Chapter 7: Huai City
The iron gate behind the police dog base let out a dry, grating screech that set teeth on edge.
Lu Zheng strolled out of the darkness, the unlit cheap cigarette still dangling from his lips.
The night wind whipped at his faded old jacket, making it snap and flutter.
Two crumpled A4 sheets hung loosely from his fingers.
The edges were soaked through, flecked with dark red bloodstains, and gave off a rank, fishy stench.
That was the confession Zhao Tai had just scrawled out, trembling on the muddy ground after wetting himself in terror.
Outside the interrogation room, Chen Han had dragged Zhao Tai back by one ankle like a dead dog.
"Get in there!"
Chen Han let go, and Zhao Tai collapsed onto the cold corridor tiles like a puddle of mud.
The once-untouchable young master of Shengshi Group didn't even have the strength to stand anymore.
His expensive tailored suit was caked in mud and dog drool.
Zhao Tai stared blankly at the ceiling, meaningless gurgles rattling in his throat, his body still convulsing uncontrollably.
His psychological defenses had been torn to shreds by that one-eyed Tibetan mastiff.
Lu Zheng didn't even spare him a glance. He stepped over the blood-stained tactical boots and strode straight toward the public office hall on the first floor of the Municipal Bureau.
The hall was lit up bright as day.
The mess from the earlier brawl hadn't been cleaned up yet—broken glass and splintered wood littered the floor.
Dozens of officers huddled together, the atmosphere so thick with tension you could wring water out of it.
Lin Feng, captain of the Anti-Gang Squad, stood with a dark expression, bandaging the arm of a junior officer who had taken a minor injury.
Shen Bing, the police beauty sent down from the Provincial Department, stood behind the battered reception desk, her brows locked tight.
She gripped her phone, hesitating over whether to report everything that had happened here to the Provincial Department right away.
After all, the new commissioner had kicked the executive deputy commissioner into the hospital on his first day. That was huge.
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
Steady, powerful footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.
The noise in the hall died instantly. Every pair of eyes snapped toward the man in the old jacket.
Lu Zheng walked expressionlessly to the center of the hall.
He raised his right hand and slapped the two crumpled A4 sheets onto Lin Feng's desk without ceremony.
*Smack!*
The crisp sound cut through the silent hall like a gunshot.
"Case is closed." Lu Zheng's voice was hoarse, carrying an unquestionable cold hardness.
"Find two men who know how to keep their mouths shut. File this confession under top-secret archives. Nobody touches it but me."
Lin Feng froze.
He looked at Lu Zheng, then down at the two papers reeking of something foul on the desk.
Burning with doubt, Lin Feng reached out and picked up the confession, his eyes sweeping across the first line.
One glance, and Lin Feng's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
His hands, casual a moment ago, began to tremble violently, shaking the papers until they rattled.
"This... this is..."
Lin Feng jerked his head up, staring at Lu Zheng as if he'd seen a ghost, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Commissioner Lu, he confessed? He actually confessed?"
His voice, distorted by sheer shock, cracked at the edges.
The officers around them exchanged glances, baffled as to what earth-shattering thing Captain Lin had just seen.
Shen Bing stepped forward in a flash and snatched the confession right out of Lin Feng's hands.
Her eyes raced across the page.
[Qin Xiaohua car accident case: I instructed driver Zhang Qiang to take the fall. Paid his family two million yuan in hush money afterward...]
[South City shantytown forced demolition arson case: I ordered my men to pour the gasoline...]
Behind every crime listed, a glaring bloody fingerprint was stamped clear as day!
And at the very bottom of the confession, that crooked signature radiating pure terror, unmistakably read: "Zhao Tai"!
"Impossible!"
The word burst out of Shen Bing, disbelief written all over her cool face.
She was a Cambridge-trained PhD in criminal psychology who had dealt with countless high-IQ offenders.
A rich kid like Zhao Tai—backed by a hundred-billion-yuan conglomerate, law-savvy, and arrogant—should have top-tier psychological resilience.
Under standard interrogation, even three days and nights of grinding wouldn't get half a word out of him.
Yet less than an hour had passed since Lu Zheng dragged him into that interrogation room!
"What exactly did you do to him?" Shen Bing looked up sharply, staring hard at Lu Zheng.
"Why were the surveillance cameras in the interrogation room unplugged? Do you have any idea that without synchronized audio and video recording, this confession will be thrown out as illegal evidence in court!"
Her professional instincts had latched onto the crux of the problem immediately, her tone harsh with accusation.
Lu Zheng's mouth twisted into a mocking sneer.
"Court?"
"You think the courts in Jianghai City would dare sentence Zhao Zhenhai's own son to death?"
