by Mi Lei
As he spoke, Xu Tong walked over to Fang Mu and squatted down in front of him. He put his hand on Fang Mu's shoulder and, his voice thick with sincerity, said, "Brother, don't blame your Elder Brothers. None of us are free to do as we please. We all have superiors above and juniors below us. But, if we start opposing our higher-ups, we'll all be heading for disaster, and I don't mean your or my career. If we go down that road, we'll destroy this entire family of ours."
Xu Tong's words sounded heartfelt and, at the very least, they managed to smooth some of the deep furrows on Bian Ping's face. The chief stood up and took hold of Xiao Wang and Fang Mu, and then they took their leave together.
They were almost out the door when Fang Mu suddenly spun around. "I have one request." His eyes shifted from Xu Tong to Deputy Commissioner Wang and back again.
"Just ask," the two men replied in unison.
"I want to take my brothers home."
Four key witnesses had vanished from the face of the Earth and Lu Lu still refused to talk. Again, the entire investigation had ground to a halt. They were left with one solid lead: Jin Yongyu and the other two hit men—if they could only find, arrest, and interrogate them.
Two days later, the man whose face Fang Mu had blasted with the high-pressure hose was arrested after seeking treatment at a hospital. The suspect's left eye could not be saved and the visual acuity on the right eye had been reduced to 0.05. For the time being, he would have to remain hospitalized and could not be interrogated. But even without the suspect's testimony, the investigators had more than enough evidence to press charges. The same was not true for Lu Tianchang and his men. They had an entire village of alibis against Fang Mu's lone testimony. By now, the statutory limit for their detention had expired and all of the men from Lu Village had to be released from custody. They would still either have to post bail or accept residential surveillance until their trial, but that was cold comfort. Without further evidence, there would be no way to convict any of them of anything.
But Fang Mu would not be deterred. He had come too far and lost too much to give up now. Fortunately, the Bureau opted not to restrict his activities.
The final roar of the three brave men, moments before they had been drowned in liquid steel, still echoed in his ears. Every time fatigue and exhaustion threatened to slow him down, that terrible scream grew louder and clearer, compelling Fang Mu to push on. This was not over. And he would fight to the bitter end.
But now, he really stood all alone on the battlefield.
The reaction of his fellow officers to the events in the underground river and the Juyuan Steel Mill was depressingly predictable. No matter how much they knew about what had really happened, they all seemed interested in only one thing: Staying as far away from the case as possible. It was no secret that powerful forces were united against the investigation; no one seemed eager to follow in Fang Mu's footsteps in what appeared to be a war they could not win.
The death of Old Xing's case seemed like a mere formality. No one openly admitted to it, but they all were hoping that the entire matter would soon be over and forgotten. Then they would finally be able to return to their normal, quiet lives.
Millions suffered every day without rhyme or reason, and now it was just Xing Zhisen's turn.
And then there was the entire business with Zheng Lin, Young Hai, and Little Zhan. Who would want to stick their necks out after what happened to them?
They all sensed the evil, lurking under the surface like that silent cave and its silent river, but they all said nothing. There was a dark and deadly current flowing below the calm waters of daily life, but with nothing to gain for themselves and much to lose, it was so much easier to turn a blind eye.
Not Fang Mu. It would be incredibly difficult to move on from that point, but he would not surrender. Not now, not ever.
In the cave, Lu Dachun had mentioned a Boss Liang. That man was probably the mastermind behind the entire trafficking operation. Jin Yongyu was, at best, one of his lieutenants. Furthermore, Fang Mu was all but certain that this Boss Liang had links to both the Bay City Hotel and the Juyuan Steel Mill. Normally, that should have been more than enough information to identify him. The police had at least heard of most major players in organized crime. However, no one knew anything about a Boss Liang. For the moment, he remained nothing but a shadow.
