My spy diary

Chapter 633 Lu Shu'er (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Lu Shuer studied the blueprints carefully, remaining silent for a long time.

According to the waiter's account, there was a guardhouse at the entrance to the hotel's basement, manned by at least four armed men. These formidable defenses, difficult for an ordinary person to breach, might be nothing to well-trained Kuomintang agents, but what about himself? Could a half-baked thief who had infiltrated the police station by chance handle the job?

"Guards, and guns."

"As expected." The plainclothes leader was completely unsurprised. He glanced at Lu Shu'er a few times, his tone contemptuous:

"Scared?"

"Should we sneak in during the day to scout the place first, and then—"

"Enough with the nonsense, let's review the situation. How many people were guarding the warehouse?" the plainclothes leader interrupted him.

"The guy said four, maybe more."

The plainclothes leader sized him up a few times, a barely perceptible sneer appearing on his face. Then, he snatched the topographical map from the table:
"Do you understand?"

".able!"

"Show it to me."

"This is the main entrance, this is the lobby, and this is the corridor leading to the basement."

"Any other questions? Just infiltrate, take out the guards, and then open the basement door." The plainclothes leader gestured, slammed his pistol on the table, and sneered.

This series of actions and words made Lu Shu'er uneasy. Whether he was a thief or a policeman, he had never killed anyone.

This is not a skill he can currently master.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" The plainclothes leader noticed a slight tremor in Lu Shu'er's hand and continued before he could answer, "It doesn't matter if you haven't. To avoid alerting the enemy, it's best not to kill anyone. Here, take this."

As he spoke, he took out an oil paper package from his pocket and slapped it into Lu Shu'er's hand.

"What is this?" Lu Shu'er took it and smelled a strong, pungent odor, which seemed to be alcohol, and couldn't help but wonder.

"Do you know about ether?" The plainclothes leader sneered again.

Lu Shuer was completely bewildered: "What? Sleeping potion?"

"What 'sleeping drug'? You've been reading too many novels and storybooks, haven't you?" The plainclothes leader scoffed. "Sleeping drug is an anesthetic, its main ingredient being datura flower, supposedly discovered by Hua Tuo. It's not like what storytellers say, where you blow the powder or smoke into a room through a bamboo tube and the person inside collapses as soon as they smell it. Hmph, too little and it's not potent enough, too much and it'll have a terrible odor. If the person inside isn't asleep, they'll definitely be in big trouble."

Lu Shu'er listened intently, secretly thinking that the person in front of him was more formidable and ruthless than he had imagined.

However, he had other plans. When he left home that day, his father had mysteriously given him a bamboo tube, supposedly made using a secret recipe passed down only within the thieves' guild, and incredibly effective. His father intended it as a precaution, for him to use when escaping.

I just didn't expect it to come in handy so soon.

Seeing that he was listening attentively, the plainclothes leader seemed more relaxed than before, and smiled as he handed over a pistol equipped with a silencer.
"Take this with you, just in case. Best of luck."

Watching Lu Shu'er disappear into the darkness, the plainclothes leader turned to look at the other three plainclothes officers who were dozing against the wall:
"Everyone, perk up and get ready to go."

A young agent, whose features resembled those of the plainclothes leader, was taken aback upon hearing this: "Brother, why should we help him?"

He's the one who pulled the guy's tooth just now.

The plainclothes leader glanced at him.

The agent immediately changed his tune: "Don't call me 'brother' during business hours. Remember that. If it happens again, you'll pull my tooth. Captain Chen, why should I help him?"

"He's one of Director Zhang's men at headquarters. Even if we don't care about him, we should at least give him some face. The station chief told us to keep an eye on him, so naturally we have to look after him."

The agent curled his lip, loading bullets into the magazine as he said, "It's just a lucky break. I don't know what Director Zhang saw in him. When are we leaving? Don't be late, or that kid will be taken care of."

Captain Chen glanced at his watch and gave another cold laugh: "I agreed to take care of him just so he wouldn't die easily. I never said I'd help him complete the mission. If he can't even last a little while, then he can only blame himself for choosing the wrong profession."

Lu Shu'er arrived silently at the main entrance of Ji Ya Xuan restaurant. Suddenly, he remembered what he had seen in the car earlier: the main entrance was not only locked, but also bolted from the inside. So instead of going in through the main entrance, he went around to the back door.

The second-floor window was tightly closed. He estimated it to be at least two meters high, which was too high to reach even if he jumped.

