As Jiang Zhengkai was giving out orders to all the officers both inside and outside of the drug warehouse, two narcotics officers on loan from a neighboring city arrived at Zhang Nan's office.  With Zhang Nan's a.s.sistance, they threw an envelope containing an ear taken off of one of the cadavers in the police morgue into Sui Zhongyi and Sui Zhongli's lair.

"Ha!  That son of a b.i.t.c.h Tao's got some b.a.l.l.s, that much I'll give him.  It looks like he wants to make a deal with us to return his little sister."  After reading over the letter that came with the ear, Sui Zhongyi looked up from his desk and said to Sui Zhongli, "He even gave us a gift along with the letter!"  He took out the ear from the envelope and gave it a quick look. "Do you think it belonged to Peng or w.a.n.g?" he asked Sui Zhongli, before dropping the ear onto the desk.

Sui Zhongli angrily stood up in front of the desk.  "What, you think they raided our warehouse?"

"Correct," replied Sui Zhongyi.  He handed the letter over. "Look here: that Tao wrote that he's taken control of our warehouse, and all of our drugs are now in his possession."

"Motherf.u.c.ker!  He killed one of our guys and took over our warehouse!  I'm going to kill that b.i.t.c.h right now!" Sui Zhongli roared as he finished reading the letter.

"Don't be so hasty, little brother," said Sui Zhongyi as he gave a slight smile.  "It's just a woman. If Tao wants her back, then we'll just have to oblige him. There's no reason to risk our investment, unless you have something against making money.  Besides, we don't know for sure if he was the one who killed our brothers who went to the alley, so let's not jump to conclusions and do something that ends up getting both our men and Tao's men killed.  The only people laughing at the end of that play would be the cops."

"Then what do you suggest, big brother?" asked Sui Zhongli as he sat indignantly back in his chair.

"Easy!" said Sui Zhongyi as he turned on his computer.  He opened up the security camera app and entered his username and pa.s.sword.  "I knew there was no way Tao and his rabble would know about my cameras!" he said as he looked back over at Sui Zhongli.  "It looks like this ear belonged to w.a.n.g." On his computer screen, Sui Zhongyi saw that Peng and w.a.n.g had been tightly bound and thrown into a corner in the warehouse.

"So what do we do?" Sui Zhongli asked again.

"Don't worry, I know how to deal with them," Sui Zhongyi smilingly replied.  "He said the deal will take place three days from now, didn't he? So let's observe them for three days, find out how many men he has in our warehouse.  Go round up our brothers and ready our weapons! I hear that punk Tao is pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, so I guess we'll just have to bring guns to a knife fight."

"Alright, brother, I'll do what you say!"  Having received his marching orders, Sui Zhongli immediately got up and left the office.  After Sui Zhongli left, Sui Zhongyi picked the ear up off of the table and sniffed it with his nose.  He then threw it into his mouth, and chewed on it a couple of times before swallowing it whole.

*     *     *

Meanwhile, Zhang Nan received instructions from Jiang Zhengkai to find out from Shun and Tie which of their girls knew Tao or members of his gang.  They then sent the two out-of-town narcs undercover as johns, where they purposely fed the prost.i.tutes false intelligence. They told the women that it was Sui Zhongyi who had captured Jiao, and that they were hiding her in an underground warehouse at one of the city's resorts.  They also said that Sui Zhongyi was going to have a big deal going down in the warehouse in three days. Before long, this information had found its way to Tao's ears.

*     *     *

Just like the Sui brothers, as soon as Tao got a hold of this information, he immediately started scouting out the resort as well.  After a complete search of the resort's underground storage s.p.a.ces, he found that there was no way for him to directly enter the underground warehouse.  It only had one door, and there were two security cameras watching the doorway at all times. Therefore, he determined that the best time to attack the warehouse would be when the deal was going down.  Now that he'd learned this much, Tao no longer needed to look for Jiao. Instead, he too gathered his men and a.s.sembled their weapons in preparation for his raid/rescue attempt in three days' time.

"Brother Tao, should we bring Meng along with us in this operation?" Long respectfully asked once everything had been prepared.

"How's his recovery going?"

"He's doing much better," Long replied.  "He's all tripped up, and blames himself for losing Sister Jiao.  Why don't we give him another chance, huh?"

