Agent: Intercepting Yu Manli at the start!

Chapter 110 A meticulously planned assassination!

It was nearly 11 a.m., and colleagues began to arrive, all wanting to report to the newly appointed section chief, Hirofumi Asano. But the door remained firmly locked, unmoved.

"This isn't right—even if he's resting, he should be awake by now."

"Yes, that's very unusual."

"The door was locked from the inside, unlike usual."

"Could this be the new section chief's style?"

"I feel like there's something I can't quite put my finger on..."

More and more people gathered at the entrance, and the whispers gradually became an uncontrollable cloud of doubt in their hearts.

The door remained closed, no one answered, and an indescribable unease hung in the air.

Something's getting increasingly wrong.

This is very unusual.

"Make way, everyone." Matsuda Koichiro of the Detective Division pushed through the crowd, stared at the tightly closed door for a moment, and said in a deep voice, "Let me take a look. Something's fishy about this."

The crowd stepped back a few paces.

Matsuda Koichiro crouched down, lay prone on the ground, and peered through the narrow crack at the bottom of the door. The crack was so small that his field of vision was limited, and he could see almost nothing.

However, he was a veteran of the Special Higher Police's Investigation Division and had an extraordinary ability: his sense of smell was far beyond that of ordinary people, and he could distinguish extremely subtle abnormal smells from mixed scents.

He held his breath, his nostrils flaring slightly, carefully discerning the scent. After a moment, his brow furrowed sharply: "There's a faint smell of blood inside!"

Bloody smell?

The crowd immediately stirred.

"Why does the section chief's office smell of blood?"

"Surely it's not that bad?" an employee blurted out. "Matsuda-kun, are you sure you didn't smell something wrong?"

Matsuda Koichiro slowly shook his head: "There's no mistake. The smell is very faint, almost imperceptible, but it's completely different from ordinary air—it's the smell of real blood."

Hirofumi Asano had four gunshot wounds. The most fatal one hit his heart; the other three hit different parts of his torso, one of which tore apart his carotid artery. A large amount of blood continued to gush out, soaking his clothes and dripping down his body, forming a small dark red puddle on the floor.

The section chief's office was small, with all the doors and windows tightly shut. The midday sun streamed in, rapidly raising the indoor temperature and accelerating the spread of the odor. That faint smell of blood then seeped out quietly from under the door.

Matsuda Koichiro, with his keen sense of smell, was naturally the first to notice this unusual occurrence.

"The most important thing now is to open the door and go in to check the situation." He straightened up, his tone grave. "Without seeing it with our own eyes, no one can say for sure what happened—this is definitely not a good sign."

The group quickly discussed the matter and unanimously decided to break down the door.

The Special Higher Police are staffed with highly trained personnel; picking a lock takes them only a few seconds.

The door lock clicked open.

The door was pushed open, and the crowd filed in.

Hirofumi Asano was slumped in his office chair, already lifeless. Four bullet holes were visible in his chest, back, and neck, from which blood was still slowly seeping out, dripping down the edge of the chair and pooling on the floor in a thick, dark stain.

The doors and windows were tightly shut, the sun was scorching, and the whole room was stuffy and heavy, filled with a strong, pungent smell of rust.

The scene before them froze everyone in place, their faces turning deathly pale.

died?

The newly appointed head of the Special Higher Police Section is dead?

He just arrived at his post last night and was found dead in his office this morning?

What exactly happened?

It was another shooting!

Did no one notice?

Shock, astonishment, disbelief... faces were filled with bewilderment, and no one could make sense of it.

Matsuda Koichiro was also stunned, but only for a moment. He snapped back to reality and ordered sharply, "Seal off the scene! Go and fetch General Oshima immediately!"

The death of Hirofumi Asano was a huge shock, far exceeding everyone's expectations.

The former section chief, Sendou Feng, was assassinated after serving for more than ten days, but this new section chief died the very night he took office—he didn't even get to sit down properly before collapsing in front of his desk.

He was arguably the fastest-dying section chief in the history of the Special Higher Police.

He took office that same day and was murdered that same day.

Sugimoto headquarters.

That night, Ken Oshima and Xiao Zhou stayed at the scene, personally overseeing the aftermath. Exhausted, they only managed a short nap in the car.

After a whole night of work, the fire was finally extinguished. Now, everyone is moving the bodies one by one, identifying each one. If any limbs are separated, they are being pieced together as completely as possible—no bone is overlooked if possible.

Ken Oshima was so focused on the follow-up work because the Sugimoto organization was extremely important, especially the professors, experts, and technical backbone... Their casualties would inevitably cause a huge uproar.

The finishing touches must be clean, meticulous, and without any omissions.

The two dozed off in the car for less than half an hour before returning to the courtyard of the Sugimoto headquarters.

At this moment, the courtyard was littered with mutilated and charred bodies. Some were unrecognizable, and others had severed limbs scattered around. The smell of burnt flesh mixed with smoke lingered in the air for a long time.

There were very few intact corpses.

The scene was extremely tragic.

Looking at the scene before him, Zhou Xiao sighed deeply: "This time, the Military Intelligence Bureau has really gone all out."

Kenjiro Oshima gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, and said, enunciating each word clearly, "I'll remember this debt. Every Kuomintang liaison point and every anti-Japanese element in Shanghai—I will wipe them out completely!"

Even if Ken Oshima intends to wipe out all the personnel of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Shanghai station in one fell swoop, he still needs to find out the Military Intelligence Bureau's contact points first.

