Thin Ice

The story is set in Shanghai in the 1940s. Chen Qian, an agent of the Military Statistics Bureau, is captured after a failed attempt to assassinate a senior Japanese puppet official. Gu Manli, a doctor and undercover operative planted by the Chinese Communist underground within the enemy ranks, contrives to fake his death and help him escape. After returning to the Bureau's Chongqing headquarters, Chen Qian learns that Akita, the Japanese envoy sent to Shanghai to arrange the transfer of vital industrial raw materials and ore, was his roommate during his studies in Japan—and that the two men look remarkably alike. The Bureau therefore orders Chen Qian to impersonate Akita and infiltrate the Japanese side in order to sabotage the transfer and steal intelligence. Yet operating undercover proves far more dangerous than imagined. Chen Qian's lodgings happen to be the home of Iida Yujiro, the meticulous and ruthless head of the intelligence section of the Plum Blossom Agency. He meets Gu Manli again, and old acquaintance and new enemy become intertwined, so that every word and every glance may be a death warrant. In a Shanghai where friend and foe are hard to tell apart, the Chinese Communist Party, the Military Statistics Bureau, and the Plum Blossom Agency contend covertly among other forces. While maintaining the mask of "Akita" on a knife's edge, Chen Qian repeatedly reexamines his own position and faith as he witnesses sacrifice and betrayal. This book is a full-length spy novel produced by Hai Fei and included in the "Hai Fei Spy World" series, set in the same fictional world as Sparrow, Awakening of Insects, and Awake. It was later adapted into a television series of the same name and spawned a two-volume plot novel published by Huacheng Publishing House in 2023.