Fang Chao sat in the room with eyes wide with rage, staring at the dagger in his hand and the feces on his clothes, his mind full of thoughts about how to deal with those two bastards later. Liu Zhi vigilantly crouched behind the door, quietly watching the courtyard gate.

After waiting a long time, the courtyard gate opened from outside. Brother Gang and Xiao Mao walked straight in, laughing and talking.

“Brother Chao, they’re back.”

Liu Zhi said in a low voice. Fang Chao instantly returned to combat state, like a nimble wolf hiding on the other side of the door, quietly listening to the sounds outside.

The two men’s laughter and footsteps drew closer and closer.

“Hey, how did this lock fall off?” Xiao Mao asked.

“That idiot kicked it yesterday. But we’re not living in this house anymore anyway. From now on we’ll live—aiya!”

Brother Gang’s body had just entered the room when Fang Chao grabbed his head and smashed it to the ground. At the same time, the dagger viciously stabbed into his palm, nailing his right hand to the floor. Xiao Mao behind him didn’t have time to react before being grabbed by Liu Zhi on the other side. With the same move, he was pressed to the ground, and without a word, one of his fingers was broken. The two looked up to see the fierce and menacing pair were precisely the murderers they had switched places with. They were instantly scared out of their wits.

“Your name is Xia Tinggang, right? Let me see how tough you are.” Fang Chao pulled out another small blade, crouched down and stared at the trembling Brother Gang. “Stealing our suitcase, causing us to be wanted—you played that beautifully!” He swung the blade. A line of blood appeared on Brother Gang’s thigh, accompanied by a sharp scream.

“You dare scream! If you scream I’ll chop up your tongue.” Fang Chao held the blade to his mouth. Scared, he endured the severe pain but could only close his mouth. But as soon as he closed his mouth, Fang Chao slashed his thigh with another cut. When withdrawing the blade, he deliberately dragged it, turning up a thin piece of his flesh and blood.

“Spare my life, big brother, spare my life!” Brother Gang trembled and cried, begging for mercy.

Xiao Mao on the side, seeing this scene and knowing they couldn’t escape this time, immediately threw out the black plastic bag in his hand: “You’re looking for money, right? All the money is here.”

Liu Zhi saw US dollars roll out of the plastic bag and excitedly hurried to crouch down and count the money. Just at this moment, Xiao Mao grabbed a nail-studded wooden stick from the ground and smashed it toward Fang Chao, hitting him in the back with the nail making a bloody hole. Fang Chao turned back in fury, jumped over and grabbed Xiao Mao’s head to smash it against the wall. Xiao Mao used all his strength to tightly hold onto Fang Chao, entangling with him.

Liu Zhi turned back wanting to help, but seeing Xiao Mao clinging tightly to Fang Chao, he had no way to intervene. Fang Chao didn’t need his help either. Steadily maintaining the upper hand, his elbow struck his back twice. Xiao Mao’s mouth wildly vomited fresh blood. Just as he was about to let go, in the chaos he felt a gun from Fang Chao’s waist behind, randomly pressed it, and the gun had actually already been switched off safety. With a bang, the wall was shot with a bullet crater. Mud fragments flew everywhere. All four couldn’t help but freeze. Xiao Mao took the opportunity to snatch out the gun and pressed it against Fang Chao’s forehead.

In an instant, both Fang Chao and Liu Zhi stopped their movements.

“Don’t move. If you move I’ll shoot.” Xiao Mao fearfully grabbed onto Fang Chao.

Liu Zhi jumped onto Brother Gang’s body, pulled out another dagger, and pressed it against Brother Gang’s temple: “If you dare shoot, I’ll kill him immediately. You’ll definitely die too.”

Fang Chao sneered coldly: “My brother was a soldier. Even with a gun in your hand, you’re no match for him.”

“I don’t care. Killing you will be enough.”

Fang Chao’s eyes narrowed slightly. He was fifty percent confident he could grab Xiao Mao’s arm and flip him to the ground. But he was only fifty percent confident. If this move failed, his life would be gone. He was also hesitant for a moment and could only say: “Little brother, so what do you want?”

“First let go of my big brother.”

Fang Chao sneered coldly: “Do you think that’s possible?”

Xiao Mao hysterically shouted, pressing the gun firmly against Fang Chao’s temple: “Will you let him go or not!”

Liu Zhi saw this scene and worried about Fang Chao’s danger. He slowly stood up, but saw Fang Chao shake his head at him and say: “Can’t let him go.”

