LRAB Chapter 76 Turning a Blind Eye!
Chapter 76 Turning a Blind Eye!
The most urgent task right now is to uncover the intelligence network between Feng Manna and the Kuomintang mole. Without this connection, everything else will be for naught.
Otherwise, the entire Military Intelligence Bureau's Shanghai branch would likely be uprooted.
Sixth Brother Zheng Yaoxian will arrive in Shanghai in three days, and Zhou Xiao will not allow this situation to happen.
He's the kind of person who can meticulously analyze and digest even the smallest clues.
The initial decision to have Feng Manna utilize the spies embedded within the Military Intelligence Bureau was a decoy setup—if they didn't move, they were doomed; if they did, they would become sitting ducks.
He didn't need Feng Manna to tell him who the person was. He could find out himself.
The room was empty. He put on thin cotton gloves and moved quickly but not hastily, searching through drawers, filing cabinets, and wastepaper baskets, layer by layer.
Normally, top-secret materials are not displayed in the open.
But veteran agents all know a saying: the most dangerous place is the safest place.
The more something is right under your nose, the easier it is to be overlooked—some people deliberately hide secret letters under the calendar, in a planner, or even spread them out in the center of the table, waiting for someone to peek at them to ignore them.
The saying "the darkest place is under the lamp" is meant to prevent this kind of "blindness."
Therefore, he turned the pages extremely carefully and ruthlessly.
However, nothing was found.
In the end, only one thing remained—the safe.
He knew where it was. He took a few steps forward, moved the loose wooden board on the back of the bookshelf, and the cabinet made of cold iron was clearly revealed.
Inside, nine times out of ten, something truly deadly is locked away.
He had just raised his hand to try when his gaze suddenly sharpened—
The edge of the spiral cipher disc gleamed with an extremely faint and eerie light.
Fluorescent powder.
It's not an ordinary item.
It is difficult to see with the naked eye, and ordinary light in a dark room cannot reveal it at all. Only when a specific wavelength of blue light is used to scan it will it become visible.
What's even more troublesome is its extremely strong stickiness. If it gets on your skin or gloves, it will leave a mark even after washing it with water ten times. As long as you shine a blue light on it, the spaces between your fingers, the lines on your palms, and even the edges of your nails will be covered with glaring bright spots.
In the rush of an ordinary special agent, how could they have time to think about such things? They would press their ear against the cabinet to listen to the reed turning, and turn the knob to adjust the numbers. With the slightest touch, a mark would be left.
If an outsider makes a mistake, they can simply run for their life; but if it's someone from the Special Operations Headquarters who makes the mistake, that little bit of blue light is enough to overturn the entire covert network—identity exposed, years of hard work reduced to ashes, life hanging by a thread, all in a split second.
But who is Zhou Xiao?
The top Kuomintang agent, "Night Owl," is a hunter enhanced by the system.
After the five senses were modified, they far surpassed those of ordinary people: the ears could distinguish the vibration frequency of the reed, the eyes could track the trajectory of dust, and the fingertips could feel the touch with precision down to the millimeter.
He immediately noticed something was wrong with the knob, and upon closer inspection, he discovered that the entire safe was covered with a thin layer of invisible powder.
It turns out that Feng Manna didn't even bother to show the word "trust" on her face—she didn't trust anyone, and even in her own office, she had to set off this silent alarm.
Unfortunately, Zhou Xiao had already heard the alarm.
Now that we've spotted the powder, we've already prepared our next move.
Now, all that's left is to open it.
Zhou Xiao's earlobes were almost completely pressed against the outer wall of the safe, with only half a finger's width between his earlobes and the metal surface—he held his breath, his ten fingers like hooks, and quickly turned the cold spiral knob.
Although separated by a thin steel plate, he could clearly hear the faint clicking of internal gears meshing:
Click...tap...click...
It is fragmented, sluggish, and carries the cold, hard rhythm unique to precision machinery.
A few seconds later, with a crisp "click," the latch popped open, and the lid opened.
