Chen Zheng wasn’t the only one surprised. Du Hui couldn’t understand it either. Wu Mo had already started the business, so why had he stopped? Had he been discovered? Yet in the years that followed, nothing happened. Nanfeng Pharmaceuticals made a tidy profit selling health supplements and even paid money back into Huyun Tea Factory, bringing the old plant back to life.
Du Hui felt as though he’d had a nightmare. Once he woke, it was as if he’d never helped produce illegal drugs, much less witnessed the murders of six children. But whenever he returned to the residential compound attached to Huyun Tea Factory and saw Zhou Xia and the others, cold reality closed around him again.
Three years ago, everything changed once more. Ruan Xingjie decided to give up his business interests in Hua Country and return to Southeast Asia. Du Hui was afraid someone would discover the bodies beneath Hutian Hotel, but Wu Mo seemed distracted, preoccupied with something else.
Then Du Hui’s nightmare returned. After years away from the trade, Wu Mo had begun making drugs again. This time, he’d even established a security company, and half the men he recruited were mercenaries. Du Hui thought he’d gone mad. Wu Mo had changed greatly since the old days. His face was perpetually grim, as though he too was burdened by problems he couldn’t resolve. The drug-production workers were people Wu Mo recruited from outside. The pharmaceutical plant’s regular employees knew nothing about it.
“I believe the ordinary workers knew nothing, but Secretary Du, are you really going to tell me you knew nothing either?” Chen Zheng asked. “Wu Mo trusted you enough to put you in charge of the bodies. You knew they were used to anchor the feng shui, yet you don’t know why Wu Mo stopped producing drugs halfway through, or why he started again three years ago? You don’t know who he was working with?”
Du Hui had bitten his lips until they bled. He only kept shaking his head.
Chen Zheng said, “Ruan Xingjie was one of them. Who else? There’s also Jin Xiaoquan, who did business with Yunquan Group. Some of the men in your security company used to work for him. You were Wu Mo’s most trusted secretary, yet you’re telling me you knew nothing about Jin Xiaoquan?”
After a deathly silence, Du Hui let out a horrible, drawn-out wail. “The man behind Boss Ruan was Jin Xiaoquan! You don’t need that many bodies just to secure feng shui. If Jin Xiaoquan hadn’t decided to help Wu Mo, Boss Ruan would never have agreed to take so many corpses!”
Chen Zheng asked, “Then was it Jin Xiaoquan’s idea for Ruan Xingjie to return to Southeast Asia too? Why did Wu Mo start making drugs again?”
Du Hui clutched his head, terror filling his eyes. “Wu Mo was Jin Xiaoquan’s puppet too! So was I. Back then, if we hadn’t made drugs, both factories would have gone under. I don’t know why the workshop was dismantled half a year later. Maybe Jin Xiaoquan didn’t need it anymore. Maybe Wu Mo managed to persuade him, since the tea factory and pharmaceutical plant were both doing well by then. But when they started making drugs again… Wu Mo didn’t want to. He never agreed, but he had no choice. Jin Xiaoquan had something on him!”
“What did he have on Wu Mo?” Chen Zheng asked.
Du Hui shook his head over and over. “If even I knew that, wouldn’t I be the one who’d fallen from a building and died? I followed Wu Mo for years. These last three years, I could clearly tell he was being forced. I don’t know why Jin Xiaoquan targeted us and insisted we make drugs. Those security guards were strange too. All it would’ve taken was one police inspection and we’d have been exposed. What did he stand to gain?”
What Jin Xiaoquan stood to gain? Chen Zheng suddenly recalled an earlier suspicion: someone was directing police attention toward Yunquan Group and Liang Yueze.
If that was the case, Nanfeng Pharmaceuticals was the perfect tool. Yunquan Group’s investment was hard to explain. Nanfeng had started manufacturing drugs that same year, then stopped, then resumed. The evidence of drug production was overwhelming, and Wu Mo was dead. Yunquan Group would inevitably become a focus of the investigation. The investment from eight years ago could easily be interpreted as drug money, and Liang Yueze as Wu Mo’s true backer.
But Jin Xiaoquan and Liang Yueze were closely connected business partners. Why would Jin Xiaoquan do this?
Was Jin Xiaoquan a member of one faction of the Heaven-Measuring Ruler, hoping to use the police to eliminate Liang Yueze?
