Chapter 10: Master and Student

Before leaving, Liu Fengqi was escorted inside by Du Yuesheng's bodyguards.

The reason Zhang Anping did not bring him in right from the beginning can be boiled down to two words:

Tact!

Because doing so would have been an absolute slap in the face.

Had he brought him in immediately, those in the know would have called him reckless, while outsiders would say:

Someone beat up Boss Du's disciple and brought him straight to the doorstep to demand accountability!

In that case, Du Yuesheng might have spared Zhang Anping on the spot for the sake of Directorate Director Dai, but he would have definitely dug a pit to bury him later.

For no other reason than the grand tycoon's pride!

Even though Zhang Anping had acted quite tough initially, it was all meticulously calculated—he wanted to leave the impression that he was a young man who could be reasoned with through soft approaches rather than hard coercion.

Tact was still necessary.

Therefore, after the "negotiations," having the bodyguards bring Liu Fengqi in was no longer a slap in the face, but rather Zhang Anping "backing down."

Zhang Anping had no objections to this arrangement; what he wanted was tangible gain. As for pride?

Secure the substance first before worrying about appearances!

[It's not easy being me!]

After parting ways with Qu Yuanmu, who admired him to an incomparable degree, Zhang Anping let out a long sigh. It was still a stage for accumulating strength; dropping a line like "Who approves and who opposes?" was simply too difficult right now.

Lacking sufficient strength, he could only flash his small blade for the time being, make his presence known to the ghosts and monsters of Shanghai滩 (the Shanghai Bund), and then... keep a low profile and develop.

Yes, this was Zhang Anping's plan for the Special Task Group: low-profile in conduct, low-profile in action.

He drove to Xu Zhongyi's warehouse, dumped the car with Xu, and hailed a rickshaw.

Destination: The French Concession!

He needed to find his students in the Shanghai Station.

It was time to give his students a chance to choose a side.

...

Zhang Anping's students were all "hiding" on Joffre Road in the French Concession, keeping watch on a cafe named Concorde.

The location had been discovered by Li Bohan—while driving through the concession area during the day, he spotted an old classmate as he passed Joffre Road. After parking his car in a deserted corner and observing for a while, he realized that all seven of his fellow comrades transferred to the Shanghai Station were stationed here, so he reported the intelligence to Zhang Anping.

While the others had no idea why these fellows were squatting here, Zhang Anping knew very well—it looked like Wang Zhi, just like in the other timeline, had spilled everything he knew.

Unfortunately, in this timeline, the rendezvous at the Concorde Cafe had long since concluded, and Chen Moqun, grasping at straws like a drowning man, was destined to be disappointed.

Zhang Anping rode the rickshaw to Joffre Road, got off about a hundred meters away from the cafe, observed quietly, and then revealed a "benevolent" smile.

Young people were still too green, so completely lacking in professionalism!

His seven students were divided into two groups, positioned diagonally across from the cafe on two sides, locking it down from left and right—a well-laid-out deployment, but utterly lacking in discretion. Anyone observing closely could spot camera lenses popping up from time to time.

"Looks like the Qingpu Training Class still needs to be run; these kids need some remedial classes!"

With a mental sigh, Zhang Anping blended into the crowd and vanished from the street in a flash.

This was the second floor of a storefront. Lu Qiaoshan, Li Ya, and Jiang Sian were forming a trio stationed here, taking turns photographing every customer entering the cafe opposite. A stack of developed photos lay on the table. At the moment, Jiang Sian was responsible for taking pictures, while Lu Qiaoshan and Li Ya were meticulously studying each photograph, occasionally comparing them against a stack of photos nearby.

That stack of photos consisted of pictures of every single member of the Shanghai Station—these two unfortunate fellows were attempting to hunt down a mole using this most primitive method.

Suddenly, the window shifted slightly. The two men comparing photos glanced briefly at the opened window, then buried their heads right back into their task. But the next second, an eerie voice rang out:

"You are all dead!"

This voice nearly scared the three of them, including Jiang Sian out of their wits.

The three turned around and saw that someone had somehow seated themselves in the chair right between them, staring at them with a sneering expression.

Recognizing that familiar face, the hearts that had jumped into their throats finally settled back down.

Lu Qiaoshan said in pleasant surprise, "Instructor!"

Li Ya and Jiang Sian quickly followed suit, calling him instructor.

