Chapter Thirty Interrogation

  It's not just us, the captured sailors are also anxious. Everyone knows that getting lost at sea is much more dangerous than getting lost on land.

  "How much dried provision is left on the ship?" I asked one of the sailors, who thought for a moment and replied: "Enough for us to eat for at least a year." I was shocked, how could there be so much? Could the Jin Hua boat hold that much? But then I immediately understood what he meant and angrily said: "I'm asking including the passengers you've locked up!"

  "Not three days!" the sailors chorused in reply.

  I couldn't help but curse, this group of scoundrels really didn't treat others as human beings. The destination of the Jin Hua ship is Taiwan, and now all supplies, especially food prices, are rising rapidly every day. The Jin Hua ship doesn't have much financial resources or the need to prepare for more than a month's worth of rations, after all, under normal circumstances, it would take no more than three days to reach Keelung Port in Taiwan and receive timely replenishment. Moreover, on such a short voyage, at most there might be a shipwreck, who would have thought that they would get lost?

  Fortunately, we didn't stray too far from our planned route and there's still a chance of finding our way back.

  "After the Nationalist Navy loses contact with us, they will send warships to search for us. After all, the Jinhua is carrying a large amount of gold, although they don't know that it has already been stolen." I comforted everyone, but when I saw their expressions, which were each different from one another, I secretly thought "this is bad". I had thought things would be too easy!

  The old eunuch and the ghostly yaksha are tomb raiders, Xu Lai and Nie Kun are members of the Green Gang, and the captured sailor is another group of thugs, equivalent to a turncoat. Here, except for me, this root-red party national agent, it seems that no one wants to fall into the hands of the Nationalist army.

  Thinking of this, I feel that things are getting complicated.

  "We've arrived at the deserted coast of Taiwan, and I'll give you and Xu Lai a life raft. We'll leave immediately and won't implicate any of you." Nie Kun lowered his head, his eyes darting back and forth as he secretly glanced at the old eunuch, Gui Ye Jia, and me.

  "We're going too," Oni Otosha said, and Shiroemaru nodded in agreement.

  Now, all of a sudden, the pressure is focused on me.

  "Go ahead, go ahead. I'm just a small cop, can't catch the big thieves and won't be scolded by anyone. Besides, you're all gone, so I can make up my own heroic stories." I said with a carefree tone, waving my hand casually. The professional instincts of an undercover agent told me that at this moment, I absolutely couldn't hesitate, otherwise, starting from tonight, even when sleeping, I would have to keep one eye open to guard against being quietly taken out by any one of them.

  Three people nodded in satisfaction, Nie Kun praised: "Lecturing on righteousness."

  I bowed my head in return, repeatedly expressing politeness. In my heart, I thought that even if these people all ran away, it wouldn't matter, as long as I completed the mission of Special 0901. I prayed that this guy would definitely make it to Taiwan alive, not only for giving me proof but also because he had promised me the title of Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Colonel - at my age, I still hadn't held any official position!

  Captain rank in the Secret Bureau is absolutely a quasi-middle-level leader, reaching the lowest standard of implicit rules for female subordinates.

  After a while, the old man returned to the room and continued the interrogation. A moment later, the old man dragged out the battered sailor, who was barely breathing, in front of us. He clapped his hands together, wiped away the bloodstains, and revealed a cold smile: "He told us everything he knew."

  However, the old eunuch did not rush to tell us his confession, and instead brought in three more people one after another, comparing the four confessions to ensure there were no hidden or intentionally distorted parts. Only then was he satisfied and began to speak with us.

  It turned out that these sailors were indeed fake sailors and did not belong to the China Union Shipping Company. In fact, after the Taiping incident, the China Union Shipping Company suffered a huge loss and was on the verge of bankruptcy. At this time, someone invested in the company and allowed it to operate again, and also agreed to lend sailors to let them use the ship. The China Union Shipping Company, eager to recover its losses, immediately agreed. Therefore, all the sailors on the Jinhua ship were actually from another force that had infiltrated under false pretenses, and the small leader among them was Zhang Jue. As for Cai Lingyu, he was the son of a wealthy family who had returned from studying abroad, but it was unknown what he had studied while overseas. The fake sailors followed Cai Lingyu's orders and were responsible for this operation. Unexpectedly, Xie Lao San was a genuine employee of the China Union Shipping Company and the only original sailor on the Jinhua ship. Why he joined forces with Cai Lingyu was unknown, even to Zhang Jue and his men.

  "What force is behind them?" I asked anxiously.

  "The old corpse's eyes were icy cold as he said faintly: 'Japanese.'"

  "Little Japan! I'm going to kill you!" We were all shocked, and as I looked at those sailors, a surge of nameless anger rose up in my heart: "Fine, since you're Chinese traitors, I won't have any qualms about killing you."

  My old home in Northeast China was ruined by these bastards, and I had to wander around begging for food until I arrived in Shanghai. In 1945, when the great Shanghai was settling accounts with traitors, although I hadn't joined the Intelligence Bureau yet, during the Japanese occupation and Wang's puppet regime, I suffered a lot from this group of shameless traitors who had no national dignity. My wife and I had a very difficult time during that period. Later, as a secret agent, I saw even more files about the evil deeds done by the Japanese and the traitors, and I developed an instinctive disgust for them.

