Ever since Liu Bei fled, the Public Security Bureau’s efforts to arrest him had never stopped. From criminal police to special police to police stations, even traffic police and the numerous auxiliary police under various departments—all were mobilized for the work. The good news was that they had found some clues indicating he was still hiding in San Jiang Kou. The bad news was that his counter-surveillance awareness was very strong, and the police still couldn’t determine his actual hiding place.

Song Xing, because he failed to press the elevator button during the first attempt to arrest Liu Bei, had become the典型 fool at the unit. Naturally, these past few days he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to making up for his mistake, throwing himself into the front lines of the arrest operation.

Today it was Wang Ruijun accompanying Director Zhang to find Lu Yibo.

Both wore plainclothes and drove to the Fenglin Wan Hotel. After getting out of the car, Wang Ruijun briefed Zhang Yi’ang on the situation. “The intelligence I’ve gathered says that Lu Yibo is a decent, honest person. He and Zhou Rong are old classmates, but he’s different from Lang Bowen. Lang Bowen is Zhou Rong’s business partner, while Lu Yibo is more like Zhou Rong’s lackey. The Fenglin Wan Hotel is nominally Lu Yibo’s, but informants all say the real boss is Zhou Rong. By the way, Director, last time you told Zhou Qi to keep the spa club open to lure Mayor Luo—she didn’t listen to us. The regular business is still open, but the underground operations suddenly closed yesterday afternoon. Word is they won’t reopen for the foreseeable future.”

“She dared to close the club!” Zhang Yi’ang stopped in his tracks, his face showing anger.

“Right. I’m guessing Zhou Qi found out about Luo Ziyue’s identity. She didn’t dare offend either side, so she closed it.”

“Then she’s really offended me!”

The two entered the hotel. Wang Ruijun went straight to the front desk. “We need to see Lu Yibo.”

“Please wait a moment.” The young woman at the front desk gave a perfunctory polite response. Seeing their imposing manner, she didn’t dare make decisions on her own and immediately called over the lobby manager, whispering a few words in her ear.

The lobby manager was a woman in her thirties who smiled professionally and inquired, “Excuse me, gentlemen, do you have an appointment with General Manager Lu?”

“No.” Wang Ruijun straightened his chest, putting on a “so what” expression, and pulled out his credentials to flash before her eyes. “Just tell Lu Yibo that I’m Wang Ruijun from the Criminal Investigation Unit of the San Jiang Kou Public Security Bureau. I need to ask him some questions.”

Hearing they were police, the lobby manager didn’t dare be negligent. She hurried behind the front desk, picked up the telephone, and spoke in a low voice for a long time. After hanging up, she said apologetically, “Leaders, I’m truly sorry. General Manager Lu isn’t at the company. You… what do you need him for?”

Zhang Yi’ang glanced at the ceiling and sneered. “Cut the nonsense. Lu Yibo is upstairs. Ask him again whether he’ll let us come up now or have him come to our office for a talk.”

The manager swallowed and quickly made another call. This time it was very brief. After hanging up, the manager immediately took the two men to the elevator and escorted them to Lu Yibo’s office door.

Lu Yibo personally opened the door, his face wreathed in smiles as he ushered the two inside, naturally arranging for tea and water.

After the three were seated, Lu Yibo’s gaze lingered on the two men for several seconds. After all, he was a businessman who had seen countless people—without introductions, he already had a general idea of their identities.

He looked at Wang Ruijun and deliberately acted familiar. “You must be Brother Jun?”

Wang Ruijun got a headache whenever he heard the title “Brother Jun.” He coughed heavily and put on a stern face. “I am Wang Ruijun, captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit!”

“Then you must be Director Zhang?” He turned ingratiatingly toward Zhang Yi’ang.

“You understand me quite clearly. Zhou Rong told you about me, right?” Zhang Yi’ang was quite impolite. “Just now the lobby manager said General Manager Lu wasn’t at the hotel. What’s this—you came back? Do you practice clone techniques?”

