Night had fallen. The hustle and bustle of Sanjiangkou People’s Hospital came to an end. The inpatient building was quiet, except for one particular floor that was not peaceful.

The corridor at the end of this floor was crowded with police officers. From time to time, nurses and family members came forward to urge: “Hey, hey, hey, police comrade, you can’t smoke here.” “It’s fine, I’m blowing it out the window.” “If you’d close the window and hang your head outside to smoke, I’d have no objection, but with the window open, isn’t it still drifting inside?” “Got it, got it, I’ll go to the stairwell, okay?” …

The elevator bell rang. Zhang Yi’ang, wearing casual clothes, appeared at the elevator door. Wang Ruijun and others hurriedly gathered around. Looking at his iron-blue face, no one dared to speak first.

Zhang Yi’ang took a deep breath, trying to control his emotions as much as possible: “How are the people?”

Wang Ruijun answered with a stiff scalp: “The property manager had multiple organs punctured. He’s still being resuscitated in the ICU ward, but fortunately, the doctor just said he’s temporarily out of life danger. Zheng Yongbing was stabbed once in the waist. He’s fat, so only part of his organs were injured. No life danger. He’s currently staying in a ward. Li Qian only had her knee cut, a superficial injury. It’s been bandaged, no problem. She’ll stay in the next ward tonight first, then have the doctor examine her again tomorrow.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded. His gaze searched among the detectives and asked: “Where’s that bastard Song Xing?”

“Uh…” Wang Ruijun hesitated and said, “He’s been running around outside all night, arresting the criminal. He’s quite exhausted too.”

“He still has the face to say he’s tired?”

“No, no, no, he didn’t say he was tired. I saw he was quite exhausted.” Wang Ruijun pleaded on his behalf. “Director, please forgive him this time. It was originally a normal plainclothes investigation. No one knew such things would happen.”

“A normal plainclothes investigation? The person responsible for the investigation had nothing happen to him, but sent all the other unrelated people to the hospital. Does anyone do police work like this?”

“Uh… no, indeed not.”

Zhang Yi’ang exhaled and turned to ask: “Have you found out the criminal’s whereabouts?”

Wang Ruijun’s face flushed red as he explained the process: “When Song Xing ran up the stairs to save people, the criminal took advantage of the gap when he ran up and took the elevator down. Song Xing notified Xiao Gao to intercept, but Xiao Gao didn’t encounter the criminal. Later, when we checked the surveillance footage, we learned that after going downstairs, the criminal didn’t flee toward the residential area entrance, but directly slipped out through the back door of the residential area. We urgently retrieved surveillance footage along the roads and saw the criminal flee into an alley. That area has complex traffic and is a surveillance blind spot, so he temporarily got away. We dispatched over a hundred people to conduct house-to-house searches in that area.”

Zhang Yi’ang snorted coldly: “Tell me, is Song Xing stupid or not? Running up the stairs to the sixteenth floor!”

“At that time, the elevator was stopped on the sixteenth floor. He heard Li Qian was in trouble on his phone and didn’t have time to wait for the elevator to come down, so he ran up directly. If he’d waited for the elevator to come down, with that much time, the three people above might have been in more danger.” Wang Ruijun tried his best to speak well of him.

“He wasn’t wrong to run up the stairs, but even if time was urgent, couldn’t he have first pressed the elevator button, then run up from the stairs? With his two legs running up to the sixteenth floor, the criminal had long since taken the elevator and fled. If he’d first pressed the elevator at that time, making the elevator come down, the criminal wouldn’t have had a chance to take the elevator to escape. Maybe he would have already been caught.”

I see! The surrounding detectives all nodded, saying that the leader’s method was decisive, calm in crisis, and methodical. Song Xing only focused on burying his head and running up the stairs, ultimately causing the criminal to slip away. It was truly extremely stupid. If he’d just extended his finger to press the elevator button before running up the stairs, the elevator would have come down, the criminal couldn’t have escaped, and now everything would be a completely different result.

For a long time afterward, Song Xing became synonymous with not using one’s brain in the office.

Zhang Yi’ang snorted through his nose and asked again: “Have you found out the criminal’s identity?”

“Not yet. Can’t make out his appearance in the surveillance. We asked Zheng Yongbing, but he refused to say. Later, he pretended to be unconscious. A nurse came and kicked us all out, saying the patient was seriously injured and needed sufficient rest.”

“Rest my ass! What’s a nurse to us! Why don’t you marry a nurse for a wife!” Zhang Yi’ang cursed loudly. At a time like this, they actually still had to consider Zheng Yongbing’s physical condition. Was he their father? He directly ordered: “Which room? Take me in!”

Wang Ruijun paused, thinking that his salary was paid by the Public Security Bureau, not the hospital. The leader had spoken like this—how would he dare say idle words? He instructed his subordinates not to let the nurse come over, pushed open the door on the right side, and led the leader in.