  Our gaze towards these sailors changed in an instant.

  "They were the traitors who hid in secret and escaped punishment after Japan's surrender. Their little leader Zhang Duo was a thorough Japanese, originally named Sakai Ryota, a former lieutenant colonel of the invading Japanese army."

  "My mind is a bit dizzy, and I wonder: 'The little Japanese have been bombed by the Americans, their troops are gone, so why secretly develop their forces? Corpse old man, did you ask them about the purpose of this time's robbery of gold and silver coins, as well as those burial objects?"

  The old corpse shook his head and said, "These people are too low-level, they just listen to orders. If you want to know the core secrets, I'm afraid you'll have to interrogate Zhang Jue and Cai Lingyu."

  Speaking of which, I immediately came to the room where Cai Lingyu was detained. This girl still hasn't woken up, flipping open her eyelids, white eyeballs, pupils scattered, as if she had been possessed by an evil spirit. Helpless, I could only go with Gui Yexia to the helm control room to grab Zhang Jue and Xie Lao San for questioning.

  On the way, the passengers in the restaurant became much quieter, probably because they were tired of shouting or had lost hope of being rescued and started to sink. The kitchen in the restaurant still had a lot of food, which could be enough for them to eat for several meals if used sparingly. I didn't mean to let them out now, although it was a bit cruel, but with hundreds of people, we couldn't possibly take care of them with just a few of us, who knows what unnecessary trouble might arise. The main thing is that we haven't discussed how to deal with the captured sailors, and Nie Kun didn't allow anything unexpected to happen before they escaped smoothly.

  I walked with Gui Ye through the dining hall and soon arrived at the helm control room. Xu Lai was standing on the table, holding two guns in his hands, closely monitoring Xie Lao San and others as they manipulated the Jin Hua wheel.

  Through the glass, I saw that the storm outside had subsided a lot. It seemed we had already left the center of the typhoon behind, and the massive waves were nowhere to be seen. "The Qianlong Emperor's jade coffin should have sunk completely into the East Sea by now." I felt a sense of melancholy.

  "Here we are." Xu Lai said to us, but his eyes didn't leave Xie Laosan and them.

  "I rushed up to him and said: 'Brother, you've had a hard time, I'll take two people back for questioning.'"

  I suddenly let out a low shout: "Sakai Takayuki!"

  Zhang Jue's hand on the helm trembled at the words, his movements momentarily stiffening before he seemed to ignore what was said and continued steering the Golden Flower. I sneered, still trying to deceive me!

  "Zhang Er Fū, oh no, I still call you Sakai Shōsa. Hehe, you've been exposed." I said with a pleased tone, only to see Zhang Ji slowly turn around, his eyes blazing with fury, looking at us with extreme resentment.

  "Bah! You're a Japanese pig!" Zhang Chong completely dropped his act, let out a loud roar and suddenly charged towards me.

  Bang!

  Xu Laiyi's gun exploded and hit his knee, Zhang Jue instantly fell to the ground, punching the deck in extreme pain.

  "Is this guy a Japanese devil?" Xu Lai looked at us in surprise and astonishment.

  I briefly explained the reason, and Xu Lai Chao fell to the ground, Zhang Jue spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm and cursed: "What's the point of interrogating, just kill him directly."

  I hastily stopped him, and Xu Lai fired a few more shots at Zhang Jue's thigh before reluctantly putting away his gun. It wasn't until later that I found out Xu Lai used to work under Zhang Shoulin, but after Zhang became a big traitor, Xu turned to follow Du Yuesheng. Although Xu was not a good guy, he hated the Japanese even more.

  My gaze shifted from Zhang Jiao, who had already become a waste of a person, to Xie Lao San, who looked like a pig's head. His legs were trembling non-stop, and when he saw us looking at him, he immediately knelt down and cried out: "I'll confess everything, please don't shoot! I'm old and can't take this punishment!"

  The three of us have completely looked down on him, and yet this kind of person can still live for so long. "I was out of my mind to have believed in you back then." I silently scolded myself as an idiot.

  Oni and Xulai took over the shift, while I and Xulai respectively pinned down Zhang Jue and Xie Lao San back to the room.

  All the way, Xie Lao San begged for mercy with a nose full of snot and tears, constantly saying how pitiful he was, all because of being forced by the Japanese. However, Xu Lai knew Xie Lao San's true nature and directly pierced through his begging: "What do you mean by 'having an old mother at home'? You're actually an orphan, where did your 80-year-old mother come from? Your wife has three sons, which one looks like you? Who knows if they're even your own flesh and blood, you don't even treat them as a big deal. Stop pretending to be pitiful in front of me!"

  Zhang Yan was indeed very tough, dragging his bloody leg all the way without making a sound. Maybe he thought it was extremely humiliating to beg for mercy in front of Chinese people, and it would be better to commit seppuku instead. If we were Americans, this devil would probably have confessed everything.

  After returning to the room, I saw Nie Kun hugging a tall oak barrel that was as tall as one person, making "tsk" noises and excitedly drumming on it.

  My face changed greatly: "Stop, don't move that thing!"

  Nie Kun was startled and his hand slipped, the sturdy oak barrel fell to the ground with a thud, and the lid on top cracked open.