“I’m truly sorry, truly sorry!” Lu Yibo kept bowing with clasped hands, his face instantly showing a pained expression as he pulled out a catch-all excuse. “I’m very embarrassed to say that I have gastroenteritis today. I was just having diarrhea and was afraid of embarrassing myself in front of leaders, which is why I had the manager downstairs say that.”

Zhang Yi’ang curled his lip but didn’t ask him to bring out his feces for testing to verify if he really had gastroenteritis. He casually mentioned, as if unintentionally, “Why did your spa club downstairs close?”

“It didn’t close. It’s operating normally.”

Zhang Yi’ang glanced at Wang Ruijun. Wang Ruijun asked seriously, “We’re asking about the underground operations inside the club!”

“What operations?” Lu Yibo spread his hands, his face full of innocence.

Wang Ruijun glared at him. “Do you want me to arrest Zhou Qi and ask her?”

“This…” Lu Yibo was momentarily at a loss for words. Playing dumb in front of these two high-ranking police officers was obviously not a wise move, so he changed his explanation. “Leaders, I speak from my conscience—I only recently learned that some employees at the spa club downstairs were privately conducting uncivilized and even illegal operations. I manage the hotel and have to consider the hotel’s reputation, so after learning this news, I had them immediately stop those illegal operations! As for what happened before, whatever fines or penalties are needed, our hotel will fully cooperate!”

“So you’re the one who had Zhou Qi close the operations.” Zhang Yi’ang nodded firmly and said, “Bosses behind these operations always explain it this way. When I worked at the Provincial Department, the ones we arrested always said the same thing, and they still got sentenced in the end. But don’t worry—touching this area of law usually means just a few years, rarely more than ten.”

“I—” Lu Yibo was being stared at by these two men and blatantly threatened, so he could only laugh awkwardly.

“Let’s not discuss that first, lest people in society always say we police only know how to crack down on vice yet don’t arrest the vice boss sitting right in front of us. Boss Lu, we suddenly came to visit today mainly to ask you a few questions. Don’t be nervous, but you must tell me the truth!”

Being glared at by him, even though Lu Yibo had mixed in business circles for many years, facing the head of criminal investigation, his momentum was still suppressed to the point where he couldn’t move. He swallowed and nodded.

“Does this hotel belong to you?”

“Yes… it’s mine. You can look at the business license—ninety percent of the shares are personally mine, and another ten percent belongs to several other companies.”

“What I’m asking is, those ninety percent of shares—are they personally yours, or are you holding them on behalf of someone else?”

“They’re… of course they’re personally mine. There’s no one else.”

“That’s good. If something happens in the future, it will be your responsibility alone.”

Lu Yibo was stunned for several seconds and probed timidly, “I don’t quite understand what you mean. What might happen in the future?”

“There could be many situations—fire safety, security hazards. For public places like yours, once there’s a safety incident, it’s a big deal. If it causes serious consequences, the person responsible has to go to prison.” Zhang Yi’ang spoke casually and easily.

Lu Yibo breathed a sigh of relief and quickly patted his chest to guarantee, “We must keep government education in mind and always raise awareness of safety responsibilities.”

“By the way, just now the lobby manager told us you weren’t at the hotel, but we determined you were upstairs. Do you know why?”

“Why… why?”

“We’ve been closely monitoring your every move. Where you went last night, what time you arrived at the hotel this morning—we know it all clearly.”

Lu Yibo was shocked and asked anxiously, “Why… why are you monitoring me?”

“Because of Ye Jian’s case.” Zhang Yi’ang said it bluntly while carefully observing his micro-expressions.

“Ye Jian’s matter has nothing to do with me.” Lu Yibo blurted out.

“Then who is it related to?” Zhang Yi’ang quickly pressed.

“I…” Lu Yibo swallowed. “I don’t know.”

