Chapter 17: Field Duty, Part Three

Chapter 17: Field Duty (Part Three)

Every department within the Security Bureau had its own assignments. Without a request for assistance, no department would intervene in another’s work, much less pry indiscriminately.

Xu Ruiyang’s mind stirred. The fact that the Bureau’s agents were surveilling their own comrades meant that some underground organization in Xinjing was being closely watched by the Investigation Division. If they didn’t act immediately, it would be a case of casting a long line to catch a big fish.

Using the excuse of buying cigarettes, he went downstairs and onto the street. Following the gaze directions of the two agents from the Investigation Division, he found several shops on the east side of South-North Road.

Facing the teahouse window was a small stationery shop. It was so cold that the door was closed, concealing the interior from view.

After purchasing cigarettes and stepping out of the store, he saw a young man in a Zhongshan suit enter the stationery shop, glancing back at his surroundings.

When Xu arrived at the teahouse entrance, he noticed one of the two agents from upstairs had already come down and was casually strolling along the street.

He waited in a corner near the teahouse wall, observing the stationery shop’s activity. Within minutes, the young man emerged. The shop owner, a middle-aged man in his forties, looked refined and wore glasses.

The agent followed the young man slowly and deliberately, keeping a distance of several dozen meters—neither too close nor too far—clearly tailing him.

“I need to visit the Guandong Hotel. Handle lunch on your own. This afternoon, keep watch here and photograph any suspicious individuals entering or leaving,” Kimura Masaru instructed.

Shortly after returning upstairs with his cigarettes, Kimura Masaru left. The lobby manager of the Guandong Hotel was also an informant for the Security Bureau—not surprising, as any reputable dining or lodging establishment had Bureau informants embedded.

Anyone tailed by agents was undoubtedly a member of the underground party. But with an agent stationed in the teahouse, it meant the stationery shop owner was also involved.

An urgent warning had to be sent to urge a swift withdrawal.

Though Xu was on a covert mission himself, he could not stand idly by while his comrades were threatened.

He resolved to warn the stationery shop owner but felt something was amiss.

No, something was definitely overlooked.

Sitting in a small eatery sipping mutton soup, a cold sweat broke out over Xu Ruiyang’s entire body.

Why such a reaction?

He suddenly recalled that when the agent was following the young man, the stationery shop owner was standing right at the door and must have seen it. If he lacked that basic vigilance, he wouldn’t be part of the underground network.

If the shop owner was a traitor, another problem arose: How did the agents know that the young man was the surveillance target? Would they tail anyone who entered the store?

That logic didn’t hold.

Returning to the teahouse, Xu did not go upstairs but found a seat on the ground floor to keep an eye on the stationery shop. He wanted to unravel the mystery.

The puzzle soon unraveled.

When other customers left the stationery shop, the owner did not see them off at the door—a likely prearranged signal, quite ingenious!

Back upstairs, the agent who had been watching during the morning was still there, no additional personnel had arrived, but the agent tailing the young man had not returned—perhaps he had begun a stakeout.

Xu sipped his tea, piecing together his thoughts.

The underground party usually maintained single-line contacts. The young man was definitely not the stationery shop owner’s subordinate; otherwise, they would have arrested him outright without all this surveillance. The superior surely knew the subordinate’s identity and whereabouts.

Therefore, the young man must be a courier—a link connecting the stationery shop owner to higher leadership.

The lack of reinforcements meant the agent at the teahouse was tasked with closely monitoring the stationery shop owner and receiving the latest intelligence.

If the young man appeared again the next day, the Investigation Division’s goal would be to dismantle the entire underground network in one sweep.

The difficulty was that no one knew where the young man lived or what cover identity he used. What could be done?

If this courier failed to detect the trailing agents, it could cause devastating losses to the underground party—such a disaster must be prevented at all costs.

The underground party’s activities in the puppet state of Manchukuo had already been squeezed to the limit, and their urban strength was negligible. Xu needed to protect this flicker of resistance for the party.

Yet, if he intervened directly, traces would be left behind, potentially jeopardizing his long-term undercover mission. Reaching this point meant seizing a rare opportunity, and such chances did not come every day.

Watching a squad of military police patrolling the street, Xu suddenly had an idea.

He could avoid direct action and instead have the military police take measures—using them to alert the underground party on this line. The advantage of this plan lay in its minimal risk.

***

At 1:30 p.m. on the fourth day of surveillance at the teahouse, a black sedan pulled up in front of the stationery shop. Four men stepped out, drawing pistols, then suddenly burst inside.

Within two minutes, the terrified shop owner was handcuffed and shoved out by two men, while the other two ransacked the interior.

A large crowd gathered to watch, and Xu Ruiyang, perched on his bicycle nearby, observed the scene with a faint smile tugging at his lips.

Using the pretext of lunch, he rode his bike far from the teahouse area, stopped to eat a bowl of spicy noodles, and then found a public phone to secretly report the stationery shop owner as an underground party member to the military police.

The military police treated the tip seriously—better safe than sorry—and immediately forwarded the information to the Special Higher Police, who promptly launched the arrest. Whether the arrest was a mistake was irrelevant.

Xu’s intent was to send a signal to the underground party: the enemy would not arrest people without cause. The exposure of the stationery shop owner might trigger a chain reaction.

Coincidentally, the young man in the Zhongshan suit appeared at the scene yesterday—now he was slowly walking nearby, seemingly watching the commotion, only a few meters from Xu.

The agents tailing him kept at least thirty meters away, speaking in low voices to avoid being overheard.

“Keep moving forward, don’t look back or panic. There are agents following you,” Xu whispered as the young man passed by.

Obediently, the young man’s pace did not waver, as if he had anticipated this.

“The stationery shop owner is compromised—you’re under surveillance too!”

Xu passed him on his bicycle, quickly uttering the warning before heading back to the teahouse. The young man calmly walked past the stationery shop, revealing remarkable composure.

(End of Chapter)