Chapter 165

After returning from the ghost market for a few days, Li Ping'an appeared motionless on the surface, but inside he was like a volcano about to erupt. The 'Grey Wolf' cipher system mentioned by Cripple Chen and that mysterious 'Key Book' were like two keys hanging on the door of Zheng Zeming's impregnable fortress, yet no keyhole could be found. He knew that conventional surveillance and external investigation had reached their limit; to obtain a breakthrough, he had to risk entering the tiger's den and strike at the yellow dragon.

"Dahu, any new movements on Zheng Zeming's side?" Li Ping'an asked seemingly casually, flipping through today's Capital Daily.

Wang Dahu scratched his head: "Still the same routine—Cultural Bureau and home, two points and a line. Oh, right, yesterday his wife took the kids by train back to her parents' home, saying the elderly were unwell. Now only he remains at home."

Li Ping'an's hand pausing slightly as he turned the newspaper. Family leaving the capital? This seemed like a signal. Was it normal family affairs, or had Zheng Zeming sensed something and arranged for his family to avoid risk in advance? Either way, this seemed like an opportunity—a window for infiltrating and searching.

"Keep watching him, especially at night, paying attention to the lights and visitors at his home." Li Ping'an lowered the newspaper, his tone calm, his mind already made up.

Night deep, people quiet, moon hidden, stars sparse. Li Ping'an changed into a neat black outfit, his face covered with black cloth, like a leopard blending into the night. He did not go through the main gate, but using the Carefree Step and abilities far beyond ordinary, he silently scaled the wall of the Siheyuan, avoiding the occasional patrol squad, and sneaked toward the officials' residential compound where Zheng Zeming lived.

Zheng Zeming lived in a separate small courtyard with red brick walls and a black iron gate, appearing unremarkable but located in a relatively secluded spot. Li Ping'an did not approach rashly; instead, he hid on the roof of an abandoned two-story building nearby, where the view was open and he could clearly observe the courtyard's movements. He restrained his breath and slowly extended his Divine Perception outward, like an invisible tendril, carefully probing into the courtyard.

As his Divine Perception swept over, the scene inside the courtyard was sketched in his mind like a black-and-white ink painting. The main house had three rooms, left and right wing rooms, and some flowers and plants grew in the yard; everything looked utterly normal. Zheng Zeming seemed to have fallen asleep, and steady breathing came from the east room of the main house.

However, as Li Ping'an's Divine Perception carefully scanned the ground and walls, a faint, discordant sensation caught his attention. Beneath the floor of the west wing room, there seemed to be a void, and its entrance was cleverly concealed by something, making it difficult for his Divine Perception to fully penetrate. More importantly, he sensed that within the void, a few extremely weak, unnatural energy undulations flickered—resembling the residual aura of metal and electronic components, faint but reminiscent of the radio parts he had sensed before.

"As expected, there's cat's urine..." Li Ping'an smirked inwardly. He did not rush to act, but waited patiently. Minutes ticked by until two in the morning, when people are at their most drowsy.

After confirming there were no abnormalities around and Zheng Zeming's breathing remained steady and long, Li Ping'an moved. Like a falling leaf, he drifted down from the rooftop, landing silently. Reaching the outer wall of the courtyard, he took a deep breath, tapped the wall lightly with his toes, lifted his body, pressed one hand on the walltop, and nimbly vaulted over, the whole process making no sound at all.

The courtyard was silent. He avoided the front gate, which might have traps, and went to the window of the west wing room. The window was bolted from inside, but that posed no problem for him. He took out a specially made steel sheet as thin as a willow leaf from his space, carefully inserted it into the window crack, and gently nudged the latch. A few seconds later, accompanied by a barely audible "click", the latch slid open.

Li Ping'an slipped into the west wing room like a wisp of blue smoke. The room was filled with miscellaneous items and old furniture, covered in dust, appearing untouched for a long time. He went straight to the floor spot where his Divine Perception had sensed an anomaly. There sat a heavy old camphor wood chest.

He tried to move the chest, but it wouldn't budge. Upon close inspection, he found that the chest's bottom seemed linked to a mechanism in the floor. He dared not use force, so he studied the floor instead. Using the subtle perception of his Divine Perception and keen observation, he noticed that the wear marks on the seams of several floorboards differed slightly from the rest. He attempted to press the floor's edges in a certain sequence.

