Chapter 406: Never Let You Go

After Yang Jieru and the others were caught, the surveillance on Zhang Chao's mother was also lifted.

This meant she had every opportunity to flee during that period.

So the problem still lay within those five days.

What exactly were they waiting for?

Various thoughts flashed through Yu Dazhang's mind in rapid succession, yet none offered a logical explanation.

No, that's going down a rabbit hole!

He suddenly realized where the problem lay.

He had only considered what happened after the case broke, while overlooking the period before it.

In reality, before being caught, they had already known they were exposed.

With the industrial zones in Yancheng and Jianning being raided by police one after another, this business could definitely no longer continue.

Then the first thing they had to do was...

Transfer the funds!

Their money couldn't see the light of day, so it had to go through the "money laundering" process.

Before the case broke, they had already calculated the time needed to transfer the money away.

Therefore, the five days Yang Jieru stubbornly held out were spent waiting for the funds to be transferred.

Still too greedy... Yu Dazhang couldn't help but sigh.

What happened next didn't need much thought either—Yang Jieru's younger cousin was simply a fall guy.

He was their sacrificial pawn at the critical moment.

The 260 million that was recovered was also deliberately exposed by Yang Jieru to mislead the police.

People running this kind of operation definitely wouldn't leave behind evidence like account books, so aside from themselves, no one knew exactly how much dirty money they had.

"Poverty limits the imagination," Yu Dazhang said self-deprecatingly.

It seemed he had still underestimated them—the amount they truly intended to transfer away was definitely far more than 260 million.

What a clever scheme.

So they had planned everything out before being caught.

If they got caught, they would do everything to protect the elderly and the child.

The reason Yang Jieru could cooperate so recklessly was also because of the mother-son relationship—she wanted to leave her child enough wealth to live a prosperous life.

Since everything had already been planned, Zhang Chao's mother should have fled on the sixth day, right after the funds were safely transferred.

But today is already the eighth day—why did she only just run now?

Yu Dazhang subconsciously reached into his pocket for a cigarette, pulled one out, and held it under his nose to sniff.

That familiar tobacco scent seemed to have a kind of magic, instantly soothing his mind.

Something must have happened to disrupt their plan.

Or rather, something occurred that caught them off guard.

"That thing happened on the sixth day," Yu Dazhang murmured:

"That was also the day Yang Jieru started talking..."

The coast guard sealed off the sea!

At this moment, Yu Dazhang felt his mind was unusually clear. The more he thought, the smoother it went; some previously vague clues were now becoming increasingly clear.

They hadn't expected the police to know about their "going out to sea."

From Yang Jieru's reaction during interrogation, one could tell she was very surprised, and also very panicked.

By then she wanted to hide it but it was too late, so she gave up the medical ship on the high seas.

It was also on that day that the coast guard mobilized, sealing off the relevant sea area to conduct a search and capture.

Looking at it this way...

Zhang Chao's mother intended to flee by sea!

It was precisely because the coast guard sealed off the sea that she had no way to go.

But the people transporting her by sea had just been caught—how could she escape?

Wait~

Yu Dazhang suddenly recalled that the coast guard had caught four suspects at sea last night.

That number was too perfunctory.

Those responsible for the sea transport were clearly a gang.

Just like the unlicensed taxis at train stations, you can't run that operation with only four people.

So...

A hefty reward will always produce a brave man!

As long as the money is enough, plenty of people will line up to go to prison.

Those four people were very likely deliberately released by Zhang Chao's mother for the coast guard to catch.

The purpose of doing this was to get the police to lift the sea blockade.

And now, the coast guard just caught people last night, and today she disappeared with her child—this coincidence in timing really forces one to be suspicious.

Nothing at her home was missing, which was also very likely something she did deliberately, the purpose being to mislead the police.

Even the half-pot of rice left behind was something she had specially arranged.

What a cunning old fox.

Every detail was handled so cleverly that one couldn't help but admire her meticulous mind.

"If I were her..."

Yu Dazhang murmured softly:

"The longer the night, the more dreams; every extra day of delay adds another measure of risk. Since the coast guard has already lifted the maritime blockade, the best time to flee…"

"Is tonight!"

At that moment, a taxi happened to pull up at the drop-off point.

The passenger in the front passenger seat paid and got out; the moment the car door closed, Yu Dazhang slipped into the back seat of the taxi.

"To the port," he said to the driver up front.

After the car pulled away from the drop-off point, he asked again:

"About how long from here to the port?"

"Around twenty-five minutes," the driver replied.

Not a short distance… Yu Dazhang took out his phone and checked the time.

5:40 in the afternoon.

In another hour it would be dark.

Actually, sunset had already arrived, but for it to be fully dark, they'd have to wait until close to seven.

After a moment's thought, he first dialed Qi Fang.

"Bring everyone from the task force to Baling Port. Depart now."

He said it in a tone of command, brooking no argument.

Earlier, when he'd had Qi Fang stand by, it was because he wasn't yet certain of Zhang Chao's mother's escape route.

But now, he was eighty percent confident he could determine that Zhang Chao's mother would choose to flee by sea from Baling Port.

"Copy that," Qi Fang's voice answered on the other end.

After hanging up, Yu Dazhang dialed Captain Hua.

The moment the line connected, he said directly:

"Get off the expressway and come to Baling Port. I'll wait for you there."

"I'm about to get off the expressway," Captain Hua's voice was a little hurried:

"Can't you wait for me? Can't the two of us go together?"

Wait for you to go together, and the day lilies would be cold by then… Time was pressing, and Yu Dazhang couldn't explain in detail.

"I'm already in the car," he brushed him off:

"Just hurry."

After saying that, he suddenly thought of something and immediately added:

"Get in touch with the port's local police station and the local municipal bureau. We need backup."

Hearing that backup was being called, Captain Hua immediately realized this fatty was about to pull another big move.

"You're going to make an arrest?" he asked, puzzled:

"There's still a main suspect on the loose in this case?"

"Yes," Yu Dazhang replied:

"But I don't dare be a hundred percent sure right now, so I need to go to the port first to confirm."

Even with eighty percent certainty, he still couldn't be sure.

Zhang Chao's mother might also choose another route to flee, or she might have taken the child back home — anything was possible.

These were possibilities that couldn't be ruled out.

Seeing is believing.

Until he saw with his own eyes Zhang Chao's mother appear at Baling Port, all his ideas were just inferences.

If he mobilized a large police force to rush to the port and didn't find the target, that would turn into a complete fiasco.

"Understood." Captain Hua didn't ask further, but agreed without the slightest hesitation:

"I'll get in touch the moment I'm off the expressway. Contact me anytime there's a new development."

Through their contact over this period, he had reached complete trust in Yu Dazhang.

In his view, when this fatty said he couldn't be a hundred percent sure, he had actually already gotten hold of solid leads.

After ending the call, Yu Dazhang looked through the car window at the rapidly receding dusk street scene.

Nearly twenty armed criminal investigators from the task force, plus the cooperation of the local police, to arrest a woman nearly sixty years old — it did seem like a bit of an overkill.

But then again…

What she'd done was worthy of such a scale.

Absolutely, she could not be allowed to escape!

(End of chapter)