Chapter 98: Live Well, See You In The Next Life
Shanghai, Baima Road.
This road is not long, only about one kilometer from beginning to end.
But in the eyes of the working masses, it is far more famous than Jinxian Road, Fukaisen Road, or any other road.
Because a large number of cotton mills are gathered here, it also provides a lot of job positions for the bottom common people in the French Concession.
Even more are the young girls from remote rural areas who come here to become tools for contractors to make money.
This is the so-called bound laborer.
The contractor only provides two meals and a place to sleep, and all the money earned belongs to the contractor.
If they have any conscience, they might share a little with them, but most do not.
These contractors spend a lot of effort bringing these young female workers from remote areas to Shanghai, which itself involves some costs.
Naturally, they want to get more value from them.
Besides these people, there are also local Shanghai laborers. It must be said that even a salary of just three or five mao a day is enough to support a family in this era.
Ten o’clock in the morning,
Asano Omiya’s squad forcibly broke into Baima Road without permission from the French Concession Municipal Council and sealed off both ends of the entire road.
If it were a year ago, or two years ago, this behavior would be a naked provocation to the French people.
How dare a little runt harm French interests—they are a country that boasts the world’s strongest army.
But now, the French people don’t even dare to fart. Even though the bosses in the factories had already called the French Concession police station, as soon as they heard it was Japanese making trouble, the other side didn’t even bother to find an excuse and just hung up.
Half an hour later, the belated military police company surrounded the entire Baima Road airtight.
Matsui Koji and Ando Shinichi got out of the black van one after the other.
“Section Chief Matsui, Major Ando.” Asano Omiya immediately stepped forward and saluted respectfully.
“Asano-kun, you’ve done very well.” Matsui Koji praised: “To think you could come up with such a method to lure the other side into revealing intelligence.”
“You are indeed an outstanding warrior of the Empire.”
“Both Ando-kun and I were surprised by the news. We originally thought this New Army special commissioner codenamed Ye Xiao was a man, but unexpectedly, she is a woman.”
“Asano-kun, have you found any clues?”
Asano Omiya saluted and said: “We’ve already sent people to investigate house by house. Miki-kun took men to check San Quan Water Station and found several strange patterns in the corner of the wall. We don’t know what they mean yet.”
“However, we can be sure that the New Army special commissioner has indeed appeared in this area.”
Ando Shinichi interjected: “No problem. As long as we confirm she is here, she can’t escape.”
“Report.” At that moment, a figure in coarse cloth casual clothes strode up to them and saluted.
“Miki-kun, have you found a clue?” Asano Omiya looked at Miki with some expectation.
Miki Yuji said gravely: “Lieutenant Asano, there might be some bad news.”
“We arrived one step too late. That special commissioner has already fled.”
Matsui Koji’s expression changed. “Miki-kun, what happened?”
Miki Yuji respectfully replied: “Section Chief Matsui, we found that Da Rong Cotton Mill received a batch of female workers from Anhui Province at the train station at noon a week ago.”
“The timing matches exactly with the train from Nanjing, so I suspect that special commissioner was hiding among them.”
“So, I immediately took men to seal off the factory area. After detailed screening, we didn’t find any suspicious person.”
“But just as we were leaving, Nishida-kun learned from the gatekeeper old man that at around eight this morning, a female worker received a letter saying there was trouble at home and hurriedly left the factory.”
The group was a bit confused. Trouble at home, a female worker requesting to leave—this was the simplest behavior.
Miki Yuji said gravely: “But that old man saw with his own eyes that the female worker got into a black sedan.”
“Not only that, the car’s license plate was deliberately covered, which is not normal. If it was really a female worker with some rich relative at home, they wouldn’t need to cover the plate. This cover-up is too obvious.”
“So, I think the Communist Party got the information one step ahead of us and picked up that special commissioner.”
“Damn it,” Asano Omiya stomped his foot hatefully. “If only that Zhang Mingda had confessed a little earlier, we could have caught this special commissioner first.”
Matsui Koji frowned: “Asano-kun, you’ve already done very well. This matter is not your fault.”
“Miki-kun, take the factory boss and all related personnel back for interrogation. See if we can get anything useful.”
“Also, have Ishii-kun come and make a portrait of that missing female worker. Search the whole city. I don’t believe she can fly away.”
Ando Shinichi suddenly raised his hand: “Matsui-kun, hold off on distributing the wanted portrait for now.”
“Since we already know this special commissioner’s purpose in coming to Shanghai is to buy medicine.”
“If you make such a big move now, it might cause the other side to change their original plan.”
“I think we should conduct a secret search. Have your investigation team first set up surveillance on those black market businessmen in Shanghai.”
“Medicine is a very sensitive item. Black market dealers without real power wouldn’t dare touch it.”
“If we start from the source, we’ll surely get unexpected results.”
Matsui Koji thought for a moment and slowly nodded: “Ando-kun’s analysis makes sense. Let’s do that.”
“Miki-kun, take the people back first. No matter what, we need to get the basic information on this special commissioner.”
Shanghai, Tongpu Road.
This road extends from the French Concession into Chinese Territory.
A black Buick car drove straight along Tongpu Road, passed several checkpoints, and stopped in front of a Western-style house in Chinese Territory.
Lin Xueli opened the car door and brought a woman wearing coarse hemp clothes with a headscarf on her head out of the car.
The two vigilantly observed the surroundings, confirmed no one was following, and quickly entered the Western-style house.
This Western-style house clearly hadn’t been lived in for a long time; the entire building had furniture covered with white cloth.
Lin Xueli lifted the white cloth covering the sofa and invited her to sit.
After confirming the special commissioner’s identity, he still had a task from the organization to check if the special commissioner had any issues.
Lin Xueli looked at the woman seriously and said: “Comrade Xu, I have some words to ask you on behalf of the organization.”
“What exactly happened in Nanjing? You suddenly came to Shanghai and then suddenly disappeared.”
A look of pain appeared on Xu Hong’s face, as if she was unwilling to recall the scene at Nanjing Train Station.
On the platform at the train station, the man she had longed for used his life to send her the final warning message: “Exposed. Do not get off. Go to Shanghai. Beware internal spy.”
Immediately after, he made their unique gesture to her: “Live well. See you in the next life.”
Next, she heard the man shouting loudly on the platform: “Go quickly, go quickly.”
Immediately following was a gunshot.
After a long silence, she slowly said: “Comrade Qing Hu, I came to Shanghai after receiving Comrade Guohua’s warning message.”
“He clearly told me there is an internal spy in the Shanghai Transportation Station.”
“So, I could only choose to observe. Only after confirming my own safety did I send you the contact request signal.”
“What?” Lin Xueli’s expression changed abruptly: “You mean someone in the organization has betrayed the revolution.”