“Will you let him go or not! Don’t force me!”

“How about this—you keep the gun, we take the money. What do you think?” Fang Chao thought that as long as the other party loosened the gun, in a flash he could subdue him.

“We’re keeping half the money.”

Liu Zhi said angrily: “Why? This is our money to begin with.”

Who knew Fang Chao immediately said: “I agree!”

“Alright then,” Xiao Mao’s eyes looked at Liu Zhi. “You take half the money and leave. Your big brother—I’ll release him later.”

Fang Chao said blandly: “Now you’re not playing by the rules.”

“If I let both of you go now, what if you immediately turn on us?”

“I play by the rules.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“This—” Fang Chao couldn’t find a reason to make him believe for a moment.

The four people confronted each other in pairs.

At this time, the door was suddenly pushed open. Zhang Debing, holding a gun in his hand, rushed in with subordinates. Seeing the situation in the room, he was first stunned. How come there were four people? What were they doing? The next second he reacted, pointed the gun at Xiao Mao and Fang Chao, and shouted: “Nobody move!”

Another subordinate also pulled out a gun pointing at Liu Zhi on the other side. Three other subordinates pulled out long daggers and surrounded the two groups from behind.

Seeing the situation suddenly change again, although Fang Chao and Liu Zhi still couldn’t figure out the situation, they saw two people with daggers—definitely not police. The two exchanged meaningful glances with their eyes. Liu Zhi turned and slashed the arm of the subordinate beside him. Fang Chao took advantage of Xiao Mao’s moment of distraction to grab his hand, seize the gun, then kick hard, sending Xiao Mao flying.

Suddenly at this time, bang bang, two shots. Zhang Debing turned and shot directly at Liu Zhi. Liu Zhi clutched his stomach, some fresh blood seeped out, and he fell to the ground. But at this time, Fang Chao’s gun was raised, pointing at Zhang Debing.

The current situation was: Zhang Debing’s gun pointed at Liu Zhi in front of him. Fang Chao, several meters away, had his gun pointing at him. Zhang Debing’s other subordinate’s gun also pointed at Fang Chao. Other subordinates stood on both sides ready to respond in real-time.

Zhang Debing looked at Fang Chao, his face showing no fear: “Put down the gun.”

“Impossible.” Fang Chao equally had all the guts.

“If you shoot, you kill one of me, we’ll kill all of you. If you have the guts, try it. I’ll count to three. If you don’t put down the gun, I’ll kill him first.” Zhang Debing walked to Liu Zhi’s side, covered in cold sweat with a pale face, and pointed the gun at his head.

“One—two—”

Fang Chao threw the gun to the opposite side.

“Brother Chao!” Liu Zhi endured the pain and raised his head, looking at Fang Chao with emotion.

A bitter smile appeared on Fang Chao’s face. He said easily: “We’re done for.”

Zhang Debing nodded with satisfaction and gave him a thumbs up: “You’re a real man!” If they hadn’t touched his boss, he would have wanted to recruit both of them under his wing.

The others tied up all four people present and pushed them to the ground.

Zhang Debing gave a subordinate a look. Three subordinates without guns ran out. After a while, two very inconspicuous small cars drove into the courtyard. A subordinate got out and closed the courtyard gate. Then Zhou Rong and Hu Jianren got out. Three subordinates escorted Zhang Yi’ang, Li Qian, and Du Cong—all tied with rope and gagged—into the room.

They brought the three in, removed the cloth stuffed in their mouths, and pushed them to the wall corner as well. Now all seven people on the ground were tied up. Everything was under Zhou Rong’s control.

Zhou Rong slowly paced into the room. Hu Jianren closed the door but found the lock was broken. He could only leave the door ajar. Zhou Rong looked over the seven people. His gaze locked on Fang Chao and Liu Zhi. He pointed: “These two.”

Zhang Debing stepped forward and searched the two. Sure enough, he found a USB drive in an inner pocket of Fang Chao’s clothing and returned it to Zhou Rong. Zhou Rong took the USB drive, rubbed it forcefully, took a deep breath, and sighed: “Finally back in my hands. You two nearly scared me sick.”

Fang Chao looked at him: “What do you want?”

“What do you think I want?” Zhou Rong looked at him mockingly, slapped his forehead. “Oh right, originally I thought it was you two who did it. Later I thought it was four people. Now how did it become seven? What’s the relationship between you seven people exactly?”

The seven people on the ground looked at each other, not understanding what he was talking about.

