Night fell. The Bolshevik party branch in the Far East convened another meeting. From May to June, the border blockade in the Northeast had continued for a month. Facing a complete cutoff of news from the Northeast, the Bolsheviks felt that the warlord chieftain He Rui on the other side must be preparing some terrible conspiracy.

After discussing for a long while, apart from taking the risk to send someone to sneak into the Northeast to gather intelligence, there were no other options. Romanovsky suggested, "Let Comrade Li cross the border again."

Although the Bolsheviks still didn't dare trust the Chinese national Li Taihu, there was no other way at the moment. The two people sent previously had disappeared without any news, most likely having been caught.

When Li Taihu accepted the mission, he felt a somewhat strange atmosphere, but he decided to ignore it for the time being. Shouldering the ideal of liberating the whole world, Li Taihu had deep expectations for the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

The Party Secretary said seriously, "Tovarisch, recently the White Army has received several trainloads of weapons, which are being transported to arm the White Army in Western Siberia. If the situation is allowed to continue developing, Manchuria will become the most stable weapon supply base for the White Army. We are appointing you to go to Manchuria to contact the comrades there. Most of them are railway workers and will definitely be able to provide us with information. Do you understand the importance of your work?"

"Understood! I will definitely complete the mission!" Li Taihu answered decisively.

There was nothing else to say. Equipped with supplies, Li Taihu traveled all the way to the Songhua River. Under the cover of night, a small boat crossed the wide river surface and arrived at the opposite bank. Li Taihu jumped ashore and extended his hand to the Bolshevik rowing the boat. As they shook hands, Li Taihu said emotionally, "Tovarisch, please wait for my good news."

Parting with the comrades of the Communist Party, Li Taihu headed all the way toward his destination, Harbin. Harbin in summer brightened very early. When the morning light shone on the road, Li Taihu felt only joy in his heart. He was from Heilongjiang; as a teenager, he had followed his father to Russia to make a living, traveling from Lake Baikal all the way to Moscow, where he became a worker. Having experienced all sorts of things and witnessed the corruption and cruelty of the upper class, he joined the Communist Party. When the revolution broke out in Russia, he became a soldier in the Chinese Regiment.

Cherishing the ideal of liberating the whole world, Li Taihu quickened his pace, walking briskly along the newly built road. Seeing a checkpoint on the road from afar, Li Taihu turned into the orderly fields, walking through the sorghum fields.

This sorghum field was huge, and the land presented very neat blocks. Even though it was summer, walking inside felt chilly. Walking briskly along the newly built field ridges, he didn't encounter anyone. After walking a long way out, he got onto a newly built dirt road. Li Taihu was surprised in his heart; what was the background of the big family in this village? To be able to build so many roads!

Walking through the fields like this, he would dodge whenever he heard human voices. Thinking he had bypassed the toll-collecting checkpoint, Li Taihu turned back onto the main road.

Not far along, he saw another checkpoint in the distance. At this moment, there was a large forest by the roadside, with neat saplings that looked newly planted. Although orderly, they couldn't stop people. With no choice, Li Taihu could only continue walking along the road.

Arriving at the checkpoint, he saw that the people inside were all wearing ordinary, semi-old clothes and looked like villagers. Only their faces were clean, and their hair was clean; they must have washed. This was unusual.

The leader stopped Li Taihu and asked in a local accent familiar to Li Taihu, "Where is your mask?"

"Mask?" Li Taihu didn't understand what this meant. The questioner took out a thick cotton mask. "This is it."

Li Taihu didn't understand for a moment, but on second thought, he felt this was probably a trick to extort money. So he pretended to be pitiful and said, "Uncle, how much does this cost?"

The questioner frowned in confusion. "Didn't your village issue masks?"

Li Taihu was quite clever and quickly said, "I forgot to bring it when I came out. How much for one?"

The questioner turned his head unhappily and said to the person beside him, "Why does everyone forget to bring it!"

The person beside him laughed in a local accent, "This one is not bad; he hasn't acted tough yet. Look at the previous few rascals, acting tough one by one!"

Recalling the guys he had encountered before, the questioner cursed a few times, then turned back to Li Taihu and said, "Ten *wen* for one. Also, take out your travel pass."

Li Taihu was startled in his heart, but his face showed nothing unusual. He reached into his bosom and felt around, then his expression changed. He patted his whole body, deliberately anxious, and said, "Oh no! I lost my travel pass!"

Hearing this, the person at the checkpoint didn't intend to make things difficult for Li Taihu. "If you don't have a travel pass, I can't let you pass!"

