Episode Summary
San Ma Hu's escape plan fails, forcing him to hide and hunt for a suspected mole within his crew, leading to paranoia and brutal punishment. The police, meanwhile, capture a key subordinate who gives them a lead on the mysterious "Long Xing Tian Xia," but it ends in an explosive dead end. Bing A Dou uses a funeral to escape the village, only to be manipulated by Hua Long with a faked death, a trick the police uncover as they realize they're in a race against an unknown assassin to find the man who supposedly just died.
Spoiler Alert
The Great Escape (That Wasn't)
So, San Ma Hu and his crew try to make a run for it. They've got a secret tunnel leading out to a getaway car. Smart. The police, led by Tu Hongjiang, have the main village exit locked down tight.A car comes barreling toward the checkpoint, and the cops light it up. But it's a total fake-out. Inside are just a couple of low-level guys. The real prize, San Ma Hu, is nowhere to be found. Tu Hongjiang learns from a villager that there's another, much rougher, path leading out of the mountains.
San Ma Hu, who clearly has good instincts, senses something is off in the woods. He makes a quick call. He tells Bing A Dou and Bai Tao Hua to double back and hide in the village.Then he splits up from the rest of his men. It was the right move. The police catch up to one of the smaller groups and a firefight breaks out. A few of San Ma Hu's men go down, and he is forced to find yet another escape route.
The Mole Hunt Begins
Back in the village, the lockdown is causing problems. Villagers are getting angry about not being able to pass the police checkpoints. A deal is made to allow passage with proper ID. This foils Bing A Dou and Bai Tao Hua's plan to just blend in, so they have to retreat. Tu Hongjiang gets a clever idea. He decides to remove a few of the checkpoints. He's hoping the sudden change will make the criminals antsy and force them to show themselves.
Meanwhile, San Ma Hu is holed up in an old air-raid shelter, and he's convinced there's a mole in his organization. His first suspect is Bai Tao Hua, since she's had the most contact with the outside world. Bing A Dou quickly defends her. The suspicion then shifts to Lu Dingzhong. He completely loses it, yelling that he was just playing cards and there were no cops anywhere near him.
To make things even more tense, the Old Chinese Doctor chimes in, saying anyone in the room could be the traitor. This sets Bing A Dou off, who then accuses the doctor of messing with the drug formulas. The doctor is furious, reminding them all that he was forced into this and has only helped them. San Ma Hu steps in to calm everyone down. He declares that he thinks the real mole is a guy they call Glasses, who was recently captured. But to send a message, he orders his men to cut off one of Lu Dingzhong's fingers anyway. Ouch.
Chasing Ghosts and Faking Deaths
On the police side, there's some good news. Zhan Peng is praising Tu Hongjiang for the big bust.The two drug makers they arrested are apparently world-famous wanted criminals.They also have Glasses in custody, but he's not talking. Tu Hongjiang agrees to step in and help with the interrogation.
Whatever Tu Hongjiang does, it works. Glasses starts talking. He claims he isn't the real "Long Xing Tian Xia," a mysterious figure they've been hunting. But he knows a guy who has seen him, a guy who frequents the Xinyuan Billiard Hall. The police set up a sting and grab this contact. They get him to call Long Xing Tian Xia, and they trace the signal to a hideout. But as the police close in, the target makes a run for it, jumps into a nearby house, and the whole place explodes.
At the same time, Bing A Dou uses a village funeral as cover. He disguises himself as a mortuary worker and uses the procession to finally slip out of the city. He then meets with his associate, Hua Long. Hua Long blames Bing A Dou for the death of another man, Mao Zi, and uses it to force a new deal. Bing A Dou, under pressure, has to agree. The twist? Mao Zi is sitting right next to Hua Long, perfectly fine. It was all a setup to get Bing A Dou to call off the hunt for Mao Zi.
The police figure this out pretty quickly. Zhan Peng realizes the body from the explosion wasn't their target. He deduces that someone is trying to kill Mao Zi, and this fake death was meant to throw the killer off the trail. Now, the cops have to find the real Mao Zi before the assassin does.
