Chapter 99: Stealing the List

“Sir…”

They had agreed to come back for lunch, but by midday there was still no sign of him, causing the three women to grow worried about their employment.

Could it be that their employer had met with trouble on his very first day?

Now that Li Wensheng had returned, the three breathed a sigh of relief. Yet upon seeing Chen Wenqi behind him, dressed in men’s clothing, they froze momentarily.

“Sister Fang, this is my friend. She’ll be staying with me for a few days. Could you please prepare something light for us to eat?”

Both Li Wensheng and Chen Wenqi looked pale and weary. Sister Fang immediately sensed they were injured.

Her expression turned anxious, and she nodded quickly. “Of course, sir.”

As she headed to the kitchen, she called her two daughters along.

“That Sister Fang just now… she must have noticed we’re hurt,” Chen Wenqi whispered after settling onto the sofa.

“It’s alright. They’re a mother and her two daughters, desperate enough to work here as servants. For the sake of those girls, she won’t speak of this to anyone.”

The two fell silent, unsure of what else to say.

After a while, Sister Fang and her daughters emerged from the kitchen, carrying two bowls of porridge and a bowl of soup.

After setting the food down, Sister Fang instructed the two women to return to their rooms while she went back to the kitchen.

Once they had finished eating, Chen Wenqi quietly said, “I’m leaving for Mountain City in a week.”

Li Wensheng was silent for a moment before looking up. “Travel safely.”

Chen Wenqi hesitated, then asked, “You... really won’t come back with me to Mountain City?”

“No. If I were to return to Mountain City, it would only be as a corpse.”

Hearing Li Wensheng’s resolute tone, Chen Wenqi sighed and said no more.

…

A week later, early in the morning, Li Wensheng watched Chen Wenqi leave the Western-style house.

After zoning out on the sofa for a moment, he picked up the car keys and drove to the factory.

Zuo Ban had mentioned that trustworthy small factories were hard to find, but just two days ago, Li Wensheng had managed to secure a flour mill. Yesterday, he spent the entire day completing various formalities with the previous owner and took over the mill.

As for the car, Zuo Ban had found a seller preparing to go abroad just a few days earlier.

The flour mill was modest but profitable, earning around six to seven hundred French Francs monthly—a valuable asset that no owner would willingly part with.

However, given the chaotic times, the previous owner, a man in his fifties with some savings, had decided to sell and move his family abroad for peace of mind, not wanting to live in constant fear in the French Concession.

Li Wensheng’s purchase was purely to conceal his identity. Living in a Western-style house without any business was conspicuous.

He had no intention of expanding the business; after arriving at the mill, he instructed the manager to continue operations as usual, pretended to inspect the accounts, and then left.

Not long after leaving, the car screeched to a halt.

Within the vehicle, Li Wensheng immediately focused his mind and selected a mission.

Host: Li Wensheng
Age: 21
Skills: Expert marksman, master of makeup, demolition expert, fluent in Japanese…
Inventory: AWM sniper rifle, 80mm artillery cannon…
New mission difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, Hell—please choose.

Without hesitation, Li Wensheng chose the easy mission.

Then he immediately regretted it.

“Damn it! I should’ve picked normal!”

This mission was ridiculous. Who designed the difficulty levels? Stealing the list of collaborators from the Iwai Residence was marked as an easy task.

The intelligence agencies of the island nation were complex and numerous. Even now, many such departments operated within China.

There was the Military Police, under the army’s direct command.

The Special Higher Section in China—officially the Joint Special Higher Section—was not the true Special Higher Section, which was only on the home islands.

The Joint Special Higher Section was formed when the army applied to the Home Ministry to send personnel dispatched by the Special Higher Section to China, working alongside the Military Police.

Nominally, the Joint Special Higher Section answered to the Military Police, but their relationship varied by region; some obeyed fully, others competed for control.

The South Manchurian Railway Company’s Investigation Department was officially a company division but, as a national policy enterprise, mainly operated in the northeast, exploiting resources and mines.

There were also various military offices under the army’s jurisdiction.

Each war zone’s expeditionary army maintained its own intelligence units.

The navy had its naval intelligence department.

The Foreign Ministry also ran intelligence operations in China, namely the Iwai Residence.

Stealing a list from the Iwai Residence was tantamount to stealing from the Military Police.

Though in Jinling, Li Wensheng had emptied their archives, he was certain he couldn’t do the same in Shanghai.

In Jinling, the Japanese had no real rivals, and the Military Police were less vigilant. He had managed to sneak in pretending to be drunk. But in Shanghai, with much higher alertness, bluffing his way in by feigning drunkenness was impossible.

Previously, while scouting the public concession’s eastern and northern districts, he had observed the Military Police.

Just glancing a little too long, the guard at the gate stopped him for questioning. Fortunately, he escaped suspicion by speaking fluent Osaka dialect Japanese.

At the Iwai Residence, he had only glanced from a distance. But from his Military Police observations, he knew the Iwai Residence was just as heavily guarded.

“Damn it, I’d rather be assigned to assassinate Iwai Eiichi than sneak in and steal that list,” Li Wensheng muttered, then started the car and drove back.

After returning home and sitting for two minutes, he told Sister Fang he wouldn’t be back for lunch, then left again.

This time, he didn’t drive. Instead, he hailed a rickshaw to the checkpoint between the French Concession and the Japanese war zone.

After passing the checkpoint, he headed toward the Iwai Residence.

No matter how absurd the mission, he had to scout the place for any opportunity.

The Iwai Residence stood on Baoshan Road, with the Military Police barracks next door on Yangon Road. The area was populated by collaborators and Japanese nationals.

After circling the Iwai Residence twice without spotting any chance, Li Wensheng prepared to leave and return to scout at night.

Just as he turned, he noticed a middle-aged, stout man exiting the residence.

The man looked nervous, walking briskly with his head down, glancing around as if afraid of being seen.

Li Wensheng considered for a moment, then followed.

The man had no car and didn’t hail a rickshaw. He walked several hundred meters before relaxing, his demeanor returning to normal as he stopped looking around nervously.

He then approached a rickshaw parked by the roadside across the street.

Seeing this, Li Wensheng scanned the area. The street was nearly empty, so he strode forward.

Just as the man reached the roadside and was about to beckon the rickshaw driver, a sharp voice cut through the air: “Don’t move!”