Cheng Cu was taken aback by the order to act immediately. At the moment, Major Crimes had no grounds to arrest Zhan Fuhai. Chen Zheng had no time to explain. He rushed toward Area B as fast as he could. Communications with both Ming Han and Zhou Jue had been jammed, so he had no idea what was happening in Area B, while the crowds in Area A were too large for Nanshan City’s police presence to be pulled away from maintaining order there.
Cheng Cu was still hesitating when Wu Zhan said, “Do what Captain Chen said. I’ll take responsibility for everything!”
Preparations were underway for the celebration banquet after the performance. Zhan Fuhai sat in the VIP seats among a group of prominent guests, each with their own thoughts. According to the schedule, he would not attend the celebration banquet. He was supposed to leave halfway through the play. He checked the time. It was almost time to go. But just then, Cheng Cu entered the VIP room with officers in tow. Surprise flashed across Zhan Fuhai’s face, and the people around him were so startled they stood up.
Cheng Cu stepped forward. “President Zhan, please come with me.”
Zhan Fuhai instinctively looked ready to call for his men. Cheng Cu tipped his head toward the door, and officers escorted Tu Bin and the others inside. “Looking for them?”
Zhan Fuhai’s usual composure vanished. “What are you trying to do?”
Cheng Cu pressed an index finger to his lips, glanced at the terrified guests beside them and at Lin Dong performing onstage, then said, “If you don’t want this to blow up badly enough to stop the play, do what I say.”
Zhan Fuhai’s expression was ugly, but he seemed to have no other choice. “I’ll go with you.”
Outside that VIP room, the rest of the audience had no idea anything was happening. Even the fans at the exhibition outside only felt that there suddenly seemed to be more people around them.
By the time Chen Zheng reached Area B, he was breathing unevenly from running too hard. The metallic grinding had grown even louder, and the towering cranes swayed precariously in the wind.
Area B was twice the size of Area A, filled with half-finished structures. The grinding metal made Chen Zheng increasingly uneasy. No normal construction site should make sounds like that, no matter how strong the wind was.
It was as though those enormous steel structures were already old and rotten, ready to collapse at any moment.
With that thought, he looked toward the cranes. There were four in Area B. He could not tell whether it was his imagination, but the farthest one appeared to be swaying.
He narrowed his eyes. Someone seemed to be hanging from the middle of the crane.
He ran toward it as fast as he could. The closer he got, the clearer it became. The person hanging there was Ming Han. And when he looked higher, there was another person near the top of the crane. Ming Han had climbed after him.
The grinding became more piercing. Chen Zheng could now confirm that the crane really was rocking in the wind, and that the noise came from loosened joints. The crane could collapse at any moment. No, it was about to collapse.
“Ming Han!” Chen Zheng shouted. “It’s dangerous. Get down now!”
Ming Han saw Chen Zheng and felt his heart jolt, but he did not move immediately. In truth, even before Chen Zheng arrived, he had realized something was wrong with the crane. The metallic sounds were especially violent, as though the structure could no longer withstand the cold wind.
But he was already halfway up and could not descend quickly. More importantly, Liu Pinchao was above him. He could not simply watch Liu Pinchao jump and fall to his death. He had to go up and save him.
“What are you doing?” Chen Zheng shouted. “Come down!”
Ming Han instinctively stepped downward, but as he moved, one of the steel bars below suddenly snapped. The crane tilted. “Liu Pinchao” at the top lost his grip and fell. Ming Han reacted instantly, shifting handholds several times among the collapsing steel and somehow managing to catch him. The crane buckled again, and the shriek of metal drove straight into Chen Zheng’s nerves.
“Stop moving!” Chen Zheng shouted without thinking.
The middle section of the crane had broken but had not fully collapsed yet. It remained balanced in a terrifyingly unstable state. The slightest additional force might bring the entire structure down.
Ming Han held “Liu Pinchao” with one arm and clung to a steel bar with the other. There was no longer enough time for him to descend safely, and emergency rescue personnel could not arrive instantly. Then, looking more closely, it became clear that this man was not Liu Pinchao at all. He was a middle-aged man whose back simply resembled Liu Pinchao’s.
