Hidden Radiance

Sun Yaozu's hand trembled slightly.

He glanced at Lu Minghui. Lu Minghui's left hand remained in his trench coat pocket, his gaze indifferent.

Sun Yaozu swallowed hard, pulled out a dagger from his waist, inserted it into the gap in the wooden box, and pried it open with force.

Click. The wooden board was lifted.

Inside, there was a neat row of white cardboard boxes. They were printed with English text.

Nanzo Yunzi stepped forward, reached out and pulled out a box, then opened it.

A small glass vial containing yellow powder. Penicillin.

Cold sweat streamed down Sun Yaozu's forehead. He didn't know that there was high explosives underneath; he only knew that being caught red-handed by the Special Higher Police for smuggling military supplies was a capital offense.

Nanzo Yunzi, holding the medicine bottle, turned to look at Lu Minghui.

"An engineer detector?" Nanzo Yunzi's voice turned cold.

Lu Minghui took two steps closer and lowered his voice. "Yunzi, too much clarity leaves no room for fish. Someone up there wants to make a quick buck off this train. Section Chief Nakajima is turning a blind eye. Do you really want to spell it out?"

Nanzo Yunko looked at him.

Lu Minghui pulled his hand out of his pocket.

The two looked at each other.

Five seconds later, Nanzo Yunko threw the medicine bottle back into the box. "Close it. Hurry up."

She turned and walked to the edge of the platform, no longer looking at the wooden crates.

Sun Yaozu felt as if he had been granted a pardon. He quickly nailed the wooden planks together, ordered his men to lift the boxes, and rushed towards the military train.

Lu Minghui stood still.

The wind was strong at the North Station, whipping up coal dust that stung my face.

wrong.

Nanzo Yunzi seized on the smuggling of military supplies, but instead of making a fuss about it, she didn't even check the second layer of security and let them pass directly.

She's waiting for something bigger.

Lu Minghui walked to the edge of the platform and stood next to Nanzao Yunzi.

"Minghui-kun, would you like one?" Nanzo Yunzi took out a silver cigarette case and handed it to him.

The cigarette case was silver, but the cigarettes were the same brand as Lu Minghui's.

"Thank you." Lu Minghui took out a cigarette.

Nanzo Yunko struck a match and lit it for him. The firelight illuminated her face, and the corner of her mouth curled up slightly, very faintly.

His hand trembled slightly as he lit someone's cigarette.

Lu Minghui took a drag of his cigarette. His gaze swept over the hand without lingering.

She prepared cigarettes for him. She kept watch all night. She was waiting for an outcome she didn't want to see.

"It's windy." Lu Minghui exhaled a puff of smoke.

Nanzo Yunzi didn't reply. She flicked out the match and tossed it casually onto the railway tracks.

She had been manning the North Station all night. Mao Sen only reported to Nakajima this morning that the Communists were planning to bomb the train.

The deployment of surveillance precedes the reporting.

She wasn't guarding against the Red Party.

She suspected he was the one who did it. She watched him load the box onto the car, wait for the bomb to be planted, wait for the timer to start, and then blockade the military train, catching him red-handed.

There is only one possible source of the leak—last night's urgent coded telegram.

Lu Minghui glanced at his watch.

7:40.

The special operations team members had been in the carriage for ten minutes. As planned, they were removing the explosives from the bottom of the boxes and stuffing them into a hidden compartment in the carriage.

In five minutes, Nanzo Yunko will make her move.

Lu Minghui threw the cigarette on the ground and extinguished it with his military boots.

"Sun Yaozu!" Lu Minghui suddenly turned around and shouted at the platform.

Sun Yaozu was smoking outside a train car when he was startled and quickly ran over.

"Director."

"Stop dawdling over bomb detection!" Lu Minghui kicked Sun Yaozu in the shin. "Ten minutes have passed, and not a single explosion! Go and urge them on! Tell them if they're not done in five minutes, they're all fired!"

Sun Yaozu, after being kicked, nodded repeatedly. "Yes! I'll go and urge them right away!"

