"Chief, Xiao Mi's tip says Zhou Rong personally took people to Jade Plaza." In the police station, Wang Ruijun received the tip and rushed to report to Zhang Yi'ang.
"When did this happen?"
"Just now. Xiao Mi also said Zhou Rong loaded four bags of money into the car."
"What kind of bags?"
"Travel bags!"
Zhang Yi'ang abruptly stood up. The only explanation for Zhou Rong taking so much money out at this time was that the criminals had contacted him, extorting him with the USB drive. He was going to pay the ransom. If Zhou Rong got the USB drive back, even if the police caught the criminals, they wouldn't be able to touch Zhou Rong.
He made a quick decision, immediately organizing several dozen experienced veteran detectives and personally leading the team out. Before leaving, the meddlesome Li Qian popped up again, wanting to join the operation. At this critical moment, Zhang Yi'ang flatly refused, instructing her to quickly pull up surveillance and closely monitor Zhou Rong's every move without fail. Li Qian initially wanted to refuse, but seeing Zhang Yi'ang's unusually stern expression, she was intimidated by his demeanor and realized this was no joking matter. She immediately accepted the task and hurried to the information center to assist.
The situation was urgent, and the police had no time to arrange a capture plan in advance. Zhang Yi'ang and a few key team members hastily discussed in the car how to set up an ambush at Jade Plaza and how to handle various scenarios. Everyone was highly motivated—if Zhou Rong dared to make the exchange today, they would definitely apprehend everyone on the spot!
Meanwhile, Zhou Rong sat nervously in the car. He was in a business van, surrounded by bodyguards, with four bags of cash at his feet—each containing 2.5 million yuan. The van arrived at Jade Plaza and parked in a relatively open area by the roadside, waiting for further instructions from the criminals.
Soon, Zhang Debing sent a message: he saw the car salesman named Du Cong coming downstairs. Du Cong was talking on the phone as he walked, suggesting the other side was making their move. Shortly after, Zhang Debing spotted a young man in worker's uniform loitering around, looking shifty-eyed and suspicious. After lingering downstairs for a while, the young man entered the building. His build didn’t match the two robbers, so it was unclear whether he was an accomplice or just a passerby. Five minutes later, Zhang Debing saw the young man come back downstairs, now carrying a black plastic bag that appeared heavy.
Inside the van, Zhou Rong grew increasingly anxious. The USB drive was a matter of life and death for him. He kept checking his phone—it was already 15 minutes past the agreed time, but the criminals still hadn’t called. Every time he tried calling them, the line was dead.
"Rong-ge, I think they're testing us," Hu Jianren speculated beside him.
Zhou Rong nodded and instructed the driver, Xiao Mi, "Drive slowly around the plaza."
The van circled the plaza twice at a leisurely pace, but Zhou Rong still received no call.
Just then, one of his men glanced at the rearview mirror and said, "Rong-ge, there’s a small car that was behind us earlier—now it’s ahead. I think it’s tailing us."
Zhou Rong followed his gaze and spotted an inconspicuous, rundown car parked a few dozen meters ahead. He calmly nodded and told Xiao Mi, "Circle the plaza one more time."
Xiao Mi complied, completing another loop. When they returned to the starting point, Zhou Rong noticed the same shabby car had reappeared slightly behind them. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he ordered, "Turn around and pull up next to it."The business van turned around and pulled up alongside the sedan, stopping right next to it. At the same time, the sedan also came to a halt.
Both vehicles remained stationary for a moment before the sedan's door opened, and a figure stepped out.
"Boss Zhou, long time no see," a lazy voice drifted into the business van.
Zhou Rong took a closer look and was immediately disappointed to see Zhu Yifei stepping out of the car. He pulled open the van door and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Zhu Yifei sneered, "You've led us around the square three times already, and now you're asking why I'm here?"
Realizing he was being followed, Zhou Rong grew irritated. "Why are you tailing me?"
"Boss Zhou, about that Chime Bells deal—how do you plan to handle it?"
Zhou Rong replied impatiently, "Can we talk about this later?"
Hu Jianren chimed in, "Boss Zhu, I already told you—we're not going through with this deal right now."
Zhou Rong had no patience to waste any more time and moved to shut the door, but Zhu Yifei grabbed it and glared at him coldly. "Boss Zhou, this isn't how you treat people."
