"It has to start from the beginning. At first I didn't doubt Joseph. On the day of the hotel blockade, I saw Joseph in the lobby of the hotel. He said he came here to see a friend, and I didn't care about it at that time. Because the hotel was blocked, Joseph could not leave, so he had to stay. He lived in the hotel, silently, as low-key as his business, and was not eye-catching, and I almost missed him.

But in the end he still showed his flaws.

After Stepan died, his ring was taken away by Ivan. Ivan gave the ring to He Yan again. He wanted to bribe He Yan and asked her to keep his mouth shut about his threats to her. Strangely, Joseph, who had been silent, suddenly became interested in the ring. He found He Yan and must buy it. He offered 6oo yuan for the first time, and then paid 1oo yuan.

This caught my attention.

The reason is very simple. First, it is because this thing is not worth the price, and second, it is because the ring is from Stepan.

At that time, I had already determined that Stepan was the one from the Communist International. So, why was Joseph so interested in Stepan's things?

The key is that the ring is not worth so much money at all, why did he have to buy it? Joseph is a typical businessman who can't afford to get up early and will never do business at a loss. Moreover, he is not a romantic person. How could he be willing to spend a lot of money to buy a ring that is not worth much at all?

I have to consider whether there is any relationship between him and Stepan?

After further thinking, I thought, would he be the one Stepan wants to connect?

According to Ivan's confession, after he returned from the underground bathroom, he reported to Stepan. When Stepan heard that it was an Asian man and Ivan, he immediately became nervous and seemed to think that something was wrong. I think Stepan must know that the person who connected with him was not an Asian man, but an Asian man came to the joint, which means there was something wrong, so he became nervous.

The one who contacted him should not be an Asian, then he should be a Westerner. Because Stepan is a Russian, I first thought that the person he was going to meet was probably a Russian.

So, why did a Russian come to Harbin to meet another Russian instead of meeting in Russia?

Obviously, they could not meet in Russia because the other person was a Russian living in Harbin, and Joseph happened to meet this characteristic. Of course, there were many Russians in the Far East International Hotel, but none of them were as interested in the ring left by Stepan, except for Joseph.

Only then did I realize that Joseph might not come here to see friends, but to have another purpose.

I hurried to the hotel's reading room to check the Russian newspapers in the city for nearly a month.

By checking newspapers, I have now been in the past month, a notice of an old friend meeting at the Far East International Hotel has been published several times. I was wondering if this is the signal from the person from the Communist International - Stepan? The Communist International used to use this method to contact us.

So, who is this notice for? Was it for Joseph?

Using newspapers to contact is a common method used by the Communist International. In this regard, the Nantietel Investigation Class and the Military Intelligence Department attach great importance to it, and there are dedicated people watching and analyzing each notice.

In fact, the Nantietre Investigation Class was to contact the Communist International by looking up Russian newspapers. The Military Intelligence Department also saw the problem from this notice, but they believed that this was issued by the Far East Intelligence Group, with the purpose of connecting with Huaying.

When I saw this notice, it was nearly a month later than the two of them. The Special High School attached great importance to the situation of local anti-Japanese organizations and did not pay enough attention to the Communist International, so they did not show up. However, during this purge, Lian Kui and Song Jie caught the people from the Far East Intelligence Group and found out that they learned the news that the Communist International sent people, but the news was not comprehensive enough. They only knew that the person was in the Far East International Hotel, but they didn't know who the person was, and they didn't know what the task was for him to come here.

Both the Nantie Investigation Class and the Military Intelligence Department knew that the song "Yuanyang Tea" might be a code of correspondence, but the Special High School did not know. Later I learned from Jiangkou that they had caught people from the Communist International before, and that person gave the song "Yuanyang Tea" as a way of contact for the Communist International.

So, both families sent people to the hotel's underground bathroom, but Ivan was waiting for it.

I asked the person who was in the bathroom that day with Ivan and Sasaki, and proved that Joseph was in the bathroom that day. I think he must have seen Ivan and Sasaki, and he knew there must be something wrong with that. There shouldn't be an Asian person here."

Liu Bozhao asked: "Hoshino, you just said that the notice has been published for a month. If this notice was for Joseph, why did he not come before but this time?"

"I also thought about this issue," said Liu Xingye. "It reminded me of a case that Joseph encountered before the Great Purge. That morning, a man ran to Joseph's house and only said "killing people to pay for their lives, and owing debts to pay for their money" and then shot himself. This matter was strange. Joseph insisted that he didn't know this person at all, and he didn't know why he ran to his house to commit suicide, but I knew that this matter must have a close connection with Joseph.

When I thought that Joseph might be the connector, I thought of this case again.

I think Joseph didn't come to the hotel joint before because he didn't want to come; this time because he had to come.

The man who ran to his house to commit suicide was actually a messenger. He used suicide to send a signal to Joseph: We know where you are, and if you don't come to the contact, you will die.

This signal was sent by Stepan, who found a Russian who was terminally ill to be the messenger.

Joseph understood this information, so he came to the Far East International Hotel because he had to come.

He saw the connection process of two fakes, Ivan and Sasaki, in the bathroom. He knew that there was something wrong with it, so he stopped showing up, but he couldn't leave because the hotel had been blocked."

"So that's the case. The Russians' methods are indeed different." After hearing Liu Xingye's words, Liu Bozhao thought for a moment, "So, why is Joseph so interested in Stepan's ring?"

"This starts with Stepan's mission to Harbin this time."

"You already know what his mission is?"

"I don't know, but I think I've guessed it."

"What is Stepan's mission?"

"This starts with eight years ago. In 1933, the Communist International raised a fund of 30,000 yuan to support the anti-Japanese struggle in our Northeast China, but this fund suddenly disappeared after entering the Northeast. At that time, our organization, the Communist International and the Japanese were looking for this fund, but they all got nothing.

The main reason for the disappearance of this fund was that the representative of the Communist International who came to the Northeast who brought this fund to death suddenly fell ill and died.

There were many rumors at that time. Some people said that the representative might have embezzled the money, some people said that the money might have been confiscated by the Japanese, and some people said that the money had not been moved yet, but no one knew where the money went. In short, there were all kinds of statements."

Liu Bozhao said: "I also know about this. At that time, the provincial party committee contacted the Communist International on the one hand, and organized people to find the money, but none of them were successful. Later, they gave up."

Liu Xingye said: "So many years have passed, and everyone has forgotten about this matter. In fact, the money has not disappeared. I guess the representative of the Communist International entrusted the money to a person before his death and asked him to keep it on his behalf."

Liu Bozhao's eyes lit up. "Hoshino, do you mean this person is Joseph?"
Chapter completed!