Chapter 165 The Enemy Agent is Right Beside Us
As she passed the back gate of the factory, she caught a glimpse of a blurry figure moving around near the waste pile.
"Who's there?" Xu Zhili stopped and gripped the lunchbox in her hand tightly.
The figure paused noticeably for a moment, then stepped out of the shadows.
"It's me, Old Chen."
Engineer Chen from the Equipment Department dusted off his hands. "Good morning, Comrade Xu. One of the machines broke down yesterday. I've come to see if I can find any usable parts."
Xu Zhili nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
But after walking a few steps, she suddenly felt something was wrong—Old Chen was wearing clean leather shoes and trousers, and didn't look like he had been rummaging through the scrap heap.
In the following days, Xu Zhili became more cautious.
She noticed that Lao Chen always arrived early, but rarely actually repaired the equipment.
He often wandered around secluded areas of the factory, especially near the row of abandoned old factory buildings behind the factory.
On two occasions, Xu Zhili saw him talking to a cigarette vendor after get off work, and the vendor's eyes were too wary, unlike those of an ordinary vendor.
What aroused her suspicion the most was that once when Lao Chen was "repairing" the equipment, she glimpsed him actually drawing something on a piece of paper.
When he realized he had been seen, he hurriedly stuffed the paper into his pocket, but in that instant, Xu Zhili noticed lines that resembled the layout of a factory area.
Xu Zhili remembered the anti-espionage propaganda posters put up in the factory, and her heart skipped a beat.
But she didn't make a fuss; she just quietly observed and recorded.
She noticed that Lao Chen would take two hours off every Wednesday afternoon, saying he was taking his elderly mother to see a doctor. However, one time when Xu Zhili happened to be at the hospital taking care of her mother, she didn't see Lao Chen at all.
It was Wednesday again, and Xu Zhili told the class monitor in advance that she had something to do at home and asked for half a day off.
She hid on the second floor of a teahouse across from the factory, staring at the factory gate.
At 2 p.m., Old Chen hurriedly walked out of the factory gate, but instead of heading towards the hospital, he turned towards the old town in the west of the city.
Xu Zhili followed from a distance, her heart pounding like a drum.
Old Chen stopped in a secluded alley, looked around, quickly made a gesture at the corner of the wall, and then hurried away.
Xu Zhili waited a while before going over and found that one of the wall tiles was loose and could be removed with a gentle push.
It's empty inside.
Xu Zhili didn't touch the secret mailbox, but went straight to the county public security bureau.
The young police officer who received her initially didn't take it seriously until she explained her observations and deductions in detail.
Ultimately, it was Team Leader Ye who was responsible for receiving Xu Zhili.
Team Leader Ye wore a kind smile.
Xu Zhili recounted everything she knew, one by one, without missing a single detail.
How Old Chen pretended to repair the machine but actually measured it, how he handed it over to the cigarette vendor, and that hole in the wall.
"Young lady, you can't just say these things carelessly," Team Leader Ye frowned.
"I'm not making this up."
Xu Zhili took out a few sheets of paper from her pocket. On them was a map of the factory area that she had drawn from memory, marking the locations and times when Lao Chang appeared.
"I also noticed that he always used a special pencil when drawing, and our factory could not get that kind of pencil at all."
Team Leader Ye's expression turned serious.
Three days later, the public security authorities, in conjunction with the factory's security department, took action.
They caught Old Chen red-handed as he was about to retrieve the intelligence from the hole in the wall, and following the trail, they arrested five members of the spy organization, including a cigarette vendor.
An investigation revealed that Lao Chen's real name was Li Junzhe, and he was an enemy agent who had been lying low for many years, gathering intelligence on military facilities around the machinery factory.
Thanks to Xu Zhili's meticulousness and courage, this major enemy spy case was successfully solved, preventing the leakage of state secrets and ensuring the safety of local military facilities.
When the news reached the machinery factory, the entire factory was in an uproar.
Everyone looked at Xu Zhili with admiration.
Team Leader Ye also expressed his sincere gratitude to Xu Zhili on behalf of the public security authorities, saying, "Comrade Xu Zhili, thanks to you this time, we were able to successfully capture this group of enemy agents with the detailed clues you provided."
"Your actions have made a tremendous contribution to safeguarding national security and are worthy of our emulation."
After that, Xu Zhili became a hero in the factory, and many young female workers took her as a role model, paying more attention to any unusual situations around them. The safety awareness of the entire factory area has improved a lot.
As the story spread, Xu Zhili's deeds caused a sensation in the county, and more and more people learned about this brave and meticulous female technical consultant at the machinery factory.
Her story was written into a report and published in the county newspaper, inspiring more people to contribute their efforts to safeguarding national security in their ordinary positions.
However, Xu Zhili did not become complacent or arrogant because of this.
As always, she would work whenever there was a machine that needed repair, and if there was nothing to do, she would stay in the village of Xiangyang Brigade and concentrate on drawing up design drawings.
However, she felt an even deeper sense of responsibility for national security.
Perhaps, this fight against espionage is far from over.
And she, the "anti-espionage vanguard" who had just emerged from her glory, has probably become the next target of enemy agents.
When Director Zhou and Director Zhang found Xu Zhili, Director Zhou patted her on the shoulder and said, "Little Xu, today is your glorious day. The factory has prepared a celebration banquet for you tonight. You must come."
Xu Zhili nodded in agreement, but her gaze still involuntarily drifted toward the side door.
My memory goes back to the day I was commended.
Xu Zhili remembers catching a glimpse of a figure in the very front row of the auditorium—the person was wearing a baseball cap, half of their face hidden in the shadows, and slowly raising their hand.
That's not the gesture for clapping.
Xu Zhili's heart skipped a beat.
Almost instinctively, she took a step to the side and forward, blocking the county leader's path.
At the same time, her gaze was fixed on the figure, and she saw clearly the shape of the black object in the person's hand.
It's not a gun.
It is a camera.
The person wearing the baseball cap seemed to realize that he had been spotted, quickly lowered the brim of his cap, turned around and disappeared into the light and shadow of the auditorium's side door.
"What's wrong, Comrade Xu Zhili?" the county leader asked with concern.
Xu Zhili snapped out of her daze and forced a smile: "It's nothing, I was just a little dizzy."
The commendation ceremony concluded with a majestic march.
Xu Zhili was surrounded by a group of people, with her coworkers vying to shake her hand and reporters chasing after her with questions.
She dealt with all of this, but her mind was entirely on the man in the baseball cap.
Why would someone secretly observe her at the commendation ceremony? Why did she hurriedly leave as soon as she realized she was being watched?
She gently stroked the pen and carefully tucked it into her coat pocket.
To whom should we report this unexpected incident?
Was the man in the baseball cap taking pictures of her without her consent?
Is it retaliation by enemy agents, or is there something else going on?
Countless questions swirled in Xu Zhili's mind.
She walked slowly out of the machine factory. The afternoon sun was so bright it was blinding, but she felt a chill creep up her spine.
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