They burst into the luxurious office, more than two hundred square meters in size, only to find it completely empty.
It was not easy to hide a living person under Mr. Yan’s and Ling He’s noses. The slightest breath or trace of a living presence would give away a hiding place. The two men searched rapidly, then both fell into baffled silence. There truly was no one in the room.
“He got away…” Yan Xiaodao stared at the chairman’s plush executive chair behind the enormous desk, still turning faintly.
“Liang Tong must have installed some kind of secret passage in his own office. Guo Zhaobin definitely escaped through it,” Ling He said.
Ling He very much wanted to raise his pistol and fire another shot, shattering the mounted North American elk head on the wall opposite Liang Tong’s desk.
It was a magnificent stag, with two elaborate, imposing spreads of antlers. It was probably a trophy brought back from a hunting trip overseas, displayed to show off status and masculine grandeur. The mounted head called to mind the decorations in the casino on Yilu Island. Watanabe and Liang Tong, those two ambitious old bastards, had arrived at much the same destination by different roads. Chairman Liang apparently shared the same fondness for hunting as a display of male wealth and power.
Yan Xiaodao crouched down close to the floor and the furniture, following smears and traces of blood until he found the mechanism. A built-in wooden bookcase covered an entire wall from floor to ceiling. Pressing a button hidden behind the curtains caused one whole section of shelving to swing open like a door, revealing a small private elevator behind it.
Liang Tong, Liang Tong. True to his name, the man was connected all the way up and down, with hands reaching everywhere.
Elio’s Notes: Liang Tong’s name 通 (tōng) can mean “to connect,” “to pass through,” or “to have access.” The narration briefly plays on his name when revealing just how thoroughly his private elevator and connections let him move “up and down” through everything.
Yan Xiaodao had expected some cramped, shabby dog hole or cat tunnel hidden in the room, something Guo Zhaobin would have to crawl through in the dark. Instead, the dignified Chairman Liang had simply installed an extra elevator directly inside his office. Shedding one’s shell and escaping could hardly have been easier.
Yan Xiaodao immediately called in the report. “Captain Xue, we caught up with Guo Zhaobin, but he escaped from the elevator in Liang Tong’s top-floor office. He’s probably already downstairs or out of the building! He has knife wounds. We’re going after him now. Block him from outside and don’t let him get away!”
Yan Xiaodao glanced back at Young Master Liang.
Liang Youhui stood blankly in the middle of the office. By now, he understood.
The way he looked at Xiaodao and Ling He was filled with confusion, bewilderment, and sudden unfamiliarity. What about all those years of supposed brotherhood? Yan Xiaodao was carrying blades, Ling He had a gun, and the two of them had stormed through the Liang family’s club as though no one else existed, fought openly, and now turned his father’s office upside down.
He had no idea who this Boss Bin even was.
He had also never known his father’s office contained a secret elevator. He had been kept completely in the dark, drifting through a naïve, bubble-filled dream all these years, and somehow had still managed to live this long.
Until tonight, it was as though he had lived inside a warm incubator. Chairman Liang had protected his son well, but had also concealed the world from him well. He had disciplined Liang Youhui into a young man with decent manners and a good reputation, yet had never taught him about the dangerous, cold-hearted world he might one day have to face alone. The innocent giant baby’s point of view could not adapt to a brutal reality crawling with demons. Sooner or later, he had to grow up.
Several gunshots had boomed through the corridor when Ling He forced the door open. A group of security guards had now surrounded the entrance but hovered there uncertainly, none daring to act, all of them making frantic calls and reporting incoherently.
Yan Xiaodao also felt sorry for Young Master Liang. None of this had anything to do with Liang Youhui, yet they had frightened this completely uninvolved giant baby half to death. Yan did not even have time to soothe him or offer a proper explanation. Of everyone caught in this mess, Youhui was the one he least wanted to hurt.
For Yan Xiaodao, the goal was to uncover the truth behind Guo Zhaobin’s murder of Officer Lu Haocheng. For Ling He, it was to drag out the hidden hand behind Guo Zhaobin’s meddling in the Huima Town demolition dispute and framing of Tan Shao’an, a hand Ling He already believed he had identified. The two men had arrived from different directions at the same fork in the road, with every clue converging on one person. How could they possibly let that piece of human garbage slip away?
