allonlinenovel Chapter 1018 I Know It’s You
Chapter 1018 I Know It’s You
Thousands of miles away in Shanghai, on the edge of the French Concession.
The damp, sticky air, like a thin veil soaked in water, silently enveloped the night.
This place is completely different from the dry, biting cold of Nanjing; it's a different kind of chill that seeps into your bones and lingers.
An abandoned warehouse, like a silent behemoth, lies prostrate in the dim light of the world.
The rusted iron gate was tightly shut, like the clenched lips of a monster, swallowing up all light and sound.
Deep within the warehouse, a crudely modified secret room became the sole vortex center of the undercurrents at this moment.
The room was dark and dimly lit.
The only light source came from a bulb hanging from the low beams. The glass cover was covered with thick dust from years of use, and the light it cast was dim and flickering, barely tearing a small, limited space in the thick darkness, elongating and distorting the shadows of people and casting them onto the mottled walls.
The air was filled with a complex and nauseating odor.
The base smell is a strong musty smell, mixed with the earthy smell of old dust, a faint but sharp and pungent smell of blood, and the choking smoke left over from burning cheap tobacco.
They mingled together, creating a thick, oppressive feeling that weighed heavily on everyone's nerves.
Kagesa Yoshiaki, dressed in a well-tailored dark casual suit with a crisp woolen overcoat, sat like a cold statue on the only relatively intact old wooden chair in the center of the secret room.
His posture was deliberately upright, characteristic of a soldier, and even at this moment, he did not relax in the slightest.
His fingers tapped rhythmically on his knees, while his gaze, like two icy scalpels, calmly and precisely scraped and dissected the two people kneeling on the cold cement floor with their hands tied behind their backs.
The two kneeling figures were Xu Tian and Shen Suqiu.
Xu Tian lowered his head, the shadow cast by the stray hairs on his forehead obscuring most of his eyebrows and eyes, making it impossible to discern his expression.
He was wearing an ordinary gray long gown, now stained and creased with the mess of struggle. A bruise on the corner of his mouth was oozing blood, a mark left by resistance.
However, in stark contrast to his disheveled appearance was an unusual, almost stagnant calmness emanating from his demeanor.
Shen Suqiu, standing to the side, appeared even more pathetic.
Her once elegant cheongsam was now stained, her long hair, which had been styled in a bun, was now disheveled, with a few damp strands clinging to her pale, lifeless cheeks.
The rough hemp rope sank deep into her slender wrists, and from the previous struggles, the skin had been chafed, leaving dark red bloodstains.
Her body trembled slightly uncontrollably, whether from the bone-chilling cold, the uncontrollable fear, or the anger that was about to burst through her chest, it was hard to tell.
Unlike Xu Tian's silence, she bit her already bloodless lower lip, her bright eyes burning with an indomitable flame as she stared directly at Ying Zuozhenzhao without flinching, even though a shadow of fear still lingered stubbornly deep within that flame.
Four agents from the newly established "Shadow Agency," dressed in black suits with bulging weapons at their waists, stood solemnly at the four corners of the secret room, like lifeless shadows.
Their faces were expressionless, but their eyes were as sharp as hawks', weaving an invisible, suffocating web of pressure that firmly enveloped the entire space.
Time crawled laboriously in a frozen, deathly silence.
The only background sounds in this silence were the faint buzzing of electricity passing through the old light bulb and the barely suppressed yet still clear breathing of a few people.
This deliberately maintained silence is itself a form of torture, slowly and continuously eroding the psychological defenses of the person being interrogated.
Finally, Kagesa Yoshiaki broke the unbearable silence.
His voice wasn't loud; it even had a slightly low, hoarse quality, as if he had been dehydrated for a long time.
But every word seemed to be carved from the ice of the far north, imbued with a bone-chilling coldness, echoing faintly in this empty and enclosed space, striking precisely on everyone's eardrums and hearts, especially the two kneeling on the ground.
"Xu Tian".
He called out names first, his cold gaze like a physical shackle, firmly fixed on Xu Tian, who had his head down.
His tone was calm, almost like a pronouncement, without the slightest doubt.
"Huishan Wharf, the bombing targeting Imperial Navy supplies... He paused deliberately, as if savoring the destructive impact of the word: "You orchestrated it, didn't you?"
There is no rising intonation, no exploration, just a completely assertive statement.
It was as if he already held irrefutable evidence in his hand, and his questioning at this moment was nothing more than a cat's determined teasing before enjoying its prey, or rather, a ritual to completely crush the other party psychologically.
Xu Tian did not look up or respond, and his drooping neck remained unchanged.
This silence itself is a form of silent resistance.
The corners of Yingzuo Zhenzhao's mouth slowly turned upwards, forming a cold, almost cruel arc.
He leaned forward slightly, the dim light pouring down from above, casting deeper, more distorted shadows on his face, making his once-refined features appear somewhat ferocious.
“Xu Jun.” His voice was even lower, with an almost hypnotic, unquestionable certainty: “I know it’s you.”
He raised a hand and gently tapped his temple with his index finger, his eyes sharp as a hawk locking onto its prey.
“Intuition.” He uttered the word slowly, with an almost obsessive confidence: “When you reappeared in my sight, my intuition told me that the matter must be related to you.”
A... unsettling sense of coincidence lingers around you.
He leaned back in his chair, casually placing his hands on his knees, adopting a posture that appeared relaxed but was actually more imposing.
"Xu Jun, you are one of my most admired students."
I know you as well as I know the lines on my own palm... potential and danger." His tone even carried a hint of ambivalent regret, like watching a precious piece of porcelain about to shatter.
Intelligent, calm, good at hiding, as formless as water, yet able to unleash amazing energy at crucial moments.
Normally, according to my usual practice, I would be happy to take things slowly and have a cat-and-mouse game with you, between us as teacher and student...
Enjoy the thrill of uncovering the mystery step by step, leaving you nowhere to hide.
His tone abruptly shifted, the feigned gentleness vanishing instantly to reveal a steely sharpness and urgency beneath:
"But now, I don't want to play anymore!"
Xu Tian, who had been keeping his head down, finally showed a clear reaction at this moment.
He slowly raised his head, his stray hairs brushing aside to reveal the eyes that had been hidden in the shadows.
Those were unusually calm eyes, even carrying a lingering weariness and... a faint hint of mockery.
The bruises on his lips made him look disheveled, but his eyes were surprisingly clear, as if they could see through all the fog.
He calmly met Yingzuo Zhenzhao's gaze, which suddenly turned as sharp as a knife, and a faint smile, mixed with bitterness and a sense of world-weariness, slowly appeared on his face.
"Teacher Yingzuo." Xu Tian's voice was hoarse from thirst, but his tone was unusually calm, even carrying a strange, inappropriate politeness: "It's not that you don't want to play anymore, it's just... the situation is changing too fast, too much, isn't it?"
He paused briefly, his gaze meeting Kagesa's suddenly constricted pupils without flinching, and said clearly, word by word:
"The Kwantung Army, the North China Area Army, the Central China Expeditionary Army, and the Navy... you're all fighting amongst yourselves, and Nanjing is in complete chaos. I heard even Admiral Matsui Iwane has been placed under house arrest?"
The Kyoto headquarters was furious, and various factions began to undermine and sabotage each other.
You, a rising star who has just established the "Kagesa Agency" and is eager to make your mark in Shanghai, are probably... at a loss for what to do, and desperately seeking some "merit" to solidify your position?
His voice was even softer, yet it pierced the air like a needle:
"Or perhaps, you're eager to get rid of certain... troubles that you yourself can't control?"