This was a double occupancy ward. Zheng Yongbing was a person under special police custody, so aside from him, there were no other patients living in this room.

Zheng Yongbing was lying on the hospital bed near the door, as if already asleep, with no reaction to the two people entering.

Zhang Yi’ang observed him for a while, then came to the bedside. Seeing a machine, without a word, he reached out and turned off the power.

A few seconds later, a weak voice from the hospital bed couldn’t help but come out: “Don’t… don’t turn off my oxygen machine.”

“You’re awake after all!” Zhang Yi’ang sneered coldly and turned back to question him. “I’m asking you, who was the person who stabbed you this afternoon?”

“I… I don’t know. I don’t recognize him.”

“Don’t recognize him, yet he came to your home to eat?”

“He’s just… just a customer from the store. Occasionally finds me to drink. That’s how I know him. I call him Da Liu. I… I only know this much. That… that oxygen machine… can you turn the oxygen machine on for me?” Zheng Yongbing helplessly stretched out his hand, then withdrew it.

“Turn on what oxygen machine! I don’t have time to waste with you. If you don’t explain things clearly, forget about using the oxygen machine—the hospital won’t even give you anti-inflammatory injections. What if there’s some tetanus bacteria on the knife blade? Let’s see if you die!” Zhang Yi’ang threatened nakedly.

Zheng Yongbing swallowed his saliva. This afternoon, his kidney was cut by the knife blade. He’d been in such pain he passed out, truly thinking he would die like that. Later, the doctor told him that fortunately, the fat was thick. The kidney was only cut on one layer of skin. After resting at home for a month, he’d be fine. But hospitalized people are always frightened to death, afraid there might be some aftereffects. At this moment, threatened like this, he immediately panicked.

After thinking for a moment, considering that Da Liu had almost taken his life, and now that he’d fallen into police hands, he’d have to confess sooner or later—better sooner than later—Zheng Yongbing no longer insisted and confessed: “It was Liu Bei who did it.”

“I’m fucking talking to you about a case, and you’re bringing up the Three Kingdoms!” Zhang Yi’ang flew into a rage, making as if to squeeze and burst his IV bag.

Wang Ruijun gently pulled the leader and reminded him in a low voice: “Director, there really is someone named Liu Bei.”

Zheng Yongbing looked at him with a sincere face: “Right, he’s really called Liu Bei. He’s an escaped criminal.”

Zhang Yi’ang frowned.

Wang Ruijun explained: “That person’s real name is Liu Bei. He’s been mixing around since childhood, went to the detention center several times. Later, I don’t know who taught him a skill. He changed careers to tomb raiding, raided tombs in several provinces, and trafficked national-level cultural relics. He got on the Ministry of Public Security’s wanted list. A few years ago, he returned to Sanjiangkou and was reported. They caught him. Public security agencies from other places sent people to take him away. As a result, halfway there, he feigned illness, killed a police officer, and escaped. He’s never been caught. Now he’s still on the Ministry of Public Security’s priority wanted list.”

An escaped criminal who killed a police officer would one hundred percent get the death penalty if caught. No wonder Liu Bei took the initiative this afternoon, not hesitating to carry another murder case to escape.

Zhang Yi’ang nodded and continued to look coldly at Zheng Yongbing: “So you were harboring a fugitive this time?”

“I… I didn’t want to either. He suddenly came looking for me. He’s someone who doesn’t fear death. How would I dare not agree?” Zheng Yongbing’s face was full of grievance.

Zhang Yi’ang didn’t care about him and turned to ask Wang Ruijun: “How is the crime of harboring defined in criminal law again?”

“Fixed-term imprisonment of three years or less, or detention, surveillance. If the circumstances are serious, three to ten years.”

Zhang Yi’ang sneered: “Harboring someone like Liu Bei who killed public security police—are the circumstances serious or not?”

Wang Ruijun sang the same tune: “That’s definitely serious.”

“The file says you’re forty-six this year. Lock you up for ten years, you’ll be fifty-six when you get out. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right? In a few years, you can collect retirement pension.”

Hearing these words, the seriously injured Zheng Yongbing suddenly came back to life and sat up abruptly: “Leader, I don’t want to go to prison. When I was young, I was ignorant and committed crimes and went to prison. Even if you beat me to death now, I won’t go to prison again.”

Wang Ruijun explained: “If the public security agency believes you were threatened by Da Liu—it can be him directly threatening you, or some kind of indirect threat from him—causing you to keep him at home for a meal and not dare to report to the police. In this situation, surveillance is enough. Surveillance means they won’t arrest you. You just come to the police station at intervals to register your situation. However, this requires the public security agency to believe you were threatened by him.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded: “We are the public security agency.”

Zheng Yongbing looked at these two people in terror. After a few seconds, he hastily stated his position: “Leader, whatever you want to ask, as long as I know it, I’ll definitely confess everything. I… I really was threatened by him.”

