My spy diary

Chapter 544 Buy One Get One Free (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Sato Kenjiro was walking breathlessly when suddenly he felt something was wrong. He turned around and saw Zhang Yi standing steadily in front of him, with a half-smile on his face.

Their eyes met for a moment, then Zhang Yi looked at him and asked, "Where are you going?"

Zhang Yi! Director of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Judicial Department! Sato Kenjiro recognized Zhang Yi at a glance. He had seen Zhang Yi's photo long ago, and when he issued the assassination order, he even drew a sketch of Zhang Yi for his subordinates. With just one glance, he recognized Zhang Yi, and his heart sank. How did the other party find him?
Cold sweat trickled down his back. His fingers, hanging by his sides, twitched slightly, his nails almost digging into his palms, yet he maintained a stiff smile.
"Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?"

Zhang Yi smiled and took two steps forward: "You speak Yuzhou dialect quite well. Weren't you going to run away? What are you doing standing here?"

"I accidentally cut my finger with a knife, I need to find a doctor right away!" Sato Kenjiro said calmly, and was about to turn around and walk to the other end of the alley when two more people appeared at the other end of the alley, both carrying pistols, looking at him with a mocking expression like cats catching mice.

"Getting anxious? I'm a doctor, how about I take a look at you?" Zhang Yi sized him up for a moment, then grinned mischievously. "Show me your fingers, they're covered up so tightly, how am I supposed to see them?"

Sato Kenjiro angrily showed his bloodstained hand: "Sir, you're just talking nonsense. My hand is really cut."

Zhang Yi glanced at it and said, "Your wound doesn't look like an accidental injury; it looks like you cut yourself on purpose."

Sato Kenjiro couldn't help but chuckle, saying self-deprecatingly, "Who's stupid enough to cut their own hand?"

"Still acting?" Zhang Yi shrugged and gave a mocking smile. "Your wound is clean, and the blade runs perpendicular to the lines on your fingers. It's obviously self-inflicted. If it were an accidental injury, the wound would definitely be slanted and jagged. This is the first time I've heard that Japanese people, besides liking suicide, also like self-harm."

"I don't understand what you're saying." Saying this, Sato Kenjiro looked around.

"What are you looking for?" Zhang Yi stared at him coldly. "If you're injured, you're a patient, and a patient should do what a patient should do. Of course, I'm a doctor, and I should also do what a doctor should do. You're lucky; I happened to bring some adhesive bandages with me today."

As he spoke, he rummaged in his pocket for a while, but what he pulled out was not a rubber pad, but a pair of cold handcuffs.

Zhang Yi tossed the handcuffs to Sato Kenjiro and said, "Punishing past mistakes to prevent future ones, and curing the disease to heal the patient, put them on yourself, lest my grip is too strong and hurts you."

Sato Kenjiro forced a smile and said, "Sir, what are you doing?"

Zhang Yi didn't say anything, he just smiled and looked at him.

After a moment of silence, Sato Kenjiro gave a bitter laugh: "Fine, Director Zhang, you win."

A look of despair crossed his face. He hung his head and began fiddling with the handcuffs.

"Hurry up and keep up." After Zhang Yi finished speaking, he turned around and prepared to leave. Unexpectedly, Sato Kenjiro suddenly tore off the handcuffs, pounced on him, and strangled him.

Zhang Yi smiled contemptuously. How could he be unprepared when he dared to turn his back to the enemy?

Quickly dodging to the side, he kicked Sato Kenjiro, who had missed his target and stumbled, against the wall. Before Sato could catch his breath, Monkey and Qian Xiaosan pounced on him, pinning him down and punching him hard in the face several times before quickly handcuffing him and searching him.

"With your mediocre skills, you dare to show off your amateurish abilities in front of the Director?"

Sato Kenjiro slowly raised his face, his mouth full of blood and foam, but instead of being angry, he laughed:
"So what if you capture me? Every member of the Yamato race is a warrior of the Emperor. People can act as agents. You can never capture or kill them all."

"is it?"

“Of course.” Sato Kenjiro looked directly into Zhang Yi’s eyes without fear.

Zhang Yi laughed: "That little dwarf is your ancestor, but in my eyes he's nothing but bullshit."

Sato Kenjiro roared, "You idiot! How dare you talk back?"

"Behave yourself!" Before he could finish speaking, Sato Kenjiro was stomped to the ground.

"Be gentle, I'm counting on him to make a difference for us."

"Dream on, I'd rather die than tell."

"That's not necessarily true. Even if you don't say anything, what if others think you've become a traitor?"

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Take him away!"

