1927, April 10th, Sunday, late at night, Shanghai concession, Xinyuanli, Shandong Road.
There was a small three-story building on the third floor. Behind a window on the south side of the building, thick curtains were drawn, blocking out the weak light behind the curtains.
In the house, a man leaned against the window, listening to the sounds on the street. His brows were tightly knitted.
A woman was sitting in front of a desk with headphones on her head. She kept writing on paper with a pencil in her hand. In front of her was a 15-Watt AC-D main vibration transmitter, and the indicator light on it was flashing frequently.
On the paper, a series of numbers had been recorded. Below the numbers was the translated message: " Stork Sparrow, you must assassinate Wang Xing, the former commander of the Shanghai Military Station, within three days.'
——————
1927, April 13, Wednesday, Hongkou telephone traffic class.
It was already nine o'clock. Liu Yuexin glanced at the clock on the wall of the switch control room again. It was a black clock with a white dial and black Roman letters. This clock had three hands, and there was a thin and long second hand.
Liu Yuexin glanced at her colleagues on both sides. The young girl on the left was called Xiao Hong. She was a typical Shanghai small-time capitalist. She had fashionable curly hair and looked like the hottest movie stars. She was beautiful and fashionable. What she hated the most was that the pair of large black earphones messed up her curly hair. Therefore, she always grabbed the earphones with her left hand and inserted and pulled out the answer plug with her right hand to record. Her speed was not slow at all. Therefore, the duty monitor acquiesced to her actions that were on the verge of breaking the rules.
The busiest time of the day had passed, and there were obviously fewer calls now. The operator, who had been busy all morning, had some time to relax.
Now, Xiao Hong's headphones were placed on the notebook on the table. She was holding a small file and leisurely manicuring her nails. She would find all the time she could use to decorate herself. At this moment, she was manicuring her nails, and the next moment, she might pick up a small mirror and put on lipstick. At this moment, she did not notice the gaze that flashed past her.
The one on the right was Sister Sun. She was in her thirties and came from Jiangnan Water Village. She also brought the tranquility and gentleness of Jiangnan Water Village. She was never like Little Red, who became the most dazzling person in a group of people from the beginning. However, after a period of time, she would undoubtedly become the most charming one among the group. She had a strong scholarly aura and a classical charm.
Sister Sun had always been a role model for women in Liu Yuexin's mind. She often secretly imitated her, but the noble temperament that came with life could not be learned.
The telephone switch in front of Sister Sun was now plugged into two pairs of cables, and the black headphones were placed on her messy hair. She was so focused on her work that she did not notice the gaze that drifted over.
The other three colleagues in Class B had their backs to him. They were busy with their own work, either connecting the line or sorting out the records. It was impossible for them to notice Liu Yuexin's strange expression.
——————
Liu Yuexin was very nervous because it was her first time on a mission, and the time was approaching.
At around nine o'clock, there would be a call to her telephone exchange, waiting for the order to take action. After that, the Special Higher Police's number 3 private line would also call into her switch and send out the action command.
If the Special Higher Police's Line 3 requests to transfer to the Military Police, then we'll immediately take action. If they requested to be transferred to the investigation team, then this operation would be canceled.
This operation had to be carried out within a minute, or else it would fail!
Therefore, the phone that was waiting for the order needed to receive the action signal at the first moment, so it had to be in standby mode on the switch.
There needed to be a reasonable reason for standby, and that was that the line was busy. Therefore, one of her tasks this time was to find a line with a high frequency.
As for how to determine which call was the one for the operation, this was already a secret code.
If the caller said,'Miss, hello.'This was the code word.
It sounded a little strange, but because it was strange, no one had ever said that. The word 'hello' was forced on him, and it was used in the wrong place.
The usual response was,"Hello, Miss."”
——————
Just as Liu Yuexin was feeling uneasy, a click sounded! The number plate for Line 4 fell, and a set of indicator lights lit up, corresponding to the number 5124. She knew that this was a phone call from the Western District of the International Settlement. The phone number was unfamiliar, and it should be the kind that was rarely used!
Liu Yuexin picked up a cord and inserted it into the socket of number 4 in the communication area. She pressed the answer button and asked gently,"Hello, where do you want to go?”
She had graduated from Yanjing University's Department of Foreign Language, and her major was Japanese. She was a Shanghai native, and her home was on Zhapu Road outside the North District of the International Settlement, which was now the Japanese occupation area.‘Knowing Japanese, being from Shanghai, and living in China were the basic requirements for the Hongkou telephone class to recruit operators.
