The Secret of the Yoga Club: The Women's Identity is Not Simple

I waited for almost another hour.

Around 11:40, the iron gate of the residential building was pushed open again. Tie Tou walked out alone, his gold chain jingling under the streetlights.

He lit a cigarette at the entrance of the building, looked around, and then walked deeper into the alley.

"What about those two henchmen?" Raymond Lam asked in a low voice.

"They should be behind. Iron Head always goes first, then the two henchmen follow a few minutes later. We have two minutes." Kui Zi pulled a baton from his back, the metal gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Let's go."

The two silently crossed the road, following closely behind Tie Tou along the wall.

Tie Tou turned into a narrower alley, with warehouse back walls on both sides. The windows were high, so the light couldn't reach below.

Only Tie Tou's footsteps echoed in the alley, his shadow stretched long by the streetlights.

Kui Zi quickened his pace. His shoes made almost no sound as he walked on the concrete, rapidly approaching Tie Tou's back.

When they were only three or four meters apart, Tie Tou seemed to hear something. Just as he was about to turn around, Kui Zi had already rushed up.

The baton whistled down, striking Iron Head squarely in the right shoulder. Iron Head screamed, his body lurching to the side, his right hand instinctively reaching into his pocket.

Kui Zi didn't give him a chance to react at all. He hit him on the back with the second blow, knocking him against the wall, causing plaster to fall down.

Lin Feng rushed up from the other side, pulled a switchblade from Tie Tou's pocket, and threw it far away.

Then he and Kuizi grabbed Tie Tou's arms on either side and dragged him into the warehouse alley next door.

The alley was so narrow that it was cramped for two people to walk side by side. Above them was a thick exhaust pipe, humming as some kind of machine was running.

Tie Tou was pinned against the wall by Kui Zi, the back of his head hitting the brick wall with a dull thud. Blood trickled from his nose, dripping onto his shirt collar, but he didn't beg for mercy; instead, he glared at the two men through gritted teeth.

"Who the hell are you? Do you know who I am?" Tie Tou's voice was rough and reeked of alcohol.

Kui Zi didn't waste any words.

A punch landed squarely on Tie Tou's ribs, causing him to groan and curl up into a ball. Kui Zi then delivered a second punch, grabbing Tie Tou's hair and pulling his head back so he could look into his eyes.

"Did you hire the person to deliver the goods to Platinum Sea?"

Iron Head's pupils contracted slightly.

The reaction was very quick, less than half a second, but both Kui Zi and Lin Feng saw it.

"I don't know... I don't know any Bai Jinhai."

Kui Zi didn't speak. He pressed Tie Tou's right hand against the wall, then pulled out a baton from his back and used the tip of the baton to press against Tie Tou's little finger.

Then slam it down hard.

Tie Tou's eyes widened suddenly, he sobered up completely, and the pain in his fingers made him grimace.

"I'll ask you one more time. Did you hire the people who delivered the goods to Platinum Sea? Believe me or not, I'll prick all nine of your remaining fingers."

"I...I really don't know...The buyers send their own people to pick up the goods over there...I'm only responsible for handing over the goods...I...I really don't know who the other party is..." Tie Tou's voice began to tremble, and his little finger was pressed so hard that it cracked.

"Who is the buyer? Who gave you permission to send the goods to Platinum Sea?"

After saying that, he was about to smash his second finger.

"I don't know... really... damn! It was someone named Ah Kun! He came to me himself to get it! I really don't know anything else!"

"Who is Ah Kun?"

"A young man... in his early twenties... with a scar on his left arm... seems to be from the east side of the city... that's all I know..." Tie Tou's tears came out, and snot mixed with blood from his nose smeared half of his face.

Kui Zi asked a few more questions, and Tie Tou kept repeating the same thing: he had simply handed the goods over to a young man named A Kun.

He could describe what Ah Kun looked like, but he knew nothing about who was behind Ah Kun or why this batch of goods was being sent to Platinum Sea.

The only clue is that this shipment is quite large and definitely not ordinary loose goods.

Two minutes later, Kui Zi loosened his grip on the iron head.

Tie Tou slumped to the ground like a lump of mud, clutching his smashed finger and panting heavily.

"If you dare to tell anyone about what happened today—" Kuizi squatted down and gently tapped Tie Tou's forehead with his baton.

"I won't say! I won't say! I don't know anything!" Tie Tou waved his hands frantically.

Kui Zi stood up and gave Lin Feng a wink. The two turned and quickly walked out of the alley. After leaving the alley, they circled two streets before finally hailing a taxi.

It was almost 1 a.m. when I got back to Baijinhai. Sister Hong was still waiting in the office. There was another row of empty beer bottles on the windowsill, and the cigarette butts in the ashtray were piled up like a small mountain.

Kui Zi recounted the results of the interrogation of Tie Tou in detail. Hong Jie listened in silence for a long time, leaning back in her chair.

Then she stood up and walked to the French windows, rested her hands on the window frame, and looked out at the dark river.

"Ah Kun. Scar on his left arm. He's from the east side of the city." She repeated those words as if etching them into her mind. Then she turned around. "Kui Zi, whose territory is the east side of the city?"

"Wu San's territory," Kui Zi's voice deepened, "now he's with Zuo Ning."

The office was quiet for a few seconds, broken only by the hum of the air conditioner vents. Brother Biao opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again.

"That's right." Sister Hong's voice suddenly became very calm, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her. "Zuo Ning wants to bring me down this way. If the ecstasy is found in Baijinhai, I will be convicted of drug trafficking. At that time, I will lose not only my business, but also my freedom. This move of his is much more ruthless than directly seizing territory; it's a bloodless killing."

She walked up to Lin Feng, her pale face showing no sign of panic. "The trail with Tie Tou ends here. Ah Kun is just a gofer; Zuo Ning won't contact him directly. There are at least three or four layers of people in between. If we keep chasing them down layer by layer, by the time we reach Zuo Ning, it'll be too late."

"So?" Lin Feng looked at her.

"So we need to change our approach." Sister Hong turned around and walked behind her desk, picking up her phone and scrolling through her contacts. "Let Ye Qinghan handle this. Tie Tou and his cousin's drug smuggling route, plus A Kun as their subordinate—these leads are enough to open a case. Let the police investigate. They have more resources and methods; they can monitor, access communication records, and collaborate across borders. They can investigate much faster than we can."

Lin Feng thought for a moment. "If I tell her directly about Bai Jinhai, she might not be willing to get involved. But if I take a different approach and just say that I discovered clues about drug smuggling channels during the investigation, she might take action."

"Then that's settled." Sister Hong put her phone on the table. "Once this is done, Ye Qinghan will owe you a favor. From now on, your influence in Hehai City will be much greater than it is now."

Lin Feng looked at Sister Hong.

Even in the most critical moment, this woman was still thinking about how to turn bad things into good things, and how to turn the enemy's fists into her own bargaining chips.

He suddenly felt that there was something very familiar about Sister Hong, something very similar to himself. They were both people who grew up in adversity and were used to treating every crisis as an opportunity to turn things around.

"I'll find an opportunity to talk to Ye Qinghan about it later," he said.