I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

At 10 p.m., there were no streetlights on the highway towards Tongxian. Two military trucks drove forward with their headlights close to the muddy road, their tires kicking up black mud as they rolled over puddles. The soldiers in the trucks held onto their rifles, and no one spoke.

The truck turned off its lights 300 meters from the brickyard and stopped in the shade of the poplar grove. Director Wang got out of the passenger seat of the first truck. Mud was splashed on the hem of his military overcoat, but he didn't brush it off. He just turned around and raised his hand towards the truck bed.

After the twelve soldiers landed from the canvas carriage, they split into three teams, guns pointed downwards, their feet sinking into the mud. The crew-cut officer followed from the second vehicle, carrying a waterproof flashlight, but he never turned it on.

Director Wang squatted by the drainage ditch, spreading out a sketch of the brick kiln factory by the light from the edge of his flashlight, his fingers pressing down on the main gate, the gap in the west wall, and the truck passage on the north side.

"The main entrance is to be sealed off by four people; no one is allowed to leave."

"The second group climbed over the gap in the west wall and went straight into the backyard."

"I led three groups through the north truck access road; the basement entrance is behind the third row of kilns."

He folded the sketch and stuffed it into his pocket. As he stood up, he glanced at the faces in front of him, darkened by the night.

"There may be acid and chemicals inside. When you enter the room, watch your step first, don't knock over any bottles, and keep people away from open flames."

At 10:15, the three groups advanced simultaneously. Director Wang led four people to sneak in along the north side of the truck lane. On both sides of the lane were piles of semi-dry red bricks. The smell of burnt soil and lime was mixed with the dampness. The further in they went, the stronger the sour smell became, making their nasal passages feel tight.

The backyard was deeper than it appeared from the outside. The three rows of old kilns had long since ceased firing, their furnaces blackened. Behind the third row of kilns, a cement slab had been moved, its edges covered in freshly turned soil, darker in color than the surrounding area.

Director Wang swept his flashlight across the cement slab, revealing a cement step underneath. Several sets of footprints were stacked on the step, with different patterns on the soles of the shoes.

He turned around and gestured. Two soldiers went down first with their guns at the ready, and a third person followed behind with a lamp. Director Wang followed behind. As his boots stepped onto the damp steps, acid mist was already seeping out from the cracks in the door.

At the end of the steps was an iron gate. The gate was unlocked, and light leaked out from the cracks. A strong, acidic smell hit his face. Director Wang covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve and pushed the gate open.

The basement was small, with two incandescent bulbs illuminating the walls. Three people were squatting next to a long wooden table in the center. On the table were an enamel basin, grayish-white powder, and a rectangular mold. One of them was holding an iron spatula and filling the mold with powder.

In front of the other two people was a large glass bottle containing a yellow liquid that emitted white acid mist. Handwritten labels were attached to the bottles, with illegible handwriting, and the labels read "Mother Liquid No. 2" and "Mother Liquid No. 3" respectively.

The moment the iron gate was pushed open, the person closest to the gate kicked over the enamel basin, sending white powder flying into the air. He turned and darted toward the corner door, but the second soldier on the steps had already pounced down, pinned him to the ground, pressed his knee against his back, and twisted his wrist behind his back.

The remaining two men, still holding iron shovels and measuring cups, were pressed onto the table by soldiers rushing in from both sides, their faces pressed against the wooden board, their noses only separated from the pile of powder by a layer of acidic fumes.

"Don't move, keep your hands away from the table."

Director Wang walked into the basement, his gaze shifting from the three suspects to the wooden table, glass bottles, tin buckets, and wooden shelves against the wall, without touching anything.

Two tin buckets were stuffed under the table, the lids not tightly closed, revealing chunks of grayish-white solid inside. On the shelf by the wall were enamel evaporating dishes, glass funnels, filter paper, and a manual tablet press.

This basement has gone beyond the nature of a storage point; it is sufficient to complete the dissolution, filtration, evaporation, and tableting disguise.

"The items are sealed off on-site, photographed and registered, and the bottles and buckets are not allowed to be moved until the laboratory team takes samples."

After Director Wang finished speaking, he stepped back up the stairs. The sour fumes stung his throat. He stood in the backyard vent to catch his breath and wiped away the tears that had welled up in his eyes with a handkerchief.

The crew-cut officer ran over from the direction of the west wall, his trouser legs covered in mud, and stopped when he got close.

"Director, there are more than twenty woven bags in the shed by the west wall, labeled as kaolin. I moved one bag to test its weight, but it's not right, it weighs at least seventy pounds."

Director Wang put the handkerchief back into his pocket.

"Seal the shed, affix the labels, and have the lab team open the bags tomorrow."

At 10:45, the operation at the brick kiln factory ended. All three on-site personnel were brought under control, and the basement and the shed on the west wall were sealed off simultaneously. When the soldiers put the suspects into the car, the sour smell from the backyard was still lingering in the night wind.

At the same time, on the third floor of the city's material distribution center building, the light at the end of the corridor was still on.

The team was led by Officer Zhao from the Confidentiality and Security Department, who was in his early thirties and wearing a dark blue Zhongshan suit. The search warrant was tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket, and two clerks followed behind him.

Li Huaiyuan's office was the second one on the left. The green paint on the doorplate, which read "Deputy Director," had chipped off a corner. Officer Zhao knocked three times and, without waiting for a response, pushed the door open and went in.

