Chapter 189: The Cunning Kouji

Inside Cheng Qianfan’s home.

After Amao came in, Li Hao shut the door and fastened the bolt.

The two of them quietly ran upstairs and saw Adai standing there, drenched in sweat, saying, “Haozi, if the cat won’t behave, give it a beating.”

At first listen, his voice sounded exactly like Cheng Qianfan’s.

In the corner beside him stood a gigantic Western-style portrait as tall as Brother Fan himself, pinned onto a flat wooden board with thumbtacks.

The lifelike image of Cheng Qianfan stood there, dressed in a long gown, a trace of sorrow on his face.

Li Hao walked to the window, glanced outside, and finally relaxed.

Every ten minutes or so, he would come upstairs and adjust the window so that the reflected light would shine precisely onto the position Brother Fan had designated in advance downstairs.

Brother Fan had said that was the opponent’s “best” observation point.

Indeed, only that spot was clean. Everywhere else was covered with water and even some excrement.

“Well done.” Li Hao patted the shoulders of the two half-grown boys and whispered happily.

Amao served as a lookout in the alley and improvised as situations arose.

When Adai had struggled to make a living in the past, he had learned ventriloquism from an opera troupe and was responsible for imitating Brother Fan’s voice.

Li Hao coordinated everything from the middle.

Moreover, after makeup was applied, Li Hao’s face bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Cheng Qianfan’s at first glance.

Of course, that was only at first glance.

Anyone familiar with them could still easily tell the difference.

At this moment, Kouji had not actually left after exiting the alley.

He beckoned with his hand, and one of his subordinates immediately came over.

Kouji pulled a photograph of Cheng Qianfan from his pocket.

“Ono, you go,” Kouji said. “Also, find a way to learn more about that old woman in the qipao and that boy called Amao.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kouji knew Cheng Qianfan personally, so he had chosen to conduct the inspection himself.

At the same time, asking the neighbors whether Cheng Qianfan was home had been a method of lulling the other side into complacency.

Now it was basically confirmed that Cheng Qianfan was at home.

There were two possibilities.

First, Cheng Qianfan was genuinely at home.

Second, the other side had made preparations to put on an act, after all, he had only heard Cheng Qianfan’s voice and seen him briefly.

At this point, sending this subordinate to investigate secretly would catch the other side off guard and allow another confirmation.

As for Granny Ma and that boy Amao, there was nothing suspicious about them.

However, Kouji was extremely cautious.

Anyone who came into contact with him had to be carefully investigated.

“Sir, please give me something to eat.”

Ono had only taken a couple of steps when a little beggar latched onto him and begged for food.

“Get lost.” Ono shoved the little beggar aside and raised his hand as if preparing to continue beating him.

The frightened beggar hurried away.

Neither Ono nor Kouji noticed that another little beggar hidden in a corner had already slipped away quietly.

“Sir, please give me something to eat.”

Pidan ran to the entrance of the little tailor’s shop in the alley and shouted loudly.

“Get lost!” the little tailor snarled viciously.

Pidan continued begging.

Then the little tailor came out carrying a feather duster and started beating him.

Pidan took a couple of hits, howling in pain and cursing loudly.

The little tailor chased after him with the feather duster.

Chaos immediately broke out.

“Here they come again. Get ready.” Hearing the commotion outside, Li Hao whispered.

The little tailor was the most hostile person in the alley toward beggars.

He had once deliberately dumped leftover food into a toilet in front of little beggars rather than let them eat it.

That was why Pidan had chosen to beg from the little tailor and create a disturbance.

Ono wandered into the alley and saw a little tailor with a measuring tape around his neck chasing a beggar with a feather duster.

He ignored it and kept walking until he reached Cheng Qianfan’s front door.

The door was open by a narrow crack.

Ono glanced inside and vaguely saw Cheng Qianfan, dressed in a long gown, busy with something.

A cat rubbed itself around his feet.

“What are you looking at? Trying to steal something?” A half-grown boy stuck his head out, cursed at him, and then with a Bang! slammed the door shut.

Then voices came from inside.

“Haozi, where’s today’s newspaper?”

“Upstairs, Brother Fan. I’ll get it.”

“I’ll get it myself.”

Then came the sound of footsteps going upstairs, Thump, thump, thump.

Ono’s heart stirred.

He continued walking forward.

Looking at the muddy standing water ahead that emitted a foul stench, Ono cursed inwardly, “Filthy Chinese.”

He naturally stepped onto the only clean patch of ground and looked up at the second-floor window.

There, near the inside of the window, stood Cheng Qianfan holding a newspaper.

Ono took out the photograph in his hand and compared it.

There was no mistake.

It was Cheng Qianfan himself.

At that moment, the fleeing little beggar ran over, splashing filthy water mixed with excrement and urine everywhere and covering Ono with it.

The little tailor wielding the feather duster came chasing after him.

The beggar actually used his broken bowl to scoop up foul water from the ground and fling it around.

Caught off guard, Ono had half a bowl of dirty water splashed onto his face and into his mouth.

An overwhelming sense of disgust surged through him, and he repeatedly spat, “Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!”

