My spy diary

Chapter 682 Tracking (asking for monthly votes)

In the makeshift interrogation room, Liu Ningxue was handcuffed to a chair, her hair hanging down her forehead. Her previous elegance was completely gone. She sighed and began to confess intermittently.

"That slut Xiaodie, she thinks I don't know anything, but I know everything."

As a foreigner from North Korea, from the very first day she joined the organization, she had to undergo an extra layer of screening compared to spies recruited from the mainland. For over a year, she and Xiaodie had been master and servant partners, and one of Xiaodie's tasks was to monitor her. If she showed any disloyalty, regardless of the reason, even if it was just complaining, Xiaodie was required by regulations to report it to her superiors.

Zhang Yi immediately added:
"What do you know?"

“Her online friend.” Under the dim light, Liu Ningxue’s face was calm and sad, as if she was lost in memories. “There was a client who came to see me every month, but it was always when I wasn’t feeling well, so Xiaodie would serve him for me. After a while, I couldn’t help but feel suspicious, so I secretly observed him. He was a man around thirty years old, with a refined appearance. I think it was him.”

Zhang Yi seemed to be deep in thought, and exchanged a glance with Lai Guomin, the head of the interrogation section who was acting as the pre-trial investigator. The latter quickly wrote down the information Liu Ningxue had given, and then continued to ask:
"Why do you say that?"

Liu Ningxue looked down at the ground, and after a moment said:

"It's intuition. A woman's intuition."

The word "intuition" seemed like a universal law, leaving Zhang Yi speechless. Lai Guomin, however, couldn't explain this reasoning:
"intuition?"

Liu Ningxue didn't speak. Her disguise was that of a prostitute, and she relied on her intuition and her beautiful appearance to deal with people.

Lai Guomin wanted to ask more questions, but Zhang Yi stopped him with a look.

He pondered for a moment, then, relying on his memory, sketched the rickshaw puller's appearance on a piece of paper and presented it to Liu Ningxue:
"Look closely, is it him?"

At this moment, the rickshaw puller's identity was confirmed—
Zhao Deshan, 34 years old, was originally from Beiping (Beijing). After graduating from university, he worked for a newspaper. After the September 18 Incident, he went to Shanghai and Nanjing. Before the fall of Nanjing, he moved to Chongqing and continued working at the newspaper. Later, it is said that he was ostracized by his colleagues due to personality issues, and after resigning, he began writing novels.

Liu Ningxue stared at the portrait for a few moments, nodded, and then shook her head.

Zhang Yi was puzzled.

“I saw his back and profile. I remember his back and his voice. He always wore a shabby suit when he came. But I can’t be sure just from the portrait.”

A poorly made suit refers to a suit that is crudely made, ill-fitting, and made of inferior fabric, making it look cheap and undignified.

This does fit Zhao Deshan's image as a poor, pedantic scholar.

Having figured things out, Zhang Yi asked a few more questions and then ended the interrogation.

Lai Guomin chased after her out of the interrogation room, his face full of doubt: "Chief, why did you stop the interrogation? She came directly from Shanghai and only knew about the intelligence by getting close to prominent figures in Chongqing through her looks. She didn't even know the other members of this so-called Snow White Group. Is that even possible?"

"Do you think she's lying?" Zhang Yi countered.

"Probably."

"What's the reason?"

Lai Guomin thought for a moment, then said with a serious expression, "It's intuition!"

Zhang Yi looked at him speechlessly, turned around and left. Being a leader with such a subordinate, he felt that he needed a buffer every moment.

It was late at night outside the window, and the rain had eased somewhat, the sound of the rain gradually weakening to a light drizzle.

Zhao Deshan lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

Today's operation was perfect, and a small sense of pride welled up inside him.

With Liu Ningxue's bombshell defused, the next step is to find a way to get Xiaodie out. As long as her identity is not exposed, she is just a maid who is being used without her knowledge. As long as a high-ranking person steps in to bail her out, it will be a piece of cake.
As for the candidate, he has already thought about it.

However, before doing this, he had to find out Xiaodie's current situation, and he thought of Qian Xiaosan again.

"Now that you're on board, you have no choice in the matter." Zhao Deshan decided to have a good talk with Qian Xiaosan tomorrow.

Thinking this way, he became even more smug.

The hazy dawn light peeked in through the gap in the curtains. Zhao Deshan fumbled for the bedside lamp to turn it on, got up, rubbed his eyes, put on his clothes, and slipped on his shoes to go outside.

He calmly walked out of the house, locked the door, glanced seemingly unintentionally at the office of the newspaper editor next door, and then headed towards the first floor.

