Chapter 1: Her Name Is Chi Mo, Guan Yizhou's Girlfriend
Jianghai City. The sky hung so low and dark it looked ready to collapse.
Oppressive clouds smothered the bustling port city like a shroud. Locals said the nights here were longer than the days, and the waters ran deep enough to drown true dragons.
Three years.
Two mayors died unnatural deaths. Three police chiefs vanished into thin air.
A long-distance bus slammed to a halt in front of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. The doors popped open, and a man in a faded tactical jacket stepped out.
Lu Zheng patted his pocket, pulled out a crumpled cigarette, and bit down on it.
He looked up at the dust-covered police emblem atop the bureau building. His eyes were as cold as the Siberian tundra. He didn’t light it. He just chewed the tobacco to pieces.
A thick, bitter taste spread through his mouth, barely suppressing that familiar, violent buzzing in his brain.
The PTSD he’d dragged back from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood at the border was acting up again.
Walking into the bureau’s service hall, Lu Zheng almost thought he’d wandered into the wrong vegetable market.
“Hurry, hurry, group up mid! Old Li, do you even know how to play? Heal me, damn it!”
“Relax, will you? I just lit my smoke.”
A few young cops in uniform huddled around their desks playing mobile games, cursing every other second. Several citizens waiting for paperwork were left standing off to the side, furious but silent.
“Officer, I’ve been waiting two hours for my temporary residence permit…” an old man pleaded softly.
“What’s the rush! Can’t you see we’re busy? We’re off shift. Come back tomorrow!” The officer waved him off without even looking up.
The entire Jianghai Bureau was rotten to the core.
“Move, move! Are you all fucking blind!”
An arrogant, ear-piercing roar suddenly came from outside the main doors.
Eight burly bodyguards in black suits carried a massive object, forcing their way through the glass doors.
*Clang!* A deafening crash. Spiderweb cracks shot across the marble floor tiles.
It was a coffin.
A solid gold coffin, gleaming with blinding yellow light even in the dim hall!
The police hall went dead silent instantly. The gaming cops dropped their phones in terror, not daring to make a peep.
A young man with slicked-back hair and a floral shirt swaggered in.
A fat cigar hung from his mouth. His leather shoes crunched over the shattered tiles. His arrogant gaze swept the room.
Zhao Tai. Son of the richest man in Jianghai, Young Master of Shengshi Group.
“Where’s the new chief? Come out and greet your guests!” Zhao Tai blew out a thick cloud of smoke, spraying it right into the face of the nearest trainee officer.
The trainee’s face flushed red. His hand instinctively reached for the baton at his waist.
*Smack!*
Zhao Tai backhanded him. A crisp slap. Stars exploded in the young cop’s vision, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth on the spot.
“What are you reaching for? You think you dare swing that fire poker at me?” Zhao Tai laughed wildly. His bodyguards jeered behind him.
Assaulting an officer. Right in the bureau hall, openly assaulting an officer.
Lu Zheng stood at the very back of the crowd, chewing his tobacco. The blood vessels in his eyes began to spread, one by one.
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from the second-floor stairwell.
Deputy Chief Zhao Gang, beer belly jiggling, drenched in sweat, ran down.
Everyone thought Chief Zhao was going to blow up and make arrests.
Instead, Zhao Gang rushed up to Zhao Tai. His tense, fat face instantly crinkled into a flattering chrysanthemum.
“Aiya, Young Master Tai, what’s this act you’re putting on? Why so angry?”
Zhao Gang didn’t even glance at the beaten officer. He pulled out a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes and offered them over with both hands.
Zhao Tai didn’t take them. He squinted and snorted, “Chief Zhao, I heard the new chief takes office today?”
“Yes, yes, the documents arrived, but the man hasn’t yet.” Zhao Gang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Perfect that he hasn’t.” Zhao Tai patted the solid gold coffin.
“The feng shui in Jianghai City is bad. The last three chiefs either got into car crashes or jumped into the sea. Didn’t even leave a whole corpse behind.”