Inside the box was a neatly stacked pile of documents, with three unopened letters on top, the edges of the kraft paper envelopes tinged with a yellowish hue from years past.
This is precisely the secret correspondence between Feng Manna and the Military Intelligence Bureau's Shanghai station.
Zhou Xiao pulled out a letter, tore open the seal with a flick of his finger, and glanced at it—it was all small talk and polite conversation, with no trace of intelligence.
"Stamp!" His gaze suddenly fixed on the upper right corner of the envelope, and with a flick of his wrist, he deftly peeled off the square stamp.
The background pattern emerges in the dim light—the surfacing ink marks are clearly legible:
Tomorrow at noon, the Shanghai liaison station will meet a hidden agent in the basement of No. 17 North Sichuan Road, where Song Mian and Wan Zhichao will meet him.
Zhou Xiao's pupils contracted.
If Feng Manna has already obtained this information, she will surely lay a trap, waiting for everyone to gather, and then wipe out the entire communication line in one fell swoop.
They have quite an appetite.
If she succeeds, although the Shanghai station is not directly under Zhou Xiao's command, it belongs to the same military branch and is a staunch and unyielding hidden blade on the front line of the War of Resistance against Japan.
We cannot stand idly by.
Infiltrators?
It is very likely that it is Lan Yanzhi—the Kuomintang elite agent who is lurking in the heart of the Special Operations Headquarters.
She was quick-witted, meticulous, and quick-thinking, adaptable to any situation—a natural-born talent. If such a person were to fall today, the Military Intelligence Bureau would lose its backbone, the anti-Japanese front would lose its eyes and ears, and the intelligence network would suffer an irreparable rift.
No matter which path he chooses, Zhou Xiao must stop this game.
But just as he grasped the second letter, a crisp knocking sound suddenly echoed down the corridor—
Tap, tap, tap...
High heel.
It wasn't Feng Manna's usual soft-soled ankle boots, but her steps were rapid, heading straight for the office.
That's too late.
He quickly stuffed the letter back into its place, closed the box lid, fastened it with his other hand, and turned to walk briskly towards the window.
Tap, tap, tap... The sound was already close to the door.
A direct confrontation at the main entrance? Absolutely no chance of survival.
His gaze swept across the room—the only passage was through the roof outside the window.
Feng Manna's office is on the third floor of the top floor, on the east side. The flat roof is diagonally above the window frame, offering a wide view and a secluded location.
He pushed open the window and peered out: there were no security cameras on the side wall, no patrols under the eaves, and the wind from the southeast made the window screen sway slightly.
Safety.
He pushed off the windowsill with his feet, pulled in his waist and abdomen, and flipped out like a raccoon. He then closed the window sash with his backhand, gripped the windowsill with his five fingers, and swung up, his fingertips instantly reaching the eaves.
With amazing arm strength and swift movements, he flipped and leaped onto the roof without even making a sound.
Feng Manna's office was in the southeast corner, and his own office was in the southwest corner—to get back, one had to cross the entire roof.
Ordinary people are afraid of heights and dangers, but for Zhou Xiao, it was just a few light leaps, a few times of crouching, and a series of silent glides.
The rooftop is always a blind spot, but he moves as fast as a shadow, always choosing to slip through the gaps between ventilation ducts and chimneys.
In the blink of an eye, he was already crouching on the edge of the roof directly above his office.
All it takes is a leap into the window, and the operation will be foolproof.
As for the fluorescent powder that Feng Manna usually used? He wore gloves the whole time, so he could just burn it off without leaving any trace.
He subconsciously glanced towards the entrance of the special operations headquarters, just to confirm the timing of his landing.
Just one glance—
Feng Manna's figure suddenly appeared on the steps of the gate!
Feng Manna!!!
It turns out that the sound of high heels just now wasn't her at all.
She had barely stepped inside when, at her walking pace, she would be at her office within three minutes.
The person inside the room had only a little over two minutes left.
But that person was unaware of it.
