At eight o’clock the next morning, I waited for Wen Ruzhou at the team entrance.
We had agreed on eight-thirty, but she arrived at eight-twenty. She was wearing a navy blue trench coat, her hair tied back in a bun, carrying a black backpack. She looked ready to head out on field duty at a moment’s notice.
“Captain Shen, morning,” she greeted me with a smile.
“Morning.” I glanced at her. “Have you had breakfast?”
“I did.” She paused, seemingly unprepared for my question. “Brother Zhao treated me to some steamed buns.”
I said nothing, turning around to walk toward the parking lot.
She caught up, maintaining half a step’s distance beside me. “Which bank are we checking today?”
“City Commercial Bank.” I pulled the car keys from my pocket. “The bank where Hongyun’s collecting account was opened.”
“Is there anything you need me to prepare?”
“Just keep that mouth of yours shut.”
She froze for a moment, then smiled. “Captain Shen, are you praising me or running me down?”
“Neither. Just giving you a heads-up.”
I unlocked the car and opened the driver’s side door. “Bank staff are tricky to deal with, especially when corporate banking is involved. They have their own rules and won’t cooperate just because you’re a police officer. So after we step inside, speak when you’re spoken to, and keep quiet when you’re not.”
“Understood, Captain Shen,” she answered dutifully. She then walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and got in.
I started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.
City Commercial Bank was located in the center of the old city district—a five-story old building with dark red paint on its exterior walls, looking quite aged.
I pulled up by the roadside and cut the engine.
“Once inside, I’ll handle the liaison with the bank staff, and you’ll focus on inspecting the records.” I gave a final reminder before getting out. “If you spot anything, write it down. Don’t say it on the spot.”
“Got it.”
We walked through the main doors of the bank.
The lobby wasn’t crowded. A few elderly people were queued up at the counters, and a woman holding a child was resting in the corner. I located the corporate banking counter, presenting my credentials and badge. “Economic Crime Investigation Detachment, Municipal Bureau. We need to verify some information.”
The teller was a woman in her thirties. She froze upon seeing my credentials. “Officer, please wait a moment. I’ll call our director over.”
She dialed a number on the phone, said a few words, and stood up. “Would you two please wait in the lounge over here? Our director will be right with you.”
The lounge was at the end of the hallway with its door open. Inside were a sofa, a coffee table, and a few magazines resting on top.
Just as we sat down, a middle-aged man walked in. In his nineties or mid-forties, immaculately dressed in a suit with meticulously combed hair, a professional smile rested on his face.
“Hello, officers. I am Zhou, Director of the Corporate Banking Department.” He reached out to shake my hand. “How may I assist you?”
I took out the account number for Hongyun’s receiving account and handed it to him. “We need to check the account opening information and bank statements for the past two years for this account.”
Director Zhou took the note and glanced at it, his smile momentarily freezing.
It lasted only a split second before returning to normal.
“This account…” He set the slip of paper on the coffee table. “Officer, the situation with this account is rather unique.”
“How is it unique?”
“Before we cooperate with the investigation, we need to understand the scope and purpose of your investigation.” Director Zhou’s tone remained polite, but his message was clear—you have to convince me before I can assist you.
I pulled out the letter of introduction and the case filing decision document from my pocket, placing them in front of him. “Hongyun Investment is suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits, involving an amount exceeding two hundred million yuan. This account is one of their collection accounts, and we suspect the involved funds were transferred through it.”
Director Zhou picked up the decision document to read, his brows furrowing.
“We’ve heard about the Hongyun situation,” he set the document down. “But officer, the holder of this account isn’t Hongyun; it belongs to an individual.”
“I know the account holder is an individual,” I said. “But the actual user of this account is Hongyun. We have the complainants’ contracts and transfer records to prove it.”
Director Zhou fell silent for a few seconds.
“Officer, according to regulations, personal account statement information constitutes client privacy. Without approval from higher authorities, we cannot provide it at will.”
“We have the case filing decision document.”
“A case filing decision document only proves the existence of a case, but it cannot serve as the basis for retrieving personal account information.” Director Zhou’s tone was firm. “Officer, you should be aware of this rule.”
I stared at him for a few seconds.
He was stalling for time.
Or rather, he was waiting for someone.
“Director Zhou,” I stood up, “I don’t want to use compulsory measures, but if you insist on refusing to cooperate, I can only go back, file a report, and go through the formal approval process. The time delayed then might not just be a day or two.”
Director Zhou’s expression shifted.
Right at that moment, my phone rang.
It was Old Zhao.
“Captain Shen, we have a problem.” Old Zhao’s voice sounded urgent. “Little Wen went to Hongyun’s affiliated company by herself, and our people lost her.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“When did this happen?”
“Just now. Shortly after you left, she said she was going to the restroom and slipped out the back door. Little Liu lost her halfway through, and we don’t know where she went now.”