Yan Xiaodao and Ling He took the chairman’s private elevator downstairs without encountering a single obstacle.
During the mere dozen or so seconds they were alone in the elevator, Yan silently wiped the blood from Ling He’s temple and hairline and realized that Ling had probably taken one dirty punch to the face from that bastard.
The dried line of blood met the black-and-gold eyeliner, already beginning to crust, creating an eerie, cold beauty.
Yan Xiaodao’s gaze slid quickly downward. He was too embarrassed to tell Mr. Ling, Why did you draw your eyeliner like that? Here at Splendid Imperial Court, that makeup is code for black lace underwear and stockings on the “menu.” Some perverts are especially into that… Yan himself did not share that particular taste, but this was Ling He…
Something else about tonight felt strange. Yan Xiaodao could not understand it. With Liang Tong’s shrewdness and capability, he should already know that they had stormed his office and that many people had heard gunshots. Yet no one had tried to arrest them, and no one stopped them from leaving. They were moving through the building as though it were empty, almost as if… as if the other side had known from the beginning that they would never manage to catch Guo Zhaobin himself.
They strode rapidly back into the first-floor banquet hall. Night had fallen, and the reception downstairs was already underway in a scene of perfect harmony. Distinguished guests drifted about with drinks in hand, exchanging greetings. The sanctimonious, frivolous smiles of high society filled the room. They were still waiting for one thrilling “special program” after another, utterly unaware that people had fought and fired guns upstairs.
Miss Su, waiting for her cue, turned as if by instinct and happened to meet Yan Xiaodao’s eyes.
Su Qing smoothly scooped up two glasses of champagne and approached Mr. Yan like a dancer greeting a guest. Each of them held a glass. Her expression was concerned. “Are you all right? Did everything go smoothly?”
Yan Xiaodao drained the champagne in one swallow to quench his thirst and gave the slightest shake of his head. “I’m fine, but the bastard got away. I can’t find him in the lobby either. Does this building have any other underground exits?”
Su Qing shook her head blankly. Liang Tong obviously would not reveal secrets like that easily.
Onstage, the emcee had already repeated his filler lines twice in the wrong order and was running out of things to say. The floor manager hissed at Su Qing, “Miss Su, you’re supposed to be singing now! What are you doing?!”
Someone behind Mr. Yan suddenly cut in. “What other property around this street belongs to Boss Liang?”
Su Qing answered, “The six-star hotel across the road. That belongs to the Liang family too.”
…
Yan Xiaodao still thoughtfully warned Su Qing before leaving, “The almanac and feng shui are bad here today. Something is going to happen. You should get out as soon as possible.”
Su Qing remained calm and captivating, maintaining her smiling composure. Softly she said, “I’ll leave after one more look at you.”
Yan Xiaodao felt both guilty and apologetic. He nodded to Su Qing in farewell, turned, and strode out of the banquet hall.
As he rushed down the steps outside Splendid Imperial Court, Mr. Ling, keeping pace beside him, sent a question into his ear on the night wind. “That was Miss Su, wasn’t it?”
Yan Xiaodao neither confirmed nor denied it.
Ling He observed, “The way that woman looks at you, she’s known you at least ten years.”
“Eight,” Yan Xiaodao corrected.
Ling He had already connected the call to Xue Qian. “Captain Xue, the suspect escaped through some passage in this building. He’s wounded and can’t have gone far. I suggest you watch the hotel across the street. And… I just ran into Young Master Liang. He’s at Splendid Imperial Court tonight too. Captain Xue, you’re far too conservative. A useful acquaintance, fuck buddy, or old flame like that, remember to make use of him whenever necessary next time!”
Ling He hung up briskly. His tart little barb of jealousy stopped exactly where it needed to. One sentence was enough to splash poison all over Mr. Yan’s face.
Yan Xiaodao sighed helplessly. Xiao He…
…
The street outside Splendid Imperial Court was already jammed with traffic.
Two groups under their respective captains had driven straight at one another until their vehicles stood nose to nose along the curb, crookedly occupying nearly half the road. On a busy street at dusk, the traffic quickly became cramped and clogged.
Captain Zheng from the local police station had, as expected, appeared impatiently at the entrance to Splendid Imperial Court at this critical moment, supposedly to maintain order. He too was dressed in plain clothes and likewise had not dared turn on sirens and alarms loud enough to shake the entire city. On that point, he and Xue Qian had exactly the same approach.
