Chapter 29: Information
Gu Yansheng took the small note dropped by He Yun and returned to the law firm.
Getting the accommodation address was part of the predetermined plan, but he just didn’t know what kind of house they had found, whether it had windows or a courtyard. Most likely, it was judged to be an ordinary resident house like the current one, with a platform for drying clothes. Throwing pebbles based on the actual situation would work; they were all the same.
Anyone selected by the organization had undergone training. Thinking carefully, it was always possible to figure out such a simple reason for going home.
If he couldn’t even figure that out, then he could be a cat burglar in the middle of the night, flip over a wall, and stay far away from them afterward.
“Keep an eye on Shen Bao, missing person notice, Wu Sanquan looking for brother Wu Sanshui, there will be a contact address above, only at 3 PM and 9 PM will there be someone at that place. Password: he asks, ‘Read Shen Bao?’, you answer, ‘Didn’t read it, read Liangyou Pictorial.'”
Gu Yansheng took out a box of matches, burned the note, and soaked it in water to dissolve it.
He took out today’s Shen Bao, flipped to the missing person notices column. Since the war, in an era already inconvenient for communication, there were even more separated people, and the missing person notice business had picked up, which was an unexpected financial path for the newspaper company.
He glanced at it; today’s newspaper didn’t have this missing person notice.
Could it be yesterday’s? The law firm kept newspapers for a long time based on needs. Gu Yansheng went to the archive room to check, and sure enough, yesterday’s newspaper had this information.
Moreover, the address was in the International Settlement residential area.
He checked the time; there was still a long time until afternoon, plenty of time.
The key thing to think about next was how to meet the other party and how to get that person to leave after the meeting.
The former wasn’t difficult: disguise himself so the person wouldn’t see his face.
Trust or no trust didn’t matter; there was no need for someone met only once for contact to know who he was.
As for the latter, it was indeed troublesome.
Although Gu Yansheng didn’t know how No. 67 had arranged things, from their tracking of the other fourteen people, none of those fourteen were overlooked, and that old underground operative was definitely the top priority for the manhunt.
To prevent him from escaping, places like the station and wharf definitely had hidden informants watching.
How to let him safely leave Shanghai.
Land route definitely wouldn’t work; there were Japanese Gendarmes at the city exit, and Japanese Gendarmes plus No. 67’s people at the train station. Only water route was an option.
For water route, it had to be Shiliupu Wharf in the concession, that is, taking a foreign cruise ship. That way, there was no risk of arrest. Hong Kong was a suitable destination.
But he could plan these things, and No. 67’s people definitely knew too; the ticket counter should be under dead surveillance.
Buying a ticket and forcing onto the ship wasn’t impossible, even in front of No. 67’s people, but getting on the ship didn’t mean escaping this sea area. There were plenty of Japanese patrol boats at sea; if they directly forced a stop and arrested, it would be a waste of effort.
Two problems: one, get a ship ticket to Hong Kong; two, board the ship without alerting the hidden spies.
He thought of several methods, rejected several methods. During this, Wolf came to tell him about Smithfield Law Firm’s resume and glorious deeds, and reminded him that this would be a strong opponent.
Gu Yansheng didn’t care about that and teased him: Swire was a British industry, so why, when something happened to them, did they not find him but find other British people? Was it that his connections weren’t good enough, or did they find him but he wasn’t confident he could take it?
Wolf protested: that was because Smithfield was a pure-blooded British law firm, which would definitely go all out to help Swire, this national industry, while their Danwen Law Firm had Gu Bai, an American boss, so it counted as an American company.
Reasonable and convincing.
In the afternoon, Gu Yansheng went home once. On the way, he bought a black suit, trench coat, leather shoes, a white coat, and a cotton mask from several stores.
First layer: suit; second layer: white coat; third layer: trench coat.
Since the white coat was thin, it wouldn’t look bulky. He couldn’t wear a hat for now; wearing a hat would make him look like a killer.
He called a rickshaw and first circled the residential area on Guangdong Road. Based on the address, he locked onto the second floor of an apartment. There were exits front and back, and the apartment had many windows. If it was a safe house, escaping from this place would indeed be quite convenient.
At 2:58, Gu Yansheng entered from the apartment’s back door. As soon as he entered, he unbuttoned the top button of the trench coat, put on the mask and hat, and pulled down the brim.
Second floor, room 203. When Gu Yansheng arrived here, it was exactly 3 PM. He stood at the door and lightly knocked once. If someone was there, they would definitely be guarding at this time.
However, after waiting a minute, no one opened the door.
Just as Gu Yansheng frowned and prepared to knock once more to confirm.
Bang, the door opened, but not the one in front of him—instead, the door of the room diagonally across behind him suddenly opened, and a familiar face appeared.
It was the pharmacy owner Zheng Liangcai.
But his current outfit didn’t look like a pharmacy owner; he was wearing work overalls and glasses, like a clock repair master.