Lu Zheng rapped his knuckles on the confession, producing a dull thud.
"I never planned to hand this to a court in the first place."
"This is just my license to kill."
Shen Bing sucked in a sharp breath, a bone-deep chill shooting up her spine.
She finally understood. This man had no intention of playing by standard police procedure.
He was a thug through and through—a living Yama in a police uniform!
"Commissioner Lu, you're playing with fire! Once Zhao Tai's lawyers—"
Shen Bing didn't get to finish. Lin Feng cut her off roughly.
"Squad Leader Shen, spare us the rulebook!"
Lin Feng's eyes were red. He snatched the confession back and clutched it to his chest.
This man in his thirties, the Jianghai Municipal Bureau's notorious hard case, actually had tears glinting in his eyes.
He jabbed a finger at the bloody fingerprint on the confession, his voice raw.
"Three years! Three whole years!"
Lin Feng slammed his fist on the desk, sending the teacups clattering.
"Old Man Qin knelt at the gates of our bureau, kowtowing until his face was covered in blood. What could we do? Nothing but watch these animals walk free!"
"Arrest them, release them. Release them, arrest them. This uniform has been a joke across all of Jianghai City!"
Lin Feng spun around to face every officer in the hall.
"Brothers, search your conscience. Have these three years been anything but suffocating?"
Dead silence fell over the dozens of officers.
No one spoke, but the heavy breathing and clenched fists said everything.
Who wanted to be someone's dog day in and day out?
Who didn't want to stand tall and catch criminals the way it was meant to be done?
But there were protectors up top pressing down, and gangs below threatening their families.
These rank-and-file cops could only swallow their broken teeth and choke down the pain.
Now, on his first day, the new commissioner had pinned this untouchable young master to the interrogation chair!
Lin Feng turned back to face Lu Zheng and snapped his spine straight.
*Crack.*
A textbook-perfect salute, sharp enough to cut air, stopped at Lin Feng's temple.
"Commissioner Lu! The Anti-Gang Squad—all thirty-six of us—our lives are yours from today on!"
"Long as you've got the guts to lead us, even if we get stripped of these uniforms tomorrow, we're in!"
Lin Feng's roar exploded through the hall.
That shout was a spark hitting a powder keg.
"Let's do it! Worst case, we go home and farm!"
Xiao Wang, the junior officer who'd just been bandaged up, shot to his feet and hollered at the top of his lungs.
"Count me in! I've had it with this spineless crap!"
"Commissioner Lu, you say who to arrest, we arrest them!"
The Municipal Bureau hall—demoralized and scattered moments ago—felt like it had been shot full of adrenaline.
A wild fire burned in the eyes of every young officer.
The way they looked at Lu Zheng had shifted from fear to something close to fanatical worship.
This madman of a commissioner was using brute force and zero scruples to rewrite the rules of Jianghai City!
Shen Bing watched these hot-blooded cops, her red lips parting slightly.
She realized the legal statutes she'd prepared a whole speech about wouldn't come out—not a single word.
An unfamiliar flutter stirred quietly in her chest.
Maybe a place as rotten to the bone as Jianghai City really did need a rule-breaking outlaw like Lu Zheng to cleave through the darkness.
Lu Zheng looked at these officers who had just found their spines again, and the brutality in his eyes faded a touch.
He finally pulled out a lighter. *Click.* He lit the cigarette he'd been chewing to pulp.
One deep drag.
Through the curling smoke, Lu Zheng's cold, sharp face looked even more angular.
"Since none of you want to be turtles anymore, go grab your gear."
Lu Zheng flicked his ash, his tone as casual as if he were suggesting a late-night food stall run.
"Tonight, the underground of Jianghai City gets a new coat of paint."
The words had barely landed.
The officers in the hall hadn't even gotten to cheer.
*Woo—Waa—Woo—Waa—*
Red Level One alarm lights across the entire Municipal Bureau compound started flashing like mad without warning!
Piercing air-raid sirens tore through the night sky, stabbing at everyone's eardrums.
The temperature in the hall plummeted. The surge of adrenaline was cut off cold by the alarm.
"What's going on? Who triggered the alarm?" Lin Feng's face went pale as he clamped a hand on the pistol at his hip.
Outside the main gate, a night-shift auxiliary officer came stumbling and crawling into the hall.
His face was white as paper, his cap lost somewhere in the run. He collapsed at Lu Zheng's feet.
The auxiliary officer gasped for air, pointing outside, his voice stretched to the edge of terror.
"Commissioner, we've got trouble! Black Panther—Shengshi Group's top enforcer—he's got hundreds of men with machetes. They've got the Municipal Bureau surrounded!"