Chapter 68: Surprise? More Like A Scare
Liu Zi said that the Japanese woman was heading in the direction of Xiaguang Garden, but Cao Weida didn’t dare to confirm it just like that.
After all, she was a proper special agent, how could she make such a low-level mistake and let others clearly know her whereabouts?
Cao Weida even suspected whether that woman had even reached Bada Hutong.
Maybe she turned around and left the alley, avoided the crowds, and went somewhere else?
Not far ahead, a drop of bloodstain not too obvious and covered by dust appeared, and Cao Weida knew that the direction he was searching was still correct.
But before he could walk much farther and find more clues, he suddenly heard someone calling him.
“Cao’er, Cao’er!”
Looking up, Duomen was waving at him with two patrolmen.
“Master Duo.” Cao Weida smiled and went up to greet him, only then did it dawn on him that there had been a murder at Xiaguang Garden today, and Duomen was investigating the case here.
“Cao’er, why are you here?”
Hearing the question, if it were just Duomen alone, Cao Weida might have revealed a thing or two, after all, with Duomen this detail freak around, searching would be much easier for him.
But with others present, Cao Weida naturally couldn’t reveal anything, and smilingly made up an excuse:
“Master Duo, you’re already this old and still sticking to your post, I, a young lad, can’t just seek pleasure and let you drag your battered body to love your job and work diligently.”
“Staying at home, I really couldn’t sit still, so I came to see if I could help out a bit.”
Pfft~~
The two colleagues who came along couldn’t help laughing, Duomen glared at Cao Weida disapprovingly and laughed and cursed:
“You brat, you really can’t spit out ivory from a dog’s mouth, I’m Duomen, just turning thirty going on forty this year!”
“Besides, which eye of yours saw me dragging a battered body? I think you’re the one with itchy skin!”
Cao Weida grinned, the two bantering to relieve boredom wasn’t just once or twice, their relationship was like this, so naturally they wouldn’t take it seriously.
“Master Duo, are you heading back? Got results?”
“What results? We came to assist with the case.” Duomen shook his head, “The inside is controlled by Special Higher Police, they’ve already sent forensic experts over, we’re just doing odd jobs.”
“I took a look at the blade edge, it was definitely done by Kuomintang special agents, this matter isn’t our jurisdiction.”
The patrolman Fu Xingcai said regretfully on the side:
“Those special agents are really heartless, Yingchun was such a pretty girl, directly slashed throat with one knife, how could they do it?
If it were me, I could never bring myself to do it no matter what, such a beautiful woman, what a pity.”
The other patrolman laughed and cursed:
“As if Yingchun girl not dying, your salary would be enough to spend a tender night with her.”
“You, at best, can only dream of her face at night when you go back!”
Fu Xingcai was left red-faced, “Get lost, as if you could afford to spend money either.”
Duomen kicked each of them once, laughing and cursing: “Can you two stop every day it’s not big girls it’s women, alright, get going.”
“Hehe, alright then, Captain Cao, Master Duo, we’ll head out first.”
After the two left, Duomen finally asked: “Spill it, what’s the deal?”
“Master Duo, what do you mean?”
“Don’t I know you, brat?” Duomen rolled his eyes, “You’d rather lie down than sit, sit than stand, not stand if you can avoid it, with your personality, you’d proactively care about a case?”
“Hehe, no wonder Master Duo you are hale and hearty as ever”
“Hm?!”
“.Perceptive as ever, insightful, foresighted, uniquely discerning.”
“Stop stop stop, you brat, with that glib tongue, where do you get all those words, why not go take the xiucai exam, spill it, what’s really going on.”
“Here’s the thing, a friend of mine asked me to inquire about some news.”
Cao Weida skirted the main points and recounted the matter, in this world, Duomen was the person he trusted the most, even more than his two concubines Xinghong and Du Shiniang.
If even Duomen wasn’t worthy of his trust, then in this world, there was no one he could trust.
If it were really like that, it would be too lonely.
Hearing Cao Weida’s words, Duomen raised his eyelids and whispered: “You mean this woman isn’t”
“Mm.” Cao Weida nodded, “This woman is a little devil special agent, for some reason, she came to Beiping but instead of seeking shelter at Special Higher Police or Gendarmerie Headquarters, she ran to Bada Hutong here.”
“This is strange, since the little devil special agent ran to Beiping, why not seek shelter from the local Special Higher Police, but hide on her own?” Duomen was also puzzled by the little devil special agent’s behavior.
“Whatever, maybe internal faction fighting, maybe more important intelligence, or maybe there’s an intelligence group hideout of theirs here? Anyway, anything’s possible, but it’s none of my business, I only know this woman is worth over a dozen gold bars!”