The middle-aged man trembled violently in Ming Han’s arm, too terrified to speak. There was no time to demand to know who he was. Ming Han clenched his teeth and gripped the steel bar tightly. To save the man, his whole body was now suspended in midair. He had no way to get down under his own power.
The situation was critical, yet Chen Zheng was unnaturally calm.
Suddenly he remembered Cheng Cu telling him not long ago that Ming Han had secretly practiced grappling-gun climbing. If there were a grappling gun… He shook his head. There was no time to find one. He scanned the surroundings. This was the tallest crane in Area B. The buildings under construction on both sides were also relatively high and stood fairly close to it, their rooftops slightly higher than where Ming Han was hanging.
At that moment, Zhou Jue arrived and instinctively started toward the crane to rescue them. Chen Zheng said, “Xiao Zhou, find rope immediately. There should be plenty on a construction site. Then get onto that roof over there.”
Zhou Jue froze for a moment, then understood. “Bro Chen, you want me to…”
“With your arm strength, you should be able to throw the rope across!” Chen Zheng glanced at his upper arm. “We don’t have time. Move now!”
Zhou Jue did not waste another second. “Yes!”
Just as Chen Zheng expected, thick rope was common on the construction site. Once Zhou Jue found some, he quickly climbed to the rooftop. Chen Zheng already had another length of rope tied around his own waist. Zhou Jue fastened one end of his rope to a steel bar, coiled and tied the rest, stepped back several paces, took a running start, and hurled it with all his strength toward the roof where Chen Zheng stood.
The bundled rope landed with a dull thud and uncoiled. Chen Zheng did not pause. He picked it up and fastened it to the steel bar behind him. Now the two rooftops were connected by the thick rope. Its middle section passed close to where Ming Han was hanging, but not close enough for Ming Han to reach it directly.
The wind grew even stronger. The crane looked as though it might be ripped from the ground. Ming Han’s hand clinging to the steel had already gone numb. He could not hold on much longer. Either he would fall to his death, or the crane would collapse before his strength gave out and bury him under the wreckage. He held on through sheer willpower. His vision blurred, and he could only faintly make out the rope stretched not far from him. If he had not been holding another person, he could easily have jumped to it.
Chen Zheng tied the rope around his waist to the overhead line with a slipknot, tested it twice, took a deep breath, fixed his eyes on Ming Han’s position, and launched himself into the air, just as he had once skimmed lightly between buildings with a grappling gun in his early twenties.
The violent wind howled past his ears, turning the lights and shadows in front of him into twisted streaks. The crane finally lost its fight against the wind. The precarious balance it had maintained shattered completely. The lower section began to collapse first, steel bars breaking in sequence like falling dominoes, scattering through the frozen air and throwing off tiny sparks where metal scraped against metal.
The breakage finally reached the section where Ming Han was hanging. Just as his last support gave way, his body suddenly became lighter. An arm locked firmly around his waist. The shrieking wind tore through the night ahead. Ming Han looked up, and for a single second, all he saw was the clean line of Chen Zheng’s jaw.
Behind them, the tower crane crashed down with a thunderous roar, steel pipes stabbing into the ground like swords. They slammed and rolled onto the far side of the suspended rope. Their speed was too great, and the pain of the impact felt as though bones had broken.
But the pain meant they were safe.
Zhou Jue immediately grabbed Ming Han. “Are you okay? You scared the fucking life out of me!”
After a brief moment of dazed silence, Ming Han came back to himself and quickly looked to the side. Chen Zheng had fallen beside him, covered in dust, his clothes cinched and torn around the waist by the rope until they looked like ruined rags. He was struggling to push himself upright.
Chen Zheng had once practiced grappling-gun climbing purely to look cool. He had never imagined it would become useful now, in a situation that was neither cool nor impressive, only desperate and disheveled.
Ming Han immediately shoved Zhou Jue away and lunged toward Chen Zheng. “Bro!”
