Pretending to be an expert

Perhaps seeing that Li Sheng was dejected, Commander Xiong continued to berate him. Although it was not a big deal for Li Sheng to keep a concubine when he was young, he could not neglect his family because of other women.

Li Sheng's sister-in-law has been with him for so many years, bearing him children and serving his parents-in-law. Even if she hasn't done anything particularly meritorious, she has certainly put in a lot of hard work. If Li Sheng doesn't want his family to break up, he should break off his relationship with the other woman as soon as possible. Marital harmony is the most important thing.

Listening to Commander Xiong's advice, Li Sheng felt something was off. It was strange. Commander Xiong had a wife and a concubine. When his wife was pregnant, she chose a maid who was part of her dowry and took the initiative to promote her. Both of them were traditional. Why would they help their wife make a fuss? Shouldn't they advise her to be magnanimous?

Wife, what exactly did you say to them? Li Sheng couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he simply poured out his grievances. He had passed by his house for several days, but the Communist Party was too cunning. He had to keep a close watch to find even the slightest clue. He had been reluctant to go home because he wanted to make a breakthrough as soon as possible so as not to disappoint his superiors.

However, after working non-stop for several days, Li Sheng began to feel mentally unstable, constantly thinking about capturing prisoners alive to bring back for interrogation. His appropriate show of weakness made his mistakes at work more understandable.

"Sigh," Commander Xiong sighed, patting Li Sheng's hand and praising him for his hard work. Li Sheng seized the opportunity to defend himself, saying that he really hadn't used his secret stash of money to support a mistress. He said that with that extra money, he would have used his connections to get his son into a good school and his daughter into piano lessons.

The main reason is that I want to have more money on me when I treat my brothers to food, drinks, and entertainment. You know, going to Changsan Shuyu or Xinya Restaurant once costs a lot, and I can't openly report it, otherwise his wife will make a huge fuss. It's better to keep the money in advance.

“I understand. Men always need to have some money, and children’s education should start from a young age. Actually, my sister-in-law is not a mean woman. She just finds it strange that you have handed over your salary and bonuses. Where did so much money come from that was deducted? You didn’t embezzle it, did you?” Commander Xiong questioned.

This was probably the real reason Commander Xiong had come to him: what kind of money-making scheme was this that even his wife didn't know about? It was definitely illegal. A thought flashed through Li Sheng's mind, and he suddenly understood his wife and Xiao He's intentions. Indeed, only women could understand women.

After his Ren and Du meridians were opened, his rhetoric became much smoother.

"I know that you, Commander, are strict in military discipline, so how could I dare to embezzle or accept bribes?" Li Sheng frowned, sighing and scratching his head. "Oh dear, I'll just confess. When I went out drinking, I met a broker from the Green Gang. We hit it off, and he asked me to introduce some business to him."

"Isn't this embezzlement?" Commander Xiong's face darkened even more.

“Commander, it’s really not that, not much. I’ve seen some brothers struggling financially, and I’m subsidizing them out of my own pocket, but that’s not a long-term solution. Now I just need to act as a middleman, connecting the brothers and taking a commission as a kickback. Everyone benefits.” Li Sheng generously admitted his role as a middleman, a gray area that couldn’t be simply defined.

"You little rascal, always trying to skirt the rules." Commander Xiong cursed through gritted teeth. "Your sister-in-law has been with you for so many years, how can you keep it from her? I'm giving you a week off. Go back and buy some gold and silver jewelry, explain things to your sister-in-law properly, and tell her to stop making a fuss. How embarrassing would it be for me if two women came to the commander's office demanding justice from me?"

Li Sheng nodded repeatedly in agreement, and had his subordinates support his heavy body as they respectfully escorted Commander Xiong to the ward door. Commander Xiong tactfully stopped Li Sheng's enthusiasm and told him to take good care of himself and not to develop any chronic illness, as he didn't want to be bothered by Mrs. Li again.