At this time, Zhang Yi’ang said in an extremely low voice beside Li Qian: “He wants to silence us. Run when you get a chance.”

Li Qian’s eyes lightly glanced at him once. She saw in his hands tied behind his back he was pinching a bloody blade—precisely the blade Fang Chao had used to cut Brother Gang’s thigh meat earlier.

On the opposite side, Zhou Rong was still pressing Fang Chao and Liu Zhi: “Speak! Who ordered you to rob my house?”

“Who would dare order me around?” Fang Chao sneered coldly.

“Got guts!” Zhou Rong nodded and backhanded him with a slap.

Fang Chao showed no fear: “Make your move, Boss Zhou. If you kill us seven people, when caught it’s the death penalty.”

“Oh my, you don’t know—if I don’t kill you seven, when caught it’s also the death penalty.” Zhou Rong chuckled. “If you want to die quickly, tell me the robbery process exactly as it happened. Otherwise, I’ll make you die painfully.”

Fang Chao smiled, then suddenly spat a mouthful of bloody saliva directly at Zhou Rong’s face.

Zhou Rong wiped his face, enraged. Several subordinates rushed up together and kicked Fang Chao viciously in the face.

At this time, Zhang Yi’ang had already untied the rope, quietly passed the blade to Li Qian, then slowly loosened the rope a few times. Taking advantage of when people beside him went to beat Fang Chao, he suddenly jumped up, grabbed Liu Zhi’s dagger that was thrown on the table, and rushed toward Zhou Rong.

Zhang Debing turned and raised his gun to shoot. Bang—Zhang Yi’ang’s buttocks exploded in a patch of bright red flesh and blood. He didn’t care, flipped over and jumped onto Zhou Rong, pulled him over with one grab, put the dagger to his neck, and shouted: “Stop! Move and I’ll kill him!” His buttocks were in severe pain. Limping, he dragged Zhou Rong to the wall, blocking Zhou Rong in front of him.

“You… even if you kill me, you can’t escape.” Zhou Rong, with a blade at his neck, immediately turned pale.

“At least I can take you with me!”

Zhang Debing and the subordinate’s two guns both pointed at Zhang Yi’ang’s head.

Zhang Yi’ang shouted coldly: “Even if you shoot, before I die I’ll definitely slit his throat. Do you dare try!”

“No… can’t try.” Zhou Rong called out in panic. “You… what do you want?”

“Let her go.” Zhang Yi’ang’s gaze turned to Li Qian. At this time, Li Qian had also cut the rope and stood up. Two other subordinates with daggers blocked her path.

“I told you to let her out! I’ll count to three. One—two—”

“Let her go!” Zhou Rong shouted.

The subordinates moved aside. At this time, Hu Jianren blocked the way: “Can’t let her go.”

“I told you to let her go!” Zhang Yi’ang applied force with his hand. The sharp dagger had already cut Zhou Rong’s throat skin. He felt blood seeping out.

“Let go, let go, let go. Quickly let her go.” Zhou Rong urgently urged.

“Brother Rong, we can’t let her go.” Hu Jianren didn’t yield at all.

“I told you to let her go!”

“Brother Rong, if we let them out today, tonight all of us will have to go in. In this matter, we can’t listen to you.”

Zhang Debing glanced at the four subordinates. The subordinates’ gazes all agreed with Hu Jianren’s words. Although everyone was going all out, if there was an opportunity, no one wanted to go in. Zhang Debing lowered his head with difficulty and said: “Brother Rong, Old Hu is right. The person—can’t be let go.”

Zhang Yi’ang hysterically threatened: “Do you believe I’ll kill your boss?”

“No… don’t kill me.”

Hu Jianren said coldly: “Then you’ll just die even more miserably!”

Zhang Debing stared at his thighs. Zhang Yi’ang’s two pant legs were already soaked with fresh blood. He snorted: “You can’t hold out much longer. If you let her go, I’ll give you a quick end. If you dare make a move, I’ll rape your girlfriend first, then kill everyone here, and finally slowly kill you!” As he spoke, he walked directly toward Li Qian.

“Get away, I’m a police officer!” Li Qian was so scared she repeatedly retreated, crying out loudly.

“You’re a police officer?” Zhang Debing stopped in his tracks.

Hu Jianren laughed disdainfully: “Someone like you can be a police officer?”

“I… I am a police officer.”

Hu Jianren sneered: “I’ve really never seen such a weak police officer.”

“What about me?” Zhang Yi’ang shouted.

Hu Jianren’s gaze turned to him, his brow furrowing: “You… you’re a police officer?”

