Liu Antai took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down as quickly as possible.
After the initial excitement of confirming that Great Sage had walked right into his trap in the dead of night, intense vigilance and worry rushed in.
Great Sage had failed to show up for their daytime rendezvous at Boyun Teahouse, yet here he was, paying a visit late at night.
That in itself raised numerous questions.
Had Great Sage actually gone to Boyun Teahouse during the day?
He probably had!
Only, instead of showing himself, had he been watching from the shadows?
How had he found No. 21 Shipopo Lane?
He had likely tailed him!
If Great Sage had been secretly following and observing him all along, had he witnessed his contact with the Party Affairs Investigation Department?
That point was the most lethal of all, and Liu Antai's heart gave a violent jolt.
There was no time left to prepare. In the split second before opening the door, his mind raced, turning over what attitude and words would appear most natural and reasonable when facing Great Sage—something that wouldn't provoke suspicion, or that might dispel any doubts Great Sage had already harbored.
What kind of posture should he adopt?
Delight at a comrade who had missed an appointment now coming to make contact late at night—that was necessary.
At the same time, he ought to display a degree of wariness and doubt.
And dissatisfaction, too. He needed a reasonable explanation from the man for missing their rendezvous earlier that day.
Carrying this tangled knot of nervous tension, worry mingled with anticipation, Liu Antai pulled the door open and looked out.
The moonlight was bright tonight, yet he could not see the other man's face.
The visitor was dressed entirely in black, his face covered by a black cloth.
What was this supposed to be?
Why didn't he just slap on a Monkey King mask while he was at it?
Did he not trust him?
Was he guarding against him?
Where was the basic trust between Bolshevik revolutionary comrades?
If this man had been holding a dagger or a gun, he would look like an out-and-out burglar breaking in to rob the place!
Confronted with Great Sage appearing like this, Liu Antai was caught completely off guard. He blanked for a second. The countermeasures he had just devised in his head vanished, leaving him momentarily at a loss for words, his rhythm utterly disrupted.
Feigning a frown, Liu Antai peered outside, gave Great Sage a nod, and said in a low voice, "Come inside and talk."
***
Closing the door behind them and slipping the bolt into place, Liu Antai reached out to pull the light cord.
"Don't turn on the light," Fang Jibai said. His voice was hoarse, like an old violin unstrung for years, scraping out a rasping sigh with every vibration.
Liu Antai did not insist on the light. He knew Great Sage had to be on high alert at a moment like this.
Above all, in the faint moonlight just now, he had distinctly seen a handgun in Great Sage's hand.
For safety's sake, he didn't want any of his own movements to trigger a misjudgment or provoke the man.
The clear moonlight filtered through the window lattice, casting a dim, hazy glow. The two moved lightly in the dark and sat down across the table from each other.
Great Sage set the handgun to his right, within easy reach.
"Are we just going to talk like this?" Liu Antai asked tentatively, keeping his tone relatively calm.
"This is fine," Fang Jibai said.
"Comrade Great Sage, what are you worried about?" Liu Antai asked. "Do you no longer trust your own comrades—not even the liaison sent from Yanzhou headquarters?"
"When the time comes to meet face-to-face, we will," Fang Jibai said.
"Fine." Liu Antai gave an exasperated chuckle, shaking his head with a show of helplessness. "I'm a bit angry, but that doesn't mean I can't understand your caution.
"Nanjing is where the White Terror is at its worst. It's only right for comrades to develop cautious working habits." He paused, as if answering his own question. "Perhaps that's the very reason you've managed to stay alive this long, Comrade Great Sage."
"Comrade Wildcat?" Fang Jibai didn't answer his question, asking in his raspy voice instead.
"It's me." Liu Antai nodded, his expression and tone both turning solemn. "In fact, you aren't the only one with doubts. I have quite a few questions for you as well."
Fang Jibai nodded. "Go ahead."
Liu Antai furrowed his brow. He wondered whether Great Sage's detached demeanor was simply the result of spending so long under high tension in a brutal undercover environment that he had grown numb.
It wasn't callousness, but an instinctive self-defense mechanism—suppressing outward emotion as much as possible to shield himself inside a shell.
He had seen this before.
Some comrades had operated deep undercover surrounded by enemies for so long, their nerves stretched to the limit, that by the time the organization finally contacted them, they had become thoroughly neurotic.
For such people, he felt both pity and admiration.
Liu Antai gave a quiet click of his tongue in his mind, rather pleased with his current state. He told himself that right now, he was Comrade Wildcat, the special commissioner sent to make contact.
This was working out well.
***
"Why didn't you show up for our rendezvous today as agreed?" Liu Antai said. "Comrade Great Sage, you owe me a proper explanation."
"I went," Fang Jibai said.
"What?" Liu Antai asked instinctively.
"I said I went," Fang Jibai repeated. He coughed, then covered his mouth, forcibly suppressing it, as though swallowing down a mouthful of thick phlegm.
He continued, "I was late. Just as I arrived at Boyun Teahouse, I saw you walking downstairs."
"When?" Liu Antai's heart gave another lurch, and he pressed immediately, "In the afternoon or the morning?"
If it had been the morning, everything was fine; he had headed straight home after leaving Boyun Teahouse.
However, if it had been the afternoon, then Great Sage coming late at night meant he had tailed him during the day to pinpoint his residence—and that meant...
Great Sage might well have seen him secretly meeting Zhang Jiaju on the second floor of the residential building at No. 15, diagonally across from Boyun Teahouse.
That would be catastrophic.
"The afternoon," Fang Jibai said. "In the morning, I couldn't have made it in time at all."
"Why were you late?" Liu Antai picked up on the clue Great Sage had unintentionally let slip, his brow furrowing deeper. "Comrade Great Sage, do you realize how critical and serious the rendezvous time is?"
His heart was practically in his throat. He strongly suspected Great Sage had seen him go up to the second floor of No. 15, and he had to force himself to stay calm.
He reassured himself inwardly.
Even if the man had seen him enter that residence at No. 15, strictly speaking, it didn't prove anything by itself. Zhang Jiaju's men didn't have "Party Affairs Investigation Department" stamped across their foreheads.
Still, to a veteran underground operative like Great Sage, who had slipped through the Nationalist Party's massive dragnets so many times, that alone would be enough to draw suspicion.
Of course, his greatest and most important comfort was that since Great Sage was willing to take the risk of visiting him in the middle of the night, it meant he hadn't actually uncovered anything definitive. At most, he had some suspicions or questions he needed to verify and rule out.
Thus, after a brief moment of tension, Liu Antai returned to normal at once, seizing back the initiative in the conversation by turning it into an interrogation.
Taking comfort in his own thoughts, Liu Antai felt he was steadily taking control of the rhythm of their exchange.
Most importantly, the other man had no way of knowing for certain that he had already abandoned the darkness to step into the light.
That was his greatest source of confidence in dealing with Great Sage.
It wasn't a big problem. The upper hand was his.
Chapter 7