Cangmang Asks the Way 1: Guardian of the Lamp

The School of Humanities at Nancheng University, a small office filled with ancient books, exuding the scent of old paper and ink.

Shen Moyuan had just sat down at his desk to calm his turbulent emotions when there was a knock on the door.

He peeked through the crack in the door and saw two people standing outside—a middle-aged man with a calm and composed demeanor, and a woman in her thirties with a beautiful face and outstanding temperament.

He opened the door.

"Professor Shen, I apologize for disturbing you. This is Chen Mo from the National Security Bureau. This is Comrade Cang Liuqing—Mr. Cang Yunshan's great-granddaughter." The middle-aged man showed his identification.

Shen Moyuan's hands trembled uncontrollably again. He looked at Cang Liuqing, his gaze tracing her face as if trying to find more traces of his teacher through the years. After a long while, he stepped aside, his voice dry: "Please come in!"

The office was cramped; the three of them could barely move after sitting down. Chen Mo cut to the chase: "Professor Shen, we're not here today for an investigation or to question historical responsibility. We're here because of a major case that threatens national security, and we need your historical memory and professional judgment."

He paused, looking directly at Shen Moyuan: "In the bank robbery, the robbers targeted the special storage area. We have determined that they were carrying and attempting to use a specially made copper coin. We believe this is directly related to your unfinished mission in Beiping in 1945, and the disappearance of your teacher, Mr. Cangyunshan."

Shen Moyuan's body swayed violently, and he braced himself against the edge of the table. Chen Mo's words were like a key, unlocking the floodgates of his memories that had been locked for forty-eight years. Those scenes he had repeatedly ruminated over and buried deep in his heart, carrying the lingering smell of gunpowder from those years, surged forth.

"You found out all of that? How did you know about the copper coins...?"

Chen Mo and Cang Liuqing exchanged a glance, and Chen Mo nodded. Then, Cang Liuqing told Shen Mo about the copper coin that had been found that day and its subsequent loss.

"As expected... as expected, they were after the copper coins!" Shen Moyuan slammed his fist on the table, his eyes flashing with regret and resentment. "It's a pity they got there first!"

Although Chen Mo and Cang Liuqing were full of questions, they quietly waited for Shen Moyuan to reveal the truth.

"To unravel the secret of the copper coin, we must begin with that night in Beiping in 1945..."

Shen Moyuan closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, those eyes no longer belonged to a gentle, retired professor, but to the warrior codenamed "Green Pine," who walked in darkness and danger. He slowly spoke—

"...August 14, 1945, late at night. Dongjiaomin Lane, Beiping, a secret storage point for Japanese military supplies converted from the underground warehouse of the former Citibank."

He spoke slowly, each word seeming to be painstakingly dug out from a heavy past:

"I received intelligence that before the Japanese army's defeat, they sealed a batch of documents, files, and artifacts that must never fall into our hands in a specially made explosion-proof and fireproof iron box codenamed 'No. 23' and stored it there. Opening it requires a specially made copper coin to be inserted for verification. Two of these copper coins were made, one kept by Kenichi Fujiwara, the core advisor of the 'Golden Lily' unit, and the other by the Japanese supervisor of the warehouse."

"My mission is to obtain the contents of box 23 at any cost."

"That night, I went through a lot of trouble to steal the copper coin from the supervisor, and disguised myself as a Japanese logistics personnel. I used the small disturbance created by an inside man to sneak into the warehouse's storage room. The storage room was dark. I turned on the flashlight covered by a cloth and found box number 23. It was heavier than I had imagined, with a complicated lock and a lotus-shaped hidden groove above the keyhole."

His breathing became rapid, as if he were reliving the tension of those years:

"Just as I took out the copper coin, ready to try it... I heard the footsteps of a patrolman returning outside the door. I immediately turned off my miniature flashlight."

"Absolute darkness. Sweat instantly soaked through his underwear. Footsteps stopped outside the door, the metallic clanging of keys being picked up was terrifyingly clear. He was going to open the door!"

"Despair washed over me like ice water. I instinctively tried to dodge, but my knee slammed into the metal corner of box number 23! The sharp pain made me groan, I lost my balance, and my hand holding the copper coin slipped—"

At this point, Shen Moyuan suddenly stopped, covered his face with his hands, and his shoulders trembled violently. Decades of self-blame and regret erupted completely at this moment.

"Clang—clang—" he imitated the sound, hoarse and desperate, "The coin fell... fell on the concrete floor, rolled away... I don't know where it rolled to... In the darkness, I lay on the ground frantically groping, but I couldn't find it anywhere..."

"The key to the door is already in the lock..."

Cang Liuqing and Chen Mo held their breath, as if they could hear the deadly metallic scraping sound from back then.

"Just when I thought everything was over—'Crack!'" Shen Moyuan suddenly looked up, a strange light flashing in his eyes, "A sharp sound of shattering glass came from the other end of the warehouse corridor! It was very loud, like an explosion in the silence!"

