cicada

Chapter 1459 The Mole Appears
In the official residence of Dai Chunfeng in the mountain city, Zuo Zhong sat on the sofa in the living room reading a newspaper. Thick felt curtains completely blocked out the light from the darkness of the night.

This is Lao Dai's residence. Due to the air raids, the residential areas of the city have been without power for many days. Only the busy high-ranking officials of the National Government can enjoy the "light of civilization".

"Mr. Zuo, your tea."

The maid placed a cup of tea in front of Zuo Chong on a tray. Zuo Chong said thank you and then asked when Lao Dai would be finished.

"Master is still in his study. I'll go and inform him again. Please wait a moment," the servant replied respectfully.

Zuo nodded and continued reading the newspaper. A short while later, Dai Chunfeng came down the stairs, and the two chatted casually for a few minutes before sitting down.

"Shen Zhong, has something happened?" Old Dai asked curiously.

"Yes, teacher. The Nanjing authorities have just learned that Du Ziteng, the deputy minister of the Ministry of the Interior of the puppet government, is an underground member of the Communist Party, and he has already surrendered to the Japanese."

Without wasting words, Zuo Zhong went straight to Du Ziteng's matter, while keeping a close eye on the cheap teacher's face out of the corner of his eye.

Upon hearing this, Dai Chunfeng paused slightly as he reached for his teacup, then revealed a gloating expression.

"Oh? First Ban Jun, and now Du Ziteng. It seems the underground party is going to have a headache."

Zuo Chong smiled and said yes. After chatting for a few more minutes, he got up to leave. As he walked out the door, the faint sound of a cup breaking could be heard from inside the house.

For some unknown reason, Zuo Chong sneered and strode away, his figure quickly disappearing into the night.

The next morning, He Yijun walked into Zuo Zhong's office and closed the door behind her. She didn't say anything after entering, but simply placed the documents in her hand on the table.

Zuo Zhong took the document and looked at it. It contained the radio detection records of Shancheng last night. One of the radio stations was not registered, but its signal was unusually active.

As for why the secret agents didn't investigate, it's because the radio station was located in the Military Intelligence Bureau's dormitory area, and in a core area.

Upon seeing this, Zuo Zhong handed the report back to He Yijun: "Take it and destroy it. Don't leave any record of it."

He Yijun accepted the order and left. Zuo Zhong rested his chin on his hand and thought for a while before taking out his phone and sending an urgent coded telegram to the Social Affairs Department.

The radio waves, carrying coded messages, flew to a cave dwelling in Zaoyuan, the border region's garrison. The radio operator listened to the Morse code in his headphones while recording it on paper, the pen tip making a scratching sound as it scribbled across the paper.

Subsequently, the coded telegram was personally translated by the top leader and delivered to Vice Minister Li. The telegram contained only a short paragraph.

[Upon learning the exact time of Du Ziteng's defection to the enemy, Qiu Chan]

Zuo Zhong did not reveal the matter of the fake surrender, because only Zuo Zhong knew about it, and Qiu Chan should not and could not be the one in the know.

Vice Minister Li's eyes flickered. Time is the most effective tool for discernment, but he wondered what time frame Qiu Chan was using as a reference point—was it a specific event? Or was it related to a particular person?
What's even stranger is why Du Ziteng would defect to the enemy?

Ever since he learned of this, he had been puzzled. Ban Jun had not reported the other party, so Du Ziteng had no reason to defect to the enemy.

Is it to get involved personally?
But doing so requires intelligence and operational support. Who exactly is supporting Ban Jun and Du Ziteng behind the scenes? What is that person's purpose? One question after another surrounded Vice Minister Li.

He decided to find an opportunity to re-establish contact with Ban Jun and Du Ziteng, so that they wouldn't truly become kites with broken strings.

Hours later, Zuo Chong received a telegram from the Northwest, informing him that the underground party had received the news the day after Du Ziteng's arrest.

Now all his guesses were confirmed, such as who Mr. Question Mark was and the real reason for Ban Jun's arrest.

Zuo Chong then sent a second secret telegram. With this telegram, the Social Affairs Department's investigation into the mole finally saw a glimmer of hope.

[There's a mole in the border area; this person has access to personnel files but no way of obtaining classified information.]

Vice Minister Li and Luo Yongying looked at the contradictory secret telegram, and the former asked the latter a question.

"Xiao Luo, do you have any thoughts after watching it?"

Luo Yongying replied in a serious tone, "Reporting to the Vice Minister, I believe we have gone astray."

"Speak," Vice Minister Li said succinctly.

The oil lamp emitted a faint light, and Eighth Route Army soldiers patrolling outside the cave paced back and forth. Luo Yongying made an analysis.

“I previously judged that the mole must have been located very high up, which is why they were able to steal the Ban Jun intelligence team’s files.”

"But I overlooked one point: if that were the case, it wouldn't just be the Ban Jun group that would have problems; other comrades in the enemy-occupied area would also be at risk of exposure, but there are no signs of that at present."

"Now it seems that the mole's identity may be very ordinary, his acquisition of Ban Jun's intelligence was just a coincidence, and his information gathering channels were relatively closed, at least he could not directly access classified documents."

“This was my oversight, Deputy Minister. I will submit a detailed report to my superiors after the operation and take full responsibility.”

Luo Yongying was a little down. Their flawed thinking had caused them to waste too much time and easily alert the mole.

Vice Minister Li waved his hand: "Alright, if we're talking about assigning responsibility, my responsibility is greater than yours. Tell me about your findings first."

After calming herself down, Luo Yongying gave her opinion again.

"At the last meeting, we narrowed down the suspects to two groups: first, the fellow villagers who were repairing the confidential room; and second, the personnel who were involved in retrieving the files."

