Anti-Japanese War Espionage: I Have an Omniscient Perspective

Lin Rui walked into the store.

The Dafang Stationery Store is filled with all kinds of notebooks, calligraphy brushes, letter paper, inkstones, ink blocks, and also Western-style ink fountain pens.

A few scattered customers were busy browsing, and no one noticed his arrival.

He pretended to want to shop, wandering between the shelves, occasionally picking up a pen and notebook to look at them.

At the same time, his supernatural senses spread out, observing the blind spots behind him and to the left and right.

The shop assistants had been observing him ever since he came in, sometimes sneaking peeks while tidying the bookshelves on the left, and sometimes watching him intently from a visible angle.

As soon as Lin Rui moved around, the shop assistants immediately looked away and pretended to be busy.

It seems I was right; this is the contact point mentioned in Old Zhou's secret letter.

He circled around twice, picked up a notebook, walked straight to the counter, and gently placed the notebook on the counter.

Is anyone there?

A middle-aged man in a dark blue long gown, with a sharp, capable-looking face, emerged from behind the curtain behind the counter. "Coming. I had a little something to take care of earlier. What do you need?"

"Boss, do you have a double-line notebook? I need it for bookkeeping."

Notebooks from the Republican era can be divided into two types.

Single-line notebooks are a universal type, used by students for taking notes in class, by ordinary people for daily jottings, and for writing notes/letters home. They are the most commonly stocked and easiest to find type of notebook in stationery stores.

Double-line notebooks are special-purpose notebooks. Because of their neat grid lines, they are mainly used for bookkeeping, copying official documents, making detailed business accounts, and filling out formal reports.

Shop owners, accountants, and government clerks are the main users, which is why Lin Rui added an extra sentence after the code to reflect the current situation.

The shop owner glanced at Lin Rui seemingly casually, then quickly looked outside the door, and replied, "Sorry sir, we only have single-line orders left, but we can place orders on your behalf."

Matching the secret code is only the first step.

Next, we need to verify their identities.

Lin Rui's own code name is Shuangmu Yilin.

He pushed the note with a string of numbers written on it pasted on the counter.

He whispered, "The leader of the third undercover team has been arrested. I'm the liaison officer, and I've come to report this."

The shop owner took the note, glanced at it, and then beckoned to the shop assistant.

Two shop assistants came over; one stood behind Lin Rui, holding a gun to his waist, while the other walked to the shop owner's side.

"Is there anything suspicious outside?"

"No. I've been watching him ever since he came in."

"Take him to the back to verify his identity and password."

"Yes."

Immediately, two shop assistants, one in front and one behind, led Lin Rui to the back of the stationery store.

The three of them passed through a narrow door behind the shelves and entered a dimly lit warehouse filled with packed stationery boxes.

The shop assistant handed Lin Rui's digital password slip to a man in a long robe in the storeroom. "Team Three, verify his identity."

The man took out a codebook and deciphered the numerical code.

"The password is correct. He is the liaison officer for the third infiltrative team, codename Shuangmu Yilin."

He looked at Lin Rui: "We already know about Lao Zhou's arrest. But how did you find out to contact him here? According to the rules, Lao Zhou wouldn't tell you."

"I..." Lin Rui was about to explain.

But the other party interrupted him: "No need to say it here. The higher-ups are investigating Lao Zhou's case. Send him to the station."

"Yes," the shop assistant replied, then looked at Lin Rui and said, "Let's go."

Lin Rui didn't say much and silently followed him to the back door at the end of the warehouse.

The shop assistant pushed open the door and cautiously looked outside. After confirming that no one was around, he signaled Lin Rui to follow.

The two walked briskly for more than a hundred meters along the narrow back alley, turned into another alley, and then arrived at a small building made of blue bricks.

The small building is hidden among a cluster of residential houses, making it very secluded.

The shop assistant knocked on the door in a very regular pattern.