The activity outside the door stopped. Then, from the other end of the warehouse, a somewhat familiar Japanese voice demanded, "Who goes there?" Then, I heard footsteps at the door quickly chasing after the sound of the glass breaking, growing fainter and fainter…

"I don't know who it was or what happened. But I'm out of time. I can't find the copper coins, and I can't open the box. I made a crazy decision—to take the whole box number 23 with me! I used all my strength to lift that cold iron box and escaped through the pre-surveyed, disguised ventilation duct."

"Before leaving, I took one last look at the darkness. The copper coins were gone. But I took the box with me." His tone suddenly dropped, filled with endless weariness and regret. "Later I learned that after that night, Teacher Cangyunshan also disappeared. I kept thinking, that sound of glass breaking, that familiar question... could it be Teacher? Was he secretly watching me, creating a commotion at the last moment to draw the enemy away and save me, but exposing himself in the process? Or even..."

He looked at Cang Liuqing, tears streaming down his face: "Child, if my guess is true... then I've implicated your teacher. It was I who lost the copper coin, forcing your whole family to change their names and leave for distant lands... I'm so sorry to your teacher, so sorry to your Cang family!"

Cang Liuqing was already in tears. She bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out. She stepped forward and tightly grasped the old man's trembling, withered hand, her voice choked with sobs: "Professor Shen, no, Senior Qingsong. If it really was my great-grandfather that night, then his choice was not because you implicated him. It was his belief, his sense of responsibility. Our Cang family... is proud to have such an ancestor."

Chen Mo listened in silence, his heart trembling. A heroic past, buried by the dust of time, and a family's decades of silent perseverance, were now clearly presented before him. Cang Liuqing's complex eyes, a mixture of grief, pride, and sudden enlightenment, made him even more certain that the crisis before him was a cruel continuation of that history, and that the Cang family had always stood on the side of protection.

"Mr. Shen," Chen Mo said solemnly, "what happened to box number 23 that you took away?"

Shen Moyuan wiped away his tears, trying to calm himself down: "After the war, the box was secretly taken over by the organization. However, because we only got the box and didn't have the copper coin key, we were unable to open it safely. Forcibly breaking it might trigger the built-in destruction device. Back then, I suggested that the box be properly sealed as a long-term 'bait' and that vague information about the special storage box be released at an opportune time, waiting for the right moment. This suggestion was adopted, the box was secretly moved to the South City, and related information was also released in a targeted manner, waiting as a silent 'historical trap' for decades."

All the clues now connect completely. The hinges of history and reality snap shut at this moment, producing a chillingly loud sound.

Shen Moyuan looked at Cang Liuqing and asked in a trembling voice, "Liuqing, what happened to your teacher...? How did your family get to the South?"

Cang Liuqing's tears fell silently as she shook her head: "Grandpa and Father never told us in detail. We only know that we fled from the north, and that Great-Grandpa passed away a long time ago. As for the specifics... they didn't mention them."

Shen Moyuan closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. He already understood. That silence, that hardship of leaving his homeland, had already said it all. A strong thought rose in his mind—he had to go to Xiqiao Village, he had to go to his teacher's burial place in person, to kowtow, to say "I'm sorry" forty-eight years overdue.

Just as Chen Mo and Cang Liuqing's car drove away from Nancheng University and disappeared into the gray traffic of the winter evening, a black Santana sedan that had been parked for a long time on the opposite street corner slowly rolled down its window.

A man wearing a dark baseball cap, the brim pulled low, put down his high-powered binoculars. He picked up a mobile phone from the dial and skillfully dialed a number.

"Target contacted. Two visitors, a man and a woman, with a capable demeanor, were in and out for approximately 45 minutes. Shen Moyuan was agitated and showed signs of tears. Based on the vehicle model and personnel characteristics, the visitors are highly likely to be official security personnel, and of considerable rank."

After a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, Nakamura Hiroshi's voice, altered by a voice changer, came through: "Understood. Shen Moyuan's value ends here. His history has become a guiding light for the authorities. The surveillance level is downgraded to routine observation. The focus shifts to Xiqiao Village. There, we can begin the next step of 'Operation Spring Breeze.' It must be gentle and natural, like a spring breeze and rain, happening silently."

"Understood." The man in the baseball cap hung up the phone and tossed his cell phone onto the passenger seat. The car started silently, gliding into the traffic on the main road and quickly disappearing from sight.

At the entrance of Xiqiao Village, under the crooked old locust tree, a middle-aged man wearing a woolen overcoat, carrying a briefcase, and looking like a cadre, was smilingly offering cigarettes to several elderly people sunbathing, asking in a friendly tone: "Old folks, could you tell me how to get to the house of our village party secretary, Comrade Wang Zhenkun? I'm new to the township and would like to report some work to Secretary Wang."

The setting sun cast his elongated shadow on the mottled earthen wall, the shadow swaying slightly as it blended into the twilight rising over the village.