A Prophet - Chapter 11 (Part 10)

Chapter 10 - Earthworm Transmitting Intelligence

Just past midday on the following day, Grandpa Zu summoned a guild assembly.

This was an expanded meeting; alongside the boss leaders, a number of influential foot-runners with standing were also in attendance.

With a solemn expression, Grandpa Zu stated, "Drawing a dragon or a tiger is hard to trace down to the bone; you can know a person's face, but you can never truly know their heart. Grandpa Zu has not treated his subordinate disciples poorly—why on earth would someone among you act as an internal mole?"

Everyone looked at one another in dismay, their hearts pounding wildly.

"Third Boss Ba!" Grandpa Zu shouted in a booming voice. "Are you still not going to make a full and honest confession?"

Third Boss Ba was taken aback. "Grandpa Zu, what is the meaning of this?"

Grandpa Zu let out a long roar toward the heavens. "To think I poured my painstaking efforts into cultivating you, yet you turn out to be someone who eats from the inside while colluding with the outside!"

Third Boss Ba yelled out, "I am wronged, Grandpa Zu! I am truly wronged!"

Grandpa Zu emitted a cold laugh, pulling a slender reed stalk out from his sleeve. "Such superb technique! Carving regular-script characters onto oil paper, rolling it up tightly before stuffing it into the reed stalk, and then shoving the reed stalk into the belly of an earthworm. The earthworm travels downstream with the current, where a fine net is set across the pond's drainage outlet to intercept any reed-bearing earthworms. Once the informant retrieves the earthworm, the intelligence bursts forth from its belly. The oil paper remains undamaged by water, and regular script makes handwriting nearly impossible to trace. Using fishing as a cover while carrying out the deeds of a traitor—seamlessly executed, truly seamless!"

Third Boss Ba was terribly frightened. "Grandpa Zu, I am wronged! I know nothing about any of this!"

Grandpa Zu bellowed a command: "Drag him out and execute him!"

Weeping bitterly, Third Boss Ba screamed, "May Grandpa Zu examine the truth! I am wronged, completely wronged!"

The boss leaders broke out in a cold sweat. "Grandpa Zu, has this matter been thoroughly investigated and verified?"

Fifth Boss Ba, Liang Wenqiu, stood up and said, "Grandpa Zu, ever since Third Brother followed you, he has been unswervingly loyal and has never shown any abnormal behavior. This matter must be verified with absolute certainty before any punishment can be carried out!"

Grandpa Zu glanced at Third Boss Ba and ordered, "Throw him into the dungeon first. Once I strip Master Xuanzi of his false facade and reduce him to his original form, I will execute you to offer sacrifices to the heavens!"

Several foot-runners tightly bound Third Boss Ba with five-flower ropes and shoved him out of the room.

That night, Third Boss Ba curled up in the damp dungeon, sighing incessantly and wondering what on earth was going on. While he was hesitating and bewildered, a foot-runner arrived to deliver his meal.

"Third Elder, time to eat!"

Third Boss Ba roared, "Like hell I'm eating!"

The foot-runner pushed the food tray inside and muttered in a low voice, "Grandpa Zu gave orders: you must eat!"

Suspiciously eyeing the foot-runner, Third Boss Ba reached out and took the food. It consisted of a bowl of flat rice noodles and a few slices of salted fish. After the foot-runner departed, Third Boss Ba sat down on the ground, grabbed a few mouthfuls of noodles, and bit into a piece of salted fish, only to feel something hard get stuck against his teeth. It turned out that inside the belly of the salted fish was an oil-paper packet. Hastily opening the oil paper, he found a slip of paper inside with Grandpa Zu's personal handwriting: "A bitter-flesh ruse born from bitter trials; after suffering comes the sweetness of fraternal bonds." Having read the message, Third Boss Ba swallowed the paper and burst into hearty laughter.

