Prepared in Advance

Neither admitting nor denying, Jin Shanshan fell silent on the other end of the phone. Hou Rui, having no desire to beat around the bush any longer, took a deep breath and asked directly, "Wife, who are you with?"

"..."

"Is it Zhou Xing?"

"..."

"Didn't I tell you already! Stay away from that guy in the future!" Stifled by Jin Shanshan's silence, Hou Rui's temper gradually flared. His voice began to rise, eventually turning, without his conscious realization, into a tone of interrogation.

To his surprise, Jin Shanshan simply hung up the phone. Just as an infuriated Hou Rui was about to call her back, a picture suddenly popped up on his phone from Jin Shanshan. Hou Rui tapped it open to find a photo taken that very morning of the moment he and Cheng Lin crossed paths in the corridor—somebody had captured the scene and managed to get it straight into Jin Shanshan's hands.

In the photo, Cheng Lin's profile was captured with crystal clarity, and the expression of tears mixed with joy on her face was deeply moving. Yet, when Hou Rui imagined how much grievance and anger Jin Shanshan must feel upon seeing this picture, which looked precisely like lovers reunited after enduring hardships, his heart tightened!

With the evidence right before his eyes, Hou Rui found himself powerless to defend himself. Now he finally understood where Jin Shanshan's hoarse voice had come from!

Instead of calling back, Hou Rui sat motionless inside his car, his mind completely in chaos. He desperately wanted to rush back, comfort Jin Shanshan properly, and explain the matter of the photo. But right now, the Wood Demon was waiting for him at the old zoo; could Hou Rui afford not to go? If he chose to run away, heaven knew what kind of perverted actions that freak of a Wood Demon might resort to—what if he went looking for Jin Shanshan?

The mere thought of it made Hou Rui break into a cold chill. He could only force himself to maintain his composure and send a WeChat voice message to Jin Shanshan: "Wife, you must believe me. There is nothing between Cheng Lin and me. I still have a few things to take care of and will be home a bit late tonight. Wait for me to get home so I can explain everything properly."

After sending the message, Hou Rui started his car and drove toward the outskirts of Beijing. Before meeting the Wood Demon, he felt it was absolutely necessary to arm himself.

At the same time, sitting inside Zhou Xing's car, Jin Shanshan finished listening to the voice message sent by Hou Rui. While she felt a mixture of sorrow and grievance, Zhou Xing, sitting beside her, flashed a subtle, knowing smile. He quickly put on another expression to comfort her, "Xiao Shan, don't be upset. Maybe Xiao Hou and that girl really share nothing between them. I receive dozens of photos like this every day; it's all a matter of perspective and doesn't prove a thing."

"But—" Jin Shanshan, whose intuition told her things weren't that simple, wanted to retort, but she couldn't find a shred of solid evidence to support her own suspicion. Consequently, she got awkwardly stuck, unable to utter another word.

"No more buts. I'll drop you home first, and then you can have a good talk with Xiao Hou and clear things up."

"Go home? I don't even know where he is right now, I am not going home!" Mentioning this brought out Jin Shanshan's stubborn streak. She was extremely angry at Hou Rui's whereabouts being unknown. If a serious misunderstanding had occurred between a couple, shouldn't Hou Rui be the first to come and explain? Yet Hou Rui had the nerve to say he would be coming home late! This simply showed he didn't care about her at all.

"If not home, where shall we go then?" The corners of Zhou Xing's mouth twitched upward once more.

"Wherever!"

"Alright, how about we go to Sanlitun to unwind a bit?" Zhou Xing suggested with utmost caution. Seeing that Jin Shanshan raised no objection, he smiled and nodded toward Xiaobei, who was driving. Looking at Jin Shanshan out of the corner of his eye, he looked precisely like a tarantula watching its prey gradually stumble into its web.

More than an hour later, while Zhou Xing and Jin Shanshan were dancing and drinking at a disco, Hou Rui had already arrived outside a police station located in a rural-urban fringe area of Beijing. Several months prior, Hou Rui had a thoroughly unpleasant experience right here, which was why he specifically chose this place to arm himself.

The control over weapons and firearms on the land Hou Rui currently stood upon was far too stringent. Ordinary people couldn't even dream of owning them, let alone looking at or touching one; only law enforcement agencies like the one before him could provide the items Hou Rui needed tonight.

Having mapped out his plan, Hou Rui checked his phone once more. The screen displayed the time as 8:15 PM. There wasn't much time left before his rendezvous with the Wood Demon, so he decided to take action immediately.

Driving his car slowly along the street, Hou Rui searched for a few minutes before finding an unremarkable telecom shop that lacked security cameras. He parked his car a distance away and strolled back around, all the while carefully dodging the surveillance cameras on the street and storefronts to ensure no machine recorded his presence. When he finally stepped into the communications shop, he bought ten prepaid phone cards and the most basic, old-fashioned feature phone in one breath.

