Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shen Zhaoxue tested him first.

The next day, she wrote an article.

The headline was “The Mystery Behind the Dock Warehouse Fire Case.”

On the surface, it was about the Chamber of Commerce’s warehouse. But in the seventh sentence of the third paragraph, she hid a coded message.

Ten o’clock tonight, Guangji Pharmacy.

That wasn’t a real contact point.

It was a trap set by Old Qin.

If Zhou Huaiyan was watching her, the Secret Service Department would definitely show up.

It was raining in Shanghai on the day the article was published.

Shen Zhaoxue sat by the window on the second floor.

Across the street, steam rose from a wonton stall.

The coffee by her hand had long since gone cold.

At 9:40 PM, the scout returned.

“There are plainclothes agents near Guangji Pharmacy.”

Old Qin looked at her.

Shen Zhaoxue snapped her pocket watch shut. “Wait.”

At exactly ten o’clock, the pharmacy’s back door was kicked open.

A single gunshot rang out.

It was a muffled sound.

At 10:15 PM, Adjutant Lu led his men away.

At 10:30 PM, word came back.

The man arrested was named Xu San.

He had defected last year and had been selling intelligence to the military government ever since.

Shen Zhaoxue froze.

“He’s not one of ours?”

“No,” Old Qin frowned. “Why would he go there?”

She looked at the newspaper on the table.

She had set out fake bait.

Yet Zhou Huaiyan had used it to catch a real traitor.

In the evening, the Newspaper Office received a bouquet of white camellias.

There was no signature.

The card read:

Reporter Shen, your article was written in too much of a rush. The seventh sentence of the third paragraph doesn’t make sense.

Shen Zhaoxue gripped the card tightly.

Zhou Huaiyan understood.

Not only did he understand, but he also knew that the sentence had been written for him.

Old Qin took the bouquet apart.

Hidden within the flowers was a copper key.

A number was engraved on it: 17.

Shen Zhaoxue’s breath hitched.

She remembered the foreign bank her father used to frequent before he died.

After the Shen family fell, all their assets were seized.

Only one safe deposit box had remained untouched.

Number 17.

Before his death, her father had managed to send her a message through someone.

“Don’t look for the evidence; the evidence will find you.”

She hadn’t understood it then.

Now, the evidence had arrived.

Old Qin said, “It might be a trap.”

“I have to go anyway.”

“Zhou Huaiyan is pushing you toward a specific destination.”

“I know.”

She just wanted to see whether he was pushing her toward a path of life or a path of death.

That night, she went to Dehua Bank.

There were no gold bars in the safe deposit box.

There were no documents.

There was only half of a scorched photograph.

In the photo were her father, Zhou Huaiyan’s father, and a person with their back to the camera.

A line of text was written on the back:

“Yongning Society, the traitor is present.”

Shen Zhaoxue’s hands went cold.

The Yongning Society.

Three years ago, her father had been arrested right after a meeting of that society.

She had always believed the traitor was the Zhou family.

But in the photograph, Zhou Mingli was also present.

If the Zhou family was the traitor, why would he have kept this photo?

Outside the bank, headlights swept past.

Someone had arrived.

Shen Zhaoxue stuffed the photo into her glove.

Just as she turned around, a gun barrel pressed against her waist.

A man’s voice sounded right against her ear.

“Don’t turn around.”

It was Zhou Huaiyan.