cicada

Chapter 1470 New World

After seeing Shibayama Kenshiro off, Banjun and Yuqin returned to the study. As soon as they entered, Banjun noticed something was wrong.

Before leaving, he placed two strands of hair on the ground. Now the position of the hair has changed slightly, which means that someone entered the house while they were away.

Who is the other party?

Chai Shan has already left, so no one should be watching them anymore, Ban Jun thought to himself, while gesturing to Yu Qin to remind her to be careful what she said.

After closing the door, Ban Jun quickly checked the room and found no listening devices, but there was an extra copy of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with a large "3" on the title page.

Looking at the Commercial Press edition of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Ye Fengchun, Ban Jun's eyes lit up. He immediately arranged for Yuqin to keep watch at the door, while he turned on the radio.

After 1927, the underground Communist Party learned from its mistakes and designed a unique final communication method for each underground intelligence agent.

This means of communication has only one purpose: to ensure the safe transmission of intelligence, the protection of personnel, and the continuity of the organization when all other conventional means of communication fail.

Ban Jun's last means of communication was this version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." By using the secret code hidden in the broadcast, he could receive messages from his superiors.

The clock hands ticked away, and when the hour hand reached three o'clock, Ban Jun tuned the frequency to a commercial radio station, which was broadcasting local commodity prices.

Whenever the announcer mentioned data starting with 3, Ban Jun would pick up his pen and take notes, quickly filling the paper with several lines of dense writing.

The broadcast was repeated twice. Ban Jun, referring to the contents of the novel and the numbers he had noted down, quickly deciphered the contents of the coded message: an address and a time.

His superiors hadn't given up on him and Lao Du; he had only one thought in his mind, and his eyes instantly turned red.

At the same time, he also felt a heavy pressure. In intelligence work, trust is a luxury, and he must not betray the organization's trust.

After calming himself down, Ban Jun memorized the address and time. As for the paper with the coded message, he tore it up and destroyed it along with the sheets below it.

After cleaning up the traces, Yuqin and Banjun sat on the bed, still rocking the bed as before, communicating with paper and pen, even though the Japanese who were monitoring them had already left.

After discussing for a while, the two finalized the details of the rendezvous for the next day. Finally, Yuqin took out a necklace and handed it to Banjun.

Ban Jun placed the necklace in his palm, squeezed it hard, and the pendant split in two, revealing a hidden space inside.

If we could turn back time and return to the period when Ban Jun was at the No. 1 Operations Command Post, the small building was filled with Japanese and puppet agents and staff officers.

From dawn to dusk, from midnight to early morning, the Japanese and their collaborators were busy as bees.

Early that morning, Ban Jun walked out of his office, and a secret agent transferred from the puppet Political Security Bureau was immediately shocked by his appearance.

"Oh dear, Consultant Ban, your eyes are so red. Should I call a doctor to take a look?"

Upon hearing this, everyone around looked at Ban Jun, and they were all shocked. Ban Jun's eyes were not just red, they were as red as a rabbit's.

The traitors immediately felt threatened. Damn it, they were so eager to be traitors. This guy surnamed Ban was really shameless.

The Japanese would look at the other side and then at them, and would definitely think that they hadn't done their job properly. Although that was true, things couldn't be done that way.

For the sake of a better future, the traitors painstakingly persuaded Ban Jun to take care of his health, treating him with even more filial piety than he would his own parents.

Ban Jun smiled and agreed, but after finishing his meal, he returned to his office and buried himself in a mountain of documents, working diligently with the desk lamp burning all night.

When Shibayama Kenshiro learned of this, he was moved but also had doubts, so he went directly into Ban Jun's office without knocking.

"Bansan, I heard you have a problem with your eyes, are you alright?"

He said something insincerely, and just as he was about to approach the desk, a pair of bright red eyes suddenly appeared from the pile of documents, much like the red-eyed monster in Japanese mythology.

Shibayama Kenshiro was startled and took a half step back, but he quickly recovered and walked over to Ban Jun and scanned the items on the table.

A map, several reports from various places on the activities of underground party guerrillas, a magnifying glass, and nothing else.

Having dispelled his doubts, Chai Shan urged Ban Jun to take good care of himself in an extremely kind tone before turning and leaving.

The door creaked shut, and Ban Jun's gaze slowly moved down, pulling out a slip of paper and a staple from among several documents.

The dim light illuminated the table. He placed the note under the magnifying glass and gently carved several dents into it with the staple in his right hand.

Needle-engraved indentation abbreviation is a special intelligence abbreviation technique that can control text and symbols to be 1-2 millimeters square or even smaller.

Information recorded in this way has almost no gaps between lines, maximizing the use of space.

Some complex characters that are inconvenient to engrave can be replaced by pre-agreed codes or abbreviations, which makes them very convenient to use.

However, this method requires extreme patience from the operator. It requires leaving traces that can be felt by the naked eye or fingers without tearing the paper, making it very energy-consuming.

After writing for several tens of minutes with his head down, Ban Jun's face showed pain. He stretched his neck a few times and then continued working. He had to send out the intelligence in the shortest possible time. With strong willpower, and despite his red and swollen eyes, Ban Jun condensed a large amount of information onto this small roll of paper.