Li Taihu had never seen such an amiable person setting up a checkpoint, so he decided to try his luck and began to plead and wheedle, saying all kinds of nice things. However, the other party didn't care at all and instead started lecturing Li Taihu. "Lad, orders from above now say that no one without a travel pass can pass the checkpoint or enter or leave the village. This is true. Even if you walk forward, they won't let you pass. You won't even be able to enter the village. Listen to your uncle, hurry back and get your travel pass."

Li Taihu knew he couldn't get a travel pass no matter what. Seeing the mask of the questioner, he said, "Can't I buy a mask? I'll buy one!"

Saying this, he took out ten *wen* and stuffed it into the questioner's hand. Seeing Li Taihu like this, the questioner felt Li Taihu wanted to use money to pass the checkpoint and didn't want to sell it to him instead. But Li Taihu was young after all, so he still got the mask and stuffed the money to the questioner.

The questioner still didn't let Li Taihu pass, only advising him to go back quickly.

Li Taihu pretended to be obedient and returned the way he came. When no one could see him, he turned onto a small path. Judging from the news he heard, entering the village was probably impossible, and taking the main road wouldn't work either. Li Taihu walked along the field ridges and small paths; if there was really no other way, he would go directly through the forest.

He had brought enough food before setting off, so he walked all the way like this. He saw neat fields everywhere, with lush crops. It was completely different from the Northeast in Li Taihu's impression.

Another difference was that there were many more water ponds that were obviously dug out. Li Taihu only felt now that things were definitely very wrong; the landlords in the village certainly wouldn't spend great effort digging ponds.

...Could it be that there had been a lot of rain in the Northeast in recent years, resulting in a lot of accumulated water?

...That must be it. So the rich locals just dug a few times casually to occupy these water ponds!

The water in the ponds couldn't be drunk. Fortunately, Li Taihu had brought a large water flask. Not long after finishing his water, he finally arrived at a small river and filled a full flask of water. Then he continued forward according to the compass direction.

After walking for four consecutive days, he finally saw a railway. Li Taihu distinguished the direction again and headed straight for Harbin along the railway, going east.

The closer to the city, the more people wearing masks on the road. Li Taihu also put on his mask and mixed into the crowd. Just as the person at the checkpoint said, there were checkpoints at every intersection, and travel passes were needed to enter and exit.

Li Taihu was nimble. Seeing a travel pass half-exposed in someone's right pocket, he suddenly patted that person on the left shoulder. When that person turned his head to the left, his hands nimbly snatched away that person's travel pass. Then he said, "Brother Wang, it's me!"

Because he was wearing a mask, Li Taihu wasn't worried about anything else; this was just pretending to mistake the person. Sure enough, that person stared at Li Taihu for a moment and said unhappily, "You've got the wrong person!" and turned to leave.

Li Taihu quickly walked in another direction. Reaching a secluded spot, he took out the travel pass to look. This was a travel pass for entry and exit on that day. The holder of the travel pass was a textile factory worker, who happened to be surnamed Li too. Apologizing in his heart to this 'clansman of the same surname', Li Taihu took the travel pass, wore the mask, and went to the checkpoint. The people there didn't make things difficult either; after checking the travel pass, they kept it and let Li Taihu into the city.

Construction was in full swing inside the city, with ditches being dug everywhere. Li Taihu felt it was an opportunity, so he went up to find the foreman, wanting to get a job digging ditches.

The foreman looked at Li Taihu and said, "We are all from the same village; we don't take outsiders."

"The wages can be less, just give me a bite to eat," Li Taihu pleaded.

The foreman scolded unhappily, "Why are you so senseless? I said, we are all from the same village; we don't want outsiders."

Li Taihu had no choice but to continue walking along the street. He found several places in succession, but the words spoken were the same: the workers were all from their own village, and they didn't accept outsiders.

He wanted to find an inn to stay in, but seeing from afar that entering an inn also required a travel pass, he could only give up. Not only that, there wasn't even a single beggar along the street, causing several of Li Taihu's prepared plans to fall through.

Helpless, he could only walk around the city. Fortunately, Harbin was quite big, so it wasn't to the point of having nowhere to go. Passing by an Orthodox church, Li Taihu couldn't help but stop. The church's main door was tightly shut and locked. This kind of Orthodox church definitely belonged to Russians, and now the Russians had naturally been locked up by the warlord chieftain He Rui.

People came and went on the street, and it wasn't convenient for Li Taihu to slip into the church, so he could only continue walking slowly. The summer days in Harbin were truly long. When work ended, whether workers or students, they all walked on the street in neat ranks. In such a big city with so many people, there wasn't even a gap for Li Taihu to insert himself.

Finally enduring until dark, Li Taihu went straight to his destination. This was where railway workers lived, and there were also people guarding the street intersection. Taking advantage of the night, Li Taihu nimbly climbed over a new wall temporarily built at the entrance of what used to be an alley, and finally got inside.

