At nine o’clock in the morning, Zhou Rong’s villa was awakened by a cry of alarm.
This morning, the security guards at the estate had been waiting but hadn’t seen the villa door open, and even the housekeepers hadn’t come out, which felt unusual. So they used the walkie-talkie to contact the housekeepers inside, but no one responded. The guards tried to open the door but discovered that the villa’s front door was locked from the inside, and the small back door was also closed. So the guards brought spare keys to open the door, and soon discovered two housekeepers inside tied up on the ground with tape over their mouths. They then rescued the boss from the study, who looked the same way—except the boss was covered in footprints, with urine and feces all over his crotch. The shit had literally been beaten out of him. It was extremely humiliating.
An hour later, all main members of Zhou Rong’s group had rushed to the villa.
The study door was closed, with only Zhou Rong, Hu Jianren, Lang Bowen, and his younger brother Lang Botu sitting inside—the four of them. All other personnel were waiting in the villa’s main hall.
“Brother Rong, who did this?” Lang Bowen asked.
“Don’t know. From their accents, those two didn’t sound like locals.”
“Why tell them not to report to the police? We were robbed—we’re legitimate, righteous victims.”
Zhou Rong frowned and sighed, saying with some difficulty: “Besides that case of money, they took something from my safe.”
“What thing?” The three asked in unison. All three had seen the safe in the study but had never looked inside. Zhou Rong never opened the safe in front of anyone.
Zhou Rong pressed his lips together and uttered a few words: “A USB drive.”
“What about this USB drive?”
Zhou Rong sighed, looked at all three of them, and said slowly: “You know, this business of mine isn’t just mine alone. Uncle Dong and some others all have shares. I’m making money for everyone, and many times I have no choice. Um… over these years, all the various extra expenses of my company have been recorded under legitimate categories in the accounts, but I recorded the real purposes on this USB drive. If we report to the police and this USB drive falls into police hands, as soon as they check the various accounts, the consequences would be unthinkable.”
Hearing these words, the three men’s faces changed dramatically with shock. Lang Bowen urgently said: “Brother Rong, all the transactions over these years, and the money given to officials—you recorded it all on the USB drive?”
Zhou Rong tacitly acknowledged this.
Lang Bowen immediately said angrily: “Why would you do this? If someone discovers this, won’t we all have to go in?”
Zhou Rong glared at him. He realized he’d lost his composure and slightly lowered his head, breathing heavily.
Hu Jianren asked in a low voice: “Brother Rong, Uncle Dong doesn’t know about this, right?”
“Of course Uncle Dong doesn’t know.” Zhou Rong glanced at the men and sighed. “I made this ledger so that if something happens one day, we’d have a way out—not just for myself, but for you all too. Think about it, if any one of us has an incident, will Uncle Dong, Luo Ziyue, and those officials protect us? They won’t. They’ll only try every way to distance themselves. By making this ledger, everyone is on the same boat. If something happens, they’ll do everything to save us, because saving us is saving themselves.”
The three nodded. Zhou Rong’s reasoning was understandable—they just never expected this USB drive would be stolen.
Hu Jianren thought for a moment and asked: “Brother Rong, should we tell Uncle Dong about this and have him send a team of police to help us find people, catch those two, and get the USB drive back?”
“Absolutely not!” Zhou Rong flatly refused. “If we tell Uncle Dong about the USB drive, we’re finished!”
“Then how do we get it back?”
“Last night those two plugged the USB drive into the computer and saw its contents. They used the USB drive to threaten me not to report to the police, and also said they’d use the USB drive to come back and extort more money from me. Those two know how important the USB drive is to me—they’ll definitely want to extort a large sum. When the time comes, we’ll find a way to catch these two, get the USB drive back, and eliminate them! What do you all think?”
Zhou Rong looked at the three. Hu Jianren nodded in agreement. His younger brother Lang Botu didn’t express an opinion, while Lang Bowen remained silent.
“Bowen, say something.”
Lang Bowen raised his head: “Brother Rong, whatever you want to do, all my men will follow your orders.”
His younger brother Lang Botu analyzed: “Brother Rong, someone could break into your villa, kidnap and rob you without making a sound—isn’t this matter somewhat suspicious?”
“What do you mean?”
“Brother Rong, do you remember last time when the police were investigating Ye Jian’s case and approached Lu Yibo, but Lu Yibo told the police to come find you instead? Yesterday Lu Yibo cooperated with the police again. The police asked for his help, and he arranged for Zhou Qi to be an inside man and caught a fugitive at their hotel. Lu Yibo never told you about this, did he?”
“He didn’t mention it.” Zhou Rong frowned slightly. “Are you suspecting the robbery is related to Lu Yibo?”
Lang Botu nodded.
“Impossible. How could Lu Yibo send people to break into my home and rob me?”