Before long, Commander Xiong and his group disappeared at the end of the corridor. Li Sheng reviewed the conversation again, confirmed that there were no flaws, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The brilliance of Xiao He's script lies not in his lamenting that he pays too little for living expenses, but in the fact that he clearly has ways to make money, yet he has to do it secretly behind his family's back.

In today's society, it is only natural for wives to manage the finances. No matter how generous Mrs. Xiong is, she would never tolerate her husband hiding his ways of making money, treating her like an outsider, and letting a non-existent mistress benefit from it.

That's why she helped her sisters seek justice. What they were seeking wasn't their husbands' worthless sincerity, but rather the authority and benefits of being the mistress of the house.

Ha! Women with children are so materialistic! Li Sheng felt a chill run down his spine. Marrying a secret agent, and her thoughts are no different from ordinary women? If she's so capable, why doesn't she confiscate his secret stash of money? Oh well, better deal with Commander Xiong for now.

According to Commander Xiong's way of thinking, traditional couples are a community of shared interests. How can you expect a man who is irresponsible to his family to be loyal to his leader and dedicated to his work? After all, only men with family ties can work hard with peace of mind.

The discovery of Li Sheng's secret stash of money by his wife naturally leads to the conclusion that Li Sheng has a secret. Then, Commander Xiong will use the pretext of his mistress to come and reprimand him. The commander doesn't care whether he embezzles or not; he only cares that Li Sheng has a secret he won't tell.

Then, by feigning retreat and subtly revealing some of his secrets, he could make Commander Xiong believe that he had leverage over him, thus reassuring the leader and reducing suspicion. This would allow him to legitimately conduct his brokerage business. Xiao He, you've played a brilliant game of stratagems!

The long corridor outside the ward seemed to have no end. He knew that Commander Xiong wouldn't be easily fooled. Giving him a vacation clearly meant he didn't want him to deal with Huang Gui's affairs anymore, and he could just go along with it to clear himself of suspicion.

Hey~ I need to be more careful in the future. I really want to have a cigarette to relieve the stress, but Li Sheng searched all his pockets and couldn't find a cigarette pack. In his dejected state, he didn't notice and bumped into someone.

“Li, it really is you. I thought I was seeing things.” The broken Chinese came from in front of him. It turned out to be Mr. William, the deputy inspector of the International Settlement. He was also wearing a hospital gown, and a few stray hairs stuck out of his neatly trimmed curly beard.

The two had frequent contact due to the extradition treaty, and Li Sheng asked with concern, "Oh, dear William, what brings you here?"

William leaned against the wall, his face contorted in pain. "My lumbar disc herniation has flared up again, and the pain is unbearable. The doctor told me I can never sleep on a Simmons mattress again. How are you?"

"I was unlucky; I got hit by a grenade while arresting CCP members, and it injured my internal organs," Li Sheng replied.

William immediately made the sign of the cross: "Oh, God bless you. Those communists are terrible. I've also caught quite a few communist radicals in my jurisdiction. They're so annoying for disturbing the peace."

Upon discovering that there was a group of comrades in the International Settlement, Li Sheng immediately perked up: "William, why don't you extradite them to our headquarters? What if it's a high-ranking Communist Party official? We'd get a reward for it. The inspectors in the French Concession have already made a killing from the bounties."

“Hmph, Frenchmen.” William curled his lip in utter disdain. “If it met the extradition requirements, I would have extradited them long ago. Unfortunately, the people arrested are tight-lipped, and most of them are arrested on the street. They have no weapons, only some radical leaflets, which don’t count as communist publications. I’ll just treat it as a regular public order issue.”

"What a pity!" He was so happy that he wanted to immediately find Xiao He to organize a rescue. Li Sheng grinned and cupped his hands to William. He would have to ask William to help his brother more recently. His leader had given him a lot of task targets. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to work so hard. He almost lost his life.

“Poor Lee, by the way, do your red books count towards the quota? There have been big searches these past few days, and my men have confiscated quite a few evil red leaflets and printed materials. I'll give them to you to offset your quota,” William said rather generously.

