Arriving in Nanjing, Liu Xin Jie felt a mixture of emotions.
He was an underground worker for our party, codename 031, a veteran of the underground, but now he was a dead pawn, having been dormant for years, waiting to be awakened.
However, there was no news.
When Liu Xin Jie was in the mountain city, besides having meals and drinks with a few colleagues he was close to, or going fishing together, he didn't attend any banquets or gatherings, making him seem very solitary. He wasn't inherently solitary, but he didn't dare to participate. After years of living in seclusion, Liu Xin Jie was worried whether he could hold on for long in this dazzling world.
He was both questioning himself and persevering silently.
The time he spent with Tan Zhong Shu was the happiest and most relaxed period, but seeing Tan Zhong Shu wholeheartedly serving the Nationalist government filled Liu Xin Jie with unease.
Their positions were different, and one day they would inevitably part ways.
This wasn't what Liu Xin Jie wanted, but where in the world are there perfect things?
He came to Nanjing to help Chen Han Wen do business. At this time, Nanjing was still under the Wang Jingwei regime, a Japanese-controlled territory.
But after arriving here, Liu Xin Jie learned how powerful Chen Han Wen truly was.
On the streets of Nanjing, the signboard of the Zhong Yi Trading Company was prominently displayed in the city's most bustling area. Everyone knew that Zhong Yi Trading was Chen Han Wen's business, but no one dared to cause trouble.
On his first day in Nanjing, Liu Xin Jie was summoned by the notorious traitor Zhou Fo Hai. During the meeting, Zhou Fo Hai expressed his full support for any business Liu Xin Jie conducted in Nanjing and took the opportunity to request that when Liu Xin Jie sent a telegram back to Chen Han Wen, he could speak well of him in the message.
Zhou Fo Hai also knew that the Japanese were about to be defeated, and now he felt like an ant on a hot pan.
He just wanted to show his loyalty to the Nationalist government so that when he was put on trial, he could receive lenient punishment.
Liu Xin Jie remained silent about this, saying that he would speak as Zhou Fo Hai wanted, but he couldn't guarantee the outcome.
Even without a guarantee, it was enough to make Zhou Fo Hai, a notorious traitor, overjoyed. He treated Liu Xin Jie as a brother with great familiarity and assured him that no matter what he did in Nanjing, he would fully cooperate.
What Liu Xin Jie wanted most was for him to die.
With the full cooperation of various traitors under the Wang Jingwei regime, Liu Xin Jie's real estate acquisition business was highly successful. Property deeds for shops, mansions, and other properties were delivered to Liu Xin Jie, and they said that the money was not urgent, just take it if you can, then expressed their desire for Liu Xin Jie to put in a good word for Chen Han Wen...
In less than a week in Nanjing, Liu Xin Jie felt like his values were being violently shaken.
He even had the urge to blow himself up with a bomb alongside the members of the Wang Jingwei Executive Yuan.
As usual, Liu Xin Jie left his home, bought breakfast and newspapers on his way to Zhong Yi Trading Company, and after returning to his office, he started filling out the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper.
Liu Xin Jie had been injured in the war, leaving one of his ears deaf, and his mind would occasionally go blank, causing him unbearable pain.
The Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper was a way for his superiors to contact him. To the outside world, Liu Xin Jie claimed to use Sudoku puzzles to keep his mind sharp.
Today's Sudoku game was different from the ones he had played before.
After connecting the numbers in the Sudoku puzzle, he realized it was a contact signal from his superiors.
North He 3364 channel, 2 am!
Waiting for a mission!
Mission?
Liu Xin Jie's heart raced with excitement. After ten years of silence, had his superiors finally remembered him, 031?
Waiting... Finally, there was a result.
Liu Xin Jie felt the excitement and thrill of finding home.
However, the final result was disappointing.
Every night at 2 am, he would set an alarm to listen to the news, but there was never any intelligence transmitted.
He waited until mid-April.
...
As Chen Han Wen knew, the ones who came to Nanjing to carry out the assassination mission were Lü Zong Fang and Yu Ze Cheng.
At this time, Yu Ze Cheng's face was filled with displeasure. He was very unhappy about Lü Zong Fang's actions of going through his personal belongings.
The letter he wrote to Zuo Lan was found by Lü Zong Fang, who then returned it to him, sternly warning Yu Ze Cheng that doing so would cause great trouble for him and Zuo Lan.
Yu Ze Cheng didn't understand, it was just a letter.
The letter didn't explicitly state Zuo Lan's identity. Even if someone found it, what could they do?
At this time, Yu Ze Cheng's way of thinking was still naive. In other words, he hadn't yet been beaten by reality.
He was always a little transparent in the Military 통신부, and since he was copying and writing in the telecommunications section, he had never seen the brutal methods of the Military 통신부. Now, he was yearning for a happy life back home after the war was over...
However, under the manipulation of fate, Yu Ze Cheng embarked on a path he never imagined.
This was what Lü Zong Fang wanted to see, and it was what Chen Han Wen expected.
In order for Yu Ze Cheng to play his role, to successfully complete his life's transformation, and to protect Lü Zong Fang's life, Chen Han Wen had spent a lot of brainpower to create a relatively perfect plan.
What the plan was, Lü Zong Fang didn't know, his superiors didn't know either, only a series of codes.
The only one who knew Chen Han Wen's plan... was Liu Xin Jie, who was supposed to carry out the mission.
On the first night Lü Zong Fang arrived in Nanjing, Liu Xin Jie finally received a message.
It wasn't a message of awakening, but a detailed plan.
After reading the plan, Liu Xin Jie leaned heavily on the sofa, unable to speak for a long time.
This plan seemed to have nothing to do with his dormancy, more like a temporary plan, and what surprised him even more was that Lü Zong Fang, an old officer from the Military 통신부's operations department, was actually a comrade.
...
As planned, Yu Ze Cheng went by the name Lao Wen Chi.
He was assigned to the Political Security Headquarters' telecommunications department and infiltrated Li Hai Feng's side to monitor his every move.
He needed to record Li Hai Feng's movements clearly.
Then, he would send the information to Lü Zong Fang, who would carry out the final step of the assassination plan.
Meanwhile, Lü Zong Fang went to the Shaanxi Guildhall and met with Tie Lao Ban, the head of the underground party organization in Nanjing.
Tie Lao Ban had already learned about Lü Zong Fang's purpose in coming to Nanjing, but when he heard Lü Zong Fang say that he had been exposed, Tie Lao Ban couldn't help but show concern: "Why didn't you retreat after being exposed? Comrade Lü Zong Fang, you're an old underground worker, don't you understand how to protect yourself? Since you've already been exposed, your mission to assassinate Li Hai Feng is most likely a scheme by Dai Li to lure the tiger out of its den!"
"I know, but that mysterious person told me to come to Nanjing and carry out the current mission as instructed."
Lü Zong Fang was also puzzled, only speculating: "He may want to use my mission to accomplish his own work. The series of numbers he gave you a few days ago, the mysterious person in the Military 통신부 asked me to do it. Such a long code, the mission is probably not simple."
"Do you know the identity of that mysterious person?"
Tie Lao Ban hesitated, then expressed his guess: "Could it be... someone from the Military 통신부 deliberately did this to lure you into a trap?"
Lü Zong Fang shook his head: "No, if the Military 통신부 wanted to kill me, they wouldn't go through all this trouble. They wouldn't need to tell me about being exposed."
Tie Lao Ban asked again: "How were you exposed? Did you carelessly get discovered?"