All of this had been jointly arranged through the combined efforts of Grandpa Zu and Zeng Jingwu. When Grandpa Zu went to see Zeng Jingwu that day, he had explained the full sequence of events surrounding the food-tribute banquet from beginning to end.

Grandpa Zu had said, "During the food-tribute banquet, I deployed the 'Yingyao' technique to observe expressions and reactions, and I felt that several of the boss leaders..."

Zeng Jingwu had replied, "Secret agents are extremely cautious when transmitting intelligence; every single movement they make could be a coded signal. Yet all coded communications ultimately rely on human agents to be completed. The reason Grandpa Zu's informants stationed around the boss leaders failed to discover anything is simply because they had grown completely accustomed to the boss leaders' daily routines. Do not worry, Grandpa Zu. Since we have already beaten the grass to startle the snake, the mole will inevitably dispatch intelligence as quickly as possible to seek a way out. I will arrange for a few men to keep watch in secret. These men are meticulously trained brothers who thoroughly understand the methods of intelligence agents. Ever since Master Huo [Huo Yuanjia] was poisoned to death, the reconnaissance work for assassinating the Japanese has all been carried out by these very brothers. If the mole sends intelligence outward, we will certainly catch them!"

Consequently, several veterans of the Jingwu Association began deploying defenses in locations frequently visited by Third Boss Ba, Fourth Boss Ba, and Fifth Boss Ba. As a result, when the operative monitoring Third Boss Ba disguised himself as a punting fisherman to peer into the fishpond, he stumbled upon the secret hidden within the fish bait!

That day, after Third Boss Ba had fished for an entire afternoon, dusk began to fall, and he stood up to prepare for home. The foot-runner responsible for the fish bait cast furtive glances all around before dumping all the remaining earthworms from his bamboo basket directly into the fishpond. The earthworms drifted downstream with the current and were intercepted by the fine net at the pond's drainage outlet. The men from the Jingwu Association scooped up the earthworms and inspected them closely, thereby uncovering the secret hidden within their bellies!

Acting in accordance with the instructions of Grandpa Zu and Zeng Jingwu, the men of the Jingwu Association did not intercept the message inside the earthworm; instead, they returned it to its original place and waited for the opposing party to retrieve it. After nightfall, the enemy's agent disguised himself as a fisherman and retrieved the message. The following afternoon, the other side used the exact same method to attach Master Xuanzi's reply to the fine net. That night, the foot-runner by Third Boss Ba's side dove underwater and retrieved the reed stalk.

Initially, Grandpa Zu truly believed that Third Boss Ba had turned traitor, thinking to himself that things had taken a disastrous turn. Moreover, the two new informants newly planted into the Plum Blossom Society had also been arranged by Third Boss Ba; if Third Boss Ba really was the mole, those two brothers wouldn't have long to live either.

Fortunately, Grandpa Zu was deeply resourceful and refraining from acting prematurely. After the foot-runner by Third Boss Ba's side retrieved the reed stalk, he did not return directly to Third Boss Ba's residence. Instead, he headed to Fourth Boss Ba's quarters, peered around the perimeter of the house, stuffed the reed stalk into the drainage ditch by Fourth Boss Ba's corner wall, and quietly slipped away.

Only then did Grandpa Zu unravel the true reality of the situation: the internal mole was actually Old Four, Qi Chunfu! This fellow was crafty to the absolute extreme, using Third Boss Ba as a conduit to send out intelligence so that if things were ever discovered, Third Boss Ba would serve as the scapegoat!

What felt most hateful of all was the foot-runner by Third Boss Ba's side. He was originally an informant planted by Grandpa Zu beside Third Boss Ba, yet not only had he failed to perform his duty as an observer for Grandpa Zu, he had actually colluded with Fourth Boss Ba to play a double game. Grandpa Zu was filled with the utmost grief and indignation!