I hung up the phone and looked toward where Wen Ruzhou had been sitting.
Empty.
Her bag was still there, but she was gone.
Director Zhou, noticing the change in my expression, asked cautiously, “Officer, is everything alright?”
Ignoring him, I pushed open the door and walked out.
Hongyun had two affiliated companies.
One was Hongyun’s parent company, “Huatong Industrial,” registered on a different floor of the same office building. The other was a shareholder entity of Hongyun, “Shunda Trading,” registered in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city.
I put my money on Shunda.
Wen Ruzhou was bold and sharp; she wouldn’t go to a place like Huatong, which was blatantly a shell company. She would definitely go to Shunda because it looked more like a legitimate business, making it easier to coax information out of people.
I pushed the car up to 120 kilometers per hour, running two red lights in a row.
Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the entrance of Shunda Trading.
It was a three-story factory building with gray-painted exterior walls and a faded sign hanging by the entrance. The main gate was closed, but movement could be seen inside.
Instead of driving straight in, I found a spot by the roadside to park and turned off the engine.
There was a small path by the factory entrance with several trucks parked alongside it. I parked behind a truck, stepped out, and approached on foot.
The perimeter wall wasn’t high, and I could hear voices from inside.
“…Like I said, we don’t accept any form of interviews or investigations,” a man’s voice sounded extremely irritated.
“Sir, I’m not here for an interview. I just want to understand the situation regarding Hongyun…”
It was Wen Ruzhou’s voice.
My heart skipped half a beat.
She was arguing with someone.
I rounded the wall and found a side door. The door was left ajar; I pushed it open and walked along the base of the wall toward the direction of the voice.
Turning a corner, I saw her.
She stood in front of an open office door, cornered in the corridor by two men. One wore a security uniform, while the other wore a suit, looking like part of the company’s management.
The man in the suit was shouting at her, “I don’t care who introduced you, this isn’t over today. Do you know that your actions constitute illegal entry into commercial premises? I can sue you.”
Wen Ruzhou stood her ground. Her face was slightly pale, but her voice remained relatively composed. “Sir, I am merely making a standard inquiry without taking any compulsory measures. If you feel my methods are inappropriate, I can apologize, but before that, I hope you can cooperate with our investigation.”
“Investigation?” The man in the suit sneered. “Who do you think you are? Coming here to scam people just because you’re holding a badge? I’m telling you, if you don’t explain this clearly today, don’t even think about leaving.”
He pulled a phone out of his pocket, seemingly making a call.
I walked over.
“Wen Ruzhou.”
Wen Ruzhou whipped her head around, freezing when she saw me. “Captain Shen?”
The man in the suit turned around as well. Seeing me in plain clothes, his brow furrowed. “Who are you?”
Ignoring him, I walked over to Wen Ruzhou and looked her over.
She had no visible physical injuries, but her complexion was poor, with fine beads of sweat on her forehead. A button on her shirt collar had been pulled out of place; I couldn’t tell if it was like that before or if it happened during a struggle just now.
“Captain Shen, I…” She opened her mouth to explain.
“We’ll talk back at the station,” I interrupted her, turning to face the man in the suit.
“Police.” I pulled out my badge and flashed it in front of him. “Economic Crime Investigation Detachment.”
The man’s expression changed.
He had been shouting about calling the police just moments ago, but now seeing my badge, he didn’t know how to react. He froze for a second, then said, “Officer, about earlier…”
“What about earlier?” I asked.
He swallowed hard. “Nothing, I was just asking about the situation.”
“Finished asking?” I glanced toward the end of the corridor. “We need to retrieve your company’s employee roster and financial vouchers from the past year. We expect your cooperation.”
The man’s expression turned even worse. “This…”
“Is there a problem?”
“The company’s financial vouchers are all at headquarters. We only have some daily operational records here.”
“Daily records are fine too.” I stared into his eyes. “Also, call your boss over.”
“The boss isn’t here.”
“Then call him to come back,” I said. “From now on, no personnel in this factory area may leave until we verify the situation.”
The man opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but ultimately swallowed his words.
I turned to Wen Ruzhou. “Follow me.”
She followed behind me. After a few steps, she whispered, “Captain Shen, I’m sorry…”
I ignored her and kept walking out.
Only after leaving the factory gates and getting into the car did I speak.
“Fasten your seatbelt.”
She obediently buckled up and didn’t utter another word the entire drive.
I drove fast, avoiding main roads and picking remote side streets instead. Only after confirming we weren’t being tailed did I pull over in an empty alley and turn off the engine.
The interior of the car was quiet, filled only with the sound of our breathing.
I turned my head and looked at her.
She kept her head down, not daring to meet my eyes.
“Did you think you were so capable that you could handle it all on your own?” I asked.
