My spy diary

Chapter 585 Arresting People (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Chunhui Pavilion.

Manager Zhang, completely bewildered, handed the note to Boss Lei: "Boss, this is from Zhang, a guy surnamed Zhang. He asked me to give it to you."

"what?"

Boss Lei frowned, unfolded the note, and saw the words "Protecting cultural relics is everyone's responsibility" written on it. He snorted coldly, suppressing the urge to tear the note to shreds, and crumpled it into a ball in his hand. After a pause, he said to the steward, "Since the man surnamed Pu has been wronged, he won't dare to do anything to the man surnamed Zhang. He'll probably vent his anger on us. Go and find him now with the prepared gifts, and try to settle things peacefully."

"Yes." Although Steward Zhang was very curious about what was written on the paper, he didn't have time to think about it at the moment. He bowed and went to the back courtyard to get the gift.

Upon returning to his residence, Boss Lei immediately summoned his secretary.
"Send a telegram to Master Ren immediately."

Ren Ye, whose real name is Ren Quansheng, is respectfully known in the underworld as the "Grandmaster of the Southern School of Tomb Raiding." There is a secret saying in the circle: "When Ren Ye takes action, even the Earth God trembles."

The two met when they were both struggling, one in the shadows, the other in the light. One dealt in the underworld, the other in the world of the living. Over the years, they worked together seamlessly, and many shady "raw" items, after being packaged and endorsed by Boss Lei, were transformed into well-documented folk treasures. Both of them got what they wanted and made a fortune.

Although he couldn't understand why Zhang Yi wanted to see Master Ren, he should at least give him a heads-up beforehand, whether it was out of loyalty or for personal gain, so that the other party would be aware of the situation.

As for the rest, all we can do is try our best and leave the rest to fate.

The secretary was somewhat surprised: "Boss, today is only Thursday, it's not time for our agreed-upon contact yet."

Boss Lei said impatiently, "Just send it when I tell you to. Stop with all the nonsense."

"Yes, I'll go prepare the radio right now." The secretary didn't dare to object and left obediently.

At the same time, Manager Zhang got into the rickshaw carrying several gifts. He had only gone a short distance on the main road when a black sedan sped up and braked sharply, stopping the rickshaw.

Manager Zhang was stunned for a moment, looking around warily. Before he could react, three men in plainclothes jumped out of the car and surrounded him from the left and right.

"Zhang Jingnian, come with us." The one who said this was a man in his early thirties, dressed as a businessman, who was the same man who had made eye contact with Manager Zhang earlier.

"Director Zhang sent you?" Manager Zhang gritted his teeth. "Is this ever going to end?"
The man didn't answer, but just sneered. The other two men came over and pulled Manager Zhang off the rickshaw, twisting his arms.

The man turned and stepped aside, waiting for his two strong companions to shove the struggling Manager Zhang into the car before grabbing the rickshaw driver by the collar and threatening him:
"When the Military Intelligence Bureau is handling matters, those who know what's good for them should shut their mouths and get lost."

After saying this, he turned and got into the passenger seat, and the car sped away, leaving the rickshaw driver bewildered.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yi was leisurely driving home when he noticed a car following him at a distance in his rearview mirror. He smiled knowingly; the trap had been set, and now it was just a matter of whether He would fall for it.

"Passing on intelligence? Are you sure you didn't misread it?"

On the other side, Ding Henian, the deputy section chief of the intelligence department, was reporting his work to He Shangyou.

“My men saw it with their own eyes, there’s no mistake. I also find it unbelievable. I asked them several times, and they were sure they hadn’t misread it. Director Zhang did indeed hand a piece of paper to Manager Zhang.”

He Shangyou was quite surprised. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Tell me about the surveillance situation again, the more detailed the better."

Ding Henian had no choice but to look at He Shangyou, pause for a moment, and then recount the surveillance situation in detail.

"The detective team's Po Kong also went to the scene midway? And then what?"

"Yes. Captain Pu brought a few men with him, looking very aggressive, but they left dejectedly a short while later. They probably got the short end of the stick from Director Zhang."

As Ding Henian was speaking, he suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Chief, before Captain Pu went there, a phone call was made from Chunhui Pavilion. The caller was the inspection team. Based on this, we can infer that Captain Pu must have received the call and rushed over. Moreover, when they arrived, Manager Zhang was waiting at the door, which also verifies this."

"Is it that sneaky manager you mentioned?"

"Yes, that's him."