The scene shifts to the day Lin Miaoyin went to the No. 1 Operations Command Post. When she bent down to help Ban Jun change his shoes and almost fell, Ban Jun grabbed her neck.

Almost instantly, Ban Jun used one hand to pry open the necklace's mechanism pendant and placed the scroll of paper hidden between his fingers into the concealed space.

Lin Miaoyin's long hair concealed his hand movements and also deceived the Japanese agents monitoring outside the door. This step was called "maneuvering," using the enemy's help to break out of the encirclement.

When Lin Miaoyin returned to her residence, Yuqin, who had come to cause trouble, replaced the mechanism pendant with an ordinary necklace, and everything was completed silently.

Ban Jun gripped the necklace tightly, looked up, and mouthed a heartfelt thank you to Yu Qin. Without her assistance, he couldn't have completed the task alone.

Yuqin, who was incredibly fierce when she cursed, shyly tidied her hair at this moment. Although she was trembling with fear, it did not mean that she was not brave.

True courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to persevere in one's beliefs despite knowing the danger.

The next morning, Yuqin, arm in arm with the slick-haired and powdered-faced Banjun, left the bookstore and the two took a car to wander around the city.

With Shibayama Kenshiro gone and a new supreme advisor yet to arrive, the Japanese spies in the advisory department were all fighting amongst themselves, and no one paid any attention to Ban Jun, the defector.

Around noon, Ban Jun and Yu Qin entered a restaurant. When ordering food, Ban Jun disappeared for a few minutes before reappearing.

Yuqin noticed a subtle change in Banjun's expression, but she didn't ask anything. She always remembered what he had said: you can't be curious in this line of work.

That night, in Zaoyuan, the Northwest garrison, Deputy Minister Li of the Social Affairs Department smiled as he put away a telegram, then looked up at Luo Yongying in front of him.

"Xiao Luo, do you think Liu Wusan's case can be closed?"

Luo Yongying hesitated for a moment, then finally shook her head and said, "Vice Minister, I think it's necessary to continue investigating the case. The exposure of Ban Jun's group's files is too coincidental."

“Yes, what a coincidence.” Vice Minister Li repeated Luo Yongying’s words, his tone full of meaning.

Looking back on the case, the First Bureau was renovating the cave dwelling that day when the Japanese launched an air raid, and the file bag containing top-secret documents happened to be unsealed.

This series of coincidences led to the capture of the organization's most important intelligence agent, who was hiding in enemy-occupied territory, which is truly unbelievable.

If all of this was an enemy conspiracy, it's understandable that the Japanese launched an air raid at the right time, since Dai Chunfeng was colluding with the Japanese, as evidenced by Ban Jun's arrest.

But how could Dai Chunfeng be certain that his mole could access top-secret intelligence during an air raid? This is a question worth pondering.

Vice Minister Li quickly made a decision: "Xiao Luo, conduct a secret investigation into who proposed the renovation plan, and also investigate who was in the confidential room on the day of the bombing. Be extremely cautious in your actions. I suspect that Liu Wusan is just a scapegoat."

It wasn't that Vice Minister Li was being paranoid; thoroughly investigating the case was the job of the Social Affairs Department. However, there were some things that needed to be noted, so he added another sentence.

"Don't arrest people when you find problems. Play the long game. That special task force definitely has more than just one or two people."

Luo Yongying replied with a slightly worried expression. If the members of the surprise attack team really infiltrated the organization's upper echelons, the harm they would cause would be unimaginable.

But then she thought again and realized that the situation wasn't so bad. As she had previously speculated, if the mole had infiltrated a key position, it wouldn't just be Ban Jun who got into trouble.

The special task force likely gathered intelligence indirectly, as they had no direct access to classified documents, and its members were divided into two groups, one overt and one covert.

This fits the definition of a surprise attack: striking unexpectedly, catching the enemy off guard, and being flexible and adaptable.

In this case, Liu Wusan was in the "open," while another mysterious person was in the dark. The mysterious person first obtained Ban Jun's file and then cooperated with Liu Wusan to steal intelligence.

If something goes wrong, the mysterious person will push Liu Wusan to the forefront to attract attention, while he himself will remain hidden behind the scenes.

This person was clearly more threatening. It was precisely because Vice Minister Li had considered this point that he specifically emphasized that the operation should be conducted covertly to avoid alerting the enemy.

Luo Yongying took a deep breath. This was a long-term task. Their battle with the surprise attack team had just begun and would continue for a very long time to come.

The northwest winds blow across the Loess Plateau, bringing cold air from the barren borderlands to the bustling banks of the Qinhuai River.

The city lights reflected on the river surface, like a mirage, just like Nanjing under the rule of the puppet government—visible but untouchable.

After dinner, Ban Jun and Yu Qin took a walk along the river. They wrapped their coats tightly around themselves, and their leather shoes made a clattering sound as they walked on the stone pavement.

Yuqin stopped and, facing the colorful night sky, asked Ban Jun a question: "Mr. Ban, what do you think this place will look like after the victory?"

Ban Jun threw the fingerprint-free necklace into the Qinhuai River and softly answered Yuqin's question.

"It may get better, it may get worse, but it will take all of us to make it better. That will be a new world."

His expression was sincere and devout, and Yuqin's face also showed longing as she softly murmured, "A new world..."

(End of this chapter)