novelhk Chapter 10 The Dead Mailbox Has an Ambush
Chapter 10 The Dead Mailbox Has an Ambush
Today, Yan Shuo led A Jie and A Mao to Pier 7 to pick up goods at the dock. Laborers carrying sacks shuttled back and forth, their shouts and the whistles of ships blending together.
He found the freight forwarder Zhao Qiang, who was leaning against a pile of goods, smoking and doing accounts. When he saw him, Zhao Qiang immediately greeted him with a smile and patted him on the shoulder: "Brother Liu, you've finally arrived! This batch of cloth and red wine has been unloaded for a while now, just waiting for you to sign off on the handover."
Yan Shuo handed him a cigarette and lit it for him: "Brother Qiang, you've worked hard. Have the freight rates at the dock gone up again recently? I just saw a lot of goods piled up over there, from the Green Gang and the Asakusa Trading Company?"
Zhao Qiang took a drag of his cigarette, gestured towards the pile of goods not far away, and lowered his voice: "You're absolutely right! This batch of goods from the Asakusa Trading Company is really something else. They say it's rubber and palm oil, but who doesn't know they're secretly mixing in opium and tin ingots? And there's also pig bristles from the Green Gang. People in Chongqing are scrambling for them; even a single coin can be driven sky-high in price. Guess what? The British trading company is also hiding sulfanilamide. That stuff is more valuable than gold bars right now, and there's a serious shortage at the front!"
"Brother Qiang is really well-informed." Yan Shuo smiled as he took the handover form and signed it. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the Asakusa Trading Company's cargo boxes and secretly noted their location. "I'll take this batch of goods back to the warehouse first. I'll trouble Brother Qiang to keep an eye on things and make sure no one tampers with them."
"Don't worry! Who would dare touch the goods from Ximei Trading Company?" Zhao Qiang patted his chest to assure him, then leaned closer. "By the way, recently people from the 76th Division have been loitering around the docks, saying they're investigating the Military Intelligence Bureau. Be careful."
Yan Shuo nodded and called over A-Jie and A-Mao: "A-Jie, you take the driver and escort the truck directly back to the warehouse. Put it in overnight and lock the warehouse door. A-Mao, go to the street corner and buy some steamed buns and porridge for the brothers to eat. After unloading, give each of them two silver dollars as a tip. Keep a close eye on things and make sure nothing goes wrong."
"Got it, Brother Liu!" Ah Jie replied, directing the workers to load the goods onto the truck; Ah Mao dashed to the street corner and soon returned with several large bags of food, and the aroma of meat buns immediately filled the dock.
After settling the goods in, Yan Shuo rushed back to the trading company to report to Lucas, then hurriedly left with his briefcase.
As darkness fell, the streetlights in the alleyway gradually came on, casting a dim yellow glow. He turned into a series of quiet alleyways, heading straight for the first unclaimed mailbox—a loose brickwork in the old alley wall, next to a rusty trash can. He glanced around to make sure no one was there, then reached out and pried open the brickwork. His fingertips touched the cold wall; it was empty. "Nothing at the first one," he muttered to himself, turning to his second target: under the pub railing at the bathhouse entrance. He probed the pre-drilled groove with his fingertips, but still, nothing.
After checking three empty mailboxes, Yan Shuo felt a growing unease. Then, as he approached the fourth—behind the gatepost of a dilapidated courtyard—Xiao Zhi's warning suddenly blared: "Danger Warning! Six hostile targets detected, distributed along the courtyard wall, behind the gate, and at the alley entrance!"
Yan Shuo paused, his expression unchanged, continuing to walk slowly forward. His peripheral vision quickly scanned his surroundings: a figure flashed past high above the courtyard wall, someone seemed to be hiding behind the gate, and two loitering "passersby" lurked at the alley entrance, their hands seemingly carrying cigarette cases, but actually the outlines of gun handles. "Damn it, we've been ambushed." A chill ran through him. He decided to pretend he hadn't noticed anything and walked straight towards the courtyard gate, his fingers stealthily reaching for the silenced pistol at his waist.
"Halt!" A sharp shout suddenly rang out, and two secret agents at the alley entrance quickly stepped forward. The leader, a man with triangular eyes, gripped a gun and yelled sternly, "Kid, you're acting suspiciously. You don't look like a good person! Are you a Kuomintang spy?"
Yan Shuo suddenly turned around, flicked his wrist, and the silenced pistol spat out two tongues of fire—"pfft pfft"—blood splattered between the eyebrows of the triangular-eyed man, and he fell straight down; the agent next to him was about to draw his gun when a bullet hit him squarely on the bridge of his nose, he covered his face and screamed, and fell to the ground convulsing.
"Assassins!" Two agents suddenly jumped out from the courtyard wall and fired their guns. Yan Shuo dodged the bullets by turning to the side and fired two shots in return. One shot pierced the forehead of one agent, and the other grazed the temple of the other. The man staggered and crashed into the wall. He was not completely dead and groaned while clutching his wound.
"Bang!" A gunshot suddenly rang out from inside the wall, fired into the air. A secret agent shouted at the top of his lungs, "Men! There's a Military Intelligence Bureau member in Red Code Alley! Backup! Backup!"
