Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Chapter 1011 You traitor! You sellout!

These people were all emaciated, with sunken eyes, chapped lips, and wearing tattered cotton clothes that barely covered their bodies. Their eyes burned with an almost insane, green light, the bestial light born of long-term hunger and despair!

As soon as they entered, they scanned every corner of the courtyard like a scanner, their eyes finally settling on the horrified Li Shouren!

The leader was someone Li Shouren recognized! He was a manager in the refugee camp who was responsible for distributing small amounts of relief porridge. His surname was Wang, and he was about forty years old. Before the war, he was said to have run a small grocery store in the south of the city. He always had the shrewdness of a small merchant.

But at this moment, the mercenary smile of the past was gone from his face; in its place was a twisted, ferocious rage!

He rushed straight up to Li Shouren, his finger almost poking Li Shouren's nose, and with all his might, he roared, spitting all over Li Shouren's face:

"Li Shouren! You traitor! You sellout!"

This roar, like a heavy hammer, slammed into Li Shouren's heart!

He was completely stunned, his mind buzzing. He instinctively took a half step back, his lips trembling, "Manager Wang... Manager Wang? What... what are you saying? How... how did I become a traitor?"

"What are you saying? Speak like a human being!" Manager Wang spat out a mouthful of phlegm, which landed on the frozen ground at Li Shouren's feet. His eyes were filled with venomous resentment. "Everyone is starving to death! They're about to resort to cannibalism! And you're doing this!"

They secretly ran off to curry favor with the Japanese devils, became traitors, and begged for mercy in exchange for so much grain!

Are you even Chinese? Do you have any respect for the people and elders killed by the Japanese devils? Do you have any respect for the conscience passed down from our ancestors?! Have you lost your conscience?!

The group behind him immediately seemed to have found an outlet for their anger, erupting into a frenzied clamor and curses:

"Yes! Traitors!"

"You traitorous bastard!"

"You traitor! You deserve a terrible death!"

"Spit out the grain! Traitors don't deserve to eat grain!"

The angry shouts nearly blew the dilapidated roof off.

These people, who may have once been ordinary citizens, farmers, or artisans, have now completely lost their minds and become thugs driven by instinct, tormented by hunger and incited by those with ulterior motives.

Li Shouren was struck dumb, his face turning deathly pale! Overwhelmed by injustice and rage, he trembled violently. Sweating profusely, he tried in vain to explain, his voice shrill with emotion: "I'm not a traitor! I didn't! That grain... that was... that I used..."

He wanted to say that he traded it for the pocket watch his wife left behind, and for it at the cost of kneeling down and begging for mercy, losing all his dignity!

But when he tried to say those words, they were like a red-hot iron, burning his throat and making it sore that he couldn't utter them!

How could one possibly explain such profound humiliation to these people driven mad by hunger? Even if one did, would they believe it? Would they care?

"Shut the hell up!" Manager Wang interrupted him rudely, not giving him a chance to argue. The greed in his eyes had completely overshadowed the last shred of humanity: "Let me tell you! When you were hiding in the refugee camp, everything you ate and used was given to you by everyone out of pity and charity!"

Now that you've pledged allegiance to your master and are living the high life, you want to keep it all for yourself? No way! Today you must return all this food! Consider it repayment for everyone's debt! It's only right and proper!

"Yes! Spit it out!"

"Pay back the debt! Hand over all the grain!"

The mob started making noise again, peering restlessly into the house, searching for any sign of food.

Li Shouren was utterly desperate! He knew that any explanation was futile in the face of hunger.

With a thud, he knelt straight down on the cold, biting ground, and began kowtowing desperately, his forehead slamming heavily against the frozen earth with a dull thud, drawing blood instantly! Tears streamed down his face, his voice hoarse and almost cracking, as he pleaded desperately:

"Manager Wang! Fellow villagers! I beg you! Please have mercy! I, Li Shouren, swear to God, I am not a traitor! This grain is life-saving! It's the life of those dozen or so children in the house!"

Sister Sun! And my daughter Xiaojuan! They're starving! They're clinging to life with this meager food! I beg you! Have mercy! Leave the child a bite to eat! I, Li Shouren, will serve you like a slave to repay your immense kindness! I beg you!!

His cries were piercing and desperate, echoing in the cold wind, and they broke the hearts of all who heard them. However, at this moment, hunger had devoured all compassion and reason.

"Children? Ha!" Manager Wang revealed an extremely cruel sneer: "Who doesn't have children? My child is so hungry he's eating plaster from the wall! Is your child so precious?"

"Your child is life, but our child isn't?!" He became more and more agitated as he spoke, and suddenly raised his foot and kicked Li Shouren hard in the chest!

"Ugh!" Li Shouren screamed as he was kicked backward and rolled over, coughing violently.

This kick was like the sounding of a battle horn! "Grab it!" Manager Wang roared hoarsely!

The starving mob surged forth like a flood bursting its banks, or like locusts drawn by the scent of blood, howling with excitement as they swarmed toward the corner where Li Shouren and Widow Sun had hidden their grain! The last bulwark of humanity had utterly collapsed!

"No! We can't take it! Those are the children's lives!" Li Shouren's eyes were bloodshot. Like a wild beast driven to the brink of despair, he leaped up from the ground and pounced forward without regard for anything else, spreading his arms and trying to use his thin body to block the frenzied crowd!

He roared and waved his arms, trying to stop them!

But his strength seemed so insignificant in the face of a dozen men driven by hunger and greed!

Several people easily pinned him to the ground, and their fists and feet rained down on him like hail, hitting his head, face, back, and waist!

Every punch and kick contained long-accumulated resentment and bestiality! Li Shouren could only curl up, cover his head with his hands, and let out painful groans and desperate howls. Blood kept gushing from his mouth and nose, staining the snow beneath him red.

"Father!! Father!!"

Just then, a piercing, heart-wrenching scream came from the inner room! Xiao Juan, who had just been awakened, saw her father being brutally beaten on the ground. Terrified, she screamed and rushed out of the room like a small cannonball, throwing herself into the crowd beating Li Shouren, trying to protect her father with her small body!

"Get out of here, you little bastard!" A thug with bloodshot eyes didn't even look at him and shoved him away impatiently!