50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 225 A Stumbling Learning Path
After Sun Zhiwei walked away, the two began to discuss their matter. Sun Zhiwei could no longer see what was going on, but he could guess what it was about.

This kind of thing is very common nowadays, and Sun Zhiwei is not a saint; he shouldn't meddle in other people's business.

These two seem to be willing to give and take, and they're probably both happy about it. He wouldn't interfere for no reason, and he might even incur their resentment.

When he returned from the toilet, Old Man Cao and Cadre Li were already chatting and laughing, and the atmosphere was much more harmonious than before.

Sun Zhiwei didn't even glance at Officer Li's bulging briefcase, but instead turned to talk to Master Cao. The two agreed to start their training tomorrow.

Of course, this kind of teaching couldn't be done in front of outsiders. Master Cao arranged for the learning location to be in his shop on the street, which was where he worked every day.

Learning lock picking from Master Cao was just a transaction, and it seems there are other transactions behind this one.

He couldn't be bothered with the dirty dealings behind it all. After finding out the location of the class the next day, he left the gift and took his leave.

The next day, Sun Zhiwei arrived at the repair shop on the street wearing a set of work clothes. Master Cao had a separate workroom there.

This workshop contains Master Cao's commonly used tools and many different locks.

In the early days of the public-private partnership, Master Cao made an agreement with the neighborhood committee that he would only be responsible for unlocking locks, not for teaching apprentices, and that he could only unlock locks by himself each time, with no one allowed to watch.

Later, many of the high-end safes we seized were opened by Master Cao. His skill remains unmatched to this day; there is no lock he cannot open.

Master Cao is a traditional craftsman, and he is surprisingly resolute in keeping his craft secret.

Even though he has been severely punished in recent years, he still insists on the principle of unlocking locks by himself, and the neighborhood committee has no way to deal with him.

With the added assurance of a superior to vouch for him, Master Cao miraculously made it through safely.

No one knows what price was paid to get Master Cao to make an exception and accept him as an apprentice.

Of course, the old-fashioned rules for accepting apprentices are no longer followed now. When Sun Zhiwei arrived, he simply saluted Master Cao.

Then the two began teaching and learning. Master Cao wasn't very educated, so he didn't have any theory for teaching his apprentice; he just demonstrated on the spot.

He started by teaching Sun Zhiwei the simplest locks, showing him the locks, then opening them with tools, and then locking them again for Sun Zhiwei to try.

If that didn't work, he would then point out where to apply force and where to turn in circles, teaching every detail of the movement in detail.

In short, this teaching model is like passing through levels, one level after another. Once he has opened all kinds of locks at Master Cao's place, he will be considered a master.

Because of the space around him, he could clearly see the structure inside the lock cylinder, so he learned to pick locks very quickly.

In just one hour, ordinary locks were no longer a challenge for him, leaving Master Cao quite astonished by his rapid progress.

But soon his interest was piqued. Throughout history, apprentices have chosen their masters, and masters have chosen their apprentices. A teacher would be very excited to teach a genius apprentice.

Master Cao is now in this state, wanting to see where the limits of this apprentice who was suddenly handed to him are.

Sun Zhiwei absorbed Master Cao's lock-picking skills like a sponge, and by noon, the two had already started teaching each other how to open safes.

At this time, safes mainly used two types of locks: rotary combination locks and traditional mechanical locks.

Mechanical locks work on a similar principle to ordinary locks, and Sun Zhiwei quickly learned how to use them.

The solution to a combination lock is completely different from that of a mechanical lock. He began to observe Master Cao opening the first rotary combination lock. By observing the structure of the combination lock, he clearly saw Master Cao's every move and what effect he was trying to achieve.

This learning method is unique and cannot be imitated by anyone else; it's like having a cheat code.

As he looked at all the locks in the room that had been opened before leaving get off work that evening, Mr. Cao sighed inwardly.

"I never imagined that you would learn all the skills I've mastered in a single day."

“You are my first apprentice to graduate. I don’t have much money, so I’ll give you this set of old lock-picking tools.”

Master Cao took off his old leather fanny pack from his waist and handed the whole pack to Sun Zhiwei.

Sun Zhiwei glanced at Master Cao's determined eyes and could only accept the pouch. It was indeed something he needed, saving him the trouble of making his own tools.

As for Master Cao, since he had been his teacher for a day, he should find a way to repay the favor.

After saying goodbye to Master Cao, Sun Zhiwei went to the Xichang'an Street Subdistrict Office and found Liang Xiuying, the subdistrict director.

I talked to him about Master Cao's situation and asked Aunt Liang to help make arrangements.

Housing is very tight right now, but for Aunt Liang, who controls all the housing in the community, arranging for a family of seven is not a difficult task.

Half a month later, Mr. Cao's second son got a job in Xichang'an Street. Three months later, Mr. Cao's family moved to Xisi Community and got rid of Officer Li's harassment.

That's another story. After saying goodbye to Aunt Liang, Sun Zhiwei went straight home. He didn't expect to learn lock picking so quickly, completing what was originally a week's worth of work in just one day.

But right now, he hasn't found any other teachers yet, so he has to go back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help the next day.

This year, the department is short-staffed, and everyone is very busy, so he can't stay idle at home.

A week later, Director Xu found an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor who was there to teach Sun Zhiwei about medicines, especially natural ones, which the old doctor knew very well.

Sun Zhiwei specifically studied various drugs and medicinal materials that can cause illness or death, especially some synthetic drugs, which are not poisonous when used separately, but become poisonous when used together.

He originally thought the old Chinese medicine doctor would spout a lot of grand theories, but to his surprise, the old doctor was quite open-minded and didn't seem to have any psychological burden when it came to getting paid.

During one of his classes, Sun Zhiwei couldn't help but ask.

The old Chinese medicine doctor laughed instead: "Do you think all old Chinese medicine doctors are old-fashioned? Back in the day, I used my poison skills to wipe out a whole company of Japanese soldiers."

"As long as it's about killing the enemy, there's no need to be afraid of any means. Any method that can kill the enemy quickly is a good method."

It turned out that this was an old revolutionary. Sun Zhiwei was filled with respect. No wonder Director Xu had invited him to teach him.

"Old comrade, I have a suggestion you can listen to. You can systematically summarize the knowledge you taught me and then classify it into levels."

“In the future, there will be many people like me who need to learn. At that time, we can teach different knowledge according to the level of confidentiality. This is also a great achievement.”

The old man listened thoughtfully and nodded without saying anything more. Instead, he continued to teach Sun Zhiwei the next prescription.

That's right. Sun Zhiwei only learns the finished prescriptions, not the pharmacological principles. He's not going to become a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. For secret agents, medicine is just a tool.

(End of this chapter)