My spy diary

Chapter 442 Shoe Size (asking for monthly ticket)

The rain kept falling with no sign of stopping.

After a while, the door of the telephone booth opened.

Sheng Xiang carefully stuck his head out and vigilantly observed the movements around him. After pausing for a while, he walked out of the phone booth nervously.

He hesitated for a moment and finally walked towards the telephone exchange box where Zhao Qi was.

Zhao Qi hid in the corner. Hearing the footsteps getting closer, he sneered and picked up half a brick from the ground.

At this moment, a dull engine sound came from far away, and a car suddenly drove out from the rain curtain like a giant beast breaking through the fog.

The wheels splashed up layers of water and two bright beams of headlights swept over suddenly. Zhao Qi's shadow, who was holding a brick and preparing to attack, was instantly lengthened.

When Sheng Xiang saw the shadow on the ground, he was so scared that he turned and ran away.

Zhao Qi cursed and said something unlucky, but he chased after him closely.

The car tires slid across the flooded road, leaving a murky water mark that disappeared in a flash, while two figures were chasing each other in the halo that spread from near to far.

Both men were running desperately, and a lumber mill appeared in front of them.

Sheng Xiang rushed left and right in the rain and soon disappeared into the darkness.

Zhao Qi followed closely, but the light here was too dark and in the blink of an eye, Sheng Xiang disappeared.

He hesitated for a moment, turned on the flashlight, held it vertically in his hand to make the light less obtrusive, and then quietly walked into the factory. What caught his eyes were two tall, crude workshops made of blue bricks, with wooden roofs and covered with oilcloth.

Zhao Qi turned off the flashlight, stood where he was, and listened attentively with bated breath.

Suddenly, a slight sound of metal collision was heard not far away. He turned his gaze to the workshop on the left and walked over slowly.

The open door of the workshop looked like a monster with a bloody mouth, waiting for him to enter.

Zhao Qi took a deep breath, walked in slowly, then stopped. After getting used to the darkness inside, he concentrated and observed carefully.

Sheng Xiang was sitting on the ground leaning against a huge wooden block, looking exhausted. One of his shoes had been lost, and a rusty iron nail had pierced through his foot from bottom to top. Blood seeped through his socks and mixed with rainwater and dirt, making it extremely dirty and painful.

Hearing the undisguised gasping and wailing, Zhao Qi felt relieved. He turned on the flashlight and shone it at Sheng Xiang. When he saw his miserable appearance, an undisguised mockery emerged on his face.

"Run, why don't you run? If you had known this would happen, you wouldn't have done it in the first place."

Sheng Xiang looked at him with despair, as if he had given up resistance: "I've accepted my fate. Tell me, what did Boss Xu ask you to do with me?"

"Isn't it a little late to say this now?" Zhao Qi sneered and walked over step by step on the thick sawdust on the ground. He didn't notice that Sheng Xiang's lowered eyes were fixed on his feet, as if he was expecting something.

Until Zhao Qi's foot stepped into the position he expected, his hands behind his back suddenly pulled a rope, then he shouted suddenly, wrapped the rope around his arm, and pulled it back suddenly.

The sawdust under Zhao Qi's feet shrank rapidly, as if a snake-like animal was swimming around, and the circle became smaller and smaller, eventually wrapping around one of Zhao Qi's feet.

He was caught off guard and was pulled hard by Sheng Xiang. He lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground with his head tilted back. There was a dull "bang" sound and he felt dizzy instantly.

"Go to hell!" Sheng Xiang's face was ferocious. He wrapped one end of the rope around the wooden board and tied a knot. Then he jumped up from the ground shouting, picked up a shovel in his hand, panted, and limped towards Zhao Qi.

He raised the shovel high and smashed it down on Zhao Qi's head.

Zhao Qi was terrified and struggled for a few times, but the rope didn't move at all. He had to use his quick wits to roll to the side, but the shovel missed the target and fell on the sawdust with a loud bang.

Sheng Xiang staggered, dragged his lame leg forward a few steps, and raised the shovel to hit him again.

Zhao Qi rolled hard again and rolled under a pile of wooden boards supported by bricks. The shovel hit the wooden boards with a bang.

"Damn it, let's see where you can run." Zhao Qi hid under the woodpile, right next to the wall, which was undoubtedly a dead end. He could only dodge left and right desperately, but one of his feet was tied with a rope, so he did not have much room to struggle. Sheng Xiang limped and caught up with him.

"Go to hell." He got close to Zhao Qi's figure and poked him with a shovel. A scream was heard instantly, and Zhao Qi grabbed the shovel with his hands, gritting his teeth.

"A last-ditch struggle!" Sheng Xiang sneered, tightly grasped the shovel, and exerted a little more force, causing the screams to become even louder.

