After Sun Zhidong booked the room, he learned that the woman would arrive in ten minutes. He calculated the time and called the police, then lay on the bed waiting and stayed in contact with Li Xiang outside.
Ten minutes later, he heard movement at the door, someone swiped a card and entered.
Sun Zhidong sat up from the bed immediately, the woman was wearing stockings and light clothing in the dead of winter, her service attitude was undeniable.
"Boss, can I take a shower first?"
To stall for time, Sun Zhidong nodded, fearing the girl would start removing his pants as soon as she came in; if the police arrived then, he wouldn’t have any reasonable explanation.
Seeing the woman enter the bathroom, Sun Zhidong quickly took out his phone to ask Li Xiang if the police had arrived yet.
But there was no reply from Li Xiang.
"No way? Lost contact at a critical moment? Do I have to test the law myself?"
He glanced subconsciously at the bathroom, hearing the sound of running water inside, and swallowed nervously.
This was a real test of patience!
"That damned Li Xiang, can’t even get a reply in this situation!"
-----------------
Downstairs, just after Li Xiang got a handle on the pimp, the police cars arrived at the hotel entrance.
As the police entered the lobby, they saw Li Xiang holding a man, and immediately approached, "What are you two doing?"
"We called the police, this guy is a pimp, dragging my brother into solicitation, we held him down."
"Where’s your brother?"
"Upstairs, room 1502."
The lead officer gave a signal to the others, and a group of officers took the elevator up.
The remaining officers took the pimp from Li Xiang’s hands.
The police knocked on the door of room 1502; Sun Zhidong knew surely the police had arrived, so he prepared to open the door, but someone was faster than him.
He only heard the bathroom door ’click’ open, and the woman dashed out dressed neatly to open the door.
This scene left Sun Zhidong stunned.
How could someone be in more of a hurry than me?
Am I that ugly that you can’t wait to run away?
Sun Zhidong took out his phone as a mirror to look at himself: I’m not ugly!
"What are you doing inside? ID card?"
"Officer, I called the police, she’s soliciting!"
The prostitute was also dumbfounded, is she dealing with a lunatic?
The police took both of them down to the hotel, and then took everyone to the local police station for investigation.
Not far from the hotel, a van was rolling its windows down, watching as two police cars sped away.
In the van, including the driver, there were seven people, among them two looked stout and rugged.
"Brother Long, lucky we didn’t get out of the car earlier, what’s with the sudden police presence?"
The one called Brother Long had a slicked-back hairstyle, wore a thick gold chain around his neck, and even in the cold weather, wore a jacket, looking seriously at the police cars disappearing.
"Could Xu Jing have blown her cover, letting them call the police first? No way, the timing doesn’t match!"
"Could it be for revenge?"
"Are you dumb? If it were revenge, we’d show our faces before they called the police, we’re still sitting here, all he can catch is a solicitation case."
Indeed, this group was part of the pimping operation that Li Xiang had just busted. They were engaged in targeting potential victims in this area.
With Xiao Wu scouting for suitable targets, then Brother Long and his men would storm into the hotel, extorting the involved parties.
To prevent victims from calling the police, they would strip them and threaten them with indecent videos, a tactic that worked well as none had reported them till now.
Who would have thought they’d be caught off guard as the hunters got caught in their own trap today?
"Let’s go to the police station and see who dares to challenge me!"
They weren’t too worried about Xiao Wu slipping up, as long as they weren’t caught, Xiao Wu and the others knew how to handle it.
"Yeah, we’ve always been the ones taking advantage, being tricked is a first, gotta show them a thing or two later on."
The gang was furious, eagerly discussing how to vent their frustration.
Once Li Xiang and his group reached the station, they cooperated with the police for the investigation. The police thanked them for reporting the crime.
Sun Zhidong, eager for commendation, even asked them for a thank-you letter, which he proudly accepted.
This trip to Jinling wasn’t for nothing, receiving a thank-you letter, something he could boast about back home.
Sun Zhidong was a bit smug, and after handling everything, he called Li Xiang to get ready to leave.
"Wait, now that we’re at the station, let’s ask if they can help us check the public surveillance from ten days ago to see which way she went."
"Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?"
"Your mind’s been on the thank-you letter, what else could you think of?"
After hearing Li Xiang’s intention, the police were quite enthusiastic, given they had just helped expose prostitution, cooperation between police and civilians is essential.
After detailed inquiring about Wang Liping’s drop-off time and place, the security officers started looking into it for them.
To find a trace among thousands of public security cameras is very time-consuming.
Li Xiang and crew waited until the evening, and only then found Wang Liping’s figure in the surveillance. As for where she eventually went, further investigation was needed.
"We’re about to finish work; how about you come back tomorrow?"
"Alright, thank you for your help, we’ll come back tomorrow."
After expressing their gratitude, Li Xiang and company exited the police station; by this time, the sky had darkened, and streetlights and car lights were on outside.
With a police car arranged for their arrival, they didn’t have the same luxury on the way back.
The two hailed a cab, planning to head back to retrieve their car, then lodge at the hotel.
Hm, after all, the room was already booked, and Sun Zhidong hadn’t checked out yet.
"Brother Long, they’ve come out."
At this moment, on the road opposite the police station entrance, a van was parked, and seeing Li Xiang and his partner stepping out, Brother Long’s group perked up.
"Damn, these two punks made me wait all afternoon, later I’ll teach them a lesson."
"They’re taking a cab, let’s follow them."
No one had dared set them up before, and the pent-up anger was hard to swallow.
Now, after being stuck in the car all afternoon, their frustration had only grown.
Seeing them get into a taxi, Brother Long quickly ordered his driver to follow, he was seething with rage.
The two vehicles raced off with Li Xiang and his companion in the front car, completely unaware of being followed.
Still discussing arranging another room when they get to the hotel.
Li Xiang didn’t want to share a room with Sun Zhidong, he just felt unclean about it!