A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 911, Lang Sang, have the chrysanthemums bloomed yet?

The two of them finally managed to "crawl" into the narrow equipment compartment.

Without saying much, Lao Wang immediately got to work. He first asked Zhao Gang to pinpoint the exact location and posture of Junichiro when he was discovered.

"Right there, with his back against that now-empty equipment rack, huddled in a corner, coughing from the smoke, he was subdued without any real resistance," Zhao Gang said, pointing to a corner of the cabin wall.

Old Wang grunted in agreement, his gaze sweeping back and forth across the area Zhao Gang had pointed out. Instead of immediately searching, he squatted down, reached out and touched the deck, his fingertips slowly tracing the welds and rivets, feeling for any possible minor unevenness.

"What are you looking for? We already checked this place before, and there was nothing there except a bunch of fixed iron lumps." Zhao Gang leaned against the bulkhead, watching Lao Wang's busy work, and couldn't help but ask again.

Old Wang didn't answer immediately. He adjusted his posture, half-kneeling on the ground, and tilted his head to look into the gap between the equipment base and the bulkhead.

The movement wasn't exactly graceful, and even a bit awkward, but it was meticulous enough.

He even imitated the way Junichiro curled up in his imagination, squeezing into the corner and gesturing with his hands to show what he could see and touch from that angle.

"A cassette tape..."

Having found nothing, Lao Wang finally straightened up, dusted off his gloves, and whispered in Zhao Gang's ear, "It's probably a specially made small cassette tape, different from the bulk ones we usually see."

He specifically emphasized, "Miniaturized, have you seen that?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Gang's impatience vanished instantly. He raised an eyebrow and a smug smile appeared on his lips: "Hey brother, you underestimate me! Miniature cassette tapes? What kind of weird and wonderful things haven't I seen among the 'smuggled' cassettes I've dealt with? I've probably seen more weird and wonderful things than you've ever heard of!"

He spoke with great confidence.

Given the complex situation across the Taiwan Strait at the time, the other side had an almost obsessive pursuit of various special reconnaissance equipment.

The bald eagle provided many of these "high-tech toys" for strategic reasons.

Not to mention the miniature cameras and voice recorders they discarded, the other side even tried to import a lot of the fancy gadgets from James Bond's side.

There were guns hidden in pens, lighters that could send signals, and even miniature films rolled into thin strips and hidden in belts.

Zhao Gang and his colleagues have been working on the front lines for many years and have indeed come into contact with and confiscated many of these "little gadgets" that are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. He has a concept of "miniaturized" storage media.

Seeing that he understood, Old Wang didn't waste any more time on the tape and went straight to the point: "Alright, as long as you have it in mind. Think about it carefully again. From the time that kid was pinned down here, to when he was taken off the ship and locked in the dormitory, did he do anything unusual along the way? Or, is it possible that he hid the thing?"

As he asked, he lightly tapped the spots he had just checked with his toe, clearly not having given up completely.

Seeing how seriously Old Wang took it, Zhao Gang also put away his joking attitude, frowned and tried hard to recall, then shook his head firmly: "No. They were under very strict guard at the time. Those three were always separated from us and had no contact with the other Japanese submariners."

Furthermore, according to procedure, they all took showers and changed into clean prison uniforms provided by us after disembarking. His own clothes were inspected before being stored, and there were definitely no tapes or similar items among them.”

"Could it be... that the tape is with two other people?" Zhao Gang suggested another possibility.

Old Wang shook his head again, his tone certain: "No. Junichiro is the kind of person with an extremely strong desire for control; he would never truly trust anyone. He would only keep such a core item in what he considers the safest place."

"Let's go outside and talk about this!"

The two silently emerged from the submarine, greeted the dazed boy carrying large and small bags, and then began their discussion again.

Old Wang pulled out a crumpled cigarette case, lit one for himself, and tossed one to Zhao Gang: "Don't rush, go over the whole thing in your mind first. From this cabin door to the gangway, and then down the transport boat, did he do anything unusual along the way?"

Zhao Gang lit a match for Lao Wang first, then took a drag himself, squinting as he recalled, "It was done according to procedure, two people escorting him, he walked in the middle. I think he tripped a bit when going down the gangway and had to hold onto the railing."

"Holding onto the railing?" Old Wang exhaled a puff of smoke. "Which hand exactly? And for how long?"

"His right hand, he just touched it for less than three seconds." Zhao Gang suddenly straightened up. "Wait... he made a gesture of tying his shoelaces when he got off the boat, but he was clearly wearing those overshoes!"

Old Wang's eyes lit up: "Tie shoelaces? Are you sure?"

"It's true! I thought he was just scared out of his wits, but now that I think about it..." Zhao Gang slapped his thigh, "Could it be that he was stuffing something into the seam of his shoe?"

"Let's go!" Old Wang stubbed out his cigarette. "Let's search his personal belongings first."

"What's the point of investigating anymore!" Zhao Gang grabbed him. "It's so much faster to just interrogate him! I guarantee I can get him to talk in half an hour!"

Old Wang shook his head: "Junichiro is a cunning old fox. The tougher you are with him, the more he'll resist. I remember last time we interrogated him, he talked about tea ceremony for two hours straight."

"What can we do? We can't just let him hide things!"

"Let's go to the storage area first." Old Wang picked up his flashlight. "If we don't find anything in the shoes, we can go see him later."

Zhao Gang muttered as he followed, "If you ask me, you guys are too particular... Back then, when we caught those reconnaissance guys at sea, weren't they all..."

“That was during wartime,” Old Wang interrupted him. “Now we have to follow the rules. Check the shoes first, and if we find anything, then interrogating him will be a done deal.”

The two had reached the cabin door as they were talking. Zhao Gang suddenly stopped: "Old Wang, what if there's nothing in your shoes either..."

Old Wang turned around, his flashlight beam tracing an arc in the dimly lit corridor:

"That means this thing is more important than we thought."

……

"Damn...it stinks to death, there's not a single hair on it!" After searching for a while, Zhao Gang frowned and desperately scrubbed his paws in the water.

Old Wang took out a cigarette again, but this time he didn't throw it to Zhao Gang.

"Hey bro, didn't you mutter before that Junichiro's walking style was a bit weird, that it looked awkward?"

Zhao Gang was taken aback, then remembered: "That's right! I even cursed at him back then, saying that he must have something stuffed in his crotch, because he walked with his butt swaying back and forth, it was disgusting to look at!"

Now that I think about it carefully, that posture... rather than something being wrong, it seemed more like... deliberate?

The two exchanged a glance, and almost simultaneously realized a certain possibility, their faces showing a strange yet knowing expression.

"Chrysanthemums are blooming?"