Courtyard House: I, the eldest son of the Jia family, have returned from the battlefield.

Yan Bugui felt as if his throat had been suddenly grabbed; his mouth was open, but he couldn't utter a single word of his subsequent insults.

He stood blankly beside the few rows of vegetables, the setting sun casting a long, lost shadow over him.

He never imagined that his carefully crafted philosophy of survival would one day be like a boomerang, piercing his heart with such precision and chilling coldness.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment, with only the chirping of sparrows returning to their nests under the eaves.

As dusk settled, Jia Dongming rode his bicycle into the alley.

Yan Bugui, who usually leaned against the front gate, was nowhere to be seen, and the porch was empty. A sense of surprise crossed his mind.

After passing through the moon gate, the courtyard was quiet, but Master Lei was standing under the eaves of his house, as if he had been waiting for some time.

Jia Dongming parked his car and went up to ask, "Master Lei, did you wait for me all this way?"

Master Lei turned around, a smile spreading across his face: "The Dong family is back."

The house is all tidied up. Would you like to come in and take a look? If there's anything you're not satisfied with, we'll fix it.

Jia Dongming followed him across the threshold.

The windows and tables inside the house were spotless, and the paint on the beams and pillars was warm and lustrous, with no trace of the old, mottled marks of the past.

He looked around and nodded in approval, saying, "It's truly a complete transformation."

Your skills are impeccable.

Master Lei rubbed his hands together, a hint of pride in his eyes: "To be honest, there are only a handful of teams in Beijing that can clean up this old material so well."

"Alright, I'll move in right away."

As Jia Dongming spoke, he took out three stacks of bills from his bag and handed them over, "Please keep these three hundred for now. We'll settle the rest once the other rooms in the villa are all repaired."

Master Lei carefully checked the receipt, issued it, exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then took his leave.

Jia Dongming pushed the cart to the other courtyard, where his mother, Jia Zhangshi, was sitting doing needlework. Seeing him return, she quickly got up to greet him: "Did you get the deed for the house near the Drum Tower?"

"All done."

Jia Dongming pulled out the thin piece of paper from his bag. "The shop has been rented out through the neighborhood committee. The monthly rent is thirty."

The night is getting darker.

At 7:45, two trucks rolled over the gravel in the courtyard of the Dongcheng branch and came to a stop.

Fifty fully armed security personnel filed down the stairs.

Jia Dongming spotted Zhang Huanchun waiting under the lamplight and quickly stepped forward: "Chief Zhang, everyone's here."

How should we set it up?

Zhang Huanchun had already planned ahead, and spoke calmly: "Divide into four teams, with sixteen people in each team."

Our anti-espionage team sent 28 people, splitting them into four groups to join the operation.

I'll arrest Xiao Quanjun, you take care of Ye Quanwang; Liu Ming will keep an eye on You Wan'an, and Li Aijun will deal with Miao.

The specific route will be explained in detail on the bus.

Jia Dongming nodded: "I'll do as you say."

Four trucks quietly drove out of the compound and disappeared into the darkness of the alley.

Around 9 a.m., two cars stopped at the entrance of Sesame Alley.

Jia Dongming jumped out of the car, then suddenly remembered something and said to Zhang Huanchun in a low voice, "That Xiao Quanjun, when I handed him a cigarette, I noticed his hands—the area between his thumb and index finger was covered in calluses, he must have been handling guns all the time."

Be careful when you take action.

Zhang Huanchun's expression hardened: "You be careful too."

If the enemy resists fiercely, they may be shot dead.

There's no need to be too worried about Ye Quanwang.

Jia Dongming's lips curled up slightly, "I sneaked into his yard earlier and removed the fuse he had buried."

As long as he doesn't go into the cellar, he won't cause any trouble.

After saying that, he waved his hand behind him, and twenty armed figures followed him silently into the depths of the alley, surrounding the dark gate of the Ye family's courtyard.

Using his eagle eye, Jia Dongming scanned the two courtyards ahead. The courtyard on the left, with its blue bricks and gray tiles, appeared ordinary, while the smaller courtyard on the right seemed more secretive.

Ye Quanwang was not hiding in his place of concealment at this moment. Instead, he was sitting openly in the main room of Mingmian Residence, holding a wine glass in one hand and embracing a voluptuous woman with the other, chatting and drinking with a radiant face.

