Cocktail Party Invitation

Ever since Tian Biao had been caught red-handed by Wang Manchun, the Military Statistics Bureau's Shanghai Station had not sent anyone to contact him again. Wang Yan understood well enough. For one thing, they truly could not get any useful intelligence from him. For another, after this exposure, there would certainly be a period of surveillance. It was not suitable to send someone to contact him again anytime soon.

Wang Yan's life returned to peace. Though the Japanese seemed to have found some sort of breakthrough recently, and the underground struggle, quiet for only a few days, once again became intense. Both parties were being savagely hounded by the Japanese, and the storm clouds were gathering once more.

But as he had always said, no matter how fierce the underground conflict became, it had little to do with Wang Yan. Unless there was an order from his superiors or a request for assistance from the Shanghai underground Party organization—and even then, there was a matter of priority. Orders from his superiors had to be carried out, even at the cost of his life. But he could decide whether to refuse requests for assistance from the Shanghai underground Party organization based on his own circumstances. Just as with the previous joint operation between the two parties: if they had not acted according to his proposal, or if they had changed the operation time to nighttime, he absolutely would not have intervened. He would only have watched the Shanghai underground Party comrades die.

So what was the greatest test in the battles on the hidden front? One was the mental strain of constantly hovering between life and death. The other was the helplessness of wanting to do something but being unable to.

They would watch their comrades die before their very eyes.