At this moment, he was carrying a garbage bucket, as if he had just come out to dump the trash.
When he walked beside Gu Yansheng, he even glanced at him.
“Who are you looking for?”
Gu Yansheng raised an eyebrow, looked at his door, then at the one he had knocked on, and the corner of his mouth twitched. Fine, as expected of an old underground operative, still guarding against this.
“I’m looking for Wu Sanquan.”
“Wu Sanquan hasn’t been here for a while. Who are you?”
“I’m his brother Wu Sanshui.”
“Read Shen Bao?”
“Didn’t read it, read Liangyou Pictorial.”
As soon as the words fell, Zheng Liangcai turned and carried the garbage bucket back into the room.
Gu Yansheng followed closely behind.
After closing the door, Zheng Liangcai extended his hand with a smile: “Hello, comrade. Finally waited for you. I was really worried something had happened to you. Zheng Liangcai.”
“Cat’s Eye.” Gu Yansheng wasn’t prepared to reveal his real name and deliberately suppressed his voice.
Obviously a pseudonym, but Zheng Liangcai didn’t pry; after all, the two didn’t know each other.
“Did you go that day? Were you caught?”
“I saw the plate you dropped and luckily dodged it. Very grateful to you, thank you.”
“That’s good.” Zheng Liangcai smiled relaxedly. “Even now, I don’t know where the problem was. I was targeted at first and thought you had been caught, leading to me being targeted. But as soon as the Japanese questioned me, I knew you definitely hadn’t been caught, at least you hadn’t talked.
If you had been caught because of me, I really wouldn’t have the face to face the organization.
Alright, as long as you’re fine, let’s hand over then. Once I give you the things, I can leave too.
I’ve stayed in Shanghai so long and hidden quite a few good treasures that you’ll definitely need later.
Of course, best not to use them, heh. Come take a look: this room and the one you knocked on earlier are both safe houses I prepared. The householder’s name for that one is Wu Sanquan; this one is currently Ding Youdao.
These two people have clean identities, ordinary people. They died delivering supplies to the National Army during the Battle of Songhu, supporting the war effort, but bad luck, killed by cannonballs. Both heroes. Household registration books are in my hands; I took them off their bodies at the time. Very safe.
I’ll hand them to you later. You can keep fabricating rental agreements to live here indefinitely, or pass them on to someone else later. You decide that yourself.
Each house’s kitchen has a pistol, bedroom has a pistol. Here are bullets. Open the panel inside this wardrobe; there’s a compartment below with the radio and two hand grenades to hang on the wardrobe as booby traps in case of problems with the radio and codebook. This is sulfonamide.”
Zheng Liangcai explained everything in the house in detail; every item was carefully selected and left behind.
This was the accumulated estate of an old underground operative who had lurked in Shanghai for many years.
Medicine, firearms, radio—these were extremely hard for underground workers to obtain.
“Originally planned to leave you safe houses and identity certificates in Zhabei, but mine are scrapped too, so that can only be scrapped. The safe houses there probably aren’t safe now. What a pity.”
Zheng Liangcai smiled, looked around the room, somewhat reluctant. Handing over all this meant leaving Shanghai.
“From now on, it’s up to you, comrade.”
Gu Yansheng nodded in thanks. “Thank you for the treasures you’ve left; very useful. Have you always been alone in Shanghai, single-line contact with the organization?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m a lurker, a nail. No specific missions, just stuck in Shanghai. Main role is running a pharmacy, so if any side urgently needs controlled drugs, like sulfonamide, they can get them from me.”
“Have you thought about why you were targeted?” Gu Yansheng was more concerned about this issue.
“Hiss.” Zheng Liangcai frowned and said, “I’ve been thinking about this these past few days. Wondering if some mission I executed had a slip-up?
Thinking carefully, I’ve actually executed quite a few missions.
For example, there was the Anti-Japanese Alliance in Northern Jiangsu; superiors had me deliver medicine, but it was placed in a dead drop, picked up by a relay station. Never met them.
For example, the Shanghai local committee, short on medicine or money—same, dead drop, buried under a tree or under a bench, etc. In theory, those shouldn’t have problems.
Thinking it over carefully, the biggest possibility is still my enemy.
Doing this pharmacy business, I made enemies. Others on the street also run pharmacies, and I do too. Mine is an old brand, honest dealings, neighbors trust me, so they all buy medicine from me.
That guy resorted to tricks, either stealing my medicine or getting people to extort me.
I’d endured it all, thinking I could hold on, but he wouldn’t let me go. I suspect he slandered me somehow. If he accused me of helping the Military Statistics Bureau or our people, they definitely would investigate strictly.
That could lead to me being targeted.
And I found out this guy has ties to the traitor bailiff there, some relative. I reported this to the organization.
This is also why the organization transferred me out of Shanghai to develop elsewhere. The organization considered that if the other side kept harassing like that, something would happen sooner or later. But now it seems we left too late; if we’d gone earlier, there wouldn’t have been so much trouble.”
