Nuit au clair de lune des fleurs de la rivière printanière

Chapitre 19

Various security measures have been strengthened on the streets of Chongqing, especially in the Jiefangbei area, where police patrol teams have begun working day and night. Each police patrol team is equipped with a dog catcher to deal with maniacs who bite people.

The situation indicated that the madman was lurking in the Jiefangbei area. The elderly security patrol team was also very active, searching street by street and alley at all times. Some people were worried about the safety of these elderly people, but they all said that they were old bones anyway and would die sooner or later, so they might as well use their old lives to protect young lives. If they could capture the biting madman at the cost of their lives, then it would be a worthy death, a glorious death, a death heavier than Mount Tai.

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The air-raid shelter where Huang Feihu hid was called "Peace Palace" by the Kuomintang high-ranking officials. The auspicious name reflects the hope of the namers to avoid Japanese bombing and ensure the safety of their families.

After the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, the Kuomintang government moved back to Nanjing, and the function of Ping'an Palace changed. During the Liberation War, after two years of painstaking work by a special agency within the Military Intelligence Bureau, Ping'an Palace was transformed into a backup underground base. Ping'an Palace not only had many exits and connections in all directions, but its internal structure was also complex and well-hidden. If one was not familiar with the terrain of the cave, it would be easy to lose one's way or even get trapped inside. There were also many secret rooms and passages inside the cave. If you walked along the various passages in the cave, you would not be able to see anything unusual about the cave walls. In fact, there were many places with secret mechanisms and buttons. If you were found, you might open a secret door or discover a trap.

In fact, the underground cave of Shi Wengsheng's residence was secretly connected to Ping'an Palace. When he escaped, he deliberately created a false impression, making Long Fei and the others think that the bandits escaped from the cave entrance along the river. In fact, Shi Wengsheng escaped by pushing open a secret door on the cave wall that no outsider could see.

With the help of nine "cursed individuals," Shi Wengsheng not only moved the gold away, but also had the black Siamese cat herd the group of large rats into a large iron cage and take them away with him.

Shi Wengsheng later hid in a spacious secret room inside the Ping An Palace. This secret room was actually composed of several interconnected small caves. It was not only fully equipped with living facilities, but also stored a lot of canned food, enough for these people to live in for eight to ten years.

Shi Wengsheng carried a high-powered radio. If he did not want to go out, he could contact the outside world through the radio. After he made the arrangements, he first reported the current situation to Taiwan, and then sent Zhu Dengfu out to meet with Huang Feihu.

Taiwanese authorities ordered him to remain in place and to send as few telegrams as possible to avoid revealing his hiding place, but to be ready to receive instructions from Taiwan at any time in order to cooperate with any sabotage operations from outside.

Shi Wengsheng never expected that, in addition to important items such as gold, silver, and jewelry, he also had several other incredibly powerful trump cards.

Among the specific action plans compiled by Bai Jingzhai, Huang Feihu and others and handed over to Chiang Kai-shek, there were three methods for assassinating our central leaders, including time bombs, silent pistols and another unprecedented method of assassination, two of which were designed by Bai Jingzhai himself.

Years ago, Bai Jingzhai learned that a mysterious and important figure lurking in Chongqing possessed several special tools, such as "Gu-possessed people." He never imagined that the person in charge was the unassuming old man, Shi Wengsheng. After Bai Jingzhai reported his ideas to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang, a pragmatic man focused on results, was very impressed. He saw that Bai Jingzhai's methods were not only powerful but also practical and feasible, and readily approved his plan. The reason for this "quick approval" was that, under normal circumstances, even if Chiang greatly appreciated Bai Jingzhai's cunning, he might not have acted that way, because Chiang would have had to make Shi Wengsheng reluctantly part with his treasures—such as the "Gu-possessed people."