Just as they were escorting Sato Kenjiro out of the alley and onto the main road, a plainclothes officer, drenched in sweat, rushed over:

"Reporting to Director Zhang, Deputy Station Chief Li has found the radio." He then briefly recounted the search process, adding with lingering fear, "The Japanese are too cunning; they even planted grenades at the entrance to the secret room. Luckily, the brothers were careful."

At this point, he glanced at Sato Kenjiro: "Hey, this must be the radio operator. I look forward to your defection."

Sato Kenjiro stiffened his neck, looking on with disdain.

Zhang Yi pondered for a moment, just as he was about to have the plainclothes officer take him there, he suddenly noticed that the officer was wearing cloth shoes, so he asked calmly:
"You must be exhausted. How did you manage to get through that?"

"I ran all the way here, I've been looking for you for so long."

"Here's what you'd like to say, please tell Deputy Station Chief Li." With that, Zhang Yi smiled and beckoned the plainclothes officer to come forward. The officer understood and quickly leaned in to listen, but Zhang Yi suddenly took a step back, swiftly pulled out a pistol from his waist, and pressed it against the officer's head.

The plainclothes officer's body instantly stiffened.

The smile had vanished from Zhang Yi's face. He said coldly:
"Do you have something to say?"

The plainclothes officer's voice trembled slightly as he asked:

"Director Zhang, what did I do wrong?"

“Him!” Zhang Yi pointed at Sato Kenjiro. “Where does he live?”

No. 33 Renyi Street.

"How far is it from here?"

"About one kilometer."

“One kilometer, right? You said you ran here, panting and sweating profusely. But that’s strange. You’re sweating profusely, but why isn’t there any sweat on your neck? You’re wearing cloth shoes, and there’s dust flying everywhere here. You ran a kilometer, but there’s not a speck of dust on your feet. How do you explain that?”

The plainclothes officer's expression changed drastically. Just as he was about to attack, Monkey, who was on guard, shot him in the knee and made him fall to his knees with a thud. He was then handcuffed as well.

Two handguns were found on him: a Mauser C96 pistol and a Browning pistol. Two identification documents were also found. One belonged to Zhang Xianmin, a policeman; the other to Liu Xiaohe, a plainclothes officer from the Military Intelligence Bureau.

"Luckily, the seatkeeper was very perceptive, otherwise this villain would have almost succeeded." The monkey handed the two documents to Zhang Yi with lingering fear.

Zhang Yi snorted coldly: "Are you trying to play dumb with us? What do you call this? Trying to kill two birds with one stone, a buy-one-get-one-free deal?"

Go back a few minutes.

Zhang Xianmin patrolled outside the checkpoint, silently verifying the documents of passersby. Watching the fearful and whispering pedestrians, he looked around discreetly, searching for his superior, Sato Kenjiro.

In the distance, Sato's shadow suddenly flashed by in the crowd. Zhang Xianmin immediately spotted him and was about to use the excuse of needing to urinate to catch up and discuss how to escape. But Sato moved quickly and disappeared into the chaotic crowd in an instant.

Moreover, his worst fears came true: Zhang Yi seemed to have spotted Sato and had even led his men to follow him.

He didn't care about anything else and pushed his way through the crowd to follow them. But after turning left and right and searching through several alleys, he still couldn't find Zhang Yi and his group.

He stood at the entrance of an alley, slightly out of breath, but more so with anxiety. Sato was the head of the Luoyang branch of the Kuomintang, possessing not only the radio and codebook but also everyone's contact information. He absolutely could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Kuomintang. Otherwise, while they themselves would risk exposure, all their efforts over the past few years would be in vain. Therefore, he had to be rescued; if not, then give him a bullet.

Just then, he noticed Liu Xiaohe, a plainclothes officer from the Military Intelligence Bureau, riding over on a bicycle, looking around as if searching for something. He went over and asked:
"Brother Liu, who are you looking for? Do you have any leads on Japanese spies?"

Liu Xiaohe recognized him and his eyes lit up: "Have you seen Director Zhang? Deputy Station Chief Li has already found the radio station."

"Really? That's great. You're looking for Director Zhang, right? I saw him take some people to that alley over there. Shall I take you there?" Zhang Xianmin said eagerly.

Liu Xiaohe didn't think much of it, but kept urging, "Hurry up."

And so the two walked into the alley one after the other. Zhang Xianmin kept trying to curry favor and be courteous, while Liu Xiaohe responded with a few indifferent words, and then cursed:

"Those damn Japanese! They actually planted a bomb at the entrance to the secret passage. I almost lost my life there just now."

Having obtained all the information he needed, a thought flashed through Zhang Xianmin's mind. While offering compliments and reassurances, he took out a cigarette and offered it to him.
"Here, have a cigarette to calm your nerves."

