Chapter 150: Analyzing the “Case”

The next morning.

Li Hao appeared in Yande Lane with an aluminum lunchbox in one hand and a salted fish in the other.

“Haozi’s here.”

“Have you eaten yet, Haozi?”

The neighbors all greeted Li Hao.

At first, these longtime residents had looked down on Li Hao as a little beggar.

Several years had passed, Li Hao had grown up and found proper work, and the neighbors had gradually begun accepting him.

“There are pan-fried buns in that lunchbox, they smell wonderful.” The young tailor came over and pointed at the lunchbox in Li Hao’s hand with a grin.

“It’s breakfast for Brother Fan,” Li Hao said.

He disliked the young tailor.

The man was too stingy and always tried to take advantage of others.

Back when Li Hao was begging, this tailor would rather dump leftover food into the toilet than give it to the little beggars.

Hearing Li Hao say that, the young tailor licked his lips and dared not say anything further.

In his eyes, the former little beggar Li Hao was someone he could still bully.

He certainly did not dare provoke Cheng Qianfan.

Liu Ada, who sold wontons, saw Li Hao carrying pan-fried buns back from elsewhere and angrily cursed, swearing that those buns were far inferior to his wontons.

A new vendor selling pan-fried buns had recently arrived in the neighboring alley.

Liu Ada regarded him as a mortal enemy.

“Brother Fan!” Li Hao knocked on the door and shouted loudly.

Cheng Qianfan stuck his head out from the second-floor window.

“Haozi’s here? Wait a moment.”

Then he shouted toward Liu Ada, “Liu Ada, two bowls of wontons.”

Hearing this, the proud Liu Ada raised his head.

An incomparably proud smile appeared on his weathered face.

He muttered at Li Hao, roughly meaning, Your Brother Fan doesn’t eat pan-fried buns, he eats my wontons.

“Go wash your hands and get ready to eat.”

Cheng Qianfan came downstairs, opened the door, took the lunchbox from Li Hao, set it on the table, and hung up the salted fish.

He noticed that one bowl contained the usual number of wontons, while the other had an extra wonton.

He glanced at the aluminum lunchbox holding the pan-fried buns and shook his head with a smile.

He pulled the small dining table several metres farther inside, away from the front door, then casually closed the door.

Breakfast consisted of two bowls of wontons, the pan-fried buns in the lunchbox, four meat-filled steamed buns, and two fried eggs.

It was a fairly lavish breakfast.

“What happened with the gunfire last night?” Cheng Qianfan asked while eating a pan-fried bun.

This was part of the understanding between him and Li Hao.

Whenever something major happened in the French Concession, Li Hao would come the next day to share breakfast or dinner with Cheng Qianfan.

He would relay all the news he had heard.

Li Hao and the little beggars he knew were Cheng Qianfan’s eyes and ears.

“Yeah, I heard about it.” Li Hao devoured a fried egg, grease coating his mouth. “They say they were arresting Communists. The Communists fought with the Nationalists. A lot of Nationalist people died, and they still didn’t catch the Communists.”

“How are things on the streets?” Cheng Qianfan asked.

“Tighter than usual. I saw Officer Lu leading people on patrol, checking identification papers. He knows me, so he didn’t check mine.”

Officer Lu was Big-Head Lu.

This morning it was the Third Patrol Division of the Central Police Station’s turn to patrol the streets under Big-Head Lu’s command.

Cheng Qianfan nodded.

The commotion last night had been enormous.

There had been gunfire, grenade explosions, and what amounted to a small-scale military clash.

For the French Concession authorities, who boasted that the French Concession was the safest place in Greater Shanghai, it was nothing less than a slap in the face.

The increased patrols and inspections were intended not only to search for the culprits but also to display strength and intimidate the public.

“Preserved Egg cried this morning too,” Li Hao said.

“He thought the gentleman who used to give him steamed buns had been killed.”

“What happened?” Cheng Qianfan handed a steamed bun to Li Hao.

Li Hao was still growing and could eat a great deal.

“One time Preserved Egg went to Hankou Road to beg and got beaten up by a beggar named Ergou. A gentleman from the Shen Bao office saw it happen and broke his steamed bun in half, giving one half to Preserved Egg and the other to Ergou.”

Li Hao lowered his voice.

“Then Ergou ran over and told Preserved Egg that the man who gave them the bun had been killed, so Preserved Egg started crying.”

“Later they went to ask around and learned that the Shen Bao employee named Ah Hai hadn’t died. He escaped.”

So his name was Ah Hai.

He worked at Shen Bao.

Cheng Qianfan immediately understood whom Li Hao was talking about.

It should be the Communist who had been followed by Party Affairs Investigation Department agents, the very first man he had rescued.

Thinking about Shen Bao, Cheng Qianfan did not know why, but Fang Muheng, who also worked there, immediately came to mind.

Almost instinctively, he suspected that Fang Muheng was somehow connected to the incident.

At first it was merely a baseless intuition.

But after thinking it over carefully, Cheng Qianfan increasingly felt that his intuition had a certain logic to it.

After returning from Hangzhou and learning that Zhu Yuan had been “rescued” by the Communists only to be quickly executed as a traitor, Cheng Qianfan had carefully studied and analyzed the entire affair.

The Party Affairs Investigation Department had devised a scheme.

They intended to use the traitor Zhu Yuan to infiltrate the Communist organization.

In that plan, Fang Muheng had unquestionably played a key role.

He had been used without his knowledge.

Cheng Qianfan concluded that the arrest of Fang Muheng had also been part of the plan.

Fang Muheng was not a Communist.

Cheng Qianfan could see that.

The Party Affairs Investigation Department could see it as well.

A person like Fang Muheng was not worth the trouble of arresting unless there was another purpose.

The purpose of arresting him had been to provide a legitimate reason for Fang Muheng and Zhu Yuan to meet in the same prison cell.

The Zhu Yuan operation had failed.

The agents of the Party Affairs Investigation Department had very likely shifted their attention back to Fang Muheng.

Perhaps they had never stopped watching him at all.

Yes, Fang Muheng was not a Communist.

But this hot-blooded young man, overflowing with passion yet completely lacking in experience, clearly had some connection with the Communists.

That connection could be exploited.

If Cheng Qianfan himself were a Party Affairs Investigation Department agent, he would also place Fang Muheng under surveillance.

It was a classic case of waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit.

Cheng Qianfan knew that, strictly speaking, his speculation and analysis could not really stand up to scrutiny.

One could not assume that because Ah Hai and Fang Muheng were colleagues at Shen Bao, this was another case of Fang Muheng causing trouble through incompetence.

Yet deep inside, he still felt the possibility existed.

Verifying the theory would be easy.

All he had to do was find out which people at Shen Bao were closest to Fang Muheng and what sort of relationship existed between Fang Muheng and Ah Hai.

Ah Hai was a Communist.

Judging by his performance yesterday, he was fairly vigilant and possessed some experience in clandestine work.

Ah Hai would probably be careful enough not to expose himself.

But the chances of something going wrong with Fang Muheng were simply too great.

That man was incapable of concealing his good relationships with the Communists inside Shen Bao.

As long as one observed whom Fang Muheng was close to, an agent could narrow the field of suspicion to a very small number of people.

From the moment he first met Fang Muheng, Cheng Qianfan had formed a fairly clear assessment of him.

He possessed tremendous revolutionary enthusiasm but had never been tempered by the harsh realities of revolutionary struggle.

He was completely lacking in guile.

He was a passionate young man worthy of respect.

But he was also the sort of person who could easily ruin things.