"I'm awake, I'm awake!" cried Feng Hanliang in panic, abandoning his pretense of being unconscious.
No longer daring to play dead, he felt a splitting agony through both arms. Every bone in his body seemed fractured, and his muscles felt as though they had been pounded by countless heavy hammers, wringing shrill screams from his throat.
"Quite the threshold for pain, playing dead through all that," Fang Jibai clicked his tongue. "Who would have thought? Third Brother Hanliang is a tough man after all."
With that, he turned to Tang Yan. "Tang Yan, give him ten lashes."
Tang Yan did not hesitate for a second. Raising the leather whip, he brought it down.
During the arrest, Feng Hanliang had ambushed them from behind the door, injuring a fellow officer with a wooden club and kicking Tang Yan to the ground. Tang Yan had not forgotten the grudge.
The whip was designed specifically for interrogation. The barbs at the tip raked across human flesh like an iron brush scouring blood and meat.
Every lash landed to the accompaniment of Feng Hanliang's agonizing wails.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Grip tightening on the whip, Tang Yan instinctively glanced at Chen Xiuqi.
"What are you looking at me for? Listen to Fourth Brother," Chen Xiuqi said loudly.
"Are the ten lashes finished?" Fang Jibai flicked his cigarette ash, his voice flat.
Tang Yan understood. Paying no further heed to Feng Hanliang's screams and pleas for mercy, he completed all ten lashes. By the time he finished, Feng Hanliang had passed out.
A basin of water splashed over his face, and Feng Hanliang slowly came around.
"Remember to use salt water next time," Fang Jibai snorted coldly. "Salt water wakes them up faster."
"Noted," Chen Xiuqi said at once. "Remember to use salt water next time. If salt water doesn't work, switch to chili broth."
"No, please don't hit me anymore!" Feng Hanliang cried hysterically. "Brother Xiaoqi, Fourth Brother, don't beat me! I'll tell you everything! Ask me, I'll tell you everything!"
"It seems you know exactly why we arrested you." Fang Jibai gave a soft laugh and turned to Chen Xiuqi. "Look, he didn't even cry out that he was wronged."
"Are you truly willing to confess everything?" he asked.
Forcing down his agony, Feng Hanliang squeezed out a fawning smile. "I'll confess, I'll confess."
"That's more like it." Fang Jibai smiled. Stepping forward, he patted Feng Hanliang's cheek. "We're all from the same neighborhood. As long as you confess honestly, Third Brother Hanliang, we're still good fellow townsfolk, aren't we?"
"Yes, yes, yes, good fellow townsfolk, good townsfolk," Feng Hanliang babbled in haste.
"Very good. Third Brother Hanliang is a clever man, and clever men don't subject themselves to needless suffering," Fang Jibai said with a smile. "Five days ago, at the Little Tavern in Hebei Fourth Street. The identities of those two men."
Feng Hanliang froze for a moment, panic flashing across his face. He lowered his head, not daring to meet Fang Jibai's gaze.
Fang Jibai's expression darkened. Grabbing Feng Hanliang by the hair, he yanked his head back. "You're a clever man. If I'm asking you about this, it means you've already been exposed."
Letting go, he turned and walked toward the desk. "Tang Yan, count to ten. If Feng the Third hasn't confessed by ten, bring out the branding iron."
"Yes, Fourth Brother!" Tang Yan grinned savagely. Walking over to the brazier, he picked up the glowing-red branding iron. Counting "One, two, three..." under his breath, he paced toward Feng Hanliang.
"I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!"
Before Tang Yan could even reach six with the branding iron raised, Feng Hanliang screamed in terror, accompanied by the distinct trickling of water.
...
According to Feng Hanliang's confession, he had met the two men at a gambling den in Danyang. He had lost everything and was being beaten by the casino thugs when the two visiting merchants stepped in, claiming they couldn't bear to watch, and paid off his gambling debts for him.
"You idiot. They were neither kin nor friend to you—why would they pay off your gambling debts?" Chen Xiuqi cursed.
"I had no choice," Feng Hanliang said, drooping his head. "A man like me... when you owe too many debts, you stop worrying about them."