Seeing this, Jia Dongming's eyes sharpened, and he turned around and whispered to the person behind him, "See? The house on the left is the one Ye Quanwang put up for Ming, and the one on the right is his real home."

We cannot determine his location at the moment, but there is a hidden door between the two courtyards, which is his only way to travel between the two places.

In addition, a cellar was dug under the courtyard on the right, and it was filled with a lot of stuff.

He paused briefly before continuing his instructions: "If he's in the left courtyard during the operation, send a few men to sneak into the right courtyard and seal off the secret passage; if he's in the right courtyard, the first priority is to prevent him from sneaking into the cellar—once he gets his hands on the weapons inside, things will get complicated."

After saying that, he raised his chin at Zhao Jun: "Zhao Jun, you take eight brothers and use these two courtyards as the center. Have two people squat in the shadows in each corner to tighten the circle."

The rest of you, follow me and find out his exact location before we move.

Zhao Jun nodded decisively and waved his hand, leading his men into the night.

Jia Dongming then quietly led the remaining men to approach the courtyard wall.

He ordered two men to form a human ladder to scale the wall and confirm Ye Quanwang's location. He then whispered to Li Bin, a member of the counter-espionage team beside him, "Comrade Li Bin, arrange for one of your comrades to sneak into the neighboring courtyard and ambush on both sides of the secret passage."

When Ye Quanwang tried to escape through the door, they closed the door and beat him.

The rest of you, follow me and press forward from the front.

As everyone was taking their positions as ordered, a sharp gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance.

Jia Dongming's heart sank—the gunshots came from the direction of the scrap metal yard, and Zhang Huanchun's group had probably been exposed.

Almost simultaneously, Ye Quanwang, who was in the main room, changed his expression upon hearing the sound. He pushed away the woman in his arms, lifted the quilt, pulled out two pistols from underneath, and shoved one of them into the woman's hand.

The woman took the gun, cocked it with practiced ease, and asked in a trembling voice, "Brother Wang, if Commander Xiao is exposed, will we still be safe here?"

Ye Quanwang didn't answer. He strode to the door of the main room, peeked out through the crack, and said urgently, "Fangzi, quickly move the table over to block the door! We'll go through the secret passage."

Jia Dongming, who was outside the courtyard gate, saw Ye Quanwang take out guns and distribute them, and then direct the woman to move things to block the gate. He immediately realized that this woman was also an accomplice.

Seeing that they were trying to use the house as a barrier to buy time, Jia Dongming didn't hesitate any longer and shouted to his left and right, "The gunfire has alerted the enemy. You two go next door to support the counter-espionage team. The rest of you—kick down the door with me!"

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, the latch snapped open, and the courtyard gate swung wide open.

Jia Dongming stepped into the courtyard with his gun, only to find that the lights in the main room were out and it was pitch black.

He shouted sternly inside, "Listen up, you inside! You're surrounded! Come out and surrender now, and you might have a chance to live!"

Ye Quanwang had long suspected that the police were suspicious of him. The reason he did not leave Beijing was twofold: first, he believed that the police had not yet obtained conclusive evidence; and second, he still had important matters to attend to.

But to his utter surprise, the police not only uncovered his background, but also set their sights on Xiao Quanjun.

"Bang! Bang bang—!"

In response to Jia Dongming's shout, several bullets were suddenly fired from inside the window.

Ye Quanwang attempted to force the people in the courtyard to retreat with firepower, and then turned around to rush to the neighboring courtyard—where there were prepared explosives, which, if detonated, might provide a way out.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Gunshots rang out like a torrential downpour in the courtyard.

Seeing the bullets sweeping out of the window, Jia Dongming immediately dodged to the wall and fired back in the direction of the window.

The night was torn apart by gunfire, and a manhunt suddenly came to a tense standoff in the small courtyard.

Jia Dongming was the first to pull the trigger, and several security guards in the compound immediately raised their weapons and aimed them at the window where Ye Quanwang was hiding.

Gunfire erupted suddenly, bullets rained down on the window frames and walls, and sawdust and dust flew through the air.

Ye Quanwang was so overwhelmed by the intense firepower that he could barely move and could only curl up and hide behind the wall.

He was breathing heavily when he suddenly turned and rushed to the wooden cabinet in the corner. He yanked open the cabinet door and hissed to Fangzi, who was following closely behind, "Hurry! Go this way, I'll be there soon."

In the neighboring courtyard, the police officers who had been lying in ambush for a long time exchanged glances upon hearing the noise coming from behind the wall and Ye Quanwang's urging.