Fang Mu decided to start his search with the individuals connected to Jin Yongyu, the manager of the Bay City Hotel, and Peng Zhongcai, the manager of the Juyuan Steel Mill. He searched far and wide, taking every available avenue to bring his enemy to light. The only resource Fang Mu didn't tap was the Bureau. He could count on Bian Ping's help, but he decided to keep his investigation secret from almost everyone else. This decision closed most official paths of inquiry for him, but Fang Mu considered it a necessary trade-off. He was sure that somewhere, someone in the Bureau was working for Boss Liang.
On the surface, Jin Yongyu and Peng Zhongcai seemed like normal businessmen, but the police were certain that both had criminal backgrounds and were powerful underworld figures in their own right. After the gunfight, however, the organizations run by the two men collapsed almost completely. While it felt like a small victory, it also meant that Fang Mu would probably find no more leads at the Bay City Hotel or the Juyuan Steel Mill.
Old Ghost provided Fang Mu with some tantalizing hints and confirmation of many of his suspicions. And even though it was all hearsay, the information was still far beyond anything Fang Mu had managed to pry from his more upstanding sources. According to Old Ghost, both Jin Yongyu and Peng Zhongcai, despite operating in different cities, reported to the same boss. This boss was supposedly a very cunning man with powerful connections in business, the provincial bureaucracy, and the criminal underworld. Old Ghost could also confirm that both men owed their wealth and influence to this boss. Unfortunately, the man himself maintained a very low profile, avoiding direct contact with all but a very few, select individuals. Most members of his organization knew only his name and nothing more.
Despite all these hurdles, Old Ghost had managed to dig up two critical facts about this shadowy figure: First, his surname was indeed Liang, and second, he personally ran a company. While Old Ghost didn't manage to uncover any specifics about the company, he did learn that it was involved in logistics.
Logistics. That rang a bell. Bringing their victims to the Dragon Tail Cave and then taking them across the border would require a large supply of readily available and safe vehicles. On his first trip to Lu Village, Fang Mu had met Lu Dachun and Lu Sanqiang working on their truck—a truck that they used to transport their victims.
In his mind, Fang Mu broke the process of capturing and selling the girls down into its individual steps: First they would have to kidnap the girls, then hold them, find a buyer, make the deal, deliver the girls, and complete the transaction. Of all of these steps, physically moving the girls had to be the most sensitive part of the operation. At no other time would the traffickers be faced with more unforeseeable hazards. Considering how cautious Boss Liang was, it made sense that he would keep a close eye on the transportation process. Maybe, he was even running it personally.
The Director of the Information Office of the Provincial Expressway Administration hung up the phone and looked up at the red-faced young man standing in front of him. He could barely suppress a chuckle.
"So, you're Chief Bian's nephew?" he asked.
"Uh-huh." Fang Mu took two packs of Chunghwas from his bag and placed them on the desk.
At first Director Wei rejected the gift with a few words and a waggle of the finger, but then he quickly pushed them into one of his drawers. "Hey, no need for formalities. This is no big deal at all."
"No big deal?" Fang Mu's face twisted in feigned outrage. "Director Wei, you're a married man, too. Just imagine if your wife was unfaithful!"
"Easy, easy." Director Wei proceeded more carefully. "Tell me, what I can do to help?"
"She went on a trip to S
uijing City and I just want to know if that bitch had some bastard in the car with her." Fang Mu ground his teeth for effect. "She lied to me; told me she was visiting her parents."
"No problem." Director Wei stubbed out his cigarette as he stood up. He showed Fang Mu to the control room with a friendly smile on his face.
He instructed one of his men there to get the security camera footage. "What's your wife's license plate number? I'll help you find her," he told Fang Mu.
"Director Wei, can I do this by myself?" Fang Mu asked, working up an embarrassed fluster.
"Sure." Director Wei sniggered. To him Fang Mu had the appearance of a guy whose wife had made a cuckold out of him, but was still worried about saving face.