Under the deliberate courting of these two merchants—who claimed to hail from Wenzhou—the three became "bosom friends." Before long, Feng Hanliang had racked up another massive mountain of debt to them at the gambling tables.
"That was when they laid their cards on the table. They said they were Japanese and demanded that I work for them." At this, he suddenly burst into tears. "How could I have known those two bastards were Easterners?"
"That's not quite right, is it?" Fang Jibai sneered. "I'd wager that when you found out they were Japanese, you couldn't wait to drop to your knees and call them grandpa! You were probably thanking the heavens that you, Feng the Third, finally had powerful backers."
Feng Hanliang stared at Fang Jibai in terror, utter disbelief on his face.
Fang Jibai asked several more questions.
Chen Xiuqi noticed that during the interrogation, Fang Jibai would occasionally loop back to a question he had already asked earlier, repeatedly cross-checking the answers.
"Lock him in the woodshed. Tie him up tight and gag him."
Chen Xiuqi waved a hand, gesturing for his men to haul Feng Hanliang away.
"What do you make of it?" he asked Fang Jibai.
"A rascal like Feng Hanliang serves whoever feeds him, and he certainly can't endure the torment of torture," Fang Jibai mused. "For money, Feng Hanliang would sell anything. And to avoid torture, there's nothing he won't spill."
"I don't think he's lying either." Chen Xiuqi nodded, wrinkling his nose as the pungent stench of Feng Hanliang's urine hit him. He cursed under his breath, "The coward pissed himself in terror. You can't fake that."
"The problem now is that of the two Japanese, only one is still hiding in Lücheng. Even Feng Hanliang doesn't know where the other went." Fang Jibai took the cigarette Chen Xiuqi offered, lit it, and took a gentle drag. "Do we move now?"
"We move," Chen Xiuqi said, stubbing out his cigarette butt and gritting his teeth. "That other man has been missing for several days already, and there's no telling if he'll ever return. The priority right now is capturing this Ji Mingshuo."
Only with the man in hand would the merit truly be theirs.
"Agreed," Fang Jibai nodded slightly. "Then we make the arrest. But keep it quiet. We can't let wind of this leak out."
He said to Chen Xiuqi, "My gut tells me this Ji Mingshuo is an important figure—a ringleader of some sort."
"You suspect there are more than two Japanese lurking in town, and this Ji Mingshuo is their leader?" Chen Xiuqi's expression hardened as he asked.
"A guess," Fang Jibai replied. "Once we take him in and interrogate him, we'll know everything."
"No time to lose—" He stood up.
"We move right now." Chen Xiuqi rubbed his hands together, brimming with excitement. "Those Easterners came to Lücheng to stir up trouble—they clearly don't think much of us real men here!"
...
"Give me a long gun," Fang Jibai told Chen Xiuqi.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Xiuqi slipped a rifle off one of his men's shoulders and passed both the rifle and a cartridge belt over to Fang Jibai.
"A Hanyang 88? Weren't Type Zhongzheng rifles issued to all the police stations?" Fang Jibai frowned with open disdain. He swiftly inspected the barrel and rifling depth, checked the firing pin, and ran his fingers over the trigger twice before nodding. "It'll have to do."
"Having a Hanyang 88 is already pretty good. Our Chen clan produced a Red bandit ringleader back then, so the Party-State naturally keeps an eye on me. All the good guns are kept in the county bureau armory," Chen Xiuqi said with self-deprecating sarcasm, adding, "Or so they say, anyway."
Fang Jibai narrowed his eyes at Chen Xiuqi, ignoring his sarcastic whining.
Flashlights in hand, the group made their way through the dark. It was not far from Xuban Bridge to Jiangjia Village; the two settlements faced each other across the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, virtually adjoining.
The Japanese spy disguised as Wenzhou merchant Ji Mingshuo had been hidden away by Feng Hanliang right in Jiangjia Village.
"Feng the Third is clever enough," Chen Xiuqi said. "Just across the railway tracks and right next to the police station. It's the kind of place we'd easily overlook. The bastard is playing at hiding right under the lamp."
"Vicious enough, too," Fang Jibai murmured. "Still, I'm inclined to believe picking this spot was Ji Mingshuo's idea."
Chapter 17