But right now, the Military Intelligence Bureau is hiding too well, and there is no trace of them.

Kenjiro Oshima may have been vengeful, but he couldn't even find a place to strike.

Zhou Xiao said, "General Oshima, leave this to me. You should go back and rest."

"Hmm." Ken Oshima glanced around and, seeing that the cleanup was mostly complete, decided to entrust the follow-up matters to Zhou Xiao. He then prepared to return to the Military Police Headquarters to sort out his thoughts—he needed to report to the Army General Staff at the Japanese Imperial Headquarters and also communicate with Doihara. He turned to Zhou Xiao, his tone steady: "Director Zhou, thank you for your hard work."

Before he could finish speaking, a Japanese officer from the Special Higher Police rushed to Oshima Ken, his face ashen, and stammered, "Reporting, General! No...it's terrible! Section Chief Asano has been assassinated! Right there in his own office!"

Kenjiro Oshima was about to leave when he suddenly heard this news and froze on the spot!

The newly appointed head of the Special Higher Police Section, Hirofumi Asano, is dead!

And he died in the office of the Special Higher Police Section Chief!

The news hit him like a club on the head. His mind went blank, and he froze on the spot, his pupils contracted, and his lips parted slightly, unable to utter a word for a moment.

died?

Hirofumi Asano has only just taken office!

More importantly, his entire trip to Shanghai was kept under wraps: the time, location, and route were all strictly confidential, leaving no way of outsiders knowing. Even upon arriving in Shanghai, he quietly entered the city in the early hours of the morning and went straight to the headquarters of the Special Higher Police—with such a meticulously planned operation, how could he have been targeted and killed in one fell swoop?

This is probably the fastest appointment and the fastest downfall among all the former heads of the Special Higher Police.

He took office that same day and died that same day.

Even Ken Oshima was stunned and couldn't process it for a moment.

Zhou Xiao was equally astonished, gasping for breath, his expression one of utter shock.

Oshima Ken snapped out of his daze, his gaze fixed on the officer who had brought the news. His voice was low, but he couldn't hide his shock: "Dead? Section Chief Asano is really dead?"

"Yes! He was found in the office, shot four times."

After Asano Hirofumi was assassinated, the Special Higher Police immediately rushed to the military police headquarters to look for Oshima Ken, but found no one there; they then quickly found the address of the Sugimoto Agency headquarters and finally caught him there.

Zhou Xiao frowned and pressed, "How is this possible? When we left the Special Higher Police Section, Section Chief Asano was perfectly fine. How could he have been murdered so quickly?"

Not only were the officer in front of them and Ken Oshima stunned, but the entire Special Higher Police was thrown into chaos.

No one expected that on his first day in office, the new official would die a violent death in front of his own desk.

Compared to the destruction of the Sugimoto Agency, the death of Asano Hirofumi had a slightly smaller impact on Oshima Ken, but it still deeply shocked him.

He forced himself to remain calm, his face grim, and said in a deep voice, "Get to the Special Higher Police immediately!"

"Director Zhou, you're coming too!"

Zhou Xiao nodded in agreement.

The two then took a car to the Special Higher Police Department.

In the back seat of the black sedan, Ken Oshima and Xiao Zhou sat side by side.

Ken Oshima's face was ashen, his brows furrowed, a mixture of anger and surprise on his face, and he remained silent.

The carriage was so quiet you could hear someone breathing.

After a long silence, Ken Oshima suddenly spoke up: "Director Zhou, what's your opinion on the assassination attempt on Hirofumi Asano?"

Zhou Xiao pondered for a moment and replied, "This is clearly a meticulously planned assassination. But what I can't understand the most is—how could the anti-Japanese forces have known about Section Chief Asano's arrival in advance? His itinerary is top secret."

"Since the assassin was able to succeed in the Special Higher Police office, it means they had already figured out Chief Asano's movements: knowing that he arrived in Shanghai in the early hours of last night allowed them to set up this trap and launch this attack."

"What's even more impressive is that the entire operation was carried out silently. After the murders, they quickly withdrew without alerting many people, making it difficult to even find any clues—that's the really tricky part."

Ken Oshima nodded slightly, his expression still grave, and slowly said, "Director Zhou is right."

"This was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather a long-planned scheme. So, in your opinion, how exactly was Section Chief Asano's whereabouts leaked?"

Zhou Xiao bluntly stated: "The reason is very simple—there must be a mole within the military police force, or even someone who frequently enters and leaves the military police force is a suspect."

"Only these people have the opportunity to access intelligence, to know Asano's schedule in advance, and to plan this assassination."

Many people frequented the military police headquarters, mainly key personnel from the Shang Mansion, the Special Operations Headquarters, and the 76th Special Agent Headquarters, including Zhou Xiao. However, he visited the military police headquarters very rarely, only three times in total: twice when Oshima Ken was present, and the other time when Oshima Ken was absent.

That very event became the key window through which he obtained information about Hirofumi Asano's itinerary.

"I have also been to the Military Police Headquarters. If General Oshima suspects me, he may investigate thoroughly."

This sounds like an admission of weakness, but it's actually a watertight cover-up, making it the safest way to conceal one's shortcomings.

Sure enough, Ken Oshima immediately shook his head: "How could Director Zhou be suspicious? I trust you."

"You've only been to headquarters a handful of times, so you're actually the least suspicious."

"You are the Empire's most steadfast ally, and the person I, Ken Oshima, trust most. You've been by my side all night; it couldn't possibly be you."