Chapter 562 ‘Snail’

 “Mom, when are we going home?”

 Albert Road, in front of a wall with various notices and posters.

 A little boy asked his mother in a low voice.

He didn't understand why his mother's hair was suddenly wrapped in a scarf, nor why his mother suddenly rushed into the house, pulled him and left.

 This is a well-behaved child.

Mother told him to shut up and stop asking questions, so he shut up obediently.

Just seeing that he had been away from home for a long time, Feng Xiaoke became a little anxious, so he agreed to play with the fat guy next door in the afternoon.

“Be good, little kid. Mommy will take you to find daddy.” Miaopu touched his son’s head and whispered.

“Really?” Feng Xiaoke was very happy and asked immediately.

 He hasn’t seen his father for a long time. Every time he asks his mother, her mother says that his father has gone to work far away.

Moreover, every time he asked his mother, her mother seemed to be in a bad mood.

Gradually, although Feng Xiaoke still missed his father, the well-behaved and sensible child rarely asked his mother questions about his father.

Unexpectedly, his mother actually told him to find his father today. This made Feng Xiaoke very excited and eagerly looking forward to it. He missed his father so much.

 …

"Of course it's true, but Xiao Ke must be good and don't disturb mom." Miao Pu glanced at his son lovingly, forced a smile, and said.

It has been nearly two years since her husband Feng Jiazhang was killed by the Japanese invaders in Northeast China and died a heroic death. This is an eternal pain in her heart.

Now, in order to temporarily comfort her son, she can only poke her own scars and lie to her son that she will take him to find his father.

"Xiao Ke, shut up." Feng Xiaoke covered his mouth and said quickly.

  Nurseries crowded in front of the poster wall, crowded in a crowd and looking at various notices and advertisements.

 She is looking for the announcement message she wants to see.

Before her father-in-law Peng Yuou left Shanghai, he had a serious organizational talk with her and told her that if there was a very dangerous situation and she needed to evacuate immediately, she would come here to look for Comrade Tianluo.

Finally, Miaopu saw the information he wanted to see in a notice in a clothing store recruiting female workers who could use sewing machines.

 There is nothing special about the information itself.

 The most important thing is that two repeated characters appear consecutively in the recruitment advertisement. When these two repeated characters are connected, they become the identity verification code.

The nursery identified the advertisement and then saw the address and contact person's name.

Meng Fanhua, a name that sounds very beautiful.

 …

 Half an hour later, a rickshaw stopped on the road opposite the entrance of a garment shop.

Miaopu got off the car with his son Feng Xiaoke.

She paid the fare and did not take her son directly to the clothing shop.

Instead, he took his son to a wonton stall not far away and ordered two bowls of small wontons.

While eating small wontons, I pretended to ask the stall owner about the craftsmanship of the clothing store across the road. How's business?

The stall owners are a middle-aged couple. The woman has dark skin, and you can see cracks on her hands that are cracked by the cold.

 She seems to like children very much and is also very talkative. She responds enthusiastically to the nursery's inquiries, although some of her words are in wheel talk.

 Miaopu felt a little relieved. Through her unclear questions, she could confirm four points:

 The clothing store has been open for several years and is not a new one.

　　The owner of the clothing shop has always been a woman, so there is nothing suspicious about the change of shop owners.

The woman didn’t know the name of the owner of the clothing shop, but she knew that her surname was Meng. Everyone called the proprietress surnamed Meng, Aunt Hua, which was very close to Meng Fanhua’s name.

 Fourthly, this clothing shop has good craftsmanship and good business.

 In this way, the nursery is relieved.

 She had just narrowly escaped from the enemy's capture, but now she was like a frightened bird and was extremely cautious.

She glanced at her son. Feng Xiaoke was eating wontons with big mouthfuls. He was obviously hungry.

 She is not afraid of being arrested and sacrificed, she is worried about her son.

Her husband Feng Jiazhang died. Feng Jiazhang was the only son of Peng Yuou. The Feng family was a single generation for several generations. She couldn't bear that her son was killed along with her.

"Have you eaten enough?" Miao Pu smiled and subconsciously took out a handkerchief to wipe the corners of his son's mouth. His hand went into his pocket, but he decisively changed his mind and wiped the corners of his son's mouth directly with his sleeve.

"I'm full." Feng Xiaoke said happily. In fact, he was only half full, but when he thought that his mother would take him to find his father, he couldn't wait.

 …

Miaopu took his son Feng Xiaoke's hand and entered the door of the garment shop.

Young boy Yang Xin had a measuring tape hanging around his neck and was cleaning the counter with a feather duster. Hearing the movement behind him, he turned around and saw the mother and son.