Liu Yuexin repeated this sentence countless times every day. For different calls, Liu Yuexin would choose different languages. Usually, when it came from a Japanese agency such as the military police and the Army Command, she would usually answer in Japanese. If she came from the foreign concessions or the Chinese border, she would choose Shanghainese or English. In most government departments, she would speak in a pure Beijing dialect.
After the Battle of Shanghai, 70% of the houses in Zhabei and Yangshupu had been reduced to ruins, and most of the businesses and factories outside the concession had been destroyed. As a result, a large number of people poured into the concession, driving up the skyrocketing housing prices, making the lives of most outsiders a heavy burden. The difficulty of finding a job made most people's lives difficult!
Although she was a university student, she had to apply for a job as a telephone operator in Hongkou at the beginning of the year to make a living, even though it was a Japanese office.
After the Battle of Songhu, the Special Higher Police re-established the Hongkou Police Department outside the Shanghai Bureau of Communication. Its location was only separated from the largest Japanese intelligence department in Shanghai, the Special Higher Police.
The purpose was self-evident. It was to include the Shanghai Japanese garrison, the embassy gendarmerie, the police station, the port authority, the Special Higher Police, the Detective Team, the railway bureau, and other important departments, as well as the telephone numbers of Japanese companies in China, all under the surveillance of the Special Higher Police.
The Shanghai telephone administration was also helpless. They had to connect the Shanghai telephone network with the telephone network of the Hongkou telephone service department.
A long time ago, Shanghai began to use automatic exchanges. There was no need for manual transfer, and one could dial directly. However, the telephone department in Hongkou still installed a double magnet switch, which was an old-fashioned manual switch.
Only in this way could the incoming and outgoing calls of the Hongkou Police Department be easily monitored and recorded. The disadvantage was that he needed a group of professional female operators.
There was still a limit to the installed capacity of the dual magnetic switch. Fortunately, in this era, the total installed capacity in Shanghai was only 10,000 units, excluding all kinds of special lines.
Therefore, the six sets of large telephone exchanges in the telephone traffic department were fixed. The telephone lines that Liu Yuexin was responsible for included the western and northern sections of the International Settlement.
Of course, there were also many private lines and internal lines that passed through the telephone lines of the Hongkou telephone traffic department. These lines were particularly confidential and did not require manual transfer. However, it could be monitored under special authorization. Most of the telephone lines between departments still needed an operator to transfer them. Therefore, the Hongkou Police Department became a department under the control of the Special Higher Police, and it was also an extension of the Special Higher Police.
There were routine checks and surprise checks. Every operator was also given a notebook that recorded every call that was transferred through the telephone class, including the number, time, gender, accent, and duration of the call.
There were two soundproof monitoring rooms next to the main control room of the traffic department, which were filled with all kinds of monitoring equipment. There would be random eavesdroppers there. The eavesdroppers were the specially authorized chief of the traffic department and the squad leader on duty. They were all Japanese.
When the Special Higher Police was investigating a case, they would often arrange for the team leader to eavesdrop on a certain phone.
——————
"Miss, hello, please help me answer the phone.”A calm voice came from the other end of the phone. It was steady and calm, without any emotion.
Her heartbeat suddenly sped up. This phone call with code words finally came. This was the call she had been waiting for.
"Alright, wait a moment!" Her tone was as calm as possible, but it still trembled.
The other party obviously heard her nervousness. The low voice of a middle-aged man came through the earpiece again."Miss, it's okay. I'll wait.”
——————
In fact, she had been praying the whole morning that this call would not come.
Her home was lucky enough to survive the war because it was close to the International Settlement. Although she had also hidden in the International Settlement and experienced a little bit of displacement, her family was still peaceful and her days were as peaceful as water.
She knew that as long as she answered this call, her peaceful life would be broken. As long as she picked up this call, she would start to step into the abyss, and what awaited her would be darkness.
However, this was also her choice. Perhaps she had started this choice a long time ago.
The other party only said that he would like to answer the call, but he didn't say the phone number that needed to be answered. This was also agreed in advance. This number needed to be provided by Liu Yuexin. In fact, Liu Yuexin had already thought of this number.
Mitsui had three numbers. Like other Japanese companies in Shanghai, the phone line was also connected to the Hongkou telephone department. One was the private landline in the president's office, number 4788; The other two numbers, 4787 and 4786, belonged to two large office areas. Each office area was connected to several extension phones, and the phone line was very busy. Because there were many extension phones, it was difficult to find out if the phone was busy at a certain time!