The gunshots carried far in the night. Yan Shuo cursed under his breath, scurried along the wall to the courtyard gate, and fired three shots at the spot Xiao Zhi had marked inside. Two muffled groans came from inside; one agent cried out, "Ah! My leg!", and the other fell silent. He glanced down and saw the agent on the ground, not quite dead, struggling to raise his gun. He kicked the agent's hand away and fired another shot: "You're asking for it!"
The magazine clicked empty, and Yan Shuo deftly replaced it with a new one before rushing into the courtyard. The remaining two agents huddled in a corner, one clutching his chest and gasping for breath, the other pale with fright. Yan Shuo showed no mercy, shooting each of them in the head. After confirming they were dead, he glanced at the dead mailbox behind the doorpost—he knew without even looking that it contained either false intelligence or a trap.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from afar; the rescuers were almost there! Yan Shuo had no time to search the bodies. With a thought, he put all six corpses into his spatial ring, turned around, climbed over the courtyard wall, and in a few leaps, disappeared into the crisscrossing alleys and vanished into the night.
A moment later, a squad leader in a black Zhongshan suit rushed over with more than a dozen agents. Seeing the bloodstains on the ground and the empty courtyard, he kicked the wall in anger: "Search! Search thoroughly! There's blood on the ground; the person couldn't have gone far!"
"Captain, we haven't seen a single one of our men!" An agent stammered, his voice trembling like a leaf. The beam of his flashlight swept aimlessly across the ground, revealing a few drops of dark red blood. "There's only this much blood on the ground. Could they have been kidnapped? This alleyway is so interconnected; we have no idea where they're hiding..."
The squad leader, veins bulging on his forehead, kicked the courtyard wall hard, sending bricks flying. "Kidnapping my ass! It was definitely the KMT's doing! We need to see them alive or dead! Search every house! Anyone suspicious, young or old, male or female, bring them all back! Anyone who dares to harbor KMT scum, kill them without mercy!" He roared, spittle flying everywhere. The agents dared not utter a sound, and scattered with their guns at the ready. The beams of their flashlights flickered in the dark alley, startling a stray cat in the corner who meowed and darted into the darkness. Only the chaotic footsteps and the squad leader's angry curses remained in the alley.
By this time, Yan Shuo had already navigated three alleys and flagged down a rickshaw under a dim streetlamp. He was slightly out of breath, tugged at his collar, and deliberately frowned, feigning extreme anxiety: "Master, please hurry! To Rukang Pharmacy on Albert Road, my child has a high fever and needs medicine!"
The rickshaw driver, a man in his forties, noticed Yan Shuo's respectable attire and the fine ring on his finger, recognizing him as a wealthy customer. He quickly rubbed his red, frozen hands, grinned, and said, "Don't rush, sir! I'm a fast walker, I guarantee I'll be there in fifteen minutes!" He spat twice into his palm, gripped the handlebars tightly, and strained forward, the rickshaw wheels making a "gurgling" sound as they rolled over the stone pavement. The night wind rustled the wooden planks of the closing shops, and the driver, panting, muttered as he ran, "Lucky me today, managed to pick up a long fare before I finish work. Sir, you seem kind, maybe you'll even give me a tip..."
Yan Shuo leaned back in his car seat, glancing behind him out of the corner of his eye to make sure no one was following before silently chanting in his mind, "Xiao Zhi, Xiao Zhi!"
"Yes, host." Ash's mechanical voice rang out on time, tinged with impatience. "You called me as soon as I finished dealing with some trouble. What is it now?"
"Those six corpses are taking up space in my spatial ring. Can you deal with them?" Yan Shuo rubbed his temples.
"Are you out of your mind?" Xiao Zhi's tone was tinged with disdain. "The system takes away loot, not corpses! Are you suggesting we bury them for you?"
"Take the loot off the corpses and get rid of it quickly, don't leave any traces," Yan Shuo said irritably. "Gun, bullets, all the valuables they had on them, count them all."
"Alright, scanning..." Xiao Zhi paused for two seconds, then read out the list: "3 Mauser pistols, 5 revolvers, totaling 8, valued at 200 silver dollars; 267 bullets, valued at 100 silver dollars; 2 gold rings, valued at 80 silver dollars; 1 gold-plated pocket watch, valued at 11 silver dollars; 7 loose silver dollars, directly deposited into your account. Total: 391 silver dollars. Confirm the purchase?"
"Set the price and store it in your spatial ring for now. Don't exchange it for emotion points," Yan Shuo instructed. This money would just be enough to cover the losses from the previous lighter business.
"Okay, 391 silver dollars have been deposited into the storage compartment of your spatial ring. Thank you for your patronage."
Yan Shuo ignored Xiao Zhi's complaints, looked up at the window, and as night deepened, the streetlights on Albert Road lit up one after another. The foreign firms and shops along the street had all closed their doors, and only a few taverns still had their lights on, from which faint laughter could be heard.
"Sir, we've arrived! Rukang Pharmacy is just ahead!" The driver's shout interrupted Yan Shuo's thoughts. He looked up and saw the pharmacy's sign lit up under the lamplight. He quickly took out a silver coin and handed it over: "Thank you for your hard work, this is a tip."
The driver took the silver dollar, his eyes crinkling into slits with a smile: "Thank you, sir! Take care. If you need another ride, just let me know!"
Yan Shuo nodded, turned and walked towards the pharmacy. As he passed the shop window, he glanced at his reflection—his suit was neat, his expression calm, showing no sign that he had just gone through a life-or-death battle.