My years of espionage

Chapter 1809 Discovering the 'Octopus'

"Mr. Sasaki, please stay." Cheng Qianfan said politely.

"Secretary Cheng, Secretary Liu, goodbye." Sasaki Terunosuke smiled and bowed slightly.

The two returned to the car.

"I got a painting, so the trip was not in vain." Cheng Qianfan said as he placed the scroll on the passenger seat.

"Mr. Daquan..." Liu Xia said.

"What's wrong?" Cheng Qianfan started the car and turned to ask.

"It's quite interesting." Liu Xia considered her words and said, "You've kept me at a distance, yet you're willing to give me a painting."

The two visited Oizumi Takaya to give him New Year gifts, but they did not expect that Oizumi Takaya's residence was heavily guarded. Even though they revealed their identities, they were still checked by bodyguards and the New Year gifts were carefully searched before they were allowed to pass.

Oizumi Takaya accepted the New Year gift and expressed his gratitude, but he had no intention of keeping the guest for a chat and directly served tea to see him off.

It was Cheng Qianfan who took the initiative to come forward and said that he highly admired Oizumi Takashi's paintings and begged Lord Oizumi to give him the paintings.

Oizumi Takaya's face then showed a little more smile, and he asked Sasaki Terunosuke to go into the room and get an old painting for Cheng Qianfan to give as a gift.

……

"It's not surprising that many artists have quirks," said Cheng Qianfan.

Liu Xia smiled, nodded, and didn't say much.

"Will you return to Shanghai tomorrow?" Liu Xia asked.

"Yes, the boat ticket for 8:30 tomorrow morning." Cheng Qianfan said.

"I bought a gift for Xiao Zhima. I'll give it to you when I get back to Yihe Road," said Liu Xia.

"Then I won't be polite." Cheng Qianfan said with a smile.

"It's for Xiao Zhima, not for you." Liu Xia said unhappily.

……

Yihe Road, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Liu Xia took out a box wrapped and tied with silk from the cabinet and handed it to Cheng Qianfan.

Cheng Qianfan pretended to open it and take a look, but Liu Xia glared at him and he smiled awkwardly.

"I would also like to appreciate Mr. Daquan's paintings." Liu Xia picked up the scroll that Cheng Qianfan had casually placed on the table, untied the rope, and opened it to take a look.

"Ah." Liu Xia only took a glance and closed it with a sigh, "Why is it a painting like this? Brother Fan didn't expect you to be such a person."

"What kind?" Cheng Qianfan asked in confusion. He saw Liu Xia glaring at him and was even more confused. So he took the scroll and unfolded it to have a look.

Cheng Qianfan's face changed slightly, and then his eyes flickered. He shook his head and said, "This is a painting that Lord Daquan gave me. I don't know what the painting is about. You know this, Sister Xia."

This is a picture of a Japanese woman with somewhat revealing clothes, lying in the waves, surrounded by shrimps, crabs and fish. The woman's eyes and eyebrows are quite charming.

"Huh?" Cheng Qianfan stared at the painting and suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Liu Xia glared at Cheng Qianfan, "You're addicted to it, be careful of getting stye."

……

"This should be a copy of Hokusai Chiba's painting by Oizumi, and it is indeed true." Cheng Qianfan said, pointing to the small words in the lower left corner of the painting, "This is a masterpiece that Oizumi copied in his early years."

"Hokusai Chiba?" Liu Xia couldn't help but ask, "Who is this?"

"He is a famous painter in the Edo period of Japan. He has a profound influence on Japanese painting." Cheng Qianfan said, "It seems that Mr. Oizumi Takashi admires Hokusai Chiba very much, which is not surprising."

As he said this, Cheng Qianfan rolled up the painting, smiled and said, "It's a good painting, but it's really not suitable for the public."

"Put it away carefully. If your sister-in-law sees it, she will at most scold you. But if your eldest daughter sees it, it will be a big deal," Liu Xia reminded.

"Of course." Cheng Qianfan said calmly, "If Ruolan knew that Xiaobao saw this painting, she would definitely jump up and scold me."

Cheng Qianfan chatted with Liu Xia for a few more words, then left Yihe Road carrying the paintings and gifts.

……

After Cheng Qianfan left, Liu Xia closed the office door.

Her expression suddenly became extremely serious.

She just pretended not to know Hokusai Chiba, and also pretended not to recognize that Oizumi Takaya was copying Hokusai Chiba's work.