"Nah, let him continue with his recovery at the hospital," Tao shook his head.  "There will be plenty of chances for him to prove himself later." Even though Tao did want Meng to partic.i.p.ate in the raid on the warehouse, he nevertheless had a nagging feeling that not all was as it seemed.  In the event that this raid went wrong, he didn't want Meng to get killed or captured with him. Instead, he wanted someone he could trust and depend on to look after Jiao once he was gone.

*     *     *

For Jiang Zhengkai, who was the first one to complete all preparations for the big showdown, these three days may well have been the longest ones of his life.  Not once during those three days did Jiang Zhengkai leave the warehouse. He knew that within three days, Sui Zhongyi and Tao would both appear at the warehouse, and a bloodbath would necessarily ensue.  However, the only question that concerned him was how to protect Jiao during the coming mayhem. Even though he had taken various precautions, there was simply no way he could guarantee Jiao's safety. In fact, he was only half certain that Jiao would come out of this unscathed.

But Jiang Zhengkai knew that if he didn't do this, didn't take a gamble with Jiao's life, then she really might just disappear off the face of the earth, and he would never see her again.  Jiang Zhengkai had already made up his mind. If Jiao were to be injured during the ensuing battle, then he would be willing to take care of her for the rest of her life. And if she were to die during the operation, then he'd make sure to save one last bullet for himself.

Everything went according to Jiang Zhengkai's plan, as Sui Zhongyi and Sui Zhongli brought several dozen of their men to the warehouse at around dusk on the third day.  Inside one of their vehicles lay Jiao, bound and tied. As Sui Zhongyi's motorcade approached the warehouse's main entrance, the door opened automatically from the inside.  Sui Zhongyi and his men got out of their vehicles and took Jiao with them into the warehouse.

Observing from his hideout far from the warehouse, Tao felt both surprised and uneasy to see Sui Zhongyi bringing in Jiao from the outside.  However, his determination to rescue her trumped any further misgivings he had as to why she was entering at the same time as Sui Zhongyi and not already inside the warehouse.  He saw that the warehouse door didn't close behind Sui Zhongyi, so he took the opportunity and snuck in with his own men. He then quietly ordered them to take up positions all around the warehouse to wait in ambush.

Likewise, Yao Tianyu, who was in command of a sizeable force of police officers and People's Armed Police soldiers, saw both Sui Zhongyi and Tao enter the warehouse one after the other.  He immediately gave the signal to Jiang Zhengkai and the other officers who had taken their positions inside the warehouse. Meanwhile, he ordered the policemen and soldiers on the outside to quietly surround the warehouse.

"Tao!  I brought the person you wanted!" announced Sui Zhongyi.  He and Sui Zhongli walked in front of their men, and right behind them was a tightly bound Jiao.

"Excellent!  Bring her over here," a man wearing a black ski mask ordered Sui Zhongyi.

"Ha, you're funny!" Sui Zhongyi laughed.  "I showed you the girl. Now you show me the goods!"

"Goods?"  The masked man coldly laughed before he made a signal to those behind him.  They immediately brought out two large suitcases crammed full of a white powdery substance.  "Send one of your men over to test it!"

"You, go!"  Once Sui Zhongyi saw that the other side had indeed brought the goods, he gestured for one of his henchmen to go over to the other side and see if it was really heroin.

"It's our heroin alright, Brother Yi," stated the henchman once he had thoroughly tested the substance.

"Good!  Now where are my men?" Sui Zhongyi asked the masked man before him.

"Let the girl go first!" demanded the man in the mask.  "You can take the goods with you today, but I need to hold onto your men for a little while longer as insurance, just in case you guys try anything before we all reach safety."

"Alright, no problem!" Sui Zhongyi agreed.  He ordered the henchman behind him to loosen the rope around Jiao's legs and then pushed her forward.  Meanwhile, the henchman that Sui Zhongyi had sent to test the drugs was already on his way back with one suitcase in each hand.  Just as Jiao and the drug tester were both at the halfway point, a man suddenly leapt out of his hiding spot and rushed towards Jiao.  He knocked her down to the ground and used his body to s.h.i.+eld hers as he blew the drug tester's head wide open with a shot from his pistol.  He then picked Jiao up off of the ground and slipped away towards another hiding area on the other side of the warehouse.

Once this man had finished with his heroics, a hail of bullets started raining down on Sui Zhongyi and his men from all around them.  The slower ones were gunned down without ever having had the chance to fire back.