Chapter 3: Absurd

"You got it, Boss!"

Chen Han split his mouth wide, baring two rows of stark white teeth. He looked honest and simple, yet bloodthirsty at the same time.

He strode up to the solid gold coffin. This thing, gold plus wood, weighed at least several hundred pounds.

Chen Han barely even bent over. His two massive, fan-like hands clamped down hard on the bottom edge of the coffin.

With a muffled grunt, the muscles in his arms bulged like coiled dragons as he dragged the coffin forward by sheer force.

*Screech—*

An ear-piercing metal scraping sound exploded through the hall. Two deep white gouges were plowed into the marble floor tiles.

From inside the coffin came Zhao Tai's pig-slaughtering wails.

"Ah! Let me out! Fuck your grandpa, do you know who I am?!"

Chen Han turned a deaf ear. Like he was dragging a burlap sack stuffed with dead pigs, he took long, rapid strides toward the interrogation room deep in the corridor.

The officers along the way were all dumbfounded.

What kind of absurd scene was this?

Right here in the headquarters of the Public Security Bureau, a two-meter-tall brute was dragging a solid gold coffin, smashing through everything in his path.

And inside it was the underworld Young Master who held absolute power over Jianghai City.

A few freshly graduated intern officers held their teacups, hands shaking like sieves, not even feeling the pain as hot water spilled onto the backs of their hands.

Executive Deputy Director Zhao Gang leaned against the stair railing, gasping for air in huge gulps.

He'd been a cop for nearly thirty years. What kind of street trash hadn't he seen?

But today's spectacle had genuinely scared the shit out of this old fox.

"Crazy, fucking crazy..." Zhao Gang's lips trembled as he kept wiping sweat with his handkerchief.

A young officer next to him stammered as he edged closer.

"Director Zhao, should we... shouldn't we do something? That's Young Master Tai."

"Do my ass! If you want to die, go by yourself, don't drag me into it!" Zhao Gang slapped the back of the young officer's head, then turned and bolted for his second-floor office, ready to keep playing dead.

Chen Han had just dragged the coffin around the corner into the long corridor when a slender but perfectly straight arm suddenly shot out ahead.

"Halt!"

A crisp, cold shout cut through the scraping noise.

Blocking the middle of the path was a woman in a crisp police uniform.

Her brows and eyes were cold, her features exquisite, but those eyes radiated an unquestionable sharpness.

Deputy Leader of the special task force dispatched from the Provincial Department, PhD in Criminal Psychology from Cambridge, Shen Bing.

Chen Han stopped, looking down at her from his height.

"Move aside, Officer. Can't you see I'm taking out the trash?"

"You call people trash?" Shen Bing frowned tightly.

Her gaze moved past Chen Han, locking onto Lu Zheng, who was slowly walking up behind him.

"Commissioner Lu, what are you doing? This is a severe violation of public security law enforcement procedures!"

Lu Zheng chewed the tobacco in his mouth, didn't stop walking, and went straight up to Shen Bing.

"Procedures?"

Lu Zheng spat out a mouthful of bitter saliva, his eyes cold enough to freeze slag.

"When this little beast brought men to storm the station and beat our officers just now, why didn't you talk to him about procedures?"

Shen Bing choked on her words, but still stuck her neck out to argue back.

"One thing at a time. Even if he's suspected of provocation and troublemaking, he should be summoned and have his statement recorded according to regulations, not treated like this."

She pointed at the gold coffin that was still spewing profanity, her eyes full of disapproval.

"This kind of vigilante justice—how are you any different from those triad gangsters?"

Lu Zheng stopped.

He lowered his head slightly, his gaze boring straight into Shen Bing's eyes.

The distance between them instantly shrank to less than half a meter.

A thick scent of gunpowder mixed with the bitterness of tobacco crashed over Shen Bing like a tidal wave.

That was the oppressive aura of someone who had truly seen blood, killed people, and rolled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Shen Bing felt her breath catch, her chest pressed down like a lead plate was sitting on it.

The criminal psychology she was so proud of completely failed in front of this man. She couldn't read any normal emotions, only pure savagery.

"Dr. Shen, right?"

Lu Zheng's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed through the corridor like muffled thunder.

"The Provincial Department sent you down here to polish your resume, so obediently sit in your office and write your reports."

"Don't use that bullshit theory from your textbooks to teach me how to do my job."

Shen Bing bit her lower lip, forcing herself not to step back.

"I'm your deputy. I have the right to supervise your law enforcement actions. You can't act recklessly!"

"Supervise me?"

Lu Zheng suddenly stepped forward, the toe of his shoe almost touching Shen Bing's police boots.