Zhao Tai looked around, raising his voice eight octaves, terrified someone might miss it.
“My dad says Shengshi Group always looks out for the police force. This solid gold coffin—consider it our welcome gift to the new chief, given in advance!”
“So when he ends up dying violently in the streets, he’ll at least have somewhere to put his bones!”
As soon as he finished, the black-suited bodyguards burst into laughter again.
The officers in the hall had faces like iron, but they stood nailed to the floor. Not a single one dared to speak.
Zhao Gang rubbed his hands awkwardly, laughing dryly, “Young Master Tai, look how bad this looks. How about we carry it back first?”
“Back? What I give out never comes back!”
Zhao Tai kicked over the consultation desk beside him. Blue folders scattered everywhere.
“This coffin stays here today! When that guy named Lu shows up, tell him to crawl inside and test the size himself!”
Too arrogant. He was grinding the entire Jianghai public security system under his heel.
Zhao Gang sighed, waving his men to disperse the onlooking citizens, ready to keep playing the turtle with its head in its shell.
“The size doesn’t look too small.”
A low, hoarse voice suddenly came from the back of the crowd.
Not loud, but exceptionally clear in the silent hall. It carried a chill that made spines freeze.
Everyone turned their heads in unison.
A man in a worn-out jacket with a buzzcut was pushing through the crowd, striding forward.
Lu Zheng ignored the murderous glares of the black-suited bodyguards and walked straight up to the golden coffin.
He raised a calloused hand and tapped the gleaming lid twice.
“Crisp sound, heavy material. Looks like you really bled money for this pure gold.”
Lu Zheng turned his head, staring at Zhao Tai like he was looking at a dead thing.
Zhao Tai narrowed his eyes, sizing up this shabby-looking man from top to bottom, and spat on the floor.
“Who the hell are you? Coming to beg in a police station?”
Zhao Gang frowned too, barking in official tones, “Which department are you from? Can’t you see Young Master Tai is handling business? Get out!”
Lu Zheng ignored Zhao Gang.
He reached into his inner jacket pocket, pulled out a crumpled little red booklet, and tossed it casually onto Zhao Gang’s fat face.
The red booklet slid to the floor, falling open perfectly.
Name: Lu Zheng. Position: Jianghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, Chief.
Zhao Gang was about to curse him out, but the moment he looked down and read those words, he froze like he’d been struck by lightning.
His calves trembled uncontrollably. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
“You’re the new guy?” Zhao Tai paused, then laughed even more wildly.
“I thought you’d be some figure with three heads and six arms. Turns out you’re just a beggar.”
Zhao Tai swaggered right up to Lu Zheng and pointed at his own nose.
“New guy, you probably don’t know the rules of Jianghai City yet.”
“No matter which path you descended from, once you’re here—if you’re a dragon, you coil. If you’re a tiger, you lie down!”
“Be obedient, and this gold coffin is just decoration. But if you don’t listen…”
Zhao Tai leaned close to Lu Zheng’s ear, dropping his voice. His tone was utterly sinister.
“I guarantee your whole family, old and young, will be lying inside it nice and neat.”
Silence. Dead silence.
Everyone in the hall held their breath, waiting to see how the new chief would handle it.
By Jianghai’s customs, provoking Shengshi Group meant half a foot in the gates of hell. Submitting was the only way to live.
Lu Zheng didn’t fly into a rage.
He even grinned.
It was the cruel sneer of a battlefield butcher, carrying a blood-soaked stench that made skin crawl.
He patted the coffin lid and spoke slowly.
“It really is a nice coffin. Perfect for the man delivering it.”
Zhao Tai’s smile froze instantly. The muscles at the corner of his eye twitched hard.
Lu Zheng didn’t give him a chance to explode. He turned to sweep his gaze over the dumbfounded officers, his eyes suddenly turning as cold as blades.
“Are you all fucking deaf? Or do you not want to wear that uniform anymore?”
“Openly assaulting an officer, threatening the life of a state official. Now, arrest this piece of trash named Zhao Tai for me!”