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At two o'clock in the morning, the night grew deeper and darker, thick as ink, enveloping the entire cowshed.
Tang Yue simply disappeared and sat down on a big tree on the cowshed slope.
A moment later, the sound of light footsteps came from afar, the crunching of leather shoes on the snow breaking the stillness of the night. Two figures slowly emerged from the white expanse.
They were wrapped in thick coats, their hats pulled low, almost obscuring most of their faces; only their breath could be seen condensing instantly in the cold air. These two were spies sent by the Russians to make contact.
They tiptoed to Zheng Qian's house, first cautiously looking around to make sure there was nothing amiss, before gently knocking on the door with a rhythmic "knock, knock, knock".
Inside, Zheng Qian heard the coded signal and got up to open the door. The door slowly opened, and a warm breeze rushed in. The two men who were meeting with him quickly slipped inside, and Zheng Qian carefully closed the door behind him. The whole process was completely silent, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Is everything ready?" one of the contacts asked in a low, hoarse voice in broken Chinese, like a cold wind blowing across an ice surface.
Zheng Qian nodded. "You're three days later than originally planned. What happened?" Zheng Qian couldn't help but ask.
Another contact scoffed, "You think we wanted this? It's because the 20th Division is conducting some kind of military exercise, and the entire border is full of people. We searched for several days before finding a suitable trading point again, and the message has already been sent to the Russians."
"Hurry up, this shipment is very important. The Russians are pressing us for it. We need to complete the handover quickly; we have to leave immediately."
Zheng Qian didn't say anything. He and Tan Aihua quickly put on thick clothes, took their tools, and led the two out.
A biting wind swept across their faces like knives, and the night grew even darker, casting an even deeper shadow over this sinister deal.
Zheng Qian, Tan Aihua, and two Russian liaison agents cautiously made their way up the mountain in the freezing cold. Each step they took crunched heavily on the thick snow, a silent protest from the earth against their treasonous act.
"This damn weather is so cold!" one of the contact agents complained, his voice sounding particularly weak in the cold wind.
Zheng Qian tightened his cotton coat and said in a low voice, "Just bear with it a little longer. The place where the things are buried is a bit far, but we'll be there soon." Their figures looked extremely small in the snow, yet incredibly conspicuous, like stains in this pure white world.
"There's a lot of stuff. Can the two of you manage?"
One of the agents glanced at Zheng Qian and said, "Hurry up and get out of here, stop talking nonsense!"
The four of them struggled through the mountain forest, the trees bent low with snow, snow constantly falling in rustling sounds. Zheng Qian, relying on his memory, searched the intricate forest for the hidden location of the artifact. "It should be nearby."
He spoke, panting heavily, his eyes filled with tension and anticipation.
They began digging through the snow; there was no other way, as it snowed almost every day in winter, and buried items would be buried multiple times. The marks they left couldn't be too conspicuous, and they could only indicate the approximate location.
The biting cold seeped through the gloves, penetrating to the bone. "The snow is so thick, it's going to be really hard to find something," Tan Aihua muttered, but her hands didn't dare stop moving. With each shovelful, a snowflake was kicked up, shimmering coldly in the dim moonlight.
Finally, Zheng Qian's shovel struck something hard. "Found it!" he exclaimed excitedly in a low voice. The others quickly gathered around and began carefully clearing the surrounding snow. As the snow was gradually shoveled away, a wooden box tightly wrapped in tarpaulin was slowly revealed.
Uncovering the oilcloth, the wooden box, carved with ancient patterns, seemed to tell tales of the vicissitudes of time. Zheng Qian opened the box with trembling hands; the artifacts inside still gleamed captivatingly in the snowy light.
Under the faint moonlight, the eyes of the Tang Dynasty tricolor camel figurine seemed to gleam with a lively light, as if filled with sorrow at being taken away from its homeland.
The paper of the Song Dynasty landscape painting scroll trembled slightly in the cold wind, and the landscape in the painting seemed to be sighing for the calamity that was about to befall it.
The warm, smooth texture of the Han Dynasty jade pendant looked out of place in the cold snow. The dragon and phoenix patterns seemed to be struggling, unwilling to be handed over to foreigners by these traitors.
Tang Yue watched from a short distance away, her eyes cold. These things were clearly from different periods, and she wondered how many graves they had dug up to scatter them like this.
What's even more chilling is that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these spies. Tang Yue curled her lips into a cold smile. Stealing, huh? Heh!
After confirming the items and quantity, another contact agent urged Zheng Qian and Tan Aihua, "Quickly, pack everything up and get down the mountain." The meaning was clear: from this moment on, they had nothing to do with this matter.
Zheng Qian breathed a sigh of relief, gripping the shovel. He shouldered the shovel and was about to turn around when Tan Aihua stopped him. Tan Aihua looked at the two spies making contact, "The money from last time wasn't paid. Shouldn't we settle both the last and this debts together now?"
The two spies looked up at the two men, one of them with a sneer in his eyes, "What's the rush? You're living in a cowshed, even if we gave it to you, where would you spend it? We might as well save it for you first."
Zheng Qian was also helpless; it seemed that they didn't want to give them the money again this time. However, they had no way out.
Zheng Qian pulled Tan Aihua back, but Tan Aihua didn't move. She looked coldly at the two contacts. "They agreed in Kyoto that we would settle accounts immediately each time and never owe money. If you don't pay, we won't accept the next shipment."
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