The two captains held a private roadside conference, circling one another with words. They were both men of the system, so outwardly they kept things cordial, shoulders almost touching, yet neither had any intention of moving his vehicles aside.
Captain Zheng said, “Chairman Liang is a man with standing. If you want to arrest him, at least notify our leadership first. You can’t simply surround his establishment like this, Captain Xue. It isn’t proper procedure…”
Captain Xue said, “Whose procedure? If I notify everyone and file reports in advance, the suspect will be long gone.”
Captain Zheng said, “A suspect with a name and identity can’t run forever. Captain Xue, when you work in Yandu, you need to understand the proper degree of restraint.”
Captain Xue said, “I’m responsible for arresting people and solving cases. I’m not responsible for practicing your version of restraint. Besides, we aren’t here to arrest Boss Liang.”
Captain Zheng said, “But you’ve surrounded a property belonging to Chairman Liang.”
Captain Xue said, “I saw the suspect enter this gate with my own eyes. Or perhaps Captain Zheng would like to invite Boss Liang over and have him hand the man to us? We’ll withdraw immediately and stop troubling our brother unit!”
Yan Xiaodao and Ling He emerged intact and unharmed from the mysterious, labyrinthine imitation palace and reappeared on the street. Xue Qian immediately lost interest in sparring verbally with Captain Zheng. The three exchanged a look of perfect understanding and began scanning every direction for possible escape routes.
Ling He said quietly to Xue Qian, “Guo Zhaobin isn’t the only dog being driven into a corner tonight. Liang Tong is openly helping him evade arrest. How important does this man have to be to them?”
“Cars Two and Three, watch the hotel entrances and exits. Everyone else, observe movement at every intersection!” Xue Qian ordered over the radio. He ran like a machine wound too tight, barely stopping to breathe, using frantic work to suppress the shadow expanding inside him. Just how deeply was the Liang family involved in this case?
Yan Xiaodao was equally troubled. “Liang Tong isn’t even on-site. It’s difficult to say whether he personally handled anything. What motive would he have to go out of his way to save Guo Zhaobin?”
“Chairman Liang wants to save that idiot?” Ling He laid out his reasoning without hesitation. “Captain Xue, if I were the person behind all this, and one of my stupid lackeys kept causing trouble outside until his own stink attracted a whole pack of police dogs, I wouldn’t help him escape. I’d silence him.”
Xue Qian, now apparently wearing the collar marked “police dog,” had light flash through his pupils. He nodded in agreement.
The Linwan branch convoy that had blocked the entire road abruptly scattered toward different intersections. Only by deliberately opening gaps in the crowd, some real and some false, could they tempt a panicked suspect into taking the bait.
Splendid Imperial Court remained submerged in decadent colored light, green and violet beams crossing one another into the sky. The rotating lights periodically swept over the Liang family hotel across the street. At that exact moment, a white panel van emerged from the hotel’s underground garage. Its pale body was conspicuous in the dark and instantly caught the attention of more than one police car.
Deputy Captain Fang drove out and boxed the van against the curb, demanding that the rear compartment be opened for inspection. Then, from the hotel garage, two more identical vans emerged at the same time. Was somebody deliberately setting up an Eight-Trigram formation to confuse police eyes?
At this stage, everyone was still operating on the assumption that Guo Zhaobin would use some method to escape from Splendid Imperial Court or the Liang hotel.
The car carrying Ling He and Yan Xiaodao stopped in a side alley beside the hotel. Without speaking, the two watched the high-rise building in front of them. The hotel loomed like a strangely shaped, pitch-dark monster, towering into the sky.
“If someone intends to make sure Guo Zhaobin can never speak again, do they even need him to escape?” Ling He said. “Would they choose to silence him in the street under the police’s eyes?” He and Captain Xue almost simultaneously realized where their thinking had gone wrong. A tiny error in direction could cost them the whole opportunity.
Ling He suddenly flung open the car door and charged out. Wind screamed past his ears in the darkness as he ran straight for the hotel’s side entrance.
Xue Qian led his squad directly through the hotel’s front entrance, flashed their credentials, and forced their way into the lobby to search. Several capable-looking men appeared from different directions at once. Plainclothes officers slipped in through every entrance and rapidly spread a dragnet through the building.