Chen Zheng’s left hand had been scraped raw and was covered in blood, while Ming Han’s right hand was stained red. Chen Zheng had just swept through the air and saved two people at once, narrowly avoiding the falling steel bars. Even for him, the effort had drained nearly all his strength. His face was as pale as paper.
Ming Han wrapped Chen Zheng in a fierce embrace. “Bro!”
At the instant Chen Zheng crashed onto the roof with them, he had not felt any pain. He had only one chance to save Ming Han. If he failed, it was over. All of his attention had been fixed on Ming Han. He had barely even registered that Ming Han was still holding another person, that the weight on him was actually the weight of two people.
Human potential at the edge of life and death could be astonishing. Only now, with the danger over and Ming Han holding him, did the pain and exhaustion finally hit Chen Zheng in full.
“It hurts.” He gently pushed at Ming Han, smearing blood from his hand onto him.
Ming Han immediately let go and stared at him tensely, as though trying to figure out exactly where he was injured but afraid to touch him.
At that moment, high inside Yunxiang Entertainment’s headquarters, in a place with a view of Yunxiang Theater, someone lowered a pair of binoculars, turned away, and let out a contemptuous, disappointed click of the tongue.
Zhou Jue hauled the culprit up from the ground. The man was conscious and kept groaning in pain. Zhou Jue snapped, “You still have the nerve to complain that it hurts? Talk! Who the fuck are you? Who told you to climb up there?”
“I… I…” The man was too terrified to speak properly. “Let me go… ah, ah…”
The thunderous collapse of the crane drew the attention of people in Area A, but almost no one had actually seen Chen Zheng launch himself across to make the rescue. After the crash, they simply stared toward Area B in shock, their view blocked by a dense cloud of dust.
An emergency response vehicle arrived. The performance was not stopped because of the “accident” in Area B. People inside the theater did not even know what had happened outside. Meanwhile, fans outside raised their phones and filmed the police vehicles racing along the road.
Aside from their hands, Chen Zheng and Ming Han had several soft-tissue contusions, but fortunately nothing serious. Police had already reached Area B and were searching the construction site. Zhou Jue hoisted the unidentified man over his shoulder and tried to help Chen Zheng as well, but Ming Han blocked him. Chen Zheng and Ming Han supported each other as they went downstairs.
The scene had been genuinely terrifying. When Wu Zhan saw the fallen “beast,” even he felt a lingering chill. An ambulance was parked outside Area B. Standing by the door, Wu Zhan said, “Leave this place to us. You two go get your injuries treated.”
Chen Zheng had finally caught his breath, but his nerves tightened again. “Director Wu, where is Wen Wu?”
Wu Zhan shook his head. “Haven’t seen him.”
Ming Han noticed Chen Zheng’s abnormal tension. On the way to the hospital, he asked, “Bro, why did you suddenly come to Area B? Weren’t you watching Zhan Fuhai?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. Not everyone in the vehicle was one of their own, so it was not the place to talk. Ming Han stopped asking.
While their wounds were being treated, Chen Zheng received a call from Wu Zhan. Wen Wu had already met up with Cheng Cu and was now with Zhou Jue.
Chen Zheng suppressed the urge to ask about Han Qu. As soon as his hand was bandaged, he and Ming Han hurried back to the municipal bureau.
“I saw Han Qu.” Once there was no one else around, Chen Zheng finally spoke.
Ming Han was startled too. “Han Qu? Why would he show up? Where is he?”
Chen Zheng said, “I don’t know. Zhan Fuhai was in the banquet hall at the time. Han Qu was dressed as a waiter. There were too many people, and by the time I chased him out, he was already gone. Later, outside the theater, I saw him again. That time I actually had a chance to catch up to him, but I…”
Chen Zheng stopped and did not continue immediately.
Han Qu had been missing for a long time. This was the first time he had appeared in front of Chen Zheng again. No matter how urgent the mission was, Chen Zheng should have chased him. Anyone else could let Han Qu get away. Chen Zheng was the one person who should not. And yet, halfway through the pursuit, he had still chosen to turn back.