There were two bloody marks on Zhao Qi's palms from the shovel, and beads of sweat kept rolling down his head. He knew that if he continued like this, he would surely die.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of something, gritted his teeth, freed one hand, leaped forward, grabbed the wooden handle of the shovel with pain, and pulled the shovel into his arms.

Sheng Xiang naturally wouldn't let him succeed, and he poked and pulled him with both hands.

At this moment, Zhao Qi's other hand also struggled out, grabbed the wooden handle, pulled it hard into his arms, and then threw it out.

Sheng Xiang was bending over and trying hard, but he was caught off guard and fell to the ground.

Taking advantage of this gap, Zhao Qi quickly took out a dagger and cut the rope on his feet, desperately crawling to the other side of the board. Sheng Xiang staggered to his feet, leaning on the shovel, and continued to follow him.

Here, Zhao Qi finally climbed out of a row of wooden boards and came to the outside of the workshop. Sheng Xiang also came to the door slowly.

It's raining heavily outside.

"Boom", suddenly a deafening thunder exploded, and then a pale lightning, like a sharp blade, instantly cut through the endless darkness, and reflected on two hideous figures, one inside and one outside, looking at each other.

In an instant, both figures moved.

Zhao Qi held the dagger tightly in both hands, and Sheng Xiang held the shovel tightly.

The two met on a narrow road. Just as Zhao Qi rushed over, a cunning look flashed in Sheng Xiang's eyes. He suddenly dodged to the side and hit Zhao Qi on the head with a shovel.

Zhao Qi dodged subconsciously. With a "bang", the shovel brushed Zhao Qi's ear and hit his shoulder. His body suddenly tilted to the side and he fell heavily to the ground. The severe pain made his face twisted instantly, his facial features tightly wrinkled, and beads of sweat the size of beans instantly appeared on his forehead.

Sheng Xiang came up with a shovel in his hand, looking at Zhao Qi who looked like he was in mourning, with an indifferent expression: "Don't blame me, who wants to die when they can live? Even if it's the boss's order, so what? Can't an ant resist?"

Zhao Qi looked at him with a complicated expression, struggled a few times, and seemed to have no strength left. He resigned himself to his fate and lay there motionless.

"Don't do this job in your next life." Sheng Xiang said as he raised the shovel above his head and swung it down.

At this moment, Zhao Qi, who had been motionless, suddenly took out a pistol from his waist and pulled the trigger.

Once, twice.

"Bang bang" the bullets shot into Sheng Xiang's chest, his whole body shook like a sieve, his chest heaved violently, and with the sound of the shovel falling "bang", he suddenly knelt down.

Zhao Qi used all his strength to dodge the final blow and collapsed to the ground.

His face was pale and he gasped for breath.

After resting for a while, he struggled to get up and looked at Sheng Xiang, who was still holding the shovel tightly and unwilling to close his eyes. He said to himself: "I wanted to be quieter, but you forced me to do it."

After a brief thought, he took a deep breath, pulled out a revolver from his waist, loaded the gun, and slowly pointed the muzzle at his left arm.

At this moment, there was no hesitation in his eyes, only firmness and determination.

"Bang!" Another gunshot was heard and the bullet pierced the left arm.

Intense pain instantly spread throughout his body, his body trembled violently, and he gritted his teeth and groaned a few times. Then he quickly wiped the fingerprints off the gun, stuffed it into Sheng Xiang's hand, looked at him a few more times, and then walked out with difficulty.

The rain finally stopped when daybreak came.

Mao Qiwu got up very early today and didn't have time to eat breakfast. He went out with a few gifts that he had prepared in advance. The driver and guards were already waiting outside.

The car sped all the way and finally stopped at the doorstep of Zheng Mingyuan, the chief secretary of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

He saw the smoke from the Zheng family's chimney just rising, and secretly thanked God that he had come at the right time. If he had come any later, the man named Zheng would have definitely gone to the Second Hall of the Military Affairs Department again.

He asked his secretary and guard to wait in the car while he went up to the door carrying the gift.

After a long while, the door finally opened, and an extremely ugly maid with a pointed face, small eyes, and a round waist came out. She asked with a squinty look, "Who are you looking for?"

Mao Qiwu had done his homework before coming here. He knew that Zheng Mingyuan was henpecked and his wife was afraid that he would have affairs with other women. The servants and maids around him were uglier than each other. He was not surprised at this moment and said with a smile on his face:

"I'm Secretary Mao from the Military Control Commission. I'm here to discuss something important with your master. Please let me know."

"Wait." Hearing that he was just a secretary and was short and stocky, the servant became even more impatient and slammed the door.

Mao Qiwu knew that it was easier for the King of Hell to deal with than for the little ghosts, so he didn't bother with a servant and waited patiently.