It had worked. Fang Mu had the tapes from the day he had first traveled to Lu Village. He had already calculated when the truck must have passed under the security camera of the tollbooth on the road to Suijing. Now, he just had to find it. Staring at the screen, he forwarded the tape.
Fang Mu hadn't checked the license plate when he had stumbled upon the broken down truck on the mountain. And after the ancestral hall, Lu Dachun had covered his head with a jacket before forcing him into the cabin. He would have to find the truck based on appearance alone. He'd isolated a four hour window. In that period, a total of 36 trucks that looked like they could be the right one passed the tollbooth on the road to Suijing City. Fang Mu examined them one by one and noted their license plates. One of them had to be it. It was a small step, but at least now he had something.
Fang Mu was about to turn the equipment off when one of the trucks passing the tollbooth on the lane out of Suijing City caught his attention. It looked strangely familiar. He quickly checked his list of license plates. He was right; that very truck had passed the tollbooth in the opposite direction just a short while ago.
He frowned. The truck could have never made it all the way to Suijing City in that short of a time. It stood to reason that it had exited onto a highway. There was only one exit between the booth and Suijing City, the one to the Dragon Tail. But that only solved part of the mystery. There wasn't enough time for that tuck to have made it all the way up to Lu Village and deliver the girls to the Dragon Tail Cave.
Perhaps there were two vehicles with identical license plates that the traffickers used to make the exchange at some halfway point? It was the only way he could make sense of the toll-booth footage.
Fang Mu marked the license plate number with a bold circle.
Liang Sihai felt as if he had aged a decade. Not only was he constantly tired and exhausted, he could also feel his mind slipping. Peng Zhongcai, the former manager of the Juyuan Steel Mill, was standing right in front of him in his office, breathlessly prattling on about something or other, but his mind refused to acknowledge a word of what the man was saying.
Why had the past six months gone so horribly wrong? For some reason, every imaginable form of trouble had come knocking at his door. First, the police had decided to bother him with an undercover officer. That alone would have been a disaster if it hadn't been for his contact inside the Bureau. It had cost him considerable time and effort to put a stop to that nasty business. Then he'd had to take care of that Xing cop. He thought that would have been dead easy, but he had wasted a small fortune and far too much energy, and yet the old cop was still alive. On top of all that, the Baixin Bath Palace had been ruined for good and the Bay City Hotel had become all but useless to him. And now he had learned that even the Dragon Tail Cave had been compromised…
As he considered his misfortunes, Liang Sihai's gaze came to rest on his cell phone. A moment ago, a flustered and angry Lu Tianchang had called him. The village head had told him that his son had lost his hand when one of the guns had exploded. Liang Sihai had to admit that the entire idea of giving them black-market knockoffs had been less than perfectly thought through. It had been so easy to justify at the time: He hadn't wanted to go through the hassle of getting them smuggled military weapons, and besides, what were the chances of Lu Tianchang and his villagers ever actually using them for anything worthwhile?
But of course they had actually needed them. And of course the gun's barrel had exploded at the worst moment imaginable. And now Lu Tianchang had lost all trust in him. The intruder, on the other hand, had managed to escape.
It was that Fang cop again. First he had ruined his business and now he had dared to defeat his men in battle. Bile rose in his throat as Liang Sihai thought about the fight at the Juyuan Steel Mill. What an unmitigated disaster! That his men had been killed and crippled was the least of his worries. The money he had to spend to keep himself safe and insulated from the entire mess stung a little more. But those were all just temporary set-backs. Money could be earned and new men found. That fiasco, however, had put his entire operation in danger. There would be no way to repair his relationship with Lu Tianchang; he would have to find yet another new "cage", and worst of all, his international buyers had expressed their displeasure. They were probably already looking for someone to replace him.
It was a simple fact of life. If everything went smoothly, they all made a fortune. But every mistake could cause his international buyers to abandon him, and he to abandon Lu Tianchang.
And all this because of one damn cop.