"Based on the new circumstances, the relevant personnel can be ruled out, and the suspect can only be the residents who are repairing the house. I believe the investigation will yield results soon."

Vice Minister Li breathed a sigh of relief. Hundreds of people had their files retrieved recently, and it would take a long time to verify each one. In contrast, the number of ordinary people was limited, making the verification process much easier.

As Vice Minister Li had anticipated, after meticulous investigation, the suspect gradually emerged around midnight.

Outside a village in the border region, an internal security officer crouched down and approached Luo Yongying to report the results of the investigation.

"Section Chief, the lights in the target's house are off. The suspect and his wife should be asleep. I didn't go into the yard to check because I was worried about alerting them." Luo Yongying squatted on the ground, listened to the report, thought carefully, and decided not to arrest the suspect for the time being.

Visibility is too low at night, making the capture very unsafe. The target could escape if we are not careful, so it is better to wait until dawn to take action.

After discussing it with the others, Luo Yongying quietly made arrangements, and the internal security officer quickly returned to the village.

As night slowly receded, the village awoke from its slumber, and villagers occasionally went out to fetch water or do chores.

Among the group of people, an old man wearing a white sheepskin towel on his head and holding a gong stood out, and the villagers passing by greeted him.

"Village chief, what is it you wish to say?"

The old man didn't say anything, but struck a gong and shouted loudly to the residents on both sides of the dirt road.

"We're digging a ditch today, everyone hurry up and head to the village entrance."

He walked and shouted, and soon arrived at the outside of a courtyard. With a shout, the birds on the wall were frightened and flew far away.

"Wu San, Wu San, you rascal, don't be a dawdler. We need your skills to dig the ditch."

The courtyard gate creaked open, and a man in his thirties or forties walked out. His clothes were old but very clean.

The man scratched his head and replied in broken local dialect, "Okay, I'll be there in a bit."

After the village chief finished speaking, he walked away with his hands behind his back. The man put his hands in his sleeves and went home. A woman was clearing away the dishes and asked him what had happened.

"What's wrong? The team needs to repair the canal, and the village chief needs my help."

After finishing his breakfast in silence, the man shouldered his work tools and left the yard, moving towards the village entrance with the sparse villagers.

After walking several dozen meters, the man came to the side of an acquaintance in the middle of the crowd, and the two chatted and laughed.

"Wu San, wait a minute, I have something to tell you."

Suddenly, a shout came from behind. The man turned around and saw the village chief waving at him, so he stopped.

The villagers didn't pay any attention and continued walking together after turning the corner, when suddenly the surroundings became quiet.

Just then, four security personnel rushed out of a nearby alley and headed straight for the man.

In a flash, one person grabbed the man's legs from behind and lifted him into the air, while two others pressed down on his shoulders and interlocked their fingers behind his back. Finally, a person gagged the man with a strip of cloth.

The arrest was over in an instant. The security personnel carried the target into the alley, and the old village chief chuckled and slowly followed the villagers ahead.

On the other side, a woman who was sweeping the courtyard was also taken into custody by security personnel who broke down the door. The woman did not resist and was trembling with fear, which made the security personnel suspect that they had arrested the wrong person.

Furthermore, the search of the target residence yielded nothing; there was no radio, no weapons, not even a scrap of paper.

Luo Yongying was not surprised when she heard the report. It was normal that no one had discovered it. If it were so easy to deal with, the target would not have been able to remain hidden safely until now.

While strictly controlling the information about the arrest, she interrogated the target couple, preparing to break down their psychological defenses in the shortest possible time.

"Name."

In a secret location within the border region, Luo Yongying solemnly questioned the man, but the man sat in the interrogation chair with a blank expression, as if he hadn't heard anything.

Luo Yongying wasn't in a hurry. She picked up a pen and pretended to write something down on a piece of paper, putting psychological pressure on him.

A few minutes passed before the man seemed to come to his senses, glancing slightly at the notebook on the table.

"Name."

The questioning rang out again, and the man stammered out his name, not forgetting to protest his innocence.

"Liu...Liu Wusan, boss, I really didn't do anything, I'm innocent!"

Luo Yongying seemed not to hear, opened a household registration file from the border region, and read the contents aloud to herself.

"Liu Wusan, male, forty years old, from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. After the Japanese army captured Taiyuan, you and your wife were separated from your family and fled to the border area. Because of your bricklaying skills, you were assigned to the garrison, right?"

Yes, yes.

Liu Wusan nodded frantically, afraid that if he answered too slowly, he would appear to be an honest, unsophisticated farmer who had never seen much of the world.

"hehe."

Luo Yongying smiled, picked up the file with two fingers and shook it, the paper rustling as it rubbed together. Liu Wusan pricked up his ears and heard the following words.

"Actually, you and I both know that apart from your gender, not a single word in this file is true. But I advise you not to take any chances. What is false cannot become true, and what is true cannot become false. Since we have invited you here, we must have evidence."

After saying that, she threw the file aside, gestured for the jurors to show Liu Wusan a statement, and then spoke coldly.

“I know you can read. A month and a half ago, you and five other villagers went to repair the cave dwelling in the confidential room. That day, the Japanese came to bomb the area, and everyone was evacuated to the air raid shelter to avoid the air raid. Only your whereabouts are unknown.”

"These are the interrogation records of those present. Do you still dare to say you're innocent?! Let me tell you, our people are already secretly investigating the Shanxi province address on your household registration. They're not checking the authenticity of your identity, but whether someone is spying on your hometown!"

"Your superiors should have set up surveillance posts there, right? If we wanted, we could convict you without even a confession. Do you understand?!"

Liu Wusan's breathing rhythm changed slightly, and Luo Yongying keenly noticed this and immediately slammed her hand on the table.

"Tell me! Who is your superior?"