Bai Jingzhai planned to use the "bewitched" individuals in this way: implant a time bomb in their bodies, and on National Day, use inside connections to place this human time bomb near the rostrum at the Liberation Monument meeting place. When the time was up, it would detonate automatically. This was Bai Jingzhai's first method. If this method failed, he could use a second method. Of course, the second method also had to be prepared in advance and would be on standby at the scene along with the first method. If the human time bomb failed to function or was discovered, the second method would be used immediately.

Another assassination attempt was devised by Huang Feihu, which involved a secret assassin targeting our central leaders at the Liberation Monument meeting.

After our public security personnel uncovered the Plum Blossom Party's secret arms depot, along with the people and the weapons, Huang Feihu suffered a great setback. He hid in the Ping'an Palace and went into his secret room to report the situation to Chiang Kai-shek. In addition to Shi Wengsheng, Huang Feihu and Bai Jingzhai also had their own secret rooms in the Ping'an Palace, but they were unaware of each other's existence.

When Chiang Kai-shek heard that the armory, along with many members of the Plum Blossom Party, had been captured by the Communists, he was furious. After calming down, he decided to improvise, instructing Huang Feihu to use the limited explosives he possessed to carry out sabotage activities in the Liberation Monument area. At this moment, the focus of the "Sword of Restoration" plan was to blow up the Liberation Monument and assassinate the CCP leaders. Chiang Kai-shek quickly composed himself and instructed his entourage to instruct Huang Feihu to ensure the success of this key sabotage operation.

Upon receiving Chiang Kai-shek's latest instructions, Huang Feihu had a premonition that Chiang Kai-shek might not let him off too easily after completing the mission. Thinking of this, Huang Feihu sighed and began to plan his future. He also thought of the treasure that Shi Wengsheng possessed.

Although Huang Feihu harbored dissenting thoughts, he dared not openly disobey orders. He still had to carry out the tasks at hand. He carefully reviewed the plan to bomb the Liberation Monument and the scheme to assassinate the central leaders, checking for any flaws. If he failed to execute these tasks well, his capabilities and image in the eyes of the CIA might be damaged. No matter who does the work, someone is always watching; no matter who you work for, you have to demonstrate your abilities. With these thoughts in mind, Huang Feihu set aside his mental burdens and threw himself wholeheartedly into the operation.

Huang Feihu was unaware of what had happened to Lao Diao. He assumed something might have happened to him. Lao Diao, in turn, was unaware of Huang Feihu's hiding place; it was his top secret, and he wouldn't reveal it to any of his subordinates unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, despite Lao Diao's inexplicable disappearance, Huang Feihu wasn't worried about the safety of his current hiding place. Even if the police entered the air-raid shelter, they might not be able to find him.

While Long Fei was racking his brains trying to find Huang Feihu's whereabouts, Vice Minister Li sent him a coded telegram. The telegram stated that a high-ranking Plum Blossom Party agent had secretly surrendered to their side, possessing important information to report. Vice Minister Li instructed Long Fei to contact this secret surrenderer, codenamed "928." Long Fei was thrilled. At a time when he was struggling to decide his next step, the appearance of this surrenderer was like a ray of light in the darkness. After his initial excitement, curiosity arose: who could this person be?

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Following Vice Minister Li's instructions, Long Fei secretly met with "928" near Zhou Enlai's former residence in Zengjiayan.

That day, from morning till noon, a thick fog blanketed the mountain town, and it remained so until noon, making people appear like phantoms. The appointed time arrived, and Long Fei, who had been waiting in front of the Zhou mansion, saw a man in a black top hat and grey trench coat appear. The man had a gentlemanly air about him, holding a newspaper in his hand. He walked to the front of the Zhou mansion, his back to Long Fei, and cautiously glanced around. Although Long Fei couldn't immediately see the man's face, he could identify him by his clothing. He quietly approached the man, and after exchanging a secret signal back-to-back, they finally made contact.

The visitor turned out to be Wu Dengke.

After a fierce internal struggle, Wu Dengke decided to surrender, but fearing betrayal from within the Chongqing public security system, he used his military connections to get in touch with the duty officer at the Ministry of Public Security. Wu Dengke wanted to end this miserable existence and find a safe life.