Anger was inevitable, but where did the grief stem from? It was because Grandpa Zu had treated this foot-runner as if he were his own flesh and blood, never dreaming in a million years that he would turn out to be an internal mole!

This foot-runner was named Sun Yexing. Speaking of how Grandpa Zu came to assign him as an informant, there was quite a backstory behind it.

Who Sun Yexing was, ordinary people did not know, but his father was indeed a prominent figure. Back when the various boss leaders under Zhang Dancheng engaged in the "climbing incense" ritual of rebellion, the ringleader had been none other than Sun Yexing's father—who served as Old Four under Zhang Dancheng. Sun Yexing's father was named Sun Kao, a man of ruthless and vicious temperament. The scheme to drown Grandpa Zu's younger brother and sister as floating corpses had been masterminded precisely by him.

Sun Kao had joined forces with other boss leaders to perform the climbing incense ritual, while Zhang Dancheng and Zhou Zhenlong were fortunate enough to be rescued by Grandpa Zu, narrowly escaping death. Later, Grandpa Zu helped Zhang Dancheng secure reinforcements from Wang Yaqiao, which finally succeeded in quelling the rebellion.

Once the rebellion was suppressed, Zhang Dancheng intended to purge the remnants within the ranks, and Sun Kao's one-year-old son Sun Yexing became implicated as well. At that crucial juncture, Grandpa Zu stepped forward to plead on his behalf: "Master Zhang, retribution does not extend to wives and children. Although Sun Kao committed crimes unforgivable by heaven, his son is still an infant and understands nothing of human affairs. I ask Master Zhang to show leniency and spare him!"

The reason Grandpa Zu interceded was rooted in that lingering trace of kindness deep within his heart. Upon seeing the child, he was reminded of his own younger brother and sister; putting himself in their shoes, he could not bear to witness another child being killed. Furthermore, this child's father had been executed by Grandpa Zu via the burning of the sky lantern; with the father already dead, to slaughter his son as well was something Grandpa Zu truly found too cruel to bear.

Thus, under Grandpa Zu's protection, the child grew day by day. Grandpa Zu tutored him in the Four Books and Five Classics, taught him the principles of human conduct, and gradually drew him close as a trusted confidant. Later, after absorbing Third Boss Ba's faction, Grandpa Zu arranged for him to serve as his own informant by Third Boss Ba's side.

Sun Yexing was entirely unaware that Grandpa Zu was the very enemy who had executed his father. Everyone within the guild kept this matter strictly sealed; Grandpa Zu had issued a strict, unyielding command that anyone who dared expose the truth would be executed without mercy!

The turning point in the situation occurred in the year 1932. During that period, Grandpa Zu personally acted as a confidence trickster, dispatching Second Boss Ba to manage a corpse-driving operation to transport opium for Fourth Master Jia, leaving the guild headquarters for nearly an entire month.

During that very month, the guild's Old Four, Qi Chunfu, sought out Sun Yexing and revealed the entire affair to him from start to finish.

Why did Qi Chunfu expose this matter? What relationship did he share with Sun Yexing?

Though Grandpa Zu had uncovered Qi Chunfu and Sun Yexing, he chose to remain completely motionless, because he did not know whether Qi Chunfu possessed any accomplices—in particular, whether Liang Wenqiu, who belonged to the same veteran generation under Zhang Dancheng, was also a party to the conspiracy remained unknown. Therefore, he decided to play along with the enemy's scheme, locking up Third Boss Ba primarily to lull Qi Chunfu into a false sense of security, and secondly to buy time and test Liang Wenqiu.

By that time, Qi Chunfu had already panicked completely! He had no way of knowing how Grandpa Zu had intercepted the intelligence: was it discovered while Sun Yexing was sending the message, or was it caught when the reply was retrieved? Or perhaps neither, and the leak instead came from the informant planted within Master Xuanzi's camp. Because Grandpa Zu had spouted wild, sweeping declarations during the food-tribute banquet, Qi Chunfu could no longer distinguish truth from falsehood.

