Operation Red Book

White clouds were rolling in the sky, neatly arranged from one end to the other, unwilling to let even a ray of sunlight pass through.

This kind of weather is stuffy, depressing, hot and humid, and it makes me feel stuffy and stuffy. It makes me feel uneasy.

"It's getting dark..."

The young man simply closed the screen window and ran into the back kitchen of Muyunzhai in three steps.

"it's dark……"

Like a slogan, everyone else looked out the window at the same time.

The corners of their mouths were turned down, their eyelids were tight, and their already desperate eyes were filled with fear and helplessness.

"What's wrong?"

Affected by this tense atmosphere, Ivy couldn't help but look out the window.

White fog, smoke, silence, emptiness...it was just a little bleaker than the environment earlier.

"It's time to eat."

The chef wiped away the tears that had not yet dried with the back of his chubby hand, raised his index finger, rolled up his sleeves, and turned to go into the kitchen.

"Now?"

Ivy rubbed her eyes and looked at the large black and brown Western clock in the corner again.

The pointer clearly pointed to the Roman numeral 4, but the dinner time at Muyunzhai was usually two hours later.

"Auntie Wang, let Xiaoqi and Xiaojiu go upstairs to rest first."

Mingcan pinched the two children's chubby cheeks and tucked one of them's bangs behind his ear.

After watching the three people go upstairs, Mingcan said nothing more.

She looked at Ivy deeply, then deliberately avoided Joshua's puzzled gaze and quietly walked to the front desk.

After a while, Mingcan's figure disappeared into the darkness. At the same time, a rustling sound came from behind. She was looking for something in the cabinet at the front desk.

It must be something very important. Ivy swallowed and waited patiently for Mingcan to appear again.

Finally, after fiddling with it for two or three minutes, Mingcan finally emerged from the darkness.

She simply straightened her messy hair and crooked collar, and handed a stack of yellowed letter paper to Ivy.

"what is this?"

Ivy asked, slowly opening the stack of letter papers that had been folded over and over again.

"I found these papers in Mr. Zhu's study."

Mingcan explained in a low voice.

"The letter paper Mr. Zhu puts in his study is made of floral paper shipped from China. It is the only one of its kind in London."

"Not many people know this kind of paper. They are either Mr. Zhu's confidants or his enemies."

Ivy blinked. This kind of floral paper was very precious. Mr. Zhu usually locked it in the deepest part of the bookcase. He would only reluctantly take out a sheet and cut it in half when he needed to convey important instructions.

There must be more than a dozen of them... Ivy looked at Mingcan with a complicated expression, hoping that Mr. Zhu would show mercy when he comes back.

"This is the scene that the Chinese wharf experiences every night. I can only write a few simple Chinese characters and some specific wharf trading symbols, so most of them are drawn."

Mingcan moved to Ivy's side without her noticing, and his white scallion-like fingers gently pointed at the black line in the center of the letter paper.

"These are the stars at night, these are the furnaces for making cannons, these are the traitors, these are the men at work..."

"These are the women. Some are canning vegetables, some are mending clothes, and some are doing rough work like the men..."

Mingcan flipped through the letters one by one. After her explanation, the originally crooked lines became vivid and lifelike.

“These guys have whips, these guys have machetes.”

"These people are foreigners from outside. No one knows where they came from, and no one knows how they were caught by the thieves."

"They were imprisoned in a boat near the dock. They were...they were food for the bandits. We saw it with our own eyes..."

Mingcan's voice was obviously weak with fear. She gasped heavily, trying to drive those bloody memories out of her sight.

"This is Zhao Minghua, the ignorant brat, and this is the weird-looking foreigner beside him..."

"what?"

"never seen it?"

"never seen it……"

"She's pretty good-looking, I tell you!"