🔑 New Month, New Passkey!
Ko-fi Supporters: The ad-free passkey for November has been updated! Please check your Ko-fi account or latest supporter post to click the new activation link and keep your ad-free access active.

A Prophet - Chapter 11 (Part 9)

Chapter 9 - Executing the Mole Tomorrow

To guard against internal moles, Grandpa Zu had gone to great pains over the years. First and foremost, he kept a tight, unyielding grip on the guild's secret manual, the Secret Manual of Flying Arts. Furthermore, he strictly forbade the boss leaders from keeping dogs or carrier pigeons—creatures capable of transmitting information. Whenever the boss leaders went to frequent brothels, Grandpa Zu always required them to travel in pairs to prevent any single boss leader from flying solo or leaking secrets. Beyond all this, Grandpa Zu had planted his own informants around each of the boss leaders. Therefore, being able to operate as a secret agent right under Grandpa Zu's very nose meant someone was far from ordinary.

An internal mole had to project absolute, unwavering loyalty on the surface while remaining completely composed, yet at the critical juncture they were bound to transmit intelligence. Consequently, contacting the opposing side was unavoidable; the only variables lay in the unique methods and channels of communication.

Following the affair of the dark-haired coffin, Grandpa Zu exercised an even greater degree of meticulous caution. Yet the informants planted around the various boss leaders had failed to report anything of significant value, indicating that this mole was hiding with extraordinary depth.

Taking advantage of the drinking session, Grandpa Zu had intended to beat the grass to startle the snake. Realizing Grandpa Zu possessed complete mastery of the situation, the mole would inevitably grow timid at heart.

After the banquet dispersed that evening, upon returning to their homes, the boss leaders all knew what they needed to do next. The more pressing the moment, the more crucial it was to maintain their routine lifestyles and daily rhythms, continuing whatever they would normally do on any ordinary day. Any deviation would signify a guilty conscience and instantly invite Grandpa Zu's suspicion.

First Boss Ba loved wine; he frequently purchased a few catties of braised meat and several bottles of liquor, holing up at home to drink and pour for himself. Second Boss Ba loved frequenting pleasure houses and was a regular fixture in the districts of smoke and flowers. Third Boss Ba would often go out accompanied by Second Boss Ba. Fourth Boss Ba and Fifth Boss Ba enjoyed studying metaphysics and esoteric arts, whether crafting wood-oxen and flowing-horses or fashioning paper figurines capable of flight; older men naturally found pleasure in the pursuits suited to their age.

Aside from these, Third Boss Ba possessed yet another pastime: he loved fishing. Two li away to the south of the guild headquarters lay a fishpond fed by the waters of the Huangpu River, banked by dams and embankments. Third Boss Ba had always fancied himself a match for Jiang Ziya or Zhang Liang, styling himself the "Old Man of the Smoky Waves." When the guild was not busy, he would head out to cast a few lines, taking along a foot-runner to help bait the hooks and pack up the fishing gear. In truth, that foot-runner was an informant arranged by Grandpa Zu.

The boss leaders were all well aware that their personal attendants had been personally designated by Grandpa Zu, and thus whenever they engaged in any activity, they would deliberately bring along these attendants to dispel any suspicion of being a mole.

That evening, Grandpa Zu assumed a disguise and, accompanied by two trusted personal foot-runners, headed to the "Jingwu Heroes Association."

The "Jingwu Heroes Association" commanded immense prestige throughout the jianghu underworld, having been founded by the martial hero Huo Yuanjia. Wang Yaqiao had already instructed him in his letter: if any issues arose, he could seek out Zeng Jingwu.

Zeng Jingwu was a sworn brother of Wang Yaqiao. Not only was he exceptionally skilled in martial arts, but he was also a master of covert operations. Over the years, he had utilized his identity as an instructor to provide cover while secretly developing anti-Japanese resistance organizations. The sheer caliber of his dormant survival skills and the brilliance of his cross-cutting tactics were far beyond the reach of ordinary men.

