Chapter 2: The Special Unit’s Grand Opening, a Most Inauspicious Omen

While still in Nanjing, Zeng Moyi had often wondered what life would be like if she had to pretend to be a married couple with Zhang Anping. Her conclusion was that until their operational cell was disbanded, she would constantly live on the edge, walking a tightrope of anxiety.

However, after their sudden rendezvous last night, she realized she had overthought everything. It turned out that being together with her partner could bring such profound and effortless peace of mind.

Ever since she learned she would be paired with Zhang Anping, this was the sweetest and most restful night Zeng Moyi had ever experienced.

Waking up in the morning, her first thought was to prepare breakfast for her superior, but she was stunned to find that breakfast was already neatly laid out on the table. Seeing Zhang Anping sitting nearby, studying a map, Zeng Moyi felt a wave of shyness and guilt. She was supposed to be playing the role of the wife, yet even breakfast had been bought by her husband...

After getting up, she offered an apology, "I am sorry. I will wake up earlier next time."

"A wife is meant to be cherished—so never say sorry to me," Zhang Anping said with a smile. "Get cleaned up and eat quickly. Once we are done, we have to go out and get to work."

Zeng Moyi hurried out of bed, swiftly washed up, and sat down beside Zhang Anping. Eating while speaking, she asked curiously, "I have never understood why you insisted on having the Special Detachment infiltrate Shanghai under deep cover?"

Before she had made contact with Zhang Anping, she would never have dared to ask such a question.

Yet now, it came to her naturally.

"I will explain the details during our meeting later," Zhang Anping said, withholding the explanation. Instead, he continued, "Let me outline our work priorities for the near future."

Zeng Moyi sat up straight.

"Listen while you eat," Zhang Anping waved a hand and stated, "First, we must seamlessly integrate the Special Detachment into Shanghai. Second, during this period, we must find every possible way to disrupt the various operations of the Shanghai Station, forcing the Headquarters to question their competence. Finally, we need to get Chen Moqun replaced!"

Zeng Moyi was baffled. "Why?"

As soon as the question left her lips, she realized she shouldn't be asking so much and hurriedly prepared to apologize, but Zhang Anping explained patiently:

"The Shanghai Station is crucial. If possible, I want one of our own people to take over as the Station Chief."

Zeng Moyi was utterly shocked. Wasn't this plan far too insane?

Zhang Anping offered a lesson: "Before you do anything, you must dare to dream big. Of course, you cannot set an impossible goal; keeping your feet firmly on the ground remains very important."

Zeng Moyi was amused by his words and could not help rolling her eyes at him.

Keeping your feet firmly on the ground is important? Then why on earth did you just set such an unrealistic goal?

Watching her "wife" display such a charming, girlish gesture toward him for the very first time, Zhang Anping sighed inwardly.

In that other timeline, her brief life had been exceptionally brilliant, but she had certainly never experienced the life of a normal woman—a fate sealed by the very nature of being an underground operative.

In this timeline, he was her superior. Bringing her as much joy as possible could be considered a tiny form of compensation for her resilient yet unyielding spirit in that other world.

***

Before dispatching the various cells to Shanghai, Zhang Anping had issued distinct orders to each of them.

For instance, Team C (members: Chen Ming, Xu Zhongyi, Gu Yufei), led by Yu Xiuniang, was designated as the communications cell. Their task, upon establishing a foothold in Shanghai, was to quickly locate a concealed and suitable venue for meetings, complete their rendezvous at the designated spot, and relay the location to the other teams.

Meanwhile, Team B (the action cell) under Li Bohan, which was escorting firearms, explosives, and radios, was tasked with finding a secure location of their own to stockpile the supplies. If they deemed the International Settlement or the French Concession safe, storing them there was acceptable.

Every team had been assigned missions. This was both a test and a deliberate effort by Zhang Anping to familiarize them early with the realities of covert operations. With less than a year remaining before the Battle of Songhu, once Shanghai fell, the Shanghai Special Detachment would have to go entirely underground. Without prior familiarity, they might not survive the brutal suppression of the Japanese secret service until the end of the War of Resistance.