Just like last night, his every move was under the surveillance of plainclothes agents from the Military Intelligence Bureau led by Monkey.

Inside a car parked far away on the side of the road, a monkey sat in the driver's seat. At that moment, a plainclothes officer's voice came through the walkie-talkie:

"The fish has woken up."

The monkey immediately straightened up: "Let's get to work."

Everyone in their respective positions immediately perked up.

Zhao Deshan went downstairs, yawning, and walked straight toward a small noodle stall in the mountain town.

At this moment, his true appearance was fully revealed to the monkey. Zhao Deshan's image was worse than he had imagined. From afar last night, he had only appeared somewhat arrogant. But the real Zhao Deshan looked like someone to be kept at a distance, with a dirty coat draped over his shoulders, disheveled hair, and a serious expression, as if he were ready to curse at any moment.

He seemed to be a regular customer here. He walked up to the noodle stall, sat down, and called out to the owner:
"A small bowl of noodles, with extra chili."

Soon, the noodles were served. Zhao Deshan was eating his noodles, thinking about how to approach Qian Xiaosan when he overheard the conversation of the other diners eating noodles.

"This is too tragic. A family of three is gone just like that? They were supposedly government officials."

"Deserve it!"

Zhao Deshan glanced at the two men out of the corner of his eye and noticed that they were pointing at a newspaper. He then casually glanced at it.

The front page of the newspaper read: "A sudden car accident occurred in Yuzhong last night."

This incident, which would seem unremarkable to most people and merely a topic of gossip after dinner, caused Zhao Deshan's heart to skip a beat, as if a time bomb had been detonated, because the car accident had occurred near Qian Xiaosan's house.

Zhao Deshan was secretly surprised, but he didn't show it on his face. He quickly finished his noodles, paid the bill, and left.

After leaving the noodle stall, Zhao Deshan bought two steamed buns from a nearby stall and ate them as he walked, brushing past a plainclothes officer who was reading a newspaper while waiting for the tram.

After passing through a small alley, two more plainclothes officers, disguised as a couple, emerged from it. Like lovers in the throes of passion, they followed Zhao Deshan at a respectful distance.

Zhao Deshan naturally noticed the two of them. He remained calm, squatting down while still eating his steamed bun, and put on his slippers. When he stood up again, the couple in plainclothes had already walked ahead of him, and he followed them at a leisurely pace. Once they were out of the alley, Zhao Deshan watched them walk towards the nearby bus stop and board the bus without looking back before turning and heading towards the market.

Upon arriving at the market, Zhao Deshan first bought some vegetables, then moved on to the fish stall.

He chose a fish, and haggled with the vendor for a long time over a few cents' worth of weight, almost coming to blows.

At that moment, two more plainclothes women, resembling middle-aged women carrying vegetable baskets, appeared. One of them pretended to be selecting vegetables, chatting and haggling over prices as she looked around. This position was close enough to Zhao Deshan that she could clearly see his movements.

At the same time, Zhang Yi appeared at Zhao Deshan's doorstep with several capable plainclothes officers.

Several men, wearing gloves and cloth shoes, quickly opened Zhao Deshan's door with safety pins.

Then, he put on shoe covers and quietly went inside. The plainclothes officer at the back nodded to Zhang Yi and carefully closed the door gently.

They began to search every corner of the room professionally and systematically.

Inside, all was silent.

Zhang Yi then knocked on the door of the next room.

Soon, the door opened. A man in his fifties, wearing reading glasses, poked his head out, adjusted his glasses, and looked puzzled.
"you are?"

This person was none other than Editor-in-Chief Liu.

Zhang Yi pulled out his identification and got straight to the point:
"From the Military Intelligence Bureau."

Editor-in-Chief Liu's face changed: "You're a dog." He wanted to say "You're a dog spy," but he didn't say it, and hurriedly changed his words to, "Are you a government employee?"

Zhang Yi was very straightforward: "My surname isn't Gou, it's Zhang. Can we go in and talk?" With that, he pushed Editor-in-Chief Liu inside without further ado and closed the door.

Editor-in-Chief Liu looked apprehensive yet helpless, staring awkwardly at Zhang Yi.

Zhang Yi pressed him down into a chair, his face darkening. He stared at him for a long time before suddenly uttering a sentence in a stern tone:
"Liu Zhengneng, what a mess you've made!"

Editor-in-Chief Liu jumped, nearly leaping off his chair: "What...what did I do?"

Zhang Yi interrupted him: "Do you know that there is a Japanese spy lurking next to you?"