When Grandpa Zu delivered those sweeping, provocative remarks at the banquet that day, he had kept all six directions in view, locking onto one or two suspects based on the varying expressions of the boss leaders. This secret meeting with Zeng Jingwu was specifically to request his assistance in finalizing the identity of the traitor. Seeing that the informants stationed around the boss leaders had failed to transmit any intelligence for so long, Grandpa Zu grew concerned that those foot-runners might have been co-opted by the boss leaders as well, making it impossible to uncover the mole through his own men alone.

Three days later, the Shanghai Bund was shrouded in gloomy, overcast skies, with fine drizzle weaving diagonally through the air.

Wearing a coir raincoat and a bamboo rain hat, Third Boss Ba headed out to the fishpond, as he favored fishing in the rain. It was not that he lacked fish to eat; rather, he relished the thrill of fish taking the golden hook. Every time he reeled in a catch, he would unhook the fish and toss it right back into the pond.

The bait used for fishing consisted of earth-dragons, which were earthworms. The previous night, the earthworms were dug up in advance, mixed with silkworm pupa powder, and placed inside a bamboo basket. When fishing, the foot-runner by his side would help Third Boss Ba bait the hook, and then sit upon a nearby bluestone to smoke a pipe while watching Third Boss Ba fish. Once the bait was consumed by the fish or had lost its scent after being soaked in the river water for too long, he would replace it with fresh bait for Third Boss Ba.

That day, Third Boss Ba was in exceptionally high spirits, catching large fish time and time again and grinning from ear to ear.

Another day passed, and the two foot-runners just recently planted into the "Plum Blossom Society" sent back word that Master Xuanzi had urgently convened a guild assembly, with several of his senior chief disciples bearing expressions ashen as death. Upon hearing this, Grandpa Zu smiled. This was the mole within "Plum Blossom Lotus" transmitting the words Grandpa Zu had uttered during the "food-tribute" banquet to the opposing side. Grandpa Zu's mind was as clear as a mirror: the ghost-lantern setup by the river had been broken by Huang Farong, and he knew absolutely nothing about Master Xuanzi's actual plans, yet he had deliberately spread word and projected an air of absolute mastery over everything precisely to force the mole into dispatching intelligence outward in haste, thereby exposing their flaws.

This was precisely what Huang Farong desired as well. Huang Farong harbored her own private calculations: by assisting Grandpa Zu with his strategizing and swiftly capturing the mole, her husband Zhang Zizhan would be able to stand out and rise to prominence.

Following several days of intense, fast-paced strategizing and surveillance, Grandpa Zu already had a clear grasp of the situation in his mind, yet he neither stopped the mole from transmitting intelligence nor rushed to ferret the traitor out. This was where Grandpa Zu proved far more formidable than Huang Farong—he intended to turn the enemy's own stratagem against them!

This strategy of "sowing discord" truly proved effective. Master Xuanzi had originally believed that by eliminating Grandpa Zu's informant "Wuzi," the "Plum Blossom Society" would enjoy peace, never expecting that Grandpa Zu would publicly drop hints that a traitor existed within his own ranks. The people around him were none other than these senior chief disciples; Master Xuanzi consequently began to harbor suspicions toward his own apprentices. This completely disrupted the normal order of Master Xuanzi's guild and his subsequent tactical arrangements, and because of this, the two foot-runners newly planted by Grandpa Zu into the "Plum Blossom Society" remained relatively safe. Grandpa Zu had accomplished three distinct objectives with a single arrow.

Grandpa Zu's thought process was exceptionally meticulous. When Huang Farong had offered her stratagem back then, he had already thought several steps further ahead. Thus, while Huang Farong initially understood, she eventually lost track of the bigger picture, failing to comprehend why Grandpa Zu had remained entirely inactive over the past few days, prompting her to come and question him directly.

"Grandpa Zu, the mole has already been tracked down. Why haven't you made a move yet?"

Grandpa Zu smiled slightly and asked, "How do you know they've been tracked down?"

