Volume 1: Laying the Foundation Chapter 44: Japanese Spy

  The next morning, Chen Xiaoqi had just arrived at the office when Huang Zhen Shan walked in with a strange and sinister smile on his face. He looked around to make sure no one was listening, then lowered his voice and said: "Boss, I caught three big rats last night, they're Japanese breeds, very impressive!"

  "Really? What's going on? Are there any casualties on our side?"

  "Nine minor injuries, one serious injury, the rest are fine! Good guys, these few sons are good hands, very much like the legendary 'ninja'! The knife method is extremely good, if it weren't for everyone wearing steel-plated vests and thick clothes, I'm afraid there would be a few who would have been disembowelled! This time was a bit risky! These three guys are very clever, they left people outside to respond, two split into two paths and snuck in, if they hadn't been unlucky, they would have coincidentally met our night training team with more manpower, and it wouldn't have gone well, they might have really entered the second line of defense!"

  Chen Xiaoqi said with a smile: "It's good that there are no sacrifices, those who were lightly injured will each receive double compensation, and after they recover, I'll have them trained well! Aren't they always boasting about how great they are? But this time they ran into someone tough and became soft eggs? Those who are seriously injured must be treated as soon as possible, if their physical condition allows it, they can continue to stay here. If the injury is too severe... transfer them to another department. Hmm, Eastern Wasteland Rats, heh heh, Young Master was just looking for you! Go take a look!"

  Since the domestic side started sending people over here, Chen Xiaoqi has been thinking of ways to settle and hide them. At first, these people came to study through regular channels, which was easier to handle. But those like Huang Zhenshan were the most troublesome. If they landed on the West Coast and waited for death on that so-called "Paradise Island", Americans would not believe their claims of tourism, visiting friends or relatives. Racial discrimination is unreasonable.

  So a part of it is that when getting close to the US, Chen Xiaoqi needs to sneak in with the help of the Chicago mafia and hide in the increasingly crowded garden district. Normally, the US police would have a hard time finding him as he blends in with the other Chinese people who all look alike to them. Moreover, the local government is more concerned about their own performance and the taxes from Chen Xiaoqi's industries, in a world where capitalists rule, money has the most say.

  Apart from this, Chen Xiaoqi took the opportunity to dig a very deep tunnel system underground while developing the new factory, and at the same time built a hidden fortress system underneath. On the one hand, it can facilitate the entry and exit of his private soldiers who cannot be seen in public, on the other hand, a large number of top-secret documents and research results also need a safe place to store, so underground construction is indispensable. After Dai Chunfeng joined, this demand became more obvious and necessary.

  Chen Xiaoqi followed Huang Zhen Shan through a few turns, passing through an ordinary tool room in a group of factory buildings, and opened the secret passage on the wall to enter the underground works. After turning a few corners, he arrived at a straight passageway similar to an air-raid shelter, with rooms of almost the same layout and size on both sides of the approximately three-meter-wide passageway.

  Open the door and enter, inside is a 15-square-meter room. On the right corner of the wall in front is another door. Two fully armed guards are standing at the door, holding Thompson submachine guns with extreme vigilance, their eyes fixed on the outside door. Their right index fingers are all placed next to the trigger, ready to fire immediately if something happens, without hesitation!

  When Chen Xiaoqi came in, he found that except for the two guards, there was a chair leaning against the wall on the left side. Young Zhou Yunpeng was slumped on it with his head tilted to one side, looking weak and spiritless, his face pale, his eyes dull, as if he had just vomited, completely unlike his usual energetic and lively self.

  Chen Xiaoqi saw him for the first time with this dead and lifeless virtue, curiously asked Huang Zhen Shan: "What's wrong with him? Why is he like this? What blow did he suffer?"

  Huang Zhen's eyes sparkled with a mischievous glint, and he chuckled: "This kid was bragging to me last night, saying he wanted to experience the top ten cruel punishments in the Hu Zi prison! How convenient that we have this opportunity now. Hehe, he couldn't even handle two of them, I wonder how he'll still dare to boast to me in the future!"

  Chen Xiao nodded calmly: "Mm, that's right, that's good. If you have the chance, you must bring him to see the whole set of kung fu, until he can't react anymore!"

  Huang Zhen Shan was shocked! He didn't expect this young boss to be even more ruthless than him! And Zhou Yun Peng had already gone limp and couldn't stand up, at this moment he fainted with a pale face and foaming at the mouth! Huang Zhen Shan thought: Poor kid, running into such a boss, is it good luck or bad luck?!

