Late at night, the emergency department of the First Affiliated Hospital was still buzzing with activity. Low, pained groans kept drifting out from various wards, but in a certain room tucked away in the corner, all was quiet.
It was a large ward, but only one patient occupied it. A bag of fluid hung upside down from a stand, slowly dripping the medicine drop by drop through a clear tube into a small, fair-skinned hand.
Lin Yumeng lay still beneath the soft, clean white blankets. Her face, which had been a bit pale earlier, was gradually regaining its healthy color thanks to the medication.
Watching her sleep peacefully with her complexion now clearly improved, Xu泽 finally let out a long sigh of relief. He reached out, gently pressed her wrist, and activated the blood abnormality analysis function. Seeing that the ketamine level in her system was only 0.6 micrograms per milliliter—low enough to be harmless—the tension that had been gripping him finally eased.
Looking at the peaceful, comfortable expression on her beautiful face, Xu Ze couldn’t help but sigh softly. He realized now just how worried he had been about Lin Yumeng… It seemed to go beyond the concern of an ordinary classmate or hometown friend.
Xu Ze shook his head, pushing those strange thoughts out of his mind. Then he asked Xiao Dao, “So? How’s the investigation into those guys going?”
“Almost done. Through my searches, I found that a few of them have some skeletons in their closets, but nothing too serious. Yang Xiaoming, though—that kid has quite a bit of dirt. A lot of it was cleaned up, but I still dug up some stuff. Things like this? He’s done it more than once or twice. This whole incident was probably his doing,” Xiao Dao replied calmly in Xu Ze’s mind.
“What about Lin Yu?” Xu Ze asked with a frown.
“Lin Yu is pretty clean. I didn’t find any bad records on him,” Xiao Dao answered, which made Xu Ze breathe a small sigh of relief.
“Well, that’s good. Otherwise, if he were truly some irredeemable scumbag, I’d have no problem burning bridges to take him down this time.” Xu Ze thought about how terrified Lin Yu had looked when Xu Ze had glared at him earlier. It did seem believable that Lin Yu wasn’t as thoroughly rotten as Yang Xiaoming.
Just then, Xiao Dao chuckled. “Speak of the devil, and his father calls.”
No sooner had Xiao Dao finished than Xu Ze’s phone rang. He frowned, hesitated for a second, then pulled out his phone and pressed answer.
A tired-sounding voice came through. “Xu Ze… it’s me.”
“Secretary Lin.” Hearing how exhausted Secretary Lin sounded, Xu Ze sighed sympathetically.
“I truly can’t thank you enough for what happened today,” Secretary Lin said with a long sigh.
Xu Ze gave a faint smile. “You’re too kind, Secretary. One of my friends was involved, and I was just outraged by the whole thing.”
“That little monster… Ahh…” Secretary Lin sighed again, then said, “Xu Ze, I want to apologize to you and that girl for this incident. If she has any requests, I’ll consider them.”
“Secretary Lin, that’s not necessary. Nothing really happened. As for your son… just discipline him properly.” Xu Ze had a bit of trouble getting these words out. He didn’t want to let Lin Yu off so easily, but since Lin Yu didn’t have much of a bad record and Secretary Lin had personally called to apologize, it would be hard not to give him face.
Hearing Xu Ze’s response, Secretary Lin breathed a sigh of relief on his end. “Xu Ze, my boy is usually pretty well-behaved. Yesterday, he let those other kids egg him on, which is why this happened. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to teach him a good lesson.”
“Good. But as for that Yang kid… I’m planning to deal with him,” Xu Ze said calmly.
“Yang Li’s son?” Secretary Lin was taken aback by Xu Ze’s words. There were a few seconds of silence on the other end before he spoke again, cautiously. “That kid is the real culprit, but Yang Li is no pushover. He has a lot of backing, and he might be getting promoted to deputy mayor soon. If you’re not ready…”
Xu Ze understood Secretary Lin’s meaning and smiled faintly. “It doesn’t matter even if he becomes deputy mayor. Deputy Mayor Zhang has already had it out for me for a while. One more enemy won’t make a difference.”
“Alright… but you should at least give Mayor Tang a heads-up. If Yang Li decides to fight back, you might not be able to handle it alone. After all, those kids will never side with you. Without evidence, it’ll be very hard to nail Yang Xiaoming,” Secretary Lin warned, seeing how determined Xu Ze was.
