Episode Summary
The police piece together the trafficking ring's history through hostage interviews. Mai Boyuan is tortured by a victim named Liu Wanyao and confesses to his crimes on video. The police fail to find him, walking into a trap instead. Zhuang Mingcheng continues his mysterious plan in a remote village. The episode ends with Xu Jingzhi arriving home to find something shocking inside his apartment.
Spoiler Alert
The Survivors Speak Up
He Ya isn't wasting time. She presses the other half of the rescued hostages for answers. These girls have sharp memories. They recall the smell of wood. They remember hearing dogs barking and chickens clucking. It points to a village setting. Jiang Yongquan was the one who snatched them.
We get a clearer picture of the trafficking ring through Zhao Xin. She opens up to He Ya. Hou Liangyuan took her when she was just 17. Later, she became a bargaining chip. When Hou and Mai Boyuan expanded their business, they swapped girls like trading cards. Hou actually tried to get her to seduce Mai. Zhao Xin refused to be passed around like an object. She begged Mai to keep her. It wasn't a happy ending, but it was her only move at the time.
Mai Boyuan Breaks Down
Things are looking grim for Mai Boyuan. A woman he considers "crazy" has him tied up. She slices his ankle. He is terrified and waiting to die.
Elsewhere, Xu Jingzhi is obsessively carving with his knife. He is hunting for details about the case within his own art. He Ya has questions. She asks why Zhuang Mingcheng built such a massive, complex trap for her husband. Xu thinks Zhuang is hung up on the past. That obsession drives these extreme actions.
Back in captivity, Mai Boyuan starts hallucinating. The pressure gets to him. He decides to talk. He confesses everything to the camera. He admits to trafficking girls for profit. He gave them away as gifts. If they didn't listen, he got rid of them. He even admits the money came in too slow. That’s why he used Liang Xinyue for money laundering. He opened nursing schools just to force girls into the sex trade.
The Face of Revenge
The police get the confession video. They want to move in, but they hit a wall. The terrain in the video is complicated. They can't pinpoint the location.
The captor reveals herself to Mai. Her name is Liu Wanyao. Mai doesn't even recognize her. She tells him her story. She was tricked into this hellhole while trying to build a life with her best friend. It took her a year to escape. But her friend, Wu Xinxin, wasn't so lucky. A man named Hu Bo destroyed Wu Xinxin. Liu Wanyao has nothing left to live for. She leaves Mai with a single bowl of water and walks out.
Chasing Ghosts
The police rush to a transport container. They expect to find the suspect. It’s empty. They were played. The team is exhausted and decides to rest in shifts. Xu Jingzhi’s health is flagging; he suddenly gets a nosebleed.
Liu Wanyao meets up with Zhuang Mingcheng. She thanks him. Zhuang believes this is the end of the road. He thinks they can finally live in the sunlight after this. Liu disagrees. She points out a key difference between them. The person Zhuang cares about is alive. Her Wu Xinxin is dead. Zhuang wishes her luck and they part ways.
A Terrifying Discovery
The investigation is stalling. The police have to search for Mai's location the hard way. Zhuang Mingcheng drives a truck to a small village. He unloads mysterious cargo. He waves to some elderly locals. He tells them the delivery is done and they don't need to contact the benefactor.
Liu Ming spots a suspicious car on hotel surveillance. Meanwhile, He Ya notices something odd about Wu Min's parents. They didn't go home. They rented a place and hired movers secretly. She goes to check it out.
Xu Jingzhi gets a call from his property manager about a water leak. He rushes home. He peers through the crack in his door. What he sees terrifies him. He drops everything in his hands.
