Chapter 53: He Is a Japanese Spy

Teacher Ma did not return to the office; instead, he turned his steps toward the cafeteria, but just as he reached the halfway point, he stopped short. He looked around, suddenly changed direction, and hurried toward the school exit.

He Yuzhu followed quietly.

"Zhuzi, sneaking off already? You'd better make sure I see your face in the second half of the year!" Lao Zhou's voice suddenly came from the gatehouse, carrying a hint of mockery.

He Yuzhu's heart skipped a beat, terrified that the "big macaque" in front might hear. Fortunately, Teacher Ma was walking in such a rush that he did not notice.

He Yuzhu waved at Lao Zhou to acknowledge him, but he did not slow his pace by even half a step.

"Stinky brat, acting like you're busier than the Principal!" Lao Zhou scolded.

Watching Teacher Ma duck into a narrow alley and slip into the door of an inconspicuous Siheyuan, He Yuzhu quickly scanned his surroundings.

The alley was secluded and the wall was not high; he circled to the Houyuan and nimbly vaulted over the wall, landing with almost no sound.

He tiptoed to the back window of the main room.

The winter air was heavy, and the window paper was pasted on thick.

He dipped his finger in some saliva, carefully moistened a small hole in the paper, and squinted one eye to peek inside.

This look made his heart tighten violently—inside the room, Teacher Ma was sneakily prying open a loose board behind a faded landscape painting on the wall, taking out a military-grade radio from a hidden compartment!

Good heavens! What exactly was this guy's identity? He even had a radio! He Yuzhu broke out in a cold sweat; were Lao Zhou and his own cheap uncle not already being targeted by this bastard?

There was no time to lose; he could not afford a moment of hesitation. He Yuzhu straightened up abruptly, took half a step back, gathered all his strength, and kicked hard at the door that looked anything but sturdy!

"Crack—Bang!" The old wooden latch snapped at the sound, wood splinters flew, and the door swung wide open.

Teacher Ma inside was scared out of his wits by the thunderous sound of the door breaking, and the radio in his hand nearly slipped away.

He turned his head sharply and saw a figure appear at the doorway, the fake beard and eyebrows on his face half-fallen off.

His first reaction was not to fight back, but to lunge at the quilt on the kang, his hand digging frantically underneath it.

How could He Yuzhu give him the chance? His figure was as fast as lightning; before Teacher Ma could touch anything, a clean and decisive hand-chop had already slammed into the back of his neck.

Teacher Ma made a "gurgle" sound in his throat, his eyeballs rolled back, and his body collapsed to the ground like soft mud, falling silent.

He Yuzhu did not stop for a second, grabbing his own stinky socks from his space and stuffing them into Teacher Ma's mouth to prevent him from waking up and shouting.

Then, with a piece of sturdy hemp rope, he tied the "big macaque's" hands and feet tight.

After dealing with this, He Yuzhu immediately began to search the room.

He flipped over the bedding on the kang—sure enough, a small Nambu Type 2 Pistol was hidden underneath, the gun body gleaming with a cold, eerie light.

Next, he found a hidden compartment under a drawer, inside which was a hard-covered diary. Opening it, he saw nothing but strange, talisman-like symbols and terrain sketches; most of the words were written in Japanese, which he could not understand.

"Don't you need a codebook to send messages? Where did this bastard hide the codebook?" He Yuzhu searched inside and out several times, but he simply couldn't find it.

"Can't find it? Then I'll make him spit it out himself!" He Yuzhu's eyes turned sharp; he grabbed Teacher Ma by his limp hair and dragged him like a dead dog to the large water vat in the corner of the room.

In the depths of winter in Beiping, the water in the vat had long since frozen into a layer of thin ice, the cold biting to the bone.

He Yuzhu reached in, scooped out the ice shards, and without hesitation, shoved Teacher Ma's head deep into the icy water!

"Mmph! Glug, glug..." The cold sensation of suffocation instantly jolted Teacher Ma awake.

He struggled violently, his eyes bulging, his bound body twisting frantically, but he couldn't break free at all.

Seeing it was about enough, He Yuzhu grabbed his hair and pulled his head out of the water, his voice as cold as the winter wind outside: "Listen well, I don't change my name or surname, I am He Yuzhu! You know me, but you might not know what I've done! That foreign firm in Wangfujing was taken down by me! The heads of those traitors at Qianmen were put there by me!"

Teacher Ma was choked, his face covered in tears and snot, looking at the half-grown boy in front of him in sheer terror; with his mouth stuffed with the stinky sock, he could only let out "woo-woo" whimpers.