Huang Farong smiled and said, "The quieter Grandpa Zu is, the more it proves that everything is under absolute control. Besides, Grandpa Zu's expression hasn't been as solemn over these past few days as it was before; Farong can tell with a single glance."

Grandpa Zu laughed heartily. "Tomorrow, we execute the mole!"

Huang Farong was taken aback. "Ah?"

"Ah, what? Are you worried it's Zizhan?"

Huang Farong lowered her head and smiled. "Of course not. Is Grandpa Zu really going to execute the ghost tomorrow?"

Grandpa Zu replied, "Is that not allowed?"

After pondering for a moment, Huang Farong said, "If Grandpa Zu truly wanted to execute the ghost, you wouldn't make such a grand, public spectacle of it. In Farong's view, Grandpa Zu executing the ghost is false..."

Huang Farong was truly Huang Farong—extraordinarily clever. Over these past few days, seeing that Grandpa Zu had taken no action, she had continually pondered what was really going on. Hearing Grandpa Zu speak so casually today about executing the traitor, she instantly realized Grandpa Zu was intentionally putting on an act and refusing to kill the mole just yet.

Grandpa Zu once again scrutinized the young woman standing before him. She was brilliant—so brilliant it was almost frightening. Grandpa Zu was currently weighing whether he should disclose even more matters to Huang Farong, particularly the things spoken by Tiansheng Dao Sect Leader Zuo Yongchan that fateful night—those very burdens pressing down upon Grandpa Zu's heart and making it difficult for him to breathe.

Popular posts from this blog

The Early Spring - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - The Rainy City That year, the rain in Beijing was heavier than usual, even heavier than in the south where Shang Zhitao had just left. The rain fell in a continuous drizzle, and faint clouds and mist lingered above the sky, making it hard to tell whether the scene was picturesque or desolate. Shang Zhitao was wrestling with her two large suitcases—one packed entirely with books, and the other filled with clothes and shoes, with nothing else inside. Traveling all the way from Nanjing to Beijing, the twenty-two-year-old had accomplished the monumental feat of her first independent migration. Fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead and cheeks, turning her face a flushed pink. Shang Zhitao felt as though she was about to melt. She calculated in her mind that she definitely had to go buy a fan tomorrow. The narrow partition room felt even more cramped because of these two suitcases. She heard the girl in the next room talking on the phone: "Should I go over to your ...
Read more

Against the Current - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Origins It is said that there was once a young boy in Jinling named Chen Wanquan. When he was five or six years old, he lost both of his parents, and his elder brother and sister-in-law sold him to the wealthy Lin family as a bondservant to work in an antique shop. As the days and months passed, he honed a sharp eye for authenticating antiques, calligraphy, and paintings. Because he had no property or family standing to his name, no respectable household was willing to discuss marriage with him, yet he had developed high standards and looked down upon ordinary maidservants. At the age of thirty, his employer promoted him to the position of third manager of the shop. A year later, out of benevolence, the Lin estate granted him a third-class maid named Mistress Xue, ordering the two of them to be wed. This Mistress Xue had originally worked exclusively on embroidery and sewing in the second branch of the household. Because she was quite attractive and possessed a competitive ...
Read more

The Early Spring - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Beginning of the Story Shang Zhitao boarded the bus early in the morning. As the city was just waking up, the bus wound its way through the thin mist. With earbuds in her ears, she looked out at the streets. How industrious the people living here truly were; even at this early hour, the sidewalks were already packed with hurried commuters. She was a commuter too, rushing along. She wore a white shirt dress today, cinched at the waist with a slim light-brown belt. Her hair was tied up high, and though she wore no makeup, she radiated a peerless, youthful charm. Sitting there, she looked quiet and well-behaved, just like the obedient child from next door that people always talked about—outstanding, yet not too flashy. Shang Zhitao had always been this kind of person since she was little. Her academic grades were only slightly above average, and her looks were similarly middle-of-the-pack. Because of this mediocrity, even with all her diligence and eagerness to lea...
Read more