Having determined the location of Qing Shi Tea House and where farmer Xia Deyan would stay, Ning Zhiheng didn't delay any longer and turned to walk towards his home.

Xia Deyan was unaware of the situation outside the shop. He directed the workers to speed up the construction. His journey from Chongqing to Shanghai had not been smooth, and he had wasted a lot of time on the road. As soon as he arrived in Shanghai, he immediately set about opening the Qing Shi Tea House so that he could contact Yingzi as soon as possible.

"Boss Xia, why do you insist on having a back door at the back of your shop? It's unnecessary and actually makes it easier to attract thieves..." A construction worker came out from the back room and asked with some doubt.

Xia Deyan explained with a smile, "It's a habit of mine that I like things to be open and transparent, so just do as I say!"

In an apartment in the French Concession of Shanghai, Zhang Puhe was having a low-key conversation with his intelligence contact, Liao Qinglin.

“Captain, this operation was carried out by our action team, right? How come there was no warning beforehand? I could have cooperated!” Zhang Puhe said.

Liao Qinglin said with a smile, "I didn't receive any notification before the specific operation. This operation was sudden and has little to do with us. Tell me, what's the situation in the French Concession right now?"

"The Japanese are negotiating at the French consulate, but it's just formalities and won't hurt us. I've already submitted the case report, so the Japanese won't get anything. However, the Japanese have taken away the surviving Iwai Nosuke. I wonder if there will be any trouble later?"

Zhang Puhe recounted everything he knew.

"There's another thing. Sun Guanglin and Tian Anyi, whom we've been monitoring, haven't shown any unusual behavior so far, and the brothers who were following them haven't found them meeting with anyone either. This shouldn't be the case!"

Upon hearing his words, Liao Qinglin couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Such a big thing happened, more than ten Japanese agents were killed, they should have reported it to their superiors."

At this point, he paused for a moment to think: "Could it be that our judgment is wrong, and their identities may be questionable, but they may not necessarily be Japanese agents?"

However, Zhang Puhe disagreed with his view. He was very confident in his judgment. The timing of Sun Guanglin and Tian Anyi's appearance was too coincidental, roughly coinciding with the time when the Japanese infiltrated the French Concession. They also had many suspicious points, all of which required a reasonable explanation.

Zhang Puhe thought for a moment and said, "I still maintain that there is something wrong with the identities of these two people. I'm thinking now, have we overlooked something important? If these two people are really Japanese agents, they don't need to report to their superiors. They know very well that our police station will definitely report the details of the case to the Japanese to avoid getting into trouble. In that case, it would be unnecessary for them to risk contacting their superiors. Could it be that they didn't contact their superiors for this reason?"

Liao Qinglin nodded slightly, thought for a moment, and asked again, "Since you insist that these two people are problematic, then monitor them for a while longer and see if we can find out which side they belong to."

Zhang Puhe continued, "When I was chatting with Lei Daming a couple of days ago, I asked about the background of these two people. He said that Sun Guanglin and Tian Anyi were introduced to us by one of Chen Jiaping's lovers. They are from the same hometown as this woman. I sent someone to inquire about them these past two days. It turns out that Chen Jiaping has been getting very close to a top courtesan named An Ruwei at a brothel recently. It is said that he paid money to redeem her from her servitude. An Ruwei has only been in the French Concession for a little over a month. The timing is too coincidental. I want to keep an eye on An Ruwei as well to see what's wrong with this woman."

Liao Qinglin immediately perked up. Another suspect was at hand. He nodded and agreed, "I'll take care of this. I'll report to the team leader immediately and assign some people to keep an eye on An Ruwei."

The situation was quickly reported to Ji Hongyi, the head of the intelligence team, who took it very seriously and began to investigate An Ruwei.