Had he deliberately let Han Qu escape? Judging purely by the result, yes. But if he were given the choice again, he would do exactly the same thing. If he had hesitated even a little longer, Ming Han and the man who had inexplicably climbed the tower crane would both have died.
Ming Han saw how distracted Chen Zheng was and grew worried. He lightly touched Chen Zheng’s shoulder. “Bro.”
Chen Zheng drew in a sharp breath and said softly, “I need to think about it again.”
Today’s operation had nothing to do with Han Qu. His appearance had been completely unexpected. Objectively, Chen Zheng had let him escape. But if Han Qu had not appeared in the first place, Chen Zheng would not have realized so quickly that Area B was in danger, nor would he have decisively ordered Major Crimes to move against Zhan Fuhai at once.
If he looked only at the result, Han Qu had sent him a signal to go to Area B and save Ming Han.
But… why would Han Qu do that?
“Bro, we don’t have enough information. Put Han Qu aside for now.” Ming Han’s thoughts were tangled too. “I’ll report to Old Tang.”
Chen Zheng nodded, then heard a voice behind him. “Bro Chen.”
It was Wen Wu. One of his arms was injured and he looked somewhat disheveled. “Han Qu got away.”
Sending Wen Wu after Han Qu had been a choice Chen Zheng made because he had no alternative. Chen Zheng himself had been the one who most needed to pursue Han Qu, and he had also been the closest to him. If even Chen Zheng had given up the chase, Wen Wu, who had not encountered Han Qu at all at that point, had even less chance of catching him.
“It’s fine.” Chen Zheng looked at his injury. “How did you get hurt?”
Wen Wu said he had nearly caught up with Han Qu, but the person who came to extract Han Qu had a gun. Wen Wu was shot and had no choice but to withdraw.
“Did you see who it was?” Chen Zheng asked.
Wen Wu shook his head. “They disappeared too quickly.”
Chen Zheng tried to look at Wen Wu’s wound, but Wen Wu turned slightly to avoid him. “It’s nothing serious. No muscle or bone damage.”
By then the play had ended, and the appreciation banquet would continue until the early hours of the morning. Most people at Yunxiang Theater still had no idea what had happened around them, while the police search had already expanded from Area B into Area A.
Hall No. 5 in Area A had the largest crowd that day aside from the main theater. In a concealed basement beneath it, Major Crimes found Liu Pinchao barely alive. Cheng Cu broke out in a cold sweat. Zhan Fuhai had tried to play the police, and their initial attention really had been focused on Area B. If Chen Zheng had not ordered Zhan Fuhai’s arrest in time, then once the incident in Area B occurred, Zhan Fuhai would have had ample opportunity to exploit the enormous crowd and move Liu Pinchao right under the police’s noses.
If that had happened, Major Crimes and the Mobile Unit would have had a very difficult time finding Liu Pinchao again. And without Liu Pinchao, even if they temporarily detained Zhan Fuhai, they might still have been forced to release him for lack of key evidence.
Liu Pinchao was taken to the hospital, and Ming Han went there as well. Back at the municipal bureau, Chen Zheng sat across from Zhan Fuhai. The businessman who had been so arrogant not long ago now looked badly shaken.
“Did you order Liu Pinchao to kill Luo Yingqiang?” Chen Zheng asked.
“Captain Chen, are you joking?” Zhan Fuhai said, looking somewhat drained. “What reason would I have to make Liu Pinchao kill Luo Yingqiang? I already explained very clearly the last time we met that I had nothing to do with Luo Yingqiang’s death.”
“But you also laid out your motive quite clearly,” Chen Zheng said.
Zhan Fuhai frowned. “What motive?”
“Luo Yingqiang wanted to absorb you into the chamber of commerce he was planning. That probably wasn’t simple recruitment, was it? He wanted to control you, and if you wanted to develop your business in Nanshan City, you could hardly ignore him.” Chen Zheng said, “Put simply, Luo Yingqiang was an obstacle in your path. Today’s appreciation banquet already showed that clearly. With Luo Yingqiang gone, your position in Nanshan City’s business world is steadily rising.”