Liang Sihai's stare suddenly turned ice cold. Jin Yongyu immediately recognized the change in his boss's expression. As fast as he could, he got Peng Zhongcai to shut up. Jin Yongyu knew that in moments like this it was best not to annoy the boss.
Liang Sihai hadn't really listened to a single word of Peng Zhongcai's long lament; he didn't need to. He already knew what his lieutenant wanted.
It would be money and a guarantee for his future.
Liang Sihai opened a drawer and took out two envelopes. He placed both on the desk in front of him. "There's a card in each of these envelopes," he told them. "They're good for five-hundred-thousand. I've arranged for you to go into hiding. You can return when all of this has blown over."
Peng Zhongcai looked at Jin Yongyu, and then limped over to the desk and quickly snatched up one of the envelopes.
After a moment of hesitation, Jin Yongyu took the other envelope. There was only a small bank card inside, but it felt impossibly heavy.
He would have to wait for it to blow over. That could be in a year or two, or maybe a decade. And if he ever made it back, he, who had been an Eldest Brother of limitless wealth and means, would be reduced to taking handouts and picking up the scraps.
Peng Zhongcai wasn't thinking that far ahead. He quickly asked, "Boss, when I go, what will happen to my son and my lovers?"
"Don't worry." Liang Sihai smiled. "I will take care of them."
What he meant, of course, was that he would keep them as hostages. If Peng Zhongcai or Jin Yongyu decided to cause trouble while in exile, Liang Sihai would simply threaten their families.
There was little need; both Jin Yongyu and Peng Zhongcai knew that they were bound by duty. What their boss wanted, they would do. They would never dare disobey, even if his plans meant problems for them down the road.
Still, Jin Yongyu at least had to try to soften the blow. After a moment of silence, he quietly asked, "Boss, when we come back, what will…the arrangements be?"
"Let us discuss that when the time comes." Liang Sihai waved his question aside. "I'll take care of you." He paused, and then added, "Don't worry; you'll always live the good life."
They were just empty words, but now that they'd been spoken, Jin Yongyu could hardly demand more concrete promises. He thanked Liang Sihai and reluctantly left.
Liang Sihai had given the situation some thought. Now that they were gone, he would have to make do without two of his most effective operatives. Taking them out of business had disrupted his entire operation. If he didn't want it to fall apart, he would have to raise someone up the ranks.
He heaved a soft sigh. Yes, he would be the best choice. His son had certainly failed to live up to his expectations, but as thi
ngs stood, Liang Sihai could only trust his own blood.
He had made his decision, but Liang Sihai was in no hurry to make the arrangements. Right now, something else demanded his immediate attention.
Fang Mu took his 36 license plates numbers to the Traffic Department of the Bureau. In a matter of minutes he had the names of both the trucks' owners and operators. He could barely contain his excitement when he saw that the legal representative of one of the freight companies was a Mr. Liang. Better yet, the truck with the suspicious license plates was owned by that very company.
Liang Sihai was a 49-year-old male and a resident of Changhong City. He was listed as the legal representative of the Sprint Logistics Company. According to the records, Sprint Logistics was a small business with only six trucks, a few full-time employees, and no more than a million yuan in registered capital. The information from the Administration for Industry and Commerce showed that the company was complying with all regulations, paid its taxes on time, and had never once run afoul of the law.
It might have looked impeccable on the surface, but Fang Mu decided to pay the company a visit to see for himself.
Sprint Logistics was located in the old part of town. From the outside, it appeared to match its financials. The company's small, two-story headquarters all but disappeared between a grocery store and an auto repair shop. In addition to the office building, there was also a small truck yard out back.
First, Fang Mu visited the deli across the street to keep a careful eye on the office building from there. The company security guard sitting behind the glass front door caught his attention. The guard looked half-asleep, but Fang Mu noticed that it was just an act. In fact, the guard was keeping a watchful eye on everyone who came too close to the building.