“You know. You know it clearly!”

“I… I really don’t know.” Lu Yibo protested. “Leader, Ye Jian was my old classmate. I’m also very sad he died, but his matter truly has nothing to do with me.”

“I’m asking you—what day did Ye Jian die?”

“It was… I heard it was the night we had dinner together.”

“What were you doing when he died?”

“I… I should have still been at the dinner gathering.”

“Ha ha ha ha!” Zhang Yi’ang suddenly let out a hair-raising laugh and pointed at him. “See, you exposed yourself with just one question, didn’t you?”

He turned to look at Wang Ruijun. Wang Ruijun was full of confusion—how did Lu Yibo expose himself? But seeing the look his leader gave him, he quickly chimed in, “You exposed yourself, didn’t you? Why don’t you quickly confess honestly!”

“I…” Lu Yibo began to stutter. “Leader, I don’t understand what you mean.”

Zhang Yi’ang just wanted to bluff him, so naturally he couldn’t say how he’d exposed himself. Since he couldn’t say it, he wouldn’t! He pulled out his phone, opened a photo—it was the VIP card from the spa club found after Ye Jian’s death—and asked, “Take a look yourself. What is this?”

“This is a VIP card from the club downstairs.”

“What’s it used for?”

“Discounts on purchases.”

“I’m asking you—is it a discount or is it free?”

Lu Yibo’s face turned deathly pale. “I heard it’s free. Leader, that’s their business operation. It has nothing to do with me.”

“Look at the card number yourself. Whose card is this?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“This is Ye Jian’s card.” Zhang Yi’ang snorted, then suddenly shouted sternly, “I’m asking you—why did Ye Jian’s card appear in my phone?”

Lu Yibo was instantly stunned. He thought it over repeatedly—why is his card in your phone, and why are you asking me?

But Zhang Yi’ang insisted on asking, “Answer me!”

“I… I don’t know why his card is in your phone.”

“Because we found this card at the scene where Ye Jian was murdered.” Zhang Yi’ang gave the answer, then immediately pressed further. “Who gave this card to Ye Jian?”

“Uh… I think… I think Zhou Qi gave it.”

“Zhou Qi said she didn’t give it to him.”

“Then… then I don’t know either.”

Zhang Yi’ang stared at him for a while, then smiled and said slowly, “But before Ye Jian was killed, he used his last strength to write three characters on the ground—a person’s name. The first and last characters were scrawled and hard to recognize, but the middle character was extremely clear. The middle one was the number ‘one.'”

Wang Ruijun was listening with great interest and was stunned by this sudden technique.

Lu Yibo didn’t know that the number “one” Ye Jian wrote before dying was Zhang Yi’ang. Hearing this, his expression changed drastically and he hurriedly said, “The card… the card was given by me. But I have nothing to do with Ye Jian’s murder. Even if he wrote my name, that’s definitely not what he meant.”

“Then what did he mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“You just said you only recently learned about the spa club’s operations. How is it that you gave this card to Ye Jian?”

“I—” Lu Yibo’s mouth hung open, completely unable to defend himself.

Zhang Yi’ang stared at him for quite a while, then laughed and said slowly, “Using the latest high-tech big data, we conducted a detailed analysis of your daily communications with Ye Jian and reached a conclusion.”

Wang Ruijun frowned slightly, thinking carefully—where would their small place of San Jiang Kou have high-tech things like big data?

“We discovered that in the month-plus before Ye Jian’s death, your mobile phone calls with him were significantly higher than before.”

Wang Ruijun understood—so checking call records counted as high-tech.

“We were just old friends catching up.” Lu Yibo defended. “Really! I… I was in a bad mood at that time and wanted to chat with him to cheer up.”

“Never heard that Ye Jian had the ability to give people psychological massages.” Zhang Yi’ang smiled and looked at Wang Ruijun, who firmly stated he’d never heard of it either.