Zhou Rong nervously glanced around, afraid that the lurking criminals might notice his contact with others and cancel the USB drive transaction, thinking it was a setup. He hurriedly said, "Let's discuss this another time, okay? I'm really busy today—no time."
"You're busy, yet you had time to drive in circles?" Zhu Yifei didn't let go of the door and suddenly noticed Zhou Rong's anxious expression. Frowning, he asked, "What are you looking at?"
"N-nothing."
At that moment, Huo Zheng, who had been keeping watch, spotted someone pretending to casually walk toward them from a hundred meters away and immediately sensed trouble.
"Cops," he muttered, yanking Zhu Yifei back into the car before sliding into the driver's seat. He slammed the accelerator, ramming Zhou Rong's van aside and speeding off with a sharp turn onto the road.
Simultaneously, multiple unmarked police cars around the square flipped on their rooftop lights and roared toward Zhu Yifei's vehicle in a coordinated pursuit.
Huo Zheng's car was filled with fugitives—men who faced either the death penalty or decades in prison if caught. In this life-or-death moment, they fled without restraint, blasting through red lights and past pedestrians, quickly breaking through the police perimeter around the square.
Zhu Yifei sat in the car, his face icy. He had intended to give Zhou Rong one last chance, reasoning with him before resorting to force. But Zhou Rong had deliberately led him in circles while secretly setting him up with the police, trying to get him killed. This was a debt that could only be settled in blood.
In an office building next to Jiade Square, Zhang Yi'ang stood by a window, observing the scene unfold in real time.
The moment Huo Zheng's car rocketed away, Zhang Yi'ang immediately ordered the police cars to halt the chase. The downtown area was too complex—forcing an arrest could lead to civilian casualties. As the officers watched helplessly while the car escaped the encirclement, he directed the police information center to track the vehicle via traffic cameras and deployed additional units to intercept it safely in the outskirts.
At the same time, he instructed Song Xing to search Zhou Rong.Song Xing arrived with two police cars and surrounded Zhou Rong's group, forcing everyone out of their vehicles for a mandatory search. No USB drive was found at the scene, but large amounts of cash were discovered in the car. Zhou Rong smoothly explained that as a businessman, he didn’t need to justify carrying cash to the police. As for the fleeing vehicle, he claimed not to know them—they had merely stopped to ask for directions.
Though the officers knew Zhou Rong was lying, they had no evidence to hold him. Song Xing had no choice but to call Director Zhang for instructions on whether to bring Zhou Rong in for questioning. Zhang Yi'ang considered that without the USB drive, detaining him would be pointless. Moreover, arresting the wealthiest man in Three Rivers Estuary would require extensive explanations later. He ordered Song Xing to release Zhou Rong and regroup all officers to focus on capturing the fleeing suspects.
Before long, the pursuit ended in failure. Undercover officers involved in the operation reported that they had received a tip from the public: a car had plunged into a river, and multiple occupants had fled before the crash. Witness descriptions confirmed it was the suspects' vehicle. The area had no surveillance cameras and was geographically complex, making it difficult to track the fugitives. Not only had the police failed to recover the USB drive, but they had also thoroughly alerted Zhou Rong.
Back in his office, Zhang Yi'ang pondered his next move when Li Qian arrived with new information.
"Director, when you were arresting Zhou Rong at Jade Plaza, Zhang Debing wasn’t in the car, right?"
Zhang Yi'ang recalled Song Xing’s report—only Zhou Rong, Hu Jianren, and a few underlings had been present. Zhang Debing was missing.
Li Qian grinned triumphantly. "I tracked Zhang Debing’s phone and found him near a residential building not far from the plaza. Checking the location data, he’s been lingering there since morning—something’s definitely off. Then I reviewed last night’s surveillance footage and finally figured out where the USB drive is."
"Where?" Zhang Yi'ang pressed urgently.
Li Qian smirked and set her terms. "I want to verify it myself."
"No," Zhang Yi'ang refused outright.
"Then I can’t say."
"I order you to tell me."
"I refuse."
Zhang Yi'ang stared at her for a few seconds, scratching his head in frustration. "Fine, tell me first. If it checks out, I’ll take you along for the investigation."
