Courtyard House: Home Alone

"Station Chief Chen, you can try and see if you can draw your gun faster, or if you'll die faster."

Lin Yifan's voice was very soft, as if he were talking about today's weather. He didn't even look at Chen Gongshu's already tense hand, but just bent down and added a piece of firewood to the fireplace.

Chen Gongshu's fingers froze.

It wasn't the threat—he'd seen more threats than he'd eaten rice in his ten years in the Military Intelligence Bureau. What truly paralyzed him was the young man's matter-of-fact certainty, as if death wasn't a threat, but a preordained event.

"You're joking, young master."

He slowly loosened the gun handle, his palms already damp with a fine layer of sweat. "I, Chen, have taken the liberty of coming to your door to ask Long Xiaoni to introduce me to 'Ghost.' Since you know my identity, you must also understand the Director's sincerity—"

"Dai Yunong's sincerity?" Lin Yifan finally raised his head, a half-smile playing on his lips. "A spy chief, would he have sincerity?"

He gestured with his lip toward the chair next to him: "Sit down. I'm only doing this for Grandma Long's sake. Otherwise, you would have been in the dark room yesterday."

Did you know that Xu Zheng was a prominent figure in the Military Intelligence Bureau? He only lasted three days in the solitary confinement room before giving up completely. During that time, we didn't touch a single hair on his head.

And Liu Quande? Needless to say, he didn't even last two days. You may be known as the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Four Great Generals, but I bet you won't last four days either.

Do you know why they're still being so polite to you? You don't need to look after Grandma Long; she doesn't have that much influence.

That's because I think you're a decent man. So far, you've planned and carried out more than a hundred assassinations against Japanese soldiers and traitors.

The only time you failed was in Hanoi against Wang Jingwei, but that can't really be considered a failure, since you at least killed his secretary.

And what was the result? The result is that you've been under house arrest for so long. Releasing you back to Beiping this time is so you can come back to find the 'ghost,' isn't it?

He took a sip of tea, then looked up at Long Xiaoni, who was standing frozen in the doorway: "Grandma Long, there are hot buns in the kitchen. Xinyi knows your taste, so she's finely shredded pickled radish."

Long Xiaoni chuckled and turned to walk towards the backyard. The cotton curtain swayed behind her, re-isolating the main room into a closed space.

As Chen Gongshu listened to her footsteps fade into the distance, looking at the child before him, he had a strange feeling, and his Adam's apple bobbed: "How do you know my identity?"

"I don't know, but 'Ghost' knows."

"The Ghost is truly all-powerful." He chose a safe form of address. "I wonder what brings Young Master Lin here?"

"I wouldn't presume to offer advice. I simply wanted to chat with you about your future and life."

Lin Yifan moved his teacup aside and continued, "How much of a chance do you think you have against 'Ghost'?"

Chen Gongshu did not answer immediately. The only sound in the main room was the crackling of the firewood burning in the fireplace, with an occasional spark or two flying out and extinguishing into a small clump of white ash on the blue brick floor.

He stared at the cup of tea that had been moved away—the tea had gone cold, and a thin film had formed on the surface, like some kind of unhealed scar.

"Young Master Lin is joking," he finally spoke, his voice drier than expected. "I, Chen, have never intended to be an enemy of 'Ghost'."

"Never thought about it?"

Lin Yifan suddenly smiled, a smile that made him look like an ordinary young man in his early twenties. "Station Chief Chen, although I am still a child, I am not someone who can be easily fooled."

Your bureau chief and principal must have told you before they left that it would be best if "Ghost" could be used by the Party and the state, and if that wasn't possible, they absolutely mustn't let him become an ally of the Red Party. Am I right?

Chen Gongshu's lips twitched. He recalled Dai Li's words in the secret room before his departure—"Gongshu, when you go to Beiping, if you can take it, take it; if you can't..." He didn't finish his sentence, but that meaningful pause was more unsettling than any explicit instruction.

"Since Young Master Lin knows everything," he decided to stop hiding his intentions, "then he must also know that I, Chen, am currently a criminal. Regarding the Hanoi matter, although the Director didn't explicitly state it, but..."

"But your days in the Military Intelligence Bureau are over."

Lin Yifan finished speaking for him, his tone as calm as if he were recounting old news unrelated to himself, "Unless you can perform an extraordinary feat. And 'Ghost' is your last gamble."

He suddenly leaned forward, his eyes taking on a strange amber hue in the firelight: "But have you ever thought about why Dai Yunong sent you here?"

Of the four top secret agents of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Zhao Lijun is dead, Wang Tianmu defected to the Wang Jingwei regime, and Shen Zui is still relatively inexperienced—you are indeed the best candidate. But the best is often the most dangerous.

You must have heard about the "Ghost" before you came to Beiping, right? What did you think of the things the "Ghost" did?

Chen Gongshu's Adam's apple bobbed again. He recalled that night on the train heading south, the rumors whispered by the merchants in his carriage... no one dared to come to North China as commander of the expeditionary army; three Japanese divisions were wiped out overnight; more than ten foreign banks in Shanghai were emptied out...

"Appearing and disappearing like a ghost."

He carefully chose his words, "His methods were ruthless; he specialized in killing traitors and Japanese invaders. It's said in the martial arts world..."

What are they saying?

"Everyone says 'Ghost' is a ghost, not a person," Chen Gongshu said with a wry smile. "It can take a life within a hundred paces without leaving a trace, it can move through layers of guards as if they were nothing, it can..."

"And what about you? What are you thinking, the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Four Great Generals?"

Chen Gongshu's fingers unconsciously traced the leather texture on the gun handle, which was now soft and damp with the sweat of his palms. The firewood in the fireplace collapsed, sending up a few sparks that burned tiny spots of light in his pupils.

"I want to..." he began, his voice seeming to come from a great distance, "I want to see him."

"who?"

"'Ghost'." Chen Gongshu raised his head, looking directly at Lin Yifan for the first time. "I have been in the Military Intelligence Bureau for ten years and have killed quite a few people, but I have never seen such methods before."

That night in Hanoi, there were sixteen of us, sixteen guns, and Wang Jingwei's bedroom was just thirty paces from the end of the corridor...

He made a loose fist in the air. "Thirty steps, it took us three minutes. In those three minutes, the guards changed shifts, the corridor lights went out and came on again, and when we rushed in, Zeng Zhongming, his secretary, was lying on the bed."

Lin Yifan didn't speak, but simply added another piece of firewood to the fireplace. The firelight cast flickering shadows on his profile.

"In retrospect,..."

Chen Gongshu's voice lowered, "The Director said it was an inside leak. But I know it wasn't. In those three minutes, someone was leading us by the nose, like playing chess, every move landing in the most crucial place. It's very similar to the methods of the legendary 'ghost.'"