Chapter 25: Just selling scrap, how did I become a spy?

Midnight, twelve o'clock.

A tricycle squeaked as it rode to the experimental workshop; a figure got off and came to the door.

"Heavenly King covers the earth tiger!"

"No response from inside?"

"Heavenly King covers the earth tiger!"

"Still no response from inside."

Xiao Bailong, suspicious, quietly pushed open a crack in the door, then saw that inside was empty; however, where scrap had been piled, several golden-yellow objects lay, with large black characters written in brush on them.

"Scrap!"

"Looks like these are scrap shells!"

"Not bad, quite heavy, can fetch a good price!"

Xiao Bailong lifted one, placed it on the outside tricycle, then lifted the second, the third…

Finally, all four scrap items were loaded onto the cart; he wiped sweat from his forehead, looked around—good, since no one noticed him, he could now keep this batch of scrap for himself!

Squeak, squeak-squeak… the small tricycle had just gone a dozen meters when several people leapt out from both sides, lunging at him like a tiger descending the mountain; Xiao Bailong instantly sensed danger, jumped down from the tricycle, pulled out the three-edged blade he carried, and then…

Those people outside stopped in their tracks and did not move forward to surround him.

"Come on, come on! I'm Xiao Bailong; on the streets everyone calls me Long Ge! I can take ten of you like this! Who's first? Come up, I'll poke a hole in you! This is a three-edged blade smeared with poison—stab and you die!"

The three-edged blade is dark white on the surface, seeming poisonous; this is a major martial-arts rumor, but the blade has three edges, a single thrust makes a large hole that can't be sewn shut, giving it a high lethality.

Seeing the crowd silent, Xiao Bailong felt pleased, thinking they were scared; then… he saw the crowd part, a person holding a Type 56 rifle walked over, the person swung both arms hard—whoosh! —the three-edged blade beneath the barrel was flung to the front of the barrel.

That move was so cool; Xiao Bailong had dreamed countless times of being that mighty, but he only wanted to be the one flinging the blade, not to be stabbed by the flung blade!

"Come, let's spar!"

Clang! Xiao Bailong's three-edged blade fell to the ground! He didn't want to die! The three-edged blade is poisonous—if stabbed, even rushing to the hospital won't save you!

Thud! Xiao Bailong knelt on the ground: "Brothers, which gang are you from? You even managed to get a Type 56 rifle—please, show mercy and let me go…"

"Gang? You're pretending, keep pretending!"

Xiao Bailong stared blankly: "You are…"

"We're here specially to arrest you, a spy!"

Xiao Bailong stared blankly: "I'm not, I'm red to the core, born under the red flag, raised in New China, I…"

"Red to the core? Then why are you eyeing our major national-defense project and trying to steal its most secret product?" Representative Zhao took back the three-edged blade, eyes full of cold light: "Take him in for thorough interrogation!"

"Major national-defense project, top secret!"

Xiao Bailong stared blankly; he was just selling scrap to earn some gambling money—this charge will land him eating peanuts in prison!

"I'm innocent, I'm innocent!"

Xiao Bailong wept, recounting what had happened these past days.

"If that's so, there's an insider here colluding with you, selling off supplies?"

"Exactly, I was incited by him; he's the principal offender, I'm the accessory!"

"What does this person look like?"

"Quite young, thick brows and big eyes… yes, that's him, that's him!"

Xiao Bailong pointed at a young fellow beside Representative Zhao and said.

Representative Zhao turned, saw Qin Miao, his face darkened further: "Good, you dare to frame the R&D personnel of our key national project—your crime is aggravated!"

"What? Key project R&D staff? He's just a freshman!" Xiao Bailong was completely bewildered.

"Hey, hey, hurry up and tell what we've been doing these days with the scrap, I don't want to die!"

"Representative Zhao, I don't know him."

"Damn, still being stubborn even now!"

Slap, slap, slap! A bystander couldn't hold back, swinging left and right; in this era there aren't as many moralizing busybodies as later—people would criticize police for shooting criminals, why not shoot the leg? Bad guys deserve death! A few slaps are nothing!

Xiao Bailong's face instantly swelled, filled with blood; his eyes were full of terror, and he made whimpering sounds.

Suddenly, Xiao Bailong became excited again, looking at the people at the door.

"Dad, Mom, come save me!"

Xiao Bailong hadn't returned home for two straight nights; the middle-aged couple had grown suspicious, sneaking out tonight to see what their son was up to—only to find him arrested. They had hesitated to show themselves, but seeing their son being beaten, they could no longer hold back and rushed out.

"Stop! What right do you have to beat people? I'll go to the government gate to cry out against your brutality—you're manufacturing false cases!" the man shouted.

"Son, my poor son, you dare hit my son—I'll fight you to the end!" the woman shouted, rushing at the person who had slapped, waving her arms, intending to scratch that person's face badly.

Bang!

He lifted a leg and kicked her straight away; this woman was accustomed to causing trouble—the Security Section had tried several times to persuade them to leave that building, but she drove them off each time, and several staff members had been scratched badly by her; in short, without proper compensation, they would absolutely not move!

Unexpectedly, they ran into a tough character here!

The man saw his wife being struck, instantly dazed—what was going on today? These people weren't the school security, but soldiers, and fierce ones at that!

"Take all three of them away!" Representative Zhao said: "Bring them back for thorough interrogation!"

"This is a major national-defense engineering leak case! Fortunately it was nipped in the bud!"

Nearby.

Awoken by his subordinates, Security Section Chief Du Yongfei hurried over and saw the three being led away, his expression complex.

"Great, these three have finally fallen!"

"Huh, they actually came here to steal—now they'll either eat peanuts or get ten to twenty years!"

Amid his subordinates' noisy discussion, Du Yongfei approached Representative Zhao: "Representative Zhao, I'm very sorry; this is our Security Section's dereliction of duty. These three entered our campus years ago and even occupied a dormitory building; whenever we worked, they never cooperated, and repeatedly went to the government to file complaints—I never imagined they were hidden spies!"

The three went limp; they had only wanted to extort some money from Ha Gong Da, never expecting they'd end up eating peanuts!

Thus their spy identity was confirmed!