Li Qian smiled, pulled out her phone, and showed him a blurry surveillance photo from the previous night. In the dim light, a man could be seen holding a suitcase.
"Who is this?"
"His name is Du Cong, a salesman at one of Zhou Rong’s 4S stores," Li Qian explained, recognizing him from a brief encounter while reviewing footage. "I found a police report involving him from the night before last. After contacting the responding officers, I learned he had stolen Zhou Rong’s car to earn extra money by working for a wedding company. He crashed it, and the dealership reported him for vehicle theft. The settlement required him to pay 600,000 yuan in compensation within a month. Because of the accident, Hu Jianren took several security guards from Zhou Rong’s villa to deal with him, leaving the place unguarded—which allowed Fang Chao and Liu Zhi to infiltrate."
"Then why do you think the USB drive is with him?""The box he's holding looks very much like the one stolen from Zhou Rong's house," Li Qian said.
Zhang Yi'ang stared at the photo for a moment before shaking his head. "The image is so blurry. How can you even tell?"
"I... I just feel it is."
"Feelings!" Zhang Yi'ang scoffed dismissively.
"Then why has Zhang Debing been keeping watch nearby?"
"How do you know Zhang Debing's target is him rather than providing backup for Zhou Rong at Jade Plaza?"
"I..." Li Qian was stumped.
"If, as you say, the USB drive is with this guy and Zhang Debing has already spotted him, why wouldn't he just take it back by force?"
"This..." Li Qian still couldn't answer.
"What connection could a car salesman possibly have with Fang Chao and Liu Zhi? How would the USB drive end up in his hands? If he were their accomplice, why wouldn't those two stay at his place instead of risking a hotel where they nearly got caught by us?"
Li Qian had no rebuttal.
"So this salesman has nothing to do with Zhou Rong's case. Stop meddling—we're all busy trying to catch people right now." Zhang Yi'ang dismissed the rookie's judgment outright and impatiently shooed her out.
Having exhausted herself combing through surveillance footage only to have her lead casually dismissed, Li Qian grew angrier the more she thought about it. She stormed out and hopped onto her electric scooter.
Shortly after, Zhang Yi'ang suddenly realized that given Li Qian's personality, she might go investigate alone. He quickly called her, but no one answered. Rushing outside to ask around, an officer mentioned seeing her ride off. Panicked, Zhang Yi'ang could only hail a civilian car to chase after her.
Back at his villa, Zhou Rong paced restlessly.
"Rong-ge, today's incident—I don’t think the police were after Zhu Yifei. They were targeting us," Hu Jianren analyzed.
Zhou Rong nodded. "The police must know about the villa incident and that I lost something."
"There’s a mole among us."
"Who do you think it is?"
"Before heading to Jade Plaza this morning, we didn’t tell anyone. The guys in the car were with us the whole time—no chance to leak anything. That leaves only one possibility: the driver, Xiao Mi."
Zhou Rong pondered. "But now that the police are watching us, we can’t just deal with Xiao Mi casually."
"Xiao Mi, the police—none of that matters as long as the USB drive hasn’t gotten out. They can’t touch us. What worries me," Hu Jianren frowned deeply, "is whether those robbers were secretly watching when the police showed up. If they saw that, would they think we set them up with the police?"
Zhou Rong checked his private phone. There had been no further calls from the criminals, heightening his anxiety. If pushed too far, they might release the USB drive publicly—an unthinkable outcome. Worse, with the police now involved, retrieving it would be even harder.
He dialed Zhang Debing to check on his end. Zhang Debing reported that Du Cong had stormed home alone afterward. Zhou Rong guessed he’d seen the police approach them and assumed it was a setup. Zhang Debing added that he’d just seen the girl named Li Qian enter the apartment building, accompanied by an unfamiliar man—possibly one of the two criminals.After hanging up the phone, Zhou Rong lay back on the sofa and pondered for a moment before suddenly sitting upright. With a cold voice, he declared, "Since the criminals no longer trust this deal either, we might as well go all the way and take direct action!"
Hu Jianren nodded. At this point, that was the only option—to strike quickly before the police could obtain the USB drive. There were certainly risks involved, but they had no choice but to go for broke. The two immediately notified Zhang Debing, instructing him to gather a few of their most reliable men to storm upstairs and capture their target.
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