Chapter 24: Devastating News

Director Huang was a veteran operative and naturally well-versed in interrogation techniques. Having witnessed tortured and unrecognizable Communist prisoners in the underground dungeons of the Shanghai Station, he began by asking several unrelated questions. After receiving the answers, he picked up the interrogation records, scanned them quickly, and came to a definitive conclusion:

This was a Communist who had been broken by torture and forced to confess.

Therefore, he stated, "We can make the arrest!"

Wang Shi'an flashed a hint of a smile, then drew a slip of paper from his pocket and said, "Here is his address."

"This man is extremely cautious. Clearly a deputy squad leader, he operates with the utmost discretion—completely conforming to the evasive methods of the underground party. My men probed the seven new arrivals at the station before finally discovering one of his safe houses. After staking it out for a few days, we pinned down his exact hideout."

"Old Huang, everything from here on is up to you! I know your Party Affairs Investigation Office has plenty of means at its disposal. You must crack his resolve and make this an airtight case!"

"Rest assured!" Director Huang declared with absolute confidence.

...

That night, Zhang Anping and Zeng Moyi were walking home, carrying a bag of take-out dinner.

As they reached an alley some hundred meters from their home, a faint smile crossed the corner of Zhang Anping's mouth.

Is it finally happening?

He quietly squeezed Zeng Moyi's hand—a peerless, exemplary man who slept on a floor mat, and this gesture naturally carried profound meaning.

Zeng Moyi grasped the signal instantly.

Yet both continued walking as if completely oblivious.

Suddenly, dozens of figures dressed in black surged from the front, back, and sides, countless dark gun barrels aiming squarely at the two of them.

Zeng Moyi, feigning sheer terror, turned pale and threw her arms tightly around Zhang Anping, while Zhang Anping maintained a completely calm expression.

"The Green Gang?"

Someone asked coldly, "Zhang Shihao?"

"Yes!"

"Party Affairs Investigation Office. We have a few questions for you. Come with us."

"The Party Affairs Investigation Office?" A look of mocking disdain crossed Zhang Anping's face. "Are you crawling back for another beating? Question me? Fine, I'll go with you, let's see how you manage to let me walk back out later!"

"Take them away."

A group of secret agents closed in. Zhang Anping offered no resistance whatsoever, cooperating fully while telling Zeng Moyi, "Let the family know I'm fine. Don't worry them."

An agent sneered. Trying to send a message home, were they?

Not a chance!

"Take the woman too!"

Zhang Anping rebuked angrily, "Bastards! Take it out on me! Why drag my wife into this?"

Seeing this, the agents gave Zhang Anping no further opportunity to speak. They stuffed his mouth directly and bound him hand and foot with heavy ropes.

In the blink of an eye, the group vanished completely into the alley, as if they had never existed at all.

...

Party Affairs Investigation Office, Shanghai Headquarters, Interrogation Room No. 2.

A pale-faced Zeng Moyi was locked into an interrogation chair, her eyes filled with terror.

"Name."

"Zeng—Zeng Moyi."

"Affiliation."

"Cipher operator for the Shanghai Special Unit of the Secret Service."

"You and Zhang Shihao are married? When did you get married?"

"We are—we are a working couple. We aren't married," Zeng Moyi whispered in explanation.

The interrogating agent was stunned.

After a brief pause, he asked, "How long have you known each other? Who arranged for you to be a working couple?"

"We've known each other for less than twenty days. It was our station chief who arranged for me to be his working couple."

The interrogating agent was left speechless.

He could tell Zeng Moyi was not lying, which meant this person had been arrested for absolutely nothing!

"What did the words he told you beforehand mean?"

"It was a report to headquarters."

Zeng Moyi answered with "complete obedience."

The interrogating agent lost all desire to continue questioning. He suspended the interrogation and went to report the brief results to Director Huang in the adjacent room.

Director Huang was remarkably nonchalant. "Expected."

"What about her then? Let her go?"

"Rubbish! If we let her go, are we supposed to let the Secret Service intervene? Lock her up! Don't touch her for now, treat her to good food and drinks."

"Understood—Director, did he break?" the agent asked curiously.

Director Huang said speechlessly, "Break? He's even more arrogant than I am, the director!"

"Arrogant?" The agent was baffled.

"Go inside and see for yourself."

