Chapter 165: Exposed? I’m Hiding in the Hotel’s Rooftop Water Tank

Inside the Red Rose Beauty Salon in Liangxi City.

The busy tone after hanging up echoed through the specially designated secret room.

Lin Tian looked at Su Ming, who was standing next to him, furrowing his brow as he sniffed his left index finger. With a hint of uncertainty, he asked, “Xiao Ming, do you think it worked?”

“Have we managed to temporarily fool Bomber? This would prevent him from notifying Rose about her arrest.”

“Honestly, we’ve already considered every possible way to avoid K’s surveillance in this operation. If this phone call ends up exposing us to the drug cartel…”

“It’s truly unfortunate, but as long as we can delay it a little longer, we should be able to extract the current locations of many cartel members.”

In response to Lin Tian’s concerns and doubts, Su Ming also shook his head, not entirely sure. He then continued sifting through the next target for inquiries while explaining in a calm voice, “I can’t be sure whether we fooled Bomber.”

“Because before this, Bomber made several calls. What exactly he called Rose about and why, we can’t know for sure until we’ve pried information from her.”

“Before we get Rose to talk, we can’t accurately judge what was discussed.”

“But the main thing is that we couldn’t delay any longer. Rather than passively waiting for them to discover us, we took the initiative to try and mislead them, buying more time.”

“That’s why when I contacted Bomber earlier, I tried to get him to speak first, staying as close as possible to the topics they had discussed before.”

“I think Bomber and Rose are connected in one of two ways—either through human skin masks or high-explosive bombs.”

“Without a clue, it’s really hard to determine what was said earlier.”

“But regardless, the poison is definitely hidden in the West Mountain Orchard right now. To verify if Bomber noticed the problem, we just need to call someone else.”

“Given the cartel’s usual caution, if one of their members is at risk of being caught, they’ll immediately cut off communication.”

With that, Su Ming selected the contact labeled “Ghost” and clicked on the number, speaking slowly, “According to the timeline of the case…”

“This Ghost, who was involved in the hotel water tank drowning case in Jiahe City half a year ago, only joined the drug cartel about six months ago. He probably doesn’t have very close ties with the other members.”

“So we can start with him to see if we’ve been exposed.”

After finishing, Su Ming immediately dialed the number. The secret room was filled with only the waiting tone for the call to connect.

“BEEP—”

“BEEP—”

“BEEP—”

…

Lin Tian and Gao Chao, standing nearby, silently counted the seconds, a sense of anticipation and unease building inside them.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

…

By the fifteenth second, the phone was suddenly answered, and a cold, hoarse voice came through.

“Rose?”

“Why are you calling me all of a sudden?”

When they heard this voice, both Lin Tian and Gao Chao let out a relieved sigh, thinking that Bomber hadn’t detected any problems. The next few hours would be crucial.

Su Ming, still calm, squinted his eyes and gathered his thoughts, imitating Rose’s impatient tone as he said, “Give me the address.”

“The situation’s getting tight. K told me to make the human skin masks for you, they’re ready now. We need to hurry, all because of that damn sculptor.”

Su Ming didn’t know until the recent phone call with the poison that the codename “sculptor” belonged to Zhou Shirui. But he had caught this key piece of information and immediately used it in this conversation to further verify his identity.

On the other end, Ghost seemed oblivious to the fact that Rose had already been arrested by the police. Without hesitation, he replied, “Oh, right.”

“After the sculptor’s incident, K specifically said we need to increase our stock of human skin masks.”

“Rose, listen carefully, I’m currently at the Wei Ai Boutique Hotel’s rooftop water tank in Jiahe City Haicang District…”

At that moment, while Ghost was holding the phone in Jiahe City, an urgent internal notification popped up on his phone, causing him to pause mid-sentence.

After reading the message, Ghost looked back at the phone’s screen, where Rose’s name was still displayed. He immediately broke into a cold sweat.

…

In the beauty salon’s secret room.

Lin Tian, who had just opened the Jiahe City Criminal Investigation Team’s contact page and was about to send Ghost’s location, suddenly stopped when he realized something very important.

“Wait, Xiao Ming.”

“If I remember correctly, the hotel water tank drowning case in Jiahe City was at the Wei Ai Boutique Hotel, right?”

“Wasn’t it discovered when a guest found maggots in the water coming from the faucet? Not just one, but a large amount. After tracing the source, they found a decayed female corpse in the hotel’s rooftop water tank.”

“Does Ghost giving this address mean…”

Lin Tian didn’t finish his sentence, but Su Ming immediately understood, tapping his fingers on the table thoughtfully.

“Most likely, during the recent call, Bomber noticed the problem and immediately informed other members of the cartel.”

“Now, whether we catch the poison hiding in the West Mountain Orchard or just end up running there to retrieve his body is uncertain. It all depends on how fast Director Liu’s operation is…”