Ling Shu noticed someone was following him half an hour ago.

He had just left the newspaper office and was planning to take a detour to the café to buy a cake when he realized he was being trailed from afar.

Following someone is a skillful task, but those who think they are skilled often make mistakes.

Ling Shu quickly discovered the two inept trackers.

However, he was careless. He thought that if their tracking skills were poor, they must be lacking in other areas as well.

While taking a shortcut through an alley, Ling Shu was attacked from behind by the two men.

They were quite agile and skilled, and Ling Shu was surprised as he had only recently arrived in Hong Kong and was not familiar with the area. Yet, someone had already come looking for trouble. They even pulled out wooden sticks and a sack, intending to kidnap him.

Ling Shu knew that the Hong Kong triads were a complex web of domestic and foreign forces, and he couldn't figure out which group he had offended.

But being kidnapped was out of the question. He was Young Master Ling, and he had never been afraid no matter where he went.

How could he fall in Hong Kong, a small island?

The other side didn't seem to expect Ling Shu's resistance to be so fierce, and his skills to be so good. Even in a situation where he was outnumbered, he could still fight them to a draw and not fall behind.

Although this was a small alley, it was not deserted. People would come by any minute, and they had to settle the matter quickly, or it could easily cause trouble.

Both sides understood this.

Ling Shu intentionally delayed the time, while the other side had no intention of delaying.

For a while, they were evenly matched, and although Ling Shu was at a disadvantage and took several punches, the other side couldn't do anything to him for the time being.

Just as luck would have it, someone passed by the alley entrance and Ling Shu immediately started shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Brother, you not only stole my wife, but as brothers, how can you not only make me wear a cuckold's hat but also beat me up for a woman?! How can you face our parents?!"

He couldn't shout about robbery and murder, or else the passersby would be scared off. But if he mentioned the cuckold's hat, the passersby would definitely be interested and come over to watch.

As expected, his shouting immediately attracted the interest of several people who came over to see what was happening.

Ling Shu's passionate shouting made the two men shiver and almost forget what they were there to do. As more and more people gathered around, they realized they couldn't achieve their goal and reluctantly left.

Ling Shu smirked, dusted off his clothes, and even gave a bow to the onlookers before confidently walking away towards the street.

It was the year 1938.

Shanghai, known as the Paris of the Far East, had just fallen to the Japanese army the previous year, becoming a plaything under their iron heel.

In fact, signs of trouble had been brewing even before that.

Since the country's gates were opened, the front lines had seen more losses than victories, and the entire nation was soon engulfed in a misery deeper than the warlord era.

If in the past, during the warlord era, at least the city dwellers or families with status like the Yue family could escape unscathed, this invasion dragged all Chinese people into the fray, sparing no one from top to bottom.

Two years before the fall of Shanghai, Yue Dingtang and Ling Shu had moved here, along with their old housekeeper Uncle Zhou and a small portion of the Yue family's assets. Yue Dingtang's eldest and second brother went their separate ways - one to America and the other staying in Nanjing. Despite the distance, the three brothers kept in regular contact.

The war had caused them to be separated, but it also seemed to bring back the estranged feelings they once had for each other.

At least, before this, Yue Dingtang's eldest and second brother had not spoken for a long time due to their differing political views and values. They would only communicate through Yue Dingtang.

This troubled Yue Dingtang for a while, as even with his high emotional intelligence, he didn't know how to reconcile the two brothers.

However, when the full-scale war began, Yue Dingtang's second brother seemed to have a change of heart. He even made time to return to the Yue family in Shanghai to hastily meet with Yue Dingtang's eldest brother and Yue Dingtang. He urged them to leave Shanghai and head west, preferably out of the country.

Thanks to his words, the Yue family's relocation process was accelerated. Initially, Ling Yao and Zhou Sa were reluctant to leave. They believed that Shanghai was a metropolis and that the UK and the US would not sit idly by as Japan swallowed it up.

The situation had not yet deteriorated to that point, especially since Zhou Sa held a position in Shanghai and it was not easy for them to uproot their family. However, Yue Dingtang eventually helped Zhou Sa find a job in Chongqing, and the couple moved there from Shanghai, giving Ling Shu complete peace of mind.

Yue Dingtang found a university in Hong Kong to continue teaching and opened a newspaper and factory with some of the Yue family's assets. He didn't have time to manage them, so Ling Shu and Uncle Zhou took care of everything.

Ling Shu took over a newspaper out of the blue, with no prior experience in the field. He didn't want to be fooled, so he started from the bottom as a frontline journalist, going out every day to gather news like any ordinary employee.

The newspaper focused on the lives of common people, with a style that resonated with the middle and lower classes. Ling Shu's accurate predictions on world events, combined with his connections through the Yue family, quickly gained the newspaper a place among the elite, and the newspaper's sales were impressive.

Yue Dingtang and Ling Shu had finally settled down in Hong Kong, establishing a home.

However, the sudden attack by two strangers today was unexpected and unprecedented.

As Ling Shu pondered, he suspected that it was his previous report on the British privilege at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong or his criticism of the incompetence of the National Army's corruption behind the battlefield that had hit a nerve with certain individuals, prompting them to send people to teach him a lesson.

The two men were skilled and didn't look like ordinary street thugs.

They even had sacks in their hands.

Were they trying to kidnap him?

Or was it just a simple beating to teach him a lesson?

Ling Shu was full of questions and decided to discuss it with Yue Dingtang when he got home.

Compared to Shanghai, the Yue family residence in Hong Kong was smaller, but the layout was not bad. Before leaving, Uncle Zhou had brought over some easily movable furniture. If one didn't look closely, it would be easy to mistake it for still being in Shanghai.

But Hong Kong was still Hong Kong, not Shanghai.

The shattered mountains and rivers were left behind, and they had no choice but to keep moving forward. The only thing worth celebrating was that no one from the Yue or Ling families had died.

In the turbulent times, they managed to at least preserve their own and their loved ones' lives. With life, there is hope for the future.