"Wenqing, are you really prepared to go on a killing spree?" Qi Huishen asked with some concern. After he and Chen Ke came out of the police station prison, he saw Chen Ke's face was as gloomy as water. After seeing the prison where those four comrades were detained, Qi Huishen finally realized how "superior the environment" of the cell he was detained in was. That should be a high-class cell, with good air and a bed; although the bed was padded with a straw mat, at least there were bedding on the straw mat. The cell detaining these four comrades was dark, closed, and humid, and the air was full of an indescribable smell. A thin straw mat was spread on the ground. It was winter now, and several people had to lean together to keep each other warm. The British really wanted to scare the revolutionaries this time. Even Qi Huishen was beaten when he went in, let alone these four comrades. Their faces were covered with scars; the policemen would definitely not only beat these comrades' faces.

The only thing that made Qi Huishen feel good was that these comrades were not dispirited. Seeing Chen Ke and Qi Huishen coming to visit the prison, they were quite excited. Chen Ke forced a smile to comfort everyone, "Comrades, no matter what method we use, we will rescue everyone in a short time." The police station naturally wouldn't let Chen Ke and the others talk to the arrested comrades alone; there were people monitoring nearby, and they also understood Chinese. Qi Huishen noticed one point: Chen Ke spoke in Sichuan dialect to Xiong Mingyang, a Sichuan student of Fudan Public School. Hearing this, Xiong Mingyang immediately had a thoughtful look on his face.

The prison visit time was not long. When Chen Ke entered and exited the police station prison, he seemed to look straight ahead, but Qi Huishen knew that Chen Ke had already observed this place very clearly. Because Chen Ke usually walked vigorously and had never been so slow as today. It seemed Chen Ke had decided to take action.

Chen Ke's "prison break training" these days scared Qi Huishen. He had never seen such professional killing methods. No matter how firm a revolutionary Qi Huishen was, he was first a Chinese. In the cultural tradition of Chinese people, only two kinds of killing can receive universal sympathy or even support: one is "eliminating violence," and the other is "blood for blood." And the method of killing for the sake of killing taught by Chen Ke was a "skill." After seeing it with his own eyes, Qi Huishen only felt that this attitude of not treating people as humans at all but as "objects" was "harmful to heavenly harmony" (against nature/morality). So Qi Huishen had to express his subtle emotions by asking.

"Huishen, our purpose is to rescue these comrades. What is the meaning of senseless slaughter?" Hearing Qi Huishen's question, Chen Ke asked back.

"But didn't Wenqing say..." Qi Huishen was deeply impressed by Chen Ke's murderous speech at that time; Chen Ke expressed that he wanted to kill the Indian policemen who killed Chinese common people.

"Those people absolutely cannot be let off, but we must rescue our own comrades first now. If we start killing Indian policemen directly, wouldn't it make these comrades more dangerous?" Chen Ke's voice was flat, but the murderous intent implied in it made Qi Huishen feel a chill on his back.

"Wenqing, I have a word I wanted to say for a long time. Actually, the comrades are very afraid of you recently." Qi Huishen finally said this sentence he had held back for a long time.

"I know." Chen Ke admitted frankly. "When I first learned these things, I was also very uncomfortable." Here Chen Ke lied; he couldn't admit that he used to be obsessed with learning these skills like a pervert back then.

"Wenqing, if we kill Indian policemen in a big way, it's not impossible, but after killing, we have to run away. You want to build schools and reserve medical professional manpower on one hand. On the other hand, you want to kill policemen in a big way. I feel these two are running in opposite directions."

*Finally someone noticed this point,* Chen Ke thought. Since Qi Huishen could ask such words, Chen Ke didn't want to perfunctory anymore. "If you are not prepared to kill before going to save people, do you think you can save people? Only by learning killing techniques can you choose to kill or not to kill. If you act rashly without learning, you will only throw yourself into the net in vain. You dare not attack the policemen, but the policemen dare to attack you."