This was another twin-structure building. The main towers at the front were connected by a glass skybridge that led toward the guest-room building behind them. The hotel was quiet at night, with no noisy guests crowding the corridors. Every passage lay exposed and clear.
At the far end of a corridor, a hunched figure in a cleaner’s uniform slipped out of a storeroom, cap pulled low, walking very quickly.
From the distant opposite end of the corridor, Ling He noticed him immediately. The man’s right leg was obviously dragging. He was not bent over because of age or a bad back, but because of an injured leg, yet he was still forcing himself forward with remarkable determination.
The hotel cleaner was Guo Zhaobin.
Even now, Guo Zhaobin arrogantly believed he could escape. Chairman Liang had personally directed him over the phone, laying out a detailed route and instructing him to wear a cleaner’s cap to hide his face, cross the skybridge, and go to the rear building to find a vehicle waiting to pick him up. Guo Zhaobin had a false passport on him and imagined he could slip past police eyes, head straight to the airport, and flee the country without trouble.
Even injured, Guo Zhaobin was only one battered, desperate man. Liang Tong had sent no one to help support him.
Because with certain kinds of evil deeds, the fewer people who knew, the better. The more people who “assisted,” the more insiders there would be.
Guo Zhaobin, already a startled bird, looked back and suddenly saw Ling He striding rapidly after him.
Ling He’s legs were long. One of his strides swallowed almost three of Guo Zhaobin’s.
In panic, Guo Zhaobin twisted around and tried to fire his gun.
Under conditions like these, if he could still hit his target, he would have become a god. Unfortunately, he was no god and possessed no such luck.
Yan Xiaodao shouted from behind. The bullet struck a hanging flowerpot on the hotel wall with a sharp explosion. The pot shattered into fragrant, wet soil, still nowhere near Ling He.
If one could have looked down from the sky onto bustling Chaobei Avenue at that moment, countless vehicles were converging on the hotel skybridge and numerous agile figures were rushing toward the suspect. Yet the turtle trapped in the urn continued one final death struggle, refusing to surrender and still hoping the people behind him would somehow save him. Back when he had kidnapped and murdered Officer Lu Haocheng, he had done it for money and under orders. Everyone was a grasshopper tied to the same rope, all wading through the same muddy pot. How could the bosses possibly refuse to fish him out?
With pursuers closing in, Guo Zhaobin desperately climbed the stairs onto the glass skybridge.
The figures behind him spread into a fan-shaped arc as they surged onto the bridge together. Ling He, Yan Xiaodao, Xue Qian, Deputy Captain Fang… fury burned across too many faces, as if they wanted to tear him apart and swallow him alive. They had closed the door on the dog and meant to catch him. No one intended to let him go.
His arrogance and misplaced trust had already sealed Guo Zhaobin’s dead end. A lackey on the verge of capture had lost every remaining scrap of value. He could only become a burden, a breakthrough point through which the police might eventually drag up everyone behind him.
Then a gunshot rang out.
Guo Zhaobin had reached the highest point at the center of the skybridge when his head suddenly jerked as though someone had seized his hair and yanked it viciously sideways.
His head snapped to one side at a stiff, horrifying angle. Under the tremendous force of the impact, he staggered several steps and slammed through the glass barrier. The fragile glass burst apart and cascaded downward. Guo Zhaobin, like a heavy sack that had lost its balance, toppled from the bridge.
An unlucky wealthy woman happened to be driving her luxury car out of the hotel garage below. She watched in horror as the broken sack dropped from above and struck the hood of her beloved car like a thunderbolt. Blood spattered across the windshield. The body rolled to the roadside, and the woman fled the car screaming hysterically.
Captain Xue roared in fury.
This was the heart of Yandu’s most prosperous entertainment district. Someone had just carried out a cold-blooded sniper killing.
People converged from different directions until they formed a circle around the suspect who had fallen beneath the skybridge.
Guo Zhaobin lay collapsed on the ground like a discarded rag, shot through the head, blood pooling beneath him. He had been given no chance to say another word.
Xue Qian’s eyes were bloodshot. He kicked a stone bollard at the roadside. Fuck. There would be no confession now.
The plainclothes officers spread into a ring, staring down at the lifeless sack. Frustration and bitter disappointment pressed into the air. Capturing someone alive really was always harder than killing them.