Zhan Fuhai stared at Chen Zheng in displeasure.
Chen Zheng continued, “And then there’s Sui Ning. I’ve already confirmed that you have part of Sui Ning’s collection. But did you really need to volunteer that the two of you once met in Country A? President Zhan, you were provoking me. Now you want to pretend you weren’t?”
Zhan Fuhai remained silent.
“Liu Pinchao is already in my hands. You hid him well enough. What I want to know is this: before all this, Liu Pinchao apparently had nothing to do with you. Why go to so much trouble to hide him?” Chen Zheng said. “Where were you planning to send him under cover of the chaos?”
Zhan Fuhai said, “If he’s already in your hands, why don’t you ask him directly?”
“Because I wanted to give you the chance to confess first.” Chen Zheng smiled. “Consider it my way of ‘repaying’ you for offering me a career change.”
Zhan Fuhai seemed not to have expected him to speak so bluntly under the camera. A flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes.
Chen Zheng lifted his left hand and showed Zhan Fuhai the injuries on his palm and arm. “See these? Courtesy of you. What grudge does Ming Han have with you that you had to come after him? Who was the man you dressed up to resemble Liu Pinchao from a distance? You used a decoy to lure Ming Han in and were willing to spend a fortune sabotaging a tower crane on your own construction site, all just to take Ming Han’s life?”
Zhan Fuhai said nothing.
Chen Zheng said, “I can roughly guess what’s behind this. You’re not the one who wants Ming Han dead. Someone else is behind you. President Zhan, now that you’re sitting here, stop playing games. Who told you to do it?”
Zhan Fuhai avoided Chen Zheng’s gaze and lowered his head without speaking.
Chen Zheng stood. “Fine. You still need time to think? No problem. You and your people are all in my hands now. I can take my time with you.”
Something this serious had happened in Nanshan City, and Ming Han had nearly lost his life. Tang Xiaoli personally arrived in Nanshan City before dawn.
Ming Han was at the hospital keeping watch over Liu Pinchao. Liu had not regained consciousness yet, but his condition had stabilized. Ming Han received a call from Tang Xiaoli and was just about to report the situation when Tang cut him off. “I’m with Xiao Chen right now.”
Ming Han froze. “Old Tang, you came?”
Even though Tang Xiaoli knew Ming Han was all right, he could not help checking. “No broken arms or legs? Brain still working? Can you still work for the Mobile Unit after this?”
Ming Han choked. “Then you’d better thank my bro. If he hadn’t arrived in time, your Mobile Unit would be down one major asset.”
Tang Xiaoli handed the phone to Chen Zheng. Chen Zheng said, “How are you still bragging?”
The moment Ming Han heard the voice change, he said, “Bro, I’m coming back now.”
Well into the second half of the night, the municipal bureau remained brightly lit. Major Crimes had brought back a group of Yunxiang Entertainment personnel and was questioning them one by one. The man who had climbed to the top of the tower crane was identified as Zhou Hong, forty-two years old and unemployed. Many people on Yunxiang Entertainment’s security team knew him, but he was not a formal member of the team. Tu Bin used him for dirty work. In that sense, he was much like Ji Shun.
Zhan Fuhai kept Tu Bin as his “mad dog,” and Tu Bin in turn kept a group of men of his own. Zhou Hong and Ji Shun were among the most useful, secretly handling plenty of dirty business for Zhan Fuhai.
After being rescued, Zhou Hong was still badly shaken, though physically he had escaped largely unhurt. At first his mind was too scrambled for him to say anything coherent. Then, when he saw Ming Han, he suddenly burst into tears, dropped to his knees, and wailed that Ming Han had saved his life.
“That son of a bitch Tu Bin! I worked for him all these years. What dirty job didn’t I do for him? If he has what he has today, I deserve the biggest share of the credit! And this is how he treats me? Fuck him!” Zhou Hong was furious, trembling all over.