Once Feng Manna pushes open the door, the other party will have nowhere to retreat. Their only way out is to follow Zhou Xiao's example and climb out of the window.
However, the third-floor windowsill was so narrow that only half a foot could fit on it, and a slight loss of balance would result in a fall.
He might not die from the fall, but his leg bones would be broken, rendering him completely immobile.
There weren't many female colleagues at the Special Operations Headquarters to begin with, let alone someone who dared to break into Feng Manna's office alone and had the audacity to steal core intelligence—
There is only one Blue Rouge.
It's almost certainly her.
In a previous meeting, Zhou Xiao deliberately pointed out that Feng Manna had planted an enemy spy within the Military Intelligence Bureau—Lan Yanzhi had already heard this intelligence and was on high alert, determined to find the deeply hidden mole!
Currently, Zhou Xiao faces two paths:
One option is to stand idly by, turn around and go back to the office to continue carrying out the espionage mission, leaving unnoticed and unscathed;
The other option was to turn back and rescue people—to pull Lan Yanzhi out of danger.
But once he makes a move, Lan Yanzhi will inevitably discover his true identity.
She might not be able to tell whether he was a member of the Kuomintang or the underground Communist Party, but she was certain that he was an anti-Japanese agent who had infiltrated deep into the enemy camp and was risking his life... What's worse, the rescue itself could expose him.
This is a mind-bending, life-or-death question.
Zhou Xiao paused for only a moment before turning around and hurrying back the way he came.
He chose to save people.
Of course, this decision wasn't made on a whim—it was based on ensuring he wouldn't make a mistake. He would immediately stop once he sensed his identity was at risk of being exposed.
After all, saving one is better than losing two!
Moreover, at this moment, the initiative is in his hands.
He was on the rooftop, a shadow; Feng Manna was inside, a bright target.
He decides whether to advance or retreat, and he controls life and death.
Zhou Xiao has always valued Lan Yanzhi.
She is quick-witted, decisive, and possesses remarkable intuition, making her a rare and highly skilled combat agent. Establishing trust with her would be a tremendous asset in future operations at Special Operations Headquarters.
No matter how skillful you are in individual combat, it can't compare to the reliability of tacit cooperation.
If she were to fall into Feng Manna's hands this time, it would be a heavy blow to the intelligence network of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the anti-Japanese forces.
As for how Lan Yanzhi will respond after learning the truth, Zhou Xiao had already prepared several moves.
This return trip was the result of his repeated deductions.
Whether to rescue or not, the bottom line remains unchanged: one's identity must never be revealed, and the covert operation must never be interrupted. This is an ironclad rule.
He quietly returned to the roof ridge above Feng Manna's office, lying prone on the tiles, like a silhouette against the night.
This way, one can both hide and clearly detect every sound inside the house.
At this moment, Lan Yanzhi was in the office.
Hearing that Feng Manna had planted a spy in the Military Intelligence Bureau, her heart sank, and she was eager to dig out the traitor.
In search of clues, she sneaked into Feng Manna's office, ransacked the place but found nothing. Her gaze finally fell on the heavy safe...
She crouched down, pressed her ear against the cold metal cabinet door, and firmly gripped the keypad knob with both hands. Relying on her hearing and experience, she silently unlocked the keypad.
Suddenly—light footsteps echoed down the corridor.
The sound was crisp and short, with the unique rhythm of leather shoe heels striking a terrazzo floor.
The man was wearing hard-soled military boots, and the woman was wearing high-heeled loafers—Lan Yanzhi recognized that voice all too well.
Her expression changed drastically: Feng Manna is back!
The safe hasn't been opened yet.
Even if it were opened, there wouldn't be time to look through the contents.
Retreat is the only way to survive.
But the front door was blocked, and there was nowhere to hide inside—not even behind the curtains.
There was only one way out: outside the window.
She rushed to the window, lifted the sash to peek out, then leaped out and slammed the sash shut with a "click".
The windowsill was so narrow that only half a foot could stand on it, barely enough to support a person, but it wouldn't last long.
She has to climb onto the roof!