Anxiously analyzing the situation, Qi Chunfu reasoned that if the interception occurred during the transmission of the message, Grandpa Zu's decision to execute Third Boss Ba was entirely logical. Yet Sun Yexing would not be able to escape culpability either; however, Sun Yexing could temporarily protect himself by claiming he was only responsible for baiting Third Boss Ba's hooks with fish food while remaining completely ignorant of any other circumstances, and that dumping the remaining earthworms into the fishpond after fishing ended was merely ordinary human behavior. Without concrete evidence, Grandpa Zu could not execute people arbitrarily, especially since Sun Yexing was, after all, the informant planted by Grandpa Zu himself beside Third Boss Ba, giving him a high degree of credibility.

The methodology of secret agents relies entirely upon the twin acts of sending and receiving; both the transmission and collection of intelligence must remain secure. If both cannot be guaranteed simultaneously, one must at least ensure fifty percent security, otherwise it is simply walking blindly to one's death. As recorded in Intimate Familiarities for Secret Agents: "Divide a dual defense into a fivefold endeavor, and borrow a dead corpse to revive it as a sixfold scheme."

This means that when serving as an intelligence agent where the danger is extremely high yet the task must be carried out regardless, one should divide the risk in half. If a single channel can be guaranteed safe, then the operation possesses a fifty percent feasibility; "borrowing a corpse to bring the soul back to life" refers to pulling an outsider into the affair to throw off perception and muddy the waters—if one can find a scapegoat, the undertaking gains a sixty percent chance of success.

If the guild leader had not been Grandpa Zu, but rather some impulsive master-boss instead, they would very likely have intercepted the message sent by Sun Yexing on that very day and brought both Sun Yexing and Third Boss Ba in for joint interrogation—which would have played right into Qi Chunfu's crafty trap.

Yet the actual situation was that Grandpa Zu merely announced he would be executing Third Boss Ba while making no mention of interrogating Sun Yexing!

Qi Chunfu's mind was already thrown into absolute chaos! He guessed that Grandpa Zu had already figured everything out, yet he dared not verify it with certainty. Furthermore, his channel of communication with Master Xuanzi had been severed, leaving him entirely in the dark regarding the situation over there; anxiety consumed him, keeping him awake through sleepless nights!

Right at that moment, Grandpa Zu deployed yet another stratagem—"creating something out of thin air"—by fabricating false intelligence. Early the next morning, he had two men from the Jingwu Association disguise themselves as marks and head out to have their fortunes told: one went to Qi Chunfu's storefront, while the other went to Liang Wenqiu's storefront. During the fortune-telling process, taking advantage of a moment when attention was diverted, both men pulled a slip of paper from their sleeves and secretly shoved them into the hands of Qi Chunfu and Liang Wenqiu respectively.

Upon receiving the paper slips, Qi Chunfu kept his matter completely secret and silent, whereas Liang Wenqiu rushed over in an urgent visit, reporting that while having his fortune told at his storefront just moments earlier, a mark had shoved a slip of paper into his hand, and he requested Grandpa Zu to examine and discern the truth.

The note read: Tonight at the third watch, a boat will wait by the river on the fishpond's left flank. Shout the secret code three times, someone will receive you—flee at once!

A massive stone finally dropped from Grandpa Zu's heart. He patted the trembling Liang Wenqiu on the shoulder and said, "Elder Liang is truly loyal and righteous—receive this bow from me!" As he spoke, he prepared to bow and salute.

Terrified, Liang Wenqiu hurriedly stepped forward to support Grandpa Zu. "What is the meaning of this? This humble one cannot bear such an honor!"

Grandpa Zu's gesture was one of heartfelt respect. Liang Wenqiu was fifteen years older than him, and over all these years had followed him loyally through thick and thin without a single word of complaint. In this moment of internal turmoil and external peril, his loyalty remained utterly unshakeable; Grandpa Zu's profound bow stemmed entirely from his innermost feelings.

