Zheng Family

"Argh~~"

Zheng Ruilong, who had been speaking animatedly, suddenly fell face-first to the ground. His right leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, trembling violently, while a large pool of blood spread beneath him.

"Ahh~~"

The entire venue instantly descended into chaos. Everyone fled in panic, but when they reached the exits, they were met with a maddening sight: several doors had been locked shut, including the emergency exits that should have remained open, which had also been sealed from the outside.

"Everyone, put your hands over your heads and crouch down! Don’t move!"

The sound of stamping footsteps and bursts of gunfire rang out from the stage. The crowd grew even more frantic, but amid the repeated gunshots, they obediently covered their heads, crouched down, and stopped moving.

"He-jie!"

Le Erya stared at Lin Qinghe in astonishment. At a time like this, shouldn’t the two of them, as representatives of justice, have dashed out heroically to subdue the thugs?

"Xiao Ya, don’t do anything reckless. They have guns, and who knows how many of them there are! Don’t worry about the Zheng Family for now. Call the bureau."

Lin Qinghe rolled her eyes. In truth, she was a little nervous too. Among the cases she had participated in, she had encountered very few situations involving guns. She had no experience with something like this, which seemed to be a kidnapping.

"Oh, okay!"

Le Erya nodded repeatedly and took out her phone to dial, her eyes shining with admiration. She respected He-jie more and more. What should I do if I’ve become a fan of my own superior?

"Beep, beep, beep~~~"

A series of beeps indicating there was no signal rang out. Several people who had secretly tried to make calls turned ashen and lowered their heads, preparing to face the possibility of a bullet flying their way.

"He-jie, there’s no signal. There isn’t even an E signal."

After her call failed, Le Erya covered the volume key to prevent any sound from coming out, then lowered her head and looked at the phone. The signal was at zero, as if they were in a signal desert completely cut off from the outside world.

"Ahh, ha~~~"

Zheng Ruilong continued to writhe and convulse on the floor. His biological brother, Zheng Ruqiu, was right beside him, but he didn’t dare reach out to help. He supported Zheng Jianguo and kept backing away.

"Tap, tap, tap~~~"

Amid a series of footsteps, a black-cloaked figure wearing a Jester Mask walked onto the stage. Looking at Zheng Ruilong on the ground, he let out a series of laughter like a night owl.

"I came here today to cause trouble for the Zheng Family. Everyone else, just be an audience. It would be best if you didn’t come looking for death. Once I lose my temper, I won’t care whether innocent people get caught up in it. So anyone thinking of playing the hero had better weigh their own abilities first. Don’t get an entire group of people killed because of one person."

As Gu Sheng spoke, his gaze swept over Lin Qinghe and Le Erya. He hadn’t expected such a coincidence either—to run into them here again.

"He-jie~ What do we do?"

Le Erya shrank back fearfully. She felt that the clown on the stage seemed to know them.

"You… ahem, what kind of person are you? Why have you come after our Zheng Family?"

Zheng Ruilong barely managed to speak from the floor. When he talked, his leg wound was pulled, and the excruciating pain twisted his fat face.

"What do you think, Chairman Zheng?"

Gu Sheng smiled and looked at Zheng Ruilong on the floor. Before coming, he and Liu Daimei had already cut off the nearby base-station lines and installed a signal jammer. Forget calling the police—even making a phone call was impossible.

"Are you with Fuheng, or are you under Shi Yu? You couldn’t possibly be…"

Zheng Ruilong listed several names, including people from all walks of life. They were either people with whom he had done business or had conflicts. There were even some he himself could no longer remember clearly.

"Heh heh~ None of them. You can’t possibly have been hired by those construction workers, right?"

When Zheng Ruilong received no response from Gu Sheng, he laughed instead. It was better if Gu Sheng wasn’t one of the people he had mentioned. Those names represented various forces, and if any of them had taken action, the matter would not have been a simple disturbance.

Finally, he thought of a group of migrant workers whose wages he had withheld and tentatively brought them up. The incident had happened recently, and one of the workers had caused him so much annoyance that he had ordered someone to throw him out.

"Heh heh! I didn’t expect Chairman Zheng to remember. You mean Wu Daming, the man you had thrown out of the building!"

After being altered, Gu Sheng’s laughter sounded extremely grating. Zheng Ruilong’s story had seemed vaguely familiar, and the files Tang Lie had given him contained a record of it.

The Food City Project had withheld the workers’ wages. One migrant worker had blocked the entrance to demand payment and had even forced his way into Zheng Ruilong’s office. Zheng Ruilong had been frightened and ordered his men to throw him from more than twenty floors up. Later, they claimed that he had intended to jump to demand his wages and had accidentally fallen to his death.

"Who are you to Wu Daming? I clearly paid them compensation!"

Zheng Ruilong shrank back in fear. After the incident, he had sent people to pay the protesting workers a portion of their wages, then paid compensation to silence Wu Daming’s relatives. By all rights, nothing should have gone wrong.

"Heh heh~~ I have nothing to do with him, and that isn’t why I came."

Gu Sheng shrugged and turned the gun toward Zheng Jianguo and Zheng Ruqiu. "Do the two of you remember Tang Lie?"

"Tang Lie!"

Zheng Ruqiu and Zheng Jianguo were both startled. Their faces filled with panic, and several others at the scene also turned pale, their eyes filled with terror. For people of their status, what had happened at the hospital could not be kept secret. They had even made a point of investigating the situation, so their hearts trembled. Someone had crushed a man’s jaw with his bare hands—was that even something a human could do?

They had all been involved in the Tang Lie incident. If it were investigated, every one of them would be in serious trouble!

"You aren’t Tang Lie, are you?"

Zheng Ruqiu had seen Tang Lie’s photograph before. After studying Gu Sheng for a while, he summoned his courage and spoke.

"I’m not. Tang Lie is already dead, but before he died, he copied a set of documents from the Yao Family. All of you who have ties to the Yao Family are listed in it, along with plenty of dirt."

Gu Sheng’s words made Le Erya and Lin Qinghe tense up. The news that Tang Lie was dead shocked them. They instinctively stopped what they were doing and pricked up their ears.

Gu Sheng continued, "Before Tang Lie died, he gave it to me and asked me to help him. I agreed, but I’m a rather lazy person and don’t like doing things myself. Besides, I have no grudge against any of you, so there’s no need for me to risk breaking the law. To be honest, before I met Tang Lie, I was a good, law-abiding citizen!"

That was genuinely true. Before meeting Tang Lie, Gu Sheng had merely been a pathetic nobody who didn’t even have the ability to break the law. After meeting Tang Lie, he hadn’t done many truly wrong things in the real world either.

"That’s right, brother. That’s a road of no return. Tang Lie took the wrong path—learn from his example and don’t follow it!"

Zheng Ruqiu spoke earnestly, sounding as though he were thinking of Gu Sheng’s best interests.

"There’s no need for me to attack you, so I handed the documents over."

Gu Sheng’s words caused the Zheng Family and several others with ties to the Yao Family to turn deathly pale. He paid no attention to them and continued, "But it’s been nearly a month now, and everything has remained calm—not even a ripple. Mr. Zheng, when will your efficiency improve?"