"I'm going to take the thing out of your mouth now. If you dare to scream, I'll send you to see the King of Hell immediately. Nod if you understand."

Teacher Ma nodded vigorously, nearly snapping his own neck.

Only then did He Yuzhu pull the stinky sock out of his mouth.

"Are... are you telling the truth?" Teacher Ma asked, gasping for air.

"Do I look like I'm joking with you? 'Big macaque', you really hid yourself deep, you son of a bitch! I used to think you were just a brainwashed, dim-witted fool who believed the little devils' nonsense, but it turns out you're a real devil yourself!"

"No... no... I'm with the Military Statistics Bureau, I'm one of your own... really, one of your own!" Teacher Ma was still struggling, trying to confuse the issue.

"Military Statistics Bureau?" He Yuzhu sounded as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. "With that drooling longing you have for 'Manchukuo'? You're telling me you're Military Statistics Bureau? Do you think I'm a nine-year-old kid, trying to fool me?"

"I... I have identification!" Teacher Ma hurriedly defended himself, his eyes flickering.

"Don't give me that crap!" He Yuzhu interrupted him impatiently. "Real name! Identity! Mission! Spit it all out for me, one by one!"

"I really am Military Statistics Bureau... for the sake of us both being Chinese... spare me..." Teacher Ma cried, his voice filled with pleading.

He Yuzhu couldn't be bothered with more nonsense; he grabbed his hair and once again shoved his head into the icy water, this time for even longer.

Only when Teacher Ma's struggle grew noticeably weaker did he pull him up again.

Teacher Ma gasped for air like a fish out of water, coughing heart-wrenchingly, his complexion turning from blue to white, the last line of defense in his eyes completely collapsed, leaving only absolute fear.

"I... my name is Iwai Toshizo... I grew up in the Northeast, I used to be... with the South Manchuria Railway Investigation Department, and later... I was transferred to the Beiping Special Higher Police Division, mainly responsible for monitoring Lou Laoban..."

"Understood." He Yuzhu nodded, his tone shifting, a cold glint appearing in his eyes. "There's one thing I haven't been able to figure out. My father, He Daqing, was taken to that bullshit martial arts tournament—was that your doing?!"

"Yes, it was me." Iwai Toshizo admitted weakly. "After I reported you that time, I wanted to teach you a lesson, but when I saw the look you gave me, I felt you would definitely take revenge, so I wanted to nip it in the bud!"

"You little devil, your heart is truly smaller than a needle's eye! Just because I looked at you, you wanted to destroy my family?"

Just then, Iwai Toshizo's head suddenly tilted, and his whole body went limp as if he had completely lost his strength.

He Yuzhu saw at a glance that this guy was trying to play dead to stall for time; without a word, he grabbed his head and shoved it back into the water, leaving no room for him to catch his breath.

"Speak! What progress have you made on your target?" He Yuzhu continued to press, his voice dropping even lower, yet becoming more terrifying.

Iwai Toshizo was tortured until he was barely breathing, his will completely shattered, and he confessed intermittently: "Lao Zhou from the gatehouse and Lou Laoban's godson, Lou Gang, they are plotting something..."

"Plotting what?" He Yuzhu's heart rose, and he pressed him tightly.

"Lao Zhou, that is Zhou Qiang, has been frequently contacting a few new faces recently..."

"Have you reported it?" He Yuzhu's heart tightened, his voice strained.

"I... I have already reported it..." Iwai Toshizo's voice was as thin as a thread, but it struck He Yuzhu's heart like a hammer.

He Yuzhu pressed him further, interrogating him about the organizational structure of the Special Higher Police Division and their contact methods. Once he had squeezed out all the information he wanted, a flash of resolute coldness crossed his eyes.

This person must die.

He wrapped both hands around Iwai Shunsō's head and, with a clean and swift motion, gave it a violent twist—

After a faint "Crack!" sound, Iwai Shunsō's body convulsed violently, then went completely limp and still.

He Yuzhu let go, looking down at the corpse at his feet with an expressionless face, his chest rising and falling slightly.

Just then, a "thump, thump, thump" knocking sound suddenly came from outside the courtyard; it was unhurried, yet it struck He Yuzhu's heart like a heavy hammer.

He Yuzhu shuddered all over; if the person outside was his accomplice... the devils could close the net at any moment!

He dared not delay for even a second; with a thought, he quickly stowed Iwai Shunsō's corpse into his space, then immediately swept and cleaned the scene, wiping away every possible trace... The knocking outside the courtyard continued, each sound beating against the tense air.