Chapter 91: Following the Threads

Outside the main gate of Guangji Hospital.

A cigarette hung from Cheng Qianfan’s mouth as he walked straight toward a shoe-repair stall by the wall.

He took off his cloth shoe with its layered sole and handed it over.

The cobbler wore a felt hat. Without a word, he accepted the shoe and began working skillfully.

“In a little while, a middle-aged man in a suit and fedora will come out.”

“Any other distinguishing features?” the cobbler asked in a low voice.

“I’ll be under that locust tree over there. If I throw away an empty cigarette pack, have someone follow him.”

Cheng Qianfan blew out a ring of smoke.

“Remember, it’s better to lose him than to alert him.”

“Understood.”

The cobbler handed back the cloth shoe.

“Sir, take a look. It’s repaired.”

“How much?”

Cheng Qianfan put the shoe back on.

“Ten cents.”

“Find me a policeman who’s familiar with the hospital.”

“Yes.”

Cheng Qianfan paid and sauntered over to the locust tree beside the street outside the gate.

There was a bus stop there, making it a place where he would not attract suspicion.

Every trainee participating in the examination was assigned a squad of agent assistants.

This was only natural.

The trainees in the Special Training Class came from all over the country.

Being unfamiliar with the local area, it would have been extremely difficult for them to conduct investigations on their own.

These assistants were all ordinary agents.

They were his temporary subordinates.

The trainees of the Special Training Class were “elites” recommended by Special Service Office stations throughout the country.

Their current ranks might not be high, but upon successful graduation they would at minimum receive the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Graduates of Special Service Office training programs were commissioned according to educational background.

University graduates received the rank of Major.

High-school graduates received the rank of First Lieutenant.

Middle-school graduates received the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Even trainees whose education had not reached middle-school level would, after graduating from the Special Training Class, have their special-training qualification recognized as equivalent to a formal middle-school education.

In other words, Special Training Class trainees were guaranteed at least the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Furthermore, graduates who rendered “special meritorious service” would receive even more favorable commissions.

Agents who possessed military-academy credentials could have their military rank adjusted accordingly.

As for ordinary agents, their educational levels were generally low.

Even middle-school graduates were rare.

Many were only barely literate.

For such agents, promotion was not easy.

Unless they performed extraordinary service, they could only be commissioned as Second Lieutenants after serving in the Special Service Office for seven full years.

Cheng Qianfan had studied in the Infantry Department of the Central Military Academy but had not graduated.

Therefore, his military rank could only be assessed according to a high-school diploma.

Even so, if he successfully graduated from the Special Training Class, he would become a First Lieutenant.

Thus, in the eyes of ordinary agents, these Special Training Class trainees were future officers.

Before long, Cheng Qianfan spotted Mr. Liu emerging from the hospital gate.

Cheng Qianfan took out his cigarette pack and checked it.

It was empty.

He cursed and threw it onto the ground.

Mr. Liu waved his hand.

“Rickshaw!”

A rickshaw puller rushed over ahead of the others.

“Qijia Alley.”

“Certainly, sir. Please have a seat.”

Cheng Qianfan glanced at the distant rickshaw, then looked toward the shoe-repair stall.

The cobbler discreetly made a hand signal.

That rickshaw puller was one of their own men.

About half an hour later, Cheng Qianfan appeared inside a private residence two streets away from Guangji Hospital.

This was one of the Special Service Office’s safe houses.

Before long, an agent entered, bringing a policeman with him.

“Greetings, sir.”

The policeman looked nervous.

He had been brought here suddenly and felt deeply uneasy in the presence of these agents, men who possessed the power of life and death.

“Are you familiar with the doctors at Guangji Hospital?”

“Yes, very familiar.”

Upon hearing the question, the policeman immediately relaxed.

So they merely wanted information.

As long as the matter was not directed at him, everything was fine.

“There is a doctor named Gu Changyou. Do you know anything about him?”

Cheng Qianfan asked.

Before leaving the hospital, he had checked the nameplate outside Doctor Gu’s office.

“What would you like to know, sir?”

“How are Doctor Gu’s medical skills?”

The policeman hesitated.

“What are you standing there for? The officer asked you a question. Answer him.”

The agent beside him cursed.

“Say whatever you know. I want the truth.”

Cheng Qianfan’s face darkened.

“If you don’t know, say you don’t know. If you know, say you know. But if you conceal anything, you won’t be going home today.”

“Yes, yes, yes.”

The policeman bowed repeatedly.

“This Doctor Gu’s medical skills are quite average. I’ve heard he got into Guangji Hospital because his brother-in-law is a regimental commander in the National Revolutionary Army.”

“Heard? Heard from whom?”

“Everyone knows it. Doctor Gu is always boasting about his brother-in-law. If not for him...”

The policeman lowered his voice.

“At the end of last year, Doctor Gu prescribed the wrong medicine and caused a patient’s death. His brother-in-law stepped in and settled the matter.”

Cheng Qianfan pondered inwardly.

A doctor prescribing the wrong medicine and killing someone might not be known to outsiders.

However, among doctors and patients, news of it would certainly have spread long ago.

Yet someone had come specifically seeking treatment from such a doctor?

No one willingly rushes to meet the King of Hell.

This Mr. Liu was indeed suspicious.

“Do not mention today’s events to anyone. If even the slightest bit leaks out, you know the consequences.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

The policeman shook his head vigorously.

“I was never here today.”

“You may go.”

Cheng Qianfan waved his hand.

About an hour and a half later, the agent disguised as a rickshaw puller returned.

“I carried that passenger to Hengrun Teahouse in Qijia Alley.”

“A teahouse?”

Cheng Qianfan nodded slightly.

“Did he go there for tea, or is he based there?”

“Excellent insight, sir.”

The rickshaw puller wiped away sweat with a towel.

“I asked around. The man is the proprietor of the teahouse. His surname is Liu, given name Tao.”

Cheng Qianfan lit a cigarette.

He was thinking.

Originally, he had suspected that Doctor Gu was the hidden impersonator, Agent Six, within Guangji Hospital.

Now, however, he had begun to doubt that judgment.

The reason was simple.

Doctor Gu had once prescribed the wrong medicine and caused a death.

Such a thing was extremely rare among intelligence agents.

Whether Nationalist agents or Communist agents, they did not casually choose occupations suitable for maintaining a cover identity.

They always tried to choose professions in which they were most competent.

If one chose to work as a doctor, then at the very least one’s medical skills had to be above average.

One need not be a master physician, but prescribing the wrong medicine was absolutely unacceptable.

A doctor with poor medical skills was itself a flaw likely to attract suspicion.

Take Comrade Zhulin, for example.

Before Zhulin’s sacrifice, his cover identity had also been that of a doctor.

He had been a surgeon at a hospital in Shanghai and possessed superb medical skills.

Of course, if the Special Service Office had recruited Doctor Gu because of his brother-in-law’s military connections, that would make sense as well.

The Special Service Office had always sought to place people inside the military for surveillance purposes.

Yet the more Cheng Qianfan thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

No, no.

Even if Doctor Gu really was a Special Service Office agent.

Still...

He shook his head.

The Special Training Class could not possibly use an agent with military connections as an impersonator for examination purposes.

Anything involving the military was classified information.

Military...

Classified information...

Cheng Qianfan vaguely felt that he had grasped the edge of a train of thought!