“Don’t worry, Secretary Lin. I’ll take care of it. That kid has a lot of dirt on him. If I don’t deal with him now, who knows what will happen next time.”
Xu Ze paused, then asked casually, “Secretary Lin, if Yang Li falls, will Uncle Tang be affected?”
“Take down Yang Li?” Secretary Lin was stunned for a moment, then felt a jolt of shock. If anyone else had said that, he would have laughed it off as nonsense. But Xu Ze wasn’t an ordinary kid. His past actions, including the recent Yang Jingming affair, had clearly shown how capable he was. If Xu Ze said something like this, he wasn’t bluffing.
“But Yang Li is a powerful figure. He throws his weight around in Xing City. Other than a few top city leaders, no one dares to cross him. How could Xu Ze dare to provoke him so easily?”
Secretary Lin quickly spoke up, alarmed. “Xu Ze, don’t do anything reckless. If you have something on him, you’d better discuss it with Mayor Tang first. Yang Li is not like ordinary people. The forces behind him run deep. If you really go after him and anything goes wrong, it could be mutually assured destruction.”
“Don’t worry, Secretary Lin. I know what I’m doing.” Xu Ze smiled faintly and ended the call.
After hanging up, Xu Ze asked seriously, “Xiao Dao, are you sure you got it?”
“I got it. I had some free time and happened to find Yang Li’s computer still on. So I ran a scan and found an encrypted folder. It’s nothing incredibly explosive—just some records of bribes he took and a couple of secret accounts. But it’s more than enough to bring him down.” Xiao Dao chuckled.
Hearing that, a slow smile spread across Xu Ze’s face.
At the Tianyuan District Police Sub-Bureau, the director’s office was brightly lit. Sub-Bureau Director Wang Delin wasn’t sitting in his big executive chair, though. He was on the sofa next to it, looking very cautious and respectful.
Several grim-faced middle-aged men sat on the other sofas, all looking at a man with an aquiline nose who was leaning back on a leather sofa, stroking his chin as if deep in thought.
One of them, a bespectacled middle-aged man, grew anxious after watching the aquiline-nosed man ponder for a long time without speaking. “Director Yang, you’ve got to make a decision. What should we do? My son got his hand broken by that little bastard. We can’t just let this slide.”
“Exactly. Director Yang, you know best how to handle this. We can’t just take this lying down,” another chimed in.
Hearing their words, the man called Director Yang slowly opened his eyes. A sharp gleam flashed in them as he looked at these obviously dim-witted, fat-headed fools and let out a soft snort.
The moment they heard that snort, both men immediately shut up, knowing that Director Yang was finally about to speak.
“Director Hu, Director Lin…” Yang Li finally addressed them. Glancing at these two clueless buffoons, he sighed dismissively. They actually thought that as the police chief, he couldn’t handle things like this. They had no idea they’d run into this little devil.
He shook his head helplessly and said, “You two should stop thinking about your sons getting their hands broken. That’s a minor issue. The real trouble is if they end up locked away for a couple of years. Then you’ll have a big problem.”
“What?” Startled by Yang Li’s words, Director Hu and Director Lin shot up from their seats, glaring at Yang Li. “Director Yang, what do you mean by that?”
“What do I mean?” Yang Li snorted angrily. “Don’t think this is a simple matter. Do you know who that kid is? Do you really think I can just haul him in and rough him up? Let me tell you, if I can stay out of this, I wouldn’t even want to provoke him.”
“What?” The two directors were stunned again. “Director Yang, who is this kid? Isn’t he just a student at Star University?”
“Hah. Of course he’s a student there. But do you know who his godfather is?” Just thinking of that old man—the Buddha-like figure who guarded over Xing City—made Yang Li feel a chill run down his spine.
He had risen to the position of police chief of Xing City, a municipality, thanks to considerable connections. Yet, he wasn’t part of the Tang faction. Two deputy mayors were on his side, and he didn’t even particularly fear Mayor Tang. But that old man—Old Man Tang—was a different story.
If that old man said a single word, even the powers backing Yang Li wouldn’t be able to protect him.
Looking at those clueless idiots across from him, still with blank expressions, Yang Li couldn’t help but sneer. “Don’t you know who in Xing City could make me this wary? Don’t you remember who it was that left one of Deputy Mayor Zhang’s sons half-dead and drove the other one overseas?”
“Old Man Tang? Xu… Xu Ze? That kid is Xu Ze?” The two directors’ faces paled as the realization hit them. They gasped in shock.