The door opened, and a pair of eyes looked outside. Only after seeing the shop assistant did they open the door.

The man in black stared at Lin Rui.

"who is he?"

"I'll take the people from the third undercover team to see Team Leader Zhang."

"Go in." The man in black stepped aside.

Lin Rui followed the shop assistant into the store.

Several long tables were set up in the lobby on the first floor, where a dozen men dressed in various casual clothes were busy with their heads down. Some were copying telegrams, some were organizing documents, and some were talking in hushed tones.

Lin Rui didn't recognize any of these people.

When he joined the Fuxing Society's Special Service Department, the only people he met were Director Wen, Zhou Yanqiu, the political instructor at the Qingpu Training Camp, Group Leader Fang Dongcheng, and the bespectacled man who took him to the Sanji Radio Training Center.

The shop assistant didn't stop and led Lin Rui up to the second floor. The corridor was dimly lit, and the rooms were all closed.

Continuing forward, the shop assistant eventually led Lin Rui to a room at the end of the corridor and gently knocked on the door: "Team Leader Zhang, the person has been brought."

"Come in." A deep male voice came from inside the room.

"Go in yourself." The shop assistant looked at Lin Rui.

Lin Rui took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and went inside.

The room was small and simply furnished, with a desk, two chairs, and a serious-looking middle-aged man wearing glasses and a Zhongshan suit sitting behind the desk. Two gunmen stood behind him.

Coincidentally, this man was the same bespectacled man who had brought Lin Rui from the Qingpu training camp to the Sanji Radio Training Center.

"Sit down." Team Leader Zhang gestured to the chair in front of the table, his voice devoid of any warmth.

Lin Rui put down his rattan suitcase, sat down on the chair, his back straight and his expression calm.

Team Leader Zhang looked at the rattan box and asked.

"What's inside the box?"

"Three gold bars, a codebook, two pistols. And some clothes and disguises."

Team Leader Zhang gestured to his men behind him to open the box, and after checking, confirmed that it matched what Lin Rui had said.

He continued questioning.

"Where did the things come from?"

"The gold bars, codebook, and M1910 pistol belong to Lao Zhou. Last night, I killed a Japanese spy at the pharmacy and then took these things."

Team Leader Zhang looked up at Lin Rui: "I feel like I've seen you before?"

He was able to recognize Lin Rui mainly because Lin Rui wasn't wearing any fillers in his cheeks today; he was just wearing glasses.

In front of Team Leader Zhang, Lin Rui took off his glasses and said, "Yes, ten days ago, you came to the Qingpu training camp and picked up three trainees, and I was one of them."

"Oh right, your name is Lin Rui. As expected of someone appreciated by Director Wen, you have excellent courage and skills. You even dared to go back after being discovered by the Japanese in the pharmacy. Impressive."

Team Leader Zhang exclaimed in admiration.

Then the conversation shifted.

"Tell me about how Lao Zhou was arrested. Also, tell me about the other members of the infiltrator team. And how did you know where Lao Zhou's codebook was?"

The three questions, especially the last one, were very delicate. If I didn't answer them well, it might arouse the suspicion of Team Leader Zhang.

Lin Rui had already prepared a contingency plan for this and answered calmly.

"Yesterday morning, Lao Zhou told me that the situation was dangerous. He also said that when he was an officer at the Shanghai station, he was often in the public eye and many people knew him, so he was worried about his identity being exposed. Therefore, he decided to stop running back and forth and just stay in the pharmacy. Then, he went out to go home to get some things. But not long after, I heard gunshots and immediately realized that something was wrong. I grabbed the things I had prepared and left the pharmacy from the back, and immediately disguised myself."

After a pause, Lin Rui said, "I blended into the crowd and saw Lao Zhou being escorted to the pharmacy by five men. They encountered police officers along the way, but were not stopped. After they searched the pharmacy, the police officers took them to the foreign concession."