Spy War: My Cheat Code is a Rat

"See? There's nothing inside."

Seeing that it was indeed a box of opium, Zhang Rongshan crossed his arms and beamed with pride.

Fu Yangshan tossed the opium in his hand into the wooden box with a look of disgust.

"Next."

Kiyoko Matsumoto spoke with a blank expression.

Fu Yangshan nodded and turned to walk towards the next wooden crate.

Lu Chen stood to the side, his face expressionless, but his heart was pounding. He knew that the next few seconds would determine the success or failure of the entire plan.

The lid of the second wooden box was lifted, revealing more yellowish-brown tobacco. Fu Yangshan glanced back at Matsumoto Kiyoko, and seeing that she didn't react, he reached out to rummage through it.

Zhang Rongshan stood to the side, his smugness almost overflowing. He even turned his head and whispered curses to his underlings behind him.

"Is that all the ambition you have? A few hundred pounds of opium isn't even worth alerting the Imperial Army?"

The younger brother smiled obsequiously, but his eyes involuntarily glanced at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen felt a chill run down his spine when he sensed that look. He knew that if they found the grain later, he might betray him.

"Pry it open."

Kiyoko Matsumoto's voice rang out coldly.

Fu Yangshan responded and plunged his hand into the tobacco.

This time, his hand reached down a little deeper, his fingertips touching some kind of rough fabric. He paused for a moment, then instinctively grabbed the fabric and pulled it outwards.

"Splash!"

The opium stuck to the burlap sacks and slowly fell to the ground with a soft thud. Fu Yangshan pulled one of the burlap sacks out of the wooden box.

The sacks were clearly printed with the Japanese words "military rations" and a distinct unit number.

Fu Yangshan froze, his expression shifting from astonishment to ecstatic joy. He whirled around and shouted.

"Team leader! It's food! It's the Imperial Army's military rations!"

Kiyoko Matsumoto's eyes sharpened, and she quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and carefully examined the burlap sack.

She could see the words on the sack clearly, even though they were partially covered by opium.

Kiyoko Matsumoto's face instantly darkened. She stood up, slowly turned to Zhang Rongshan, and stared intently at him.

Zhang Rongshan's smile froze on his face. He subconsciously took a half step back, staring incredulously at the sack in Fu Yangshan's hand.

"This...this is impossible! I have no idea what this is!"

"have no idea?"

Kiyoko Matsumoto gave a cold laugh.

"It's in your granary, packed in your wooden crates, and you're telling me you don't know?"

Cold sweat instantly broke out on Zhang Rongshan's forehead. He turned around abruptly to look at the henchman behind him, his eyes filled with shock and anger.

"What's going on?! Didn't you say it was just opium?!"

The underling was already pale with fright. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but saw Lu Chen staring at him coldly.

Lu Chen's hand hung at his waist, where there was a bulge, clearly a gun.

The younger brother trembled, and swallowed back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

"Boss Zhang,"

Kiyoko Matsumoto walked up to Zhang Rongshan. Her voice wasn't loud, but it sent a chill down everyone's spine.

"This batch of grain belonged to the Imperial Army. It was stolen from their camp last night. Your men happened to be moving a batch of opium into your granary last night, and now military grain has been found here. Tell me, how do you explain this?"

Zhang Rongshan's mind raced. He knew he had been tricked, but he couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong.

He glanced at Lu Chen, but wondered to himself, "Could this kid be trying to harm me?"

"It was him! He's the one who ruined me! He sold this batch of opium to my men!"

Upon hearing this, the younger brother nodded repeatedly, as if he had grasped a lifeline.

"Yes, yes, yes! It was Lu Chen! He contacted me last night, saying he wanted to sell me opium, so I... I bought it!"

All eyes instantly turned to Lu Chen. A hint of schadenfreude flashed in Fu Yangshan's eyes, while Matsumoto Kiyoko narrowed her eyes, sizing up Lu Chen.

Lu Chen's expression remained unchanged; he even chuckled softly.

He had intended to shoot, but Zhang Rongshan offered no resistance, and Lu Chen couldn't act rashly.

Looking at his underling, Lu Chen spoke calmly.

"You're saying I sold you opium? Then let me ask you, when did I contact you? Where did I find you? How much did we pay? And where did I get the opium from?"

The young man paused for a moment, then stammered out his answer.

"Just last night, at your door... you made me wait, and then you went to get the opium... the money... I gave you the money!"

"Did you give me the money?"

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow. "How much? Silver dollars or legal tender?"

"A...a huge ocean...a whole bunch of oceans..."

The younger brother's voice grew softer and softer as he suddenly remembered that those silver dollars were originally given to him by Lu Chen.

Lu Chen smiled and turned to look at Matsumoto Kiyoko.

"Team leader, if I really wanted to sell opium to him, why would I choose to do it in front of my own house? I could easily find a secluded place to trade. Besides, where would I, an ordinary employee, get my hands on opium? If I had such connections, would I still be working in the intelligence department for that meager salary?"

Kiyoko Matsumoto remained silent for a moment, her gaze shifting back and forth between Lu Chen and the underling.

She knew Lu Chen's words made sense, but she also knew that there were too many coincidences in this case so far.

Just then, Zhang Rongshan, who had been standing to the side, suddenly sprang up, grabbed the underling by the neck, and roared.

"You traitorous bastard! You dared to frame me!"

He tightened his grip, and the henchman's face immediately turned red as he struggled desperately.

Lu Chen's heart tightened. He couldn't let Zhang Rongshan strangle the person to death, otherwise there would be no evidence against him, and Zhang Rongshan might be able to clear his name of all charges.

Just as he was about to speak, Fu Yangshan rushed forward first and forcefully pried Zhang Rongshan's hand off.

"Let go! You dare to commit violence in front of the Imperial Army!"

Zhang Rongshan was pulled away, and the henchman collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

He looked at Zhang Rongshan in horror, then at Lu Chen, and suddenly, as if he had made up his mind, he pointed at Lu Chen and shrieked.

"It was him! He gave me money to help him get rid of this batch of opium! He also gave me these wooden crates! I had no idea they contained grain!"

Lu Chen's heart sank. Just as he was about to retort, he saw Matsumoto Kiyoko raise her hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

She walked up to the younger man, squatted down, and spoke in an unusually gentle tone.

"You said Lu Chen gave you money to store things? Then tell me, how much money did he give you? When were these wooden boxes given to you?"

The underling, panting, recounted everything that had happened the previous night, including how Lu Chen gave him silver dollars and told him to wait, then took him to the edge of the French Concession to retrieve the wooden crates, and how he had only checked the first crate, and so on.

He spoke in detail, and all the details matched up, except for the part about how he swindled Lu Chenqian.

After listening, Matsumoto Kiyoko stood up and looked at Lu Chen. There was no anger in her eyes, but rather a hint of amusement.

"Lu Chen, is there anything you want to say?"

Lu Chen quickly made a mental calculation.

He knew that denying it now was pointless; although his underling's testimony had some discrepancies, the general facts were there.

He had to admit to some of it, while muddying the waters, and he sighed, a helpless expression on his face.