The information provided by Woodenko was invaluable, which undoubtedly accelerated the process of solving the case.

After the conversation, Long Fei had an idea: he was planning the final roundup.

Long Fei never expected that he would receive news of Bai Jingzhai at this time.

Although Wu Dengke was very careful about protecting his own safety, he understood even more that the most reliable safe environment was one free from all danger. Therefore, from the moment he decided to surrender, he was determined to assist our side in purging the Chongqing Plum Blossom Party organization. Since he was surrendering, he had to do it thoroughly. In layman's terms, it was a "go all in" approach, and also, "no pain, no gain." Wu Dengke felt that he was not the kind of coward who clung to life; he simply wanted to choose his own way of life and path with dignity. He was tired of that dark way of living. Wu Dengke clearly realized that if he simply sought to escape the Plum Blossom Party organization and live a life of compromise, he would never find peace. Having been in the Plum Blossom Party organization for so long, he knew its nature and characteristics all too well. It was an extremely cruel, extremely tight-knit, and extremely harmful organization. Once someone got involved with it, it was almost impossible to escape unless they turned against it and destroyed it first. Wu Dengke was eager to surrender because he felt he might have a good opportunity to destroy the Plum Blossom Party organization. On September 30th, several of the Plum Blossom Party's top leaders would meet in a secret place to discuss coordination of their actions. Those present at the meeting included Bai Jingzhai, Huang Feihu, and others.

This coordination meeting was a planned routine meeting, which was originally supposed to be chaired by Special Envoy Yu, but he had mysteriously disappeared for several days. In order to maintain a balance and moderation, Chiang Kai-shek went to great lengths to make Shi Wengsheng his representative, which meant that the meeting would be chaired by Shi Wengsheng.

The meeting location was kept strictly confidential, and no one knew about it beforehand except for Shi Wengsheng and Huang and Bai.

Besides a few high-ranking members of the Plum Blossom Party, several key members involved in the sabotage and assassination activities at Liberation Monument were also present at the meeting.

Wu Dengke had been drawn into a key part of Bai Jingzhai's assassination plot at Jiefangbei. Bai Jingzhai assigned Wu Dengke an extremely unusual task: to take care of a group of rats. Wu Dengke found this task both strange and ridiculous, but when he learned the details from Bai Jingzhai, he was greatly surprised. It turned out that Bai Jingzhai intended for these giant rats to become assassins; even if they couldn't assassinate the CCP leaders, they could still cause widespread panic throughout Chongqing.

Wu Dengke has learned that the man-biting madman who caused panic among Chongqing citizens carries the same special virus as these giant rats.

As Bai Jingzhai enthusiastically described the expected effects of his plan to Wu Dengke, Wu Dengke's heart skipped a beat. Having worked in the medical field for many years, he should have a higher tolerance for stress than most, but even he found Bai Jingzhai's ruthless methods difficult to bear. Although Wu Dengke was a member of the Plum Blossom Party, he was also a doctor dedicated to saving lives. He felt that Bai Jingzhai's actions were utterly inhumane, a cruel and bestial act. Bai Jingzhai was truly willing to use any means necessary to achieve his goal, and this incident solidified Wu Dengke's resolve to surrender.

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After being forced back by Teacher Yu, the madman ran away as fast as he could. Seeing someone chasing him, he desperately jumped over a wall and into a courtyard. This was a habitual action of his; the subconscious mind of the old eagle before his madness was controlling some of his actions. The place the madman entered was the Shi family's courtyard. After landing, he happened to encounter two plainclothes police officers who were still lying in wait in the courtyard. The two plainclothes officers had already received internal instructions to keep a close watch on the biting madman. When they saw this disheveled man, they looked at each other and knew who they had encountered. The two plainclothes officers did not have dog collars like the security team had, so they could not act rashly and had to draw their guns. The madman stared at them with bloodshot eyes for a while. When he saw the plainclothes officer pull out a pistol, he seemed to realize the danger and immediately turned and ran. But this was just a courtyard, and he couldn't run very far. The madman started running in circles with the two policemen. The madman seemed very clever. He ran while paying attention to his surroundings. He noticed a hole in the corner of the wall, suddenly ran towards it, and jumped in without hesitation. By the time the two policemen brought a ladder to descend, the madman had disappeared.

