Shi Qian pulled him along, saying, "Let's go quickly. It means you've agreed. If we stay any longer, it'll cause problems."
Duan Tianbao clasped his hands in a fist salute to us before leaving with Shi Qian.
Of course, we couldn't just lie down as Shi Qian suggested. Led by two field agents, we climbed up to the badminton club across the street, which was now closed and the same height as the Qinhan Hotel. The view from there was expansive; the entire Qinhan Hotel was visible, and most importantly, every movement in room 803 was clearly visible. In the living room, an F-national sat casually, and diagonally opposite him was the safe that had been giving us a headache. The other guard was probably in the bedroom. They deliberately left the curtains open—both a deception and a form of self-protection. While closing the curtains would prevent outsiders from seeing inside, it also prevented them from immediately noticing any activity outside. They were betting that the Chinese government wouldn't be willing to act openly, so they weren't afraid to expose any information about themselves.
At 10 o'clock sharp, the F-country man in the living room checked his watch, called out a few times to the bedroom, and the other guy came out of the door. The two formally met in the living room, chatted for a few words, and then one of them walked towards the door, presumably to get a late-night snack.
Fei Sankou, holding up a 400x400 Russian military telescope, said as he looked around, "These two are really well-trained. Even if one of them is walking out of the bedroom door, the other won't leave. There isn't even a fraction of a second of space. This is going to be difficult."
Chapter Fifty-Five: Like a Shadow
We can now clearly see a man from country F leaving the room. This was the time to notify Shi Qian, but Shi Qian stubbornly refused to wear the communicator, even though it was smaller than a piece of earwax. He said he wasn't used to having someone talking in his ear while he was working.
I picked up a pair of binoculars and observed the hotel lobby. From there, I could see the tall, burly bodyguard sitting on a leather sofa, listlessly reading a newspaper. His task was relatively easy, hence his relaxed demeanor; a half-smoked cigar and a cup of coffee lay beside him. In the restaurant, Shi Qian casually found a seat, ordered a simple sandwich and a glass of milk, a safe disguised as an ordinary suitcase beside him, looking like a traveler taking a short break after landing. Duan Tianbao was nowhere to be seen.
After the guard entered the lobby, he exchanged a barely perceptible glance with the bodyguard, then went straight into the restaurant. He ordered a bowl of beef noodles, a hamburger, a cola, and a can of beer, and immediately began to wolf it down. Eating beef noodles in a five-star hotel isn't unusual; in fact, in places of this caliber, even if you wanted scallions with dipping sauce, a courteous waiter would serve you, though the price would be five-star as well.
I couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap, what kind of way is this to eat it?"
Fei chuckled, "That's what you call someone who really knows how to enjoy life. Beef noodles with a hamburger—we can try that after the operation." But then Fei's expression suddenly changed. "Shi Qian doesn't seem to have noticed that the target has entered the restaurant!"
"No way?" I adjusted the distance and looked across the street through my binoculars. I saw Shi Qian and the foreigner sitting back to back, far apart. He was taking small bites of his sandwich, seemingly lost in thought. And the worst part was: he shouldn't have been facing away from the restaurant entrance in the first place. Now that the foreigner was eating and drinking so well not far from him, he was completely oblivious, or perhaps he only knew there was someone behind him but didn't recognize them.
Looking at the somewhat dazed Shi Qian, I asked doubtfully, "He shouldn't make such a basic mistake, right?" But to be honest, I wasn't sure myself. You see, Shi Qian was just a bandit from 1000 years ago. Asking him to deal with a foreign spy whose every hair was a radio signal—I wondered what the consequences would be. Besides, he'd only seen the foreigner's picture; he might not have recognized him at all.
One of Lao Fei's field agents asked, "Should we send one of our people in to warn him?"
Old Fei said seriously, "Don't act rashly, let's wait and see."
