The two hands that had been clasped together slowly separated.
Neither of them looked directly at each other's faces; most of their attention was fixed on the one-centimeter-wide gap under the door.
The light from the corridor seeped through the gap, casting a thin white line on the floor. If anyone walked past outside, the line would be instantly cut by a shadow.
Lu Shen felt a slight chill in his heart.
There was no need for discussion, no need for a single word of explanation. Two people who had spent a lifetime on the edge of a knife chose the same warning method in a place where even listening devices couldn't be brought in.
The instincts honed from thirty years of a covert life, combined with the vigilance he had developed in his previous life within the national security system, were perfectly aligned in this matter.
Lu Shen spoke first, his voice very light, his pace faster than usual.
He was timing it in his mind, waiting for the shift change. As soon as people came, the corridor would be filled with footsteps, and even one more word between them would risk exposure.
"Mr. Jin, time is tight, I'll get straight to the point."
Jin Youdai gave a slight nod.
"Three weeks ago, I sent a warning back home through my own channels... Agent Tom Price of the CIA Counterintelligence Center has already launched a secret investigation against you. This information should have reached the highest level by now, and they must have sent you an urgent recall order."
Lu Shen stared into Jin Youdai's eyes and asked, "Why are you still here?"
Jin Youdai looked up at Lu Shen and smiled.
"The order arrived two weeks ago." His voice betrayed no emotion. "The route was all arranged: first to Vancouver, then Tokyo, with someone to meet me at every step, foolproof."
Lu Shen's brows furrowed instantly. "Then why are you still..."
"I sent a message back home." Jin Youdai interrupted him directly. "The position remains, I refuse to comply."
Lu Shen was taken aback, frozen in place.
Refuse to comply.
He had spent nearly a lifetime in the national security system and understood the weight of those three words.
In the military and intelligence systems, those three words were not to be trifled with. It was direct defiance of a superior's order, a covert operative saying no to the entire system.
In peacetime, those three words equated to insubordination.
But when Jin Youdai said those words, his expression was calm.
"I knew about Price's actions before you did." Jin Youdai raised his hand slightly, stopping the words on Lu Shen's lips. "His people started going through the dossiers of China-related operations I handled half a year ago, checking if the timelines matched, if my objections during evaluations were linked to the failures of those operations. I know these indirect evidence chains inside out."
He glanced at the light strip under the door and then back.
"You're right, the knife is at my throat." His tone remained unchanged. "But having a knife at your throat and actually being cut are two different things."
Lu Shen was about to speak when Jin Youdai added, with a tone of an elder's solemnity to a junior, leaving no room for interruption: "Listen to me first."
Lu Shen closed his mouth and listened quietly.
"I've been in this position for thirty years." Jin Youdai enunciated each word clearly. "From a junior analyst just entering, to the director of the Asia Policy Research Office, retired and then rehired as an Asian Intelligence Consultant. I've walked this path step by step, each step on the edge of a knife." Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.
His fingers, hanging by his side, moved slightly.
"Do you know what you can see from this position? The Pentagon's Western Pacific military deployment adjustment plans, I can see the original document the day it's signed; the National Security Council's internal simulation models for sanctions against China, I have a complete copy on my desk before it's sent to the White House; the CIA's annual infiltration plans against China..."
He looked at Lu Shen, speaking each word deliberately: "I was involved in setting them."
The air in the compartment seemed to chill instantly.
Lu Shen's mind was as clear as a mirror. Each piece of intelligence sent back home would give them an edge in the game against the US.
Jin Youdai spoke lightly, but with the slightest misstep, it would mean utter destruction.
"The longer I stay, the more I can send back." Jin Youdai didn't resort to grand words. "Once this line is cut, it's not a matter of stopping for a few days; it's completely ruined. This position can't just be filled by any newcomer; it requires thirty years of experience, thirty years of trust, thirty years of connections. There's no shortcut to these things; they're built with time and life."
A faint smile tugged at his lips again, still so subtle.
"Even if I had ten lives, I couldn't replace this line."
Lu Shen's nails dug hard into his palm, the pain shooting up his arm, yet it couldn't suppress the suffocating feeling rising in his chest.
Rationally, he couldn't find a single fault in Jin Youdai.
Every word was logical, every judgment terrifyingly accurate.
Jin Youdai had been entrenched in the enemy's heart for thirty years, his grasp of risk, his sense of the bigger picture, far surpassed his own.
But aside from reason, his mind was filled with the file of Jin Youdai he had seen in the Top Secret Archives Room in his previous life.
Black and white, each word piercing his heart like a needle.
He knew the old man's ultimate fate, knew how he died in the end to prevent any leaks.
"Mr. Jin..." Lu Shen's voice was tight.
The compartment fell silent again.
The light strip under the door remained unbroken, the corridor outside was quiet, but both knew time was running out.
Lu Shen opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He wanted to persuade him, wanted him to leave, but every word from Jin Youdai was airtight, leaving no gaps, not even a crack to pry open.
This man wasn't acting on impulse; he had calculated every path with thirty years of experience and chose the most perilous one.
Jin Youdai watched the struggle on Lu Shen's face, his smile deepening slightly, and spoke: "Don't try to persuade me."
"From the day I entered this building, I was prepared for everything."
His gaze drifted to the shadows in the corner of the compartment.
"Thirty years. I've watched as Polar Bear vanished in Anchorage, as Monsoon was exposed in Manila, as Iron Bridge was turned in Seoul. One after another, names crossed off the contact list. With each one, I told myself, the next one could be you."
Those code names, he had seen them in the files in his previous life, each one a loyal soul buried in a foreign land.
"This is the only thing I've done in my life." Jin Youdai withdrew his gaze, focusing back on Lu Shen's face. "This task, I will see through to the very end."
His voice finally gained a few more degrees of weight, as if to drive these words into Lu Shen's heart.
"Even if that day truly comes, I will never leave the organization with any trouble, never bring any disgrace to the country!"
After speaking, the trace of emotion on Jin Youdai's face was wiped clean, reverting to that steady, mountain-like elder.
In the compartment, Lu Shen could hear his own heartbeat, pounding painfully against his chest.
He leaned against the wall, his hand clenched tightly, unable to utter a single word.
He couldn't speak.
Jin Youdai didn't know that the young man before him knew his fate with absolute clarity.
It wasn't a guess, not a calculation, but a conclusion seen firsthand in another timeline, in the top-secret files, an ironclad fate.
Captured.
Endless interrogations, not a single word spoken.
Then it was federal prison.
Finally, a most ordinary transparent plastic bag in the prison, he placed it over his head, tying the bag's opening with a shoelace.
He used his life to protect all the comrades in hiding, to safeguard the line he had guarded for thirty years!
Lu Shen looked at the living old man before him, at his shirt washed to a faded white, at the faint smile on his face, and suddenly felt a sharp sting in his nose, tears falling without warning.
Jin Youdai saw it.
He looked at this young man, a stranger from just a few minutes ago, at his reddened eyes, at the silent tears falling, and said nothing, just watched quietly.
In thirty years, he had seen many people cry.
But he had never seen anyone cry like this.
Lu Shen raised the back of his hand, wiping his face hard, erasing the tears cleanly.
Then he stepped back half a step, feet together, back straight, and bowed deeply to Jin Youdai.
A solid ninety-degree bow.
This bow wasn't just for himself.
It was for those who knew his story but never had the chance to say thank you in person!
It was for those who, in another time, could only bow before his gravestone!