Mitsui Corporation was busy with business and had complicated customers. This was also the reason why Liu Yuexin thought of Mitsui Corporation first when she received the mission.
——————
Liu Yuexin pressed the 4787 number buttons one by one and began to record. 9:01:01, access 5124, transfer 4787, male, Shanghai accent.
4787 was a very busy phone line, and this time happened to be the peak of the business of Yang Hang. Liu Yuexin was very confident in choosing this phone.
However, there was a small probability of an incident today. The ringtone on the other end of Mitsui Yanghang rang, but the line was not busy! This made Liu Yuexin's heart sink, and her back began to tighten!
Usually, when the call rang, the operator would cut off the participating service line and withdraw from the call.
This time, she didn't cut off the service line. Instead, she immediately cut off the 4787 line.
In the concession of Mitsui, in the office area where 4787 was located, four extension phones rang at the same time. However, after only one ring, they all went silent.
——————
Liu Yuexin immediately switched to 4786 from Mitsui.
Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button to ring! And began to pray, millions of people are busy, millions of people are busy.
In the end, the ringing sound rang again! The phones in the two offices of Mitsui were idle at the same time, which was almost never seen before.
This made Liu Yuexin's heart sink! Her hand movements also slowed down.
"Hello, this is Mitsui Yang Co., Ltd.”Just as she was hesitating for half a second, a voice with a Jingdu accent came from the earpiece, just like her Japanese teacher at Yanjing University.
Before Liu Yuexin could react, the other party picked up the phone. She was very familiar with this young voice. Although she had never seen it before, she could hear this voice from countless phone calls to Mitsui.
This must be a very diligent and polite employee. He answered the phone very quickly and often talked to her before she could cut off the service line.
People with status would always wait for the phone to ring three times before picking up the phone, just to avoid the awkwardness of talking to the operator.
There were also people who did not speak when they picked up the phone and listened carefully to see if the operator was involved. If the operator did not cut the line, they could hear the other operators calling the number from the receiver.
——————
In such a situation, Liu Yuexin would say in Japanese,"Sorry to disturb you, there's a call coming in."
The other party would immediately say,"Thank you so much. Please!"”
But this time, Liu Yuexin didn't know how to respond! The other party obviously did not hear the expected sound. There was a short silence between the two sides.
Two seconds later, the sound of electric pulses came from the receiver of Mitsui 4786, followed by silence. Obviously, the phone line had been cut off!
Liu Yuexin's left index finger that had pressed the reset button turned pale as if it had been bitten by a snake. She quickly pulled it back.
"Please wait a moment, the line at Mitsui is busy!”She sent a Shanghainese sentence in time to ensure that the other party was waiting for orders.
——————
Both of Mitsui's phones were not busy, so Liu Yuexin had no choice but to hang up the number 4 line.
The so-called hanging up was an operation that the operator had to perform many times a day. During peak hours, there would sometimes be several lines connected at the same time, and the lights on the switch would flicker one after another.
If he couldn't handle so many calls in time, the operator would become impatient and make mistakes. At the same time, in order not to make the caller overly anxious, they would usually pick up the phone first and politely send a sentence,"Sorry, please wait a moment!"
Then, the line would be suspended. Although the light would no longer flash, the number plate of this line would still be in a falling state. After the operator was busy with other lines, he would deal with this line.
It was normal when the lines were busy, but when the five lines of the switch were not full, it was unusual and eye-catching.
Liu Yuexin glanced around in panic again. Fortunately, Xiao Hong was still busy with her nails and Sister Sun was still focused on her route. Neither of them paid attention to her.
The sound of the clock swinging showed that time was ticking slowly. It sounded so clear and long to Liu Yuexin.
——————
As she waited anxiously, Liu Yuexin began to let her imagination run wild.
Tonight, could he still drink the millet porridge that his mother made? Could he still lie on his small but very comfortable bed? Could he still hear the banging sound that would ring on time every night?
There was also his mother's nagging, his father's sigh, and even the gossiping of the neighbor's aunt.
Those things that couldn't be any more normal, even tedious and annoying, were all so good to her now. It would be even better if she could continue like this.
Will I be caught?
She knew that there was a dark underground prison cell in the courtyard next to the telephone service class!
In the many training sessions organized by the Special Higher Police, there was a discipline that was repeatedly mentioned: Anyone who participated in spying would first be interrogated, then thrown into prison or even shot.
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