Chapter 32: You Have Been Deceived

A moment later, I saw Master Shen unconsciously take a step forward. His voice was hoarse, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"What did you say? Bai Qi has been dead for a long time?"

"Y-yes, that's right!" Qi Yang looked at Master Shen, his face full of bewilderment. "Old Shen, what’s wrong with you? Did you find someone from our team? Where are they?"

Master Shen’s brow furrowed into a deep knot. He sat on the bed and pulled out cigarettes, offering them to me and Qi Yang. He lit his own first, then helped light the one in Qi Yang’s mouth.

I felt a sense of unease in my heart.

With his cigarette hanging from his lips, he leaned toward the stove in the room. Master Shen gave me a glance before finally saying to Qi Yang, "We... we did indeed find someone from your survey team!"

Upon hearing this, Qi Yang was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with joy. He looked toward the door. "Really? Who did you find? Where are they? Let me see them quickly!"

Master Shen stared intently at Qi Yang, saying, word by word, "We found... Bai Qi!"

As soon as these words were spoken, I saw Qi Yang freeze in place. Whether it was my imagination or not, I thought I saw his brow twitch slightly while he stood there in shock.

Perhaps worried that Qi Yang wouldn't believe him, Master Shen pointed at me and said, "If you don't believe me, you can ask Sanqi!"

I nodded, looked at Qi Yang, and said, "It’s true! We really did find Bai Qi..."

"Impossible!" Before I could even finish, Qi Yang roared, interrupting me. His expression turned violently frantic. "I saw Bai Qi die with my own eyes! I saw it! How could you have found her? It’s absolutely impossible! Impossible!"

Seeing Qi Yang in such a state of hysteria, Master Shen and I exchanged a subconscious look, though for a moment, neither of us spoke.

Suddenly, the frantic expression on Qi Yang’s face vanished, replaced by confusion. He looked at us and said, "No! That’s not right. You said you met Bai Qi? What did she look like?"

Master Shen pondered for a moment and said softly, "She was a girl in her twenties, with short hair and very short fingers—classic 'fox hands.' Furthermore, she claimed that there was no deputy captain in the survey team, yet she knew who you were! I felt something was off, so I sent Sanqi away, but that was when she attacked me! My wound is her doing."

Qi Yang seemed to realize something. He said directly, "Quick, let me see your wound!"

Master Shen was puzzled but still pulled open his clothes to reveal the injury. Qi Yang squinted and examined it carefully for nearly half a minute before looking up at Master Shen, speaking calmly, "You were deceived."

"Deceived?" I frowned.

"Deceived? What exactly is going on?" Master Shen asked, equally confused.

Qi Yang took a drag of his cigarette. The smoke billowed, stinging his eyes until they watered, but he didn't seem to care.

"That woman was not Bai Qi! We met her in the forest. Midway through, she told us she was just a tourist who had gotten lost in the old woods. It was only later, when we were passing through Wild Boar Ridge, that she suddenly disappeared."

"A tourist?" Master Shen smiled slightly, glancing at the wound on his own body, and muttered to himself, "She doesn't look like a tourist to me! With those 'fox hands' of hers, most people wouldn't even know what they are."

"At first, she wore gloves, so we didn't see them. By the time I discovered it, the survey team had already entered Wild Boar Ridge and was in no position to care about anything else." After he finished speaking, Master Shen and Qi Yang suddenly locked eyes. Then, in perfect unison, they both said, "A spy!"

I was confused. "A spy? What kind of spy?"

Master Shen turned to look at me. "Sanqi, let me ask you: which country is the Greater Khingan Mountains closer to?"

"The Soviet Union! Or rather, what is now Russia!" I replied quickly.

"Exactly! The Soviets are famous worldwide for their spy networks. With our country so close, why wouldn't they send spies? Usually, they use large sums of money to lure our own people into becoming spies. Especially in the winter, the Ergun River and the Mohe River are very close to the Soviet border. In winter, both rivers freeze over, and all one has to do is crouch down and run quickly across the ice to reach the other side. The Soviets love to use money and beautiful women to tempt people here into giving them intelligence—like where our troops are stationed or where our secret bases are located. There’s no helping it; everyone was poor back then. But these agents recruited through temptation are low-level spies. High-level spies, on the other hand..."

Listening to Master Shen’s explanation was like hearing a tall tale. I had heard plenty of stories about spies when I was a child, especially about the Japanese spy Yoshiko Kawashima.

I whispered, "Are these high-level spies like Yoshiko Kawashima?"

Master Shen nodded. "Exactly! In reality, Kawashima was a high-level spy trained by the Japanese. So, Sanqi, if that girl wasn't the Bai Qi from the survey team, then I suspect there is a high probability that she is a high-level spy trained by the Soviets and deployed into our Greater Khingan Mountains!"

Hearing Master Shen put it this way, I suddenly felt that it was entirely possible.

Just as he said, a skill like the "fox hands" wasn't something easily mastered; if the Soviets were training spies, it was entirely plausible.

I even began to imagine the sequence of events: at first, this Soviet spy snuck into China from the Ergun or Mohe rivers. To avoid attention and ensure her safety while conducting reconnaissance, she entered the Greater Khingan Mountains, where she happened upon Qi Yang’s survey team.

It was logical for her to lie about being a lost tourist; in the nineties, there were indeed many thrill-seekers who would venture into remote areas of China, only to perish.

She stayed with the survey team until they entered Wild Boar Ridge, at which point she took advantage of the chaos to escape. The next day, she ran into Master Shen and me while we were searching for the remaining team members at Qi Yang’s request. Fearing her identity might be exposed, she lied and claimed to be Bai Qi. Having spent time with the team, she naturally knew that a girl named Bai Qi existed.

But then, Master Shen sensed something wrong and sent me away—presumably to question her alone about something he didn't want me to hear—only to be wounded by her "fox hands."

I began to reflect. Perhaps this was the true nature of the entire affair. From this perspective, it certainly seemed to fit.