He turned and ran toward the military train, climbing onto the carriage.

Nanzo Yunzi's eyes flickered as she watched Lu Minghui get angry.

"Director Lu is very impatient," Nanzo Yunzi said.

"We'll leave at eight. If the Red Party's bombs aren't defused, we'll all die as soon as the bus starts moving." Lu Minghui straightened his trench coat collar. "I'm doing this for Section Chief Yunzi's safety."

Inside the train carriage.

Two special operations team members had just taken the explosive charge out of the bottom of the box and were preparing to stuff it into the ventilation vent compartment.

Sun Yaozu rushed in, covered in sweat.

"Hurry up! The section chief is furious! If you can't finish in five minutes, get out!" Sun Yaozu shouted at the top of his lungs.

The two team members froze instantly.

Sun Yaozu.

Before setting off, Lu Minghui instructed that if Sun Yaozu personally got into the car and urged them to hurry, no matter what he said, the trip should be canceled immediately.

The team member glanced at the explosive pack in his hand.

The timer hasn't been started yet.

He shoved the explosive charge directly into Sun Yaozu's arms.

"Captain Sun! It's lined up!" a team member shouted.

Sun Yaozu instinctively caught it. The heavy canvas bag reeked of gunpowder.

He looked down and saw the lead wire sticking out.

Sun Yaozu's face turned pale instantly. He thought this was a bomb dropped by the Communist Party.

"There's a bomb!" Sun Yaozu screamed, grabbing the explosive pack and running out of the car.

On the platform.

Sun Yaozu stumbled over and placed the explosive charge on the ground.

"Director! Section Chief! It's out! It's in the mezzanine of the third carriage!" Sun Yaozu panted, pointing to the canvas bag on the ground.

Lu Minghui looked at the explosive charge on the ground.

Half a month. The savings I accumulated little by little.

It's all ruined.

His back teeth ached from clenching them, and a vein throbbed in his temple.

"How dare they!" Lu Minghui drew his sidearm and pointed it at the military train. "The Reds really planted bombs! Keep searching! Turn every carriage upside down!"

Nanzo Yunko stared at the explosive charge on the ground.

The canvas bag was stained with machine oil, but the fuse was new. She walked over, squatted down, and touched the outer shell of the explosive charge.

The bomb is real.

She turned her head and glanced at Lu Minghui.

Lu Minghui's men removed the bomb from the train carriage. All thirty members of the special operations team were registered agents of 76. No one planted it for him; someone else defused it for him.

Nanzo Yunzi stood up.

"Yunzi." Lu Minghui turned to look at her, his tone icy. "The Special Higher Police deployed surveillance at the North Station last night. How did the Red Party manage to get such a large quantity of explosives onto the train?"

Nanzo Yunzi had no way to refute this.

The bomb was found within her defense zone. This was a dereliction of duty by the Special Higher Police.

"Take men up and search," Nanzo Yunko ordered the military police behind her.

Military police rushed onto the military train.

Ten minutes later, the military police and special operations team got off the vehicle one after another.

Five more explosive charges were found during the search.

They were all piled up on the platform.

Lu Minghui stared at the explosives, his jaw clenched. Six boxes, half a ton of explosives, not a single bit left; it was all thanks to his "investigation."

"Reporting to the section chief, the entire vehicle has been searched. No other explosives were found," the military police reported.

Nanzo Yunzi looked at the pile of explosives.

"Mr. Minghui," Nanzo Yunzi's tone softened somewhat, "we owe you a great debt today. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable once the military train departed."

"It's my duty." Lu Minghui put away his gun.

He looked at Nanzo Yunzi. If she hadn't reacted quickly today, she would have sealed off the military train and found the bomb she was planting within five minutes.

woo-

It's exactly eight o'clock.

The military train's whistle blared.

The wheels screeched against the rails. The massive black steel behemoth slowly began to move.

Lu Minghui stood in the wind, watching the sealed carriages slide past him one by one.

