Hidden Radiance

Toilet.

The tap was turned on full blast. The icy tap water washed over Lu Minghui's hands. The water swept away the blood from between his fingers and dripped into the sewer.

Old Zhao's blood.

Lu Minghui turned off the tap. He grabbed a towel and dried his hands, wiping them repeatedly.

He looked up at himself in the mirror; his face remained calm, but he looked somewhat unfamiliar.

Project Sugi.

The three words Old Zhao typed on the rack. No context, no explanation, just these three words.

What Lao Zhao conveyed under those circumstances must have been more important than his life.

Old Zhao didn't have a chance to finish speaking.

To find out the truth, we must get Old Zhao out alive.

No. 76 compound.

Three black Chevrolet sedans sped in, their tires screeching on the cobblestones. Before the cars had even come to a complete stop, the doors were flung open.

Li Shiqun strode out of the carriage. He wore a dark gray trench coat, his face was ashen, and his eyes were bloodshot.

Two days' delay in Nanjing caused chaos in Shanghai.

Sun Yaozu and several team leaders were waiting at the bottom of the steps, standing ramrod straight, none of them uttering a sound.

"Director." Sun Yaozu forced himself to go up to him.

Li Shiqun didn't even glance at him before walking straight into the office building.

Director's Office.

Li Shiqun sat behind his large desk and lit a cigar. He didn't smoke it, letting the smoke swirl between his fingers.

Sun Yaozu stood in front of the table and gave a full account of what had happened in the past two days.

"Fu Yewen is dead." Li Shiqun's voice was calm, revealing no emotion.

"Yes. Section Chief Nakajima personally gave the order. It's been classified as colluding with the Military Intelligence Bureau and robbing gold." Sun Yaozu swallowed hard.

"Was the gold recovered?"

"No...no."

Li Shiqun grabbed the white porcelain ashtray on the table and smashed it hard at Sun Yaozu's feet.

boom.

Fragments flew everywhere, tearing Sun Yaozu's trouser leg, but he didn't dare to move.

"Two days. Just two days." Li Shiqun stood up, placed his hands on the table, and leaned forward. "In less than ten days, Wu Sibao died, and my brother-in-law died too. The guard brigade fell into She Aizhen's hands, and the confidential office went to Lu Minghui. You bunch of useless trash, is 76 changing its name?"

Sun Yaozu broke out in a cold sweat: "Director, Lu Minghui has Section Chief Nakajima backing him up, we..."

The door was pushed open. There was no knocking.

Lu Minghui walked in, holding a document in his hand.

"Director Li, you must be tired from your journey." Lu Minghui walked to the table and put down the documents.

Li Shiqun straightened up and stared at him.

This face is young, cold, and clean with no expression.

"Director Lu," Li Shiqun said, uttering the three words, "you've been promoted. Congratulations!"

"Thanks to the director," Lu Minghui said, meeting his gaze. "This is a copy of the case closure report signed by Section Chief Nakajima, concerning the vault robbery and Fu Yewen's alleged treason. Please take a look, director."

Li Shiqun did not look at the document.

He walked around the desk and stood in front of Lu Minghui. The two were less than half a meter apart.

"I know my brother-in-law is greedy. But he didn't have the guts to collude with the Military Intelligence Bureau." Li Shiqun's voice was squeezed out through clenched teeth. "Lu Minghui, you took his life with a few pieces of waste paper."

"Director Li, please be careful with your words." Lu Minghui pointed to the file folder. "I also believe in Director Fu's loyalty, but this is the Japanese's characterization. It's a case handled by Gu Yunqiu, and Section Chief Nakajima personally closed it."

Li Shiqun stared intently at Lu Minghui.

Lu Minghui looked back at him, not giving an inch.

Li Shiqun suddenly laughed.

It wasn't an angry laugh, but a calm indifference as his consciousness returned. He took a step back, opened a drawer, and took out a white porcelain cup, part of the same set as the ashtray he had just smashed.

Gently place the cup on the corner of the table.

"Director Lu, please have a cup of tea before you leave."

Lu Minghui looked at the cup. It was upside down on the table, rim facing down.