Liu Xiaohe initially wanted to refuse, but upon noticing the box of high-end cigarettes in the other person's hand, he looked at him with newfound respect: "Your police station is living quite well, isn't it?"

"Brother Liu, you're joking. The police station can't compare to the prestige of your Military Intelligence Bureau. Here, let me light it for you." Zhang Xianmin fawned, touching a lighter as he approached.

"Your name is Zhang Xianmin, right? I'll protect you from now on." Liu Xiaohe enjoyed Zhang Xianmin's humble attitude, patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction, and began to puff out smoke.

However, he didn't enjoy this comfort for long. His Adam's apple suddenly bobbed violently, his fingers holding the cigarette began to tremble uncontrollably, and before he could even swallow the spicy smoke, his temples throbbed. Then he convulsed and collapsed to the ground.

"I'll protect you then." Zhang Xianmin smiled eerily, glanced at the door behind him, and carefully dragged Liu Xiaohe's body inside.

When he came out again, he was covered in sweat.

When Zhang Yi and his men arrived at No. 33 Renyi Street, Deputy Station Chief Li Mulin was organizing a further search.

Seeing Zhang Yi and the others being escorted off the vehicle, one of whom was the radio operator he had been searching for, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Why is there another one? Is he his accomplice?"

Instead of answering directly, Zhang Yi asked, "Did you gain anything?"

"The codebook has been destroyed." Li Mulin's expression was not good.

Not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, Zhang Yi comforted him, "Don't be discouraged. Think about it from another perspective; it's better than finding nothing, right?"

Hearing him say that, Li Mulin smiled.

Zhang Yi laughed and then said, "I have good news. We not only caught the radio operator, but also this guy who was lurking in the police station."

"They have people in the police station too?" Li Mulin was somewhat surprised.

"The Military Intelligence Bureau has them, so is the Police Bureau any strange?" Zhang Yi waved his hand, looking at the stone roller that had been moved from the ground, and changed the subject: "The secret room is right under here?"

"Yes."

"Then let's cover it up first."

"This is..." Li Mulin was completely bewildered.

Zhang Yi pointed at Sato Kenjiro and said meaningfully, "I've already sent someone to get a camera. We'll have him cooperate with our performance later."

Li Mulin was a sensible man: "Director Zhang means to publish it in the newspaper?"

Zhang Yi stopped laughing, nodded and said, "Well, aren't Japanese spies supposed to be loyal to their Emperor? Let's play a game of using someone else to do the dirty work, and let those hiding rats see what kind of people their accomplices are."

Upon hearing this, Sato Kenjiro and Zhang Xianmin, who were being held down by plainclothes officers, began to struggle wildly, their emotions running high. However, their mouths were gagged with a rag, preventing them from speaking.

Soon, the plainclothes officer brought over the camera. Zhang Yi gestured to the monkey to remove the rag from Sato Kenjiro's mouth so that he could cooperate by making a "testimony" gesture.

But Sato Kenjiro was not about to cooperate. He moved his stiff mouth, which had just been pulled out of the rag, and started swearing loudly.

Seeing this, the monkey quickly walked over and punched him, making Sato Kenjiro dizzy and fall to the ground with a thud, his head hitting the ground hard.

Monkey and Qian Xiaosan pulled him up again, one of them grabbing his collar and stepping on his calf to restrain him.

One person grabbed his wrist and pinned his elbow with their thumb and forefinger. With a snap, the arm that had been hanging in front of him fell limply to the ground. Then, they pulled his paralyzed arm and twisted his fingertips toward the stone mill in the yard.

"click, click"

Zhang Yi had been waiting for this very moment, and quickly pressed the shutter button on his camera.

Next, the radio, grenades, guns and ammunition were taken out and placed at the entrance of the secret room, and Sato Kenjiro pointed them out and took a few pictures.

Zhang Yi was very satisfied with the photos, trying various angles to achieve perfection. Meanwhile, Sato Kenjiro stood stiffly beside the pestle, playing the role of a prop. The flash blinded him; he couldn't see the photographer, his meticulously arranged secret room, or the guns and ammunition that had once belonged to him. It was as if he were isolated in another world by the white light.

At this moment, he was utterly desperate. He couldn't even imagine what his superiors and subordinates would think after the photos were published, or what would happen to his family in Tokyo. At this moment, fear outweighed the pain in his arm.

That afternoon, the hastily developed photos were delivered by plainclothes agents of the Military Intelligence Bureau to major newspapers such as the Dagang Daily, the National Gazette, and the Yuzhou People.

(End of this chapter)