Grandpa Zu let out a sigh. "Elder Liang should return early and rest. Do not speak of today's events to anyone else."

Puzzled, Liang Wenqiu glanced at Grandpa Zu, acknowledged the order, and turned to depart.

At the third watch of the night, heavy fog descended, enveloping the river surface in an opaque, chaotic shroud.

Qi Chunfu packed his gold, silver, and other valuables, and accompanied by Sun Yexing, they peered about stealthily as they reached the riverbank. Looking around in all directions, Qi Chunfu called out the secret phrases three times: "Draw ten! Draw ten! Draw ten!" "Drawing tens" was underworld jargon meaning chopsticks, here serving as a coded reference to oar paddles and signifying a run for escape.

A small boat raised a white sail, and Qi Chunfu and Sun Yexing scrambled out from a patch of tall reeds, leaping aboard the skiff. Lifting the canvas curtain to step inside, the sight that met their eyes instantly frightened their souls completely out of their bodies.

"Grandpa Zu!"

Immediately thereafter, the two of them were bound tightly with five-flower ropes and hauled back to the guild headquarters.

The guild hall blazed brightly with lamps. Qi Chunfu and Sun Yexing knelt upon the floor, while Grandpa Zu stared down at them with cold eyes.

"Why did you betray me?"

Qi Chunfu raised his face toward the heavens and wept tears of despair, crying out, "So be it, so be it! Heaven is blind to let my entire family perish by your hands!"

Qi Chunfu's cry left even Grandpa Zu stunned and bewildered.

Sensing that Qi Chunfu's words held hidden meaning, Grandpa Zu ordered everyone else to withdraw.

Only three people remained within the room. With tears streaming down his face, Qi Chunfu poured out fifteen years of deep grievances, love, and hatred.

Back when Sun Yexing's father Sun Kao staged his rebellion, among those killed alongside him by Zhang Dancheng was also Sun Yexing's mother—Sun Kao's wife.

Sun Kao himself was a lecherous man addicted to women, unrestrained and dissolute, frequently visiting pleasure quarters. His wife had advised him repeatedly to no avail, until her heart finally grew cold. Yet as a female member of the confidence-trickster underworld, she had sufferings too deep to voice; possessing such a deceptive identity, she dared not report to authorities and had no place to reason, forcing her to swallow her bitter tears in silence. This vulnerable state was discovered by a junior "scholar" under Sun Kao's command—that person was Qi Chunfu. At the time, Qi Chunfu was seventeen or eighteen years old, handsome and clever. Seeing his master's wife weeping and wiping away tears every single day, he developed a deep sense of pity and affection for the quite attractive woman. Being skilled in paper-crafting, he would sometimes take advantage of Sun Kao's visits to brothels to fashion paper lanterns and paper mandarin ducks, slipping over to the master's wife to cheer her up.

Women are made of ice, naturally inclined to melt; yet women can also be ruthless, naturally inclined toward vengeance. Through such repeated back-and-forth interactions, the two developed deep feelings over time. Finally, on one occasion, the two lost control and consummated their affair according to the rites of husband and wife.

Afterward, fearing that Sun Kao might grow suspicious, the woman hastily engaged in marital relations with Sun Kao repeatedly in succession.

Later, when the woman's belly began to show, Sun Kao was overjoyed, but the woman knew clearly within her heart that the child belonged to Qi Chunfu.

After the child was born, fearing that Sun Kao might discover the truth as the boy grew older, the woman secretly discussed fleeing together with Qi Chunfu. Right at that critical juncture, Sun Kao performed the climbing incense ritual, throwing the guild into utter chaos. Flying into a rage, Zhang Dancheng adhered strictly to the principle of killing a thousand innocents rather than letting a single guilty person escape, and consequently killed Sun Kao's wife as well. If not for Grandpa Zu's desperate, bitter pleas on their behalf, infant Sun Yexing would have perished in his swaddling clothes.