This made He Shangyou even more frustrated. He frowned and asked, "That's strange! Didn't you say before that Manager Zhang's actions were very deliberate? He discovered your surveillance and then nervously closed the shop. If he really was the head of the Red Party's liaison station, and there were meetings inside, he should have been keeping watch to ensure safety. Why did he call Pugang? Isn't that just walking into a trap?"

Pu Gang is not only the captain of the detective team, but also the head of the Chongqing Special Economic Zone intelligence group, responsible for social intelligence and operations. Why did Manager Zhang call him over? Could there be some misunderstanding?
"Perhaps there's another possibility!" Ding Henian said while thinking, "He knows Captain Pu, and after discovering our surveillance, he deliberately called Captain Pu, trying to mislead us into investigating our own people?"

"What a brilliant idea! Does he have that kind of guts?"

"That's hard to say; the Red Party often does things in unexpected ways."

“Perhaps, as you said, the other side did it intentionally, but why did the people from Pugang go straight for the shops after they arrived, instead of targeting our people? It doesn't make logical sense.” He Shangyou shook his head, picked up the phone, and asked:

"How's it going with Steward Zhang?"

Ding Henian glanced at his watch: "We should have arrived at the safe house by now. I believe good news will come soon."

He Shangyou remained noncommittal: "If he really is the person in charge of the transportation station, then he must be no ordinary person. We must be prepared for a protracted battle."

“The Red Party also has its weaknesses. I have already sent someone to pick up his family.”

"What about Chunhui Pavilion?"

"The gate is tightly shut."

"Upgrade the surveillance level there to the next level. Monitor all phone calls and people coming and going, especially that Boss Lei." He Shangyou's eyes were sharp as he glanced at Ding Henian. "Do you know what kind of person is the most interesting? Someone who is clearly very complex, but seems simpler than everyone else, even as simple as a blank sheet of paper. That's the most interesting person. If he is, then he must be a big fish! Hello, is this the detective team? I'm looking for Captain Pu. This is He Shangyou!"

Over the phone, Captain Pu recounted his trip to Chunhui Pavilion in detail. He Shangyou listened carefully and then asked:

"So, you only went over there because Manager Zhang said there were suspicious people in the store?"

Captain Pu naturally wouldn't admit to extorting protection money everywhere, and just laughed it off:

"Yes, that's our detective team's duty. I didn't expect it to be Director Zhang. It's all a misunderstanding. Director Zhang, what happened? Is there something wrong with Chunhui Pavilion?"

"I understand. No, no, I was just asking. But Captain Pu, please keep today's call confidential. Thank you."

After hanging up with Captain Pu, He Shangyou rubbed his temples, feeling that too many things were amiss today. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong, so after a moment's thought, he asked Ding Henian:

"Zhang Yi should be home by now, right?"

Zhang Yi was sitting on the sofa, and opposite him sat another person, Zheng Huhe, dressed as a businessman.

"So, that guy surnamed He still suspects you?" Zhang Yi chuckled. "Well, he's got nothing to lose. Plus, he got Night Falcon's identity information from Lin Jingyi, so he's probably hiding there, plotting his scheme. This guy always boasts about being cunning and calculating, and he likes to achieve multiple goals with one move, getting twice the result with half the effort. He probably got me involved too. I might even have to thank him for getting out of solitary confinement so quickly."

After a moment of silence, Zheng Huhe also said with a smile, "Night Falcon and Zhang Fan and Tian Bing have been arrested. If he receives the intelligence, his expression will be quite interesting."

Inside the intelligence department's safe house, Manager Zhang had been beaten to a bloody pulp.

As the official manager of Chunhui Pavilion, in addition to welcoming and seeing off guests, he was also secretly responsible for liaising and trading with tomb raiding gangs. He had seen too much of these people's cunning and ruthlessness and considered himself knowledgeable, but compared to these vicious guys from the Military Intelligence Bureau, he was just a small fry. Only now did he truly understand what unbearable pain meant.

"I said, stop hitting me, I said..."

"What information did Director Zhang pass on to you?"

"Intelligence? What intelligence?" Manager Zhang collapsed to the floor in agony, completely bewildered. Aren't you all Director Zhang's men?

"Playing dumb, huh?" The businessman grabbed his hair and demanded sharply.

"I'll ask you one last time, what did Director Zhang write on the note he gave you?"

Manager Zhang was pulled up with his head held high. He convulsed and said with difficulty, "I, I really don't know. He asked me to pass it on to Boss Lei. I didn't dare to peek and gave it to him directly."

"Where's the note?"

"Boss Lei put it away."