  Push the door and enter the inner room. This is a house of almost the same size, with a roof height of about 4 meters from the ground, because Chen Xiaoqi learned from books in the later generations that the spatial height where people are located cannot be lower than 2.7 meters, otherwise there will be psychological pressure, and it's easy to have problems if it lasts for a long time. Therefore, the underground works here, whether it is a passage or a room, will not be lower than this height, and some of them are even higher due to special needs.

  This room also has a special function - it's specifically used for interrogation and torture. However, the setup isn't as terrifying as those in movies, except for the large iron chains deeply embedded in the reinforced concrete walls. There aren't many instruments of torture like charcoal stoves, branding irons, tiger stools, or whips. Instead, on the side near the door, there's a long wooden desk with several leather travel cases on top, containing what looks like surgical tools and some chemical substances - all sorts of strange and ominous objects that Chen Xiaoqi didn't recognize, but they looked pretty intimidating.

  Directly in front of the middle position, there is a special iron chair. The four thick steel pipes at the bottom are used as the legs of the chair and are directly screwed onto the buried steel shaft with large screws. On both armrests of the chair, there are steel handcuffs that are welded on top. The back of the chair is very high but extremely narrow, looking like a 20-centimeter iron plate with many holes for plugging in. At the height near the neck, directly behind the head, there is a row of egg-sized holes. A rod with a handle inserted inside can be rotated forward and backward to push or pull this thick shaft back and forth. At this height, a steel hoop is fixed with bolts.

  Now this chair is holding a "person". Chen Xiaoqi almost threw up when he saw it for the first time, his chest and abdomen were churning violently, and it took him half a day to calm down with his strong internal breathing skills.

  The guy in front of me isn't very tall, so the iron ring on his back almost hooks onto his neck, making it impossible for his butt to touch the cold metal surface of the chair. His hands are too short and are tightly locked into the two welded cuffs, which twists his upper body into a distorted shape. His legs are pulled in by the foot shackles below, contorting his entire body into three bends. Just this alone is unbearable for an ordinary person.

  Apart from this, the guy doesn't know what kind of bitter suffering he's endured, his head is swollen to almost the size of a pig's head, his two originally small eyes can now only see two thin slits, his mouth is half open, with white foamy saliva flowing from the corners, Chen Xiaoqi has sharp eyes and can tell that this guy doesn't have many teeth left in front of his mouth.

  Apart from that, the clothes on his upper body were torn to shreds, and in front of him, not a single piece of good skin was visible. Rows of ferocious wounds oozed a nauseating purple color, while some unbroken red swellings looked like the shell of a lobster scalded by boiling water, bulging out as if they would burst open with just a slight touch!

  His ten fingers were barely recognizable in shape, but not a single one was normally straight or curled up. No matter how you looked at it, they seemed to have been twisted by someone with great force, or crushed and flattened by some object, looking like a sausage that had been skinned, dropped on the ground, and trampled on several times.

  This man's two legs were unexpectedly bent inward from the knee, even if the iron chain below was pulled so tightly that it couldn't be straightened. Chen Xiaoqi had only seen one movie starring Pan Changjiang, where a comical Japanese devil's legs were squeezed by a steamroller and looked very similar to this guy.

  The newly appointed head of the Confidentiality Department, Dai Chunfeng, was sitting calmly at the long table with a thick stack of documents in his hand. After Chen Xiaoqi came in, he quickly stood up and said in a calm tone: "Boss?"

  Several other half-naked men in the corner who were whispering to each other also greeted Chen Xiaoqi at the same time. Chen Xiaoqi forced a ugly smile and nodded, then ignored the poor guy on the chair and turned to ask Dai Chunfeng: "Yunong, what's going on? Have you figured everything out?"

  Dai Chunfeng nodded slightly, his voice not very loud, sounding a bit soft and almost emotionless as he said: "For now, we can only say that part of it is temporarily clear. This time, we caught three people in total. Two of them have already confessed, while the other one refuses to say anything even if you beat him to death."

  Chen Xiao thought for a moment and said, "I remember an American saying that there is no one who won't talk when beaten to death, it just depends on the method used. Hmm, what did these two people confess? Who are they? What's their purpose in coming here?"

  Dai Chunfeng said: "This group of people are all Japanese, their apparent identities are a military attaché at the Japanese Embassy in the United States, a reporter for Tokyo News Agency, and an owner of a grocery store in the United States. In reality, they are all spies and assassins cultivated by the US Navy Department! Their purpose this time is not only to steal our company's research results but also to find opportunities to poison some important personnel in the company. Currently, we still don't know what kind of drug they brought or its effects, the chemistry team is studying and testing it. This was confessed by two people, the leader, that military attaché, has not confessed yet."

