"Green Pine isn't one person? What does that mean?"
Su Mingfeng frowned deeply. His third brother's sudden conclusion had confused him too.
The guesthouse room was dimly lit.
Yet Su Mingzhe's face showed both the excitement of solving a puzzle and fear at what might have happened.
Pointing at the letter on the table, he analyzed it rapidly. "Think carefully, Brother. If Green Pine was one person's code name, why didn't Comrade Zhang Jianjun, the postman, deliver the letter directly to that person before he died in the line of duty? Why deliver it to a public place-the village committee office-instead?"
Su Mingfeng's pupils contracted slightly.
"You mean the Li Family Village committee office was a dead drop?"
"Exactly!" Su Mingzhe clapped his hands. "It's a very old method of espionage communication. The superior delivers intelligence to an agreed-upon, inconspicuous location, and a subordinate courier comes to collect it at a fixed time. That way, the two sides never need to meet. Even if one link is arrested, they can't identify the other."
Su Mingzhe's expression grew increasingly serious.
"So Green Pine isn't a person's code name at all. It's the code name of an enemy spy organization operating undercover within our borders! That man in gold-rimmed glasses who went to the village entrance every month to wait for letters was the courier responsible for collecting them!"
This deduction brought a sheen of cold sweat to Su Mingfeng's back.
A tightly organized enemy spy network had been hiding right under their noses!
"Liu Guifang's greed inadvertently did us an enormous favor." Su Mingzhe picked up the letter, his gaze complicated. "She murdered someone for money to pocket that small death benefit, but by a twist of fate, she cut off this intelligence channel. As a result, this critically important letter sent from Base 713 sat in the dead drop at Li Family Village for two whole years!"
Su Mingfeng's gaze also settled on the letter.
This was no longer an ordinary letter.
This was an accidental interception of intelligence!
And the ones who deserved the "credit" for intercepting it were actually a greedy, ignorant village shrew and a five-year-old girl who could understand animals.
There was a dramatic absurdity to it all.
"Brother, we must impose an immediate information blackout!" Su Mingzhe's expression became more grave than ever. "This is far more serious than we anticipated. Apart from the men of the guard company who were there, no one can be allowed to know this letter exists! Much less that we've discovered the Green Pine Organization!"
Of course, Su Mingfeng understood what was at stake.
Once alerted, that "man in gold-rimmed glasses" who had been undercover for two years and the entire organization behind him might relocate immediately. Finding them again would be as difficult as reaching the heavens.
"I understand." Su Mingfeng nodded. He immediately turned and ordered the guard at the door, "Pass on my orders. Effective immediately, everyone is to enter level-two silence status. All documents and physical evidence related to the Li Family Village operation are to be classified top secret. No one may discuss them privately. Anyone who disobeys will be charged with divulging military secrets!"
"Yes, sir!" The guard acknowledged the order, turned, and hurried away.
The atmosphere in the room instantly grew tense.
A war without visible gunsmoke had quietly begun.
Just then, Nuannuan, who had been sitting quietly in a chair and taking little sips of hot water, suddenly spoke again.
She pointed at Su Mingzhe, blinking her big eyes, and asked innocently:
"Third Uncle, the little mouse also said that uncle with the glasses had a strange smell on him."
Su Mingzhe paused, then bent down and asked gently, "Oh? What kind of strange smell?"
Nuannuan scrunched up her little nose and thought hard, then described it with her limited vocabulary:
"It was... it was the smell in a hospital. Last time Nuannuan got a shot at the hospital, the uncle wearing white had that smell on him."
The smell in a hospital?
Dozens of possibilities flashed through Su Mingzhe's mind.
Disinfectant? Alcohol? Lysol?
No, those smells are too common. A mouse's sense of smell is extremely keen. The "strange smell" it mentioned must be something more distinctive and longer-lasting.
Suddenly, a chemical term leaped out from a memory buried deep in his mind.
Formalin!
In other words, a formaldehyde solution.
In hospitals, it was generally used to preserve and fix specimens. Only doctors or researchers who worked with dissections and pathological specimens over long periods would carry that distinctive smell, which was so difficult to wash away!
This clue was crucial!
Su Mingzhe almost jumped with excitement.
"Gold-rimmed glasses," "a Zhongshan suit," "appeared at the village entrance every month," and "smelled of formalin."
Together, those four characteristics had greatly narrowed the scope of the investigation!
The members of that enemy spy organization code-named "Green Pine" were very likely posing as doctors or researchers in medical fields!
"Nuannuan, you really are your uncle's lucky star!" Unable to help himself, Su Mingzhe reached out and affectionately ruffled Nuannuan's hair.
A little embarrassed by the praise, Nuannuan flushed and snuggled farther into Su Mingfeng's arms.
Watching this, Su Mingfeng was filled with mixed emotions.
As he looked at the niece he had lost and found again, a powerful urge to protect her welled up inside him.
This child had endured so much suffering, yet she still shone with the purest light, like an uncut piece of jade.
This miraculous ability she possessed was a gift from heaven, but it was also a double-edged sword.
Used well, it could earn unparalleled merit in service to the country and its people.
But if exposed, it could also bring her endless danger.
"Third Brother," Su Mingfeng said, his voice low and firm, "from today onward, Nuannuan's ability is the Su Family's most highly classified secret. We must protect her."
Su Mingzhe nodded emphatically.
He knew that protecting Nuannuan meant protecting the Su Family's hope for the future, and more importantly, the nation's hope for the future.
He carefully placed the letter and all his younger sister's belongings found in the mailbag into the secure document case he carried with him, then locked it.
"Brother, it's getting late. We'll return to the capital first thing tomorrow morning," Su Mingzhe said. "We must report this to Father immediately."
Su Mingfeng murmured his agreement.
He glanced at the pitch-black night outside the window, but felt no sleepiness at all.
He knew that from the moment the cellar in Li Family Village had been dug open, their Su Family had been drawn into an enormous storm.
And in the capital, that seemingly calm center of the vortex, countless eyes were watching them from the shadows.