Chapter Twenty: Captive

  I was forcibly stripped of my bulletproof vest by two brutal sailors and almost dragged all the way to the deck.

  It was midnight, there were no stars outside, dark clouds, strong wind, and very cold.

  At this time two large cages were placed on the deck, covered with tarpaulins. The sailors lifted the cage, opened the door and pushed me in violently.

  I'm so angry that my teeth are itching. When have I ever suffered such humiliation? It's always been me who puts people I don't like behind bars, and now I've actually become a prisoner myself.

  Two sailors finished their work, patted their buttocks, hummed a little tune, stood by the control room, smoking and monitoring us.

  "Ah yo, Officer Hong, you're here too, hahaha, it seems we have a good relationship!" A fluent Beijing dialect, spoken by the British man Sherlock.

  I had long discovered the existence of this foreigner, and in the entire cage there was only him. "They actually left you behind, didn't kill you?" I sat down with a thud, the iron cage hitting my butt painfully.

  "Haha, you're not dead yet, we have a cockroach's life." Sherlock retorted, his little finger and thumb gently pulling on his small mustache, the other hand elegantly snapping his fingers. Although he was in a desperate situation, he remained calm and composed like an English gentleman, of course, to me, he just looked like a sissy. He flashed his white teeth and smiled: "Cai Lingyu only captures those who have plotted against him, ordinary passengers don't interest her."

  I knew Sherlock was referring to my special identity. I let out a cold hum: "You don't need to know this."

  Sherlock shrugged and didn't want to make a fool of himself either.

  The two of us stared at each other with wide eyes, neither of us speaking to the other.

  In another cage were several people, as silent as we, but it was impossible to see who they were, owing to the oilcloth covering.

  As I glanced in that direction, Sherlock calmly said, "Those people are from Shanghai's Green Gang."

  "Oh, it's a mantis after all." I nodded.

  "You mean, mantis catches cicada, yellow sparrow behind?" Sherlock chimed in.

  "Chinese is pretty good." I pretended to flatter, understanding Chinese doesn't mean being pro-China, and there are many in Japan who invaded China with high Chinese proficiency.

  "However~" Sherlock shook his head, glancing at the two sailors in the distance, who were chatting and laughing, without any time to look over here. The sea breeze was blowing loudly, so they couldn't hear what we were saying either. Sherlock smiled wryly at me: "This beautiful canary Cai Lingyu is really formidable. I, Sherlock, have always thought of myself as a great detective like Holmes, but it turns out that I'm just a Watson, and even became someone else's cicada. Hehe, in your Chinese words, it's called 'a frog at the bottom of a well'."

  "Don't speak Chinese one by one, how do you say '井底之蛙' in English?" I asked boredly.

  He thought for a moment and replied: "French, French people."

  "Put away your humor. I'm quite familiar with you, former US Embassy's Wushu coach, Sherlock Pundon." I plan to get some information out of Sherlock, so I'll start by teasing him a bit.

  Sherlock shrugged and made a face at me. His reaction was unexpected: "You're not surprised?"

  "It's nothing, my identity isn't that mysterious, especially for you it's easy to find out, I'm not surprised at all." Sherlock suddenly lowered his voice and whispered in my ear: "Hehe, my MI6 agent!"

  "You!" My face changed color, and I was shocked speechless. My core identity was actually exposed by a British man. Who is he, how did he know that I am an undercover agent!

  "Who are you?!" I thundered, making no attempt to conceal my murderous intent.

  Sherlock calmly reached into his pocket and pulled out a black-and-white photo, handing it to me. "Found in Tian Wenliang's briefcase."

  I received the photos, which were a series of pictures of Tian Wenliang's death scene that Sherlock had shown me before, but this time they were replaced with relics. The photo was a piece of notepaper with one corner torn off, apparently part of some confidential document. On it was listed a row of names, which was a partial roster of code names for the Shanghai branch of the Secret Bureau, and my name was prominently on the list.

  I slumped against the cage railing like a deflated balloon and said in a low voice, "You knew my identity when I introduced myself, didn't you?"

  Sherlock shook his head and replied calmly, "At that time I was uncertain, but just a second ago, I became certain."

  "You think you're clever, don't you, you British scoundrel!" I realized that I had been outsmarted by Sherlock and cursed the Englishman's cunning. Giving him a fierce glare, I vowed to get my revenge soon.

  First, I was deceived by Old Third Xie, and now I've been deceived by a foreign devil. Am I too easily fooled? As a secret agent of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, my professional integrity has gone to the dogs. The first maxim of Dai Li's sayings: what is an intelligence agent? An intelligence agent is someone who deceives people. Alas, it seems I still have a long way to go on this path.

  "Hong officer, we are all poor wretches now, God wants us to unite and be saved. Don't look at me like that, I'll feel embarrassed." Sherlock smiled brightly at me.

  I really want to kick him to death, disdainfully saying: "This is within the borders of China, waiting for your God to save you is no better than waiting for his brother Hong Xiuquan to become a saint."

  "Don't worry about that, a clever guy escaped from the Green Gang, the sailors didn't find him, he'll definitely cause some trouble and wait for an opportunity to rescue us." Sherlock said with a pat on his chest.

  Sherlock had just finished speaking when the Qingbang disciple in the opposite cage burst out laughing, his laughter extremely exaggerated. He lifted a corner of the oilcloth, revealing a robust face with scars all over it, and said to Sherlock in a sarcastic tone: "You foreigners don't understand anything! That kid will come to rescue us only if gold falls from the sky!"