Arriving at the target location, Li Taihu knocked on the outer door according to the code. After several attempts, he finally heard footsteps inside. The person in the courtyard tried to walk lightly, stopped at the door for a while, and then asked in a low voice, "Who!"

"Konstantin," Li Taihu answered with the code word.

The door opened, and the person pulled Li Taihu inside, stuck his head out to check that no one was around, and quickly closed the door. Then he dragged Li Taihu directly to a side room. Without lighting a lamp, the person said to Li Taihu in the darkness, "I don't care who you are; I've said it before, I'm quitting!"

Li Taihu knew that most Bolsheviks in Northeast China had chosen to stop revolutionizing under the bribery of the warlord chieftain He Rui, which had led to Li Taihu himself being suspected by the Far East Bolshevik party branch.

The comrade before him was also considered relatively trustworthy. Li Taihu tried hard to persuade him, "Tovarisch, do you know? We Bolsheviks have already occupied all the major cities. As long as we defeat the White Bandits, the revolution will succeed! We don't want you to do anything; just tell us the quantity and time of the weapon wagons transported from the arsenal, and leave the other things to us."

Hearing this, the man couldn't help but snort coldly. "Do you have a radio?"

One sentence stumped Li Taihu. The Far East branch of the Bolsheviks did have radios, but after the Chinese Eastern Railway was seized by the warlord chieftain He Rui, the radios originally on the Chinese Eastern Railway should all have been seized by He Rui. The former Bolshevik before him had asked a question Li Taihu couldn't answer.

The man waited for a long time. Seeing Li Taihu remained silent and didn't lie, he couldn't help but sigh. "Tovarisch, with the current management in the city, news can't be sent out at all. You'd better hurry back while it's dark, and don't look for anyone else. Go back to the Russian side and tell the Russian *tovarisch* that life outside the pass is good now, and we are quitting."

After speaking, the man turned and went out. Not long after, he came back and stuffed two steamed buns into Li Taihu's hands. "Take this, eat on the way. Hurry and leave."

Li Taihu tried to persuade him with a couple of sentences, but that man got angry. He grabbed Li Taihu and said viciously in a lowered voice, "Marshal He issued an official document: anyone who participated in the Russian Bolsheviks, as long as they turn themselves in, because they believe in communism, bygones will be bygones. We've all been comrades; I don't want to make things difficult for you. But if you force me, kid, I'm not afraid! At worst, I lose my prospects for promotion and just scrape by for a living; I can accept that!"

This person's words confirmed the news of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Far East Party Branch. Li Taihu was both angry and annoyed in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. Because the warlord chieftain He Rui had indeed used such a method to disintegrate the already small Northeast Bolshevik organization.

Since the other party wasn't afraid of threats at all, Li Taihu had no plan either. He could only leave in disappointment.

Climbing over the wall again, Li Taihu thought about it and went straight to that closed church. Since he had come to Harbin, he would try his best. After all, there were still several people on the list; trying them one by one, maybe there would still be gains.

Crawling into the church through a window, Li Taihu saw rows of benches in the nave, so he found one and lay down. He was truly exhausted at this moment, and not long after lying down, he fell into a deep sleep.

In the darkness outside the church, several people walked out. They discussed in low voices for a moment; someone stayed to monitor, while others went along the road. Arriving at a large courtyard, a room had lights on. Going inside to report the situation, the person in charge scratched his head, yawned, and said to another person, "Shall we try casting a long line to catch a big fish?"

The other person also yawned. "All right. Anyway, the Chairman said that for those who believe in communism, as long as they haven't committed crimes, don't arrest them, and certainly don't kill them. This kid can't be killed either."

Li Taihu didn't know that he had been noticed by noon after entering the city. However, Li Taihu's nonchalant behavior aroused suspicion, making them think he might be a Japanese spy, so they didn't arrest him immediately. When Li Taihu went to find a Bolshevik whose identity had been confirmed, his identity was finally figured out.

The two discussed their judgment of Li Taihu. One sighed, "When I listened to the Chairman's lectures, I was thinking, the Chairman believes in communism very much."

"That's because you didn't listen to the class properly. The Chairman inherently believes in doing communism; what he detests is religious fundamentalism. The Chairman is wary of the Communist Party because the direction of the Communist Party's future cannot be seen yet."

The other person didn't reply. Everyone had worked together for a while and knew each other's levels. This person just had a good memory and could recite nouns. As for the true meaning of these nouns, he probably didn't understand.

Yawning again, this person said, "Since he's a Bolshevik, it saves trouble. If he were a Japanese spy, we'd have to put in more effort. Sleep for a while; we have to go catch Japanese spies at dawn."