Zhang Yi’ang sneered coldly, pulled over a stool to sit down, and began patiently interrogating: “He’s escaped now. Tell me, where did he escape to?”

Zheng Yongbing tried his best to look especially sincere: “Leader, where exactly he’ll escape to, I really don’t know. If I could find him, this afternoon he wouldn’t have just stabbed me once.”

Zhang Yi’ang nodded. This made some sense. He asked again: “What did he come to Sanjiangkou to do?”

“He said Boss Zhou from Rongcheng Group wanted to find him to buy a set of bronze bells. He doesn’t have bronze bells in hand. This time he’s acting as a middleman. If it works out, he said he could get a few hundred thousand yuan in commission.”

“Boss Zhou from Rongcheng Group, Zhou Rong?” Zhang Yi’ang immediately became alert. “Can you confirm it’s Zhou Rong looking for him to buy… buy what bronze bells?”

Zheng Yongbing honestly said: “This… this I heard from him personally. However, a Manager Hu from Rongcheng Group also came looking for me, asking if I had any channels to buy bronze bells. Of course I don’t have channels.”

“Are these bronze bells very expensive?”

“They’re excavated cultural relics. Generally, they’re worth at least tens of millions.”

Zhang Yi’ang clicked his tongue: “So expensive!”

Wang Ruijun explained from the side: “Excavated cultural relics are strictly prohibited from sale by the state.”

Zhang Yi’ang thought about it. He hadn’t dealt with cultural relic cases. He thought that wealthy people buying cultural relics was also very normal. Even if discovered by police, generally the cultural relics could only be confiscated and turned over to the state. Someone like Zhou Rong couldn’t be locked up. He asked Zheng Yongbing again: “Do you have dealings with Rongcheng Group?”

“Can’t say I do,” Zheng Yongbing thought for a moment, then said in one breath, “That Manager Hu from Rongcheng Group previously also asked me to buy a fake piece of calligraphy for five hundred yuan, and told me to say it was five hundred thousand to outsiders. After a few days, he brought the calligraphy back and returned it to me, and told me to say to outsiders that I refunded him five hundred thousand. I think this should be that Boss Zhou wanted to buy calligraphy and paintings, and Manager Hu fooled his boss who didn’t understand, deceiving him to steal money.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes, that’s all.”

Zhang Yi’ang sneered: “But according to the intelligence we’ve gathered, the matters on you aren’t just these.”

“What… what else?” Zheng Yongbing looked at him in panic. This expression all fell into Zhang Yi’ang’s eyes.

“Are you trying to make a contribution, or am I trying to make a contribution? I’ll tell you honestly, we’ve already traced that matter to you. Otherwise, do you think finding you today was by chance? We came to your door today not for Liu Bei, but for you. Tell me, what exactly is that matter about?”

Wang Ruijun initially listened in complete confusion. After a few seconds, he understood. This was the director bluffing him to see what other cases he was involved in.

Zheng Yongbing lowered his head and was silent for a while, then looked at Zhang Yi’ang and Wang Ruijun. After some internal struggle, he sighed and said: “Those two people, I did indeed suspect they had problems. For a time, I held onto a fluke mentality, so I… I accepted their things.”

Zhang Yi’ang said calmly: “Tell the whole process.”

“About half a month ago, two men around twenty-five or twenty-six years old found out about me through some channel, came looking for me, and asked if I wanted to receive some items. They gave me a bag of gold jewelry and some gems. I estimated the value—about one and a half to two million. I gave them eight hundred thousand. They accepted. Leader, I really did suspect at the time that this batch of items was stolen by them, but then I thought, maybe they’re rich second generation, taking their family’s things out to sell and squander. I really accepted the goods holding this kind of fluke mentality. If I’d known these things were illegal, I definitely would have reported to the public security agency at the first moment!”

“What happened after?”

“After… after that, they took the money and left. I sold some of the items, but most are still at my home. If… if the police want to recover them, I… I’ll also cooperate.” He reluctantly said this sentence.

Zhang Yi’ang immediately understood. The items Zhou Qi bought from Zheng Yongbing were from this batch of goods. This matter would naturally need to be investigated tomorrow. He asked again: “What else?”

Zheng Yongbing thought that confessing this large batch of goods in exchange for this peace talisman was already a huge loss. If he confessed all the years of receiving stolen goods, he’d really be ruined. He absolutely couldn’t say more. He steeled his heart and called out: “Leader, there really are only these matters. Apart from keeping Liu Bei at home this time, I’ve long since washed my hands of the golden basin. Everything in my store is legitimate business, not one illegal or criminal thing. This time, it really was Liu Bei who came looking for me himself. He’s killed people. I was afraid of him. I had no choice but to entertain him. Absolutely true. You must believe me!” Zheng Yongbing spoke with tears streaming down his face, stopping just short of staking his life to guarantee his innocence. Zhang Yi’ang, seeing him like this, really couldn’t get any other major matters out of him and could only give up.