Bada Hutong was intricate and complex, plus all sorts of various social strata coming and going everywhere, it really was quite a good base option, but if this really was a base, Beiping was little devils’ turf, so why lurk stealthily?
Could it be that far-sighted diehards up top foresaw the future outcome, unwilling to accept future defeat, so planted nails in advance, hoping to make a comeback some day?
This really wasn’t impossible, the Kuomintang used such tactics plenty after defeat in war to harass the Communist Party.
Duomen’s eyes scanned around, “So, did you find anything?”
Over a dozen gold bars!
This female agent was really valuable!
Even Duomen couldn’t resist such a big temptation.
“That’s how I followed the scattered bloodstains here, she got off at the hutong entrance, as a female agent, she wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake, most likely to cover up the real drop point.”
“Her shoulder was injured, and she fled all the way to Beiping, she must have done simple treatment during, but after long travel by cart and boat, or some accident on the road, the wound reopened.”
“The carter said his cushion was dyed red, clearly lost a lot of blood, definitely urgently needs to treat the wound.”
“Going too far, her body might not hold up, so I judge her drop point must be nearby.”
“We just need to follow the bloodstains to search, even if we can’t directly lock her drop point, we can narrow the range as much as possible.”
Setting up a few safe houses is special agent basics, any agent with a brain would leave a backup for themselves, for the sake of having a place to hide when absolutely necessary.
And these safe houses, generally after using once, won’t be used again, to ensure safety as much as possible.
With Duomen’s help, Cao Weida’s workload clearly decreased a lot.
The two seemingly casually strolled around, but actually kept attention on the ground, walls, etc. around them.
Until half an hour later, the two met up.
Both simultaneously turned their gazes to a building five hundred meters away.
Bada Hutong was Beiping’s famous place of pleasure, but not only places of pleasure, there were also other businesses and residences.
This area used to be opera troupes’ foothold, initially with many inns for opera troupes to stay.
Later with development of places of pleasure, some second-rate tea houses and lodgings evolved into independent rooms for people to live and use.
These houses were cheap, close to bustling areas, just a few minutes to slip into Bada Hutong, so tenants here were always endless, even hard to find a room.
And the building they were looking at was a former opera house converted, total five stories, exact number of rooms unclear, but definitely not few.
Monthly rent around 6 silver dollars, many nearby working middle-class liked renting here.
Here people came and went, often new faces appeared, perfect hiding spot.
And precisely because of that, finding a person in such a residence wasn’t easy.
“Man, what say, go up and search?” Duomen jerked his chin to indicate.
“Just us two searching, too easy to alert the snake, who knows how many accomplices inside.” Cao Weida decisively shook his head no,
“After all, we’re living under the little devils’ nose, if little devils find out we’re looking for their people, we’re done for.”
“We’re not special agents, just want to earn some pocket money, no need to take this risk.”
“As long as we confirm the general range, let them search themselves.”
Cao Weida wasn’t stupid, not to mention this agent was already exposed, threat level dropped N grades.
Even if not exposed, he wouldn’t joke with his own life, he cherished his life a lot, didn’t have the predecessors’ lofty faith.
Just over a dozen gold bars, no need to risk life.
“Master Duo, let’s go back.”
Inside a tea house.
Cao Weida pushed a note over, “Here, the info you wanted, all written on it, burn it after reading.”
Xu Jin’ge picked up the note with a complicated expression, looked at it, then casually took out a lighter and lit it in front of Cao Weida.
“Captain Cao, to be honest, I didn’t have much hope for this at first, but unexpectedly, you gave me such a big surprise!”
Surprise?
Xu Jin’ge really wanted to say it was a shock!
How much time had passed!
Full count, from parting to getting the info, not even three hours!
He was a professional agent!
In the past, to track someone’s trail, forget three hours, even if found within three days, superiors would praise warmly.
Now looking at Cao Weida, three hours, how embarrassing for him this professional special agent!
“This was pure luck, I didn’t expect it to go so smoothly.” Cao Weida touched his nose, even he found it a bit ridiculous.
Last time tracking Zhu Tianxi’s trail, if that traitor was a bit more cowardly, not rushing into debauchery but hiding in some nook and cranny, it wouldn’t have been easy for Cao Weida to find him.
But probably pent up too much on the Kuomintang side, soon as he got here he went on a spree, hid right in Xiaguang Garden, and happened to be noticed by Little Ear, so easily exposed the traitor.
This time even more outrageous, he just casually asked San’er, hey, so coincidentally got the news.
He himself felt it absurd, he even started suspecting, could he really be the protagonist?!
Otherwise why was everything so smooth?