Just as he was about to agree, Li Sheng's excited mind cooled down again. The Englishman in front of him was notoriously cunning, nicknamed "Bone Scraper." How could he be so kind as to give him a whole box of red books for free?

"Unsolicited kindness is always suspicious," Li Sheng immediately said, adding that no one takes things for free. He would show him around later, and if it was useful, he would have to apply for some afternoon tea allowance for the police officers.

"Afternoon tea is unnecessary. I actually have a favor to ask." William surprisingly used an idiom to make a request, and solemnly revealed a secret—he had been secretly imprisoning several people.

The incident stemmed from his men finding several radicals during a routine hotel search yesterday. The men were well-dressed and appeared to be people of status, claiming to be an academic team there for an academic exchange. William had checked and confirmed that Fudan University had indeed recently hosted a large academic conference, attended by scholars from various departments of humanities and philosophy.

However, a copy of the "Communist Manifesto" was found in their suitcase, along with a suitcase full of hand-bound books. They claimed that the books were academic papers, and that they didn't know when the "Manifesto" had gotten into the manuscripts, perhaps haphazardly stuffed in by some radical student. They claimed to know nothing else.

Despite being subjected to severe torture, they still insisted they were an academic team and even threatened to hire a lawyer to sue William for illegal detention.

William had no problem with basic communication, but he could barely read Chinese characters. He picked up a booklet and asked a Chinese detective to look at it with him. The detective said it was too profound. He recognized every single character, but he couldn't understand the meaning when they were put together. It was probably a professional academic document.

This put William in a dilemma. He was unwilling to miss out on a big fish, but he was also afraid of arresting the wrong person and offending the upper class, who might hire a lawyer to sue him. He was currently competing with blacksmith Steve for the position of the next commissioner and did not want any scandal to give his opponent an opportunity to exploit.

He knew Li Sheng had wide connections and wondered if he could privately ask an academic expert to authenticate the books. If it was confirmed to be a large number of "red" books, he could immediately label the man a political criminal and extradite him to headquarters. If not, he could secretly release him and downplay the matter.

“It must be kept secret. CC seems to know something. Every time they try to contact me, I make excuses about being too busy with work, but they still send hounds to monitor my office,” William said worriedly.

“My dear William, leave this to me. Don’t worry about the hounds. The day you return to work, we’ll go and see what kind of documents they are.” Li Sheng patted his chest, assuring everyone that he would keep it a secret.

"Oh, thank you so much." William shook hands with Li Sheng insincerely. "May God bless you with a speedy recovery."

“You too.” Li Sheng shook hands, a hint of slyness in his smile.

As temperatures rise, new shoots sprout on the lawns of the public concession's gardens, and two junior agents stand under a road sign, seemingly keeping watch.

Ignoring them, Li Sheng turned on his left turn signal and drove towards the police station gate. After checking the identification of the two people in the car, the Indian officer with the red hat immediately opened the large iron gate.

Clang, clang—the ornate clock case chimed like a gong, and Li Sheng knocked on William's office door almost precisely on time.

Upon entering the office, William warmly embraced Li Sheng. The two exchanged a few pleasantries with their arms around each other's shoulders. William then mysteriously whispered, "Did you bring the expert?" The answer, of course, was yes.

At Li Sheng's loud invitation, a middle-aged man in his forties entered the office. He was tall and thin, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a small mustache. He was dressed in a typical scholar's three-piece suit and seemed very knowledgeable.

Seeing the admiration in William's eyes, Li Sheng proudly introduced the gentleman as Mr. Meng, the 69th generation great-grandson of the great philosopher Mencius. He was a PhD in philosophy who had returned from studying in Germany and was also an expert on the Red Literature Collection.

“Dr. Meng, hello, you can just call me William.” William smiled and extended his hand.

"Hello, Mr. William, it's a pleasure to help you authenticate the documents." Dr. Meng had a calm demeanor that inexplicably gave people a sense of reliability.

“I didn’t expect Dr. Meng to be a PhD graduate from Germany. I personally really like that Italian restaurant near the back gate of the University of Hamburg.” William suddenly blurted out a German sentence, startling Li Sheng so much that he froze. Damn, those British guys are too cautious.