Even scaling walls and rooftops requires a foothold.

Lu Shu'er stood by the window, his mind blank. He looked around aimlessly. The wall across the street seemed to be under repair, with some bricks for building the wall piled on the ground.

He stared at the bricks, his gaze unfocused, mechanically counting them in his mind.

As he counted, the bricks gradually filled the blank space in his mind, and he seemed to have come up with a solution.

Lu Shuer walked up to the pile of bricks, picked up a few, and walked silently toward the window not far away.

A few minutes later, a stack of bricks had been piled up in the corner under the window. Lu Shu'er thought for a moment, then, feeling it wasn't stable enough, took off her coat and placed it on the ground before stacking the bricks on top. She carefully stepped onto it, holding onto the wall, and found it to be fairly stable.

So he took a deep breath, aimed at the window, and jumped.

With a loud crash, Lu Shu'er successfully grabbed the edge of the window.

He gritted his teeth, gripping the windowsill tightly with one hand, bracing his feet against the wall to maintain his balance, and reaching for the window with the other.

I pushed it, and sure enough, it was locked from the inside.

The room was dark; there shouldn't be anyone there. He quickly pulled a wire from his pocket, slipped it through the crack in the window, and gently hooked it onto the latch. Then he started fiddling with it. The latch would pull up, then fall back down; he'd pull it up again, and it would fall down again.
Each time the latch is turned, it makes a soft "click" sound.

With a "click," just as the bolt finally came loose, a hoarse voice rang out: "Who's there?"

Immediately, a beam of flashlight shone on the window.

"I've been discovered?" The thought flashed through Lu Shu'er's mind, and he immediately felt a chill run down his spine. He froze and slid down the slope. Perhaps this was a perfect description of him—dying before even achieving his goal.

"Who goes there?" The words had barely left his lips when an old man with a weasel-like face and a coat appeared at the window. This old man was Mrs. Li's maternal uncle, who lived and ate at the hotel, specifically to guard it. He held up a flashlight and cautiously peered out the window. Seeing the latch on the floor, he became suspicious. He looked around with the flashlight, hesitated for a moment, then mustered his courage and opened the window. The room was completely dark, and so was the outside; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Undeterred, the old man stuck his head out and listened intently. Several sharp, intermittent howls of wild cats, their mating calls echoing in the darkness, sounded particularly eerie.

The old man was a little frightened and quickly pulled his head back in. As he closed the window and re-locked it, he shouted out the window to bolster his courage:

"Who is it? Why aren't you asleep so late? All of you, shut up!"

"Old Xu, what happened?" At this moment, a head popped out from the escalator on the first floor.

"It's nothing, just a stray cat in heat."

"Hahaha, I bet you're just lovesick, aren't you, Old Xu?"

"Nao Xi Da Lao!"

Old Xu, his beard bristling and eyes wide, grumbled as he returned to his small room in the attic on the third floor. He drank a few more sips of wine, feeling a bit tired. He lazily yawned and lay down on his small bed.

A few steps away at the corner by the window, Lu Shu'er finally let go of his coat. He had been pulling and tugging frantically, barely managing to pick up the bricks from the ground before the old man poked his head out.

He pressed his hand to his chest and took several deep breaths to calm himself down. Then, he repeated the process, dragging the brick over again.

Old Xu was curled up on his small bed, half asleep, when suddenly a cold night wind blew in, making him shiver and instantly wake up.

The moment he opened his eyes, a scene flashed through his mind: the bolt that had fallen to the ground—he clearly remembered checking them all before closing time, and they were all intact. The bolt couldn't have fallen to the ground by itself. Old Xu closed his eyes, pondering in a daze.

Suddenly, when he realized he was absolutely certain, his drowsiness and drunkenness vanished instantly.

He jumped out of bed, grabbed an iron rod, and quietly opened the door.

Lu Shuer had just climbed through the window and was moving forward stealthily, recalling the map in his mind, when suddenly, he heard light footsteps coming from upstairs. He was startled and quickly stood close to the wall.

Old Xu seemed to sense something and dared not be careless. He gripped his iron rod tightly and tiptoed down the wooden ladder, heading towards the corridor where the window was located. Once he turned the corner, Lu Shu'er would be exposed without a doubt.

Lu Shu'er, on the other side of the corner, naturally realized this and involuntarily held his breath, listening intently.

Just then, with a "click," the flashlight turned on, its beam shining onto the wall.