He didn't touch it.

"A copy of the case closure report is here." Lu Minghui's tone remained unchanged. "If the director has any questions, he can ask Secretary Gu or contact Section Chief Nakajima directly."

"Good. Very good." Li Shiqun straightened his suit and tie. "76 is an important agency of the new government, and we hope Director Lu will cooperate with us in the future."

"That's only right, thank you, Director." Lu Minghui turned and walked out.

As I reached the door, Li Shiqun's voice followed me.

"I heard Secretary Gu arrested a Communist Party member. Did Director Lu interrogate him personally?"

Lu Minghui stopped in his tracks.

"He's a rickshaw puller, but he's got a tough ego. I'm just assisting Secretary Gu with this case. If the director is interested, he can go take a look at the basement."

"I will go," Li Shiqun sneered. "The more stubborn you are, the higher your value is."

Lu Minghui walked down the corridor. His steps were steady.

If you want to drink tea together, you must first turn the teacup upside down so that the teapot is in the other person's hand.

Return to the confidential office and close the door.

Lu Minghui opened the drawer and took out a topographical map of No. 76. The interrogation room was at the far west end of the basement level, with ventilation ducts connecting to the boiler room. The back door of the boiler room led to an alley outside the west wall of No. 76. The alley was less than two meters wide and was always piled with coal ash.

He made a mark on the ventilation duct with his fingernail and closed the map.

And one more thing.

In the interrogation room, Old Zhao sang the Internationale twice. The rhythm of the second time was different from the first. This unusual refrain did not escape Gu Yunqiu's notice.

The codebook must not fall into her hands.

He picked up the phone and dialed the guard unit.

"Deputy Captain Sun, come to my office."

Soon, Sun Yaozu pushed open the door and came in.

"Commander Lu, you wanted to see me?" Sun Yaozu bowed and scraped. Li Shiqun had just finished venting his anger, and now he dared not offend anyone.

"Director Li is back. Your life must be even harder now." Lu Minghui tossed him a cigarette.

Sun Yaozu took the cigarette with both hands and smiled wryly: "The director is in a bad mood and doesn't like anyone."

"The Green Gang is a complex force, and so is the 76th Division." Lu Minghui lit a match and leaned over to light Sun Yaozu's cigarette. "When a hunter is eyeing his prey, his biggest fear is that the prey will turn its gaze back. You need to make Director Li look elsewhere."

Sun Yaozu took a drag and looked at Lu Minghui by the firelight: "Commander Lu, could you please show me the way?"

"Gu Yunqiu's men went to search No. 142 Qingyun Road, Zhabei. That's where the Red Party member she arrested lived." Lu Minghui sat back in his chair, crossing his legs.

Sun Yaozu's eyes flickered slightly: "What does Commander Lu mean?"

"It's inappropriate for a secretary in the Confidential Affairs Department to have too much credit," Lu Minghui said, looking at him. "This should be the job of the Security Department or the Action Team. You take the Security Department and the Action Team with you. Ostensibly, you're assisting with the search, but in reality, you're taking over the operation. Whatever you find, bring it back to 76. This is a good opportunity for you to prove your loyalty to Director Li."

Sun Yaozu hesitated: "This is Secretary Gu's case. Secretary Gu is Section Chief Nakajima's man..."

"I'm also one of Section Chief Nakajima's men. Besides—" Lu Minghui's voice turned cold, "She's done all your and She Aizhen's work, so what's the point of your existence?"

He stood up and patted Sun Yaozu on the shoulder.

"At No. 76, you were one of my people. Otherwise, I wouldn't have pulled you out of the basement in the first place."

Sun Yaozu's eyelashes trembled. He stubbed out the cigarette in his palm, held it for two seconds, and then threw it away.

"I'll go right now." Sun Yaozu turned and left.

After Sun Yaozu left, Lu Minghui stood up and walked to the window.

Sun Yaozu's men were bound to clash with the South Manchuria Railway Company. Li Shiqun's action team, She Aizhen's guards, and the South Manchuria Railway Company's special agents were locked in a standoff in Zhabei.

That's exactly the chaos he wanted.