“Excuse me, I study at Humboldt University (University of Berlin), Mr. Wilhelm,” Dr. Meng replied calmly in German. “If you miss the food there, you should consult an Italian chef, not me.”

Dr. Meng's arrogant attitude, however, earned William's respect, and he switched back to Chinese: "Oh, forgive my terrible German, I meant the University of Berlin. Let's look at the documents first."

In front of them, William opened the filing cabinet behind him, took out a leather file bag and handed it to Dr. Meng. William explained that this was just one of the books, and the doctor could start examining it first.

Dr. Meng carefully flipped through the pages one by one, then suddenly closed the book, looked up, and smirked mockingly, saying, "Mr. William, instead of wasting your time testing me, you should put those ideas into practice."

"Dr. Meng, what's wrong?" Li Sheng was a little confused. Why did he suddenly become so hostile?

"This is a paper published this year in *Reflections*, discussing the dialectical relationship of class contradictions. The other is a paper published the year before last in *The Economist* on the practical application of socialist economics. Both are publicly available papers; there's no need for authentication. Farewell." Dr. Meng slammed down the documents and stood up angrily.

"William, how could you do this? You don't trust me at all." Li Sheng received a look from Dr. Meng and then got up to leave.

“Li, my things are too important to show to others easily,” William explained, pulling Li Sheng aside.

"Xiao Li, since they don't trust me, there's no need for me to stay." Dr. Meng said as he stepped out the door.

“Dr. Meng, please wait. Please allow me to sincerely apologize to you. You are indeed a senior expert on red documents.” William spread his arms to stop the scholar and flattered him, “My documents are too profound. Without your level of expertise, it would be impossible to understand them.”

The three stood frozen at the doorway, while curious police officers peered out, but were all scared back by a single glance from their boss.

“Dr. Meng, why don’t we take a look? William has actually consulted other experts, but their academic level is limited. The papers are very, very profound, right, William?” Li Shengyi offered William a way out.

“Yes, it is very difficult, but I believe that with your extensive knowledge, you will be able to understand it,” William said in a humble manner.

"Doctor, let's see how profound it really is. If it's not interesting, let's leave immediately." After persuading the doctor, Li Sheng turned to scold him, "William, the guests have been here for so long, and you haven't even made a couple of cups of hot tea."

"Kevin, quickly go and get my Sri Lankan Grade S black tea, and boil some water." William, having found a way out, immediately went along with it to keep Kevin.

Almost sandwiched between the two, Dr. Meng reluctantly sat back down on the sofa. After a brief moment of awkwardness, William carefully opened the office cubicle. Li Sheng glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and saw three standing safes inside.

However, William quickly closed the cubicle door, and they could no longer see anything.

On the sofa, Dr. Meng, abandoning her arrogant demeanor, gestured to Li Sheng to calm down. Li Sheng silently gave her a thumbs-up. "Heh heh," he thought, "I didn't expect Little He, dressed as a middle-aged man, to speak German! Impressive!"

After a while, William brought out a stack of documents, some as thick as dictionaries and some as thin as leaflets, a very strange ratio.

Both of them perked up upon seeing the document. Qingcheng pretended to be aloof and turned away, waiting for Li Sheng to pass it to her before glancing at it. Li Sheng, in order to maintain their personas, was naturally happy to be the one turning the pages.

After Qingcheng read a few pages, her expression grew increasingly serious. She snatched the document and began to read it carefully. Li Sheng sensed the anxiety his superior was hiding behind his black-rimmed glasses, but she was being too blatant. Who knew how smug the foreigner was thinking?

To remind Qingcheng, Li Sheng specially poured her a cup of black tea, telling her to take it easy and drink some good tea to soothe her throat first.

William, holding a teacup, very gentlemanly allowed Dr. Meng to take her time reading; the documents on the table were only one-tenth of what was in the box.

But Qingcheng seemed to be somewhat engrossed in her own world, completely ignoring Li Sheng, and suddenly shouted with a laugh, "Wonderful!"

