Episode Summary
On what should have been his wedding day, Huang Zhongxin discovers his bride, Cheng Nanping, and her colleague Han Xiaojie are missing. They were investigating a human trafficking ring. The initial investigation leads to dead ends with old adversaries, but a hint points towards the emerging Xiang Fu Gang. Meanwhile, Liu Zhendong finds undeveloped film left by Han Xiaojie, revealing photos of the Xiang Fu Gang's warehouse. It's discovered that Cheng Nanping and Han Xiaojie were captured after they infiltrated the warehouse while investigating a lead.
Spoiler Alert
So, it's supposed to be Huang Zhongxin's big day, right? He's all set to pick up his bride, Cheng Nanping, and the whole newspaper crew is ready to celebrate. But then, BAM! Cheng Nanping is nowhere to be found. And get this, Han Xiaojie, her colleague from the reporting team, is also MIA. Alarm bells start ringing in Huang Zhongxin's head because these two have been digging into a string of missing person cases lately. This isn't just cold feet; something's seriously wrong. He immediately rallies the troops to start searching. Even Cheng Hui, seeing the grim faces all around, starts to get that sinking feeling that this is bad, real bad. Liu Zhendong, ever the charmer, just shoots Cheng Hui a cold look and walks off without a word. Classic Liu Zhendong.
Turns out, the case Cheng Nanping was investigating before she vanished involved a whole lot of human trafficking. When Cheng Hui hears this, he's understandably upset, probably thinking she shouldn't have waded into such dangerous waters. Huang Zhongxin, wasting no time, takes his guys straight to Shanding Zai's turf, grilling the boss there about Cheng Nanping's disappearance. The guy doesn't deny he despises Cheng Hui and even admits he thought about going after Cheng Nanping. However, Yue Kuan, who seems to have a good read on people, believes he's telling the truth this time – he's not involved in this particular mess.
Huang Zhongxin reports back to Cheng Hui, who then tracks down an old-timer, a dude who was involved in human trafficking some thirty years ago. Cheng Hui had actually exposed this guy back in the day and rescued the trafficked women; the guy even stabbed himself to get away. He swears he's been clean for years and drops a hint that this new trouble might be linked to an up-and-coming group called the Xiang Fu Gang. Apparently, these guys started small a few years back but really blew up about three years ago.
So, Huang Zhongxin leads a raid on the Xiang Fu Gang's known hideout, but it's a ghost town. Hei Hu figures they're probably out on a "delivery run," which is why no one's home. Cheng Hui was about to ask Zheng Qiu for help, but James, always a step ahead (or just quicker on the draw), has already mobilized the police force for a search.
Meanwhile, Liu Zhendong, doing his own detective work, sneaks into the newspaper office. He rifles through Han Xiaojie's desk and quizzes the boss about his recent activities. The boss remembers Han Xiaojie rushing back to the darkroom the previous night to develop some photos, saying he needed to report to Cheng Nanping today.
Bingo! Liu Zhendong gets his people to search the darkroom and they find a roll of film Han Xiaojie left behind. They get it developed ASAP. The photos reveal a remote warehouse, which they quickly identify as the Xiang Fu Gang's new hiding spot. It all clicks into place: three days ago, while tracking the missing persons case, Cheng Nanping and Han Xiaojie actually witnessed a kidnapping in progress. They followed the trail to this warehouse out in the suburbs. Han Xiaojie had tried to convince Cheng Nanping to focus on her wedding, you know, the minor detail of her impending nuptials, but she was determined to see the investigation through. The two of them snuck into the warehouse and, well, you can guess the rest – they got trapped.