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Ms. Pei Fen suddenly fell ill, and the school decided that Ms. Yu would replace Ms. Pei in presenting flowers to the leader. Ah Cai was overjoyed to hear this news, thinking that he could finally participate in the National Day celebration with Ms. Yu.

As soon as he got home, Ah Cai told his mother the good news he had been waiting for.

"Mom, let me tell you, I begged for all of this."

"What? Who did you ask for it from?"

"Oh God! These past few nights I've been praying to God, asking Him to give our Teacher Yu a glorious mission as well. I think Teacher Yu deserves glory. Look, this noon, thanks to her, she chased away the madman." Ah Cai was in a state of excitement, chattering on and on.

"Okay, okay, go wash your hands and eat."

"I need to pee." As if suddenly remembering something important, Ah Cai dashed to the outhouse in the backyard.

While urinating, Ah-Cai smelled a strange odor, neither the stench of urine nor the stench of feces. Ah-Cai repeatedly twitched his nostrils, finding the smell utterly disgusting. Suddenly, a white maggot fell down. He glanced up at the roof beam of the outhouse and was astonished to find a rat's tail dangling down, covered in white maggots. Ah-Cai immediately felt nauseous and ran back to the living room to tell his mother.

After hearing this, Mei Fang hesitated for a moment, then took a broom from the corner of the wall and went to the outhouse to clean up the filth.

Ah Cai followed closely behind like a little shadow.

"Go away, go away, what's so interesting about this!" Mei Fang didn't want A Cai to squeeze into the outhouse either; she felt it was a dirty place and not a place to stay for long.

"Aren't you scared? They're protecting you," Ah Cai said ingratiatingly, knowing that Mei Fang was usually very afraid of soft insects like caterpillars.

Although Mei Fang was afraid, she gritted her teeth and did it anyway. No matter what the matter was, she couldn't ignore it when it came to her. As soon as Mei Fang saw what was on the beam, she knew what it was. Holding her breath, she carefully poked at the dead thing with a broom. Her expression was extremely tense; the muscles in her face were almost contorted. A furry thing fell with a thud onto the edge of the latrine. Wow, it was an enormous dead rat! Mei Fang screamed in fright. Although she had mustered her courage to poke at the dead rat, she still wasn't fully prepared.

Seeing this, Ah Cai was so frightened that he backed away repeatedly, and Mei Fang quickly followed suit.

I've never seen such a big rat before.

Chapter Nineteen: Danger Encountered on the Way (3)

The huge rat in Mei Fang's house alarmed the neighbors and the neighborhood committee cadres. Ling Yuqi, who was nominally assisting with sanitation work at the neighborhood committee, was very surprised to see such a large dead rat. With her professional awareness, she immediately asked someone to notify the health and epidemic prevention station.

Soon, the epidemic prevention station arrived. Two staff members, dressed in protective suits and wearing large masks, carefully put the dead rat into a bag as if facing a major threat. Afterwards, another staff member from the epidemic prevention station arrived carrying a disinfectant sprayer and thoroughly sprayed the outhouse and backyard. Ah Cai could smell the pungent disinfectant odor even in the living room.

Ah Cai thought the matter was over, but to his surprise, another group of people arrived that night, including members of the neighborhood committee, the epidemic prevention station, and police officers. Ah Cai couldn't understand why so many people, big and small, had been involved—it was just a slightly larger dead rat!

Teacher Tian arrived as well. Ling Yuqi and Mei Fang whispered a few words to each other, then Ling Yuqi signaled a police officer to pry open the wooden strip sealing the side door. This time, the people from the epidemic prevention station brought a different kind of disinfection device and went upstairs with Teacher Tian and the police officer. After a long time, they still hadn't come down. What was going on? A-Cai was really puzzled. He vaguely felt that this matter seemed to be more complicated than just a dead rat.

