The contents of the note were highly detailed, but the handwriting did not belong to Yan Tuo.
Li Zhong felt no hesitation whatsoever. Much like his own brother-in-law, he had developed an inexplicable trust in the little white dumpling.
He folded it neatly, tucked it into his pocket, and immediately stood up to instruct the other two men. “Zhao Ge, tell Cao Yiman to wrap things up. I’m heading straight to the provincial headquarters. Once I’m back, we’ll fly to Y Province together. A’Lian, take good care of our little hero. Its wings are still bleeding, and one of its legs looks injured too.”
Yu Lian nodded hurriedly. Still worried, she tugged at her husband’s sleeve. “You have to promise! Promise me you’ll bring Tuozi back safe and sound.”
Li Zhong gave a low hum of acknowledgment and rushed out the door like Whirlwind.
Yu Lian cradled the unconscious little white dumpling and thought of Su Xiao. That girl’s pet shop was right near the city bureau, wasn’t it?
~~~
At noon, just three hours after receiving Tangyuan’s message, Li Zhong and Cao Yiman touched down at the international airport in K City, the capital of Y Province.
While the two of them had been airborne, the provincial departments of both regions had already held emergency consultations. Lin Yiwu, the K City bureau’s deputy director in charge of criminal investigations, had personally led a team of elites drawn from the detachment and the special police unit. They had already departed to set up the ambush.
A police car collected the pair at the airport and sped off toward the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway.
According to the information provided by Li Zhong, Xu Qingru and Basong’s group had set out from J City around midnight. They had first taken the national highway out of the province before switching to the expressway. A quick check of the toll records confirmed it: they had taken the ticket on the Shanghai-Kunming around 4 a.m.
By estimating their speed, they should pass through Liupanshui and enter Y Province around 3 p.m.
The highway section through Liupanshui was notoriously complex, riddled with mountains, tunnels, and sharp bends. It was the ideal spot for an interception.
They arrived at the site just before 2:30 p.m. A large contingent of officers had taken position at a bend just after a tunnel exit. It was hard to spot in advance, hemmed in by hills on either side, and offered little room for a vehicle to flee. They had already used barriers to close off two of the three lanes, leaving just one open for regular traffic.
Li Zhong and Lin Yiwu went back a ways—they had attended the same party school training class years earlier and could even call each other classmates. Upon meeting, Li Zhong stepped forward for a hearty embrace, clapping the other man firmly on the shoulder. “Brother, I owe you one.”
Lin Yiwu had no intention of claiming credit. He let out a hearty laugh. “Owe me what? It wasn’t your influence—it was Basong’s reputation. Never thought I’d live to see the day he fell into my hands.”
He wasn’t just deflecting modestly. K City was one of Basong’s prime stomping grounds, practically his oldest stronghold in the country. The case had languished on the bureau’s desk for ages, but the man was so cunning that no one could pin down his ends.
The last time, in J City, Yan Tuo had caught him, but before they could dig in, he had been extradited abroad. Lin Yiwu still nursed a bit of resentment over it.
That was why today’s elaborate setup served two purposes: doing a solid for his old classmate and satisfying his own burning desire to collar the kingpin personally.
Li Zhong said no more. He led Cao Yiman up the hillside to the right. This wasn’t their turf, and they had no business jumping into the fray today. Still, their concern made them even more grim and tense than the armed officers below.
At 3:15 p.m., the observation post 10 kilometers out reported in: two target vehicles approaching the tunnel entrance. The refrigerated container truck led, followed by the business van some 200 meters back. They were making around 100 kilometers per hour and would make contact in six or seven minutes.
The interval passed in the blink of an eye. Over the next ten-odd minutes, Li Zhong and Cao Yiman witnessed a flawless, by-the-book rescue operation unfold before their eyes.
First, the distant observation point locked down the road immediately after the vehicles passed, enforcing a temporary traffic shutdown to bar any trailing cars.
