Agent: Intercepting Yu Manli at the start!

Chapter 123: Hidden Mechanism Discovered!

After a series of meticulous operations, he silently breached the supposedly impenetrable safe.

Zhou Xiao's gaze swept into the cabinet—layers upon layers of Japanese files, intelligence briefings, and translated telegrams, some urgent, others archived for future use.

Time was of the essence, and he didn't have time to look at anything else in detail. He focused on only one target: the list of personnel for Project Tianlai.

"Project Celestial Music... Project Celestial Music..."

He quickly flipped through the pages, skimming over the yellowed paper. It was all in Japanese, but fortunately, Zhou Xiao was fluent in Japanese and could immediately recognize the titles and numbers.

More than ten minutes passed, and he had searched through almost every file in the cabinet, but the list was still nowhere to be found. He frowned slightly: "Could it not be here?"

If the Japanese army were to actually implement the Heavenly Sound Plan, the consequences would be extremely serious.

This is a ruthless and inhumane plan—once the cholera virus is released, the first to be affected will be civilians in non-occupied territories, and then it will spread across regions at an alarming rate, sweeping across the country, and then spreading to Asia and even the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that if they succeed, not only will the fate of China be completely rewritten, but the course of human history will also be derailed.

Cholera has ravaged the world several times, infecting millions and killing millions. Its severity and transmissibility remain terrifying to this day.

If Project Celestial is successfully launched, a large-scale epidemic will inevitably break out first in non-occupied areas, then spread to occupied areas, then to the whole of Asia, and finally affect the whole world.

What's even more frightening is that we are currently at wartime—medical resources in various countries are exhausted, and their epidemic prevention systems are almost paralyzed, leaving them with virtually no ability to resist cholera. In addition, the war has forced a large-scale migration of people, and the refugees, who are running around in all directions, have become the most efficient carriers of the virus.

From the first large-scale cholera outbreak in 1817 to 1923, in just over a century, there were six devastating epidemics worldwide, with the scope of the outbreaks continuously expanding and the casualties caused incalculable, with the death toll reaching tens of millions, a truly shocking figure.

Therefore, Zhou Xiao's operation is of great significance.

He successfully thwarted the Japanese invaders' "Operation Celestial," thus truly curbing the further spread of cholera.

However, Zhou Xiao searched the entire safe but still couldn't find any trace of the "Project Celestial Music" roster.

Something's not right...

He frowned slightly, having already intended to stop, but thanks to his extraordinary eyesight and meticulous observation habits, he quickly noticed something amiss—

There was a hidden compartment on the back of this safe!

The thin panel used for concealment fits perfectly with the box, making it extremely difficult to discover this hidden mechanism without careful examination and repeated scrutiny.

Fortunately, Zhou Xiao had developed a pair of eyes as sharp as an eagle's!

After confirming the location of the hidden compartment, he deftly pushed aside the cover, and sure enough, several documents lay quietly inside.

One of the brown paper bags was clearly printed with the Japanese words "ティアナ計画" (Project Tianlai), with a line of small print below it: "特卜ップの秘密" (Top Secret).

Finally found!

Zhou Xiao felt a surge of warmth in his heart and quickly tore open the paper bag. Inside was a thick stack of documents, at least dozens of pages long, densely packed with names and background information.

"I never imagined these Japanese pirates had planted so many spies in non-occupied territory!" He gasped, his gaze sweeping heavily over the first page:

Japanese name: Koizumi Ichiro; alias: Zhang Nan; location of infiltration: Flower and Bird Market.

Japanese name: Kohiko Shiro, alias: Chen Li, location of infiltration: Dongchuan County

Japanese name: Kazuo Nakagawa, alias: Huang Likun, location of infiltration: Hotpot City

Japanese name: Higashikawa Shinribu, alias: Yang Xinyi, location of infiltration: Yichuan County

The list is unexpectedly long.

For someone else, the most direct methods would be either to steal the original or to take a picture with a miniature camera.

However, taking photos poses a great risk—if the film is discovered during a routine check by the military police on the return trip, the identity will be exposed on the spot, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

Furthermore, the archives were dimly lit, and at that time, the film had low sensitivity and limited developing technology, so the images taken were very likely to be blurry and distorted, making it difficult to identify key information.

Therefore, there is only one optimal solution: memorize the entire list!

A list etched into your mind is a life-saving trump card in critical moments, and a bargaining chip to turn the tide!

As a top-notch agent, Zhou Xiao naturally knew which path to choose.

For ordinary people, such a large, scattered, and irregular list is simply impossible to follow – the names are hard to pronounce, the pseudonyms are uncommon, and the locations are far apart, so it's normal not to remember them.

But Zhou Xiao is different. He already possesses the talent of photographic memory, and he has just received the complete guide to memory techniques from the system, which has greatly improved his comprehension, coding efficiency, and long-term storage capabilities.

At this moment, he had already begun to browse the list at high speed, his eyes scanning the page rapidly, reading ten lines at a time.

This is not some mysterious superpower, but the result of the efficient synergy between scientific memory techniques, associative anchors, and brain neural circuits.

For example, one of the Japanese pirates on the list is named "Kohashi Hikoshiro," who goes by the alias "Pan Chen" and is lurking in Lichuan County—Zhou Xiao immediately conjures up a scene: the small bridge collapses, the young man falls into the water, and Pan Chen elopes with him to Lichuan. The combination of homophones, scene, and logic reinforces the imagery, making it instantly memorable.

This list is so important that it has far-reaching consequences and cannot be compromised in the slightest.

It is not only about the survival of nations, but also about whether humanity can avoid a global biochemical catastrophe.

If the "Heavenly Sound Project" succeeds, the course of history may be completely rewritten.

Right now, Zhou Xiao is quietly setting the course of history in the right direction all by himself.

Only a group of utterly depraved Japanese invaders would use the cholera virus as a weapon, resorting to any means to achieve their goals.

At this moment, Zhou Xiao was in top form, with his focus, memory, and adaptability all at their peak.

He steadily absorbed the names, aliases, and hiding places of each person into his mind and etched them into his nerves.

Time passes silently.

About ten minutes later, he had grasped more than 90% of the contents of the list.

At that very moment—

A slight noise came from the door of the archives room.

"Click..."

The door opened.

Judging from the footsteps, the person entered through the main gate and remained quiet throughout, without any argument or gunshots, indicating that they had legitimate access rights.

Who is it?

Who would be in the heavily guarded secret archives at this time?

Zhou Xiao had basically memorized the list. He immediately put the documents back into the hidden compartment, closed the cover, locked the safe, and then slipped into the shadows in the corner.

"Creak—"

The door was pushed open, footsteps approached, and at the same time, a Japanese sentence was uttered:

"I'm going inside to check a few documents. You guys guard the door and don't let anyone in."

"Hai!"

An aged yet authoritative voice, accompanied by the uniform response of the military police outside the door.

The Military Police Headquarters was the highest command center of the Japanese army in Shanghai, and the confidential archives room was the core of the core—entry and exit were registered, stay was limited to a certain time, and the whole process was monitored. It was not a place that ordinary people could enter at will.

Zhou Xiao seemed to recognize the voice, but couldn't quite place it.