Grandpa Zu had saved the child's life, and because his own flesh and blood remained right there, Qi Chunfu abandoned his plans to flee. Yet he dared not acknowledge his son. He hated Zhang Dancheng, and hated Grandpa Zu even more—he hated the entire guild. If Grandpa Zu hadn't saved Zhang Dancheng, Sun Kao would not have died, and Sun Kao's wife would not have been killed either; in his eyes, she was none other than his own wife. Now the woman he loved had been murdered, while his own son was kept under Grandpa Zu's control. The flames of rage within his heart ignited with fury, and he transferred all of this resentment onto Grandpa Zu! Therefore, when Grandpa Zu later executed the "release of military authority through a cup of wine," Qi Chunfu desperately insisted on continuing to assist Grandpa Zu, knowing full well that he could never retreat to the background—he had to control every single dynamic within the guild. He bitterly concealed this past while awaiting the right moment to eliminate Grandpa Zu, reunite father and son, and utterly destroy the "Plum Blossom Lotus"!

During the period in 1932 when Grandpa Zu traveled south to Guangdong, Qi Chunfu sought out Sun Yexing and revealed the entire truth to him. Initially refusing to believe it, Sun Yexing was shown a blood-written letter preserved for fifteen years—the final testament left by Sun Yexing's mother. Afterward, Qi Chunfu pointed out a triangular brand located upon Sun Yexing's back, which his mother had cauterized with a branding iron during his infancy to serve as proof for father and son to recognize one another in the future. Upon hearing this, father and son embraced one another and wept aloud. From that day onward, the two of them began secretly plotting their rebellion.

When Master Xuanzi began making his grand moves, Qi Chunfu sensed that the opportunity had arrived. Being extremely clever, he knew that with Master Xuanzi generating such massive momentum, he must have secured the backing of an extraordinary expert. Sensing that the history of the Jianghuai region was about to be rewritten, he secretly communicated with Master Xuanzi, leaking the ancestral taboos of the "Jiang-Xiang Guild" to the opposing side, which enabled them to deploy the dark-haired coffin setup intended to ruin Grandpa Zu's reputation in one fell swoop!

Listening to this account, a wave of profound desolation swept through Grandpa Zu's heart. Two generations of grievances, deep paternal love and filial ties—who was right and who was wrong? Grandpa Zu's mind was filled with complete confusion.

Grandpa Zu did not want to kill them: one was a veteran legacy of Zhang Dancheng, while the other was a child he had watched grow up since infancy. Yet these two individuals had to be executed.

On the day of the execution, Grandpa Zu shed tears. Especially when Sun Yexing lay beneath the execution blade, turning his head to glare with furious, glaring eyes, it wrung Grandpa Zu's heart with wave after wave of agonizing pain.

After the two men died, Grandpa Zu issued orders for a thick, proper burial. The boss leaders had no idea why Grandpa Zu treated these two internal moles with such kindness, but Grandpa Zu stated: "They only walked down the wrong path because they were deluded by Master Xuanzi! My feud with Master Xuanzi is irreconcilable!" His intent was to shift the conflict, directing everyone's hatred toward the Plum Blossom Society so the entire guild could unite as a single twisted rope to wage war against Master Xuanzi.

Upon the ancestral genealogy records of the "Jiang-Xiang Guild," Grandpa Zu personally used his brush to add the names of the two men: Fifteenth-generation descendant Qi Chunfu, Sixteenth-generation descendant Sun Yexing. This signified that these two men remained members of the "Jiang-Xiang Guild" and could still enjoy the incense offerings and ancestral sacrifices of Jiang-Xiang descendants after death. Having finished writing, he burned three sticks of incense, and then, weeping silently in secret, sighed endlessly without end.