At the ambush site, traffic officers directed the flow, signaling an accident ahead. With two lanes blocked, they urged drivers to slow down. The reefer truck driver saw a large container truck pass through unimpeded ahead and followed without a second thought, easing off the gas.
Once it cleared, the business van poked out of the tunnel—and the final open lane slammed shut, neatly isolating the two vehicles.
The occupants of the van sensed trouble and hit the brakes hard, attempting to whip around and reverse course.
But it was far too late. Special police poured out, rifles and ballistic shields at the ready, boxing them in from all sides. A glance back revealed the busy highway utterly deserted. They knew then that they had been bottled up like fish in a barrel, caught in a perfect ambush.
Even so, the cagey bunch inside couldn’t fathom where they had slipped up to allow such precise police positioning.
Basong saw the writing on the wall and gave the order to stand down. Pointless resistance now would achieve nothing; better to bank on whatever strings could be pulled later.
With the business van secured, the lead container truck received the cue. It slowed, veered drunkenly, and came to a halt sideways across all three lanes, blocking them completely.
Criminal investigators in bulletproof vests emerged, weapons drawn, bellowing for the driver to stop and exit the vehicle.
The driver had never faced anything like this. He was just an ordinary guy hoping to score quick cash through his brother-in-law, A’Li.
His hands and feet went limp as he pulled over, surrendered the keys without protest, and even helped fling open the cargo doors.
The entire operation clocked in at nine and a half minutes. The hostages were freed unharmed, with zero casualties on the team. They took Basong and his five henchmen into custody, along with Xu Qingru, director of J City’s Medical University Affiliated Appraisal Center.
No sooner had the arrests wrapped than two ambulances waiting on the opposite lanes barreled across the median. The doctors gave the hostages a swift once-over, confirming they remained under the effects of the anesthetic but were otherwise stable. Li Zhong and Cao Yiman, who had been on tenterhooks all day, finally exhaled.
Li Zhong intended to accompany the ambulance to Liupanshui, then catch a flight back to J City from Yuezhao Airport. He was about to seek out Lin Yiwu for one last thank-you and farewell when the man approached on his own.
“Basong’s slippery as an eel—bolted fast as ever. No telling which thicket he’s hiding in now. Reckon it’ll take three, five, six, seven days to flush him out.”
The two J City officers blinked in confusion. Hadn’t they rounded up every last one from the van?
More experienced, Li Zhong caught on after a split second. “Yeah, real tough nut. But I know you’ll nail him. Looking forward to the good news.”
Lin Yiwu barked a laugh. “I get it, you’re swamped. No need to keep you. Until next time—and if you make it to K City, dinner’s on me, the works.”
Li Zhong thanked him profusely once more before boarding the ambulance with Cao Yiman.
Cao Yiman mulled it over for ages but still couldn’t make sense of it. Nervously, he leaned in to whisper to his boss. “What’s their angle? Basong’s in cuffs, right? That deputy director wouldn’t pull some shady release?”
Infuriated, Li Zhong thwacked him on the forehead. “I keep telling you to bone up on criminal procedure and think straight, and this is what you come up with? He’s spooked that word of the capture leaks out, Basong’s network hustles an extradition, and poof—just like last time, back from Russia in two months. Tells you how murky the waters are behind him.”
Cao Yiman nodded with an “Oh,” his face still clouded in bewilderment.
Li Zhong sighed in frustration at his thick-headed subordinate. “Old Lin’ll button up the evidence chain and rush the prosecution. Once it’s public indictment and trial time, he can block any extradition. So they keep the bust under wraps as long as humanly possible.
Basong’s rap sheet? Death penalty, no question. He’s done wreaking havoc. And looping me in? Joint op across provinces—we need to stay aligned on the story.”
Enlightenment dawned on Cao Yiman. Admiringly, he said, “Director Lin’s a genius. Figures he’d climb to director while you’re still stuck as detachment captain, same cohort and all.”
