Episode Summary
In this episode, the Anti-trafficking Office solves a year-old abduction case by leveraging a suspect's trafficked wife, leading to the joyful reunion of a boy with his parents. Simultaneously, the hunt for the ringleader Qingpi intensifies. An undercover operation and a series of raids lead the team to Qingpi's hideout, where they rescue the critically injured Zheng Weiwei from a freezer, ending the episode on a grim and suspenseful note.
Spoiler Alert
The episode kicks off with a heartwarming, yet tense, side story. Chang Rui takes Qiu Luoluo, a girl from the welfare home, for a day out at an amusement park. When he steps away to use the restroom, he tells her to wait for him. However, Luoluo spots a man abducting a little boy named Dongdong and, without a second thought, she abandons her ice cream to give chase.
When Chang Rui returns, he finds Luoluo gone and sees Dongdong's mother frantically crying for help. Luoluo manages to alert security at the park's exit, successfully stopping the man. The situation resolves when Dongdong's mother arrives and identifies the man as her ex-husband and the boy's father. A security guard mistakes Chang Rui and Luoluo for a father-daughter pair. Chang Rui, not wanting to overcomplicate things, plays along. This brings immense joy to Luoluo, who later excitedly tells her friends at the welfare home that she finally has a dad.
Meanwhile, the main investigation heats up. Deng Yan suspects that a man named Han Yougang is a subordinate of the elusive "Auntie Hong." She and Chang Rui track him down to a roadside restaurant. Han Yougang overhears them asking about him, panics, and makes a run for it. After a brief chase, they capture and interrogate him. He denies everything until he learns that another suspect, Meng Gui, has been arrested. The news rattles him, and he confesses to trafficking two children but insists he has no connection to Auntie Hong.
The team discovers that Meng Gui's travel records match the locations of two child abductions and also show a stop in Wattai Village, a place with no recent reports of missing children. Deng Yan recalls a year-old assistance request from that village and decides to investigate the cold case. In Wattai Village, they meet Zhang Xuegui and Cao Guihua, whose son vanished a year prior. A neighbor identifies Meng Gui as a man who had been in the village, ostensibly selling smuggled cigarettes, while suspiciously observing the couple's son.
The investigation reveals that Meng Gui had followed the family, stalked their hardware store, and used an electric scooter—the same type used in the abduction—to get away after dropping his car at a repair shop. The real breakthrough comes when Deng Yan learns from the local police chief about a rescued trafficking victim, Liu Shumei, who turns out to be Meng Gui's wife.
Armed with this new leverage, Deng Yan and Chang Rui confront Meng Gui again. They tell him that his own wife was re-trafficked and brutally beaten. This news shatters Meng Gui, and he confesses to all his crimes. His confession leads the police directly to the abducted boy, Zhang Hao, who is safely reunited with his family. The team's hard work pays off, saving a family on the brink of collapse. As a reward for their efforts, the Anti-trafficking Office is recommended for a collective second-class merit award, boosting morale.
The focus then shifts to another target: Qingpi. Chang Rui learns that Qingpi runs a large prostitution ring. He goes undercover to one of Qingpi's dens, pretending to be a client. There, he meets a girl named Pingjiao, who admits she was trafficked. She identifies another victim, Zheng Weiwei, as being held by the same gang.
While this is happening, a brutal thug named Mo-ge attempts to assault Zheng Weiwei. She fights back fiercely, biting him in the process. Deng Yan organizes a raid on the den and rescues several girls, but Zheng Weiwei is not among them. A captured trafficker reveals that Mo-ge took her. After a false lead, another trafficker under pressure gives up Qingpi's true hideout.
The situation escalates when Mo-ge viciously beats Zheng Weiwei. Qingpi intervenes, not out of mercy, but because Zheng Weiwei is "new merchandise" intended for a specific client. Before the transaction can happen, Deng Yan's team raids Qingpi's residence. He has already escaped, but the team makes a horrifying discovery: they find Zheng Weiwei, beaten and barely alive, hidden inside a freezer. They rush her to the hospital, where her parents arrive to the devastating news that their daughter is in critical condition.