“Everything I’ve said is the truth. Leader, I absolutely wouldn’t dare say a single false word!”

Zhang Yi’ang’s expression suddenly turned cold. “Say that again!”

“I… everything I said is the truth.”

Zhang Yi’ang stared into his eyes for several seconds. Lu Yibo didn’t dare meet his gaze and turned his head away. Zhang Yi’ang pressed his lips together and could only wave his hand to take Wang Ruijun and leave.

“Director, we’re leaving just like that?”

“What else?”

“Looking at Lu Yibo’s manner, I think—”

“Lu Yibo definitely didn’t tell the truth, right?”

“Right. Aren’t we going to keep questioning him?”

Zhang Yi’ang stopped and sighed. “We won’t get anything out of him today.”

“Why not?”

“Didn’t you see how nervous he was at first, but later he wasn’t nervous anymore? His statement is tight—clearly he’s figured things out in his mind. If we can’t produce substantial evidence, he won’t change his story. Let’s go back. Call Song Xing over—I have another plan.”

They returned to the office. Before long, Song Xing came to the office and immediately said, “Director, I heard from Ruijun about Lu Yibo. He definitely knows something. Why not arrest him and interrogate him?”

“Arrest him for interrogation?” Zhang Yi’ang gave a faint smile. “On what grounds?”

“Vice crackdown! That spa club—isn’t it Lu Yibo’s?”

“The prostitution operations inside the club have already closed. The vice is gone—what are we cracking down on?”

“Then… then go to the detention center and find some prisoners, have them claim they previously solicited prostitutes at the Fenglin Wan Hotel, and use that as grounds to arrest Lu Yibo.”

Zhang Yi’ang said quietly, “If the false testimony is exposed, will you take responsibility?”

“I—” Song Xing immediately backtracked. “I was joking. Of course we can’t do anything illegal. Director, I do have an idea though. Although the prostitution operations in the club have closed, the club itself is still open. Places like spa clubs definitely have oil massages and hand jobs. Masturbation is also on the edge of vice laws! We can arrest Lu Yibo on the grounds that the spa club gives people hand jobs!”

Zhang Yi’ang shook his head and asked in return, “Let me ask you—if you watch pornographic films at home and think the film is good, so you share the resource with friends, why don’t you arrest yourself on charges of distributing obscene materials?”

“I’ve never shared any!”

“You!” Zhang Yi’ang swallowed. Song Xing’s answer was perfect score, so he could only say helplessly, “In any case, Lu Yibo is at least the owner of a five-star hotel, and behind him stands Zhou Rong’s group. If we rashly arrest him on these grounds, it will be very difficult to manage the aftermath. If we arrest him for interrogation and he still doesn’t tell the truth, what will you do? Won’t we have to send him back properly the next day? Without substantial material in our hands, Lu Yibo won’t open his mouth. What we need to do now is find something substantial to force Lu Yibo to talk!”

“So what should we do?” Song Xing now increasingly felt that the director’s wisdom was far above his own. He could just let the director make decisions and he would execute them.

“It’s simple. You arrange for two criminal police officers to visit Zhou Rong once and ask him face-to-face about Ye Jian’s case, asking him to provide clues.”

“What clues could he provide? He definitely won’t admit that Ye Jian’s death is related to him.”

“How can you be so stupid!” Zhang Yi’ang sighed. “Of course I know Zhou Rong won’t admit it. My target is Lu Yibo. Have the criminal police tell Zhou Rong that it was Lu Yibo who said Zhou Rong and Ye Jian were as close as brothers, so he should know certain information—that it was Lu Yibo who sent you to find Zhou Rong.”

Song Xing had a sudden realization. “A divide-and-conquer strategy!”

“Also, Li Qian hasn’t had much to do lately. Have her check surveillance footage every day and closely monitor the daily movements of Zhou Rong, Lu Yibo, and the others.”

“Understood!”