When Guo Xiaobai was captured, Chen Shen participated in the interrogation. That day, Bian Tou barged into the secretary’s office. Liu Meina was filing her nails, while Chen Shen sat on a low wooden cabinet, swinging his legs. Chen was lazily telling Liu a story about a warlord named Fan Shaozeng, who had married eighteen concubines, the last being a swimming champion and dancer named Yang Xiuqiong. His tone was slow and detached, which suited Liu Meina just fine, as she was thinking about when she could finally leave Courtyard No. 55—a place that seemed peaceful but was anything but. She longed for a quiet life. Chen Shen's eyes repeatedly glanced at the safe in the room. There were patrolling agents outside the heavy iron door, and inside the office was the safe. If he didn’t take a gamble, how would he ever get his hands on the Zero Plan?
At that moment, Bian Tou barged in. “Captain Bi wants you in the interrogation room immediately.”
Liu Meina watched as Chen Shen slid off the cabinet. She continued filing her nails, watching Chen's broad back as he walked away, and sighed inwardly. Suddenly, she found herself yearning for a place called Lin'an, her hometown. She desperately wanted to disappear from Courtyard No. 55 and return to that mountain town filled with walnut trees.
Chen Shen followed Bian Tou to the interrogation room, swaying slightly as he walked. Two guards opened the heavy iron door, and Chen strode down the long, empty corridor of the interrogation room, the sound of his footsteps echoing alongside the chilling screams. When Chen entered the room, he saw Guo Xiaobai hanging from a pillar. Guo’s skin was torn and mangled, his head drooping like a wilted cabbage in the sun. Su Sansheng and Bi Zhong Liang sat by the interrogation table, an empty chair beside them. Chen Shen lit a cigarette, leaning against the door, watching as the wilted cabbage hung there. He took a deep drag and blew out a cloud of smoke, meeting the inquisitive gazes of Su Sansheng and Bi Zhong Liang, then glanced at Guo Xiaobai’s bloodied, hanging head. He thought to himself, Guo Xiaobai can’t hold on much longer.
Sure enough, Guo Xiaobai couldn’t hold on. After finishing his cigarette, Chen Shen crushed the butt under his shoe and walked over to Guo. He lifted Guo Xiaobai’s chin, noticing that both his eyes were swollen shut, his mouth a bloody mess, with a loose tooth barely hanging on. Blood had congealed into a paste, trailing in strips from his lips. His gaze was lifeless, like a snake that had been crushed at its weakest point.
Chen Shen sat down beside Su Sansheng, his face dark.
“He’s stubborn, huh? Let’s lock him up for two days,” Chen Shen suggested.
Bi Zhong Liang chuckled, “You must be crazy. Two days? In two days, the Communists will have all moved on. Instead of locking him up, we should just drag him into the woods.”
Chen Shen fell silent. He watched as Guo Xiaobai slowly lifted his head, muttering faintly, “I’ll talk.”
Chen Shen, Su Sansheng, and Bi Zhong Liang exchanged glances and smiled. But deep inside, Chen Shen heard a muffled scream—he knew another round of killing or chasing was about to begin.
That day, Guo Xiaobai provided accurate information. He confessed that the Communist special agent known as “the Doctor” had been transmitting a vast amount of intelligence from Shanghai. The Doctor was an experienced courier with many contacts in the city. None of these contacts were connected to each other; they all maintained single-line communication with him. However, Guo Xiaobai had never met the Doctor in person.
After finishing his confession, Guo Xiaobai could no longer hold on and collapsed, his head dropping heavily. Su Sansheng walked over, picked up a bucket of water, and poured it over Guo’s body. Water dripped steadily from Guo, as if he were a fish freshly pulled from the river. Su Sansheng turned to a man holding a whip and said, “Get him into some clean clothes. Have the medical team treat his wounds.”
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