Annex I-B Chapter 18

  This night, Dong Zhiyu didn't sleep well, and the matter was on her mind both in her dreams and when she was awake. Huai Jin's words kept echoing in her ears: "Your plan isn't without loopholes, but even if it fails, it won't put your safety at risk..." As for these so-called loopholes, Dong Zhiyu thought there were mainly two points to consider: First, if the person Wu Naijun was going to meet on Saturday wasn't this group of antique dealers, then the whole thing would be a waste of effort. However, strictly speaking, this didn't count as a loophole - she just wanted to prove whether or not the people coming on Saturday were these individuals. If it turned out they weren't, that was also a possible outcome. The second loophole was that she couldn't guarantee how Wu Naijun would react to the bottle of milk. This was the key point. But if Wu Naijun's body didn't reject it, just like Huai Jin said, even if the action failed, at least it wouldn't expose herself and put her own safety at risk.

  The milk had been prepared long ago and had been exposed to the air for two days. In this kind of weather, the milk that had been exposed for two days should have just gone bad, and its taste and color would not be suspicious yet. Moreover, when it was added to the freshly boiled red tea with sugar, even if there was a slight unusual taste, it could easily be covered up. Before Wu Naijun arrived, she first brewed a pot of tea according to the method, tried a small mouthful herself, and only then felt at ease. The butterfly pastry bought from the Western-style cake shop contained a large amount of butter and was very greasy. This butterfly pastry was not a hot dish, and eating it with spoiled milk would cause indigestion, intestinal bacterial infection leading to diarrhea, or even food poisoning, vomiting and diarrhea.

  She came up with this trick because she had heard her colleagues in the lab gossiping about Wu Naiju, saying that after drinking a year's worth of foreign milk tea in England, she would always add milk and sugar to her tea, pretending to be refined. Also, because she got sick from accidentally eating spoiled milk, even if it was investigated and ultimately found out that the milk was the cause, it could still be easily explained away as not being intentional poisoning, with clear subjective intent. And the reason Dong Zhiyu was fine was because she wasn't in the habit of adding milk and sugar to her black tea; that night, she had only drunk plain black tea. She could even say that she too had drunk the spoiled milk but was unaffected, as everyone's body reacts differently to spoiled food, so who can really say for sure?

  The next day, she went to the office early and waited. Just before nine o'clock, she received news that Wu Naijun had either eaten something wrong or caught a cold, and started vomiting and having diarrhea in the middle of the night, so she couldn't go to work.

  With this, a hanging heart finally put down, the first step was successful, so what's next, if nothing unexpected happens, it will continue according to her plan.

  Until afternoon working hours, the secretary announced that Minister Chu Min-yen's office had something to look for her.

  As soon as she entered the door, she saw Chu Minyue with his hands behind his back, pacing anxiously in the office. When he saw her coming in, he squeezed out a smile: "Zhiyu is here, sit down."

  "Good afternoon, Director Chu." Dong Zhiyu asked and sat down on the chair opposite him with a respectful attitude.

  "Alas, I've come to find you with a matter concerning the diplomatic interests of our national government. It's a big deal and I need to entrust it to you." Chu Minyi's eyes behind his glasses looked anxious and urgent.

  "Director Chu, please give your orders."

  "Tang Shengming and Li Gangqun introduced you when they said your English is quite good, and you also have many years of experience communicating with foreigners."

  "That's an overstatement by Uncle Tang and Director Li, but Zhiyu has actually followed several American teachers for a few years to study, and there is still much room for improvement in her English level and experience."

  "An American teacher?" Chu Minyue's eyes lit up, "This is perfect! For this task at hand, you're the most suitable person to complete it! Tomorrow, several American businessmen will arrive at Xiaguan Railway Station and will be received by Dean Chen Xianbo. I plan to send you along as an accompanying translator."

  "Tomorrow?" Dong Zhiyu's face was difficult to look at.

  "What's wrong? Having trouble?"

  "Oh, thank you Director Chu for the recommendation, but... it seems like time is of the essence and I'm a bit worried... by the way, Wu translator seems to have a lot of experience with foreign affairs, I wonder if she might be more suitable?"

  "Young people, be more confident! I think you're more suitable for that role, just grasp the opportunity. Moreover, Wu's been feeling unwell these past two days, it's uncertain how she'll be tomorrow. In our Foreign Ministry's Translation Department 2, besides Wu Naijun, there's also you, Dong Zhiyu, isn't that right?"

  "Yes, Director Chu's instruction is to spare no effort in completing this task!" Dong Zhiyu felt that he had played his part and thought for a moment before asking: "But what are the identities of these few American citizens tomorrow? What is the general purpose of their visit? If I can know more about the background, I can also prepare myself."