Hearing this, Qi Huishen felt he understood Chen Ke's meaning a bit. "Wenqing means..."

"We must rescue the comrades; do you have any objection to this?"

"No."

"That's what I mean. No other meaning." Chen Ke gave the final answer.

Generally speaking, breaking into a prison needs to solve three problems. First, how to break in. Second, how to rescue people accurately. Third, how to retreat safely.

The action team conducted a serious discussion on these issues. Although they had maps and field inspections, the police station was a paramilitary institution after all. The policemen all had guns. If attacking from the outside couldn't kill in quickly and control the situation swiftly, then it would evolve into a lasting gunfight. In these times, there were no submachine guns like AK47 or Uzi; battles relying on rifles and pistols would often consume a long time. So in this period, bayonet fighting was a very important tactic. Chen Ke actually didn't want to kill and injure many people in the process of attack. How to rush into the police station effectively became the first difficult problem that must be solved.

If a strong fortress cannot be broken from the outside, then disintegrate it from the inside. This is also general common sense. It's just that the police station institution was originally a police institution used by foreigners to manage foreigners in the concession. Because more and more Chinese people moved into the concession, the struggle for jurisdiction with the Shanghai government expanded. The formal employees in the police station were still mainly foreigners up to now. The few Chinese employees were basically die-hard collaborators (*touyang fenzi*); finding them was worse than not finding them. In a short time, they really couldn't find anyone who could manage to sneak into the police station.

"I wonder if any brother dares to be arrested by the police station first." Chen Ke asked.

"How so?" Wu Xingchen was somewhat interested in this.

"I think if it really doesn't work, we'll use a two-pronged approach. First, someone has to be arrested inside. After this comrade is taken into the police station, we immediately cause a disturbance elsewhere to lure the tiger out of the mountain. After the people from the police station rush to the place of the incident, the comrade arrested inside subdues the people inside, and we also kill in from the outside together. Coordinate from inside and outside to rescue the people."

This set of plans sounded beautiful, but Chen Ke knew this was just talk. With the current personnel quality, only the method of luring the tiger out of the mountain might be reliable.

"Wenqing and other comrades have dealt with foreign devils. Listening to Wenqing's meaning, perhaps only I am suitable for this person being arrested inside," Chai Qingguo said.

"Comrade Chai Qingguo, do you believe you can complete the task? Can you understand what the foreigners are saying? Can you judge their next move based on their questioning?" Chen Ke asked with slightly furrowed brows.

Chai Qingguo originally just couldn't help but provoke Chen Ke with a few sentences. Hearing Chen Ke's words, he felt he definitely couldn't do it.

Seeing Chai Qingguo lower his head losing face, Chen Ke was just about to continue the discussion when he heard Wang Bin ask, "What if it were me? I can understand the policemen's words. But after I am arrested inside, I don't have the ability to confront the policemen's force either. If I go in with this Comrade Chai, do you think it will work?"

Wang Bin returned from Beijing earlier than Chen Ke. As You Gou's friend, he vigorously participated in the action to rescue You Gou and other arrested comrades. In terms of providing the police station map, Wang Bin also contributed greatly. Chen Ke hadn't had time to talk to him in detail. According to Chen Ke's guess, after Wang Bin was humiliated by his ex-girlfriend's husband during this trip to Beijing, his mentality seemed to have changed quite a bit.

"Brother Wang, if you participate in this matter, your future in Shanghai will be finished."

"Finished is finished. What's the big deal. If the revolution can be carried on and victory is won, won't I get more?" Wang Bin's answer really had the meaning of being driven to Liangshan (rebellion).

"This is also a way." Wu Xingchen nodded slightly.

"I think it's better to hijack the prison van," Chai Qingguo finally stated his plan. "I hijacked prison vans in Shandong before. Saved people. I think if we insist on rushing hard, our casualties will be too big."

