On a street in Chongqing, Fang Boyi, a professor at Jinling University, walked out of his home. He was wearing a long gown and old-fashioned gold-rimmed glasses, and walked slowly toward Jinling University with his hands behind his back.
Across from his house was a Western restaurant. Ning Zhiheng, dressed in plain clothes, sat down and looked down at a newspaper. A cup of hot coffee sat on the table.
Ning Zhiheng learned from his third brother, Ning Zhiming, that Professor Fang Boyi of Jinling University had also moved to Chongqing with the university. So he decided to go and find him. He wanted to follow Fang Boyi's lead to find farmer Xia Deyan and re-establish contact with the underground organization.
Ning Zhiheng watched Fang Boyi's figure disappear, hesitated for a moment, but did not follow. Fang Boyi's situation was very special, and Ning Zhiheng naturally could not mobilize the personnel of the action department to follow him, not even his most trusted confidant Sun Jiacheng. Moreover, Sun Jiacheng was currently guarding Tan Jinhui's side, intensifying his training, and could not be separated from him for the time being.
As for others, he couldn't trust them even more, so he had to follow up on this work himself. However, his time was too tight, and it was difficult to keep track of Fang Boyi every step of the way. After thinking for a long time, Ning Zhiheng decided to try his luck first. If he really couldn't find any clues about the farmer's location, he would have to ask Liu Datong and Chen Yanqing to search for him. However, this would be risky and very unsafe, and he wouldn't do it unless absolutely necessary.
Ning Zhiheng put away the newspaper, placed a banknote on the table, stepped out of the Western restaurant, looked around, and began searching the nearby streets, centered on Fang Boyi's house.
He continued walking down the street, focusing mainly on the teahouses and tea shops lining both sides. The farmer was in the tea business in Nanjing, and his years of experience had given him a deep understanding of the tea industry. If he were to choose a place in Chongqing to conceal his identity, nothing would be more suitable than opening a teahouse and tea shop.
Because Chongqing is full of teahouses and tea shops, the locals love to drink tea, especially teahouses. This is Chongqing's most distinctive industry. People from all walks of life and all sorts of backgrounds have the habit of going to teahouses every day to drink tea, rest, enjoy tea, chat, meet friends, and discuss business. Teahouses are the main social venues for people. It can be said that teahouses and tea shops are ubiquitous in the streets and alleys of Chongqing. Of course, this is also the easiest place for intelligence agents to hide and operate.
Ning Zhiheng did not go into every teahouse and tea shop to check carefully, nor did he have the time. He simply looked at the signs and storefronts, temporarily ignoring the old signs. If it was a new sign or storefront, it meant that it had recently opened, so he would write down the name and location on a piece of paper, and then go in and find various excuses to check, trying to find the farmer's figure.
Time passed slowly. After walking all day, Ning Zhiheng had walked through several streets nearby. Looking at the teahouses and tea shops he had written down, which filled a whole page, he couldn't help but shake his head. This kind of efficiency was far too low.
He hadn't expected there to be so many teahouses in Chongqing. At its peak, one street had more than ten teahouses. Even after searching for a long time, there were still too many to look for. He wondered if he should try a different approach, as this was taking too much time.
At this moment, Ning Zhiheng's biggest need was time. He was waiting for the two bureau chiefs to return to Chongqing, hand over the work, and then he would have to leave for Shanghai to take charge of the work. He really couldn't stay in Chongqing for too long.
However, he had no other good options at the moment, and he didn't want to rely on others until the very end. Ning Zhiheng secretly decided that if he still couldn't make any progress after searching for two more days, he would have to risk using Liu Datong and Chen Yanqing. He had to find the farmer before leaving Chongqing.
Over the next two days, he lingered around Fang Boyi's residence, wandering back and forth through the streets, visiting any teahouse or tea shop with a slightly new sign, but he couldn't find the farmer anywhere.
On the afternoon of the third day, Ning Zhiheng finally decided to give up. It was indeed too difficult for him to find a farmer in the city on his own.
Just as he finished his day's search and was about to leave, he noticed a tea shop on the north side of the main street ahead. He went over to take a look, glanced at the sign, and was immediately stunned.
The tea shop's signboard was a newly carved wooden plaque, with the four characters "Qingshi Tea Shop" prominently displayed. Ning Zhiheng was overjoyed; he was almost certain that this was the place he had been searching for.
Hard work pays off, and it wasn't all for nothing. Otherwise, if Liu Datong had been put in charge of this task, even if the farmer had been found, there would have been many problems later on.
At this moment, Xia Deyan, the owner of this Qing Shi Tea House, was sitting at the window on one side of the shop, watching the pedestrians outside the street, with a pot of tea on the small table next to him.
More than a year ago, after receiving the last message from Shadow, he soon withdrew from Nanjing. With the relocation of Jinling University to Chongqing, his superior, Fang Boyi, was also arranged by the organization to come to Chongqing to preside over underground work and establish a new underground organization.
As an intelligence agent directly under Fang Boyi's command, Xia Deyan also came to Chongqing and went undercover. He easily reopened a tea shop as a cover for his identity.
Xia Deyan didn't know if Shadow could find him as he said, but he was Shadow's only contact. In order to make it easier for Shadow to find his whereabouts, Xia Deyan decided to keep the original signboard name, Qing Shi Tea House!
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