Chapter Ninety-Eight: Stop at Once!

Chapter Ninety-Eight: Stop Right There!

Knock, knock.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Come in,” the woman said without lifting her head, still reading a document.

The door opened soundlessly, and a young woman in a black business suit stepped inside. She was delicate-featured and slim.

She stopped about ten feet from the oversized desk and said, “Something has happened to Mr. Tang.”

“Hmm?” The woman set down her pen, her beautiful brows knitting together.

It was only such a slight movement, yet it was enough to make one ache to smooth the crease away with a hand.

She knew that if it were only an ordinary matter, Wen Jing would never have reported it to her in person. Since Wen Jing had pushed open her office door herself, it meant the matter was one even she found difficult to decide.

“Just now, we received word that Mr. Tang was taken by a friend to Maiden Peak for sightseeing, and was attacked at the summit, at Tianyi Temple—”

“Where is he?” the woman cut her off at once, going straight to the point.

She had always been a patient person, but when it came to him, she became especially tense. She did not want to wait even a second.

“He killed the assassin, then called the police. Right now, he is being held at the Maiden Peak branch station,” the girl named Wen Jing reported expressionlessly.

The woman pushed back her chair and stood. Her white blouse was tucked into a pair of black tailored trousers, with no belt at all, held in place entirely by the lines of her hips and pelvis.

Her hair was pinned up, revealing a neck as white as snow. Her sleeves were rolled back, giving her a crisp and efficient air.

There was not a single piece of glittering jewelry on her body, yet everyone who saw her would feel that she was the most dazzling woman in the world.

“He called the police on his own?”

“Yes.”

“He is asking me for help,” the woman said with a smile. “Even if it is in this way, I am still very happy. To him, I am still family after all, not merely a stranger.”

Wen Jing said nothing.

This was her family matter. She had no right to say anything.

“Three things,” the woman said, turning suddenly, her words coming fast. “First, call Guo Hailong. He will understand what I mean. Second, find out the assassin’s identity and the one behind him.”

After a slight pause, her voice turned cold and decisive. “Third, kill them all.”

“Yes.” Wen Jing straightened and answered without changing expression.

She knew the woman was angry.

It had been a very, very long time since she had shown such intense emotion. All this while, she had been like a dead pool of water, calm and still, silent and without ripple.

“Go,” the woman said with a wave. “You go and bring him back yourself. Don’t let him suffer any loss.”

Wen Jing did not leave.

“What else don’t you understand?” the woman asked.

“Why don’t you go yourself?” Wen Jing asked. “This is the best chance to make things right.”

“He would rather call the police than make a call to Bai Su, which proves he still does not want to see me,” the woman said with a gentle smile. “In this world, only children will sulk like this with their parents. And only parents can forgive everything their children do. I owe him too much. Let everything go his way.”

“I understand.” Only then did Wen Jing withdraw.

The woman walked to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window and stared blankly at the dim sky outside.

“In the end, I really have—overstepped.”

—

The steel door was shoved open, and a dark-faced police officer entered with two others.

A cigarette hung from his mouth. He dragged over a chair and sat down across from Tang Zhong, smiling as he said, “Come. Let’s record your statement again.”

“Fine,” Tang Zhong said.

“Name.”

“Tang Zhong.”

“Sex.”

“Male.”

“Age—”

—

The dark-faced officer suddenly became very patient, asking every question from before once more in great detail, then listening as Tang Zhong repeated the story of what had happened at the summit of Maiden Peak.

“Wait,” the officer interrupted. “You’re saying the assassin attacked you first?”

“Yes,” Tang Zhong replied, nodding.

“What makes you so sure that Taoist was an assassin? Maybe he was just joking with you?” the officer said.

That question was absurdly stupid. And precisely because it was so stupid, Tang Zhong sensed danger.

He was not afraid of ordinary questioning. What he feared was these people deliberately making trouble and resorting to harsh methods.

“He had a knife. He stabbed at my vital points. He was very skilled; I wasn’t a match for him. In that situation, I had to fight with everything I had to protect myself,” Tang Zhong answered.

“Not a match for him?” The officer gave a cold laugh. “You say you weren’t a match for him, yet his eyes were pierced by a knife, and you were perfectly fine. He was thrown off the summit of Maiden Peak, while you sat on the mountaintop holding a beautiful girl and called the police. And you call that not being a match?”

“Also, you say he stabbed you with a knife, but forensic testing showed both your fingerprints on the blade—and the outermost prints were yours. Why couldn’t it have been you who picked up the knife and attacked?”

“Why would I kill a Taoist priest? What would be my motive?” Tang Zhong shot back. “Actually, this is very simple. All you need to do is investigate that priest’s identity. I suspect he was a professional assassin. And you’re local police; there are only so many Taoists on Tianyi Temple Mountain, and you should be familiar with them. Was he a Taoist from Tianyi Temple?”

