Agent: Intercepting Yu Manli at the start!

Chapter 80 Counterfeit Money Den!

Zhou Xiao was looking down as he took a bouquet of fresh roses from the florist, intending to give it to Li Xiaonan, completely unaware of the burning gaze he was receiving from the surging crowd behind him. Without stopping, he went straight to his car, opened the door, started the engine—the rear of the car lifted, and he sped off towards the Shanghai Film Studio.

Yu Manli squeezed her way to the side of the street, only to see the car flash by before disappearing completely around the corner.

She stood there, stunned, her chest heaving. The burning joy she had felt moments before had instantly cooled.

Where did they go...? Could it be that my eyes are playing tricks on me?

Mingtai hurriedly caught up, his voice filled with concern: "Manli, what's wrong?"

She shook her head, her voice surprisingly calm: "It's nothing."

The third rule of the secret agent code clearly states: During the undercover period, you must not recognize acquaintances, and you must never reveal your identity in public—the other party may be on a mission, and a single greeting could be a disaster.

So even though her heart was pounding, she didn't call out that name.

Mingtai noticed her unusual expression but didn't ask any questions. He just smiled and gestured, "Let's go, it's starting. Don't miss the beginning."

The two walked into the cinema side by side.

Yu Manli sat down in the dark screening room, the popcorn in her hand gradually getting cold.

She was quite certain—it was definitely not an illusion.

An agent's eyes never lie.

But this certainty now felt like a heavy stone, making even the light and shadow on the screen blurry.

Zhou Xiao drove to the film studio and parked steadily downstairs in front of the dormitory building.

Li Xiaonan, a third-tier actress, still lives most of the time in that old, drab dormitory building in the factory.

Amidst the envious and curious gazes of his roommates, Zhou Xiao handed over the bouquet of roses, still glistening with dew: "Xiao Nan, want to take a walk with me?"

"Mmm." She nodded, her fingertips lightly touching the petals.

The two strolled slowly along the small park next to the factory, initially chatting casually, but as they talked, the conversation turned serious.

Li Xiaonan paused, then lowered her voice slightly: "Zheng Yaoxian is coming to Shanghai. The organization just received a secret report; it's absolutely true."

—Sixth Brother personally went south? He even tracked down his movements so accurately?

The extent to which the underground party's informants and infiltration were so thorough is truly astonishing.

We probably already have people within the Military Intelligence Bureau.

Zhou Xiao nodded: "I know. That's exactly why I came to see you today."

"He will arrive in Shanghai secretly tomorrow. His purpose is still unclear, but most likely he will come to see me first."

Li Xiaonan turned her head to the side: "What do you think of Zheng Yaoxian...?"

Zhou Xiao was slightly taken aback, then smiled: "He's a top-tier opponent."

"But his hands are stained with the blood of so many of our comrades."

Zheng Yaoxian was an undercover agent codenamed "Kite." He was so deeply entrenched and his accounts were so chaotic that many of his comrades still do not know the truth and only regard him as a ruthless executioner.

Zhou Xiao is now walking the same razor-sharp path—the deeper he goes, the easier it is for him to be accidentally injured by his own blade.

Li Xiaonan understood this principle, and so did Zhou Xiao.

She looked at him, her voice light yet heavy: "Zhou Xiao, I understand the bond between you and Sixth Brother. But too many brothers have died by his gun. He's the ace of the Military Intelligence Bureau; every step he takes is over the corpses of others."

"In the line of espionage, emotions sometimes have to give way to the mission."

Zhou Xiao was clever, and Zheng Yaoxian was shrewd; they were wary of each other, yet respected each other—like two unsheathed swords facing each other across a cold glint.

He suddenly spoke, his voice calm: "Xiao Nan, am I now in charge of all the underground party's operations in Shanghai?"

Li Xiaonan was taken aback, then nodded solemnly: "Yes. Your presence in Shanghai is the highest command."

Zhou Xiao: "Alright, I'll take care of Zheng Yaoxian's matter."

At this moment, Zhou Xiao felt as if two stones were pressing down on his heart—one side was a sharp, knife-like vigilance, and the other was a heavy, uneasy hesitation.

If Zheng Yaoxian is an enemy, he is no ordinary opponent: he has been immersed in the intelligence circle for many years, has extensive knowledge and skills, and is shrewd and experienced, especially in key areas such as telecommunications, classified documents, and counter-intelligence, where he is almost watertight.

But what if he's one of our own? Then that shot wouldn't just pierce his chest, but the very bones of the organization, the lives of our comrades, and the hidden sparks of revolution that countless people risked their lives for.

He longed to be able to access Zheng Yaoxian's real file with a simple tap of his finger—as easily as turning the page of an old case file. Unfortunately, this system was merely a helpful assistant; it neither read minds nor performed blood tests, nor made life-or-death decisions for anyone.

Zhou Xiao was pacing slowly when he suddenly stopped, turned to look at Li Xiaonan, and asked in a low but clear voice, "Xiaonan, do you believe in your intuition?"

"Intuition?" Li Xiaonan paused for a moment, then answered decisively, "I learned it in school—it's not some kind of mysticism, it's a 'quick reaction' that comes from years of accumulated experience. Professional habits, practical experience, knowledge structure, even muscle memory, are all crammed into the brain, and the answer comes to mind before the logic even has a chance to process it."

She paused, then added, "Whether it's accurate or not depends on whether the person has a solid foundation and strong judgment."

"Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Zhou Xiao's eyes burned: "My intuition tells me—Zheng Yaoxian is one of us. He's a spies planted by the Party, driven into the heart of the Military Intelligence Bureau!"

Before she finished speaking, Li Xiaonan's pupils contracted slightly.

