cicada

Chapter 1294 Suspicion
Tokyo, Ministry of Finance.

Lin Fuyilang walked to the parking lot carrying his briefcase, opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat. He slightly adjusted the position of the rearview mirror inside the car and observed the situation behind him.

In the rearview mirror, several low-level clerks passed by the back of the car, arguing fiercely in loud voices about which restaurant's geisha was prettier.

After hearing what the other party said and looking at those familiar faces he often saw, Lin Fuichiro let down his guard, started the car and drove out of the gate of the Ministry of Finance.

After driving for a while, Lin Fuyilang suddenly frowned and glanced at the right rearview mirror vigilantly. A black car had followed him for three intersections. Was this a coincidence?

After several years of training, Lin Fuyilang is no longer the intelligence rookie who was scared to death by Zuo Zhong. He thought calmly for a moment and continued to drive along the original route, but slowed down a bit.

This is a test method. If the vehicle behind also slows down, there must be a problem.

If the other party does not slow down or leave, it only means that the other party may have noticed something, but it does not completely eliminate the danger.

Lin Fuyilang slowly eased off the accelerator, using the rickshaws and pedestrians in front of the vehicle as obstacles and slowly lowered the speed without making any noise. Apart from that, he did not take any professional anti-tracking actions.

He understood that if he was really being targeted by the counterintelligence agency, any attempt to counter the tracking would be equivalent to exposing himself, and the Ministry of Finance's job did not include teaching people how to escape being tracked.

After a while, the car passed the fourth intersection, and the suspicious vehicle turned and drove into a fork in the road. Lin Fuyilang's heart sank suddenly.

Because at the moment when the black car broke away, another old Buick car drove out from the fork in the road and followed his car again. This was a standard follow-up tracking technique that only intelligence agencies would use.

Countless scenes flashed through Lin Fuyilang's mind: he was captured, his father committed seppuku to apologize, his wife was thrown into a comfort camp, and the Lin Fu family, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, was wiped out.

He shook his head, pinched his thigh with his right hand, forced himself to calm down, and tried hard to think about what went wrong.

As the eldest son of the Linfu family, the future imperial earl, the son-in-law of the Suzuki family, and a close associate of Prime Minister Konoe Fumiya, it is impossible that both the military and the cabinet's intelligence agencies would target him for no reason. There must be a reason.

Was it the "Outline of the Empire's National Policy under Changing Situations" that he gave to the Military Control Commission that was leaked?

It is possible, but the likelihood is low. After the war between Germany and Russia broke out, the Kwantung Army's actions against Red Russia were not a secret, and many people knew about it.

Did he let something slip when delivering the intelligence?

This is still wrong. If he was discovered during the intelligence delivery process, the other party should not follow him, but would wait in the dead mailbox in order to catch him red-handed.

Without solid evidence, the counterintelligence agencies cannot even speak loudly to him, let alone arrest him, unless they are not afraid of offending the Ministry of Finance or do not care about budget cuts.

Lin Fuyilang ruled out many possibilities, and suddenly thought of Konoe Fumiya and the recent situation in Tokyo. Could it be that someone wanted to use him to attack Prime Minister Konoe and force him to resign as soon as possible or even step down directly...

Political struggle is cruel and every possible means will be used. But sometimes a small chess piece can move the whole situation forward.

By getting rid of him, first the position of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance will be vacated, then Konoe Fumiya can be forced to step down, and finally, Lin Fu and the Suzuki family can be weakened.

With so many benefits, the military, the political arena and even some members of the Locust Room will be tempted. Not to mention that he has problems, even if he has no problems, these people will find "evidence".

Lin Fuyilang, who had a rich imagination, felt that he had discovered a shocking conspiracy, but at the same time he felt angry and helpless. The empire had its own national conditions and no one could withstand investigation.

He wasted public funds, took bribes and perverted the law. Not only him, but the entire Ministry of Finance, from ministers to ordinary clerks, did this.

This was still a minor problem. At most, he could resign from the Ministry of Finance to get out of this. What he was worried about was that he might not be able to endure the torture during the interrogation...

"idiot!"

Lin Fuyilang cursed angrily, but he didn't know who he was cursing, maybe Tojo, or maybe Konoe.

But cursing would not solve the problem, so he silently pondered over ways to save himself. After thinking it over, he finally came up with a good idea - find a scapegoat to act as a shield.

If his guess was correct, the people following him didn't care who made the mistake, as long as the person was related to Prime Minister Konoe. So who should he choose? Hayashi Fuichiro thought about Konoe's confidants.

Konoe's personal secretary Ozaki, diplomatic adviser Sorge, and more than a dozen names and figures kept appearing in his mind.

His dilemma could be solved perfectly by tampering with these people's personal belongings, such as putting a few secret documents of unknown origin in them, and then reporting them to the counterintelligence agency.

The question is whether he really should do this. Lin Fuyilang returned to the door of his mansion in desperation. The Buick sedan behind him was parked far away on the side of the road.

