After Main Bookkeeper Zhou and the others left, Zha Zhongping stayed behind alone.
"Mistress, this is the first batch of personnel for the Secret Agent Unit," Zha Zhongping said, taking a letter soaked in alum water from his tunic. When held over the candle flame, vermilion characters emerged.
"Only my subordinates and you, Mistress, have seen this roster. Aside from joint operations, the thirty-nine people on it do not know each other's identities. They are like thirty-nine hidden spikes—mutually unacquainted, yet tightly linked in a continuous chain."
Chapter 125