No sooner said than done, just as the iron rod emerged from around the corner, Lu Shu'er moved swiftly. He gripped the iron rod tightly with one hand, and with the other, deftly pulled a handkerchief soaked in ether from his pocket, smearing it directly over the newcomer's mouth and nose.

Old Xu stared wide-eyed in terror, instinctively reaching for the iron bar, intending to whack the petty thief, but the other end was gripped tightly and wouldn't budge. He had no choice but to raise the flashlight in his other hand to strike the man. As the flashlight beam shone down, the thief's face gradually became clear.

However, at that moment, the "thief" suddenly raised the hand holding the iron rod and used his arm to cover his face. Then, he pressed his right hand, which was holding a handkerchief, backward with force.

"You little brat," Old Zheng muttered. As the strong smell of alcohol filled his nose and mouth, his struggling hands slowly calmed down until they hung limply at his sides.

Lu Shu'er frantically grabbed the iron rod and the flashlight, turned off the flashlight, and slowly released him. The old man slid down the wall and fell to the ground with a "thud".

Lu Shuer wiped the sweat from his forehead, took a few deep breaths, and quickly went over to check the old man's breathing. Only after confirming that he had just fainted did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Having dealt with the old man, Lu Shu'er once again tiptoed towards the basement downstairs.

At the entrance to the corridor leading to the basement, there was a guard's room with its door slightly ajar. On either side of the door, there was a waist-high window, offering excellent visibility from three directions.

At this moment, in the brightly lit room, a chair was placed in the middle and used as a card table, with a deck of cards on it. Four burly men with pistols tucked into their waistbands were smoking and playing cards with great interest.

These four men were all from Li Jue's hometown and were related by blood. They were originally members of the guard company, but now they were all guarding Li Jue's house.

Li Jue sent his family, wife, and children to the mountain city, and none of them dared to have any other thoughts.

They were quite content, eating large chunks of meat and drinking heartily every day. In addition to their high salaries, they received other rewards, making them far better off than those poor souls who were constantly on the verge of death in battle.

At that moment, one of the guards, while drawing cards, said with a smile:
"What? Are you convinced or not, Old Liu?"

Old Liu, the guard, rolled his eyes at him: "I'm not impressed by you. You just got a few good cards, why are you so smug?"

These people are all from Hunan, and they are playing Hunan-style cards, also called bridge cards, butterfly cards, or pull two seventy cards.

Another guard also smiled and said:
"Stubborn as a mule."

The group was having a great time, and none of them noticed that Lu Shu'er had crouched down and quietly approached the left window, carefully taking out the bamboo tube that she kept close to her body.

This is a short bamboo tube, about the thickness of a thumb and half the length of a palm. The tube is smoothed, with one end sealed and the other end open, filled with cotton balls soaked in sleeping potion.

Lu Shu'er cautiously glanced up at the room and saw that it was filled with smoke. She immediately felt relieved, pointed the bamboo tube at the window crack, and gently blew it.

Old Liu, stubborn as ever, sat with his back to Lu Shu'er. His luck was still terrible this time, and he muttered to himself, a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"You miscalculated the 'Thirteen Reds' hand just now."

Before he could finish speaking, a very light breeze suddenly swept across the back of his neck.

He thought it was just a draft and didn't pay any attention. He took a deep drag of his cigarette and then realized something was wrong. He felt a sweet almond scent enter his nostrils, accompanied by a slight dizziness. His vision began to blur, and the cards in his hand fell to the table with a "thud".

The other person next to him, who was holding "2710" and preparing to win, was about to ask "What's wrong with you?" when he suddenly realized that his tongue felt like it was filled with lead and he couldn't speak at all.

"As expected, it's a secret recipe that thieves don't pass down." Seeing the remarkable effect of the sleeping potion, Lu Shu'er was overjoyed and immediately blew on it a few times.

Soon, the three guards slumped down, heads hanging low. The last one, after trembling as he stood up and swayed, collapsed onto the table.

Lu Shuer wasn't in a hurry to go in. He silently recited the mantra his father had taught him: "One sip of sweetness, three seconds and you'll be dizzy, seeing stars and feeling heavy-footed; wait a bit longer, five seconds and you'll tremble, unable to hold onto anything; hold on for ten seconds and your body will be as soft as dough."

He waited until the group didn't react for a while before covering his mouth and nose and going inside. He then touched each of them to find the key and politely closed the door behind him as he left.

Walking down the corridor leading to the basement, Lu Shuer felt as if she were walking on cotton, her legs feeling weak.

(End of this chapter)