The situation was becoming more complicated by the minute. Chen Zheng contacted the Mobile Unit at once. Du Hui’s testimony was crucial. The police now had sufficient grounds to arrest Jin Xiaoquan.
Under the cover of darkness, Ming Han was monitoring Jin Xiaoquan’s movements from a speeding police car. Before Chen Zheng’s intelligence reached the team, Jin Xiaoquan had received some unknown message and climbed into a car waiting outside his hotel. Mobile Unit officers on surveillance immediately followed him, refusing to let up. Apparently aware that the police were behind him, Jin Xiaoquan’s car kept changing direction in an effort to shake them.
Ming Han and Zhou Jue were working as a pair. They had set off from a different direction, keeping some distance to respond to emergencies. Technical Investigation reported three suspicious vehicles closing on Jin Xiaoquan. They might be planning to create chaos and then whisk him away.
Luocheng was a bustling city. Even late at night, several of its central districts were full of people. If Jin Xiaoquan chose to make trouble there, innocent civilians would almost certainly be hurt.
“Bird, what do we do?” Zhou Jue asked. “Catch up to him?”
Every vehicle in the Mobile Unit carried firearms and performed well enough to withstand both high-speed pursuits and collisions.
Ming Han watched the red dot moving across the screen, his brows drawn together. “Not yet. We’re not letting Jin Xiaoquan get his way. He wants to switch cars downtown, so I’m going to force him toward the outskirts.”
“Xiao Jia, Coconut, Baldy, cut Jin Xiaoquan off and make him change course,” Ming Han said calmly over the team channel as he laid out their positions. “In another hundred meters, he’ll reach a traffic light. Coconut, come in from the left. That’ll leave him no choice but to turn right. Xiao Jia and Baldy, box him in and force him onto Fude Branch Road!”
“Roger!”
Brakes shrieked. Jin Xiaoquan glared coldly at the police vehicle ahead. His driver asked, “Mr. Jin, should I ram them?”
Jin Xiaoquan looked at the live traffic map. The cars coming to assist him hadn’t reached their assigned positions yet. He gritted his teeth. “Turn right!”
But that seemed to be a wrong move. After he turned, more police cars were waiting. They didn’t block his path outright. Instead, they kept forcing him to change course. The three vehicles coming to help were now getting farther and farther away from him, and he was moving farther and farther from Luocheng’s busy streets.
“Old Tang.” Ming Han answered his phone.
“Junan has obtained evidence of Jin Xiaoquan’s crimes. Don’t let him get away,” Tang Xiaoli said. “Bring him back alive!”
On a broad, quiet road at the edge of the city, the roar of engines and tires tore through the night. Jin Xiaoquan’s vehicle slammed into a police car coming up on its right, while the three vehicles supporting him opened fire on the police. Bullets struck the car bodies, scattering sparks.
Jin Xiaoquan had spent years moving through Southeast Asia’s gray underworld while pretending to be a respectable investor in Hua Country. Now he’d torn off his mask and suddenly attacked the police. He must have received information telling him to retreat, and believed someone would protect him from the consequences.
The number of supporting vehicles rose from three to five. They kept closing in on Jin Xiaoquan. Bullets shredded the tire of one police car, which spun out of control at high speed and crashed into a closed shop by the roadside. Glass shattered with a tremendous crash.
Zhou Jue pressed the accelerator. Ming Han had already chambered a round in his light sniper rifle. Their car was at the rear of the police formation. Ahead of them, two police vehicles were closing on Jin Xiaoquan from either side, while the supporting cars were gradually surrounding the police.
“Are these people out of their minds?” Zhou Jue hadn’t been involved in a high-speed chase with criminals through city streets for a long time. His police car raced along, leaving a streak of dark, moving light.
“The only thing they care about is getting Jin Xiaoquan away. They can sacrifice their other vehicles and take us down with them.” Ming Han stole a glance at Technical Investigation’s real-time tracking map. There was a supporting vehicle ahead of them, traveling more slowly than the others. It seemed to be waiting specifically for their car.
Ming Han narrowed his eyes, as focused as a hawk soaring through the night sky.
“Brother Jue, try not to hit anything in a moment. I’ll handle it.” As he spoke, Ming Han lowered his seat back and rolled out of the passenger seat into the rear.
“Hey!” Zhou Jue called. “Your Brother Jue has never lost a street race!”