"Prison vans have quite a few guards, and vigilance is high. Although the chance of success is high if we rush up halfway, casualties are absolutely unavoidable. If we attack the police station, the policemen wouldn't expect someone to dare to break ground on Tai Sui's head (provoke the powerful), so it's catching them off guard instead. I don't want this rescue to trigger new casualties."

Everyone argued endlessly about this. Chai Qingguo disapproved of Chen Ke's idea very much. Chen Ke couldn't be bothered to say more. He simply asked Chai Qingguo, Wu Xingchen, Hua Xiongmao, and himself to go to the police station at midnight today to see the actual situation. Chai Qingguo agreed.

It was afternoon now. Chen Ke simply suggested everyone go to sleep now and set off at twelve at night. Returning to the dormitory, Chen Ke found that it was very troublesome after marrying a wife. Going out in the middle of the night, it was definitely impossible not to let He Ying know. Chen Ke adopted the simplest solution: telling the truth. He Ying knew Chen Ke came back this time to save people. Going to investigate the situation in the middle of the night wasn't anything outrageous. She just hoped Chen Ke could act carefully.

Seeing his wife say this, Chen Ke also felt very moved. He simply pulled He Ying to lie down and sleep for a while together. Training these past few days was actually quite hard. With his wife beside him, the two first chatted idly for a while, and unknowingly Chen Ke fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was after ten in the evening. He Ying was still sleeping beside Chen Ke. What moved Chen Ke especially was that He Ying slept on the inner side. When Chen Ke got up, he woke He Ying. She said groggily, "There is food on the table. I'm going to sleep; come back early." Then, not knowing if she was feigning sleep or really sleeping, she faced the wall and stopped making a sound.

Although the rice was cold and not very comfortable to eat, thinking of his wife's considerateness gave it a special kind of warmth.

At eleven o'clock, Chen Ke went to call Wu Xingchen and the others, seeing they were already ready. Several tough men all wore black clothes. They went out quietly. This operation carried two guns, a small axe for each person, and four black hoods. It was considered a simulation action.

When they arrived at the gate of the police station, it was already 12:30 at night. There was no one on the street. Although the gate of the police station was also open, no guards were seen. A thought suddenly moved in Chen Ke's mind. He put on the hood and said, "Zheng Lan, you also put on the hood and go over with me to take a look."

"Do it now?" The one speaking was actually Wu Xingchen.

"Xingchen, you don't go. You look out. With your figure, once seen, you can't get away with it."

While speaking, Hua Xiongmao had already put on the hood. Chen Ke waved his hand, and the two walked quickly towards the police station. Indeed, there was no one at the gate. Chen Ke and the others wore soft-soled cloth boots, walking quietly. These paths had been trained hundreds of times at night; they wouldn't go wrong walking with eyes closed. Heaven knows where the people of the police station were. Walking a few steps inside, the policemen's dormitory was in front. He heard a burst of talking inside. Chen Ke peeked through the crack of the door and saw a pile of policemen surrounding a table. Banknotes and silver dollars were piled on the table. Several foreigners held cards in their hands, cigarettes dangling from their mouths; the leader had a cigar. Indian policemen surrounded them. They were actually gambling.

Opportunity depends on how you choose. A thought turned in Chen Ke's mind. If he ran to save people now, it seemed most reasonable, but actually not necessarily. In case someone came out in the middle, encountering them would be big trouble. Moreover, he and Hua Xiongmao had received training, so they could do it. But those arrested brothers hadn't received training. If he brought them out, it would inevitably alarm these people. A melee ensued; that would really be hard to say.

Rushing in with guns to coerce the policemen wasn't a good way either. In these times, it wasn't the War of Resistance against Japan or the War of Liberation period; both hostile sides had sufficient understanding of each other. The Japanese or the Kuomintang seeing a few Eighth Route Army soldiers rushing in knew the Eighth Route Army would really shoot, so they would always have some scruples. This group of policemen didn't have such cognition. Moreover, Chen Ke didn't really want to go on a killing spree. It wasn't that he hadn't had murderous intentions, but every time he recalled the Traitor Elimination Squad led by the Premier (Zhou Enlai), even after April 12, the Traitor Elimination Squad only dealt with internal traitors, raided execution grounds, and broke into prisons. They never engaged in revolutionary assassination terrorist activities. Since the Premier did so, there must be deep reasons. Chen Ke considered his conduct definitely inferior to the Premier, so every time his killing intent surged, thinking of the Premier seemed like an indescribable floodgate forcibly blocking Chen Ke's black torrent of killing intent.