Third floor, Gu Yunqiu's office.

Gu Yunqiu sat at her desk. A sheet of white paper lay on the desk, and she held a fountain pen in her hand, the nib hovering over the paper.

Long, short, long, short and long...

She drew three horizontal lines on the paper.

This is the rhythm of Lao Zhao tapping the horizontal bar of the rack with his left hand.

She closed her eyes.

The sounds from the basement came back, frame by frame.

"The March of the Volunteers." Old Zhao sang it twice.

The first time, the rhythm was perfect and the beat was exciting.

The second time, Lu Minghui's whip lashed him. *Crack. Crack. Crack.*

Despite the sounds of flesh tearing open, Old Zhao's singing didn't stop. But a few syllables were drawn out, and a few paused.

It doesn't hurt.

The changes in tone caused by pain are irregular, but Lao Zhao's pauses have intervals, varying in length, and follow a certain pattern.

Gu Yunqiu opened her eyes.

password.

Old Zhao was no ordinary underground courier. He was transmitting intelligence. Even in that extremely painful state, he remained absolutely clear-headed, concealing the information within the tapping and singing.

The interrogation room contained only the thugs, her, and Lu Minghui.

Gu Yunqiu's gaze fell on the paper. Without a codebook, these syllables of varying lengths were just a jumble of useless code.

She stood up and hurried downstairs.

The codebook might still be at Old Zhao's place. If we can get the codebook and decipher the secret in that song, we can expose the ghost.

Lu Minghui walked out of the office, went downstairs, got his car, and started the engine.

The Ford sedan drove out of Gate 76.

He glanced in the rearview mirror. A black Buick sedan had pulled up. It was one of Li Shiqun's men.

The tail didn't get lost. The car drove smoothly towards Qingyun Road in Zhabei.

Sun Yaozu went to "assist," while he went to "control the situation." He didn't care about being followed at all.

The agents of the South Manchuria Railway had turned Old Zhao's house upside down. The plaster on the walls was scraped off, and the floor tiles were pried up.

"Captain, found it!" An agent pulled a metal box from a hidden compartment under the bed.

The tin box was opened, revealing several silver dollars and a yellowed copy of "A New Account of Tales of the World".

The captain of the special agent picked up the book and flipped through it. The edges of the pages were worn.

"take away."

Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps came from outside the courtyard.

Sun Yaozu led more than twenty members of the 76th Division into the courtyard, their submachine guns pointed directly at the South Manchuria Railway agents inside.

"Don't move!" Sun Yaozu shouted. "76th Division is handling this case! Put the things down!"

The special agent captain's face darkened, and he drew his Nambu Type 14 pistol.

"We are from the South Manchuria Railway Bureau's Investigation Bureau! We are searching a Red Party stronghold on Secretary Gu's orders. Are you trying to rebel?"

"This is Shanghai! Director Li said that cases involving the Red Party are under the jurisdiction of the Special Agent Headquarters!" Sun Yaozu refused to back down. "Leave the evidence, and get out of here!"

The two sides were on the verge of exchanging blows, guns pointed at each other.

Gu Yunqiu, who had just arrived, frowned slightly. Was this guy crazy? Daring to point a gun at his own men?

Just as she was about to step forward, she saw Lu Minghui standing by the courtyard wall.

They stopped walking.

"Put down your guns!" Lu Minghui walked over and took the book "A New Account of Tales of the World".

The cover is yellowed, and the spine is worn white.

He flipped through a few pages; it was indeed a codebook, but it had been altered.

Close up.

It was thrown to the action team.

"This is important physical evidence. Go back and hand it over to Captain Lin."

"Commander Lu, what do you mean?" Gu Yunqiu stared at the book falling into the arms of the thugs in the action team.

She could understand whether it was destroyed or kept privately. But she couldn't understand handing it over to the action team.

The thug from the action team was also a little bewildered. Such a great achievement had suddenly fallen into his hands. He held the book with both hands, as if afraid of dropping it.

Lu Minghui's voice was cold and hard: "We are just cooperating with the action team in the search."

He then ordered the guards: "Disperse."