It turned out that after testing by the epidemic prevention station, it was found that the dead rat was carrying a special virus. The mystery of Han Qing's death was also solved. He was bitten to death by such a rat, and perhaps the culprit was this dead rat.

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Wu Dengke received a secret message from Bai Jingzhai, instructing him to wait at the entrance of a cemetery in the suburbs. It turned out that the Plum Blossom Party's secret meeting was being held in an abandoned, dilapidated house in the woods within the cemetery.

Wu Dengke attended the meeting as Bai Jingzhai's assistant, and as instructed by Bai Jingzhai, he carried a mask with him.

Huang Feihu, Shi Wengsheng, Sun Hailong, and others also attended the secret meeting. Although the Plum Blossom Party organization suffered serious damage a few days ago, the senior members were basically unaffected.

As soon as Wu Dengke entered the secret meeting place, he felt the tense atmosphere, because everyone was wearing masks or veils, making them look like a thousand people with the same face. The only way to distinguish the different identities of each person was the code name tag that was temporarily distributed to everyone to wear on their chests. The code name tag was marked with a number. One-digit numbers were high-ranking personnel such as Bai Jingzhai, Huang Feihu, and Shi Wengsheng, while two-digit numbers were other key members.

The secret meeting was chaired by Shi Wengsheng. When the time came, all the attendees were present. Shi Wengsheng cleared his throat and said, "It's not easy to get everyone together. Today's meeting is very important, as it concerns the life and death of our Plum Blossom Party." With this simple opening remark, the secret meeting began.

As soon as the meeting began, the secret location was already surrounded by Long Fei and his men. To prevent the bandits from escaping, Long Fei's primary task for Wu Dengke was to quickly ascertain the internal situation and keep an eye out for any other secret passages. Besides this, Wu Dengke had two other tasks: First, to carefully memorize the meeting's content. Second, to carefully remember the characteristics of the attendees. The former was easy, requiring only careful listening and attention; the latter was more difficult because everyone was wearing masks. Wu Dengke could only try to discern each person's physical characteristics and other features, such as build, height, and voice.

When Huang Feihu was speaking, Wu Dengke noticed that a petite woman was sitting next to him, and judging from the skin on her hands, she seemed to be very young.

Beforehand, Long Fei instructed Wu Dengke to wait until the meeting was nearly over and then find a way to send him a signal from outside so that the police could take timely action.

Security measures at the venue were very strict, with guards stationed outside. As the meeting drew to a close, Wu Dengke excused himself to urinate and went outside. As soon as he appeared, Long Fei knew the time had come. He raised his hand and waved, and the police officers who had been lying in wait around leaped up and rushed towards the dilapidated house from all directions.

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During the meeting, Bai Jingzhai noticed that Wu Dengke's body language was somewhat abnormal, and he seemed restless. When Wu Dengke made an excuse to leave, the cunning Bai Jingzhai immediately got up and went to the next room. There was a secret passage hidden by clutter in the room. Only Bai Jingzhai, Huang Feihu, and Shi Wengsheng knew about this secret in this place, which was a privilege.

As soon as Bai Jingzhai entered, he heard shouts coming from the direction of the door: "Communist Party!" He immediately pushed aside the debris and jumped into the cave.

Huang Feihu was no pushover either. Although he wasn't particularly wary of Wu Dengke's actions, Bai Jingzhai's reaction alerted him. As soon as Bai Jingzhai entered the house, Huang Feihu subtly touched the woman beside him, and the two followed him into the inner room.

The others assumed Huang and Bai had something to discuss and didn't care, but in the blink of an eye, they were all captured by our public security officers who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

This secret passage connects to the Ping An Palace. Like the Ping An Palace, there are many forks along the way. Huang Feihu and the woman turned into another fork halfway through.

