Chapter 343: Veteran Agent

"What is the news on Elder Liu? Can they locate him?" Wang Zhenhua hurriedly asked.

The young confidant gave him an uncomfortable smile.

"Sir... she said... according to the news, it seems Elder Liu might have been arrested by the US government."

"According to the news? What are you talking about? Did the Americans suddenly go stupid and broadcast the secret arrest of someone?" Chairman Wang asked skeptically.

"Sir... that’s..." The young confidant tried to explain, but Chairman Wang would have none of it.

"Give the phone to me! I’ll talk to her personally!"

He took the phone and held it to his ear.

"Agent, this is Chairman Wang Zhenhua. Tell me what you know about Elder Liu."

"Liu? You mean Liu Jianmin? That perverted old goat!? If it’s him, then he definitely got arrested by the Yankees!"

An old feminine voice came from the other side.

It was the kind of voice that sounded like an old Asian aunt who had just gotten into an argument with her neighbor because the neighbor had thrown trash into the bin in front of her lawn and somehow expected her to pay the bill for it.

Or perhaps an old Asian aunt in Chinatown who was furious because her neighbor had connected their tap water to fill their own bathtub. The kind of woman who was already considering throwing a bag of trash through their bedroom window as revenge.

Hearing the crass language from the other side, Chairman Wang suddenly became angry.

Elder Liu was a respectable elder! He was an expert, a genuine cultivator who could fight against firearms! He was a source of national pride and a valuable asset, as well as Chairman Wang’s confidant and bodyguard!

How dare this old woman curse at Elder Liu!?

"I’ll have you know, Agent, speaking to your superior like that, especially someone in my position, could easily land you in a disciplinary prison!" Chairman Wang said in a cold tone.

"Disciplinary prison!? Hah! Who do you think you are, you idiot!? I’m already giving you face by telling you this news!" The old woman roared back at the threat.

Chairman Wang was stunned. He looked at his confidant in confusion.

"Who is this? Where did you get her code?" Chairman Wang asked.

Hearing the question, the young confidant gave him an awkward smile.

He had gotten this code from one of the top-secret cabinets. According to the file, the agent was a veteran who was still active. The paperwork was quite old, but that wasn’t the issue.

This was the last living veteran sleeper agent whose code he had been able to find.

"Sir... I got her code from one of the veteran files..."

"Veteran? That’s good. Give me her activation code."

Chairman Wang extended his hand, and the young confidant immediately handed him the file.

The Chairman ignored everything else and searched for a small piece of paper clipped between the last and second-to-last pages. He tore open the cover containing the code and read the contents inside.

The activation code was like a switch for the sleeper agent. The code had been ingrained into their minds through a series of torture and psychological conditioning, ensuring that they would immediately obey their handler regardless of the handler’s status, or even whether they remembered their own identity.

"The white sparrow remembers five bottles of sour wine."

The Chairman spoke the activation code.

— New York - Chinatown —

In the old basement of the house, filled with dust and cobwebs, an old analog telephone sat on a vintage wooden desk. An old, chubby woman in her sixties was gritting her teeth as she spoke into the phone.

She was Liu Siyu, an old woman in her sixties who currently owned a small Chinese restaurant in New York’s Chinatown.

She was the so-called harsh-mouthed but kind-hearted type, someone whom the people who knew her both loved and found annoying at the same time.

Formerly... she had been a veteran agent of China’s Secret Intelligence Service.

Now, for the first time in more than thirty years since she had retired on her own terms, she was facing a crisis in her life.

"The white sparrow... remembers five... bottles... of sour wine."

The voice came from the other side of the old phone.

This was the activation code, a string of random words that should never appear together in the same sentence, spoken in a strict, timed pattern within an allocated window.

The moment Liu Siyu heard those words, her mind suddenly went blank for a moment before anger began to rise, and the mental conditioning that had been ingrained in her mind suddenly collapsed.

"F*ck you! You retard motherf*cker who was born by stealing a dog’s queue in the reincarnation line! Do you even need to use the code!? You son of a whore!"

"I’m already sixty-five, you dumb f*ck! You think I could even run? Let alone crawl through the dirt, hide, and dodge bullets!? My enemies today are my own damn house stairs! My knees hurt like hell every time I need to go upstairs to sleep!"

"I haven’t touched any weapon other than cleavers and kitchen knives to chase away some punk who comes around demanding protection money! I haven’t interrogated anyone for more than thirty years! The best I’ve done was ask my supplier why the f*ck he keeps giving me rotten vegetables and nearly expired meat!"

"The most action I’ve seen was storming into that damn supplier company and asking the damn manager why my f*cking money, which I paid for their food, ended up paying to become their damn food disposal service instead!?"

"Agent! Listen! You swore an oath! To serve the country!"

The Chairman’s voice came from the other side as he used another trick once he realized the code had failed.

"Don’t ’agent’ me, you moron! Haven’t you been listening!? Do your ears’ only function is to decorate your head!? Or is your brain’s only function is to sit nicely inside that thick skull and tell you to eat, sh*t, and f*ck!? Huh?"

"Do you really think someone like me could get that old pervert out of the Yankees’ maximum-security secret prison in the middle of nowhere in Alaska!? Have you lost your mind?"

"I’m already sixty-five! SIXTY-FIVE! Not damn twenty-five! Do you still think I could seduce someone to get their secret intel!? I’m just a simple cook who owns a small restaurant in Chinatown!"

A long string of curses and venting flew nonstop from the mouth of old Aunt Liu, completely stunning the other side before she immediately hung up with a huff and threw the phone down onto the bare cement floor, breaking it completely.

And just like that, the old analog phone that had sat there for more than thirty years atop the vintage desk in the basement of her restaurant was broken, thus severing the last thread that linked her to her old life.

Old Aunt Liu huffed in anger as she walked out of the basement toward the ground level and sealed the entrance once again beneath the rug.

She let out a sigh and walked back toward the kitchen, preparing to get back to helping her idiot employee cook authentic Sichuan mapo tofu and prevent him from adding too much Sichuan peppercorn.

"Ah-Timmy! Stop adding the peppercorn! This is a restaurant, not a torture chamber! Get the f*ck out! Let me do it!"

Old Aunt Liu said this in her casual tone as she shooed away her idiot employee, who simply couldn’t get it right.

As Aunt Liu started preparing the mapo tofu anew, one of her waitresses came into the kitchen.

"Aunt Liu~ There’s someone who wants to talk to you."

The waitress, an American-Chinese university student she had hired, said it with a smile.

Aunt Liu looked at Timmy in disapproval.

"See? It’s because of your damn mapo tofu! Another customer came to complain about diarrhea again!"

She said this in irritation before letting out a sigh.

After her beloved granddaughter went to live with her husband’s parents, no one could help her get things right in the kitchen anymore.

"I’m sorry, Aunt Liu..." Timmy said dejectedly.

"It’s fine! But you just need to step up your game. Otherwise, Susu might not like you!"

Old Aunt Liu said it with a cheeky grin.

"What are you saying, Aunt Liu!? Me and Timmy aren’t like that!"

The waitress girl said in protest, before Aunt Liu laughed it off and walked to the front desk of the restaurant to see the guest.

But the moment she actually saw the guests, her face paled.

"Shit..."

A group of men in formal suits sat at one of the tables, all wearing solemn expressions. One of them stood up, walked toward her, and flashed his FBI badge.

"Good afternoon, ma’am. My name is Special Agent Carlson. I’m with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’d like to ask you a few questions."

The man who seemed to be the leader spoke with a warm smile.

But to Old Aunt Liu, that smile was terrifying.