As soon as Tang Lingyi heard Long Ge's urgent tone over the phone, he immediately lost his appetite for lunch and hailed a taxi straight to Wan'an District—an outlying, remote suburb of City S.
In this era of rapid urbanization, even suburban areas weren't as backward as they used to be; they now boasted well-connected roads and numerous high-rise buildings.
But this modernization was only skin-deep. Behind those gleaming towers still lay rows upon rows of dilapidated single-story houses.
And hidden within this district was Tang Lingyi's organization.
The organization he served was called "Modern," a mysterious group that made its living by selling confidential political and business intelligence. It had been operating in City S for quite some time.
Both Tang Lingyi and Li Tianlong had been orphans, picked up as children by Yang Jie—the organization's former second-in-command—and raised within its ranks.
Thus, returning to the organization felt just like coming home to Tang Lingyi.
But his "homecoming" was a bit more complicated than most.
Tang Lingyi entered a traditional Chinese herbal medicine shop. The storefront looked distinctly old-fashioned—dim lighting, and behind the counter stood an elderly shopkeeper still using an abacus.
This old shopkeeper was named Pei Wanjing. In his youth, he'd been a brilliant spy and master thief. Now in his sixties, he served as the organization's gatekeeper. Dressed in a brown traditional jacket and wearing reading glasses, his eyebrows and beard were already streaked with gray.
When he saw a customer with shoulder-length hair walk in, he assumed it was a young woman and instinctively asked, "What can I get for you, miss?"
"Pfft… It's me, Old Pei," Tang Lingyi said, exasperated.
"Huh?" Pei Wanjing pushed up his glasses, squinted carefully, and finally recognized him. "Oh! It's you, Lingyi! When did your hair get so long? I thought some girl had wandered in by mistake!"
Pei was teasing Tang Lingyi about his nearly shoulder-length black hair—a result of chronic procrastination about getting a haircut. At some point, Tang had simply decided, "Why not just grow it out?"—and so he did.
"Ah, artists are always like this," Tang Lingyi brushed it off with a shrug. "Anyway, I heard something happened here, so I rushed back. What's going on, Old Pei?"
"Nothing's happened."
"Nothing? Oh right—you're retired. If something serious happened, you probably wouldn't even know. Guess I'll head in then."
If Old Pei was still here, that meant the organization likely hadn't faced any major crisis; otherwise, they'd have evacuated him long ago.
Damn Li Tianlong—he'd probably tricked him into coming back again!
Tang Lingyi was just about to step inside when Pei Wanjing suddenly stopped him. "Hold on—what medicine are you buying?"
Tang Lingyi paused for a second, then quickly replied, "Danggui."
"How much?"
"Eight jin, three liang, and one qian."
The old shopkeeper nodded, clicked his abacus a few times, and said, "Go ahead."
"Got it!"
Just now, Tang Lingyi had spoken in code. "Danggui" signaled that he was an internal member of the organization, while "eight jin, three liang, one qian" was a coded reference to August 31st—the organization's founding date.
Even though Tang Lingyi had grown up inside the organization, precisely because of his deep ties, extra caution was required. After all, someone could potentially impersonate him and infiltrate the group. Thus, "Modern" always operated with extreme vigilance.
Once the correct password was given, Pei Wanjing's abacus actually functioned as a cipher device. Hidden beneath it was a circuit that, when triggered by the right sequence, unlocked a secret entrance. Among the many herbal drawers in the shop, only insiders knew which specific cabinet could be pushed open. So even if an impostor somehow learned the verbal password, they still wouldn't know how to access the hidden passage.
Seizing the moment when no outsiders were around, Tang Lingyi pushed open the middle cabinet and stepped into the secret tunnel.
After descending a long staircase, he arrived at the underground headquarters of the Modern organization.
The interior was worlds apart from the shop above. If the herbal store exuded an antique, old-world charm, the underground base was pure high-tech: bright white lighting, metallic walls and floors, heavy steel doors, and an automatic iris scanner at the entrance—all radiating cutting-edge sophistication.
"Authentication successful," announced a robotic female voice as the metal door slid open slowly.
Beyond the doorway stretched a long corridor flanked by numerous rooms.
