Short, Light, Free
chapter-25

I was planning to check those buried items out early next morning, but I was kept awake by loud booms that very night.

Seventeen booms.

No signs, no patterns.

It was earth-shaking and the silent night had amplified the terrifying noise.

I had no clue as to what the buried objects were.

I also had no idea what their motive was.

I only knew that the buried items weren’t simple and were definitely dangerous.

By the time the sky turned slightly brighter, I could no longer suppress my curiosity.

I came out of the hidden passage and left the house.

After I confirmed that the coast was clear, I walked slowly toward the boundary of Beiping City.

I looked at the land of buried items before surveying the surroundings.

No one. Good time to move.

I walked a few steps forward to look closely at the soil bulge.

What caught my eyes, though, was a pool of blood not far away.

Beside it was the corpse of a wolf. Dismembered wolf corpse to be precise.

I couldn’t be sure how many pieces the wolf had exploded into. Partly because its head was stuck in the ground, but mostly because of the deep pit beside the pool of blood.

The inside of the pit was charred.

Upon closer inspection, I found many similar pits.

There was also something reflective on the ground.

It was a thin metal sheet, also covered with a layer of black.

It was probably the source and cause of the explosion.

I sniffed it a little. There was a burnt smell.

I matched it with the pit on the ground. Could this be the buried item?

Squatting down, I carefully removed the uppermost layer of soil, and indeed, a metal outer shell was revealed.

It was a small metal chunk and I knew I had to be gentle with it. I was a hundred percent sure that it had everything to do with the explosions.

My hands trembled as I slowly shaved the surrounding soil off in order to remove the landmine.

As I was about to turn around and leave and set one foot on the ground, I heard a ‘kacha’ .

That crisp metal sound…

Have I stepped on it?

My body tensed up as I stood motionless on the spot, not knowing what to do.

I slowly bent down and placed the metal chunk I’ve dug out to the ground.

Then I gently brushed away the soil around my foot.

I continued doing that until I saw the metal chunk underneath.

I’ve really stepped on a landmine.

Bummer.

I didn’t know what to do.

I was sure that the minute I lose the pressure on the metal chunk, it would explode.

Do I take a gamble? Take my foot off and run?

Perhaps I could outrun the explosion?

Just as I was about to remove my foot, I heard a foreign voice call from behind.

“Dō shita no? ” a ghost’s cry sounded. (What’s the matter?)

My heart tensed up.

I turned my head around slowly.

A ghost was standing right behind me, staring.

This is it, I’m done for.

I brought no weapon to fight him off with.

If he comes closer I’ll just blow his head off and we’ll die together.

The ghost squatted down while mumbling. (Stepped on a landmine? Didn’t bring your gun out, did you? Look at you, so nervous that you can’t even talk. I got this.)

He lowered his head to assess the situation and I understood that he had taken me as his own people because of my uniform.

The ghost raised his head shortly after, saying, “Mondainai.” (No problem)

I kept quiet because I really did not understand a word he was saying.

I shrugged my shoulders with a sheepish look on my face.

The ghost gave me a thumbs up and unslung his gun.

I started to fear. Was he going to kill me?

The ghost unloaded the bayonet on his gun before my face. He then put his gun down and started working on the soil with his bayonet.

The ghost spoke to me in Japanese. (You’re lucky I was patrolling this area. Others would definitely have handed their bayonet to you and have you do it yourself. I’m one of the few soldiers who had experience with removing landmines. With my help, you’ll be alright so don’t worry. Do you know? I’m going home to marry my sweetheart after this war. You? Are you too frightened to talk? Don’t be afraid, if this blows up, we’ll die together. I wonder if the emperor would issue a martyr medal to me. Pretty exciting to think about.)

The ghost shaved a little soil off while grabbing onto my foot. He stuck his bayonet into the metal chunk before lifting my foot.

No explosion.

“Yokatta!” the ghost shouted happily. (Great!)

The ghost picked up the bayonet that had a metal chunk attached to it.

He went on mumbling. (Look, this landmine’s useless now. What a close call. Be careful next time.)

I was overjoyed.

The ghost smiled too as he saw the grin on my face.

He pointed at the slit and said something. (This slit is small. While we’ve been trained to remove it, but mistakes do happen. You have to be wary.)

At that, he handed the metal chunk to me.

I smiled. “Xiexie.” (Thanks.)

“Nani? Chūgokujin?” the ghost panicked. (What? Chinese?)

He looked down at the gun on the ground and reacted immediately, but I’ve already gotten hold of his hand.

I pushed the bayonet in his hand into his throat.

The ghost collapsed but I held onto him.

I slowly placed him on the ground, making sure that he did not touch any soil bulges.

He’d saved my life but I had to kill him.

How ironic.

With the metal chunk in my hand, I ran home, placed it on the table, and lit three joss sticks.

I made ten full kowtows on the floor.

He was my savior and, a pity, an enemy as well.

If not for the war, I would have hosted him with the finest wine.

Although I understood nothing of what he had said, I knew he was a good man.

After ten kowtows, I stood up and started analyzing the metal chunk.

The bayonet had cut it open completely and split it into two.

The black lump in the bottom half was the explosive.

The top half was interesting. It was made from pieces of thin metal sheets.

The sealed cylinder had been opened up and there was a firing pin inside of it.

With a release of pressure, it would rebind and collide with a black rock.

I tried using the pin to hit against the rock. Sparks were produced.

I figured that upon contact with the black lump at the bottom, the sparks would cause an explosion.

I dared not to test my theory, of course, because the explosion would definitely be loud and powerful.

I placed the metal chunk aside.

I started avoiding the soil bulges as much as I could.

I was extremely careful when hunting. The ghosts seemed to have settled down nicely in Beiping City.

Other than the soldiers guarding along the city walls, there were no more ghosts coming out of the city to patrol.

I wondered if the ghost teams had already conquered half of China by now.

A month later, as I was fast asleep at night, I heard footsteps.

I woke up immediately, held my breath, and observed the situation.