Zhou Xingzhe tossed his hair and rose from the sofa. A warm smile graced his cool, low-profile Ekin Cheng face, and he joined his two minions.
"President Bai, Sister Hong."
The tall, bald man known as President Bai enthusiastically shook hands and hugged him. Zhou Xingzhe whispered, "Have you brought everything?"
He nodded to the woman known as Sister Hong, then pulled out his phone and tapped it. "Yin Tian is on his way. He'll be here in half an hour at most. Let's go in for a drink?"
He glanced at the black-suited bodyguards behind Sister Hong. Seeing them each pulling a trolley case, his smile grew even warmer.
Hearing the keyword "Yin Tian," Jack knew the other side was likely out of luck. Watching the crowd swarm into the VIP room, he quickly pulled out his phone and called Ma Xidao.
The phone rang for a long time, but the other party didn't answer. He presumably had already followed Xiao Pang into the nightclub.
Looking down at Park Min-young, who had collapsed into his arms and begun to talk drunkenly, Jack rubbed his brow with a headache and decided to wait and see what would happen.
"This is a limited edition 25-year-old Yamazaki, celebrating our first successful transaction," Zhou Xingzhe excitedly pulled out a bottle of whiskey and was about to open it.
Meanwhile, Jack, eavesdropping from outside through headphones, glanced at the drink menu. This drink appeared to be one of the bar's most expensive, priced at 16 million Korean won, or $12,000 in US dollars.
It was obvious what kind of deal, and how large the transaction, warranted such an expensive celebration. Jack was actually curious because Zhou Xingzhe addressed the other party, "President Bai" and "Sister Hong," in slightly off-key Chinese.
Sure enough, from the subsequent casual conversation, it became clear that President Bai and Sister Hong were both Taiwanese, or more precisely, Taiwanese gang members, and that their meeting was intended to conduct a drug deal.
Hearing this, Jack's curiosity intensified. Why didn't the Taiwanese mafia go directly to Japan to negotiate with the "Ichijo-gumi" boss, but instead came to Korea to deal with their underlings? Could the price be even cheaper if they had more than one?
Confused by this, Jack continued to monitor the conversation in the private room. As time ticked by, forty minutes passed, and Hikita, whom Zhou Xingzhe had said was on his way, still hadn't appeared.
The two Taiwanese who were preparing to trade with them began to grow impatient, their words tinged with threats.
Meanwhile, outside the private room, Jack, holding the nearly unconscious Park Min-young, mentally devised one plan after another, only to reject each one.
From the current situation, it seemed he had stumbled upon Zhou Xingzhe, Hikita, and the Taiwanese mafia's drug deal. Zhou Xingzhe and the bald-headed Chairman Bai were the middlemen, with Hikita providing "HYPER" as the seller and Sister Hong as the buyer.
If things went smoothly, the rest of the story would be incredibly simple. Whether Jack charged in directly or summoned Ma Xidao and his men, he could capture both parties involved in the transaction and seize them red-handed.
That way, neither the "One Line" nor the undercover cop, Zhou Xingzhe, would escape, and he could even fortuitously apprehend a Taiwanese drug trafficking gang.
However, this approach was crude. After all, the Wolf brothers were still adrift at sea, and his crappy system didn't even offer storage space or anything like that.
Anyone with experience in large-scale transactions knows that cash is bulky and heavy, making it incredibly inconvenient.
The suitcases the bodyguards were pulling should contain the cash for this transaction. Jack suspected it was likely US dollars. After all, while the highest denomination of the Korean won was 50,000, 50,000 won was only worth 36 US dollars.
Converted to US dollars, even if the four suitcases weren't completely full, there would likely be 20 to 30 million, which would be more consistent with the standard for this type of illegal transaction.
The problem was that in such public view, Jack had no place to hide even one suitcase, let alone four.
So sometimes, gangs robbing gangs is also a technical job. The front-line police officers who are fighting for their lives just need to devote themselves to the investigation and fight against drug dealers, but those who want to try some tricks in the rear need to consider a lot of things.
Fortunately, a call from the long-absent Hikari to Zhou Xingzhe brought the mood in the box to a sudden turn for the worse, freeing Jack from the need to rack his brains for a scheme to rip him off.
Inside the slightly tense VIP room, Zhou Xingzhe answered the phone with a slightly jarring tone, "Hello, where are you? Isn't it a bit too late for something like this?"
Hikari's voice on the other end could only be described as panicked. "There's a big problem. One of my underlings told President Ichijo about us secretly moving the goods and reselling them."
"So?" Zhou Xingzhe tried to maintain his composure, forcing himself to look at the ceiling to avoid the two Taiwanese gang members across the way.
"President Ichijo has sent assassins. They're already here. Those reckless guys are serious. We're in serious trouble now. I can only hide and observe the situation.
Let's cancel the deal for now. I'll take the stuff. It's to save my life. Don't worry about the money now; our lives are about to be lost." Hikari hung up without waiting for a response.
"Okay, I get it," Zhou Xingzhe replied pretentiously, putting away his phone and trying to appear nonchalant.
"Something doesn't seem right," Sister Hong, who sat across from him, said expressionlessly.
Zhou Xingzhe forced a smile. "It's not a big deal. Give me two more days."
The air in the private room seemed to freeze in an instant, Zhou Xingzhe's smile gradually faltering, while the expressions of the two Benevolents instantly turned cold.
Bald-headed Chairman Bai stared at Sister Hong without blinking, as if at her command, he would lead his black-suited bodyguards to pounce and tear her apart.
After an unknown amount of time, the wrinkles on the side of Sister Hong's nose twitched slightly, and then she slowly said, "Okay, two days then. If I still don't see the goods by then, I won't be so easy."
Before Zhou Xingzhe and his two minions could breathe a sigh of relief, Bald-headed Chairman Bai picked up the less than half-empty bottle of Yamazaki 25-year-old on the table and began pouring it into the glass in front of him.
The glass was quickly filled, but the bald-headed Chairman Bai didn't stop. The amber liquor quickly overflowed the glass and flowed all over the table.
"We don't give a damn if you're some lousy police officer."
With a clang, the empty bottle was placed heavily on the table. The bald-headed Chairman Bai stared at Zhou Xingzhe with a malicious grin.
Gritting his teeth, he picked up the glass from the table. Zhou Xingzhe raised his head and drank the "toast" in one gulp. His face was ashen as he stood up and left.
"Well, here's the situation. Zhou Xingzhe conspired with Yin Tian to obtain a batch of goods and planned to sell them privately to Wan Wan. Now that the matter has been exposed, Yin Tian may be hunted by assassins from Japan. The deal has temporarily failed, but the goods are still in Yin Tian's hands.
I suspect this batch of goods is the 30 kilograms of 'HYPER' that Zhou Xingzhe stole back earlier. If so, he has a good reason to disguise himself and attack his fellow police officers.
I'll continue to keep an eye on Zhou Xingzhe here. How are you doing?" Jack carried the drunken Park Min-young into the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt while calling Ma Xidao.
(End of this chapter)