Editor-in-Chief Liu asked instinctively, "Who?"

"Zhao Deshan!"

"Are you kidding me?" Editor-in-Chief Liu was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped, his face full of disbelief.

“The evidence is conclusive, otherwise I wouldn’t have come here.” Zhang Yi stared at him, his tone stern. “Take a deep breath and don’t speak.”

Editor-in-Chief Liu took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, and after a long pause, he stammered, "What, what does this have to do with me?"

“You unintentionally acted as his cover.” Zhang Yi’s tone was stern. Seeing that Editor-in-Chief Liu was flustered, he changed his tone and became earnest. “Of course, it’s not too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost. I came to see you today to ask you about his situation.”

Editor-in-Chief Liu's expression shifted several times before he finally managed to regain his composure:
"What...what do you want to know?"

"Don't be nervous!" At this point, Zhang Yi's words were particularly candid. "For example, what kind of person he is, his personality, occupation, income, and why he resigned from the newspaper, etc."

"Why ask these questions?" Editor-in-Chief Liu asked, puzzled and impatient. "That bastard is a shameless scoundrel. I don't want to mention him."

Despite saying that, under Zhang Yi's piercing gaze, he still spoke up, "I'll just say one thing: if you were replaced by me, or by anyone who works with this bastard, would you be annoyed?"

He snorted coldly, and as he spoke, he started counting on his fingers: "Eating, drinking, defecating, clothing, housing, and transportation—he doesn't act like a proper man in any way. I admit he has some talent in literature, but he just doesn't follow the right path."

Zhang Yi smiled and continued to tease:
"anything else?"

"Shameless, morally corrupt, I won't go into details, but in short, he is the most selfish and shameless scoundrel I have ever met."

"for example?"

"He borrowed money from his colleagues and didn't pay it back, which was shameless; he harassed female employees; when he was an editor, he used his position to repeatedly hint to those who submitted articles that they should give him gifts, otherwise he wouldn't publish their articles; he got into a fight with his colleagues over a small amount of money, when I was the deputy editor-in-chief."

"Furthermore, our newspaper's benefits are quite good. Besides salaries, there's an advertising revenue subsidy specifically for renting dormitories for employees. You have no idea how shameless this Zhao Deshan can be. He has no family, so naturally he shares a room with a colleague. But this shameless scoundrel, utterly shameless, in order to kick his roommate out, actually brought back shady women every night to spend the night, making a racket... ugh!" Editor-in-Chief Liu spat angrily and continued, "What man could stand it? Within a few days, his colleague moved out, and he had the apartment all to himself. And that wasn't all; later, this bastard resigned from the newspaper, but he shamelessly clung to the apartment and refused to move out—"

Editor-in-Chief Liu poured out all his grievances against Zhao Deshan in one breath.

Zhang Yi seemed lost in thought. Logically, a covert spy shouldn't be so arrogant, but as the saying goes, "do the opposite." For a spy, short-term covert operations are manageable, but long-term covert operations are the most difficult. There's a saying: "The lesser hermit hides in the wilderness, the middle hermit hides in the city, and the greater hermit hides in the court." The best way to remain hidden is to offend as many people as possible, to be as annoying and shameless as possible, ideally to make people keep their distance, so that no one will notice them.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yi looked at Editor-in-Chief Liu:

You have to do us a favor!

On the other side, Zhao Deshan, having bought the fish, was carrying large and small bags home.

The monkey, upon receiving the report, was completely baffled. He spoke into the walkie-talkie:

"What are you doing? You didn't react at all after reading the newspaper, but instead you're going to buy groceries and cook. Are you testing whether you've been exposed, or what? Report to your family immediately!"

The plainclothes officer in the other car speculated, "Could he have already made the rendezvous at the market?"

Someone immediately objected: "Impossible, we've been watching him the whole time!"

Soon, the door of Zhao Deshan's house was knocked lightly by the lookout in plainclothes. The lookout quickly put everything back in its place and quietly withdrew.

At this moment, Zhang Yi, who had received the report, also came out. A plainclothes officer in charge walked to the door, glanced at his watch, and asked in a low voice:

"Chief, should we install a bugging device? There's enough time!"

Zhang Yi understood what he meant, but he already had a new idea, so he waved his hand:
"No, now is not the time. Evacuate in an orderly manner immediately!"

"Yes." The plainclothes officer nodded sternly, immediately and carefully closed the door of Zhao Deshan's house, cleared away all traces, and calmly and orderly withdrew.

Not long after they left, Zhao Deshan appeared downstairs carrying some things.

(End of this chapter)