The little boy was about six or seven years old, wearing a blue-gray cotton-padded jacket. He had a runny nose because of the cold weather, and his nose was red from blowing his nose.

My mother was in her thirties, wearing a blue floral cotton-padded jacket, and her hair was covered with a turban. She seemed to have come to the city from the countryside, with a hint of timidity on her face.

“You two, do you want to make clothes?” Yang Xin raised his nostrils slightly, seeming to look down on the mother and son and not thinking they had money to make clothes. However, after all, he did not drive people out and asked in a formulaic manner.

As he spoke, he pointed to the rows of clothes hanging on the wall, especially the ones with relatively cheap prices, "Look at the styles, which one do you like?"

 …

“I’m not here to buy clothes.” Miao Pu said with a northern Jiangsu accent, “I’m here to see Boss Meng Fanhua.”

Yang Xin was a little surprised when he heard that he was not making clothes but came to see his employer. “What are you doing with our employer?”

“I saw an advertisement that the shop wanted a sewing girl,” Miaopu said.

Yang Xin yawned, "We're full, you're late."

“I just saw the recruitment notice.” Miaopu looked down at his son and whispered.

“What a coincidence, we were originally recruiting people, but my boss’s relatives from the countryside are coming to Shanghai, so they can be a good replacement.” Yang Xin said with a smile without much sincerity on his face.

 “I’m different.” Miaopu said.

"What's different?" Yang Xin asked casually, but his eyes were wary as he looked outside the store.

 “I am literate.” Miao Pu said.

“Literacy is nothing, what we want is a sewing girl, how can you still use a sewing machine to embroider words on clothes?” Yang Xin said with a smile, with a very serious expression on his face.

“I can read and read. I read a book on sewing machines and taught myself how to repair them,” Miao Pu said.

“What kind of book is so powerful that you can learn it by yourself?” Yang Xin was excited and asked immediately.

“I don’t remember the title of the book. I just remember that it was written by a person named Fang.”

“You really know how to repair a sewing machine, don’t lie to me.” Yang Xin asked.

 “Yes! If you don’t believe me, give me a try.”

“There happens to be a sewing machine that’s broken. I’ll ask the owner and you go try it.” Yang Xin nodded.

He walked out of the counter, opened the door curtain, and shouted into the back room, "Boss, this woman said she can repair sewing machines."

 …

Xiong Jiashang was embroidering a cheongsam and looked up at Yang Xin.

Yang Xin nodded.

Xiong Jiashang understood immediately, with a look of joy on his face.

 “This is a coincidence, let her come in.”

"You go in." Yang Xin said. He glanced at the little boy beside the nursery and hesitated a little. However, he quickly said with a straight face, "Children can't go in. It's full of cloth. Don't damage it."

"I won't touch it randomly." Feng Xiaoke said quickly not wanting to be separated from her mother.

Miaopu understood what the other party meant. She bent down, helped her son stretch out his cotton-padded jacket, and said, "Little boy, be good, wait here, don't run around, mom is inside."

Yang Xin showed a reluctant expression, took out a fruit candy from his body and handed it over, "Go, sit over there and eat the candy."

 Feng Xiaoke looked at his mother.

Seeing Miao Pu nodding, he took the fruit candy, said thank you, and sat on a small stool in the corner. He didn't peel off the candy wrapper and ate it, just in a daze.

 …

Xiong Jiashang closed the door.

“The book you read on repairing sewing machines, the author’s surname is Fang?” Xiong Jiashang looked at the woman in front of him.

She heard the voices outside just now, and she was surprised. She didn't expect that this **** came to meet with her child.

 Although organizational discipline does not explicitly prohibit it, this is a situation that should be avoided as much as possible. Children are young and do not know how to keep secrets. It is easy to reveal some seemingly insignificant details in a few words, but they may be fatal.

However, Xiong Jiashang just kept the surprise and confusion in her heart for the time being. She guessed that the other party might have compelling reasons.

 “Fang Wenwen.” Miaopu said.

The codes are correct. This is the final confirmation code.

The surname Fang is not chosen casually. It is the surname of Xiong Jiashang's grandfather. Wenwen is the name of Xiong Jiashang's son Xie Wenwen. Two years ago, Xie Wenwen died in Longhua, where his father Xie Tianhua died.

 …

 “Comrade ‘Snail’!”

 “Comrade ‘Daffodil’!”

 The expressions of both of them were extremely excited and exciting, and their hands were clasped together tightly.

Miaopu's body swayed and she almost fainted. After narrowly escaping from the enemy's capture, her spirit has been in a state of high tension. She has to secretly search for the organization, take care of her son, and be alert to the pursuit of the spies.

At this moment, I finally saw my comrade, and I felt relieved and a little dizzy.