The little tailor was also splashed with dirty water and cursed furiously.

An idea suddenly occurred to Ono.

Sharing a common enemy with the tailor, he joined him in chasing the little beggar.

Pidan was terrified.

He ran to the end of the alley and cleverly climbed over a wall to escape, not even stopping to retrieve his begging bowl that had fallen to the ground.

Ono and the little tailor stood beneath the wall and cursed at it for a while.

Then Ono took a cigarette from his pocket and offered one to the little tailor.

Thanks to Ono’s deliberate friendliness, the two men, both panting and bonded by a sense of shared battle, quickly began chatting.

About ten minutes later, the filthy and foul-smelling Ono emerged from the alley, cursing continuously.

“What’s the situation?” Kouji asked quietly, pinching his nose shut. “What did you find out?”

“Cheng Qianfan is definitely at home. First I saw him downstairs working on something. Later I saw him go upstairs to get a newspaper. I got a clear look through the window. It was definitely Cheng Qianfan himself.”

“That Granny Ma isn’t suspicious. She’s just a difficult old Shanghai woman.”

“As for Amao, he’s an idiot who gets beaten by his father every day.”

At that very moment, on the second floor, the giant portrait of Cheng Qianfan holding a newspaper lay in one corner.

Beside it was the portrait of Cheng Qianfan gazing sorrowfully out the window.

Beside those stood two more portraits.

At the entrance of the alley, another simple-minded little beggar had appeared, hiding in a corner and timidly watching the passersby coming and going.

Using the excuse of going out to gather inspiration, Fang Muheng secretly skipped work and returned home.

The moment he arrived, his younger sister Tang Xiaoye quietly pulled him aside.

“Brother, Ximei hid food again.”

As she spoke, Tang Xiaoye produced a steamed bun that had already gone moldy and showed it to her brother.

Fang Muheng took the moldy bun, and his eyes immediately grew moist.

Ximei had been living with the Fang family for quite a few days now.

At first she had been like a terrified, skin-and-bones little animal.

She dared not touch this or that and hid trembling in corners.

She would cry and shout,

“Don’t eat me. I don’t have any meat on me.”

The sight had broken the Fang family’s hearts.

Only with great difficulty had Yang Ximei’s fear begun to lessen.

Although she still did not dare sit at the table during meals and only dared eat in a corner, it was at least progress.

However, when the family’s maid, Mama Chen, helped Yang Ximei tidy her room, she found several moldy steamed buns hidden beneath the pillow and under the bed.

The buns were hard with mold and even bore bite marks.

Fang Muheng had done his best to smile gently as he told Yang Ximei that there was no need to hide food anymore because the family had more buns than they could eat.

Yang Ximei had timidly agreed.

Yet she continued doing the same thing.

Holding the moldy, hardened bun his sister had handed him, Fang Muheng stood there lost in thought.

At this moment, Yang Ximei poked her head out from a corner.

When she saw the moldy bun in Fang Muheng’s hand, the little girl was terrified.

She felt heartbroken that her hidden food had been discovered.

She feared being scolded.

She feared even more being driven from the house.

The life she had enjoyed at the Fang family over these past days was better than anything she had ever dared dream of.

“Ximei.”

Seeing her, Fang Muheng walked over and lifted the tiny girl into his arms.

“Bun, bun.”

Ximei pointed at the bun in Fang Muheng’s hand.

Fang Muheng smiled and handed it to her.

Ximei clutched the bun tightly to her chest.

After a while, she looked up at Fang Muheng.

An expression of intense struggle appeared on the little girl’s face.

Finally, as though she had made an enormous decision, she timidly raised her hand.

“Uncle, you eat.”

Fang Muheng looked at the bun she offered him.

He saw the bright eyes filled with hope and expectation.

Lowering his head, he took a bite.

The dehydrated bun was hard and rough against his teeth.

With difficulty, Fang Muheng bit off a mouthful, chewed it thoroughly, and swallowed it.

“Brother! You can’t eat that!” Tang Xiaoye cried out.

“Little sister,” Fang Muheng said, “do you know that even a bun like this was something Ximei once couldn’t get?”

“She could only search for buns in mud pits to eat, and even then she had to hide them for fear someone would steal them.”

Looking at his half-comprehending younger sister, Fang Muheng held Yang Ximei in one arm and placed his other hand on his sister’s shoulder.

“The suffering Ximei has endured throughout her life is something you and I can never truly understand.”

“To let countless compatriots like Ximei eat their fill, wear warm clothes, and live without suffering.”

Fang Muheng’s expression became incomparably serious as he looked at his sister.

“That is the goal our generation must strive for.”

Yang Ximei could not understand.

Seeing that Fang Muheng was willing to eat her bun, she felt both heartbroken over the bun and extremely happy.

She parted her lips and smiled timidly.

At this very moment, Kouji returned to the press conference venue of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Symposium and Asian Peace Promotion Symposium on Hankou Road.

He did not immediately report to Yingzuo Eiichi.

Instead, he waited for the other two investigation teams to return.

Only after gathering all the intelligence together did he go to make his report to Yingzuo Eiichi.