“She’s a police officer, I’m her superior. Of course I’m a police officer. If you let us go now, I can say you surrendered voluntarily. I have the authority to handle you leniently.”

“You have such great power?” Hu Jianren stared at him for a few seconds. “Which one from the Public Security Bureau are you?”

“There aren’t many with this power in San Jiang Kou Public Security Bureau.”

Hu Jianren observed him for a few seconds and slowly nodded: “Unexpected, truly unexpected. Today’s police have such courage. I didn’t expect that you, as a major leader of the Criminal Investigation Team, would personally charge to the front line when handling cases. What a San Jiang Kou Criminal Investigation Brigade Captain, Wang Ruijun—I admire you!”

Zhang Yi’ang’s brow furrowed: “I’m not Wang Ruijun.”

“Then who are you?”

“I was sent from the Provincial Public Security Department.”

“You—” Hu Jianren pointed at him excitedly. “You’re Zhang Yi’ang?”

“What else did you think?”

“I thought you were Wang Ruijun.”

“I’m Zhang Yi’ang.”

“So you’re Zhang Yi’ang.”

“Of course I’m Zhang Yi’ang.”

The two verified identities, but the result was still a standoff. Zhang Yi’ang’s blood was slowly draining. His face became increasingly pale. Even his hands began to tremble. He knew the time window wasn’t much. Barely holding on, he said: “If you surrender now, there’s still time. Zhou Rong, you’ve long been on our radar. Every time you go out, we’re following. Since you came here, police have already been deployed outside, just waiting to arrest you. If you kill people, everyone here gets the death penalty. Do you know who she is? The niece of the Vice Minister of Public Security—much bigger than your Zhou Weidong. If anything happens to Li Qian, San Jiang Kou will be turned upside down to catch you!”

His righteous appearance infected Li Qian, who was currently silent as a cicada in winter. She also straightened her body involuntarily.

“Not necessarily.” Hu Jianren sneered coldly. “Xiao Mi is your informant, right? Before he left, we confiscated his phone. Right now he’s already led the police to the suburbs.”

“You—” Zhang Yi’ang felt a wave of dizziness. Looking at Li Qian, this time he had gotten her killed. His heart immediately felt like dead ashes.

Suddenly at this time, bang—a gunshot. A bullet penetrated through the door crack and went straight through Zhang Debing’s back. He fell to the ground, coughed repeatedly with difficulty trying to crawl up, but couldn’t move.

The door was opened. A group of eight or nine people rushed in, each holding guns, shouting for everyone not to move.

The five tied people on the ground raised their heads and heavily exhaled.

“There really are police.”

“We’re saved, we’re saved!”

“I’d rather go to prison than die!”

At this moment, even Fang Chao and Liu Zhi nearly shed tears at the police’s timely arrival.

Zhou Rong’s subordinates all threw down their weapons and crouched down with hands on their heads. Zhang Yi’ang, having lost too much blood, his consciousness loosening, could finally lie down and sleep. Li Qian hurriedly ran over to support him.

Zhou Rong shouted: “Officer, it has nothing to do with me. I’m a victim. Help!”

“Hahahaha, Boss Zhou, I’ve come to save you!” With a familiar laugh, Zhou Rong’s group looked up only to see Zhu Yifei and Huo Zheng slowly pacing in.

“How… how is it you?” Everyone was shocked.

“Tie them up, tie them up. Tie them all up for me.” He waved his hand. With so many subordinates all holding guns, they easily controlled the entire scene, tying everyone up firmly so they absolutely couldn’t move.

Zhu Yifei’s eyes swept around and immediately spotted the bronze bell that Brother Gang had casually thrown at the corner of the table. Delighted, he picked it up and handed it to Huo Zheng to store safely. He also picked up the black plastic bag, roughly counted—inside was precisely the deposit. He stored the money as well. Then laughing heartily, he walked to Zhou Rong’s side and looked down at him: “Boss Zhou, didn’t expect it, did you? In the end, the local snake still can’t fight the passing dragon.”

“You… how did you come here?”

“I’ve been following you all along. You’re capable—you even shook off the police. But you can’t shake me off.”

“Why did you tie us up? What grudge do I have with you?”

“Grudge? Hmm—I don’t even want to mention it!” He raised his foot and kicked Zhou Rong viciously in the face. Zhou Rong’s nose bridge and teeth were broken. He screamed in pain, unable to speak.

“Oh right—” He turned to Li Qian. “You two are police officers, right?”

