Unparalleled medical and martial arts skills, saving the CEO's fiancée at the start.

In the latter half of that night, Ye Chen and the Ghost Servant scanned three locations in one go, following the list that Manager Qiu had provided.

The first location was hidden in a pigeon shop on a back street of the flower and bird market in the south of the city. During the day, the shop sold ornamental pigeons and birdcages, but at night it only opened a small storefront, frequented by people who didn't actually carry birdcages. When Ye Chen led his men inside, the shop owner was stuffing a finely rolled-up piece of paper into the leg tubes of a pigeon. Seeing them burst in, he scattered the pigeons, trying to escape through the back door in the chaos. The ghost servant smashed the back window with an iron ruler, intercepting the fluttering pigeon. Ye Chen grabbed the shop owner by the back of the neck with one hand and slammed him against the counter like a live eel. The pigeon cooed, and the paper roll fell out. Unfolding it, they found a string of symbols that only the Blackwater Undercover agents could decipher.

The second location was the secondhand market in the west of the city. It was an open-air warehouse piled high with old appliances and scrapped motorcycles. It looked dilapidated, but the inside was spotless. A whiteboard hung on the wall, listing the names and positions of several core management members of the Jiang Group. Some names had an "X" next to them, while others had a question mark. Ye Chen took the whiteboard down and had the two people inside tied up, then handed them over to Song Tiezhu's men to be taken back. Ayiguli was in charge of leading the charge. She scaled the wall with lightning speed, like a piece of black paper stuck to the top. By the time the people inside heard the whistling sound, the tip of a knife was already pressed against the lower back of one of them.

The third location was a fishing tackle shop by the river. This shop was not far downstream from the Jiang Group, separated from Zhang Da's warehouse only by a dirt road. Ye Chen initially couldn't understand why the Blackwater people would set up a location so close to him. Later, he realized that behind the fishing tackle shop was a small dock with a wide expanse of water, making entry and exit easy—a back waterway for Wen Jiuhong's escape. Ye Chen found a cell phone in the shop that had been soaked and then dried; it wouldn't turn on, but a tiny memory card was tucked inside. Han Song took the card back to the company to restore it. It contained several recorded calls, one of which was very short, but Wen Jiuhong's voice was clearly audible: "Tomorrow night at midnight, North Beach of Jiangxin Island. Bring your things. If you've crossed the river, bring them on the boat as well."

Ye Chen stared at the address, his eyes dark and brooding. North Beach of Jiangxin Island, another Jiangxin Island. Ji Changming's gang had been stationed there before, but they were wiped out. Now Wen Jiuhong had set the meeting point there again. Either there were still some old hideouts there that hadn't been completely wiped out, or Wen Jiuhong was deliberately trying to lure them to the island. But in any case, this information couldn't be ignored.

"Are we going or not?" Song Tiezhu asked. He had just finished sweeping up a few spots with his men, and his clothes were still covered in dust from the docks and the secondhand market. His face was black and red from the night wind, like a piece of coal that had been burning all night.

Ye Chen didn't answer immediately, turning to Han Song and asking, "When was the recording on the memory card?" Han Song replied, "The most recent one was at 11 PM last night, less than two hours before we removed the nails. That means they were still moving last night and didn't notice us." Ye Chen nodded, took out his phone to check the time, and then looked at everyone in the room. Ghost Servant was leaning against the door, wiping his iron ruler. Ayiguli was oiling her knife. Jiang Ruoxi had also arrived and was calling Zhang Da's caregiver on her phone. Sensing Ye Chen watching her, she hung up and walked over, whispering, "If you're going, take me with you. This time, I can't stay behind and wait."

Ye Chen reached out and smoothed her wind-blown hair. "This time it's not the dock, nor the warehouse, but an island in the middle of the river surrounded by water. If they've set up an ambush on the island, the situation will be even more unpredictable. You..." Jiang Ruoxi interrupted him before he could finish, "That's precisely why I'm going with you. You promised me you wouldn't hide anything from me. If you're going, I'll go." Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a nail, firmly planted.

Ye Chen looked at her for a long time before finally nodding: "Okay, but you have to wear soft armor, carry a communicator, and be in a group with Guli. You are not allowed to leave my sight for more than ten steps." Jiang Ruoxi then smiled slightly, a very faint smile, but her eyes seemed to light up.