  Chen Xiaoqi nodded, quickly analyzing the information in his mind, and said: "Have their training methods and personal skills been extracted? What about their membership situation within the organization? Their activities in the United States?"

  Dai Chunfeng was taken aback for a moment and said, "They are all single-line contacts. The superior is that military officer, and the others have not been asked yet. Boss, are these materials important?"

  Chen Xiaoqi said: "Yes, it's very important. We've just started doing this kind of thing, and everyone has no experience, so we don't know how to prevent it. Moreover, your confidentiality department will also need to train its own spies and assassins in the future, and other departments will need to train specialized snipers and special operations personnel. This requires a lot of skill training! However, even if we intentionally look for this kind of information, we may not be able to get it. The Japanese have been vigorously training these personnel since the Meiji Restoration, and now they have developed several generations. They must have a complete set of mature training programs. You must remember that in the future, no matter which country's people you capture, you must obtain their training methods and countermeasures, and then summarize and absorb them as our own skills to cultivate relevant personnel. Otherwise, we can only passively suffer. Our current personnel are very few and concentrated, and it's not easy for them to take action, but in the future, they will definitely need to continuously develop and expand. When that time comes, if the personnel can't keep up, there will be a big mess!"

  Dai Chunfeng's face was stern and he bowed his head respectfully, saying: "Your subordinate has remembered, please rest assured, boss. From now on, we will definitely do a good job in this matter."

  Chen Xiaoqi nodded: "Mm, I believe in your ability."

  Dai Chunfeng said again: "However, boss, these two people are probably useless."

  "What's wrong?" Chen Xiaoqi asked in surprise.

  Dai Chunfeng didn't say a word, his eyes went to look at Huang Zhen Shan. Chen Xiaoqi also looked over, and Huang Zhen Shan scratched his head with one hand, smiling awkwardly: "This... boss! Just now when we were fighting, that kid Zhu Dacheng was a bit too heavy-handed, he messed up the brains of these two guys. Even if they can survive, they'll probably be idiots! Haha, blame me for not paying attention!"

  "Shouldn't this be a matter for the Confidential Department? How did Zhu Dacheng get involved too? That ruffian is ruthless and black-hearted, you don't know that, do you? Are you taking advantage of the opportunity to interrogate him to vent your anger because your brother was injured and suffered a loss last night?"

  Huang Zhen's eyes sparkled with amusement, but he didn't say a word, tacitly acknowledging the matter. Chen Xiaoqi glared at him fiercely and said, "From now on, all matters like this will be handled by the Confidentiality Department, you few are not allowed to interfere! Besides, how did these three people get in? The high wall and barbed wire couldn't stop them?"

  Huang Zhen Shan nodded his fierce old face and replied, "Got it, boss. Heh heh, these guys are not ordinary! They somehow figured out the height, thickness of our wall, and the outer diameter of the barbed wire, and made a bamboo-like thing with special rubber. When it's rolled up in reverse, it's about one inch thick, and when rolled forward, it forms a perfect arc that completely covers the barbed wire. The two ends are stuck to the top of the wall and won't slip off, making it look like a cut-off cylinder, very sturdy. I tried it out and it can withstand my weight, I have no idea how they researched this material."

  "Wow, Japan is really capable of researching things!" Chen Xiaoqi exclaimed, "Have you figured out the material composition of this thing?"

  Huang Zhen Shan did not respond, and Dai Chun Feng said: "It has been handed over to the materials group and the chemical group for research. Once the results are out, I will report back to you in a timely manner."

  Chen Xiaoqi looked up at the dimly lit ceiling under the shining light and sighed, "It seems that we have too much work to do! Others have already put in so much effort into such things, while we haven't even eaten our fill yet! No choice, let's take it one step at a time!"

  Huang Zhen Shan and Dai Chun Feng understood why the boss sighed. If others can specially manufacture special tools for a certain task of assassins and spies, it means that they have reached a certain level in terms of economic strength and scientific research capabilities. This level is based on a certain industrial and scientific technical level in a general sense, which China has not yet reached, let alone higher levels. It's unknown how much time and effort will be needed to reach this level. Thinking about the boss's usual excited remarks about "spy equipment" and "special agent tools", those high-tech things are even more unimaginable!