According to Zhou Hong, he and Tu Bin came from the same hometown. Back in school, they had been the kind of friends who fought together and chased women together. In their twenties, something happened in Tu Bin’s family and he could no longer stay in their hometown, so Tu Bin left for Nanshan City to find work. Zhou Hong stayed behind, drifting through life, and eventually got married.
For several years they almost completely lost contact. Zhou Hong married, divorced, had no children, and lived a generally miserable life. He had resigned himself to spending the rest of his life that way when Tu Bin suddenly came home in triumph and stunned him.
Tu Bin had once been worse off than Zhou Hong. Now he wore suits, drove an expensive car, and even spoke differently. Zhou Hong envied him deeply. Swallowing his pride, he ingratiated himself with Tu Bin and asked where he had made his money and whether he could bring an old brother along. Zhou Hong expected Tu Bin to use the chance to humiliate him, but Tu Bin did nothing of the sort. Instead, he enthusiastically described how he followed a big boss and threw his weight around Nanshan City, and could sleep with whichever glamorous celebrities he wanted. Then he invited Zhou Hong to work for him, saying that as long as he obeyed orders and stayed diligent, he would definitely get rich.
Zhou Hong was immediately tempted. He packed his few belongings and became Tu Bin’s underling. After he reached Nanshan City, Tu Bin did not give him work right away or take him to meet the boss. Instead, he housed him in an old building near the boundary between downtown and the New District and kept him well fed and comfortable. Several months passed before Tu Bin began taking him along to threaten this boss or that celebrity. Borrowing Tu Bin’s authority made Zhou Hong feel powerful, which only made him admire Tu Bin more.
After doing the work for several years, Zhou Hong gradually understood what it really was: living in the gray zone. When businessmen wanted to use illegal methods to control competitors or subordinates but could not act personally, men like him and Tu Bin stepped in. He knew that road could not last forever, but Tu Bin paid well. Zhou Hong had never accomplished anything in his life anyway. He might as well enjoy each day while he could.
A week earlier, Tu Bin came to him as usual and said an especially important assignment had arrived. He hinted that if Zhou Hong completed it, President Zhan’s payment would be in the seven figures. Zhou Hong’s eyes lit up immediately, and he promised he would get it done.
Tu Bin showed him a video and said the man in it was called Old Liu. Zhou Hong and Old Liu were different ages, but their heights and builds were extremely similar. Seen only from behind, they could almost be the same person. Over the next few days, Zhou Hong’s job was to imitate Old Liu’s way of walking and running. When the time came, he would hide in Area B of the theater and lure someone into climbing a tower crane.
Zhou Hong was completely confused. Lure who? Why climb a tower crane? And what happened after they got up there?
Tu Bin told him not to ask questions he did not need answered. “Is a seven-figure payoff still not enough to shut your mouth?”
Zhou Hong thought about it and decided Tu Bin had a point. How hard could it be to imitate the way another person walked? It was much easier than tailing minor celebrities. Climbing tower cranes was something he had done frequently when he was younger too. He had not climbed one in years and actually found himself missing it a little.
He agreed readily. From then on, he did almost nothing except study how to make himself resemble Old Liu more closely.
The day before yesterday, Tu Bin told him to hide inside the construction site in Area B. Once he received the signal to act, he was to run toward the tallest tower crane, never look back, and absolutely never let anyone see his face.
“I did exactly what he said.” Zhou Hong ground his teeth. “When I was climbing, I did think something felt wrong with that crane, but I didn’t think much of it. I never imagined he was sending me straight to King Yama! No wonder the payoff was seven figures. I was never going to live long enough to receive it or spend it!”
Chen Zheng asked, “Did Tu Bin tell you who you were supposed to lure onto the crane?”
Zhou Hong shook his head repeatedly. “Didn’t he tell me not to ask? I thought it was some little actor who wasn’t behaving and needed to be taught a lesson. If I’d known it was a police officer, I wouldn’t have dared even if I had a hundred times the nerve!”