Li Qian looked at him fearfully and slowly nodded.

“Officers, just now Zhou Rong’s group said they wanted to kill you. I heard all those words outside. I stopped their violent acts in time. This should count as acting bravely for a just cause, right?”

Li Qian tremblingly nodded.

“Officers, don’t be nervous. My grudge with Zhou Rong won’t be taken out on others. I’m not like him—I don’t kill people. Brothers, let’s go.”

Huo Zheng ran over puzzled and asked: “We’re leaving just like this?”

Zhu Yifei spread his hands: “What else?”

“So many people…”

“Zhou Rong wanted to kidnap these people to silence them—what does that have to do with us? Right, right, I should report to the police for them.” He searched out Zhou Rong’s phone, used his finger to unlock it, and directly dialed 110. “Officer, I’m reporting—Zhou Rong has kidnapped a group of people, including two police officers. What are your names—” He turned to look at Li Qian.

Li Qian timidly said: “Zhang Yi’ang and Li Qian.”

“I’m not lying to you. Would I be that bored? Named Zhang Yi’ang and Li Qian. That Zhang Yi’ang said he’s a Public Security Bureau leader. He’s seriously injured. Come quickly. The location is… well, you can find it yourselves.” With that, he hung up the phone.

“Oh, right, Boss Zhou, we’re borrowing your cars by the way.”

They walked outside the room and got into the two very inconspicuous small cars Zhou Rong had driven over. A subordinate went to open the courtyard gate. The two cars had just started when they saw a police car driving straight toward the courtyard from outside.

“These past few days have been deadly busy. Everyone from the station was transferred to the bureau. The few of us left have to run around for everything big and small.”

“Sigh, but towing cars is clearly the traffic police’s job. Why assign it to us?”

“This is a problem with the police system. When it was reported, it involved vehicle theft, so it got assigned to us. If we don’t handle it, it won’t clear from the police system.”

“Then wait a few days at least. This isn’t urgent.”

“At noon, a woman from the bureau called me for over ten minutes asking about the course of this report and pulled the records. I figure it must be that Du Cong who complained to the bureau. If we don’t tow away that broken taxi, later they’ll say we’re dragging our feet. Sigh, everyone at the bureau is a leader. They want us to tow, so we can only tow.”

The two police station officers grumbled while driving the police car toward the courtyard, followed by a large tow truck.

Both vehicles drove into the courtyard, but they saw two small cars stopped at the gate opposite, with several people sitting inside staring at them.

“What are so many people doing?” The two officers were just about to stop when suddenly bang—a bullet directly shattered the windshield. The two officers quickly instinctively ducked down. Immediately after, many guns extended from the two opposite cars, shooting at the police car and the tow truck behind in a barrage.

The tow truck driver had never seen such a scene. Terrified, he quickly ducked his head. His foot randomly hit the accelerator. The tow truck drove straight forward and crashed.

The people in the two small cars saw the large vehicle crash head-on. They wanted to dodge but it was too late. Because these cars were small—Zhou Rong had deliberately driven small cars to avoid attention—the front car was hit by the tow truck, flew off the ground, flipped, and crashed hard to the side. Several people in the car were knocked unconscious on the spot. The rear car was hit and rolled several times, directly smashing into the room.

After the chaotic scene, the two officers in the car slowly raised their heads. The scene was unrecognizable. From inside the room came multiple people’s terrified screams. They stood at the scene as if in a dream.

They never dreamed that just going to tow a car—why were they nearly shot to death?

A moment later, a small car door opened. The injured Huo Zheng crawled out. The two officers, out of professional instinct, wanted to get out and arrest him. Who knew he raised his gun and shot at them again. They were ordinary patrol officers on duty without guns and could only duck down to continue hiding. Huo Zheng walked to the other side of the car body, pulled open the car door, dragged out the unconscious Zhu Yifei covered in blood, loudly shouting “Brother Fei” but getting no response. Huo Zheng had no choice but to carry Zhu Yifei with one hand and slowly walk forward. The two officers quietly raised their heads and started the car wanting to drive up and knock him down. Huo Zheng shot at them again. The distance was far and didn’t hit, but dragging Zhu Yifei, he was also physically exhausted. He could only put Zhu Yifei to the side, full of guilt, shouted: “I’m sorry, Brother Fei.” His large hand wiped away tears as he hurriedly ran away.

The officers requested backup while carefully getting out to check the room. Walking into the room with a large hole smashed through it, seeing everyone in the room, they were completely dumbfounded.

What on earth had happened here?