Episode 40 recap: Guan Xue has been sentenced to death.
Song Zhuo Wen woke up from a nightmare, greeted by the sunlight. He got up as usual, washed himself, and put on a suit. Harbin had already been liberated, and people like Hu Bin from the Special Service Department were paraded through the streets. Song Zhuo Wen cycled past without even looking up, and arrived at his office. Song Zhuo Wen lived in a dormitory, and everyone advised him to move out. After all, if he didn't move, others couldn't either. But Song Zhuo Wen had lived in big houses before, and living alone in six rooms was terrifying when he woke up in the middle of the night.
In the investigation materials, there was a person named Tian Xiao Jiang, a pseudo-Manchurian agent. However, his family found a grave claiming to be that of Tian Xiao Jiang, a resistance hero against the Japanese. So they refused to cooperate, considering the stark difference in treatment between the families of resistance heroes and those of spies. Song Zhuo Wen recalled the scene where Tian Xiao Jiang sacrificed his arm on the railroad tracks to save Song Zhuo Wu's life. Even now, tears flowed uncontrollably when he thought about it. He took up his pen and wrote down the details, weeping with his face covered.
Song Zhuo Wen went to buy a piece of pork belly and went home to make braised pork with vermicelli. Then he brought it with him to the war criminals' management facility. The street was peaceful, filled with the joy of victory. Inside the war criminals' management facility, the person Song Zhuo Wen wanted to see was Guan Xue. She no longer had her former curly hair and arrogant demeanor. Her hair was cut short, and her face carried signs of aging.
Guan Xue thought that Song Zhuo Wen had come all the way from Harbin. However, Song Zhuo Wen had been transferred to Fushun for a year and a half. He had only come now because he had something important to do. After all, it was his country and his people. Guan Xue tasted the dish Song Zhuo Wen made and advised him not to cook anymore, as the chefs there were better than him.
The atmosphere between the two was harmonious but somewhat eerie. Song Zhuo Wen couldn't bring wine, so he brought a bottle of Gewürztraminer for Guan Xue. Guan Xue laughed, thinking he had started to care about women, and guessed that Xie Yue had taught him that because she was a girl with deep thoughts and understood men better than Guan Xue did.
But Song Zhuo Wen and Xie Yue were not together. Xie Yue no longer relied on anyone. She walked alone in the new world, as Song Zhuo Wen had said, for a long time. One only needed to take a glance outside to see this new world, but Guan Xue didn't believe it. She was still immersed in her own world, while everyone else moved forward and left her behind.
Song Zhuo Wen asked about Guan Kai, but Guan Xue said that she didn't need anyone to take care of her and that she could take care of herself in her own world. Song Zhuo Wen didn't understand what she meant until he learned that Guan Kai had committed suicide by hanging himself at school before Guan Xue was imprisoned.
Now, Guan Xue said that one cannot argue with fate. Those who win have the right to talk about ideals, but those who lose and die are nothing. Only the living can speak of beliefs. If Song Zhuo Wen died at her hands, his ideals and beliefs would be like sand. Song Zhuo Wen won, so he had the right to talk about these things, but Guan Xue lost, so he didn't.
Song Zhuo Wen said that he had actually killed himself long ago, but Guan Xue forgot that she had given an order to Xiaowu five years ago. Xiaowu killed Song Zhuo Wu and was silently killed himself while looking at this hard-earned new world with great excitement.
Tears streamed down Guan Xue's face upon hearing this. Song Zhuo Wen continued, saying that Song Zhuo Wu saved Guan Xue but ultimately died at her hands. Was that his ideals and beliefs, just a handful of sand and a gust of wind, as Guan Xue had said? Song Zhuo Wen said he had to go back, and Guan Xue wiped away her tears, saying she would walk a few steps with him.
Guan Xue took out a group photo from the book, specifically cutting out the picture of the two of them together from their time in the Special Service Department. She gave it to him at that moment. If two people with identical faces were imprinted on the photo, would she feel that whoever she thought it was, it would be them? Song Zhuo Wen understood what she meant and returned the photo to her. He was Song Zhuo Wu.
After Song Zhuo Wen left, Guan Xue choked back her tears and swallowed all the food she found distasteful. As she left the facility, Song Zhuo Wen walked on the street where there was no more killing, no more invasion. This land belonged to us, our country, and the red flag would forever fly high.
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