If regs permitted, Li Zhong would’ve booted the lumbering ox right off the ambulance. Instead, he used checking on Yan Tuo as an excuse to switch seats across from him, tuning the man out entirely.
Moments later, amid the vehicle’s bumps and rattles, Yan Tuo’s eyes fluttered open. Li Zhong scooted close at once. “Tuozi, you okay?”
Yan Tuo: “…Yiyi…?”
Li Zhong couldn’t parse it—was that a person or a thing? He quickly recapped the situation. “Yiyi who? You’re in the ambulance—all clear now. Basong and Xu Qingru are in custody. Hongqing’s fine too, other ambulance.”
Yan Tuo took a beat to process, then switched tack. “Tang… Tangyuan?”
Li Zhong: “It got your message through in the nick of time and saved your hides. Took a few scrapes, but A’Lian’s minding it at home. What a champ—Director Xie nailed it calling it the Divine Bird. When we’re back, make sure to give it some props.”
He paused, brow furrowing. “That note, though—who wrote it? Didn’t match your handwriting.”
Yan Tuo drew a blank on any note, but his sluggish mind pieced it together: probably Bai Yiyi. Playing it off, he said, “Hongqing… wrote it. Tangyuan tailed us all the way to the provincial border. Caught ’em off guard, scribbled it quick, and sent the bird back with it.”
Hua Hongqing, writing on city bureau letterhead? While drugged and trussed up? And Tangyuan tracking them to the border before flying back—hundreds of kilometers—without getting lost?
Li Zhong still harbored some doubts deep down, but seeing his brother-in-law’s uncharacteristically frail state, he held back from pressing the issue. He tucked the thin blanket more securely around him and gave his shoulder a gentle pat, urging him to get some proper rest.
He turned away and called Yu Lian to let her know all was well.
Right then, Yu Lian was out in the garden of her villa, slicing a sweet Autumn pear into bite-sized chunks while coaxing Tangyuan to take a couple of nibbles.
The little bird, usually so plump and adorable, now cut a truly pitiful figure. Its signature pot-lid crest was gone, leaving its head bald—a change even she struggled to get used to looking at.
Its wings had been slathered in hemostatic ointment, but the erythromycin salve formulated for animals came in such a garish hue that the few small scratches took on a dramatically tragic appearance.
One toe on its right claw had been broken somehow. Su Xiao had immobilized it with a tiny splint and wrapped it round and round in gauze, giving it the look of a serious battle wound.
Reflecting on the reason for its suffering and its fierce loyalty, Yu Lian shared the good news. “Tangyuan, Yan Tuo’s going to be okay. You have to eat up and recover properly. Don’t let him come home and see you looking like this—he’d only fret over you.”
Bai Yiyi had a premonition the moment the phone had been picked up. Tears flooded his eyes in an instant, wild joy surging through him and banishing all sense of pain.
Snap! He snapped up the piece of fruit Yu Lian offered with his beak, suddenly feeling hungry after all.
Yu Lian kept muttering to him. “It’s just that no-good master of yours, such a flake. He swore to me he’d set his sights on Su Xiao. I even brought it up to him at Grandpa’s birthday banquet, and he didn’t exactly deny it.
“Then he goes and asks his brother-in-law for time off, claiming he’s off on a hot spring getaway with his girl. Turns out the poor girl knew nothing about it—said they’d met once and that was the end of it.
“Tangyuan, what kind of stunt do you think your master’s been pulling? He’s obviously been cooking up some sneaky scheme on the sly! What girlfriend does he have that he couldn’t just come out and admit? He kept me strung along for ages, and I ended up making a fool of myself right to her face.”
The Autumn pear in Bai Yiyi’s beak lost all its sweetness in that moment.
It tasted like chewing wax.
He itched to shift back into human form right then and there, leveraging his current heroic, battle-scarred look to score some sympathy points.
Best of all would be to pipe up with: Sister, how’s a boyfriend like me strike you? To your liking?