The target vehicle was already in sight, but in the next instant bullets rained down. Zhou Jue cursed and swerved hard, keeping the shots away from critical parts of the car. Their opponent was a heavily modified off-road Jeep, built to take punishment. When the first barrage failed, it abruptly changed direction and drove against traffic, heading straight at them.
Zhou Jue stamped on the brakes and veered sharply left, launching the car over the landscaped median and into the oncoming lane. Its tires threw sparks and screamed against the road as it swung around. Zhou Jue shouted, “Bird!”
The Jeep couldn’t match their turn. In that tiny window of opportunity, Ming Han calmly aimed at its rear wheel and fired twice. The Jeep was still trying to correct its direction when the bullets struck. Half its body sagged, and momentum sent it scraping more than ten meters along the asphalt.
Zhou Jue turned the wheel again and jumped back into their original lane. Three people were in the Jeep, and the two passengers were both armed. During the brief pause, bullets flew from the Jeep again, each shot directed toward a vulnerable part of the police car.
Zhou Jue dodged left and right. Between taking aim, Ming Han still had to keep an eye on Jin Xiaoquan’s situation. Two police cars had already been disabled. Tang Xiaoli had dispatched reinforcements, hoping to stop Jin Xiaoquan at the expressway leading out of the city.
Ming Han’s brows knit tightly. Jin Xiaoquan wasn’t merely trying to escape. The people behind him intended to inflict serious damage on the police. Giving them a chance to survive would mean denying that chance to his own team. A layer of ice seemed to settle over Ming Han’s eyes.
“Brother Jue, ram them,” Ming Han said. “We’re ending this right here.”
Zhou Jue had been waiting to hear those words. The police car was his pride and joy, modified with his own hands. Ordinarily he drove it with extreme care, afraid to ram this or scrape that. Heaven knew he’d put so much work into it precisely so he could use it as a battle vehicle when the need arose.
The police car suddenly accelerated, bringing the cutting night wind with it, like a mountain descending on the Jeep. Its occupants were dumbfounded. They were usually the ones who recklessly rammed police vehicles. Since when had the police become the reckless ones?
With a thunderous crash, the Jeep, its rear wheels already ruined, was lifted as though by the scoop of an excavator and overturned onto the median. Ming Han pulled the trigger. A sharp gunshot cracked through the air. The bullet smashed through the glass, and fragments struck one man’s wrist, drawing a scream. Without pausing, Ming Han fired again. All three occupants, including the driver, were hit in the wrist or elbow, leaving them temporarily unable to fight.
“Move!” Ming Han ordered.
The police car sped toward the more desperate and dangerous fight ahead, leaving the Jeep behind. Ming Han saw over the team channel that a Special Police reinforcement unit would reach the scene within minutes to deal with the aftermath.
“Bird, are we letting Jin Xiaoquan get past?” Zhou Jue asked.
Jin Xiaoquan’s vehicle was about to reach an elevated roadway. Three supporting cars were guarding him. Two police cars were pursuing from behind, but they had a great deal to consider and hadn’t found an opening. Reinforcements had already reached the expressway entrance, and unless more supporting vehicles appeared, they should be able to stop Jin Xiaoquan there.
But Ming Han, as the officer commanding this operation on the ground, knew that the officers rushed to the expressway entrance were not elite units. They were ordinary police. Tang Xiaoli had had no choice: there was no time to spare, and these were the closest officers available. Elite units were already on their way, but they needed time to arrive.
Jin Xiaoquan and the organization behind him were already beyond reason. Even if those ordinary officers managed to stop them, casualties would be inevitable. If Jin Xiaoquan had another trick prepared, things could become far worse.
Ming Han studied the live traffic information. The road had been closed to other traffic. Jin Xiaoquan’s accomplices might force their way in, but ordinary civilian vehicles wouldn’t. The suspects the Mobile Unit was pursuing should be captured by the Mobile Unit itself. There was no reason to make their colleagues from other departments risk their lives in its place.
“We take him here.” Ming Han narrowed his eyes to slits. “Stop him.”
“At your command!” Zhou Jue replied.
Of the two pursuing police cars ahead, one slowed down, letting Ming Han and Zhou Jue take its place. The vehicle supporting Jin Xiaoquan noticed the switch and slowed as well, firing a burst of bullets at them.
Zhou Jue dodged deftly, the car sliding from side to side so wildly its tires hardly seemed to touch the road together. Ming Han was already back in the front passenger seat. Using the other police car for cover, he fired decisively as they passed. A bullet from his light sniper rifle punched through the bulletproof glass, deflected, and tore through the driver’s shoulder from an angle.
