The Republic of China: I, Xiangzi, a Hero in a Chaotic Era

However, Tiger Girl was unaware that there was always a pair of eyes watching her closely from behind.

Late at night, on the second floor of a small hotel with a faded sign near Zhengyangmen East Station, in a room facing the street, the window was completely covered by a thick curtain.

Tiger Girl was indulging in eating and drinking in her room.

On the table were several hearty dishes ordered from a restaurant outside: braised pork knuckle, roast chicken, and a plate of crispy fried meatballs, all glistening with oil. Next to them was a pot of warmed local liquor.

She bought her train ticket to Tianjin this afternoon; the train departs tomorrow morning.

She carefully tucked the train ticket into her inner pocket, right next to the stack of cold banknotes.

Tiger Girl had already planned that once she arrived in Tianjin, she would open a small business, such as a general store, in the concession to make a living. With the five thousand silver dollars she had and her previous experience managing a car factory, Tiger Girl was confident that she could manage her life well.

She will no longer be the feisty but controlled girl from the car factory; she will be a boss with her own business, free, wealthy, and no longer having to depend on anyone.

This thought warmed her heart, and the fear, struggle, coldness, and the almost crushing guilt of the past few days were all diluted by the fervent anticipation for the future at this moment.

She needed to celebrate, she needed this feast to confirm the beginning of her new life.

Tiger Girl drank one glass of wine after another with relish. The alcohol made her pale cheeks flush red, and her eyes became somewhat hazy.

She tore off most of the roast chicken and ate the braised pork knuckle, her hands glistening with oil. The lavishness and extravagance of this dinner were something she would never have dared to indulge in at the car factory, even though she was Master Liu's daughter. In the past, she had to carefully budget every penny.

The car factory's income and her father's savings seemed forever separated from her; they were visible and tangible, yet beyond her control.

Things are different now; this money belongs to her.

Five thousand silver dollars, along with other loose silver coins, land deeds, house deeds, and even five small gold bars that she had scavenged from under her father's bed, were all neatly hidden on her person and in her baggage.

This is the foundation of everything she will have in the future.

After a hearty meal, leftovers piled up on the table.

Tiger Girl let out a burp, got up, and carefully checked the door.

The old wooden door had a bolt that looked fairly sturdy.

She went to the window again and tucked the already taut thick curtain in even more to make sure there wasn't a single gap.

Then she locked all the doors and windows from the inside and secured them with bolts.

After doing all that, Tiger Girl breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Better safe than sorry," my father often said, even though he himself is now in a precarious situation.

Tiger Girl took out the oil paper package from her bosom, opened it layer by layer, and, by the dim light of the oil lamp, counted the five silver notes with a face value of one thousand yuan each once again.

The cool touch of the paper, however, made her feel incredibly at ease.

She rewrapped the silver notes and hid them close to her body in a hidden pocket sewn into the innermost layer of her clothing. The remaining loose silver dollars, small yellow croakers, and land deeds were stuffed into different layers of the bundle.

Then, she lay down fully clothed, without even taking off her outer garment, directly onto the not-so-clean but still quite thick cotton mattress.

The oil lamp was blown out, plunging the room into darkness. Only the occasional, drawn-out whistle of a train outside the window seemed to remind her of her impending journey.

Tiredness and the effects of the alcohol washed over her, and Tiger Girl quickly drifted off to sleep.

In her dream, she seemed to be standing in a bright and clean shop in the Tianjin Concession. Sunlight streamed in through the glass windows, and the shelves were filled with a dazzling array of goods. She was dressed smartly and greeted customers with a smile.

There was no wary look from her father, no whispers among the rickshaw pullers, no gloomy gate to the police station, and no extortion of four thousand silver dollars as heavy as a boulder.

All she had was freedom and a stable, prosperous life of her own.

She didn't know how much time had passed, perhaps in the quietest part of the night, when Tiger Girl felt a bone-chilling cold, as if someone had placed ice on her skin, abruptly pulling her out of that beautiful dream.

She instinctively tried to curl up, but found herself unable to move.

It wasn't just the cold, but also the feeling of being tightly bound. She groggily opened her eyes, her vision initially a blurry darkness, but gradually adjusted, and with the help of an extremely faint light filtering in from somewhere, she could see her surroundings.

This is definitely not the hotel room she stayed in before she went to sleep.

There were no windows; the walls were mottled adobe bricks with exposed straw stalks, and thick cobwebs hung from the low beams. The air was thick with the smells of mildew, dust, and a faint odor of livestock manure.

She was sitting on a hard wooden chair that looked like it might fall apart at any moment, her hands tied behind her back with rough hemp rope, and her legs tied to the chair legs as well.

He was only wearing a thin, coarse cloth shirt provided by the hotel; his outer shirt and padded jacket were gone, as were his shoes. His bare feet were on the cold, dirty ground, and the chill crept in from the soles of his feet and the exposed skin all over his body.

Her bundle, the one containing the land deed, silver dollars, and small yellow croakers, lay open on the ground not far from her, completely empty.

Not far in front of her, in the dim light, stood three or four figures.

They stood silently, like several cold statues, blocking the source of that faint light.

Tiger Girl's heart stopped beating for a moment, then started pounding wildly again, almost shattering her chest.

She was utterly shocked to find herself in a dilapidated room that resembled an abandoned livestock shed, wearing only a thin garment and tied to a chair, with several menacing-looking men staring at her in front of her.

Their faces appeared blurry and grotesque in the dim light, with only their general outlines and the cold, eerie light reflected from their eyes visible.

There was no sound, only a heavy, suffocating sense of oppression, mixed with the unpleasant smell in the room, gripping Tiger Girl's throat.

Tiger Girl was so frightened by what she saw that her face turned pale and her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, making a soft clacking sound.

Kidnapping. That was the first thought that popped into her head.

My father often said that the world is not peaceful, and there are many such scoundrels near train stations and docks who specifically target solo travelers with luggage.

She thought she had been careful enough, buying a train ticket, choosing a hotel with a lot of foot traffic, and locking the doors and windows... but she still fell for it.

How did these people get in?

What do they want?

Money. Yes, it must be money. They ransacked her bundle and took silver dollars, gold bars, and banknotes.

A strong will to survive overcame her initial fear, and she forced herself to calm down, even though her body was still trembling violently.

Tiger Girl swallowed, her throat dry and tight.