Naturally, the various teams found such assignments incomprehensible.

To this, Zhang Anping's excuse was simply that this served as their final examination, and anyone who failed should prepare to be sent back for retraining.

This remark proved remarkably effective. The six cells, excluding Zhang Anping, had been bustling since their arrival in Shanghai yesterday, striving to fulfill their respective tasks.

Team C had completed this task exceptionally "well."

Yu Xiuniang had set her sights directly on a lavish villa and "rented" it at zero cost.

The owner of this villa was a renowned industrialist in Shanghai. When they arrived, the industrialist happened to have taken his housekeeper to Nanjing. Upon hearing the housekeeper complain to the industrialist that the other servants shouldn't have been given time off, Xu Zhongyi conceived a wildly audacious idea—to "rent" the villa by occupying the magpie's nest.

Xu Zhongyi had two justifications:

1. As newcomers to Shanghai, unfamiliar with the terrain, how could they possibly find a secure location for a meeting within a single day? "Renting" an unoccupied villa like this was the most ideal solution.

2. It saved money!

"The teacher is far too stingy, giving us only fifty yuan in operational funds for a whole month. If we were to rent a safe and reliable place ourselves, we'd have to pay for at least a month! How much would that cost? Once it's spent, how are we supposed to survive the rest of the month?"

Ultimately, this rhetoric persuaded Yu Xiuniang. After sending Chen Ming on a nocturnal reconnaissance mission to confirm that only an elderly servant had been left behind, she agreed to Xu Zhongyi's proposal.

They "moved" into the villa that very night. As for the elderly servant, he was left in the care of Chen Ming, who took turns with Xu Zhongyi to keep watch over him.

The next morning, however, Yu Xiuniang grew regretful. She feared that such reckless actions would displease their teacher and ultimately result in her being sent back for retraining. Yet, seeing that the rendezvous time was fast approaching and with no way to undo what was done, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and head to the meeting place.

The rendezvous point was at the entrance of a movie theater. By the time Yu Xiuniang arrived, the representatives sent by the other teams—except for Team G—were already present.

While everyone waited, Zeng Moyi appeared as the representative for Team A (the command cell).

"Sister Zeng."

"Instructor's wife."

The representatives from the various teams hurriedly stepped forward to greet her. Accepting the title of instructor's wife by default, Zeng Moyi swept her gaze around and asked with a puzzled frown, "Where is the representative from Team G?"

Team G was the transport cell, consisting of three members led by An Wanqing. Their mission was to manage the vehicles, which currently totaled eleven: one Ford car, two trucks, and eight bicycles.

Bicycles counted as vehicles in this era too!

Everyone shook their heads, indicating they had no idea.

Helpless, Zeng Moyi had no choice but to lead the group in waiting.

Secretly tailing them from the shadows, Zhang Anping was nearly driven to fury.

You are here to rendezvous, not to loiter on the street corners! If this were behind enemy lines, you might as well just hang a sign around your necks reading "I am an agent of the Military Statistics Bureau"!

He suddenly understood why Old Cen always had to take deep breaths—breathe in, breathe out, breathe in—whenever he dealt with him.

It was out of fear of having his breath cut short by sheer anger!

After the six of them stood by the roadside for nearly an hour, Team G leader An Wanqing finally arrived with the other two members.

They showed up bruised and battered, and An Wanqing was even limping. Catching sight of the six waiting colleagues, the wretched fellow felt a sourness rise in his chest, and tears the size of soybeans immediately streamed down his face.

Everyone began questioning them all at once. Fortunately, Zeng Moyi still possessed some experience and hurriedly told them to hold their questions, instructing everyone to head directly to the meeting venue prepared by Team C and discuss the specific details once they arrived.

Hearing this, Yu Xiuniang had no choice but to bravely lead her colleagues toward the villa she had rented for zero yuan.

Zhang Anping trailed behind this flock of greenhorns. Even Li Bohan, the capable talent of the future, failed to detect him, leaving him grinding his teeth in rage—what kind of sins had he committed in his past life? Weren't these people supposed to be protagonists and supporting leads? How did they turn out this utterly incompetent in his hands!