After a long while, the maid came out again: "My master is on a business trip today and is not at home."

As he said this, he was about to close the door, with no intention of letting him in at all.

Mao Qiwu was secretly depressed. Did Zheng Mingyuan not come back last night? He quickly called the maid and asked unwillingly, "What about your mistress?"

The maid hesitated for a moment and said, "The mistress is not at home either. Please come back another day."

After saying that, she immediately closed the door.

Mao Qiwu was so embarrassed that his face turned pale and blue. After he became the acting chief secretary, no one dared to treat him like this except for a few blind bastards. At this moment, he was sure that the man surnamed Zheng must be at home. This rejection was clearly a show of power.

He needed help from someone and couldn't get angry at the moment. After thinking it over, he saw no other solution and had to return to the Military Control Bureau in silence.

As soon as I arrived at the secretary's office, a female secretary knocked on the door and came in: "Director Mao, Zhao Qi from the Inspection Office called to see you."

"Zhao Qi?" Mao Qiwu frowned and thought for a moment. It seemed that there was this person in the inspection office, but he didn't have a deep impression of him. He asked, "What's the matter?"

"I asked him several times, but he refused to tell me and insisted on meeting the director."

Mao Qiwu took the work minutes beside him and looked at them for a few seconds, then looked at his watch and said, "Okay, you can move over."

"Yes."

After a while, the sound of the secretary's leather boots clacking on the ground was heard again. Behind her, followed a man in a Zhongshan suit, both hands wrapped in gauze, his face pale, his footsteps light, and he seemed very weak.

This person is Zhao Qi.

He followed the female secretary in front of him all the way to the door of Mao Qiwu's office. The female secretary raised her hand and knocked gently. After receiving the reply "come in", she opened the door and led him in, then she left and closed the door.

After the female secretary left, Zhao Qi walked to Mao Qiwu's desk and saluted him straight in the air: "Director Mao."

Mao Qiwu focused his eyes on his face, looked him up and down for a while, and then said, "Zhao Qi, what's wrong with you?"

Zhao Qi smiled bitterly: "Director, I'm fine, just a little injured."

"Is it related to what you reported?"

"Yes." Zhao Qi's face was serious. "I recently discovered something and wanted to report it to you."

He looked up at Mao Qiwu, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

Mao Qiwu was getting impatient: "If you have something to say, just say it. What is it about?"

"Inner ghost."

Upon hearing this, Mao Qiwu's face became serious.

Here, Zhang Yi and his friends stayed up all night. After the photos were developed, they found that, as expected, in addition to their footprints, there were also several unfamiliar footprints at the scene.

He immediately took Monkey Qian Xiaosan to find Chen San, perhaps the breakthrough lay with this person.

But when he arrived at the inspection room's dormitory, he saw the floor in a mess, with wine bottles and cigarette butts everywhere, and several people snoring loudly, but there was no sign of Chen San.

Qian Xiaosan woke one of them up and asked, "Where are Chen Sanren?"

The spy looked sleepy and asked impatiently, "Who are you?"

Monkey took out his ID and flashed it: "I'm from the Intelligence Department. We now suspect Chen San is involved in a leak of secrets. You'd better tell the truth."

The spy didn't take it seriously at first, but suddenly he caught a glimpse of a sharp gaze staring at him. He recognized that it was Deputy Director Zhang, and he shuddered all over and said repeatedly: "I don't know, when I came back, he was still sleeping, where is he?"

Having said that, he quickly woke up the others.

"Have you seen Chen San?"

"No."

"What happened?"

"Didn't you see Chief Zhang? Chen San is involved in leaking secrets."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the spies varied. Some were confused, some were doubtful, and some were extremely terrified, but they all seemed to be in turmoil.

"Could there be a mistake? Chen Sanxin has always been diligent."

"Stop talking nonsense, where are the others?" the monkey scolded.

But several people said that when they came back they saw Chen San asleep, but as for where he is now, no one knew.

Qian Xiaosan stared at them for a while, then shouted with a sullen face, "Chen San's identity has been exposed, he must have escaped, you'd better tell the truth, he's at the end of his rope, who knows what he might do, you'd better be careful."

Several people in the room flinched.

Zhang Yi sneered in his heart. Even if the monk escaped, the temple could not. He pointed at several people and asked, "Which one is Chen San's bed?"

"This." said a spy.

Zhang Yi squatted down and took a look, pointed at a pair of muddy shoes under the bed, and asked, "Are these Chen San's shoes?"

A spy took a few glances and said, "It seems so."

"Put it away." Zhang Yi said, and looked around at the others:
"We have to take all his stuff away. Also, please tell me your shoe sizes."

(End of this chapter)