"Airplane? What airplane?" Long Si looked utterly bewildered.
Chen Fan smiled without explaining.
He could hardly say that it meant a petty thug who only knew how to solve problems with a knife.
If he put it that way, wouldn't Long Si automatically see himself in the role...
Long Si said self-deprecatingly, "Boss Chen, I don't know where you get your confidence, but I have to remind you."
"The underworld isn't an easy road to walk. You only have to look at what happened to me."
"Everything I poured my heart into building became a joke in less than a week."
Chen Fan stood up. "Brother Si, I don't want to hear anything else right now. I just want to know whether you want to take back what you lost."
"Of course I do," Long Si sighed. "From heaven to the dirt, I've seen all the highs and lows. What man can resist the lure of power?"
"As long as you want it, that's enough." Chen Fan walked over to Long Si. "You haven't recovered yet. Go hide out at my warehouse for now."
"It's near Huishan Wharf. Those gangs from Zhabei won't dare cause trouble there..."
"As for how I'll help you, I'll tell you later."
Long Si hesitated for a moment and was just about to speak when a knock sounded at the door.
"Knock, knock, knock..."
Chen Fan turned to open the door, and there stood Long Wu.
"Miss Wu, what is it?"
Long Wu lowered her voice as far as she could, leaned closer, and said softly, "Boss, there's a young lady in the store. Something's not quite right about her."
"Not quite right? What do you mean?" Chen Fan frowned.
Long Wu thought for a moment, walked over to the desk, drew a pistol from her pocket, and deftly removed the magazine.
Then she unloaded the cartridges one by one.
The cartridges kept clinking against the desktop. Chen Fan looked somewhat puzzled, but the corners of Long Si's mouth rose slightly.
After unloading all the cartridges, Long Wu set the empty magazine aside and began stacking the cartridges one by one.
She used an American 1911 pistol. This model fetched a high price on the Shanghai market, but admittedly, American weapons were considerably more reliable than the Japanese Nambu pistols.
Watching her stack the cartridges into a tower, Chen Fan asked in bewilderment, "Miss Wu, what are you doing?"
Looking at the cartridges on the desk, Long Wu said slowly, "The way we train with guns is different from most people."
"Your hands have to be steady, and your breathing has to follow its own rhythm to make sure your aim doesn't shift when you fire."
"Steady hands are the first requirement, and there are many ways to breathe."
"Only people who've truly trained with guns know how to coordinate their breathing rhythm with their shots."
"The moment I saw that young lady, I knew she was different from the others. We're the same kind of person."
"And when I stayed near her, I found that I could barely hear her breathing."
"In other words, she's an expert. An extremely skilled expert."
Chen Fan had seen Long Wu shoot. She truly hit whatever she aimed at, without the slightest deviation.
Even she held this woman in such high regard?
"All right. Don't alert her. I'll take a look." With that, Chen Fan told Long Si to sit for a while, then followed Long Wu downstairs.
He could see nothing unusual on the system interface. All the dots on it were yellow or green.
Clearly, this visitor bore him no ill will for the moment...
Downstairs bustled with voices. Chen Fan looked in the direction Long Wu indicated and saw an attractive figure standing at a counter for women.
It was a young woman.
She looked to be in her twenties, with an oval face, very fair skin, slender brows and eyes, and lips painted a very pale rose-bean shade.
She wore a well-tailored, muted pink wool coat and a small beige hat tilted on her head. Holding a small leather wallet, she was looking down at a box of Korean ginseng displayed in the counter.
Chen Fan found her information on the system panel, and his gaze instantly sharpened.
"Lin Su, affiliated with the Special Operations Research Office, codename Autumn Cicada."
That was not the crucial part. The key information came afterward.
"Member of the Chinese Red Party, affiliated with the Central Special Branch, Special Operations Group, codename Brocade Zither..."
Wow, she was a double agent, too. Chen Fan was very familiar with the Special Operations Research Office within the Fuxing Society.
The reason was simple. Three years earlier, they had trained in Jinling. The director of the Operations and Training Battalion at the time had been Lin Zhao, who was also the director of the Special Operations Research Office.
This man's section specialized in training assassins and researching all kinds of assassination equipment.
Chen Fan had also been selected by him back then, but ultimately had not gotten in. The reason was that his temperament was unstable and unsuitable for long-term undercover work.
The people in the Special Operations Research Office were all the elite of the Fuxing Society's elite.
They did not just teach you to use knives and guns there. They also taught you to kill with every part of your body.
Since Lin Su was actually an elite from the Special Operations Research Office, Long Wu's assessment had been very accurate.
She was indeed an expert, and an expert among experts at that...
Chen Fan turned, took a cup of tea from a nearby sales clerk, and strolled unhurriedly toward the woman.
He stopped two paces away from her and first exchanged a few words with a male customer nearby who was looking at fabric samples...
Only then did he turn toward the woman with an air of casualness, bowing slightly with a warm smile. "Miss, welcome."
"My surname is Chen, and I own this trading house. Is there anything you need?"
"If you need anything, please let me know. We carry quite a comprehensive selection."
Lin Su raised her head, met his eyes, and gave a faint smile. "Oh, I'm just looking around."
"I heard a new trading house had opened here on Wusong Road, so I came to see what all the fuss was about."
Her accent had the flavor of a Shanghai local's, but she softened the ends of her words a little, as though deliberately keeping them from sounding too natural.
Chen Fan nodded, his gaze sliding from her face to the hand resting against the edge of the counter.
Her hands were slender, her nails neatly rounded and coated with a very pale pink polish.
She looked like an educated young lady from a fairly well-off family.
But Chen Fan noticed an old scar on the side of her left middle finger, so fine it was almost invisible, extending from the knuckle all the way to the edge of her palm.
Rather than presumptuously reaching out to shake her hand, Chen Fan offered her the tea he was holding.
"Miss, have some hot tea first. It's cold out. Take your time browsing, and just call a sales clerk if you need anything."
"We're offering discounts during our opening period. If anything catches your eye, ask a sales clerk to tell you about it."
Lin Su accepted the hot tea he offered, her eyes curving in a very natural smile...
Chen Fan said, "Excuse me," then turned to attend to other customers.
Lin Su sipped the hot tea, her gaze remaining on Chen Fan.
Her orders were to investigate the full circumstances behind the failure of the "11:19 Case."
An entire undercover team of twenty-seven had been captured or killed. It had even made the newspapers.
But afterward, someone who had slipped through the net had suddenly turned up.
The matter was suspicious to begin with, so it was perfectly normal for Boss Dai to suspect that this survivor might be a mole.
Watching Chen Fan laughing and chatting among the crowd, Lin Su's lips curved slightly upward.
Then she set down the cup, picked up her handbag, and turned to leave the trading house...