The driver lost his grip on the steering wheel, and the tires let out a piercing scream. The man in the passenger seat cursed and grabbed the wheel, trying to steady the vehicle amid the thick smell of blood. Zhou Jue gave him no chance. Carrying their momentum forward, he rammed it directly. The other vehicle lifted into the air, then struck the road and rolled onto its side. The police car following behind accelerated into position, and its officers quickly shot out all four tires with their light sniper rifles.
Only two vehicles remained to support Jin Xiaoquan. One was locked in a firefight with the police, trying to force them back through sheer firepower. The other was almost level with Jin Xiaoquan’s car. Both were modified G-Class SUVs, with performance to rival Zhou Jue’s “battle vehicle.” But after the chase and two collisions, their own vehicle had sustained heavy damage.
Over the team radio, an officer in another police car called, “Bird, Brother Jue, I’ll cut off the one behind! Watch for your chance to get through!”
Near the elevated road was a tunnel that hadn’t been completely finished. Jin Xiaoquan’s car plunged into it, followed closely by one of the G-Class SUVs. The tunnel was short, with no apparent support vehicles or traps inside. Ming Han frowned. Why would Jin Xiaoquan choose the tunnel? Was he giving up on leaving the city and trying to circle back downtown? That would be suicide. Special Police and the Mobile Unit had already cut off his route back to the city, and there were even more officers there than at the expressway entrance. Had Jin Xiaoquan received another message?
Ming Han had no time to think. Zhou Jue had already driven into the tunnel, with another police car close behind. Four vehicles raced through the unlit passage like meteors trailing fire across the atmosphere.
Bullets poured through the darkness. The distance between the two sides slowly widened. Zhou Jue wanted to accelerate, but Ming Han stopped him. Jin Xiaoquan had chosen this tunnel for a reason. It was more dangerous in here than outside. If there was an explosion…
Suddenly, someone in the G-Class SUV tossed out something the size of a phone charger. It rolled backward, bounced twice, and stopped. A faint red light blinked on its side, like the bloodthirsty eye of an abyss.
Ming Han immediately grabbed the steering wheel. Zhou Jue had already understood. The car slewed sideways and braked hard, blocking the police vehicle behind them at the same time.
“Fall back!” Ming Han ordered without hesitation.
Just then, the window of the G-Class SUV opened. This time, the gun wasn’t aimed at the police cars. It was aimed at the “charger” on the ground.
A shot rang out. The tunnel was instantly lit by an explosion. As the blast wave surged outward, Jin Xiaoquan’s car burst out of the tunnel. In its shattered rearview mirror, the tunnel behind them was collapsing like an aging black hole.
Waves of heat rolled through the passage. The heavily modified “battle vehicle” shielded their comrades as it raced toward the opposite exit. The center of the tunnel had already caved in, and bricks and stones rained down on the car. Fortunately, the explosive charge hadn’t been powerful enough to bring down the whole tunnel. The roof of the police car had been crushed, but they finally escaped before the collapse reached the entrance.
“Baldy, stay here and wait for backup!” Ming Han was breathing hard. He absolutely could not let Jin Xiaoquan get away. “Brother Jue, take another route. Go after him!”
A one-way road ran beside the tunnel, but there was no time to worry about that. Ming Han immediately directed Zhou Jue to pursue. Their “battle vehicle” had taken a severe beating in the tunnel, and Zhou Jue’s face contorted with pain at the damage.
The two G-Class SUVs sped ahead. Tang Xiaoli adjusted the deployment of police forces, and Special Police units were converging on Jin Xiaoquan. From the beginning, Ming Han had thought the tunnel was a foolish choice. Blowing it up might shake off their pursuers for a short time, but it also gave the Special Police in the city more time to arrive.
Zhou Jue pushed the car to its limit. The G-Class was drawing closer. The tunnel incident had left Ming Han boiling with frustration. As far as he could tell, this was the last car protecting Jin Xiaoquan. Take it out, and Jin Xiaoquan would have no choice but to surrender. Thoroughly provoked, Ming Han aimed at the G-Class and prepared to fire. The SUV, apparently trying to give Jin Xiaoquan more time to escape, began to slow. One of its occupants also carried a light sniper rifle, and the bullets came accurately riding the wind.