Zhang Anping looked at the three with disgust and said, "Guess when I sneaked in?"

"When the window rattled just now?" Lu Qiaoshan answered uncertainly.

"My ass! That was just the wind rattling a window I left unlatched! Are you lot working with any diligence at all? Diligent enough that someone sneaked up right behind you for three whole minutes without a single one of you reacting!"

Faced with Zhang Anping's reprimand, the three lowered their heads in admission of guilt, thinking to themselves:

How many people are like you anyway?

"Fine, fine. I'm not your direct superior; do whatever you want." Zhang Anping waved his hand dismissively. Lu Qiaoshan chuckled ingratiatingly and buttered him up, saying, "A teacher for a day is a father for life; you will always be our instructor."

Li Ya and Jiang Sian hurriedly echoed the sentiment.

"How many days has it been since you left the special training camp? Your working abilities haven't grown, but your flattery skills sure have improved a lot—enough with the brown-nosing. Which of you is going to go call those four unlucky kids over?" Zhang Anping ordered the three as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

With that, Zhang Anping calmly observed their reactions.

Li Ya looked troubled, opening his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it. Jiang Sian instinctively made a move to go down, but seeing that Li Ya hadn't moved, he quickly halted his action. Lu Qiaoshan, however, after hesitating for a few seconds, decisively said:

"Instructor, I'll go!"

"Go on."

Lu Qiaoshan trotted away. Li Ya wanted to say something but ultimately kept quiet.

Jiang Sian, being relatively "innocent," watched Lu Qiaoshan leave and cautiously said, "Instructor, Station Chief Chen ordered us to take pictures here, telling us to photograph every single person entering the cafe without missing a single one."

Zhang Anping tilted his head to look at Jiang Sian. Jiang Sian did not dare meet his gaze and lowered his head as if admitting a fault.

A few minutes later, hurried footsteps sounded. Zhang Anping closed his eyes to judge the steps and broke into a smile.

All four members of the other group had arrived, not a single one missing.

It looked like his uncle's written order wouldn't need to be pulled out after all.

"Instructor!"

Gong Shu, Yu Zecheng, Qi Siyuan, and Lin Nansheng all greeted him respectfully upon seeing Zhang Anping.

"I thought none of you would acknowledge me as your instructor anymore—" Zhang Anping muttered casually before cutting straight to the point:

"Are you staking out Communist spies or Japanese spies out here? Which of you wants to brief me on the situation?"

Naturally, he was doing this on purpose.

In theory, these seven students were now members of the Shanghai Station and had nothing more to do with him as their instructor.

Even by disciplinary standards, they were forbidden from revealing their mission to Zhang Anping.

Yet Zhang Anping asked precisely this question on purpose.

Lu Qiaoshan opened his mouth to speak, but was met with a warning glance from Zhang Anping. Startled, Lu Qiaoshan instantly realized his mistake and quickly shut his mouth.

After a moment of hesitation, Gong Shu said, "Reporting to the instructor, we are acting under Station Chief Chen's orders to photograph all customers entering the cafe here, hoping to find the Communist mole hidden within the Shanghai Station. The specific situation is..."

Gong Shu grew more and more fluent, eventually recounting the whole affair regarding Wang Zhi and their failure to catch the "Postman's" contact Li Muqing without missing a detail, and even mentioning Chen Moqun's suspicion that the leak originated from the Nanjing Investigation Department.

"Three days, and you've staked the place out for another two—five days in total. The Communists would have finished their rendezvous ages ago. Just how much idle time does Station Chief Chen have on his hands?!"

Zhang Anping complained, prompting agreeing expressions from Yu Zecheng, Li Ya, and Qi Siyuan.

Who could say otherwise?

But they were just foot soldiers; they simply carried out whatever Station Chief Chen arranged!

"Forget it, let's put aside the messy affairs of the Shanghai Station—by order of the Directorate Director, I have formed the Shanghai Special Task Group. Aside from countering Communist and Japanese spies, the Shanghai Special Task Group has another mission: to dig out the moles within the Shanghai Station."

"The Directorate Director wants to know whether there is simply a single Communist mole in the Shanghai Station or if the entire system has rotted to the core, completely incompetent at everything!"

"You are students I trained with my own hands. Are you willing to serve as peripheral personnel of the Shanghai Special Task Group and assist in my operations?"