Tang Lingyi stepped inside and hadn't walked far when he heard Li Tianlong's voice:
"Oh no, oh no—I'm dead! You guys keep playing!"
He hurried toward the sound, flung open the door, and sure enough, there was Li Tianlong, deeply immersed in a video game.
"Li Tianlong! Why the hell did you trick me into coming back?!" Seeing his friend so leisurely gaming, Tang Lingyi realized he'd been duped again.
Li Tianlong, startled, yanked off his headphones. "Whoa! How'd you get back so fast? Your ride should've taken at least two hours!"
"Who told you to lie about an emergency? I took a taxi all the way back! You're paying for my fare!" Tang Lingyi, furious that he'd skipped lunch and raced back only to find Li Tianlong gaming, moved to shut down his computer.
"Wait, wait, wait! Lingyi, this is my ranked promotion match—it's life or death!" Li Tianlong, having grown up with Tang Lingyi since childhood, knew exactly what he was about to do and quickly blocked him.
"So you called me all the way back just to watch you play games?" Tang Lingyi narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"It wasn't me who called you back—it was…"
"If it wasn't you, was it a dog barking then?"
Just then, a cool, calm female voice spoke from behind Tang Lingyi: "I told him to call you."
Tang Lingyi froze. Slowly, stiffly, he turned around, his jaw dropping involuntarily. "Sis… Yang?"
Standing behind him was a woman in a white lab coat named Yang Li. Of average looks, about 165 cm tall, and in her early forties, she was the very "Sis Yang" who'd found and raised him as a child—the woman to whom both Tang Lingyi and Li Tianlong owed their lives. Their loyalty to the organization stemmed purely from gratitude for her kindness.
"Yes. Come with me for a moment, Lingyi," she said gently.
"Okay," Tang Lingyi replied, falling into step behind her.
"How's school been lately?" Yang Li asked as they walked.
"Uh… fine," Tang Lingyi mumbled vaguely.
(Truth was, he hadn't really been studying at all…)
"We received the USB drive you delivered yesterday. Excellent work. But I called you here today because there's a new assignment I need you to take on."
"Another mission already?" Tang Lingyi was surprised. Though the organization wasn't large, its manpower was sufficient; typically, each operative handled only one assignment per month. Tang had assumed that after yesterday's job, he'd have at least a month of downtime.
Yang Li nodded. "Unfortunately, this task can only be accomplished by you."
"Only me? What kind of mission is it?" Tang Lingyi's curiosity was piqued.
At his age—when every young man dreams of being the hero—who wouldn't get excited hearing those words?
"Have you heard of Tianye Group?"
"Not really… Wait! Yeah! Wasn't their young heiress all over the news today? Something about her running off overseas after an affair?"
"That's the one. We've just received a request: someone wants the original copy of Tianye Group's project proposal, and they need it delivered within three days."
"Steal the original? But wouldn't something that important be extremely well-protected?"
"The client is an insider at Tianye. He's already revealed where the document is stored. All you need to do is enter that room and retrieve it."
"That simple? Then why doesn't he just get it himself?"
"Because only three people in the entire Tianye Group can access that room: Chairman Tian Yushu, CEO Hu Zhen, and Tian Yushu's daughter, Tian Suimei. The room's security system recognizes only their faces, irises, and fingerprints."
"So it's like a biometric vault? Then why not send Shu Ge?"
"Shu Ge" referred to Bai Junsheng, a legendary thief within the organization nicknamed "Heaven-Stealing Rat." He was Modern's master locksmith—whenever a mission involved complex locks or high-security vaults, they'd send him.
"This isn't an ordinary vault. Since it holds Tianye's most sensitive secrets, any unauthorized attempt to bypass the security triggers an immediate alarm and locks down the entire building. Even Shu Ge couldn't guarantee success on the first try."
"Wait, hold on, Sis Yang—if even Shu Ge can't guarantee it, what makes you think I can?" Tang Lingyi's logic was razor-sharp.
"Precisely because of that—I need you to go, because only you can succeed on the first attempt."
"I've got that kind of talent?" Tang Lingyi was baffled. He had no idea he possessed such extraordinary abilities.
"Yes," Yang Li said with a smile. Then her next words left Tang Lingyi utterly stunned:
"I want you to impersonate Tian Suimei and infiltrate Tianye Group."