She fell silent for a few seconds before speaking. “I just wanted to see if I could extract some information. I didn’t expect them to react so strongly.”
“There are plenty of things you didn’t expect.” I lowered my voice. “Do you know how dangerous that place was just now? Entering alone without any backup—what if something had gone wrong?”
“Captain Shen, I…”
“You what?” I interrupted her. “Is this how you handled cases at the Audit Office? No backup needed, no reporting required, just rushing in alone to throw your life away?”
Her lips twitched, but she remained silent.
“Wen Ruzhou, let me tell you something.” I stared into her eyes. “Economic crime investigation isn’t auditing. If auditors mess up inspecting the books, at most they re-audit them. But if economic crime investigators mess up a case, people die. Rushing into that factory today—if the people inside had meant real harm, how were you going to escape on your own?”
Her fingers tightened around her knees.
I took a deep breath to suppress my anger.
“Tell me what you found out today.”
She looked up at me, her eyes slightly red, but her voice stayed steady. “The legal representative of Shunda Trading is named Zhang Deming, the nephew of Liu Jianguo, Hongyun’s legal representative. This man has five companies under his name. Aside from Shunda, there are two real estate companies and two property management companies. But strangely, the actual controller of these five companies isn’t listed under his name, but under a woman named ‘Wang Fang’.”
“Wang Fang?”
“Based on my observations, this person is likely Zhang Deming’s mistress,” Wen Ruzhou said. “The people in the factory call her ‘President Wang’ and hold her in great awe. But after coming once last year, she never showed up again.”
I line-frowned. “How do you know all this?”
“When I snuck in, I chatted with their gatekeeper,” her voice grew quieter. “The gatekeeper is an old man who talks a lot. I offered him a cigarette, and he spilled everything.”
“Just that?”
“There’s one more thing.” She looked at me. “The gatekeeper mentioned that Shunda received a large order from Shenzhen last year. The order amount was over thirty million yuan, but they only completed a portion before stopping, refunding the rest directly.”
“Refunded?”
“Yes, refunded. Sent back through the original payment path.” She paused. “The gatekeeper said the workers in the factory thought it was strange at the time, because for such a large order, companies usually find a way to finish it. There was no sense in stopping halfway to refund it. But the refund was executed cleanly—they didn’t even keep the deposit.”
I remained silent for a few seconds.
A massive order of over thirty million yuan, refunded just like that—there was only one possibility. The order itself was meant for money laundering and was never a real business transaction to begin with.
“Go back and write a report.” I started the car. “We’ll address today’s incident later.”
She said nothing, sitting obediently in the passenger seat.
I dropped her off at the detachment entrance without turning off the engine.
“Go back and rest first. Tomorrow, hand in a detailed self-criticism report.”
When she got out of the car, she paused, then looked back at me. “Captain Shen, regarding today, I was in the wrong. But I don’t regret it.”
I looked at her.
Her eyes were still red, but her gaze was sharp and bright. “There was something wrong with Shunda Trading; I guessed it before going in. If I had backup then, maybe we could have uncovered even more.”
“You still dare to talk back?”
“I’m not talking back; I’m reporting the situation to you,” her voice calmed down. “Captain Shen, I know you were worried about me. But I do this for a living; I didn’t come here to be a vase. If I don’t even dare to take a risk like this, I might as well go back to the Audit Office and write reports.”
I stared at her for a few seconds.
She didn’t dodge, holding my gaze.
“Do you think,” I said slowly, “that I’m targeting you?”
She froze.
“When a new case comes in and I assign you to the perimeter, it’s not to suppress you—it’s to protect you.” My tone softened somewhat. “You just transferred from the Audit Office and aren’t familiar with the environment here. Rushing in recklessly makes it easy for things to go wrong. Regarding today—if I had arrived half an hour later, have you thought about the consequences?”
She didn’t answer.
“This Hongyun case is far more complex than it appears on the surface,” I continued. “I had you start on the perimeter because I need you to figure out the situation with these victims and help me build the framework of the capital chain. This work isn’t thrilling, but it’s crucial.”
The look in her eyes changed.
“Also, I know about you going through the files for the Dingsheng case in the archives,” I said. “You wanted to investigate Zhou Jianguo’s line, and I didn’t stop you. But investigating is one thing; you have to follow the rules. You’re under my command now, and if something happens to you, I have to take responsibility.”
She looked at me, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something.
I interrupted her. “Go back and rest.”
She stepped out, standing beside the car door, looking at me. “Captain Shen.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for coming to get me today.”
I said nothing and drove off.
In the rearview mirror, she was still standing in place, her trench coat billowing in the wind.
I didn’t know what she was thinking.
But I knew what I was thinking.
I was thinking whether she would be this impulsive next time.
And if she acted like this again next time, whether I would have to go rescue her in person once more.
Only after driving far away did I realize my hands were still gripping the steering wheel—gripping it tightly.