That evening, the mess hall prepared a late dinner of hot soup and food for the returning troops from both regiments. Two recruits from Regiment 491 finished eating, set down their chopsticks, stood up, and turned themselves in.

They were deep-cover Wiper operatives. Although they had yet to do anything and hadn’t been exposed in the slightest, they found that they simply couldn’t do it anymore.

Later that same night, Wen Jifei showed up carrying his bedroll. While making his bed on an empty bunk, he explained, “I got Lao Jian to pull some strings and put in a request. I’m staying here for a few days. The equipment yard only has quarters for the female equipment officers, and they won’t let me bunk there. I can’t sleep in the equipment shed, all alone.”

The lights went out, and everyone lay down.

After a while, someone tried to start a conversation, reaching for something lighter, even if it wasn’t entirely appropriate. Two jokes fell flat, so he switched to g...