Of course she knew Hokusai Chiba, the Japanese painter from the Edo period.

Liu Xia deliberately remained calm just now, because when she looked at the painting that seemed to be about romance, she immediately thought of a more famous painting by Hokusai Chiba.

Those were two octopuses using their tentacles to attack a nearly naked female divers. It looked like the octopus was violating the female divers, or like the octopus was lying on her body to collect essence. (PS1)

These days, her mind was full of investigating the enemy's "octopus" plan. When she first thought of this famous painting with the theme of octopus and female divers, Liu Xia's heart suddenly shuddered.

At this moment, Liu Xia was sitting on a chair, frowning and thinking.

Daquan is so great.

Project 'Octopus'?
Is there some connection between Oizumi Takashi and the 'Octopus' project?

Liu Xia also realized that her speculation was too arbitrary, even far-fetched and a bit random.

You can't link Oizumi Takashi, an official sent by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to Nanjing to promote Sino-Japanese friendship, with the enemy's extremely secretive "Octopus" plan just because you associate a painting with a famous painting.

……

This is sheer speculation without any evidence.

However, Liu Xia felt that she could not control her thoughts. She began to think unconsciously:

Let's first assume that Takashi Oizumi is related to the 'Octopus' project.

Now set an anchor point and search for evidence.

Oizumi Takashi is just an official of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, so why did Chu Mingyu pay special attention to him? He personally instructed to send a New Year gift to Oizumi Takashi!
In addition, when Cheng Qianfan accompanied her to see Oizumi Takaya today, he had to go through the inspection of the sentry bodyguards. This in itself was not very reasonable, and it seemed to indicate that Oizumi Takaya's identity was actually not simple.

expert?

Liu Xia was thinking, is an official of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and a famous painter who is good at painting considered an expert?
……

Returning to the Yadong Hotel where he was staying, Cheng Qianfan sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, thinking.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Ping put the hot water bottle in Cheng Qianfan's hand and asked.

"Based on the current situation, we have reason to suspect that the enemy is printing and counterfeiting legal tender," Cheng Qianfan said. "And I suspect that Oizumi Takashi, a famous painter from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Japanese Cabinet, played a very key role in this."

"I remember this name." Zhang Ping said thoughtfully, "You mentioned this person to me before. At that time, you told me about this person as a 'funny story'. When this person was in France, he drew a franc and even spent it successfully."

She looked at Cheng Qianfan and said, "So, assuming our guess is true, the role played by this Oizumi Takashi in the enemy's counterfeiting of legal currency should be his superb painting skills."

Cheng Qianfan nodded slightly.

"Do you remember the 'Octopus' project that I have been secretly investigating?" Cheng Qianfan whispered.

In a previous secret telegram with Comrade 'Farmer', Zhang Ping had obtained Comrade 'Farmer's' approval and also learned about the 'Octopus' plan. This was because Cheng Qianfan needed an assistant to investigate the matter, and Zhang Ping, as the mistress of 'Little General Cheng', had recently lived in Nanjing for a long time, which was just right.

"It seems to be working out." Cheng Qianfan nodded and said.

"Seems?" Zhang Ping asked.

"I can't say for sure." Cheng Qianfan said, and then he opened the painting that Oizumi Takashi gave him.

"This is a popular genre painting in Japan." Zhang Ping looked at the painting openly and nodded.

She was naturally aware of Comrade Huo Miao's character, and was not shy about it, nor did she need to hide her cultural and knowledge level.

……

"This is Oizumi Takashi's imitation of Hokusai Chiba's painting. It is written here." Cheng Qianfan said.

"Hokusai Chiba is a famous painter in Japan's Edo period. He has a profound influence on Japan's painting heritage."

"The fact that Oizumi Takashi actually gave away his copied painting shows that he was very fond of and pleased with it," said Cheng Qianfan. "This also shows that Oizumi Takashi admired and even worshipped Hokusai Chiba."

"I have some knowledge about Hokusai Chiba and his paintings."

"There is a very famous painting by Hokusai Chiba, which is about an octopus and a pearl-diving mermaid."

"Two octopuses are lying on the naked mermaid, violating her, or rather, taking her essence." Cheng Qianfan lit a cigarette and said.

"I thought of the painting and the word 'octopus' immediately came to my mind, and I was alerted almost instantly."

“It’s actually an uplift.”

Cheng Qianfan looked at Zhang Ping and said, "So, I suspect that Oizumi Takashi has something to do with the 'Octopus' project."