They held their breath, silently pointing their guns at the exit of the cabinet, waiting for their target to appear.

Fangzi gripped her pistol tightly, quickly bent down and crawled into the cabinet, her figure disappearing into the dark passageway.

But just as her feet touched the ground in the neighboring yard, a rough hand suddenly covered her mouth and nose from the side, while another hand gripped her wrist holding the gun tightly.

Fangzi's eyes widened as she struggled desperately, but she was firmly restrained by the two police officers and could not make a sound.

Ye Quanwang heard a brief rustling sound followed by silence, assuming that Fangzi had arrived safely.

A sinister sneer flashed across his face as he recalled the explosives he had planted in the yard, and a ruthless urge to perish together with his enemies surged within him.

He fired two more shots haphazardly towards the window, hissing, "Trying to catch me? Then we'll all go to hell together!"

Before the cursing had even finished, he had already ducked into the cabinet, closed the door behind him, and crawled towards the neighboring yard.

"Don't move!"

The moment his head poked out of the passage, the cold muzzle of a gun was pressed against his temple.

A deep and authoritative warning exploded in my ears.

Ye Quanwang froze, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

Only at this moment did he realize with a start that this supposedly secret escape route had already been figured out by the other side and had become a trap to lure him in.

Jia Dongming stood outside the main room, his gaze piercing through the courtyard wall like a hawk, taking in everything next door.

He suddenly raised his foot and kicked it several times, and the dilapidated wooden door opened with a thud.

He turned to his team members behind him and gave a brief order: "Search this yard thoroughly."

Before he finished speaking, he had already strode over to the next room.

As Jia Dongming passed through the courtyard gate, he saw Ye Quanwang, who was tightly bound and slumped on the ground.

He slowly holstered his sidearm, walked up to Ye Quanwang, and looked down at the other man's face, which was filled with resentment and astonishment, a faint sneer appearing on his lips.

"Ye Quanwang,"

He spoke, his voice steady yet carrying an all-knowing understanding, "If I'm not mistaken, you're planning to hide in the secret room, then detonate the explosives planted in the yard, taking us down with you, right?"

Ye Quanwang suddenly looked up, his pupils contracting sharply.

Jia Dongming's words were like a steel needle, precisely piercing through his last reliance.

He opened his mouth, his voice dry and hoarse with extreme shock: "You...who are you? How did you know about explosives...and my plan?"

Not only him, but also the police officers and security guards who participated in the arrest all showed expressions of disbelief.

Jia Dongming, unhurried and calm, met Ye Quanwang's horrified gaze and slowly said, "There is an old Chinese saying: 'If you don't want others to know, then don't do it in the first place.'"

Every step you take is actually in our sight.

You tamper with the keys to check for intruders; you know you're being watched, yet you still come and go as if nothing's wrong every day... Caution is a good thing, but unfortunately, this caution makes you too arrogant.

You think you can escape unscathed by playing a trick of "blindly hiding in the dark"? You might actually cause us significant losses.

He paused, his tone becoming more stern: "Unfortunately, you calculated everything, but forgot another saying—'The righteous are one foot high, but the evil are ten feet high.'"

Your carefully laid escape plan, which you cherished so dearly, never escaped our grasp from beginning to end.

As he spoke, Jia Dongming seemed to suddenly remember something, reached into his pocket and pulled out a few inconspicuous metal tubes, which he casually tossed onto the muddy ground at Ye Quanwang's feet.

"Oh, I almost forgot,"

He spoke as casually as if he were mentioning something trivial: "This is the fuse for the explosives that was taken from your yard."

Can you check the numbers? Are they correct?

Ye Quanwang stared intently at the fuses on the ground that should have been hidden in the soil, his face draining of all color.

Jia Dongming was right; it was his extreme confidence in the plan that allowed him to stay in Beijing even after being discovered.

Now, that confidence has been shattered completely before his eyes.

Ye Quanwang's breathing suddenly quickened, his gaze fixed on the five charred fuse fragments on the ground. He then abruptly turned to Jia Dongming, his voice rough and grating: "Who...who are you? What happened in the neighbor's yard, and these fuses...when did you do it?"

The surrounding air seemed to have frozen into ice.

Hearing the conversation between the two, everyone was shocked to realize that there were five bombs buried in the courtyard just a few feet away, and cold sweat instantly seeped out from their backs.