By this time, the tall foreigner had devoured all the food and cola in front of him, lit a cigarette, and was drinking beer, ready to leave at any moment. Shi Qian had also finished his bread and was slowly sipping his milk, still seemingly lost in thought. Old Fei said worriedly, "I always thought he was using the reflection in the milk glass to observe what was behind him, but now it seems he can't even do that."
Dai Zong finally lost his temper and said, "If you ask me, let's grab a hammer and smash the door open, then I'll grab the box and run. Who can catch me? I run 100 meters in 9.4 seconds!" Zhang Qing glared at him and said, "Have you been watching too much 'Crazy Stone'?"
While they were bickering, Lao Fei kept his eyes glued to the hotel lobby. Suddenly, he shouted, "The target has left the restaurant!"
We all looked across the street and saw that the foreigner's seat was now empty except for a half-smoked cigarette butt in the ashtray, and he had already walked to the restaurant entrance. Looking back at Shi Qian, he was still standing there, lost in thought!
I sighed and patted Fei Sankou apologetically, saying, "How about... we use the method Brother Dai Zong suggested?"
However, a turning point arrived at that moment. Shi Qian picked up his suitcase, seemingly still a bit unwell, rubbed his forehead, stood up, and followed his target, maintaining a distance of four or five meters. The bodyguards sitting in the lobby immediately noticed him. One of the bodyguards put down his newspaper, covered his mouth with his hand, and mumbled something, clearly informing the F-country man ahead. The man ahead, a well-trained agent, showed no surprise or wariness. When he calmly opened the elevator door, stepped inside, and turned around, he even politely gestured to Shi Qian, who was still some distance away, asking if he wanted to go up with him. Shi Qian, carrying his suitcase, laboriously requested a short wait. The F-country man solicitously held the elevator door shut for him, and Shi Qian entered. To express their gratitude, the two shook hands amicably. The elevator closed and rose in this manner, giving the impression of a historic moment.
The bodyguard on the first floor vigilantly observed his surroundings, constantly covering his mouth with his hand to communicate with someone. But after a short while, he casually picked up a newspaper again, apparently having received a safety signal from someone in the elevator. As for what actually happened inside the elevator, none of us could guess.
"What the hell is going on?" Zhang Qing muttered to himself in confusion.
Fei Sankou led us silently to another corner of the badminton hall, where we could see a section of the hotel's 8th-floor corridor, including the elevator entrance. This was a distinctive feature of the Qinhan Hotel's architecture: from the 6th floor upwards, each floor had a long corridor built like an enclosed skybridge, offering panoramic views of the city—but it was only a section.
We had just arrived when the elevator doors opened, and that F-country guy came out alone. Zhang Qing shouted, "Where's Shi Qian? Did that kid kill him?"
Before he finished speaking, a scene unfolded that we couldn't fathom: just three meters from the elevator, Shi Qian suddenly appeared from the stairwell behind him. He quickly took a few steps, carrying his suitcase, to catch up with the F-man, and then, unhurriedly, followed closely behind his target like a shadow. His hands weren't idle either; he tore off the disguise from the fake safe, revealing its true form…
"This..." Confused, we hurriedly ran to another corner of the badminton hall. Shi Qian and the F countryman had already disappeared from our sight, and we could only run to the other side to see how he would proceed. Zhang Qing, Dai Zong, and I had similar thoughts; more than the mission itself, we wanted to see how he would get into the target room.
We ran back to the opposite side of the room, where a row of binoculars eagerly stood up. From there, we could clearly see the foreigner who was staying inside, the doorway, and the narrow porch leading from the doorway to the living room.
The foreigner inside was still sitting sideways to the safe. Although he wasn't staring at it face-to-face, he could still see the safe and every corner of the room with the corner of his eye.
Just then, the door opened, and the foreigner, who had finished his meal, entered. Through high-powered binoculars, we could even see his hairy hand gripping the door. The instant the foreigner entered, we saw a thin, withered dark figure also slip in. The foreigner closed the door behind him, and the dark figure obediently stood aside to wait for him to take off his shoes. In his arms, he tightly clutched something identical to the safe in the room—it was Shi Qian!