With Director Huang's permission, the agent entered Interrogation Room No. 1.

Inside, although Zhang Anping was locked in the interrogation chair, he leaned back arrogantly, meeting every question from the interrogating agent with utter contempt.

The exchange went roughly as follows:

"Do you know why you were brought in?"

"I know."

"Why?"

"Because the Party Affairs Investigation Office has nothing better to do and is itching for trouble."

"Zhang Shihao, don't toast to fine wine only to be forced to drink forfeit!"

"Forfeit wine? Bring it on, I'd like to see if the forfeited wine served by your Party Affairs Office has improved at all!"

The interrogating agent's blood pressure was already soaring. He had seen arrogant prisoners, but never one quite this brazen. Did the man simply pretend not to see the numerous torture devices laid out before his eyes?

"Do you really think I wouldn't dare torture you?"

"Come on, let me see your improvement."

Director Huang listened in speechlessness.

This man was simply too arrogant!

Seeing that the interrogating agent inside was about to resort to harsh methods, he pushed the door open, waved his hand to signal a halt to the torture, and then looked at Zhang Anping with a beaming smile.

"Squad Leader Zhang, let me introduce myself. I am Huang Zaixing."

Zhang Anping tilted his head to look at Huang Zaixing, sneering, "Shanghai Station Chief? Huang, you dogs really can't change your habit of eating filth! What excuse are you using to arrest me this time? Don't tell me I'm a Communist—using the same excuse twice loses all its charm!"

"Squad Leader Zhang, let's speak plainly between civilized men. Since we invited you here, there must be a reason. We wouldn't trouble you without cause—there's no need to beat around the bush. Confess your own matters; the Nationalist Government has always been lenient toward those who turn over a new leaf. Why suffer needlessly?"

Zhang Anping raged, "Confess your grandfather's!"

"Huang, if you want to fix me, just say so! Spare me the runaround! Isn't it just about revenge? I'll take it!"

"Trying to pin a label on me? Not a chance!"

Director Huang shook his head and said, "Since Squad Leader Zhang refuses a toast only to drink forfeit, then I'm sorry—begin the torture!"

"Oh, by the way, I heard that when Squad Leader Zhang taught interrogation, he instructed that the purpose of interrogation is to extract intelligence, not to beat people to death. Remember to invite a few doctors over to properly look after Squad Leader Zhang!"

The agents, who had long since been itching for action, immediately acknowledged the order.

...

Another night of descending darkness.

Wang Shi'an came alone to the Shanghai Station headquarters and, escorted by Huang Zaixing, arrived outside the interrogation room.

Glancing through the window at Zhang Anping, who had been tortured beyond human recognition, Wang Shi'an frowned and asked, "He still hasn't confessed?"

Huang Zaixing replied helplessly, "Not a word."

"But I'm certain he's a Communist. Otherwise, how could he possibly be this tight-lipped?"

Wang Shi'an's gaze turned vicious. "Doesn't he have a woman with him?"

"She isn't a Communist."

Wang Shi'an retorted, "Does it matter whether she's a Communist or not?"

Huang Zaixing had an epiphany. He immediately beckoned a subordinate over and ordered, "Go drag Zeng Moyi out and torture her in front of Zhang Shihao!"

The subordinate glanced at Wang Shi'an and whispered, "Director, Zeng Moyi belongs to the Secret Service..."

Huang Zaixing looked at his subordinate with a faint smile and uttered, "Hmm?"

The subordinate gave a start and hastily complied.

Before long, Zeng Moyi was dragged in. Within minutes, her terrified shrieks turned into heart-rending screams of agony.

Faced with the torture of his companion, a fully conscious Zhang Anping remained utterly silent from beginning to end. He did not roar in fury or offer confessions, as Wang Shi'an and Huang Zaixing had imagined he would.

Seeing Zeng Moyi beaten into unconsciousness, Wang Shi'an smacked his lips and whispered, "This fellow's heart is truly made of iron!"

Huang Zaixing grew anxious as well. "What do we do?"

He had always assumed that his colleagues at headquarters called Zhang Shihao stubborn only because headquarters hadn't used fatal force.

But now he understood—Zhang Shihao's bones were genuinely ironclad!

After pondering for a moment, Wang Shi'an suggested, "Old Huang, why don't you leak a bit of intelligence to him and see how he reacts?"

