense, their lush green leaves shimmering under the sunlight.
"Let’s go, victory is just ahead!" Lin Moyang offered a word of encouragement, leading Shen Youwei carefully toward the water.
It was a large slab of stone, like a plaza in a park, connected to Diaoshui Cliff and covered in moss. As the sound of the water pounding the ground grew more intense, the full view of Diaoshui Cliff suddenly came into sight. It was about four zhang high and five zhang wide. A stream of water, roughly a zhang wide, fell from above, splashing and creating a mist that was breathtaking to behold. If the dense forest hadn't blocked the sun, there would surely have been a small rainbow.
Shen Youwei was completely immersed in the beautiful scenery, exclaiming, "It’s... it’s so beautiful here!"
Lin Moyang, however, was scanning his surroundings, his gaze missing nothing. Finally, aided by the reflection off the water mist, he vaguely saw a patch of dark brown mushroom caps.
Lin Moyang smiled faintly. That was it!