Regarding this speculation, Lang Bowen and Hu Jianren also shook their heads indicating it was impossible. However, given Lu Yibo’s recent behavior, it was indeed possible he had betrayed them and turned to the police side. But right now, the USB drive was the important matter—Zhou Rong had no mind to deal with Lu Yibo now.
The four discussed for a while longer, opened the study door, and returned to the living room.
In front of the living room, a row of security guards knelt on the ground with their heads lowered. As soon as Zhang Debing saw the study door open, he reached out and slapped them one after another, cursing as he hit them.
Zhou Rong sat on the sofa, coldly watching these people before him, completely unmoved by their swollen cheeks from being beaten.
After beating them for over ten minutes, Zhang Debing’s hands were sore. He slowed down and loudly demanded: “Who was the team leader last night!”
This was actually a rhetorical question. The villa security worked in three shifts, with only three team leaders. Zhang Debing, as the head of the security department, knew perfectly well who was on duty last night. He was only asking for the boss to see.
The row of people gradually turned their gazes toward the man in the middle, who lowered his head, both legs trembling.
Zhang Debing deliberately asked again: “Who exactly is the team leader!”
“Chai… Brother Chai.” Several people answered in small voices.
The young man in the middle called Brother Chai swallowed his saliva, trembling all over. His real name was Li Penggai. Because in recent years the whole country had been implementing shantytown renovation, which meant demolition and relocation, his friends on the street gave him the nickname “Brother Chai.”
Without another word, Zhang Debing pulled out a spring-loaded knife from his waist: “Old rules—cut off a little finger. Do it yourself or should I do it?”
As soon as Li Penggai saw the spring knife, he was so frightened his body went limp: “Brother Bing, I was wrong. It was my responsibility, but yesterday it was… it was Brother Rong who told me to take more people out. When we came back, we didn’t know… didn’t know something had happened inside, so—”
“You still dare to blame Brother Rong! Did Brother Rong tell you to withdraw all the guards from the back security post?”
“We… our night shift had limited manpower, so—”
“You’re asking for death!” Zhang Debing kicked him over onto the ground and shouted at someone nearby, “You go get anesthesia!”
Hu Jianren couldn’t help but be curious: “What’s the anesthesia for?”
“To cut his finger.”
Li Penggai immediately burst into tears and kowtowed to Zhou Rong: “Brother Rong, I was wrong. Please spare me this once. I’ll definitely go through fire and water for you. Brother Rong, please spare me.” The other young brothers also pleaded for him together.
“Enough!” Zhou Rong was already irritated about the USB drive being stolen, and this bunch of people actually had time to perform amputation surgery in front of him. Moreover, it was obviously Zhang Debing’s staged bitter ruse arranged with these people—cutting a finger but using anesthesia? Why not go to the hospital for the procedure? He angrily waved his hand: “Stop this charade. Zhang Debing stays, everyone else get lost!”
The row of people kneeling on the ground scrambled away in panic, leaving only Zhang Debing standing before him. His face was also full of shame. After all, he was someone with a reputation and methods on the street, yet the boss was broken into at home, robbed, and literally had the shit beaten out of him—Zhang Debing truly had no face left.
Zhou Rong took a long breath, calmed his emotions, and made himself composed: “Yesterday those two bastards didn’t just steal money—they also took a USB drive that’s extremely important to me. The money is a small matter. The USB drive must be retrieved, and at the same time, those two must be cleanly disposed of.”
Zhang Debing quickly nodded.
“Those two bastards’ methods were very professional—they’re not amateurs, they must be from the underworld. Find a way to reach out to people on the street in San Jiang Kou and the surrounding cities. Spread informants everywhere and find them as soon as possible. Whoever succeeds gets all the US dollars in the case. Remember, don’t tell anyone outside our own people about the USB drive. Once we find them, we’ll handle it ourselves. Before that USB drive is retrieved and handed to me, no one is allowed to look at it!”
Zhang Debing solemnly agreed. He knew this matter was extremely important to the boss—otherwise he wouldn’t directly offer the entire case of one million US dollars as a reward. Actually, this task wasn’t difficult. Every place had its underworld with all kinds of people mixed in—informants could be spread across almost every street. Offering an excessive reward to mobilize the entire underworld to find two people would work even better than a police wanted notice!
Without further words, Zhang Debing immediately began arranging the search. By reviewing several surveillance cameras at the villa, they clearly saw the figures of two men and a black suitcase containing the US dollars. Photos of these two men’s builds and photos of the suitcase were all identifying features. Of course, they couldn’t tell outsiders that Zhou Rong had been robbed—they’d say someone had robbed Zhang Debing.
In an instant, Fang Chao and Liu Zhi faced a dual manhunt from both the police and the underworld.