The "Hao" room

After his initial shock, Zeng Yuqiang forced himself to calm down.

First, the room was in a secluded location. Only people close to him knew about it.

Second, the computer was well hidden. Only he knew where it was.

Finally, almost no one except Hua Zi knew his secret.

Taken together, these facts led to a clear conclusion: Zhou Yi had probably gone to raid the Happy Forest Hotel simply to vent his anger.

At most, he would arrest a few gamblers and johns, or impose another fine.

So it was no big deal. There was no need to scare himself.

But despite those thoughts, Zeng Yuqiang still felt uneasy. Grimacing through the pain, he immediately called his younger brother, Zeng Xuehua, then took a dozen or so thugs and drove straight to the Happy Forest Hotel.

Meanwhile, the Happy Forest Hotel was in utter chaos.

More than twenty officers from the county Public Security Management Brigade, led by Deputy Captain Cai Xiaobo, Shao Mingbao, and Zhu Jianping, were searching the hotel floor by floor, room by room.

They arrested six people for prostitution-related offenses and eight for gambling offenses.

It was quite a haul.

For Zhou Yi, however, those arrests were merely incidental.

His real target was Zeng Yuqiang's private suite in the hotel-the den where he imprisoned women, violated them, and abused them at will.

Zhou Yi personally took Political Instructor Wang Jian and four officers into the elevator and went straight to the top floor-the eighth.

The moment they stepped out, they saw the hotel manager, Hu Huarun, and two security guards hurrying toward them in a panic.

"Captain Zhou, we were wrong. We'll accept the fine. Whatever amount you say, we'll pay it. If you order us to close for rectification, we won't say a word against it."

Manager Hu's attitude was thoroughly respectful and sincere. It could even have been described as servile.

Unfortunately for him, Zhou Yi wasn't buying any of it.

He pushed Hu Huarun aside and headed straight down the dimly lit corridor.

"Captain Zhou, Captain Zhou..." Sensing trouble, Hu Huarun hurried after him with the guards.

At the end of the corridor was a restroom, with a sign on the door that read "Under renovation. Out of service."

"Open the door!" Zhou Yi ordered coldly, looking at Hu Huarun.

"Captain Zhou, it's just a restroom. The renovations aren't finished yet, and I don't have the key. The workers have it," Hu Huarun explained, forcing himself to remain calm.

Zhou Yi gave a cold smile and told the officer beside him, "Break it open."

Liu Zhi, captain of the second squad, immediately stepped forward.

Only then did Hu Huarun notice that the officer had been carrying a long, narrow bag all along.

Liu Zhi admired Zhou Yi more than he could express. The man seemed able to foresee everything, anticipating events with uncanny accuracy. He had told Liu Zhi to prepare breaching tools ahead of time. Liu Zhi just wondered what exactly was inside this restroom.

"Captain Zhou, you can't smash it..." Panicking, Hu Huarun blocked the doorway with the guards, only for the officers to forcibly pull them aside.

Eighty, eighty...

Liu Zhi swung the sledgehammer and delivered two resounding blows.

A gaping hole was smashed through the door around the handle, and the door swung open.

Zhou Yi strode inside. In both the men's and women's sections, the wall and floor tiles had already been laid, and the toilet partitions were installed. If anything was missing, it was only the mirrors and sinks.

"See, Captain Zhou? The renovations really aren't finished..." Hu Huarun wore a strained smile, his eyes flickering involuntarily.

Then he saw Captain Zhou begin checking the stall doors one by one.

I'm screwed!

Hu Huarun's heart sank.

At that moment, every last shred of hope vanished. He was now absolutely certain that they had come prepared.

Finally, after pushing open one of the stall doors, Zhou Yi found neither a toilet nor a urinal inside. There was only a black door in the rear wall, carved with the Chinese character "Hao" in cursive script.

The door was locked.

Liu Zhi stepped forward again and raised the sledgehammer.

Eighty, eighty, eighty...

With one final deafening crash, the entire door toppled to the floor.

When Wang Jian, Liu Zhi, and the others entered the concealed room and found the switch to turn on the lights, the sight before them left them stunned.

The floor, covering more than two hundred square meters, was carpeted entirely in red.

Mirrors covered the ceiling and walls, reflecting everything in the room from different angles and directions.

A bed large enough to hold eight or nine adults stood in the middle of the room.

A clothes rack against the wall was hung with erotic outfits in all kinds of styles and occupational themes, along with lingerie and stockings.

In a corner on the other side stood an iron-gray dog cage.

There were also whips, wooden horses, gags, syringes, and all manner of other implements-enough to leave the women subjected to them wishing for death yet unable to die.

Thick soundproofing panels ensured that the victims' screams could not be heard outside.

Zhou Yi surveyed the room, fury smoldering in his eyes.

This was the "Hao" room later exposed on CCTV's legal affairs program-the hellish den stained with the blood and tears of so many women.

Investigators had confirmed that, over the five years from 2003 to 2008, at least a hundred women had been brought here after being plied with alcohol, drugged unconscious, or forcibly bound and blindfolded, to be violated at will by Zeng Yuqiang and his men.

Once they had had their fill, Zeng Yuqiang used nude photographs and threats of physical violence to force the women into prostitution, drawing customers and making money for the Happy Forest Hotel.

Those who disobeyed were beaten at best, sold to human traffickers at worst. Some were even abused to death.

The reason Zhou Yi hated Zeng Yuqiang so intensely and wanted him dead was that this beast had schemed endlessly to inflict every evil in his heart on vulnerable, defenseless women.

How could he possibly allow such an utterly depraved beast to live safely and comfortably until 2008?

Zhou Yi strode to the corner by the eastern wall and gently felt along the edges of each mirror. After trying a few, he found what he was looking for.

With a light flick of his fingers, the glass door disguised as a mirror slowly opened.

A silver-gray laptop lay quietly inside the rectangular cabinet.

This is it!

Zhou Yi took out the laptop, looked at the stunned faces of Wang Jian, Liu Zhi, and the others, and said with a faint smile, "Mission accomplished. Pack up!"

Outside the Happy Forest Hotel.

Just as the officers of the Public Security Management Brigade finished their successful surprise inspection and prepared to leave, a black sedan came hurtling toward them like mad and slammed straight into the lead police car with a bang.

Four vans arrived one after another immediately afterward, forming a semicircle that blocked every police vehicle belonging to the Public Security Management Brigade.

The brothers Zeng Yuqiang and Zeng Xuehua got out of the car. Both fixed their blazing eyes on Zhou Yi, making no attempt to conceal their bone-deep hatred.