We almost simultaneously put down our binoculars and asked the people around us, "What happened?"
Since no one could understand the situation, why did that foreigner let Shi Qian in? Were the two old acquaintances? Or had they become friends in the short time they spent in the elevator?
Unable to find the answer in each other's eyes, we quickly lined up our binoculars and looked across at each other.
The foreigner who had just entered was changing his shoes, his mouth moving slightly, presumably having a brief conversation with the person inside. The person in the living room, however, wasn't in a hurry to leave; they seemed extremely cautious, doing so to keep the safe within one person's sight at all times. This was because they knew exactly where they were; they were treating their potential adversary like an all-knowing god.
In fact, their actions did cause a lot of trouble for the operation. If the two foreigners had been gathered in the doorway during the shift change, it wouldn't have taken more than three seconds for someone quick enough to slip through the window and take what we wanted.
The foreigner, having changed his shoes, walked to the junction of the hallway and living room and gestured for Shi Qian to go in. Shi Qian was right behind him, head down, clutching the large box, leaning against the wall, standing on one leg like a wronged fundraiser. The foreigner who let him in never looked at him directly, nor did he ever turn around to ask him a single question.
The more we looked, the more confused we became. What exactly is the relationship between Shi Qian and this person? Could Shi Qian be a cunning thief who is so eloquent that he could outwit Zhuge Liang and embarrass Song Jiang, and who managed to persuade this spy to surrender to us in those few seconds in the elevator?
Okay, let's wait and see how the other F countryman reacts. And then, the most surprising thing happened: the foreigner in the living room walked past Shi Qian as if he hadn't seen him at all, opened the door, went out, and closed the door.
Now only the F-country man and Shi Qian remained in the room. They still didn't speak. Wherever the F-country man went, Shi Qian followed with the box, head down, silent.
At this point, Lao Fei, who had noticed something amiss, finally exclaimed in alarm, "Do you think those two foreigners might have never discovered Shi Qian?"
We looked at each other, speechless for a long time! Then, without saying a word, we all simultaneously raised our binoculars again…
The foreigner inside was clearly exercising after dinner, slowly waving his arms as he paced back and forth in the living room. Shi Qian, on the other hand, followed behind him with his head down, like a schoolboy who had made a mistake and was waiting for the principal's punishment. A closer look revealed that although the two seemed to walk in tacit agreement, the distance between them was much shorter than usual; Shi Qian could easily step on the heel of the person in front of him if he wasn't careful. The reason he kept his head down was that he was trying his best to observe the steps of the person in front of him, thereby judging the length of his stride.
In other words, this person from country F had no idea that there was someone behind him!
Thinking about this, a chill ran down our spines, and we instinctively reached behind us...
Zhang Qing asked with a face full of doubt, "Then why didn't the other blond-haired guy notice Shi Qian either?"
Fei Sankou said, "I just figured it out myself—from our vertical angle, we can clearly see that there are three people on the other side, but did you notice that these three people are always in a straight line? Just now, Shi Qian was leaning against the wall with one leg on his side, just to minimize himself from being behind the first foreigner. Now that I think about it, that was the most dangerous moment."
Wu Yong adjusted his glasses and said, "Brother Shi Qian pretended to be lazy from the beginning to lull the opponent into a false sense of security. When the opponent was about to enter the elevator, he deliberately aroused the vigilance of everyone, and then calmly left halfway. This time, no one suspected him anymore, including the second bodyguard who lived around the corner. This way, he was able to successfully 'stick' on that person's back and walk through the corridor on the 8th floor to reach the target location. He really planned everything meticulously."
We all looked across the street. The tall, imposing Frenchman was still pacing back and forth inside, with Shi Qian clinging to him like a lackey. From a distance, it was hard to tell whether to call it laughable or eerie.
A national security field officer chuckled, "No wonder he stared at the photos of the two targets for so long and then gestured with the fake safe; he had already thought of this trick."
I said, "Luckily we're dealing with Europeans; if it were Japanese, we'd be in big trouble." Everyone burst into laughter.