The military train was not blown up.

The germs from Unit 1644 are traveling along the railway tracks towards Zhejiang.

Nanzo Yunzi turned and walked towards the car.

"Minghui-kun, I'm taking this batch of explosives back to the Mei Agency for inspection. I'll continue to pursue the Red Party's leads."

Lu Minghui ignored her.

He stared at the departing train.

The forced passage to Shanghai Station was completely cut off. The military had identified Shanghai as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, which was heavily guarded by the Japanese army.

We must find someone to stop it.

Lu Minghui turned around and walked towards the Ford sedan.

"Return to number 76."

Sun Yaozu climbed into the driver's seat and started the car.

Lu Minghui leaned back in the back seat.

The first train has departed. The second train departs at 11:00. Which train is the virus on? If it's on both trains, how can they be stopped simultaneously?

The train traveling from Shanghai to Hangzhou must pass through a certain place.

Jiaxing.

The lifeline of the railway. If the rails break, the trains can't pass.

"Drive faster," he said to Sun Yaozu.

The car drove onto Jessfield Road.

Lu Minghui pushed open the office door.

Mao Sen was sitting on the sofa, drinking tea.

"Director Lu is back." Mao Sen put down his teacup. "I heard that the North Station achieved a great victory, disposing of half a ton of explosives. Section Chief Nakajima is very pleased and said he will recommend you for commendation."

Lu Minghui walked to the table, picked up the telephone receiver, and put it back.

"Director Mao," Lu Minghui turned around and looked at him, "you've given your pledge of loyalty. Now, it's time for you to repay me a favor."

Mao Sen narrowed his eyes.

"What favor?"

"I want you to use the Kuomintang's Loyal and Patriotic Army's hidden forces in Jiaxing," Lu Minghui said in a low voice, "to blow up the Jiaxing Railway Bridge."

Mao Sen suddenly stood up.

"Are you crazy!" Mao Sen stared at him intently. "Boss Dai ordered silence! If the Loyal and Patriotic Army is exposed, it will be heavily besieged and wiped out by the Japanese army!"

"The military train is loaded with the 1644 virus. When we get to Zhejiang, the Changde incident will happen again." Lu Minghui took a step closer. "The number of dead will be ten times that of the Loyal and Patriotic Army."

Mao Sen gritted his teeth.

"I have no command authority. The Loyal and Patriotic Army only obeys Boss Dai's orders."

"You do." Lu Minghui stared at him. "You're the head of the operations team. You have the emergency mobilization code."

The office was deathly silent.

Only the clock on the wall ticked.

Mao Sen looked at Lu Minghui.

"Blowing up the bridge takes time to prepare," Mao Sen said. "The train will arrive in Jiaxing in three hours. No, the military train only takes two hours, there's simply not enough time."

"There's still time." Lu Minghui turned and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Mao Sen asked.

Lu Minghui opened the door.

"I'll go and stop the train."

The door closed.

Mao Sen stood there, staring at the closed door.

He reached his right hand into his pocket and felt the hard cover of the codebook. He pinched it, then released it. He pinched it again.

It was pulled out.

At 11:00 AM, the second military train will depart from the North Station.

Lu Minghui sat in the car and glanced at his watch.

Only two hours.

No, not even two hours have passed.

He had to get both trains to stop before Jiaxing within an hour and a half.

Outside the car window, Shanghai at the end of March was a gloomy gray, with the sky overcast and bluish. Fog from the direction of the Huangpu River swept along the ground, blurring the entire street.

Lu Minghui pushed open the car door and stepped into the fog.

"Go to the South Manchuria Railway dispatch office," Lu Minghui said to Sun Yaozu.

Sun Yaozu was stunned.

"Chief, the South Manchuria Railway is the core territory of the Japanese. What are we going there for?"

Lu Minghui got into the car. "Drive."

The Ford sedan lurched forward, its tires leaving a black trail as they rolled over the wet asphalt.

The first military train had already passed Songjiang and was speeding south along the railway tracks.