Time came to the next day. Li Qian was busy making thorough preparations for tonight’s appointment, completely unaware that several other major events would occur today.
Early in the morning, at a train station in a city two hundred kilometers away from San Jiang Kou, a group of about ten people appeared. Each wore worn jackets and held onto a half-person-high black enormous suitcase. This group came to the entrance, showed their tickets and ID cards, then lifted their suitcases one by one onto the security scanner. Their suitcases were clearly very heavy—each person grunted with effort, holding their breath as they lifted them up.
The security inspector behind the scanner saw through the computer screen that the contents of the suitcases appeared abnormal. Following professional instinct, he quietly called over a nearby security guard to look together. After glancing at it a few times, the security guard immediately went behind the security gate and raised his hand to stop the group: “Take down the suitcases and open them for inspection.”
These people showed no panic whatsoever. The leading tall, thin man had his companions all pick up their suitcases and open them for the inspector to see.
“Cultural relics?” The security inspector was astonished.
All the suitcases were stuffed full of various cultural relics—large items like vases, bronze mirrors, Buddha statues, wood carvings, stone sculptures, and dinosaur fossils. There were even more small items: bags of silver dollars, strings of copper coins—everything imaginable.
Looking at ten suitcases lined up, all filled with cultural relics, other travelers couldn’t help but curiously stop in their tracks and gather to watch.
The leading man grinned and casually picked up a porcelain bowl from a black cloth bag, handing it to the security inspector: “Official kiln from the Ming Chenghua period.”
Everyone looked carefully and indeed it was an official kiln from the Ming Chenghua period, because the bottom of the bowl was engraved with: “Great Ming Chenghua, Official Kiln.”
“One hundred yuan, want to take one to play with?” The man started doing business.
The onlooking crowd couldn’t help but suppress their laughter.
The security inspector, still uneasy, went to look at items in the other suitcases. Although he didn’t understand cultural relics, he still had some ability to distinguish head-sized Hetian jade and fist-sized amber. After looking at a few items, he also let down his guard and asked: “What do you people do?”
The leading man answered frankly: “We acquired some cultural relics from our hometown to sell across the country, earning some hard-earned money.”
“These are also cultural relics?” The security inspector joked.
“Little brother, see through but don’t say through—this trade has its own rules.”
The security inspector waved his hand: “Go on, go on, so many people are still queuing behind you.”
The man smiled, called his companions to close the suitcases, and walked into the station.
On the north side of San Jiang Kou, beside a river channel, stood an estate villa. The estate occupied fifteen acres, with walls six to seven meters high standing on three sides. The north side facing the river was planted with landscaping barrier trees, wrapping the entire estate within. The front of the estate had a metal retractable gate equally six to seven meters high, with no signs or address outside the gate. Inside the gate on the right was a security room, where several tall security guards in uniforms were on duty. In the center of the estate stood a large villa, with parking lots on both sides of the villa, where multiple luxury cars were parked. Behind the villa was another security room, which also housed multiple security guards. Security surveillance cameras were installed inside and outside the surrounding walls, showing that the estate’s security was extremely complete.
This was precisely the luxurious mansion residence of San Jiang Kou’s wealthiest man, Zhou Rong. At this moment, Zhou Rong, Hu Jianren, and the Lang Bowen brothers were all in the villa. Besides them, there were also several personnel from Zhou Rong’s company security department, who were also Zhou Rong’s bodyguards.
Two hours earlier, Hu Jianren had received notification from Zhu Yifei’s subordinates that Zhu Yifei wanted to meet with Zhou Rong today. At that time, Zhou Rong was handling affairs at the company. After receiving the message, he didn’t want to bring this gang of cultural relic traffickers to the company, so he arranged to meet at home, then also called the Lang Bowen brothers to accompany him. After all, the other party was true underworld—Zhou Rong felt more secure having a few more people.
Several people chatted about this transaction and looked at the time. It had already passed the agreed meeting time. Lang Bowen couldn’t help but say angrily: “Brother Rong, what’s your status, and what level is this Zhu fellow? He says to meet and we meet—accommodating him once is already generous enough. But the time has passed, we haven’t seen a shadow of him, and there’s no phone call explanation. What does this mean? This is a business deal worth tens of millions, and he’s so dishonest—what kind of thing is he!”
Zhou Rong smiled, not taking it seriously: “I guess this Zhu Yifei is probably already nearby. He’s hiding in the shadows observing and testing us. People in their line of work face great risks—being cautious is appropriate. Don’t give him attitude later either. This Zhu Yifei’s methods are quite extraordinary.”
Younger brother Lang Botu asked: “Brother Rong, why do you say that?”
Hu Jianren explained from the side: “Just now when I arranged to meet them here, I was about to tell them the address when they said they knew the address and told us to get here as soon as possible.”
Younger brother Lang Botu immediately understood: “They’ve been watching Brother Rong all along?”
Zhou Rong nodded: “Zhu Yifei said he would enter the country and come to San Jiang Kou to meet as soon as possible. I guess he arrived several days ago but hasn’t shown himself because he’s been secretly investigating us. After confirming it was safe, he came to talk business with me. Look, when he called, he not only knew the address here but also knew I wasn’t home, which means he’s been watching me all along. But I never noticed, which shows this Zhu Yifei has some methods. That’s why I called you all here—after all, this is my first time dealing with a real underworld boss.”
