“Officer, I swear, I really have nothing to do with those people.”
“Sure, we were carrying some banned knives, but we’re just a bunch of small-time thugs. We’re not terrorists or anything!”
At the same time, at the Chuncheng Police Station, inside the interrogation room—
The local police were also hard at work.
They had just shoved Scarface and his crew into the room when Scarface couldn’t hold back anymore and started blurting out his defense at the top of his lungs.
Hearing that, the interrogating officer who had just walked in furrowed his brows and snapped, “Shut your mouth. I haven’t given you permission to speak yet!”
At that, Scarface shrank his neck and dared not make another sound.
Seeing this, the officer let out a low grunt before taking a seat at the interrogation table alongside another officer in charge of taking notes.
Once the note-taking officer had opened the case file,
the interrogator stared expressionlessly at Scarface and, following standard procedure, began asking for his name, age, and place of origin.
Scarface answered each question without daring to hold anything back.
And after he’d finished answering all that,
the interrogator looked straight at him and cut to the chase: “So, explain yourself. Why were you leading so many people into a shopping mall in the middle of the night, all carrying banned knives? What were you trying to do?”
Normally, if the police asked him that,
Scarface would’ve put on a cheeky grin, started dodging the question, rambling on about this and that, and absolutely refused to tell the truth.
But today—thinking back on what he’d seen in that mall—
“There was someone who hired me to hurt someone!”
Without a second’s hesitation, Scarface blurted out the real reason they’d come to the park.
As soon as he said that—
“Huh?”
Both the note-taker and the interrogator froze for a moment, then looked up in disbelief at Scarface: “What did you say? A hired hit?!”
“That’s right!”
Scarface nodded with a dead-serious face.
His expression was so earnest you’d think he was applying to join the Party.
The note-taker and interrogator, on the other hand, were utterly dumbfounded.
Because in all their years on the job, they had never—ever—seen anyone admit to hiring someone for an assault so openly and without an ounce of shame.
But they quickly snapped out of it.
The interrogator cleared his throat, looked at Scarface, and softened his tone a little: “Go on. Who hired you, and who were you supposed to go after?”
Scarface didn’t waste any time. “It was Liu Kai. He wanted us to slash Jiang Nian’s face—ruin his looks. So that’s why we were there. But we hadn’t even made our move yet when those terrorists showed up, and then you guys arrived at the scene.”
“Really? You’re absolutely sure you have nothing to do with those terrorists?”
the interrogator pressed.
It wasn’t that he was naturally suspicious.
It’s just that this whole interrogation had gone way too smoothly.
Not a single hiccup along the way.
Basically, they asked, and Scarface answered—he even went so far as to spill the whole thing about Liu Kai hiring them.
With such a cooperative attitude, it was hard not to wonder if Scarface was being so forthcoming because he was guilty and trying to cover something up.
But honestly, this time, the officer was overthinking it.
Scarface might be a small-time thug with no formal education,
but he wasn’t stupid!
He knew the difference between a full meal and going hungry every day.
And it wasn’t just him—
all of Scarface’s underlings thought the same way.
So much so that after the interrogations were over, when the officers got together to compare statements, they found that every single one of those guys had said practically the exact same thing!
——-
Meanwhile, over on the other side, Xu Ke had already finished his registration. After learning about Jiang Nian’s situation from the officers,
he sat alone on a chair, mulling over how he was going to explain all this to Yang Mi.
And just then—
Clack, clack, clack—
The crisp sound of high heels striking the floor grew closer and closer.
Hearing that, Xu Ke instinctively looked up—and froze.
Because the person walking toward him was none other than the very woman he’d just been thinking about: Yang Mi.
“Miss Yang?”
Xu Ke was utterly stunned.
What the hell?
Wasn’t Yang Mi supposed to be in the capital?
How did she end up here?
Speak of the devil and she appears?
Yang Mi, drawn by his voice, glanced over, spotted Xu Ke sitting there, and quickly walked up to him. “Director Xu, how’s Jiang Nian doing now?”
Xu Ke let out a sigh and shook his head:
“Not looking too good.”
“Let’s step outside to talk.”
With that, he stood up and headed for the door. Seeing that, Yang Mi quickly followed.
Once they reached the police station entrance, Xu Ke pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offered one to Yang Mi, but she waved it off. So he put it between his own lips.
He took out his lighter and lit it.
Drawing in a deep breath of smoke, he said with a worried expression:
“Here’s where things stand right now: Mr. Jiang is being chased up into the mountains by a group of terrorists armed with heavy crossbows.”
“He’s been sending his location in real time through his phone, but those guys also have signal jammers with them—so right now, we’ve lost contact with him.”
“The police are rushing over as fast as they can, but…”
Xu Ke’s voice trailed off.
Because at this point, unless a miracle happened or Jiang Nian got incredibly lucky,
Xu Ke honestly couldn’t think of any way Jiang Nian could turn this around.
Helpless—completely helpless!
Yang Mi clearly understood that too. After listening to Xu Ke, she fell silent. It took a long while before she stretched out a trembling hand toward him: “Give me one too.”
“Yeah.”
Xu Ke nodded, handed her a cigarette, and lit it for her.
Fwoosh—
A small flame flickered to life.
Yang Mi took a deep drag. The rising smoke veiled her face, hiding her expression.
In the dim glow of the cigarette, she asked: “How could something like this happen in our country?”
She couldn’t understand it. Wasn’t China supposed to be famously safe? So why did this happen?
At that, Xu Ke let out another sigh, his tone hard to read: “Normally, stuff like this wouldn’t happen anywhere else. But don’t forget where this is… a border city.”
Whoosh—
Yang Mi exhaled a plume of smoke, saying nothing.
She just stared at the faint mountain range in the distance, her eyes shifting between light and shadow.
In Chuncheng, the atmosphere was tense, stormy, and anxious.
Life and death hung by a thread.
Meanwhile, back in the capital, life was peaceful, luxurious, and indulgent.
Swirling Black Ace in his glass, holding a young pretty thing in his arms.
To be honest—setting aside the fact that he’d been cheated on—Liu Kai was actually enjoying life quite a bit.
After all, he was living like a groom every night, never a dull moment for his ego.
Sure, he had to spend a little cash, but for a young master like Liu Kai, that was nothing.
Rich guy, after all—his whole deal was living it up.
Taking a sip of his drink,
Liu Kai checked the time, figuring it should be about done.
So he pushed the young woman aside, went to the bathroom, and made a call.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
The voice on the other end replied, “No news yet, but it should be just about done. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
“I know, but I’m already getting impatient to see Jiang Nian’s face all slashed up. You know I have it out for him—can you blame me?”
Liu Kai said casually.
“Alright, fair enough—you’re our big client after all. Hold on, let me go check.”
With that, the other side hung up.
Liu Kai wasn’t in a hurry; he just waited patiently.
But after waiting for quite a while, he didn’t get a call back from them.
Instead, he got an unexpected call—from 110!
Liu Kai: “???”