  "Oh, they're antique dealers, and we'll exchange some antiques to promote friendship between our two countries," he said as he dialed an internal phone number. "Hello, is that the document room? I'm Chu Minyue. Take out file number one, section B. Later, have Dong Zhiyu translate it, and have her review it once. Remember, it can't be lent out."

  "Hang up the phone, 'Now go to the confidential room, there is an antique list for you to take a look at. It's also good to prepare in advance, but remember, this is a top-secret document, only I and Dean Chen can approve it for viewing, and it can only be viewed in the confidential room, not borrowed out.'"

  "Yes, I understand."

  As he walked out of Chu Minyi's office, Dong Zhiyu suppressed the excitement in his heart, like a child who had finally gotten the candy he had been craving.

  In fact, she didn't need to personally receive those antique dealers, Fu Qiusheng's task for her was only to get the list of cultural relics and the names of the antique dealers and their arrival time in Ning. However, with this unexpected turn of events, she had a reason to access the confidential file in the machine room; otherwise, she might have had to resort to stealing, which wasn't her strong suit. Originally, she thought that as long as she received the task tomorrow, even if no one asked her to review the antique details, she would go to the machine room and find Zhou Biquing, saying it was a great opportunity for her to take the lead in translating the second department's documents, asking her to let herself take a look at the details, just in case there were any unfamiliar terms to prepare for in advance. With her memory, after carefully reading through it once, she could list everything out one by one when she got back. But now that Chu Minye had personally instructed the machine room, this detail was something she could see openly and fairly, wasn't it making things more convenient than she had expected?

  She arrived at the document room, where Zhou Biqing had already taken out the file and was waiting for her. Taking advantage of their casual conversation, she reviewed it several times to confirm its accuracy before returning it. She then rushed back to her office and transcribed the list from the file, which consisted of twenty items. Although she knew that written records were not secure and this temporary memorization might not last long, she carefully folded the paper and tucked it away on her person. That evening, after returning home, she used a mixture of sodium nitrite and starch as ink to copy the list onto the blank back of a calendar. The next evening, when she returned from XiaGuan train station, she would have the list of antique dealers' names again, which she could then hand over to Fu QiuSheng. He only needed to scan it with a mixture of potassium iodide and tartaric acid for the writing to appear.

  Burned the white paper with black characters, everything is ready, just waiting for tomorrow to go to Xiaoguan to pick up people.

  The author has something to say: I've seen many girls struggling with how to address me, and it seems that my pen name is causing everyone a lot of trouble. Actually, just call me "writer" or "coder", nothing else matters. Even if you call me "Queen of Writing" today, but tomorrow if my writing sucks, I'm afraid I won't even qualify as a coder. Wherever the wind blows, that's where I'll go. However, I understand that everyone wants to find a more intimate way to address me, so feel free to use your imagination.

  Let's talk about the development of the two female leads. I've always said that this is a slow-burning story, and it's possible that the ambiguous period will last for a long time. However, being slow-burning doesn't mean that it'll take a long time to feel excited. Think back to when we first fell in love with someone - didn't we have a special feeling from the start? Of course, after going through many experiences, we might approach someone of the same sex with a purpose, but at the very beginning, during the confusing and shy phase, even if our hearts were racing, we couldn't quite put our finger on what it was. It's really just that pure.

  Some readers think Huaijin is a super agent, why did she expose herself to Dong so quickly? I'd like to explain it from two angles: reading and plot development. From the reading angle, I believe that some people guessed that another female lead was "Què" after seeing the "Song Què Action", and some people also guessed eight or nine out of ten when Huaijin appeared in that episode. In this case, who "Què" is no longer a suspense, and it's not early to reveal, it will only make the opening too long-winded. From the plot development angle, Qian Xinmin's betrayal led the Military Commission to decide to temporarily freeze "Què", so the "Song Què Action" must be adjusted accordingly. Originally, "Song" was still in the testing period and wouldn't let her know "Què"'s identity unless absolutely necessary. Now that she needs to replace "Què" to transmit intelligence, she must know who "Què" is. Rather than letting Fu Qiu Sheng tell Dong Zhiyu in a dull and uninteresting way, it's better to arrange an episode where Huaijin exposes her identity to save Dong. In the urgent situation, either let Dong expose herself, which may lead to imprisonment and the exposure of the "Night Golden Ridge" hidden point, or expose herself to Dong. The former is an enemy contradiction, while the latter is a "people's internal" contradiction. Huaijin naturally chooses the latter.

  I've said it before, everyone's criticism and praise are the driving force behind my writing. In the future, if there are any bugs, don't worry about it, just point them out, thank you everyone!

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