"Precisely what I was thinking!" Huang Zaixing slapped his hand in agreement, summoned an agent, whispered a few instructions, and waited to observe Zhang Anping's reaction.

During an interrogation (including torture), a key technique is never to show your hand too early. Crucial evidence and information held in reserve are deployed at the decisive moment to shatter the psychological defenses of the person undergoing interrogation.

Inside the interrogation room, the torturing agent abandoned the torture of Zeng Moyi.

Zhang Anping, who had maintained a blank expression throughout, let out a long, inward sigh of relief.

He knew all too well the scoundrel nature of the agents. The more concern he showed for Zeng Moyi at this moment, the more the agents would perceive her as his Achilles' heel and devise even more vicious ways to torment her.

Therefore, he showed no reaction whatsoever throughout the ordeal. Even when Zeng Moyi passed out, he didn't so much as bat an eyelid. This very reaction ultimately caused the agents to give up on torturing her further.

"Zhang Shihao, do you really think we have no evidence, which is why you're holding out to the bitter end?"

The torturing agent sneered, "Without concrete evidence, our Party Affairs Investigation Office wouldn't casually arrest a former captain! Isn't that right, Comrade 'The Masses'?"

Zhang Anping, who had remained unmoved until now, jerked his head up in astonishment. "What did you say?"

Upon seeing Zhang Anping's reaction, the agent was gripped by wild ecstasy. Suppressing his joy, he repeated, "'The Masses,' isn't that your code name? Did you really think we knew nothing?"

"I'm 'The Masses'?"

"I'm the bloody 'Masses' of the Communists?"

"Huang, you really know how to slap a label on me!"

Zhang Anping's intense reaction brought expressions of delight to the two men watching outside the interrogation room.

Yet they remained entirely unaware that this was a massive trap dug for them by Zhang Anping!

Within the cognitive framework of Wang Shi'an and Huang Zaixing, 'The Masses' was a vital underground operative whose identity was known to absolutely no one—neither the Secret Service nor the Party Affairs Office. The only reason Wang Shi'an knew of it was that Li Ya had picked up faint traces from Chen Guohua.

And Zhang Anping's intense reaction implied that he recognized this code name—was this not a self-incriminating confession?

That was why the two men were exceptionally thrilled!

Yet the truth was:

Upon future review, Zhang Anping's fierce reaction stemmed purely from the absurdity of having such a label pinned upon him.

Yet the two men were oblivious to the trap, blindly leaping into it and convincing themselves that the evidence in their hands was authentic.

"Leak a bit more information to him each day from now on. Let's see how many days he can hold out!" Wang Shi'an declared with absolute confidence.

Huang Zaixing smiled once more, a rare, hearty laugh this time.

The two men believed victory was already in their grasp. Shattering Zhang Shihao's psychological defenses was merely a matter of time.

And once they achieved a breakthrough, they could immediately report upward, at which point...

Promotions and salary increases were no longer a dream!

...

Five days.

A full five days.

Wang Shi'an and Huang Zaixing, firmly believing they had achieved a breakthrough, could never have imagined that following that breakthrough, through five entire days of relentless torture, Zhang Shihao would remain as stubborn as iron!

In fact, starting from the fourth day, whenever Zhang Anping faced torture, he repeated only one sentence until his dying breath:

Don't pin labels on me, I am not 'The Masses,' I am not a Communist!

To the agents, this was nothing more than a cover story. Yet for two consecutive days, this single sentence remained dangling on Zhang Anping's lips, and he uttered not another word besides.

This drove the two men frantic with anxiety.

Because Zhang Anping was the deputy squad leader of the Secret Service's Shanghai Special Unit, and he had been missing for a full six days. If this dragged on much longer, it would inevitably draw the attention of the Secret Service headquarters.

If headquarters intervened and, in the absence of solid evidence, they two had beaten a captain and deputy squad leader to a pulp, they would be in serious trouble!

Misfortunes never come singly. Wang Shi'an, already burning with anxiety, received a late-night visit that very evening from Li Ya, who brought him a piece of earth-shattering bad news.

With a ferocious expression, Wang Shi'an grabbed Li Ya by both arms and demanded with a savage snarl, "What did you say? Zhang Shihao is the station chief's nephew?"

(Ha, it's already reached 18,000 words! Two more chapters before 12 o'clock!)

(End of this chapter)