Everyone immediately prepared. Song Tiezhu brought in a small diesel-powered boat and arranged for two inflatable rafts to circle the east and south sides of the island. Han Song and Guipu first went to the area near the north beach to scout the water depth and escape route. Ye Chen, along with Jiang Ruoxi and Ayiguli, approached from the south in a small boat. The night was deep and thick, and a thick fog rose on the river, reducing visibility to less than five or six zhang (approximately 10-15 meters). Halfway across the river, Ye Chen suddenly raised his hand to turn off the engine. Silence fell, broken only by the soft sound of water lapping against the hull. He listened for a moment with his eyes closed, then whispered, "There are voices on the north side of the island, not many, four or five. There's a boat with wooden oars, rowing unsteadily, like they're waiting for someone."

He opened his eyes and met Jiang Ruoxi's gaze. Jiang Ruoxi nodded, took out the short knife she carried for self-defense from her waist, and held it in her hand. Ayiguli was already crouching at the bow of the boat, like a black cat ready to pounce at any moment. The small boat slowly moved towards the north of the island, like a shadow pushed along by the mist.

As they approached the shallows, a tiny red flame suddenly appeared on the island, like someone striking a match. The light flickered three times before going out. Immediately afterward, a long, drawn-out bird call echoed across the river, two short calls followed by one long one, reverberating through the mist. Ye Chen lowered his voice: "The signal. They've made contact." He told Song Tiezhu to stop the boat, while he and Ayiguli quietly waded into the water, wading through waist-deep reeds to reach the shallows. Jiang Ruoxi remained on the boat, protected by two veteran soldiers, her communicator on an encrypted channel.

Ye Chen and Ayiguli, like two shadows emerging from the water, silently crept onto the shallows. Through the mist and swaying reeds, they saw five or six people standing by the water's edge. One of them wore a dark cloak, was shorter than the others, and spoke in a high-pitched, thin voice. The others were carrying two wooden crates onto a flat-bottomed boat, their movements extremely fast, as if they were in a hurry. Ye Chen's gaze swept across the faces of those people, but he didn't see Wen Jiuhong, and his heart tightened even more.

"Grab the people first, forget about the boxes," Ye Chen whispered to Ayiguli. Ayiguli nodded and slid out. Ye Chen followed immediately, his sword still drawn, striking with only the scabbard. Chaos erupted on the shallows; some screamed, some tried to jump into the water, and some drew their short knives to fight back. Ye Chen's scabbard flashed, taking down two men, then caught up with another who had already jumped into the water, pulled him out of the shallows, and threw him onto the shore. Ayiguli pinned down the short man and cut the sash of his cloak at the shoulder. The man's face was dark and thin, like that of a teenager, with a thin copper whistle between his teeth.

Ye Chen knelt down in front of him and removed the whistle from his mouth. The man was panting heavily, like a wildcat that had been caught. Ye Chen asked, "Who are you picking up the ship for? Where are the goods being delivered?" The man gritted his teeth and remained silent. Ye Chen reached out and pressed on the back of his neck, and the man gasped in pain as if his spine had been pulled out. Finally, he managed to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth: "Wen Jiuhong... He told us to deliver the boxes to the provincial capital. The person who will pick them up is at the highway exit. I don't know anything else. I'm just a messenger."

Ye Chen stood up and looked at the two wooden crates. The lids were half-open, and inside were not money or goods, but stacks of old documents neatly wrapped in oil paper. Ye Chen picked up the top bundle, tore open a corner, and examined it in the dim light, his eyes slowly turning cold. The documents contained all the internal data of the Jiang Group from the time of Jiang Yuanshan to the present. There were information on the shareholding structure, warehouse distribution, the home addresses of management personnel, and even photos of Jiang Ruoxi from childhood to adulthood.

Ye Chen put the documents back in the box, closed it, and said in a deep voice, "Take them all. This is their 'backup plan' to deal with us. Don't leave a single page behind." After he finished speaking, he turned and walked towards Jiang Ruoxi. The fog was still there, but a very faint light was already showing through the sky. Another new night was about to pass. And Wen Jiuhong's net was being cut line by line by them.