He leaned down slightly, that crimson glint in his eyes like a tangible beast, biting down hard on Shen Bing's gaze.

"When I was gambling my life against drug traffickers on the border, I had to take two sedatives a day."

"More comrades have died beside me than all the petty thieves you've ever arrested."

"I have severe post-war psychological trauma. When it acts up, even I don't know whose neck I'll snap."

Lu Zheng tugged at the collar of his washed-faded jacket, revealing a shocking dark red knife scar on his neck.

"Here, dealing with this scum that tramples the law under their feet."

"I only look at results. I don't care about rules."

Lu Zheng raised one finger and tapped the rank insignia on Shen Bing's shoulder.

"If you're not convinced, you can call the Provincial Department right now and report me."

"But in Jianghai City, as long as I, Lu Zheng, am still wearing this skin."

Lu Zheng spoke word by word, like heavy hammers slamming down.

"My rules are Jianghai City's rules!"

The corridor fell deathly silent, leaving only Zhao Tai's faint whimpering from inside the gold coffin.

Shen Bing stood frozen, her brain buzzing.

She had seen countless vicious criminals, but never a cop more arrogant and domineering than the criminals themselves.

How was this a public servant? This was clearly a lawless bandit!

"Chen Han, what are you spacing out for? Drag him in, get ready for the Grand Memory Restoration Technique."

Lu Zheng pulled his gaze away, didn't spare Shen Bing another look, and strode toward the interrogation room.

"On it!"

Chen Han exerted force again. With a *screech*, he dragged the coffin and squeezed through the door of the interrogation room.

Shen Bing took several deep breaths before barely calming her violently pounding heart.

She was just about to turn and follow them in to see what this lunatic was actually going to do.

*Bang!*

A deafening explosion suddenly came from the direction of the front hall.

Followed by the crash of shattering glass, mixed with noisy cursing.

Shen Bing's expression changed, and she quickly rushed back to the main hall.

The hall that had just quieted down was now a total mess.

Half of the newly repaired glass door had been kicked to pieces from the outside, scattering glass shards everywhere.

A dense crowd surged in from outside the doors like a tide.

There were forty or fifty of them, all in matching black T-shirts, arms tattooed with fierce dragons and tigers.

Leading them, however, was a refined-looking man dressed flashily.

He wore a well-tailored custom suit, gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, carrying a crocodile-skin briefcase.

Chief Legal Counsel of Shengshi Group, Lawyer Zhang.

In Jianghai City, this guy was a charlatan who could talk black into white.

"Hey! What are you doing? This is the Public Security Bureau, you can't just barge in!"

A young auxiliary officer braced himself and stepped forward to block them.

Lawyer Zhang didn't even glance at him. Two heavily tattooed brutes behind him walked straight up, grabbing the auxiliary officer's collar like lifting a chick.

They shoved hard.

"Ouch!"

The auxiliary officer lost his balance and slammed heavily onto the broken glass, his palm instantly sliced open with a bloody gash.

Lawyer Zhang didn't hold back at all. Instead, he lifted his shiny leather shoe and planted it squarely on the auxiliary officer's fingers.

He deliberately ground his foot.

The auxiliary officer sucked in a breath from the pain, but several thugs beside him pinned his shoulders down tight so he couldn't move.

"Police are beating people! Police are beating people!"

The two tattooed brutes who did the shoving actually started screaming at the top of their lungs, playing the thief crying 'stop thief'.

The remaining dozens of thugs immediately joined the commotion, frantically shoving the officers rushing over for backup.

"Get your Commissioner out here!"

"What right do you cops have to arrest people without cause?!"

The entire municipal bureau hall instantly turned into a vegetable market. Some thugs even arrogantly spat on the walls.

Shen Bing shook with rage, drawing the baton from her waist and charging forward.

"Everyone fall back! Gathering to storm a state organ, do you want to go to prison?!"

Lawyer Zhang stopped, pushing his gold-rimmed glasses up his nose.

He sized Shen Bing up and down, the corner of his mouth curling into a mocking smile.

Then, he pulled a document from his briefcase and tossed it directly onto the glass shards at Shen Bing's feet.

"Stop trying to crush us with big hats. We're taxpayers. We're here to supervise your law enforcement."

Lawyer Zhang tilted his chin up, his arrogant voice drowning out the noise of the entire hall.

"Tell that new Commissioner surnamed Lu to roll out here and see me!"

"Who gave you dogs the guts to arrest people from Shengshi Group? Now, immediately, release Young Master Tai right this instant, or I will tear down this shithole station today!"