Guo Zhaobin had taken a fatal bullet to the head. An experienced eye could tell immediately that the wound came from a precision long-range firearm. Judging from the trajectory, the firing position had been on a high-rise office building more than two hundred meters away. It had to be a professional shooter, and the shooter would have fled immediately after firing.
Yan Xiaodao strode up, his face faintly pale and completely silent. He lashed out with a vicious kick toward Guo Zhaobin’s head, but Ling He hooked an arm around his waist and dragged him back.
Ling He held Xiaodao tightly around the middle from behind, listening to the rough, furious breathing the man could no longer suppress.
If that kick landed, Boss Bin’s lifeless skull might genuinely be sent rolling like a ball. Ling He clung to the uncontrollable Yan Xiaodao and hauled him away from the center of the scene.
He forced Yan Xiaodao into the back of a police vehicle. Yan’s lower eyelids were red, but he said nothing. Ling He pulled the man’s head into his chest and rubbed his hair hard.
Ling He pressed his lips lightly to the side of Xiaodao’s face and whispered, “Tonight’s hundred-li pursuit wasn’t entirely wasted. Guo Zhaobin escaped into and then out of Chairman Liang’s Splendid Imperial Court with ridiculous ease, only to be sniped and silenced immediately inside the Liang family hotel. Whoever stands behind him has already exposed a face that can’t be hidden anymore.”
In Ling He’s judgment, the shooter’s original plan had not been to kill Guo Zhaobin in front of them. The intention had been a quiet silencing. But Guo was about to be caught, so the shooter had been forced to fire then and there.
The imitation imperial palace quietly dimmed its colored spotlights as though hanging its head in shame. Police lights now stretched in an unbroken chain across the scene, flashing and howling until they completely overwhelmed Splendid Imperial Court’s former brilliance.
A shooting in the center of prosperous Yandu was a major incident. There was no hiding it. Photos had already spread across the internet.
The official social-media account was still desperately blurring the truth and redirecting attention, forcing headlines into shapes such as, “Person jumps from Chaobei Avenue skybridge, strikes novice female driver’s car,” and the keyboard warriors’ excitement immediately veered off in an entirely different direction.
Captain Zheng from the local police looked equally miserable. “See, Captain Xue? Something really happened. Who is going to take responsibility?”
The veins stood out on Xue Qian’s neck. “Whose responsibility? Somebody dared snipe a suspect I was about to arrest in the middle of the street. What kind of people are hiding in your city? Shouldn’t that be investigated thoroughly?”
Bureau Chief Bao tried to calm Xue Qian over the phone. “No need to burn yourself up. A homicide has occurred, so there will definitely be an investigation. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Liang Tong will have to assist the investigation now. He can’t separate himself from this. I’ll coordinate with the higher authorities and fight for the right to conduct a joint investigation.”
Yes. Chairman Liang would have no choice but to cooperate now. There was no way he could detach himself from this… Xue Qian’s eyes reflected a long river of streetlights, glittering in broken bands. He had not handled a case in Yandu for quite some time. This time he had charged here like a firestorm, only to step directly into the vortex surrounding the Liang family.
After finishing his instructions to his officers, Xue Qian told Ling He and Mr. Yan to leave the scene of trouble as quickly as possible. After struggling with himself, he finally dialed that number. “Hello? Youhui.”
“Brother Xue? Where are you right now?!” The young master on the other end sounded as though he had suddenly spotted a rescue boat in the middle of a storm. He clutched at the imaginary gunwale in helpless relief, seeking comfort and safety from Officer Xue.
Even over the phone, Xue Qian could picture Liang Youhui’s expression. He forced himself to sound calm. “Where are you now?”
Liang Youhui answered without thinking, “I’m at Splendid Imperial Court. Where are you? I just ran into Xiaodao and Mr. Ling. Ge, are you here too?”
Xue Qian snorted through clenched teeth. “What are you doing at Splendid Imperial Court, playing ‘dragon frolicking in the water’ or ‘double heaven of ice and fire’?!”
Liang Youhui froze. “…Huh?”
“Forget it.” Xue Qian immediately withdrew the sour remark. Was he really going to argue over tiny matters of sexual recreation now? None of that counted for anything anymore. He said, “Youhui, I have something very important to ask you. I’ll wait for you at the food shop beside Splendid Imperial Court. Right now. Come out.”