Younger brother Lang Botu’s gaze swept over the several security team members behind Zhou Rong. Each was tall and robust, with a bear-like back and waist. Only a lean man stood to the side, not tall, with a calm expression, appearing quite unremarkable in comparison. However, Lang Botu looked at this man for several seconds and smiled: “Brother Rong, Director Zhang is also here, so there’s no need to worry about Zhu Yifei daring to play any tricks.”
This lean man was named Zhang Debing, the general manager of Rongcheng Group’s security department, deeply trusted by Zhou Rong. Hearing Lang Botu say this, he only smiled politely and said nothing.
“I’m just being cautious, which is why I had Little Zhang bring a few more people.” Zhou Rong explained, “Zhu Yifei isn’t doing ordinary cultural relic trading—he does big business. His subordinates aren’t easy people. Do you know Liu Bei?”
Younger brother Lang Botu shook his head. Lang Bowen interjected: “Is he the fugitive who killed a police officer?”
“Right. This time through some channels, we contacted Zhu Yifei, and he brought Liu Bei as the transaction middleman. If even a middleman has killed police officers, Zhu Yifei’s subordinates are probably even more formidable. I need to be careful.” He glanced back at Zhang Debing, who smiled and nodded slightly, as if saying, with me here, boss can rest assured.
After waiting a while longer, the villa butler came in to report that a car had arrived at the gate, and the people in the car said they had an appointment with the boss.
Zhou Rong immediately had the butler let the car in, then stood up with everyone and walked to the parking lot on the side of the villa to greet them.
The arriving vehicle was an ordinary silver small car worth tens of thousands, neither new nor old, very unremarkable.
The driver who got out was also a man who looked utterly ordinary, in his thirties, with drooping small eyes, dressed simply. After getting out, he walked to the rear door, opened the car door, and out stepped a man in his forties wearing casual clothes with a striking presence.
Zhou Rong walked to the side of the man with striking presence, grasped his hand, and warmly exchanged pleasantries: “Boss Zhu, is this your first time in San Jiang Kou? Are you getting used to it here?”
Who would have known that the man with the striking presence withdrew his hand, smiled, and walked behind the driver. The driver suddenly straightened his body, raised his head, extended his hand to grasp Zhou Rong’s, and laughed: “Boss Zhou, you’ve been well!”
“You’re Boss Zhu?” Zhou Rong was stunned, looking at the driver.
“Haha…” The driver laughed heartily, “Even Boss Zhou didn’t expect I was a driver. How could the mainland police figure out my whereabouts?”
“Hiding in plain sight!” Zhou Rong couldn’t help but sigh, “Boss Zhu’s methods are truly extraordinary!”
Everyone laughed along.
At this moment, the driver revealed a strange smile and stepped aside. The man with the striking presence from earlier stepped forward again, laughing loudly: “Boss Zhou, I just played a little joke with you. I’m Zhu Yifei—pleased to meet you! He’s my most trusted little brother, just call him Little Zheng.”
Zhu Yifei’s face was filled with pride, his expression saying, which one is really me, you can’t tell, right!
Zhou Rong nodded repeatedly, and everyone followed along, praising how Zhu Yifei mixed truth and falsehood, falsehood and truth, combining the two deception strategies of hiding in plain sight and the prince-and-pauper switch into one—this was a true master’s disguise technique! Actually, they were all cursing him in their hearts as a complete lunatic.
After simple pleasantries, Zhu Yifei and his subordinate Little Zheng looked around Zhou Rong’s entire estate. The man called Little Zheng had particularly alert triangular eyes, carefully scrutinizing everyone present, the vehicles in the parking lot, and all of Zhou Rong’s people.
Zhou Rong felt very uncomfortable being stared at by Little Zheng for such a long time. He coughed and invited Zhu Yifei inside to talk in detail. The two then walked toward the villa like leaders of large and small nations—one side followed by many attendants, the other side with only one attendant.
After entering and taking seats, after a few brief greetings, Zhu Yifei got straight to the point: “Boss Zhou surely knows my situation—I’m not convenient to show my face publicly, especially on the mainland. This time, firstly because Boss Zhou personally wanted to buy goods, it would be too disrespectful if I didn’t come. Secondly, such a big business deal—I couldn’t feel at ease entrusting it entirely to others. I’ll stay in San Jiang Kou for about two or three days. We’ll complete the transaction during this time. As for the price and transaction process, they’ve already been agreed upon with Manager Hu. No problem?”
“No problem.” Zhou Rong’s answer was very straightforward.
Zhu Yifei had previously sent over detailed photos of the bronze bells. Zhou Rong had someone from a museum expert verify their authenticity, and he also had someone show the photos to Fang Yong, who was satisfied. As for the price, there were very few market transactions for bronze bell cultural relics, so there was no standard. Five or six years ago, an overseas auction house auctioned a set for one hundred fifty million. The set in Zhu Yifei’s hands was smaller in scale than that set, and it was unregistered cultural relics that couldn’t be made public, so after negotiation, both sides settled on a price of thirty million. Zhu Yifei required that on the day of meeting, Zhou Rong prepare one million US dollars in cash, and he would produce the number nine small bronze bell—this was to confirm Zhou Rong’s sincerity in buying the goods. If everything went smoothly, the next day Zhu Yifei would arrange a transaction for the remaining eight bronze bells all at once.
“Is the deposit ready?”