Bang.

The dark-faced officer slammed a palm down on the table.

“How to solve the case is our business. Who asked you to teach me? Who do you think you are?”

“I never intended to teach you anything. It was only a friendly reminder. I wouldn’t want you to take the wrong path.”

There was a note of threat in Tang Zhong’s voice.

The dark-faced officer burst out laughing.

He looked at Tang Zhong with a sinister expression and said, “Kid, I have to say, you’ve got nerve. You almost had me fooled. You were about to tell me you’ve got backing, weren’t you? You were about to warn me not to lay a finger on you, weren’t you?”

“I do have backing,” Tang Zhong said seriously, nodding. “You’d better not touch me.”

“Hahahaha—”

The dark-faced officer and the two policemen behind him all laughed uproariously, bending over as though they could not catch their breath.

“Kid, you’re hilarious,” the dark-faced officer said, pointing at Tang Zhong. “The girl clinging to you on the mountaintop was Qiu Hongtu’s daughter, wasn’t she?”

“I know Qiu Hongtu. I didn’t know Qiu Yihan was his daughter,” Tang Zhong said.

“That’s not important.” The officer waved his hand. “What you need to know is that Qiu Yihan has already been taken home by her family—and her family says they don’t know you.”

“She already went back?” Tang Zhong froze for a moment, then went on, “That’s fine too. She must have been terrified.”

“Oh, still playing the devoted hero and the prince here, are you?” the officer mocked. In his mind, Tang Zhong was nothing more than an opportunist trying to climb high and pose as some prince. “The Qiu family’s young lady has been taken away. What backing do you still have now?”

“I was talking about my backing, not Qiu Yihan’s,” Tang Zhong corrected him. “Besides, I was only acting in self-defense. Just handle it impartially. Why would I need any backing?”

Thud.

The dark-faced officer stomped onto the table, sending it crashing toward Tang Zhong.

Tang Zhong’s hands were cuffed to the chair, and the chair itself was made of iron, welded to the floor.

He had nowhere to retreat, and could only throw his body backward.

Bang.

The table slammed into the iron chair with a sharp crash.

“Your skills really are pretty good,” the dark-faced officer said with admiration. “But I’d like to see how long you can keep dodging.”

He waved a hand to the two policemen behind him. “Give him the treatment.”

Tang Zhong’s eyes narrowed at the words.

The police station’s idea of “the treatment” was the same as a prison’s “ordering the special.” It was only a polite way of saying violence.

Even the dishes on the menu were pretty much the same. Only the name changed.

In the past, he had always been the one serving others “the special.” He had never expected that today he would be the one receiving it.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t do this,” Tang Zhong said darkly.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be saying that either,” the dark-faced officer replied with a cold laugh. “Because all that does is make me even more determined to finish you off. Still acting so brazenly after being brought to the police station—you really don’t know how the word ‘death’ is written. So what if you’re a student? Students who commit crimes still go to prison. Students who kill still get shot. Damn so-called favored children of heaven.”

“If I weren’t brazen, you people would have already started serving up the special, wouldn’t you?” Tang Zhong sneered. “I know these procedures better than you do.”

He knew policemen, too, could bully the weak and fear the strong.

The tougher the opponent, the more they would hesitate. But if you looked soft and easy to bully, they would think you were fair game. They might even start by beating you senseless before forcing a confession out of you.

“Drag him down,” the dark-faced officer shouted, pointing at Tang Zhong, who was standing on the chair.

The two male officers immediately rushed out, one from the left and one from the right, lunging at Tang Zhong.

Tang Zhong kicked out, and both policemen hastily retreated.

“Damn it. Useless trash,” the dark-faced officer cursed.

Just as he was about to charge in personally, a knock sounded at the door.

“If you don’t confess honestly, I’ll show you what’s coming when I get back,” he said, pointing at Tang Zhong before pulling open the door and stepping out.

Soon after, he walked back in, his expression complicated.

“This kid—just who did he offend?”

He flicked the cigarette butt from his hand to the floor and ground it out viciously under his shoe.

Then he pulled a baton from the corner and said, “You two hold him down. I’m going to serve him something with some real bite.”

Breaking one leg—that was indeed a dish with a strong flavor.

At his command, the two officers lunged at Tang Zhong again, one from each side.

Tang Zhong lashed out with a flying kick and sent the man on the left crashing away.

The other one wrapped both arms around his waist from behind and shouted, “Captain, quick—”

Crack.

Tang Zhong hurled his head backward. The man only felt a heavy blow, stars exploding before his eyes, and collapsed.

The dark-faced officer roared and swung the baton down hard at Tang Zhong.

Bang.

The door was smashed open from the outside.

Li Botao stared in horror at the scene and screamed hoarsely, “Jiang Kai, stop right now!”