What did they say?

"I really don't know. I took Captain Pu and the others there, and when I came back, Boss Lei handed a note to Director Zhang. Director Zhang tore off half of it, wrote a few words on it, and then handed it back to me before leaving."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Truly, I swear."

The man glanced at Manager Zhang, then nodded to his companion, turned and went into a bedroom, picked up the phone and dialed a number.

At that moment, the phone rang at the No. 41 Farm. He Shangyou grabbed the phone anxiously and said, "Hello?"

The voice of the plainclothes officer monitoring Chunhui Pavilion came from the other end of the phone:
"Chief, the latest news is that Chunhui Pavilion has set up a radio station, presumably to send a telegram."

"A radio station? They have a radio station?" He Shangyou's face turned serious, and he pressed him repeatedly, "Military or commercial? You don't know? Useless! If you don't know, call the telecommunications department to check and ask." He interrupted impatiently after the person on the other end of the phone said something, and said, "Listen to me. You take immediate action to control the person who sent the telegram and the man surnamed Lei. You must get the original copy of the telegram and the secret book."

I had just hung up the phone when it rang again.

"What did you say? Zhang Yi and Boss Lei exchanged intelligence? What was it? You don't know? You good-for-nothing, continue the interrogation!"

After hanging up the phone, He Shangyou lit a cigarette to calm his pounding brain.

The chaotic intelligence was full of uncertainty, like a tangled mess of yarn with hidden threads and indistinct patterns. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a single useful clue to unravel the whole story.

"Calm down, calm down. This is the most important test of our patience." He Shangyou kept reassuring himself as he turned and walked towards the washroom next door.

Standing in front of the sink, he vigorously washed his face.

The cold water splashing on his face instantly invigorated him. At that moment, he desperately wanted to know what Zhang Yi was doing!
Just as I was pondering this, Section Chief Liu walked in with a happy expression and reported: "Chief, after several calls, we have made contact with the other side. He greeted you and sent you a message: 'At eight o'clock tonight, the third sound of the sycamore leaves falling.'"

This phrase was a pre-arranged communication code between He Shangyou and the undercover agent, combining time and physical imagery. The falling of paulownia leaves served as a fixed prefix, and the third tone corresponded to the third set of codebooks.

That's good news! He Shangyou snapped out of his thoughts and immediately went to the next room, instructing the radio operator wearing headphones:

"Call back immediately, spring breeze has turned the south bank of the Yangtze River green again, 2-4-5."

The first part of this sentence is a rendezvous poem to verify identity, and the following combination of numbers represents the codebook number, the current month and date, and the contact priority, with 5 representing the highest level of urgency.

As he spoke, He Shangyou pulled a pre-coded document from his pocket and handed it to the telegraph operator:
"Send it over immediately."

However, before the telegraph operator could press the key, the signal lights on the radio began to flash continuously, and the operator immediately grabbed paper and pen to start taking notes.

A moment later, the telegram was handed to He Shangyou.

He took the telegram to the next room, solemnly took out his personal codebook, and began to decode it.

A moment later, a line of words appeared on the paper.

He Shangyou stared intently at the paper; its contents shocked him:

"Night Falcon and Zhang Fan and Tian Bing have been arrested."

He Shangyou coughed violently, his face extremely gloomy.

A series of intelligence reports from his subordinates flashed through his mind: Zhang Yi, Chunhui Pavilion, intelligence exchange, radio, telegrams, and then the capture of Night Falcon. Thinking of this, He Shangyou seemed to understand something in a daze. How Zhang Yi obtained information about Night Falcon was no longer important. Whether Lin Jingyi hadn't told the truth or he had learned it from other channels, it didn't matter anymore. He had completely lost patience; there was no turning back now. This time, he would strike first.

He snorted coldly, came out of the room, called over Section Chief Liu, and whispered instructions:
"Immediately issue the order, have your men start moving and arresting them."

"Catch who?"

"Zhang Yi".

Section Chief Liu was stunned: "Well, sir, the evidence is clearly insufficient, and besides, we don't have that authority. Shouldn't we get approval from Boss Dai first?"

"Arrest him first, I'll call him right away."

Section Chief Liu hesitated for a moment, then said, "Senior, this..."

He Shangyou was furious. He suddenly snapped and roared, "This is my order to you now, execute it immediately! Let me tell you, if someone is arrested and something goes wrong, I'll cover for you. If you don't obey my orders, I can kill you right now!"

Startled by his scolding, Section Chief Liu quickly ran out.

(End of this chapter)