Then it seemed there was only one choice left. Only gamble once. Chen Ke whispered to Hua Xiongmao, "You go out and tell the two outside to wait outside, ready to receive people. If I don't come out, you guys retreat yourselves."

"Wenqing!" In the darkness, Hua Xiongmao's eyes widened round.

"Obey orders!" Chen Ke said in a low voice. Then he pushed Hua Xiongmao. Although Hua Xiongmao turned his head three times along the way, he really obeyed Chen Ke's order.

Seeing there were no other worries, Chen Ke took a breath, then quietly pushed open the door. No one noticed the door opened, nor did anyone notice a man dressed in black and wearing a black hood quietly walked into the room. The eyes of everyone in the room were attracted by the winning and losing on the cards.

The next day, when Shanghai citizens saw the police station out in full force again, searching chaotically throughout the city, they knew something new had happened. Especially the police station ran to Fudan Public School, demanding to enter the school to search for people. Fudan Public School naturally refused. Just having had the big event of the Shanghai Mixed Court, the Shanghai government already had a considerable advantage in the struggle for judicial management rights. Mr. Ma Xiangbo led the gatekeepers to block the police station outside the school gate. After the two sides confronted each other for a while, people from the government also came. After some negotiation, the people from the police station had to retreat. Such a change was a great stimulus to the citizens' imagination, and rumors began to fly all over the sky.

By the afternoon, a decent explanation finally appeared. An unknown hero rushed into the police station in the middle of last night, knocked down all the policemen, and then rescued those few arrested students. Chinese people love this kind of martial arts legend story the most. So in the subsequent legends, from knocking down policemen to save people, it changed to killing a few policemen to save people, and then changed to a bloodbath of the police station. Anyway, the number of dead foreign devils changed from a few to dozens, and later to hundreds.

It hadn't been long since the incident of policemen killing people. Before the "Third Seven" (21 days after death) passed, the citizens' hatred for policemen was still strong. Such a story immediately resonated with everyone. Besides the "death toll" of foreign devils climbing steadily, guessing who did it was another great excitement point. In this matter, the guess that the Whampoa Book Club hired martial arts experts to break into prison became a mainstream. The performance of the Whampoa Book Club in this Shanghai Mixed Court incident wasn't actually eye-catching. Because the ones launching parades, strikes, and market closures were actually various local groups in Shanghai. But after the city-wide manhunt incident, the Whampoa Book Club became famous. The people were used to "people do not fight with officials." Forces that could be targeted for elimination by the government and foreigners were absolutely not ordinary common people. They absolutely had the ability to fight with the government and foreigners. This guess without conclusive evidence hit the fact just like that.

Shanghai Renxin Medical College was a school initiated by the British after all, so Qi Huishen and Chen Ke, as school board director and principal, had no way to refuse the police station led by people from the British Consulate. Of course, Chen Ke and the others wouldn't be stupid enough to hide people inside the school. The social investigation greatly expanded the scope of activities for the comrades. After Chen Ke brought the people out, those few people ran away according to the route taken during the social investigation at that time. Hua Xiongmao personally led the team and agreed on a contact location.

After returning to the school, Chen Ke woke Qi Huishen up. Qi Huishen immediately took money and sent He Zudao and Qin Wu'an to meet up with this group. Wu Xingchen and Chai Qingguo also hid. This disposal was also somewhat out of worry that if the police station insisted on arresting people unreasonably, the Party Branch wouldn't suffer a devastating blow like the last time.