Following his flock of rookie subordinates, the deeper they walked, the stranger it felt. Observing the architecture on both sides, this was clearly a wealthy district. The two-idiot team of Team C wouldn't happen to have rented a villa in an upscale neighborhood, would they?

Zhang Anping secretly gritted his teeth. He would be damned if he increased their operational funds this month! They could just prepare to starve for the rest of the time!

In the end, reality matched his worst suspicions. These troublesome fellows had indeed brazenly entered a detached, standalone villa.

The luxuriousness of the villa made Zhang Anping's heart ache. Fifty yuan to rent it for a day? Was the villa owner an idiot too?

Once all his subordinates had gone inside, he scaled the wall and slipped quietly into the property, only to discover an anomaly upon sneaking into one of the rooms: an elderly man was bound hand and foot, with his mouth gagged, tossed onto a bed.

Zhang Anping understood in a flash. So this was the method they had used to "rent" the place!

Mimicking Cen Anyan's posture, he took a deep breath, another deep breath, and a third deep breath, thinking to himself that while he had intended to make his cousin take the blame, it turned out he had to take the blame for these incompetent subordinates first!

Good grief, just look at the market value of this villa—the owner of such a place was undoubtedly a titan whose footstamps could make the entire Shanghai Bund tremble. How on earth did they dare?

How could they possibly dare!

With a darkened face, he strode forward. Reaching the massive living room, he found his subordinates surrounding An Wanqing and the other two, gnashing their teeth in anger.

Seeing Zhang Anping walk in, everyone crowded around him, bursting into an indignant, overlapping chorus of voices. To be precise, they were filing complaints.

The chaotic din made Zhang Anping's head feel ready to explode. Fortunately, his capacity for processing and analysis was exceptionally strong, and he quickly sorted out the thread of logic from the cacophony of grievances.

With a gloomy expression, he glared at An Wanqing and the other two. "In other words, the moment you arrived at the Shanghai Bund yesterday, your vehicles were hijacked?"

"Not only were they hijacked, but you yourselves were treated like fat sheep and roughed up all night, only to be let go just like that?"

An Wanqing and his companions nodded repeatedly.

Zhang Anping let out an enraged roar: "My foot!"

Consumed by a mixture of disappointment and fury, he whipped out his pistol, aimed it squarely at An Wanqing, and barked:

"Tell me the truth!"

Startled, An Wanqing dropped to his knees in terror and cried out, "Teacher, I was wrong!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"I said, tell the truth!" Zhang Anping, burning with suppressed rage, shouted.

An Wanqing hurried to explain.

It turned out that on their way to Shanghai, passing by a fuel station, someone had asked them to carry a cargo shipment for a fee. The so-called cargo was actually a batch of smuggled salt—not a large quantity, just a single layer spread across the truck beds beneath a top layer of regular commercial goods.

The price offered by the other party was the reason An Wanqing hadn't refused: five hundred yuan all the way from Nanjing to Shanghai!

But the trouble lay entirely within that batch of smuggled salt.

As they neared Shanghai, they were suddenly surrounded by a gang of underworld thugs. The moment the thugs fished out the smuggled salt from the truck bed, they hauled the three of them away, subjected them to a brutal beating, and confiscated the salt, the goods, and all the vehicles, warning them that if they ever pulled such a stunt again, they would be executed by having their lanterns lit.

"Teacher, I didn't earn that money for myself. I saw that our operational funds were tight and wanted to make a little extra to support the brothers."

An Wanqing wept as he defended himself.

The other two members of Team G chimed in frantically, swearing on their lives that the three of them had discussed it strictly along those lines and never harbored any intention of lining their own pockets.

Zhang Anping gazed coldly at the three members of Team G.

Would he believe this explanation?

Perhaps they hadn't lied, but their fatal mistake lay in trying to conceal the fact that they were carrying contraband cargo even after the rendezvous.

Zhang Anping asked in an icy tone, "Do you know what you are?"