  I took a look at this person and thought he should be some sort of leader, so I clasped my fists together in respect and asked: "What should I call you?"

  "Nie Kun." The robust man replied in a loud and clear voice.

  Lightning Gun King Nie Kun!

  "Kun Ge, what's the point of talking to these people? We should think of a way out ourselves." Nie Kun said with a sharp-mouthed and cheeky tone, one arm dangling, obviously dislocated.

  I took one look at this person and my eyes lit up: "Xu Lai!"

  "Do you know me?" Xu Lai blinked in confusion, completely forgetting what I looked like.

  I sneered coldly: "Noble people often forget things." Xu Lai, this kind of petty person has offended so many people that he can't even remember himself.

  I'd rather not bring it up again, lest I show myself to be too narrow-minded. The key is that now isn't the time for seeking personal revenge.

  Nie Kong simply rolled up the oilcloth and faced us, I saw three people beside Xu Lai, one look at their appearance knew they were not good eggs, closing their eyes to cultivate their spirit, but their breathing was extremely urgent.

  "You've also been calculated by Xie Lao San, right?" NIE Kun asked with a connected fate.

  "I said with a strange tone: 'You were robbed by Old Third Xie yourself, don't blame others.'"

  Nie Kun and several other Green Gang disciples immediately blew up: "A-Chi, Little Red Rascal, Xie Lao San was originally our mole! Our plan was still his idea!"

  "My day!" I jumped up at once and cursed loudly: "Three-surname family slave, indeed a three-surname family slave!"

  Listen to Nie Kun and the others scolding Xie Lao San, I had a big headache, but I probably understood what happened. It turned out that Xie Lao San had joined the Green Gang when he was in Shanghai, where he had some connections, although there were contradictions with Xu Lai, it wasn't that serious. In fact, what I saw at the dock was just a show put on by Xu Lai and Xie Lao San for others to see, letting people know that he and the Green Gang didn't get along, telling others that Xie Lao San couldn't possibly collude with the Green Gang! But in reality, Xie Lao San had already gotten close to Nie Kun and the others, deceiving them into a state of confusion.

  I heard that Xie Lao San and Xu Lai's play was proposed by Xie Lao San himself, and I couldn't help but hum a cold tune. Nie Kun didn't know that Xie Lao San had another layer of meaning behind this move. It was to deliberately confuse Gui Ye Jia and others, so that after the event, Xie Lao San's discovery of the Qing Bang's conspiracy would be more reasonable and wouldn't seem so abrupt.

  "It's a pity that this person didn't join the Intelligence Bureau." I was angry, but to be honest, I still admired Xie Lao San's abilities. However, what's even more impressive is the woman behind Xie Lao San, Cai Ling Yu. First, she used the Green Gang to kill the British, then eliminated the Green Gang itself. Once they arrived in Taiwan, when the higher-ups investigated, not only did Cai Ling Yu and her people have no wrongdoing, but they even had merit. And I, along with Gui Ye Jiao, risked our lives to retrieve the treasure, but the fruits of victory almost went to this woman instead.

  A stone that kills many birds, a group of old birds were fooled and turned around. However, this is not what shocked me the most, what shocked me the most was that all the sailors on the entire Jin Hua ship participated in this plan, which is a bit terrifying. It's just like the Orient Express murder case, where they searched for the murderer for half a day, only to discover that it was actually a joint conspiracy of all the passengers, and everyone was a murderer, how could the victim survive?

  These sailors are well-organized and disciplined, without revealing any flaws beforehand. I would even believe that they were disguised as underground party members. This makes me deeply suspicious of Cai Lingyu's identity - how could a small ship captain have such audacity? There must be some powerful force backing her up. I even suspect that the Green Gang and the tomb robbers on the Golden Flower Wheel were also carefully planned by someone.

  Thinking of this, I felt a chill on my back, as if an invisible big hand was controlling everything that happened on the Jin Hua wheel. I shifted and asked Xu Lai, "Brother, do you have any cigarettes?"

  Xu Lai gave me a listless glance with his dead fish eyes, tossed me a pack and waved his hand: "Take them all, I'm not in the mood to smoke anymore."

  "Well, in that case, I won't be polite." I greedily took a big drag, exhaling misty clouds. Now only tobacco can make me feel slightly at ease.

  Calculating our speed, the Jin Hua boat will arrive in Taiwan in just over a day. But before that, none of us can survive. Death is only a matter of time.

  Looking at the distant dark sea surface, waves surging, containing countless secrets. I felt a pang of melancholy, wondering how my wife in Shanghai is doing now.

  Everyone in the cage is clear about their situation, and no one dares to speak up.

  Only Xu Lai's face was the worst, muttering non-stop: "If I had known it was a trap earlier, I shouldn't have been blinded by wealth and believed that suspicious letter."

  "Now there's nothing going on, I curiously asked: 'How about it, was your hijacking of the ship instigated by someone?'"

  Xu Lai let out a long sigh: "It's all because of that..."

  "Look quickly, the boat has turned around!" Sherlock suddenly shouted.

  We were all shocked and saw that the Golden Flower suddenly deviated from its original course, turning 90 degrees southwest and speeding forward at an incredible speed.

  An hour later, the Jin Hua ship deviated further and further from its original route. We looked at each other in dismay, none of us knew where the Jin Hua ship was going, but one thing was certain, it was definitely not heading to Taiwan.