Li Huaiyuan sat behind his desk, pen in hand, with a transfer summary sheet spread out in front of him. When he saw the visitor, the doubt on his face disappeared too quickly, replaced by a forced calm.

Officer Zhao placed the search warrant on the table.

"Deputy Director Li, the Confidentiality and Security Department is conducting an inspection. Please cooperate."

Li Huaiyuan's gaze fell on the red stamp. He still held the pen in his hand, and the ink from the nib dripped onto the allocation form, leaving a black dot.

"Which item should we check?"

Zhao, the clerk, didn't respond to him. Instead, he turned his head and gestured for the two people behind him to walk around the desk and open the wooden filing cabinet at the back.

The search lasted forty minutes. Under the old newspapers on the third shelf of the filing cabinet, a black hardcover notebook was found, filled with dates, weights, product names and abbreviations. In the deepest part of the left drawer of the desk, fourteen light blue notepads with blank pages but neatly pressed edges were also found.

Zhao turned to the most recent page in his notebook. After September 27th, he wrote: Neodymium 40, Lanthanum 35, Brick, Night.

He closed the notebook and put it in his briefcase.

"Comrade Li Huaiyuan, come with us."

Li Huaiyuan's lips moved, he twirled the pen halfway in his hand, and finally slowly screwed the cap back on.

As he stood up, the chair leg dragged across the concrete floor, the jarring sound echoing down the corridor. No one in the office spoke up for him.

The interrogation was arranged in the air-raid shelter on the east side of the security department, the same room where Xu Chongwen's assistant had been interrogated three days earlier. The overhead light shone directly down, making the iron table and the plaster on the walls feel cold.

Li Huaiyuan sat on the iron chair with his hands on his knees, barely managing to maintain a respectable posture. However, he kept rubbing his right thumb against the knuckle of his left index finger, the skin of which had already turned red, but he didn't stop.

Director Wang rushed back from Tongxian County in the middle of the night, his military overcoat stained with mud from the brick kiln's backyard. He didn't sit down after entering the door, but instead spread his black leather notebook out in front of Li Huaiyuan.

He pressed down on that line of text with his finger.

"September 27th, neodymium 40, lanthanum 35, brick, night, explanation."

Li Huaiyuan stared at the notebook, his right hand finally pausing for a moment.

"Transfer Records".

"to whom?"

"Tongxian Brick Kiln Factory".

"name."

"Excessive losses".

Li Huaiyuan's throat bobbed as he spoke, and he looked away from the notebook, only to be forced back by Director Wang's fingers pressing down on the pages.

"There is a loss margin in the processing of each batch of waste residue. The actual loss is not as high as reported. The excess part is transferred by me through the internal waste disposal process."

Director Wang flipped through the notebook, revealing a string of records from the past five months, the edges of the pages gleaming from his touch.

"Five months, twelve batches, total."

Li Huaiyuan looked down at his hands.

"About two and a half tons."

"Two and a half tons of rare earth oxides, shipped out as waste, where is the final destination?"

"My only responsibility is to get it from the chemical plant in the eastern suburbs and deliver it to the brick kiln in Tongxian County. The rest is not my responsibility."

Director Wang didn't raise his voice, but simply pushed photos of the brick kiln in front of him. The photos clearly showed the long wooden table, glass bottles, tablet press, and rectangular molds illuminated by the light.

"The three people in the basement have been arrested. They pressed the purified powder into the shape of floor tiles and then transported it away. Which route did the truck take?"

Li Huaiyuan began rubbing the swollen joint again, and after a few rubs, he finally pressed his palm back onto his knee.

"Fengtai freight station, mixed in with building materials, shipped to the Northwest."

"Where in the Northwest?"

"Gansu, Hongliugou Material Transfer Station, the receiving unit is listed as the local construction bureau."

Director Wang didn't press the matter further. He closed the notebook and pressed his fingertip against the black leather cover.

If this line, located in Hongliugou, Gansu, and the local construction bureau, were laid out on a map, it would match the underground jamming station equipment captured on the front lines of Northwest China, the Soviet-branded eight-cavity magnetron, and the kilowatt-level broadband noise covering the shortwave band.

Director Wang stood up, nodded to the clerk at the door, and the interrogation was over.

When I stepped out of the air-raid shelter, the clock in the corridor pointed to 1:40 a.m.

Director Wang stood in front of the duty phone for a while, took out a cigarette, lit it, took two puffs, and then dialed the internal line of the Third Electronics Factory.

The phone rang six times before being answered at the gatehouse.

"Find Jiang Ming from Lab 502 and have him answer the phone."

While waiting, Director Wang held a cigarette between his fingers, his gaze fixed on the tightly closed iron door at the end of the corridor. Behind the door was still the stuff that Li Huaiyuan hadn't finished vomiting, but that was enough for tonight.

Nearly three minutes later, Jiang Ming's voice came through the microphone, hoarse from being woken up.

"Jiang Ming, the material supply chain has been cut off. The Tongxian brick kiln factory has been completely shut down, along with its people and goods. Li Huaiyuan has also spoken up."

The other end of the phone went quiet, with only the hum of the electrical circuit remaining.

Director Wang stubbed out his cigarette in the tin ashtray.

"Can you light a fire with that pipe over there tonight?"