, 1 line?

It was still late June, and the night was still a bit hot. Lu Chen, who had been waiting for more than an hour, finally received the rat's report.

"Rat Five".

Lu Chen immediately recognized that the creature that crawled out of the sewer was Rat Five. He quickly grabbed Rat Five and eagerly began to ask him questions.

"Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak".

Rat Five squeaked for a long time. Perhaps he was not very good at communicating with Lu Chen, so he had to spend a lot of time describing a small matter.

Lu Chen carefully sorted out what Rat Five had said.

"You mean, you saw those people who were different from me still moving around this night, and you followed their footsteps in the sewers, heading towards that building?"

Rat Five nodded excitedly, and Lu Chen understood that the Japanese army was trying to launch a surprise attack under the cover of night.

I could see that building clearly before it was submerged. Our troops were in that building. The Japanese troops had retreated earlier, and now they were taking advantage of our relaxed vigilance to launch a counterattack.

"Hmph, good plan, but you didn't expect there to be rats following you all along!"

Lu Chen snorted coldly, but unfortunately he had neither a pen nor paper, nor any other means of transmitting messages.

sewer......

There's everything in the sewers; all you have to do is let the rats find you. I just don't know if they even know what paper is.

"Find me a very thin and soft paper that can withstand being soaked in water."

Lu Chen tried to describe things in as much detail as possible. Rat Five listened in a daze, and finally squeaked twice before burrowing back into the sewer.

When he came out, he had a wad of toilet paper that was soaked through with water in his mouth.

Lu Chen endured the stench, picked up the paper, and slowly unfolded it. What was this paper for? Why does it smell so bad?

"Call up a few rats."

Suppressing the urge to vomit, he had Rat Five call a few rats up.

After the rats came up, they stood motionless in front of Lu Chen.

Lu Chen looked at a rat and, without hesitation, forcefully ripped off a rat whisker. The rat's whisker only twitched up and down twice without resisting.

Lu Chen used the same trick again, tearing off one or two whiskers from each rat. The whiskers weren't thick, but if you looked closely, you could still make out the words that were pieced together.

"Return the horse, sun."

With only a few mouse whiskers, Lu Chen could only spell out these few simple Chinese characters.

"Rat Five, keep an eye on that group of people. Come back and let me know when they get close to that building."

"Squeak squeak".

Rat Five crawled into the sewers and continued to watch the Japanese advance.

"You take this piece of paper to the top floor of that building and give it to someone like me. Be gentle, don't bite it."

Lu Chen randomly named a rat and asked it to deliver the note to the Nationalist soldiers inside the building.

The paper strip had been soaked in water in the sewer, which allowed the mouse whiskers to stick to the paper. As long as it wasn't damaged, the writing wouldn't disappear.

"Squeak squeak".

The rat understood Lu Chen's words; after all, it was just a simple task.

The rat didn't take the waterway; instead, it ran directly out of the French Concession and along the bridge towards the building in the Chinese-controlled area.

"I hope it goes well."

Lu Chen shook his head. He felt that his plan might not work. After all, who would open a piece of smelly paper when they saw a mouse carrying it?

"Squeak squeak".

Rat peeked out of the pocket, scratched its head with its paw, climbed onto Lu Chen's shoulder, and stared at the Huajie across the way with him.

......

Inside that building in the Chinese-controlled area, no one was in the mood to sleep. They huddled together, discussing how to defend against the next wave of Japanese attacks.

"No, we can't launch an attack. That would only expose us. Our position, with its high ground, is perfect for wearing down the Japanese army."

Upon hearing the soldiers' suggestions, Wang Deming rejected them one by one, explaining the pros and cons.

"Commander, I don't think the Japanese are coming. How about I take a few men and launch a surprise attack?"

One of the soldiers, seeing that the Japanese army hadn't come for so long, thought of taking the initiative to attack.

"No......"

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Just as Wang Deming was about to dismiss the thought, he heard the squeaking of a mouse beside him.

The soldiers turned around and saw a mouse carrying a piece of paper, squeaking incessantly beside Wang Deming, seemingly gesturing as if it were pointing at something.

"Hey, this place has been bombed like this by the Japanese, and there are still rats alive?"

"Why don't we catch it, roast it, and eat it? I haven't eaten for days."

"How disgusting! Eating a rat! Didn't you see the piece of paper he's holding in his mouth? You can eat it if you want, I'm not eating it."

The soldiers started chattering amongst themselves, but Wang Deming remained silent, while the rats beside him kept squeaking.

"Get out, get out, it's so noisy!"

Finally, one of them could no longer bear the incessant squeaking and stomped his foot heavily next to the mouse.

"Squeak!"

The mouse squeaked twice in fear, and finally dropped the paper it was carrying in its mouth to the ground. Its figure had long since disappeared.

"You know, I still want to eat him."

Several soldiers who wanted to roast and eat the rats started to complain, but they soon quieted down.

It was late at night, and the surroundings were completely silent, making one unconsciously want to go to sleep.

popping...

The soldiers huddled together, snoring in disarray. Wang Deming patted his face, reminding himself that he couldn't fall asleep; it would be disastrous if he were asleep in an emergency.

"Um?"

Wang Deming caught a glimpse of the piece of paper the mouse had dropped on the ground. He figured he might as well open it and see what was inside, in case it disgusted him so much he couldn't sleep.

People are often like this; they do things that even they find strange. When bored, the brain will always try to find ways to have fun.

"Why is it still wet?"

Wang Deming's face was practically contorted with disgust as he carefully peeled back the paper, his hands moving in a delicate, orchid-like gesture.

The paper was wet, and the mouse whiskers remained firmly stuck to it because of the water, showing no signs of change.

"Return...day...?"

Wang Deming squinted, and it took him a while to recognize the few illegible Chinese characters pieced together by rat whiskers on the paper.

"Is this just a coincidence?"

Seeing that there was nothing strange about it, Wang Deming simply tossed the note onto the ground.

He thought it was all a coincidence—a mouse found him with a note in its mouth saying the Japanese would launch a surprise attack? How could a normal person believe such a thing?

However, after thinking about it carefully, Wang Deming realized that the rat was indeed a bit strange. It was not afraid of people at all. Even with so many people around, it dared to keep making noises around him until he was driven away, at which point it hurriedly ran away.

"That's a bit strange. Oh well, let's take a look."

Wang Deming stood up and went to the stairwell. The stairwell in this building was very narrow, basically only wide enough for one person to go up and down at a time.

Standing here and looking down, Wang Deming found it somewhat laughable.

What's wrong with me? Am I out of my mind? How could I do something so absurd?

Just as he was about to leave, seeing that nothing was wrong, he suddenly saw a dot appear on the stairs, followed by a second and a third.

These points form a line and are constantly moving upstairs.

Wang Deming recognized it at a glance—it was a Japanese gun! Japanese guns were usually equipped with bayonets, and the narrow staircase made it impossible for them to completely conceal the long gun barrels.