After running for a while longer and feeling safe, Huang Feihu and the woman parted ways at the fork in the road. Huang Feihu was heading back to his secret cave, and the woman also had her own destination to go.

As Huang Feihu approached his secret cave, he encountered a monster. The monster's upper body flashed with a pair of frightening red lights, each the size of a small light bulb. Huang Feihu was startled, but quickly regained his composure. Just as he was about to throw a punch, the monster let out a maniacal laugh. Huang Feihu was taken aback, finding the voice very familiar. Could this be the old eagle? Unable to see its face clearly, Huang Feihu shouted to confirm his judgment, "Bastard!" Before he finished speaking, the monster pounced on him, grabbing Huang Feihu and biting his neck before he could react. Huang Feihu felt a burning sensation on his neck and collapsed to the ground. After knocking Huang Feihu down, the monster continued on its way.

Huang Feihu was still somewhat conscious. With difficulty, he raised his pistol and fired a shot in the direction the monster had gone before losing consciousness. The bullet struck the monster in the back, causing it to stagger before continuing to walk forward, laughing maniacally the whole way. The terrifying sound echoed through the empty secret passage of the Ping'an Palace.

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Long Fei escorted Shi Wengsheng and made him lead the way. Shi Wengsheng was old and his legs were not nimble, so he dawdled along the way. Although Long Fei was anxious, he had no choice but to let him go.

Shi Wengsheng was unwilling to surrender so easily. When Long Fei asked him to lead the way, he outwardly agreed to cooperate, but secretly he was plotting how to escape. His body was not weak, but he pretended to be old and inconvenient. He was thinking about the treasure.

Long Fei and his companions groped their way forward, not daring to use their flashlights for fear of attracting an attack from an enemy lurking in the darkness. They could vaguely hear footsteps ahead, and someone was heading towards them.

Long Fei immediately ordered the other police officers to step aside. Following Long Fei's instructions, one officer stretched his arm outwards as far as possible to keep the flashlight away from his body, and then suddenly shone it. Where the bright light pointed, a disheveled monster was suddenly revealed.

"Who is it?" a young police officer shouted nervously.

The monster lunged at him, baring its fangs and claws, but after only a few steps, it suddenly collapsed to the ground, its back covered in blood.

The stone spirit that had been clinging to the cave wall suddenly took off running while everyone's attention was focused on the monster.

"Stop right there!" Long Fei shouted. "Or I'll shoot!"

Ignoring Long Fei's warning, Shi Wengsheng continued his frantic run.

With a loud bang, a police officer fired his gun.

Shi Wengsheng was shot immediately and fell to the ground dead.

Long Fei had his soldiers turn the monster over for a closer look. Suddenly, it dawned on him – wasn't this the old eagle? Seeing its blue face and fangs, Long Fei understood. This was the madman who had been attacking people everywhere. Long Fei immediately thought of the peculiar virus and the swarm of giant rats Wu Dengke had mentioned. His heart sank.

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Bai Jingzhai seemed to have been prepared. When Wu Dengke led Long Fei and other public security personnel to search his secret residence in the church, they found that all his important belongings had been moved away.

When the church master of ceremonies, Sima Qi, was arrested, he sighed and smiled as he was handcuffed: "Oh, this day has finally come."

When Sima Qi was arrested, his daughter and Wu Dengke were both present. Sima Qi glanced at Wu Dengke, and he fully understood why he had been arrested. Seeing his daughter leaning against Wu Dengke, looking panicked and forlorn, Sima Qi said to Wu Dengke meaningfully, "I'm entrusting my daughter to you!"

The large cage of rats that used to be kept in Bai Jingzhai's bedroom has also disappeared.

Long Fei realized the seriousness of the situation. Every minute that the virus-carrying rats remained in Bai Jingzhai's hands, the lives of the people of Chongqing would face an even greater and more deadly threat.

Long Fei only thought of the virus rat in Bai Jingzhai's hands; he was unaware of the "Gu-infected person" that Bai Jingzhai was manipulating.