Faced with Zhang Anping's counter-question, some among the seven hesitated, but Lu Qiaoshan took a commendable lead:

"The students were trained by the instructor's own hands. Since the instructor has given an order, the students ought to serve."

With Lu Qiaoshan taking the initiative, the others found it difficult to refuse. Gong Shu regretted being slow to react and chimed in immediately after Lu Qiaoshan. Whether the rest felt resistant or unwilling, could they possibly refuse under these circumstances?

Of course not!

Therefore, one by one, they joined the Special Task Group in a peripheral capacity—becoming double agents against the Shanghai Station.

In truth, had Zhang Anping simply produced his maternal uncle's authorization decree, the seven would have obeyed unconditionally, but Zhang Anping deliberately chose not to show it.

Naturally, he did so on purpose.

As the saying goes, an agent who doesn't trap his students isn't a good intelligence operative.

And that axiom could also be rephrased: an operative who doesn't trap his instructor isn't a good mole.

He had already prepared the "leverage" and handed it directly to these seven students—if anyone wanted to climb the ladder, this piece of leverage would serve perfectly as a stepping-stone gift of allegiance.

When the time came, he could also use a counter-maneuver to pin the label of Communist mole onto some high-ranking official within the Shanghai Station.

Of course, there was another possibility:

The seven students were deeply devoted to their teacher and would rather die than betray him.

Though the probability of this was slim, should such a scenario arise, Zhang Anping still had a two-pronged strategy:

Awaken Li Ya and have him pledge allegiance to a senior official in the Shanghai Station, leaking the existence of Zhang Anping's Shanghai Special Task Group—thereby pinning the blame of being a Communist mole onto that official.

Zhang Anping was very satisfied with his students' performance, so he issued his instructions:

"The East Asia Tongwen Bookstore is a Japanese spy school. The institution encourages its students to travel across the country after graduation and write travel reports during their journeys."

"According to our estimates, the school has currently accumulated at least over a billion words of travel reports, covering all provinces of our country and containing extremely rich intelligence."

"After you return to the Shanghai Station, see if you can find relevant materials in the Shanghai Station archives—Warehouse No. 203 on Baliqiao Road is currently managed by Xu Zhongyi. If you find any relevant materials, hand them directly over to Xu Zhongyi when the time comes."

Upon hearing this, the seven trainees all wore expressions of excitement.

Being still young, they were still hot-blooded youths at heart, and hearing that they were going to deal with Japanese spies naturally made their blood surge.

After giving a few more instructions, Zhang Anping left. True to Xu Zhimo's poem:

Gently I came, just as gently I depart...

The East Asia Tongwen Bookstore was a target Zhang Anping had to deal with, but it was also a bait he had cast out.

If any of the seven students used him as a stepping stone to advance their careers, the Shanghai Station would inevitably make a move before he did—for the simple reason that the Shanghai Station had little to show for its efforts!

In terms of anti-communist operations, with the "Postman" around, they hadn't caught a single important member of the Communist Party for several years. In this regard, the Shanghai Station fell far behind the Beiping Station.

And in terms of countering Japanese spies, because the Japanese had formed a de facto Japanese concession around the Hongkou area within the International Settlement, the Shanghai Station didn't have many achievements here either—occasionally catching a minnow or a shrimp was considered enough to report back to headquarters, but no big fish had ever been caught.

Meanwhile, the travel reports of the East Asia Tongwen Bookstore, consisting of over a billion words of material, truly constituted a rare and substantial merit. If the Shanghai Station learned of it, they would definitely jump the gun and move before he did.

At that point, he would have ample grounds to [suspect he had been betrayed by his own students] and consequently launch an investigation into them.

And right then, he could effortlessly smoke out Li Ya as the double agent.

Of course, under such circumstances, the Shanghai Special Task Group would lose an extraordinarily meaningful opening gift package, but compared to rooting out a tumor like Li Ya, forfeiting that gift package was a small price to pay.

By preparing for both contingencies, no matter the outcome, Zhang Anping's objectives would be met—the best-case scenario being the second possibility, wherein his students chose not to use him as a stepping stone.

In that event, he would directly awaken Li Ya and use Li Ya's hands to frame a senior Shanghai Station official, thus resolving the "Postman" problem.

"I wonder what kind of surprise my lovely students will give me?"

Zhang Anping eagerly anticipated what was about to unfold.