Zhou Jue weaved wildly to avoid the shots, making Ming Han’s aim extraordinarily difficult. Ming Han fixed the gunman in his optical sight. As red veins rose in his eyes, he pulled the trigger.
The driver was hit. The vehicle immediately lost control and swerved into a streetlight. The pole snapped and fell in a shower of sparks. Zhou Jue braked. Ming Han used the moment to put two more rounds into the G-Class’s rear wheels.
Behind them, sirens roared. The Special Police had finally arrived. Jin Xiaoquan’s vehicle appeared to have pulled away, but with police closing in on every side, it was already at the end of its strength.
Ming Han wiped the sweat from his forehead. Zhou Jue eased off the accelerator a little and drove toward Jin Xiaoquan.
Special Police blocked the road ahead. The G-Class changed direction midway, only to find Ming Han and Zhou Jue waiting behind it. There was no possibility of escape now. Zhou Jue approached slowly. Ming Han kept Jin Xiaoquan in his sights but didn’t shoot. Of course he wasn’t going to kill Jin Xiaoquan here. The man possessed extremely important information. Through him, the police might finally tear away the disguises worn by the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and the Azure Sky Cult.
“Get out of the car.” Ming Han kept his weapon trained on Jin Xiaoquan. The driver and Jin Xiaoquan’s secretary were still inside. Both cooperated, getting out first.
Special Police had formed a cordon. As soon as Jin Xiaoquan stepped out, they would escort him into a police vehicle.
Jin Xiaoquan sat in the back seat, his face filled with anger, as though unable to believe he’d been caught. Unease stirred faintly in Ming Han. Jin Xiaoquan’s anger was more intense than he’d expected. Was the man so arrogant that he genuinely believed he couldn’t be captured? What gave him such confidence?
The image of the two G-Class SUVs abandoning the elevated road and diving into the tunnel returned to Ming Han’s mind. Had Jin Xiaoquan changed course only to blow up the police in the tunnel? How could that have helped him escape? If he’d kept heading out of the city, he might still have used the chaos and timing to slip away. But once he passed through that tunnel, he could only head back toward the city. Had he known someone would meet him near the tunnel, only to find his rescuers hadn’t appeared? Was that why he was so angry?
Ming Han went on alert immediately, scanning his surroundings. They were still a long way from the busy city center. If Jin Xiaoquan’s helpers were hiding nearby, a fight was unlikely to injure civilians. But how did they intend to rescue him? Special Police had surrounded them several ranks deep. There wasn’t an opening.
As Ming Han thought, Jin Xiaoquan raised both hands and stepped out of the car. His face was full of malice, and his eyes swept from one nearby officer to the next as though memorizing them for future revenge. Then he saw Ming Han, and the resentment in his gaze intensified. At that look, Ming Han’s back went rigid. Those weren’t the eyes of an apex predator. They were the eyes of prey. For all his apparent power and glamour, Jin Xiaoquan too seemed to be a puppet whose movements were controlled by invisible strings.
Was a man like that really worth such an elaborate rescue?
Unless this wasn’t a rescue…
Bang!
A crisp gunshot shattered Ming Han’s thoughts. Before him, Jin Xiaoquan, who’d been standing a second earlier, had collapsed and curled on the ground like a shrimp, his limbs twitching. Blood gushed from his chest near the heart like a spring, staining a broad swath of road red in an instant. Time seemed to stop. Even Ming Han didn’t immediately comprehend what had happened.
“Sniper!” Zhou Jue shouted, shoving Ming Han into the car. Ming Han’s back struck the seat hard, and cold sweat broke out over him.
Outside, some Special Police officers retreated into their vehicles while others raised shields. Jin Xiaoquan had stopped moving. The bullet had struck his heart, and it had come from a heavy sniper rifle. It was a painful but almost certain way to die. He couldn’t possibly survive.
Chaos engulfed the scene. Jin Xiaoquan’s driver and secretary sat on the ground, shouting incoherently. Special Police snipers were moving out, searching for the origin of the shot. Sirens roared into the night, their warning spreading in waves across the darkness.
Suddenly gripped by fury, Ming Han seized his light sniper rifle and aimed toward an office building to the southeast. He couldn’t calm his racing heart.
Jin Xiaoquan had been played. No, the police had been played. The leads from Junan pointed to Jin Xiaoquan, and in reality he had never been likely to escape. But the people behind him had promised to confront the police and help him get away. The waiting car outside his hotel and the successive waves of supporting vehicles had been proof enough to convince him.