Du Cong's rented apartment was in a unit building nearly twenty years old. Behind the building was an empty lot that had originally been a school before being demolished, temporarily serving as a free parking area for nearby residents.
He parked his black SUV in an inconspicuous corner of the lot, grabbed the suitcase from the back seat, and headed upstairs to his apartment. Opening the suitcase, he rummaged through it but only found some clothes. Just as he was about to give up in disappointment, he spotted three cards tucked in a corner.
The cards were prepaid consumption cards for the Maple Forest Late Hotel, each with a face value of ten thousand, totaling thirty thousand.
If these had been fuel cards, they would have been solid cash—selling them at a 10% discount would have been quick and easy, recouping at least some of his losses. But what were these prepaid cards for a five-star hotel in Three Rivers Estuary worth? He opened a local secondhand trading app on his phone to check but found no listings for such items, leaving him with no reference. After some thought, he decided to take the cards directly to the hotel the next day to ask if they could be refunded.
Meanwhile, Zhou Rong was pacing restlessly in his room, waiting anxiously.
Beside him, Zhang Debing was drenched in cold sweat, having tried calling several times before finally giving up. "Rong-ge... the phone's still off."
"Why didn’t you ask Li Penggai where he was earlier?"
"Earlier... Li Penggai said he had the two under control and would bring them back soon. I got careless—"
"Careless my ass!" Zhou Rong flung a cup of water straight into Zhang Debing’s face. Zhang stood frozen in place, head bowed, not even daring to wipe his face.
After Li Penggai had called Zhang Debing, Zhang waited over ten minutes before calling back, only for the call to be cut off after a few rings. Subsequent attempts found the phone switched off.
Hu Jianren chimed in with criticism: "Li Penggai is more of a liability than an asset. Did he really think he could handle those two robbers alone? Now he’s probably fallen into their hands—serves him right if he’s dead."
Zhou Rong, seething with frustration, smashed a teacup to pieces and roared, "What do we do now?"
"Uh..." Zhang Debing had no ideas.
Hu Jianren’s eyes lit up. "Rong-ge, Li Penggai’s car has a GPS anti-theft tracker. We can check where the car is."
Without waiting for Zhou Rong’s order, Zhang Debing hurriedly said, "I’ll go check right away."
Meanwhile, Huo Zheng returned to the hotel, where Zhu Yifei immediately asked, "Did you handle it?"
"Fei-ge, I found the taxi, but—"
"But what? Did you get the stuff back?" Zhu Yifei pressed impatiently.
"The taxi was parked in a scrap yard with two guys inside—the same ones who robbed us yesterday. I was about to go in and deal with them, but then I saw Boss Zhou’s men show up."
"Zhou Rong? No way."
"I’m not mistaken. The car and the people in it were definitely Zhou Rong’s."
Zhu Yifei was skeptical. "Could there be some misunderstanding? A deal worth tens of millions is big, but would Zhou Rong really go this far?"
"Fei-ge, before I found Liu Bei last night, he had called Zhou Rong, who then sent men to pick him up. Later, when I killed Liu Bei and was cleaning up, Zhou Rong’s men must have seen from a distance that I had Liu Bei’s body and the chime bells. They didn’t dare confront me directly, so they used the taxi to steal my case.""Why did Zhou Rong send a taxi to pick up Liu Bei?"
"A taxi is less conspicuous."
Zhu Yifei narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then slowly shook his head. "From my conversation with Zhou Rong, I don’t think he’s that kind of person."
"Brother Fei, do you know how I found that taxi today? I couldn’t find any taxis in that area at all. Later, I saw a police car leaving a scrap yard. I went to check, and the taxi was right there in the yard!"
Zhu Yifei froze. "How are the police involved now?"
"We had Liu Bei’s body in that box. Zhou Rong took the Chime Bells and handed the body over to the police."
"Zhou Rong buys unearthed artifacts—how could he dare to involve the police?"
"Zhou Rong is the richest man in Three Rivers Estuary. Of course, he’s got connections with the local police. By handing over the body, he’s probably sold us out too!"
Zhu Yifei clenched his fists nervously.
"Brother Fei, if you don’t believe me, I’ll call Zhou Rong right now and see what he says."
After a moment of thought, Zhu Yifei nodded.
With that, Huo Zheng dialed Hu Jianren’s number and deliberately asked, "Manager Hu, everything’s been handled. When can we proceed with the deal?"
At that moment, Hu Jianren was standing next to Zhou Rong. He said, "Hold on," covered the receiver, and whispered, "Brother Rong, it’s Zhu Yifei’s man. He’s asking when we’ll continue the deal."
Zhou Rong snapped impatiently, "At a time like this, I don’t have the mind to buy his damn bells. If we don’t get the stuff back, we’ll just attract more police trouble!"
"It’s… not good to refuse outright."
"Not good? If he hadn’t suddenly changed the deal yesterday afternoon, I wouldn’t have had cash at home. Without cash, those two robbers would’ve demanded ransom for the USB drive the moment they got it. I would’ve had them dealt with long ago! This whole mess started because of those damn bells!" After cursing, Zhou Rong stormed out.
Hu Jianren pursed his lips, knowing that outright refusal would provoke Zhu Yifei and his gang of desperadoes, bringing unnecessary trouble. He uncovered the receiver and reluctantly replied, "Our boss has been very busy lately. How about we postpone the deal for a while? What do you think?"
"How long is ‘a while’?"
"Well… I can’t give you a definite answer right now."
"Manager Hu, it’s not easy for us to come to the mainland. Suddenly backing out isn’t appropriate, is it?"
"It’s not that we’re backing out. We just think the price is a bit high and need more time to consider." Hu Jianren made up an excuse on the spot.
"Wasn’t the price already agreed upon?"
"In business, nothing’s final until the deal is closed."
"Then what price do you think is fair?"
"Well… you can discuss it among yourselves."
Huo Zheng wanted to say more, but Zhu Yifei snatched the phone and angrily hung up, trembling with rage. He no longer doubted that Zhou Rong had betrayed them.
"Brother Fei, telling us to name our own price means he’s sure our Chime Bells are no longer a complete set."
Zhu Yifei gritted his teeth tightly.
"Brother Fei, after that call, I’m worried the police might track our location. We should move to a different place tonight."
Zhu Yifei nodded helplessly."Three Rivers Estuary is too dangerous. We should leave this place tomorrow."
"Just leave Three Rivers Estuary like this?" Zhu Yifei sneered coldly. "Zhou Rong pinned me to the ground and beat me. If I walk away without a word, how can I show my face again? That’s no way to do business in this world! I’ll make that bastard Zhou see who the real gangster is! Get me some guns—I’m going to kill Zhou Rong!"
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