"Creak..." a slight mechanical turning sound rang out. Immediately, the floorboard half-pressed by the camphor chest, together with the chest, sank down silently and then slid sideways, revealing a dark, downward-opening hole just large enough for one person to pass through. A cold, damp wind carrying a musty smell gushed out from the hole.

Li Ping'an hesitated no longer, took out a flashlight covered with red cloth, lowered its beam, and slipped in sideways. Below the opening was a steep flight of stone steps. Descending the steps, an underground secret room about ten square meters in size appeared before his eyes.

As the flashlight's beam swept over the interior of the secret room, even though Li Ping'an had been mentally prepared, he couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air, and his heart pounded violently.

On the left side of the secret room, a row of heavy wooden boxes was neatly stacked. He lifted the lid of one, and a blaze of golden light flashed, dazzling his eyes—inside were neatly arranged gold bars! Roughly estimated, this box alone held over a hundred bars! The neighboring boxes contained bundles of U. S. dollars, large amounts of silver dollars, and many pieces of jewelry and jade, their value incalculable.

On the right side of the secret room, a table stood against the wall, atop which lay a well-maintained military radio, beside it a code book and several blank notepads. The table's drawer held several Browning handguns and some ammunition, and even a few American-made grenades.

What shocked and angered Li Ping'an most was the wall at the center of the secret room. There hung a faded blue-sky-white-sun flag; beneath it on a stand was enshrined a Japanese samurai sword, the chrysanthemum crest on its scabbard clearly visible! Beside the sword lay several yellowed photographs, the people in them wearing the uniforms or official attire of the puppet regime era; one of them showed a young Zheng Zeming dressed in a puppet-government uniform, wearing a fawning smile, a stark contrast to the refined Cultural Bureau Deputy Director he is today.

"He's truly a thoroughgoing traitor and spy! Hidden so deep!" Li Ping'an felt a surge of heat rush to his head, anger boiling in his chest. This is no mere cultural official; he is clearly a deeply embedded, unrepentant national traitor!

He suppressed the urge to rush out and arrest Zheng Zeming immediately, knowing the time was not yet right. He needed evidence, and more importantly, needed to uncover Zheng Zeming's upstream and downstream network. He swiftly took action, using his Divine Perception to aid him, meticulously searching every corner of the secret room.

In a hidden compartment of the radio table, he found a kraft paper envelope containing a list written with invisible ink that had been developed, recording several aliases and contact methods—clearly active agents under Zheng Zeming. He also found several ledgers documenting the flow of funds and materials; some of the recipients pointed to seemingly unrelated units and individuals, shocking to behold.

Finally, his gaze fell on those code books. He picked up the topmost one, a deep blue cloth-bound volume with no markings, and flipped through it quickly. The contents appeared to be ordinary classical literary analyses, but beside certain specific words were extremely fine marks or numerical annotations.

"Is this that Key Book?" Li Ping'an's heart stirred; he immediately produced the cipher record he had obtained from Shen Mo for comparison. Indeed, the number combinations on the record corresponded to specific words on certain pages, lines, and columns of this book! By following the rule for substitution, the true message could be decoded!

Without hesitation, he seized this crucial key book, the agents' list, the ledgers, and several representative photos (including images of Zheng Zeming in puppet-regime uniform and a panoramic view of the secret room enshrining the samurai sword and the blue-sky-white-sun flag), quickly storing them in his own space. These items are the strongest irrefutable evidence to nail Zheng Zeming.

After finishing all that, he carefully restored the secret room to its original state, erased any trace of his presence, then slipped out silently, resetting the floor mechanism and the window of the west wing room to their closed positions.

As he slipped out of the courtyard like a phantom and merged back into the outside night, the eastern sky showed a hint of fish-belly white. He glanced back at the seemingly tranquil courtyard, his heart filled with cold anger and a heaviness after uncovering the truth.

Gold, U. S. dollars, radio, weapons, the enshrined samurai sword and blue-sky-white-sun flag... Zheng Zeming's "cunning rabbit's three burrows" revealed not only a spy's greed and preparation, but a betrayal ingrained to the bone. This "poison snake" hidden within the cultural front poses a danger far beyond imagination.

Now with the evidence in hand, it is time to consider how to close the net, so as to capture this big fish and his followers in one sweep, without alerting the grass and startling the snake, giving them a chance to escape. Li Ping'an knew that the final showdown was imminent. He touched those weighty evidences in his pocket (actually in his space), and his gaze became extraordinarily resolute.