Zhou Xiao had mentioned this before, but she rejected it on the spot. After all, she had worked for the underground party in Chongqing for several years and had personally witnessed how Zheng Yaoxian maneuvered among his henchmen. She had also heard about the blood on his hands, the lines he had crossed, and the bowls he had held—everything about him exuded the cold and hard demeanor of a veteran Kuomintang agent.

But now that Zhou Xiao brought it up again, his tone was more certain than before, and his eyes were more composed. Li Xiaonan couldn't ignore it any longer: "Zhou Xiao, do you have any concrete evidence?"

Evidence? No.

Only feelings.

A kind of intuition honed through daily interactions in the mountain city, as fine as a net: for example, in the Military Intelligence Bureau's communications department, Zeng Moyi secretly altered the draft of a secret telegram without even noticing the traces, but Zheng Yaoxian acted as if he didn't see it, not even raising his eyelids—that wasn't negligence, but tacit approval; not slowness, but leaving room for interpretation.

A truly loyal leader of the Military Intelligence Bureau would never turn a blind eye to such a small act that undermines the foundation of the organization.

But these words cannot be written into a report, much less engraved in an archive.

"Evidence? No." Zhou Xiao shook his head slightly, his tone calm. "But my intuition has never failed me in this kind of matter."

Li Xiaonan believed him.

They believed him because he infiltrated the Special Operations Headquarters under the Special Higher Police, not only gaining a foothold but also successively eliminating several long-standing scourges, including Li Moqun, Bi Zhongliang, Su Sansheng, and Aoki Takeshige. Those were achievements earned through real battles, not just empty talk.

Such agents may not have intuition as irrefutable evidence, but it is enough to be the first lever to uncover the truth.

Of course, actions must ultimately be put into practice.

Zhou Xiao gazed at the darkening sky in the distance and slowly spoke: "Xiao Nan, is it possible that Zheng Yaoxian is a 'shadow' planted by the underground Communist Party at the highest level of the Military Intelligence Bureau? His identity is kept extremely secret, with only a handful of people knowing the truth, and even his internal files may have been erased several times?"

"It is precisely because he was buried so deep and inevitably carried some 'dark secrets' that people mistakenly thought he was a die-hard conservative."

"Just like when I infiltrated the Special Higher Police—the deeper I went, the easier it was for my own people to become my target. Zheng Yaoxian may be standing on the same precipice as me."

This deduction is logical and progressive, neither a mere guess nor a conjecture, but a judgment that naturally emerges after combining one's own experience, the other party's behavior, and organizational rules.

Even more coincidentally, later events proved this seemingly bold conjecture to be true.

Li Xiaonan remained silent for a moment, then finally nodded: "Zhou Xiao, the path you mentioned... isn't impassable."

"But agents don't rely on heartbeats, they rely on evidence. Since you suspect he's one of your own, you have to test him. Only by confirming his identity can you protect him and make good use of this pawn."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Zhou Xiao nodded.

Li Xiaonan then said seriously, "In addition, the organization has given you an urgent task—to take down the counterfeit money printing plant of the Shan Agency. Once a currency war breaks out, it won't be the bank vaults that suffer, but the rice bags of ordinary people and the ammunition magazines of soldiers on the front lines."

Sugimoto's currency war was prepared with two contingency plans:

On one hand, they seized genuine banknote printing plates to counterfeit massive amounts of legal tender, disrupting the market and crippling the logistical lifeline of the anti-Japanese front.

The other method is direct forgery—exchanging a piece of paper for a truckload of grain or a box of ammunition, making money out of thin air, and slowly hollowing out the entire financial framework.

Currently, the genuine printing plates have been secretly transported out of Shanghai by the Military Intelligence Bureau under Zhou Xiao's covert operation, completely cutting off this shortcut for the Japanese.

All that remained was that treacherous secret passage—the counterfeit money den.

Li Xiaonan asked, "Have you figured out the location?"

"It's still unclear." Zhou Xiao shook his head. "Oshima Ken, the head of the Sugi Agency, is as cautious as a night owl. He hasn't let me touch the core of the currency war yet."

"However, he has begun to loosen up—he is no longer entirely wary of me, but rather shows a more tentative reliance on me."

"Just one more push and we can step through that door."

He had already planned to get rid of Xian Daofeng.

With this person gone, there was no one left to rely on at Oshima Fitness, and Zhou Xiao naturally became the one he "had no choice but to trust".

Li Xiaonan nodded: "Okay, I'll leave this to you."

"Destroy the printing press, burn all the patterns, templates, and ledgers, and the currency war will be stillborn—this is a matter of great importance to protect the livelihoods of thousands of families and safeguard the vast battlefield."

"Understood," Zhou Xiao replied succinctly and forcefully.

Ironically, his move to establish a romantic relationship with Li Xiaonan was perfectly timed—from then on, their intelligence exchanges were open and aboveboard, and they no longer needed to hide in the shadows, conceal notes, or pass messages through the pages of books.

The two strolled along the street for a while, and then Zhou Xiao escorted Li Xiaonan back to her dormitory building.

Once everything was in order, he drove back to Zhou's residence, the engine sound gradually fading into the twilight.

As soon as Zhou Xiao stepped into the gate of the Zhou Mansion, he immediately noticed a dark green sedan parked in the courtyard.

The license plate was clearly the city government's name in black with white lettering.

Lin Yiyi quickly stepped forward and reached out to open the passenger door.

As soon as Zhou Xiao landed and steadied himself, she lowered her voice and said, "Brother Zhou, someone from the family has arrived!"

Zhou Xiao didn't even lift his eyelids, only asking calmly, "Who?"

"Shen Fang," she answered crisply.

Shen Fang?

The new member who was just parachuted into the Special Affairs Committee?

He and I had never met before, not even once.