Chapter 96: I Refuse To Believe We Can’t Handle It
“I… don’t know.” These words seemed to have exhausted all of Zhang Mingda’s strength. His voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally firm.
Matsui Koji looked at Asano Omiya beside him and said, “Asano-kun, it seems it’s not enough. Then turn it up to the maximum and let him experience the feeling of his limits.”
“Hai.” Asano Omiya grinned and pressed the switch, then turned the current to its maximum.
“Buzz, buzz.” The sound of current arose, and the pointer on the control panel kept shaking.
Zhang Mingda gritted his teeth so hard they audibly clicked, and his eyeballs uncontrollably rolled upwards.
“Ah, ahhh.” Uncontrollable screams tore from the depths of his throat, then shattered into unmodulated gasps in the violent tremors.
The smell of burnt current mixed with the stench of incontinence filled the air.
The next second, his eyes rolled back, and he directly fainted.
With a splash, a basin of cold water was poured over his head. Zhang Mingda grunted and slowly came to.
“Good, good. Your Excellency’s willpower is truly astonishing. Let’s try a different game.” Matsui Koji waved his hand, and two Japanese devils dragged Zhang Mingda to a torture table in the corner of the room, their heads firmly secured in a downward-sloping position.
A thick, coarse hemp cloth soaked in dirty water was abruptly placed over his mouth and nose.
Ladle after ladle of ice-cold, bone-chilling, foul-smelling dirty water was mercilessly poured onto the cloth.
The water instantly soaked through the fabric, blocking all channels for breathing.
Ice-cold, murky liquid was forced into his nostrils and mouth, rushing directly into his trachea and lungs. In just a few seconds, his lungs felt a searing pain as if they would explode.
Zhang Mingda’s limbs initially struggled continuously, but slowly, after a bout of trembling, they suddenly stopped.
Asano Omiya, seeing this, quickly removed the towel and used his hand to feel for Zhang Mingda’s pulse at his neck and his breath at his nose.
Fortunately, although his breathing was faint, it had not disappeared…
“Section Chief Matsui, we cannot continue further,” Asano Omiya said in a low voice. “His willpower is far more formidable than his physical body.”
“These stubborn individuals cannot be judged by normal standards. I fear that if we continue, we might end up taking a life, which would be more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Baka,” Matsui Koji unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, took a breath, and said angrily, “I don’t believe I can’t do anything about him.”
Asano Omiya quickly interjected, “Section Chief Matsui, please be rational. This courier is the key to finding the New Army Special Commissioner.”
“If he dies, all our efforts these past few days will have been in vain.”
“Perhaps we can try another method.”
Deep in the night, Shanghai, Avenue Joffre.
The clanging tram stopped at its terminus after completing its last passenger run.
A rickshaw carried a middle-aged man in Western-style clothing, speeding forward.
Even though it was nearing midnight, Avenue Joffre was still bustling with people.
Lin Xueli, seated in the rickshaw, kept glancing at his surroundings from the corner of his eye.
Soon, the rickshaw arrived at the entrance of Dahua Bookstore, where two long seals had already been affixed.
There were signs of men wearing hats and black shirts milling about. Lin Xueli did not signal to stop, and the rickshaw puller continued at the same speed, quickly passing by Dahua Bookstore.
Everything appeared natural and did not arouse the suspicion of the secret agents around the bookstore.
After traveling for about a kilometer, Lin Xueli suddenly called to stop. After getting off the rickshaw, he gave the puller a silver dollar and then walked to a roadside late-night snack stall and sat down.
He ordered a bowl of noodles, and as he ate, Lin Xueli diligently analyzed the current situation.
Combining the tailor’s deduction with the situation around Dahua Bookstore, Lin Xueli was certain that the Japanese had not obtained what they wanted from Shānmāo.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many secret agents near Dahua Bookstore.
They still intended to use the method of waiting by a tree for a rabbit to catch the person meeting Shānmāo.
If Shānmāo had confessed, they would have known that the contact person would not come.
Therefore, the key now was to figure out what intelligence Shānmāo had obtained.
The tailor had said that Shānmāo’s area of activity was limited to Avenue Joffre and Baima Road.
Lin Xueli’s own family had started from a cotton mill, so he was very familiar with the routines of those female factory workers.
The salary for female factory workers was generally between thirty-five and forty cents a day.
The factory provided two meals, but they were cold steamed buns with pickled vegetables, and accommodation was also provided at the factory.
Bosses with good hearts would arrange free food and lodging, but some bosses still wanted to profit from the workers.
They would charge a silver dollar for food and a silver dollar for lodging per month.
Generally, the salary for female workers was about eight to ten silver dollars a month.
Usually, on days other than payday at the end of the month, they would not venture too far from the factory.
Based on this judgment, it meant that Shānmāo should have discovered the contact signal left by the Special Commissioner at a certain location on Baima Road.
But where could it be that overlapped with Shānmāo’s route of action?
Lin Xueli thought and thought but couldn’t figure it out. Shānmāo, as a young man, certainly couldn’t enter and exit female workers’ dormitories.
And when female workers went out, they were usually in groups of three to five, making any strange behavior easily noticeable.
To go to a place that everyone considered perfectly normal, yet not attract attention.
Where could this place be?
“Grandpa, we’re out of water again,” a child’s muffled complaint suddenly rang out.
The old man cooking noodles sighed and said, “There are still two buckets inside. Genzi, go and bring one out.”
“Use it sparingly tonight, and go to the water station to queue up first thing tomorrow morning.”
“These damned people, they’ve even cut off the water.”
Lin Xueli’s body trembled, as if struck by an idea. He asked the old man cooking noodles, “Boss, does it often run out of water here?”
“Sigh,” the boss sighed. “Everything costs money now. The Municipal Council issued a notice last time about renovating the sewage pipe system.”
“In reality, it’s just that someone in the Municipal Council colluded with the water station owner to force us to use their water.”
“In this world, they even swindle our hard-earned money, these scumbags deserve to die a terrible death.”
The old man cursed furiously, but Lin Xueli’s eyes suddenly lit up.
So, the overlap in the route was here.
The water in the cotton mill was recycled and was not drinkable, though it was fine for washing.
If Shānmāo’s residence also had no water, he would also need to fetch water from the water station for daily use.
If his guess was correct, Shānmāo discovered the contact signal left by the Special Commissioner while fetching water from the water station.
However, his rank was too low to understand the meaning of the contact signal. He could only contact the tailor and tell him the address of the water station, so he could go and make contact himself.
There were a total of three water stations on Baima Road, and they should all be closed at this hour. Lin Xueli hastily threw down five cents and his figure quickly disappeared into the night.
