Episode Summary
The police successfully track and arrest the notorious child trafficker known as Auntie Hong, whose real name is Hong Jinfeng. Initially, she denies all charges, and the police lack sufficient evidence for a conviction. However, a psychological confrontation about her painful family past and a subsequent search of her old home uncover a trove of gold jewelry and 43 pieces of children's clothing, providing the critical evidence needed to link her to dozens of unsolved abduction cases.
Spoiler Alert
The episode opens at the Reunion Diner, where Lin Hao and Cai Xin have brought Little Potato to a gathering. It's a bittersweet scene as Auntie Zhang, Meilian, and Luo Xiaoxing, all parents of missing children, dote on the child. Cai Xin offers words of encouragement, assuring them the Anti-trafficking Office is working hard to find their children. The group is joined by Pingjiao and Zheng Weiwei, and Pingjiao bravely shares her own story of being trafficked. The moment is briefly disrupted when a confused Auntie Zhang mistakes Pingjiao for someone named Lin Ranran, but Zheng Weiwei smoothly diverts the conversation.
Meanwhile, Sun Wenhan is lost in a painful memory. Twenty years ago, he and his wife were looking for a nanny for their son, Xiaoguang. Outside a housekeeping agency, they met a friendly older woman who introduced herself as Auntie Hong. They hired her, never suspecting she was a human trafficker who would soon disappear with their son.
The police investigation intensifies as Chang Rui and Yan Lei interrogate a suspect named Huang Chuan about Auntie Hong. While he doesn't know her real name, he provides a detailed description, allowing Yang Jiaja's team to create a composite sketch that he confirms is a perfect likeness. Huang Chuan also provides crucial details about her habits: she celebrates a successful crime with a meal of braised pork and buys gold and silver jewelry that she never wears. Deng Yan recalls that Sun Wenhan had previously mentioned Auntie Hong's fondness for the Linshan area.
This lead proves fruitful. Yang Jiajia scours surveillance footage from gold shops in Linshan and finds a woman matching the sketch who recently purchased over 30,000 yuan in gold. Chang Rui spots a clue in her hand: a shopping bag from the "Liandu Mountain Supermarket," narrowing the search to the vicinity of the gold shop and supermarket.
Deng Yan and Ai Xin begin canvassing the area. Deducing that a woman like Auntie Hong would use her ill-gotten gains to live comfortably, Deng Yan focuses the search on high-end residential communities. Their hunch pays off when they find a client at a local beauty salon named Hong Yawen who is a dead ringer for the suspect. After confirming her identity, they arrest her on the spot.
During interrogation, the woman, whose real name is Hong Jinfeng, denies everything. She only admits to knowing Huang Chuan after being shown his photo, claiming he was abusive. Yan Lei confronts her, accusing her of masterminding the trafficking operations and taking all the profits, but she shifts all the blame to Huang Chuan.
Background checks by Ai Xin reveal Hong Jinfeng's tragic past. She left home as a teenager and never returned. Her parents, who have since passed away, heavily favored her two brothers. When Ai Xin and Yang Jiajia visit her old family home, they find a family photo that notably does not include her, a clue Ai Xin believes was left intentionally. Deng Yan uses this photo during the next interrogation, suggesting that Hong Jinfeng's deep-seated resentment over her parents' sexism fueled a desire for revenge against the children she abducted. While the accusation clearly hits a nerve, Hong Jinfeng refuses to confess.
Though both Sun Wenhan and Huang Chuan have identified her, the police lack the hard evidence needed for a conviction. Deng Yan sends Ai Xin and Yan Lei back to Hong Jinfeng's old home for one last search. Inside a wardrobe, Ai Xin discovers a hidden cache of gold and silver jewelry and, more importantly, 43 sets of children's clothing. As Deng Yan and Yin Jiansheng begin the painstaking process of matching the clothes to cold cases, another criminal, Liu Gang, panics upon hearing of the arrests and plots to traffic his current victims overseas.