The servant guarding the door pushed open the door, and Lin Fuyilang started the car again, his eyes subconsciously looking at the stalker and the ramen restaurant across the street.

The car suddenly stopped, and then slowly drove into the mansion. The viscount in the driver's seat had a nervous expression, and his hands holding the steering wheel were shaking slightly. The ramen restaurant replaced a pair of warm curtains above the door frame. This might be a trivial matter in the eyes of ordinary people, but for Lin Fuyilang, this was the highest level of warning, which meant that he was at risk of being exposed. He was really being targeted.

The only good news is that the Military Control Commission has noticed that his situation is not good and has given a warning. There must be someone around to protect him at this moment, or to silence him when he is arrested.

Lin Fuyilang forced himself to get out of the car slowly, walked to the porch to change his clogs, and handed the briefcase to his wife Suzuki Sonoko.

Suzuki Sonoko took the briefcase and bowed deeply: "You are back. Thank you for your hard work today."

"Sonoko, I've said that you don't have to say these things in the future. You and I are husband and wife, and I prefer the Western way of getting along in families." Lin Fuichiro pulled Suzuki Sonoko's hand and said.

The affectionate couple then walked into the house. This house was a wedding gift from Kantaro Suzuki to the two young people. There were no high-rise buildings around, so it had excellent privacy.

Outside the door, a young man in a Buick sedan kept looking out. He had a buzz cut and was wearing a national uniform similar to the army uniform. He was scratching his ears and cheeks like a restless monkey.

"Why don't we control the suspects, and the suspects' wives, these non-nationals should all be arrested."

The young man patted the dashboard in front of him, looking impatient, with a sharp voice and a strange accent.

The other people in the car turned a cold face and pretended not to hear the other party's nonsense. Who would dare to give such an order to arrest the son of an imperial earl and the grandson-in-law of a general without any evidence?

"Baga! You are such a bunch of cowards! You are unworthy to be the subjects of His Majesty the Heavenly Locust!"

Finding that his words received no response, the young man widened his eyes and cursed in a low voice, his angry saliva spraying in the face of the driver next to him.

The driver wiped his face calmly, turned around and replied seriously: "Captain Sudo Tetsuji, our mission is to monitor the target, not to capture. Unless we receive an order from the General Staff Headquarters, we will not leave this car.

I also suggest you stay calm. The identity of the target is very sensitive. Any inappropriate action will bring us great trouble. The influence of those nobles is greater than you think."

Everyone in the car became more and more dissatisfied after hearing this, and they all started to persuade Sudo Tetsuji, not taking the young captain seriously at all.

Tetsuji Sudo clenched his fists tightly, his chest heaving, and his eyes were staring at the driver who was the first to disagree with him, his eyes full of fierceness.

The driver really wanted to slap the other person to let him know what it meant to respect his seniors, but considering the gap in their positions, he decisively chose to follow his heart and patted Ma P against his will.

"Captain Sudo is worthy of being valued by the Minister and the others. If you can get permission, we are willing to follow you to capture the target and his wife."

Hearing this, Sudo Tetsuji immediately got out of the car and walked into the grocery store. After driving away the store owner, he picked up the phone to call the General Staff Headquarters and started talking incoherently.

The people in the car were stunned, especially the driver. He just flattered the new captain with a few words, but the other party took it seriously?
"Mr. Minister, I think..."

"Ha! I'll find evidence."

"Excuse me, Mr. Minister."

Inside the store, Tetsuji Sudo was scolded by the new head of the Intelligence Department, Kiyohsu Okamoto, but he still made assurances to the other party in a high-spirited tone.

After hanging up the phone, Sudo Tetsuji walked out of the grocery store, and then as if he had noticed something, he cast his gaze towards a row of shops in the distance.

Customers were seen coming in and out of the shops from time to time. The road in front of the shops was bustling with people, and vehicles of various models and ages whizzed past. Everything seemed normal.

Sudo Tetsuji looked at that place suspiciously for a long time before returning to the Buick, sitting down and closing his eyes. This would be a long wait, and he had to seize every opportunity to rest.

A qualified intelligence officer should learn to fall asleep quickly at any time and in any place. Seeing that he didn't speak, the other agents also began to take turns, and the car gradually became quiet.

The street lights came on, and the shops in that row closed one by one. Two faint voices were heard on the second floor of one of the oil painting shops.

"That guy is sharp and a dangerous man."

"Well, the General Staff can't be full of idiots. There must be one or two talented people."

"Do you want to find a chance to solve it?"

"No hurry, protect Lin Fu first, his safety is the most important."

In the quiet room, Zuo Zhong, who had a beard, and Wu Chunyang sat opposite each other. Both of them wore traditional kimonos and talked in low voices in Japanese.

①Ryotei is a restaurant located in the flower street where geishas serve customers. There are two types of ryotei. One type has a kitchen and a chef, and provides customers with homemade dishes. The other type does not have a chef, and only provides drinks and simple side dishes, and will help customers order takeout if needed.