"How is it? Are you feeling better?" Xiong Jiashan asked with concern as he helped Miao Pu sit down and drank a few water.

"It's okay." Miao Pu said, "I have an old problem of anemia."

“Comrade Narcissus, what happened?” Xiong Jiashang asked with a serious expression. She glanced in the direction of the door.

 Miaopu knows what Comrade "Snail" means.

“I was captured by the enemy and barely escaped, so I had no choice but to rush home and take my son out with me,” Miaopu said.

"Captured by the enemy? Were you exposed? How were you exposed?" After hearing this, Xiong Jiashang asked with an extremely serious expression.

“How it was exposed, I’m still at a loss.” Miaopu said with a frown.

 …

“My job is as an operator in the telegraph hall. I was working in the booth today when I saw the secret agent coming towards the telegraph hall.”

“How can you be sure that the spies are coming for you?” Xiong Jiashan asked.

“I realized something was wrong and immediately burned the confidential documents. Then a spy pointed a gun at me from the window and asked me if I was Miaopu and told me not to move.” Miaopu said.

Xiong Jiashang's expression was extremely solemn. From what he heard, he could naturally tell that the enemy was targeting Comrade Narcissus.

However, at the same time, a bigger doubt arose in Xiong Jiashang's mind. How did Comrade "Daffodil" escape from the clutches of the enemy when he was pointed at gunpoint by the enemy?

 She couldn't figure it out.

 According to common sense, the enemy must be very well prepared for such a capture that goes directly to the target.

And it is said that according to the current situation, Comrade "Daffodil" is only an intelligence officer, not an operative of our party, and does not have the ability to fight with the enemy and successfully break through.

Moreover, according to the situation described by Comrade "Daffodil", the enemy was pointing a gun at him. Even the action ace of our party's Special Branch Red Team back then would have been extremely difficult to break out of the encirclement under such circumstances. Either he would take the initiative to lure the enemy. Shoot, sacrifice yourself and keep the secret, or stand up and resist, only to be killed, wounded, or arrested by the enemy.

Miaopu naturally understands what Comrade Tian Luo means by asking this question, and he can also understand Comrade Tian Luo's caution, worry and suspicion.

"I'm still a little confused until now." Miaopu shook his head, showing a puzzled expression, "Just when I thought I was about to be arrested by the enemy, something unexpected happened."

 “What unexpected situation?” Xiong Jiashang asked immediately.

“There was a sudden bang, and there was an explosion not far away from the telegraph hall.” Miaopu said.

"Then I saw the secret agent who just pointed the gun at me and shouted 'Captain'." Miaopu continued, "Two people turned around and rushed to other places with guns. The one pointed the gun at me. Those who pointed at me also turned to look.”

 “Then what?” Xiong Jiashang asked.

"I picked up the hot water that I just poured into the enamel jar and poured it on the man's neck." Miaopu said, "The man was so hot that he screamed. I opened the door and ran away in the chaos."

Xiong Jiashang looked at Comrade Narcissus. Although she wanted to believe it was true because she saw no sign of lying in Comrade Narcissus's eyes, what Comrade Narcissus said was The escape experience was so miraculous that she couldn't help but doubt it.

“Do you know the cause of the explosion?” Xiong Jiashang asked calmly.

"I don't know. I was only focused on escaping and didn't think about anything else." Miaopu shook his head and said.

Hearing what Miaopu said, Xiong Jiashang believed in what Narcissus said deep down in his heart.

 …

 There are many people coming and going in the hospital.

 Cheng Qianfan opened the door, pulled up a chair, sat at the door and smoked sullenly.

From his position, he could see the corridor and the hall not far away.

Screams and crying could also be heard.

 The strongest smell is the smell of disinfectant.

 He took a puff of cigarette and exhaled the smoke, which diluted the smell of disinfectant.

Listening to the screams, he knew that the sick or injured were being treated, and it was most likely that trauma patients were being disinfected with alcohol.

 But this reminded him of the torture scene in the torture chamber.

 His heart was happy and gratified.

His decisive action prevented Comrade "Daffodil" from being arrested and tortured by the enemy.

At this moment, he saw Li Hao and two patrolmen running in a hurry from a distance.

“Brother Fan, are you okay?” Li Hao asked worriedly.

“I’m fine, it was Pete who got shot.” ​​Cheng Qianfan said, “Why are you here?”

"Brother Lu returned to the patrol room and told everyone that you were attacked. I came over quickly." Li Hao said. As he spoke, he reached out and took a briefcase from a patrolman, "Brother Fan, brothers are in the Vienna Ballroom. Your briefcase was found in the ditch at the back door."

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 (End of this chapter)