Chapter Ninety: A Crisis of the Utmost Severity

Inside the Zhongkang Chinese Medicine Pharmacy, a young man who had taken off his beggar’s clothes said to Wu Quanjiang, “Old Wu, Order One has come down. You’ve been exposed and must move at once. The enemy will move to arrest you any moment now.”

Wu Quanjiang stared in shock. He had seen this young man before, at Fang Boyi’s side; he was one of the people assigned to protect Fang Boyi’s safety.

“How am I supposed to trust you?” Wu Quanjiang asked, calm and unruffled.

The young man drew a note from inside his collar and handed it to him.

Wu Quanjiang took it and looked. On it was written: “Bitter Spring, you have been exposed. Follow this man at once and move before dawn. Urgent beyond measure. Remember! Green Mountain!”

Seeing that familiar handwriting, and then the signature at the end, he knew at once it was genuine—written in the hand of the provincial Party secretary himself! “Green Mountain” was the provincial secretary’s code name, known to very few. As for “Bitter Spring,” that was his own.

The message was real. He had actually been exposed? The situation had become this grave, and he had not sensed a thing.

“It was already too late when this intelligence reached us. The enemy has you under complete surveillance. When I came, I checked the place myself: agents are posted at both the front and back doors of the pharmacy. I also left two comrades outside to cover us. If it comes to it, we’ll force our way through. We must act at once; time is extremely tight!” the young man, Ding Yuan, said anxiously.

“Don’t panic. Since they’re only watching and haven’t moved yet, that means I can still get out. As long as they haven’t received orders to arrest me, they won’t make a reckless move.

“We’ll dress as shop assistants and go straight out the front. Even if they suspect something, they’ll only tail us—they won’t act. Once we reach Zhang’s Grocery at the end of the street, we’ll go inside. The grocery has a back courtyard with another exit; beyond it runs a side lane straight into the slums. The streets there are winding and the terrain is complicated. We should be able to shake them off,” Wu Quanjiang said in a low voice.

He was an old soldier who had weathered countless storms; he did not panic in the face of trouble and quickly laid out an evacuation plan.

Wu Quanjiang found two sets of clothing worn by pharmacy assistants. The two of them changed swiftly, then found two felt hats to pull on. Only then did they open the pharmacy door and, acting as though nothing were amiss, walk out of the Zhongkang Pharmacy.

At the same moment, the agent named Guotou, who had been keeping watch on the pharmacy from across the street, immediately noticed the abnormality and called toward the back room, “Two assistants have come out of the pharmacy, but their faces are unfamiliar. I’ve never seen them in these past few days!”

At once, the intelligence agents of the Party Affairs Investigation Bureau, who had been resting in several rooms at the back, came hurrying out.

The leading agent carefully studied the two men dressed as assistants. Although Wu Quanjiang and Ding Yuan had kept their hat brims very low, the bureau’s agents had been surveilling the place for some time and had already figured out the pharmacy’s staff, inside and out. There was indeed no such pair among the assistants. Moreover, one of them looked rather older—very likely the target, Wu Quanjiang.

“It’s Wu Quanjiang! What is he trying to do, dressed like that at a time like this?”

“Could he be going out to meet an accomplice? Why else dress that way? Captain, we’ve been watching for days at last there’s movement!”

They were all trained professionals, and Wu Quanjiang’s disguise did not fool them.

The deputy leader of the operations team, Zheng Mingshan, was chiefly responsible for monitoring Wu Quanjiang. Seeing this, he was delighted as well; more than ten days of surveillance had yielded nothing.

During those ten days, Wu Quanjiang had not contacted any other underground Party members. Now that he had suddenly acted out of character, circumstances must have changed. If they pursued him, they might uncover a new lead.

“Same as always: leave two men here to keep watch. The rest of you, come with me,” Zheng Mingshan ordered quickly. With the men assigned, he was about to head out.

Just then, the telephone inside rang. This line had been installed specifically for keeping tabs on Wu Quanjiang, so intelligence could be exchanged rapidly and trackers could promptly report his exact position.

Zheng Mingshan picked up the phone. As the voice on the other end spoke, his expression changed at once. He quickly hung up and issued the command, “The director has ordered it: arrest Wu Quanjiang immediately. We need him alive!”

Everyone instantly understood. Wu Quanjiang had suddenly changed into a shop assistant’s clothes because he was trying to flee.

Zheng Mingshan kicked open the door and led his men in pursuit of the pair, who had not yet gotten far.

Wu Quanjiang and Ding Yuan were also watching their surroundings every moment. They knew they were certainly under surveillance by the agents at this point. The more so, the calmer they had to remain; they could not show any flaw. They were gambling that even if the agents followed, they would not move to arrest them.