"Hey, buddy, I've got a second-hand iPhone 6 here. Want one? Haven't made a single sale all day today, so if you're interested, I'll give you a good deal," the owner in his thirties said, trying enthusiastically to make a sale to Hou Rui.

"No need, these will do." Keeping his head down, Hou Rui handed a few banknotes to the store owner, picked up the SIM cards and the old phone, and left the shop.

Shortly after, back inside his vehicle, Hou Rui began inserting a brand-new SIM card into the old phone and immediately started dialing numbers.

"Hello! Is this 110? There's a fight breaking out over here, you guys better hurry over. Someone's going to get killed if you don't!"

"110, 110, I'm calling from Jiajia Supermarket at No. 30, Huanan Street. We've caught a thief here, he has a knife and is threatening the cashier!"

"Officer, officer, it's terrible! Old Zhang, my neighbor, just stabbed his wife..."

Within the span of a few short minutes, Hou Rui made multiple false emergency calls. Right after tossing the SIM cards and the old phone down a storm drain, police cars came roaring out of the nearby police station one after another, rushing toward the various fabricated locations.

Watching the road intently from the shadows, Hou Rui's eyes suddenly lit up. He had finally spotted the fat-and-thin police duo. The pair who had once been ordered to give Hou Rui a hard time were the genuine targets of his smoke-screen tactic.

Quickly pressing down on the accelerator, Hou Rui trailed far behind the police car, following the duo into a nearby vegetable market.

While the two officers went inside to investigate the situation, Hou Rui stepped out of his car and waited patiently outside. He took the time to find a thick, heavy wooden club, preparing to have a nice chat with the two officers shortly.

Five minutes later, the fat policeman was the first to emerge, cursing under his breath. "What kind of nonsense is this? The calls transferred from the 110 dispatch center sounded as real as life, but they sent us on a wild goose chase for nothing. It's just a kindergarten in there—who the hell would commit suicide over love?"

"We've definitely got to track down whoever made those prank calls," the tall, thin policeman muttered darkly, following right behind.

"If I ever catch the bastard who phoned in a fake report, I'll cripple him!" Just as the fat officer shouted arrogantly, Hou Rui, dragging the wooden club in one hand, had already closed in swiftly from behind the police car. Just as the two men returned to the vehicle and prepared to get in, he cut them off.

"Officers, long time no see!" Hou Rui greeted them while swinging the club with full force, aiming a vicious blow directly at the back of the fat policeman's neck.

"Who? Ugh—" Before the fat fellow could turn his head around, a heavy strike to his neck sent him tumbling face-first onto the ground.

"Stop right there! Are you assaulting the police?" The thin fellow on the other side of the car shouted while reaching for the holster at his waist. But Hou Rui didn't give him a chance to draw his weapon; he hurled the wooden club directly at him. The aim was deliberately chosen at the thin guy's eye level, serving effectively to block his vision before the club struck squarely across his nose.

As the thin fellow instinctively bent over while clutching his bleeding nose, Hou Rui dashed forward, took a light leap, and slid off the hood of the police car using his momentum, landing neatly on the opposite side. Following up instantly with a high leg drop, he slammed his heel hard against the back of the thin guy's head.

Having neutralized both men within twenty seconds, Hou Rui stood straight, glanced around his surroundings, and then hastily relieved the two fellows of their service pistols and spare ammunition magazines before disappearing into the darkened streets.

At 9:45 PM, Hou Rui drove his vehicle to the gates of the old zoo. Having suffered a bitter lesson at the machinery plant last time, and especially considering he would be facing the Wood Demon tonight, Hou Rui felt immense pressure. Naturally, he refused to repeat the same mistakes. First, he checked the two handguns in his possession, then carefully memorized a floor plan of the old zoo he had pulled off the internet, before finally stepping out of the car and moving quietly into the grounds.

Hou Rui bypassed the main entrance, choosing instead to scale a high perimeter wall. Although this old zoo had been relocated six or seven years ago, the sprawling complex built back then had never been abandoned. Gazing at the sea of dark buildings looming before him under the tall wall, Hou Rui had no idea where the Wood Demon might be hiding. He had no choice but to advance with extreme caution, quickly clearing the high wall to enter the beast enclosure first. Since this area was filled with iron-bar cages and structures, it offered an open line of sight, making it easier to spot danger in advance.

However, after spending over ten minutes searching the entire beast enclosure without finding a single sign of human presence, Hou Rui slowly approached the adjacent amphibian pavilion. Just as he prepared to circle around the outside to bypass the main entrance before sneaking inside, a light suddenly flickered on within the amphibian pavilion.