Jin Guangshan was now glad he had told his bodyguards to walk ahead of him. He had seen the cop cars and knew if he was caught hauling his bastard out bleeding, he was finished.  They had been told to run if they were caught to give him a chance to escape. He didn't give a rat's ass about the bodyguards but they would make a nice distraction if he needed them.

He had needed them.

Watching the look on Jiang Cheng's face, there was no doubt if the man caught him there wouldn't be a way out. The Inspector wouldn't take a bribe or a favor to let him go. The man had arrested his own mother this morning. He sure as hell wouldn't hesitate to take down the Mayor.

Melting into the now scattering crowd, Jin Guangshan disappeared into the night.

-----

"EIGHT O'CLOCK!! IN YOUR CELL!! EIGHT O'CLOCK!!" The guards bellowed over the sounds of women talking.

Yu Ziyuan had been given her cell assignment and her bedroll. She wasn't about to go there. Facing Ma'am again was something she was desperate to avoid. A schemer and a manipulator, she couldn't handle it when she was on the receiving end of the violence.

It never occurred to her she had done this exact thing to Wei Ying.

Bullies can rarely take what they dish out.

Currently, she was trying to lose herself in the crowd. To melt in until she could find another cell.

A hand grabbed her elbow hard.

"And where are you going, my sweet?" was whispered in her ear. "You are going in the wrong direction. Let me help you."

The grip on Yu Ziyuan's elbow was bruising as she was shoved toward the other end of the cell block. The few who looked at her let their gaze slide away. No one wanted to cross Ma'am.

When they reached the cell, Madame Yu was unceremoniously slung into it. Ma'am stood just inside the door and smiled down at her. It made the Grand Bitch's skin crawl.

Looking around the cell, she saw two other women were cringing in the corner. Curled into each other and not looking at Ma'am. There would be no help from them.

"First, you will lay out my bed roll. Nicely with no wrinkles. I prefer to sleep on the far right." Ma'am instructed.

Madame Yu stood up and looked at Ma'am. "Then you should lay it out where ever you want yourself."

"Ah, my sweet. I knew you would be fun." Ma'am grinned maliciously as she pulled her shoulder length hair into a ponytail and started toward her.

-----

Jiang Cheng didn't remember the trip to the hospital. If Zheng Fan Xing had simply parked the car and walked away, he would have happily slept the entire night.

Zheng Fan Xing had other ideas. He pulled up directly in front of the Emergency Room doors.

"Inspector? Sir?" he called with no response. Deciding Jiang Cheng wasn't able to get in on his own, he went in to get a wheelchair.  A passing nurse asked why he needed the chair and soon there were two orderlies and a nurse following the young cop back out to the car.

The orderly who woke Jiang Cheng received a glare that had the man taking a step back. 

He looked at the wheelchair with disdain.

"I can walk into the damn building. My nose is broken not my feet." he growled at him.

He didn't think about it and rubbed his face which made him grunt and then swear as his nose started bleeding again.

The orderly gulped and looked at the Inspector. "Sir, I'm supposed to take you in the wheelchair."

"Just get out of my way." Jiang Cheng stood up, wavered and then straightened himself. He could get himself in and on to the exam table. Then he would just sleep. They could fix his nose and whatever else they wanted to do as long as they let him sleep. Slowly, he walked in.

Apparently, word had already spread that the Inspector had arrived. They didn't ask for paper work. They just took him back to a room. Jin Zixuan watched stunned as his brother-in-law walked past him with a bruised face and bloody nose.

"Jiang Cheng?"

Hearing his name, Jiang Cheng paused. He looked at Jin Zixuan.

"How is Meng Yao?" He swayed.

"How are you? What the hell happened?" Jin Zixuan stood and grabbed Jiang Cheng's arm to keep him up right.

"Get me a wheelchair." he yelled.

An orderly arrived with one.

"Don't need it." Another refusal. Jin Zixuan looked at his stubborn brother-in-law and pulled out the worst threat he could think of.

"If you don't get in the damn chair, I'm telling Yanli."

Jiang Cheng looked at his brother-in-law with something akin to horror. He sat down.

"Stay right there." He gestured for the orderly to take him back to an exam room.

He pulled out his phone and sent a message to the group chat Yanli had set up. "JC is in the ER. Face is bruised and nose is bleeding."

Jin Zixuan counted to five before his phone rang.

"Yes, my heart?"

"What happened to A'Cheng?"

"I don't know but he came in with another police officer. Hang on." Jin Zixuan scanned the room. "There he is."

Working his way across the room, Jin Zixuan tapped on the shoulder of the young police officer.

"Excuse me. Did you come in with Inspector Jiang Cheng?"

"Yes. May I ask who you are?" Zheng Fan Xing answered.

"I'm his brother-in-law. Wait one second." he put his phone on speaker. "I have you on speaker phone. Can you hear me, Yanli?"

"Yes. Do we know why A'Cheng is in the hospital yet?"

"This is Zheng Fan Xing. He brought in Cheng."

"Good evening, ma'am." He shuffled his feet a bit.

"What happened to my brother, please?" He marveled at how sweet and kind she sounded when her brother yelled and growled.

"He chased down a suspect who then attacked him. They fought and he won. The other guy is spitting out teeth." There was no disguising the pride in Zheng Fan Xing's voice.