Unfortunately, things did not go as they had expected. Zheng Mingshan burst out with his men and charged after them. Wu Quanjiang and Ding Yuan immediately realized that the intelligence had been correct: the enemy had begun the arrest.

“Run!”

The two of them no longer hesitated. They broke into a sprint, racing forward as fast as they could. At the same time, they drew their pistols and, taking the initiative, turned to fire behind them.

Gunfire rang out, and one of the agents was struck and fell.

The agents also drew their weapons and returned fire. Zheng Mingshan, anxious, shouted, “Aim carefully—don’t hit anything vital. Shoot their legs and feet. We need them alive!”

Fortunately, his command came in time. The agents held back, lowering their muzzles. Bullets scattered dirt at Wu Quanjiang’s and Ding Yuan’s feet; otherwise, the two would surely have been hit already.

There were not many people on the street to begin with, and once the gunfire erupted, they were so frightened that they scattered in every direction. In an instant, the street was empty.

Wu Quanjiang and Ding Yuan were still some distance from the street corner. Wu Quanjiang knew that no matter what, they would never make it there. Anxiety burned through him, and he could only keep shooting as he ran, barely managing to press onward.

Soon he heard Ding Yuan give a muffled grunt. His body swayed. Wu Quanjiang quickly supported him and saw that his left leg had been hit.

In truth, this was because the agents had been ordered to seize Wu Quanjiang alive. They did not dare shoot at Wu Quanjiang himself, so they turned their guns on Ding Yuan beside him. They also dared not aim for the upper body, or the two would have been riddled like sieves long ago.

Wu Quanjiang held Ding Yuan up, and their speed instantly dropped.

In distress, Ding Yuan shoved Wu Quanjiang away and continued firing backward in rapid succession, shouting, “Old Wu, go! I’ll cover you!”

At that very moment, gunfire flared again nearby. Two figures rushed from the direction of the street corner, their weapons spitting shot without pause. It was the two comrades Ding Yuan had placed nearby, who had heard the gunfire and rushed over to assist.

They charged forward, hoisted Ding Yuan between them, and after a few quick steps ducked into the narrow passage beside a shop. Sheltering behind the wall, they kept firing without pause.

Soon another agent went down.

The others also hurried for cover. Zheng Mingshan dragged the wounded Guotou into a corner at the roadside and shouted, “Hold on tight and keep them pinned! Reinforcements will be here any moment—they won’t get away!”

He was right. He had arranged another squad at the back door of the Zhongkang Pharmacy, and as long as Wu Quanjiang and the others were delayed, the gunfire would quickly draw the rest of the agents over.

What was more, the director had said over the phone that Captain Duan Xingzhou would also be bringing men to reinforce them at once. One could say the situation was extremely perilous for Wu Quanjiang and the others.

Just then, from a corner by the street behind the agents, a figure flashed into view. A cloth covered the face, revealing only a pair of bright, clear eyes. It was none other than Ning Zhiheng, who had been lying in wait for a long time.

Ning Zhiheng had left the Blue Stone Tea House and not returned home. He knew that Wu Quanjiang was already under the strict surveillance of the Party Affairs Investigation Bureau.

He was not certain whether Xia Deyan and the underground network behind him had the ability to arrange Wu Quanjiang’s safe withdrawal in such a short time.

After much thought, he still could not set his mind at ease. In the end, he decided to go to the Zhongkang Pharmacy himself. If all went smoothly and Wu Quanjiang escaped safely, then he would of course stand by and watch.

If the rescue went poorly and Wu Quanjiang was ultimately captured, then he would act according to the situation, doing everything in his power to save him if he could.

If there were truly no way to rescue him, then he would seize the chance to kill Wu Quanjiang.

He knew all too well that once Wu Quanjiang was captured, only two outcomes awaited him.

The first was that he could not withstand the Party Affairs Investigation Bureau’s brutal torture and would ultimately betray his comrades and the underground Party organization in Nanjing. At his level, if he defected, it would be a devastating blow to the entire Nanjing underground network, and the consequences would be unbearable.

Ning Zhiheng would never allow that to happen.

The second possibility was that Wu Quanjiang would, through steadfast will and revolutionary faith, refuse to yield to the enemy’s torture. But would the enemy spare him then? Day after day of interrogation would end only in endless suffering and a miserable death in prison.

If that was how it would end, then it would be better for Ning Zhiheng to grant him a swift death now and spare him some of the torment.

In short, he could absolutely not allow Wu Quanjiang to fall alive into the hands of the Party Affairs Investigation Bureau.