Cheng Xingye walked quickly, and after crossing a street, he turned and suddenly turned into a secluded alley.

Soon, Ning Zhiheng also entered the alley. However, as soon as he entered the alley, he looked up and found that there were not many pedestrians in the alley. Moreover, the alley was straight and there were almost no obstructions. He knew that he should not follow too closely, otherwise it would be easy to expose his whereabouts.

So he stopped and retreated to the alley entrance, waiting to increase the distance between the two of them before continuing to follow. He secretly calculated the time, knowing that he only needed to wait until Cheng Xingye was almost at the end of the alley before entering the alley entrance, thus ensuring that Cheng Xingye's figure would not leave his sight.

As expected, Cheng Xingye was extremely vigilant. The reason he chose this alley was because it was relatively remote, had simple terrain, and almost no shops or people. If someone was following him, he could easily detect it.

When he was halfway there, he suddenly turned back, looked at the few pedestrians walking towards him, carefully examined them, and after confirming that he hadn't found them, he went out of the alley again.

Just as Ning Zhiheng was about to enter the alley, he saw Cheng Xingye turn back halfway. He knew that this was indeed Cheng Xingye's counter-tracking action, so he quickly retreated and hid in a shop next to the street, watching Cheng Xingye walk past him quickly not far away.

Although he evaded this counter-tracking maneuver, the subsequent tracking did not go smoothly. After receiving the warning today, Cheng Xingye was obviously extremely cautious and took counter-tracking actions again. Fortunately, Ning Zhiheng reacted more quickly and evaded his observation once more.

Once Cheng Xingye was sure it was safe, he saw a rickshaw coming towards him, waved it over, and climbed in.

Rickshaw pullers can run much faster than ordinary people walk, so Ning Zhiheng couldn't just follow. He looked around, but for a moment, he didn't see any rickshaws passing by. However, he had spent a long time in Nanjing before and was quite familiar with the roads nearby. He looked in the direction Cheng Xingye had left, turned around and went into another street, flicked his scarf to cover his face, raised one hand to hold down his hat and pull down the brim to hide his face, and started running. Fortunately, there weren't many pedestrians around. Although they were surprised to see him running on the street, no one paid much attention.

He soon arrived at the intersection and saw two rickshaw drivers waiting for business. He quickly hailed one, got in, and told the driver to drive quickly in the direction he specified. Finally, he saw Cheng Xingye at a street corner.

Following Cheng Xingye's rickshaw from a distance, I saw him heading east, finally stopping, getting off, and entering an antique shop located on the shore of Xuanwu Lake.

This is a famous antique market in Nanjing. The whole street is lined with shops selling antiques and calligraphy and paintings. Ning Zhiheng got off the rickshaw a short distance away, paid the fare, and sent the rickshaw away. He then walked to the entrance of this antique shop and looked up at the signboard. The horizontal plaque hanging above the shop had three large characters: "Shandezhai".

Ning Zhiheng did not stop along the way, but continued forward and lingered in an antique shop diagonally opposite.

In the antique shop of Shandezhai, the shopkeeper was a man in his fifties. When he saw Cheng Xingye enter, his eyes narrowed and he quickly gave a signal to the shop assistant next to him.

The waiter then picked up a rag, went out of the shop, and began wiping the windows. He glanced around and carefully observed the surroundings and passersby.

The shopkeeper led Cheng Xingye up to the second-floor attic and asked in a low voice, "Old Cheng, aren't the noodles supposed to be served at noon? You've come a bit early."

Cheng Xingye did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he went to the window, looked out for a moment, and then turned back to the shopkeeper with a very serious expression. He said, "Change the lanterns immediately. Today's meeting is canceled!"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper's expression changed drastically. Without asking any further questions, he took a lantern from the cabinet behind him, went to the window, opened it, and took down one of the two lanterns hanging outside, replacing it with a new one.

The two lanterns are exactly the same, except that the original lantern has the character "吉" (auspicious) written on it, while the newly hung lantern has the character "福" (fortune) written on it!

Seeing that the shopkeeper had finished changing the lanterns, Cheng Xingye breathed a sigh of relief. Without waiting for the shopkeeper's questions, he spoke first and explained, "Old Xiao, someone warned me that Takasugi has been exposed and the Japanese are monitoring and tracking him. He hasn't noticed yet."

I don't know if the information is true or false, but to be on the safe side, I'll warn Takasugi first, cut off all contact with him, and wait until I confirm the situation before proceeding further.

The owner of Shandezhai Antique Shop was Xiao Hong, codenamed "Rock," who was one of the eight members of the Nanjing underground party organization's leadership group and the person in charge of intelligence work.

Previously, when Fang Boyi was in charge, the Nanjing underground party organization had a structure where five standing committee members each took charge of a specific area. Cheng Xingye was responsible for the collection and transportation of medicines, while Xiao Hong was in charge of intelligence work. However, in the past few years, the Nanjing underground party organization had undergone personnel changes and suffered several major losses, resulting in a significant change in its organizational structure. In order to adapt to the new struggle environment, the Nanjing underground party organization prioritized intelligence work and formed an eight-person leadership group for the hidden front. Most of the members were involved in intelligence work, and Gao Shanrenxi was one of them.

Of the eight members, Xiao Hong had worked in Nanjing the longest. For many years, he had been in charge of intelligence work in Nanjing and had the most experience in struggle. Cheng Xingye relied heavily on him.

Upon hearing Cheng Xingye's words, Xiao Hong immediately realized something was wrong and quickly asked, "Who warned you? How did they know that Gao Shan had been exposed?"

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