An Wanqing answered with trembling trepidation, "Intelligence operatives of the Secret Service."

*Bang!*

Zhang Anping kicked An Wanqing sprawling to the floor and roared, "You still remember you're intelligence operatives? Since you're intelligence operatives, don't you know what price a single piece of false intelligence can exact?"

"Do you have any idea!"

Faced with Zhang Anping's fierce reprimand, the three members of Team G lowered their heads, consumed by deep remorse.

Zhang Anping turned his head and ordered, "Yu Xiuniang, send a telegram to the Headquarters immediately: all three trainees of the Shanghai Special Detachment's transport cell have failed. Send them back to the training camp, bar them from graduation for two years, deny them any military rank promotions for three years following graduation, and prohibit them from executing any field assignments!"

"Understood!"

The others raised no objections whatsoever. For intelligence personnel, the act of concealing the truth was utterly unforgivable.

And here they had actually been thinking of pleading on their behalf.

Zhang Anping issued his next directive: "Chen Ming, take them away. Xue Jingzong of the surveillance group, make arrangements to escort them back."

"Understood!"

Having dealt with the matter of Team G, Zhang Anping's gaze shifted back to Yu Xiuniang.

Shivering, Yu Xiuniang immediately confessed her fault: "Teacher, I was wrong. I shouldn't have..."

"Stop." Zhang Anping cut off her apology. "The consequences of this action have not yet materialized, so I won't punish you. The moment consequences arise, I will penalize the entire Team C in proportion to the severity."

With that, his eyes fell upon Xu Zhongyi. Hiding behind Zuo Qiuming, Xu Zhongyi felt his legs go weak and hastily forced a ingratiating smile. Secretly grinding his teeth, Zhang Anping felt a powerful urge to kick the fellow.

Can't you show a little spine? What are you grinning for, you fool!

*Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in.*

Having reined in his emotions, Zhang Anping commanded, "Meeting!"

Everyone snapped to attention.

"Originally, I only intended to discuss one matter, but now it has become two."

Fuming with anger, Zhang Anping said, "First, regarding your evaluation—I am not giving out grades; go back and reflect on it yourselves."

"Let me correct myself: this is not an evaluation."

"Do you remember what I told you before military training began?"

"We remember!" the group answered in unison.

"I will repeat it once more—after the war between China and Japan breaks out in full force, we will lose vast amounts of territory, including the very ground beneath our feet. That we will surely lose."

"And we will step deep into the territory occupied by the Japanese invaders, fighting them to the bitter end by every means possible!"

"The purpose of having you infiltrate yesterday was merely a drill. This time, you had the opportunity to make mistakes. But once the war breaks out, the price of a single mistake will be..."

He swept his gaze across every one of them, enunciating each word with chilling clarity:

"Total! Annihilation!"

"Go back and hold team meetings to review your gains and losses. I do not wish for the price next time to be your lives."

"Do you understand?"

The assembly answered with solemn gravity:

"Understood!"

"Very well, onto the second matter." Zhang Anping suddenly radiated an air of murderous intent. "On the very first day of the Shanghai Special Detachment's official establishment, our vital transport cell has been completely wiped out! And all our transport vehicles have been lost!"

"They say that walking the jianghu is all about saving face—so where is my face?"

"Trampled into the dirt by your own feet! Tossed straight into a cesspit!"

"To all teams: I don't care what methods or means you use! Within two days, I want to know who did this, where they are, how many of them there are, and what kind of scum they actually are!"

"The absolute condition is that no information must leak!"

"If I receive inquiries from the Headquarters, the Shanghai Station, or the Shanghai police, or if I see news reports about this incident in any newspaper, all of you can pack your bags and head straight back for retraining!"

Zhang Anping's words sent a shiver through everyone present.

Yet immediately afterward, a blazing fire of fury ignited within them.

Their teacher was entirely right—walking the jianghu was all about face. And yet, their Shanghai Special Detachment hadn't even opened for business before getting waylaid and robbed.

They had to dig three feet into the earth to unearth these bastards!

And grind their bones to dust!