"I can understand why you came up with this guess." Zhang Ping thought for a moment and said, "However, there is no visible or tangible connection between Oizumi Takashi and the 'Octopus' project. It is really hard to be convincing just by relying on an association based on a painting."

"Yes, it's just an association, there is no evidence." Cheng Qianfan nodded and said, "The 'Octopus' project is very important, and it won't work just based on some conjectures."

"But, in other words," Zhang Ping said thoughtfully, "let's just say that we suspect that Oizumi Takashi may be related to the enemy's counterfeiting of legal currency."

She took the soup pot handed back by Qianfan and said, "If the enemy counterfeits legal tender on a large scale, even crazily and recklessly, it will be a devastating blow to our economy."

……

"I understand what you mean." Cheng Qianfan nodded and said, "You mean that the enemy's counterfeiting of legal currency itself poses a very fatal threat and blow to us. From this point of view, this matter is worthy of the weight of Operation 'Octopus'."

"Yes." Zhang Ping nodded. "Of course, these are just some opinions and views I came up with based on your guess and then deduced from it."

"Operation Octopus, Operation Octopus." Cheng Qianfan murmured.

He stood up, paced, took a few puffs of his cigarette, and said, "Zhang Ping, you see, the octopus is taking nourishment from the divers, and the enemy is counterfeiting a large amount of legal currency and using waste paper to seize a large amount of supplies from us. Isn't this also a form of nourishment, similar to the octopus taking nourishment from the divers?"

After hearing Cheng Qianfan's metaphor, Zhang Ping thought about it carefully, and then she nodded, "I have thought about it carefully. Your idea and metaphor are very interesting. No, the more I think about it, the more I think it should be like this."

Cheng Qianfan didn't say anything. He sat down, put out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, then leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes and thought.

Zhang Ping walked over to him and massaged his temples.

"It should be like this." Cheng Qianfan said.

"However, no matter how reasonable the speculation is, even if we are very confident that our speculation is correct, for such a major event, we must have evidence." Cheng Qianfan opened his eyes, looked calm, and said.

……

"What are you going to do?" Zhang Ping asked.

"We didn't know what Operation Octopus was before, and we had no clue about it. So, we were like a headless fly, not knowing where to start." Cheng Qianfan said, "Now that we have a suspected target."

He said to Zhang Ping, "Although it is difficult to obtain evidence from this suspected target, this is already a great progress. At least we have a target, and what we need to do is to work around it."

"That's true." Zhang Ping nodded and said, "As long as we keep an eye on Oizumi Takashi, we will eventually find clues of the enemy."

"This is too passive." Cheng Qianfan pondered and said, "If Oizumi Takashi has already completed the most critical task of Operation Octopus, then even if we keep an eye on him, I'm afraid it will be difficult to gain anything."

As he spoke, he had an idea and asked Zhang Ping, "What do you think is the most important thing in counterfeiting legal tender?"

"How would I know that?" Zhang Ping smiled bitterly and shook her head.

Then, her eyes lit up, "I remember making mooncakes in my hometown. As long as the mold is made..."

"I understand what you mean." Cheng Qianfan's eyes lit up and he said, "It's a woodblock print."

He nodded. "This also explains why Oizumi Takashi could play a role in such a confidential matter as counterfeiting legal tender."

Zhang Ping continued, "Yes, a famous painter with superb skills who can draw banknotes is undoubtedly very important and even irreplaceable for the enemy to carve the engraving plates for printing banknotes."

"Hypothesis." Cheng Qianfan looked at Zhang Ping, his tone full of inexplicable excitement, and asked, "In other words, it's not a hypothesis, the enemy has indeed counterfeited legal currency, and it can even be made to the point where it is indistinguishable from the real thing."

"This also shows that Oizumi Takashi has most likely helped the enemy to forge the engraving of the legal currency." Cheng Qianfan said, "In this case, is Oizumi Takashi's role reduced?"

"That's how it should be." Zhang Ping said thoughtfully.

"Then why do the enemies still attach so much importance to Oizumi Takashi's safety?" Cheng Qianfan frowned and said thoughtfully, "The bodyguards at Oizumi Takashi's residence should be from the Special High Section. I can smell the scent of those people."

PS1: There is indeed such a painting and such a famous Japanese painter in the Edo period, but Hokusai Chiba in this chapter is the name in the book, not this name in history.

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