While Yanli was interrogating the officer, she was not the only person who received the post. Dr. Yu Qing read it and immediately left her usual rounds to go to the ER. A quick call and a colleague was willing to pick up the last two patients.

It wasn't long before she had Jiang Cheng's chart in her hand. It was almost empty of information. She looked up at the nurse.

"What the hell? There's nothing on here. Has he been seen?"

"Sort of." The nurse was cringing. "I tried. He informed me if I didn't 'leave him the fuck alone so he could sleep' he would arrest me." A gulp. "I believed him."

Swearing under her breath, Yu Qing took the chart and, after a final glare at the nurse, stomped off to Jiang Cheng's exam room.

As he heard the skitter of the curtain being drawn back, Jiang Cheng didn't even bother to open his eyes. "Go the fuck away or I will be forced to shoot you."

"No."

That got his attention.

He peered toward the foot of his bed. "Yu Qing?"

"Yes and you are going to let me take care of you. An ounce of shit from you and I will grab your nose and pull. Clear?"

He nodded. "Just wanna sleep."

"You can sleep in a moment. Let me see." Her voice was stern but her hands were gentle and her face was concerned. She carefully examined his face. "Your nose isn't broken. What happened?"

"The guys who had Meng Yao ran. One of them jumped me and we fought. I won but he got in a few good punches before I put him on the mat." The word 'punches' got her attention. She took his hands carefully. His knuckles were bloody and bruised.

"I'm fine. I've had worse. Just tired." he mumbled almost embarrassed.

She looked at him as he lay propped up in the bed.

"I'll be back in a moment. We need to get the nose bleed under control. I need a kit to clean up your hands and get them bandaged. You need ice as well. We'll work on the swelling while I work on your hands." Her voice was softer. "You don't do this often, do you? I'd hate to be doing this every week."

He looked up at her and smiled. "I try not too. Promise."

She gave him a smile and disappeared through the curtain.

----

Muchen moved silently along the hallway with Yuxi right behind. If anyone had been watching, they would know these weren't just teens off the street. Their movements spoke of training and experience.

There was a side hallway. They peered in and listened. Too dark to see but there were no sounds. No breathing. Through hand gestures, they opted to check it out on the way back. They continued down the corridor.

Yuxi gasped as she was grabbed and swung around. She looked at the man and realized he had a gun tucked into his waistband. She didn't even think of lying to him.

Xin Di throat punched him and dropped him like a rock.

Zizhen grabbed the man's arms and pulled him back into the corridor. Xin Di patted him down and found two knives to go with his gun. She kept the knives for herself and passed the gun to Zizhen.

Faintly, they could both hear a voice. It took a moment but they realized it was an ear bud. The voice was calling for a check in. Zizhen put the ear bud in his ear and listened.

"They're coming. They know something's up." he whispered while palming the earbud to keep anyone unwanted from hearing him.

They looked at each other and down the hall the man had been guarding. Only one reason to put a guard on something. A nod and they took off running.

At the end of the hall, there was a door that was partially open. Low light spilling out. It was the only door in the hallway. The smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the air.

Zizhen pushed the door open slowly then peered in. There were no guards in the room and no other exits. A quick glance behind the door. No one.

There were a half dozen teens, five girls and a boy, laid out on mats. Each was bound with their mouths duct taped. They appeared asleep.

"Drugged." Zizhen said. Xin Di nodded. She looked around. There were no other doors or windows.

"There's no way out. Charlie, are you listening? We've found the room. We've got drugged kids here." Xin Di said. No answering text.

Zizhen was standing by the door. He heard people running down the hallway.

"Shit, we have bugs, Charlie. And they are singing BTS. I repeat we have bu-" Zizhen was cut off as he ducked a hail of bullets. He returned fire and was pleased to hear a cry of pain. Xin Di had thrown her weight behind the heavy door and managed to slam it. Zizhen pushed the bolt home.

He and Xin Di looked at each other. If Charlie hadn't heard, they were trapped and it was only a matter of time before the traffickers got in.
_____

In the van, Charlie heard their signal begin to cut in and out.

"There - way. -arlie,  listening?" There was a screech of static.  " -room." More static then "kids"

"Where are they in the building. Find them!" Charlie snapped. "They're breaking up. What's wrong with the signal?"

"I don't know. It was fine until a minute ago. Maybe some kind of interference from the building?" The tech was frantically trying to fine tune the signal.

Suddenly, there was a slightly clearer signal from Zizhen.

"Shit, we have bugs, Charlie. And they are singing BTS. I repeat we have bu-" His words were cut off by what could only be gun fire.

"I have no signal. I can't locate them anymore. They were in this corridor heading in this direction and then nothing!" the tech was telling her.

"Shit! Go! GO! GO! Officers under fire!" Charlie was yelling into her headset to the back up as she jumped from the van. Pulling her gun, she ran for the building.
~♡~♡~♡~

Sorry I'm late! 😁 Hope it was worth the wait after the accidental update PrivateCitizen 😁😁😁

I've discovered I'm not getting all of the comment notifications so if I have missed a comment you made, my apologies. I try to answer all of them!

Hope all of you had a great day!

Smiles, Chocolate and World Peace!
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