The two people in the room were taken aback, their eyes simultaneously focusing on her. Qingcheng was excitedly clutching the manuscript, looking up at the chandelier as if she were savoring something. Li Sheng awkwardly took a sip of tea, feeling that her performance was a bit exaggerated. How could he remind her to tone it down?

Then Qingcheng, even more flamboyantly and with great emotion, read them a passage from the "original text," marveling that even one-tenth of it was so profound, and that the article was simply a perfect fusion of ancient Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy.

“You see, ancient Chinese Neo-Confucian scholars believed that we needed to eliminate human desires to preserve the principles of Heaven. So when we eliminate human desires, are we eliminating the outward appearance of the soul or the inner soul?” Qingcheng asked.

"Huh? The soul is divided into inner and outer parts?" Li Sheng stammered, he only knew about the three souls and seven spirits.

“But God only gives each human being one soul, so how can it be split?” William added.

"Because humans are made of clay, God molded the loose clay into a lump, but didn't fill the pores in it. Aristotle said that reason is the Brahma sound that enters the soul from the outside, while desire is the spark that bursts forth from the depths of the soul. So the soul is free, but it is also bound by constraints," Kiyosumi explained.

"Oh, reason and desire collide and intertwine in the gaps, leading to the split of the soul," Li Sheng kindly chimed in, playing the straight man.

"That's right. The outer soul is our rationality, and the inner soul is our desire. The two souls merge and repel each other. If we destroy the outer soul, we will only be a lump of mud, which can rot and stink if a heavy rain is enough. If we destroy the inner soul, we will only have a thin, brittle shell that will crack as we walk, leaving us empty inside."

Li Sheng was a little dizzy from Qingcheng's explanation. Looking at William across from him, William stared with his mouth agape like a stone statue, with an expression that said, "I don't understand, but I'm utterly shocked." William now truly understood what it meant to understand every single word, but not the whole story.

Qingcheng continued, "Therefore, the author suggests that we should face our desires squarely. Desires are never shameful; they are part of our souls, a gift from God, allowing you to receive grace from a mediocre life. Desires give rise to passion, and passion cannot be defeated or conquered. When it appears, every soul is fearless and invincible in the face of anything."

“Ahem, it is indeed very profound, and I cannot fully understand its meaning for the time being, Dr. Meng,” William cleared his throat and said.

“Mr. William, do you really want the red document? Is that your desire? Don’t hide it. Just say it openly and confidently: I want the red document. Is that so hard?” Kiyosumi frowned and looked at William with a hint of disdain.

"Um... I just want to know if there are any red documents inside?" William still wanted to maintain his gentlemanly demeanor.

"Speak louder! Desire is a gift from God. Do you want to waste God's blessing?" Qingcheng once again brainwashed him with a resounding voice.

“I…I want the red document.” William seemed to be affected, his voice rising slightly.

"Again. Let God hear your passion." Kiyosumi stood up decisively, giving off a tremendous sense of pressure.

“I want the red document. I want the red document…” William said with increasing confidence.

Kiyoshi bent down, a fanatical smile on her face: "Mr. William, how many documents do you have? Take as many as you can. I want to read them all. He used dialectical and metaphysical analysis. I also need to face my own desires. I want to find out whether they are red documents or not."

“Okay, I’ll go get it,” William readily agreed.

Li Sheng was surprised to get the documents so easily. He thought he would have to talk a lot. He was so angry that his stomach hurt from holding back his laughter. He wondered if the organization would reimburse his medical expenses. If Xiao He kept fooling him, William would go crazy sooner or later.

But when William went back into the cubicle, Qingcheng tugged at his sleeve, a hint of worry in her eyes. She pointed to a few words on the booklet.

Found, Secretary, Yu!

As Li Sheng pieced together those words, goosebumps instantly rose all over his body. The documents on the coffee table were none other than the lost roster!

Good heavens! They'd searched high and low without finding it, and now it was right under their noses! Li Sheng and Qingcheng exchanged a glance, overjoyed. They were determined to bring the documents back today.