Chapter 71: First Clash

The police officers behind him also tensely placed their hands on their waist holsters, ready to draw their guns at any moment!

Li Jun immediately said, “Put it down, put it down! Officer, don’t misunderstand—we’re just carrying a young brother who got too drunk; we’re taking him home to rest.” He thought the police had some misunderstanding and had no idea someone had reported a murder here!

Gu Changzheng looked at him seriously and said, “Don’t move either! You all, put the body down and squat down with your hands on your heads!”

At this moment, Li Jun sensed something was wrong and moved forward to try to smooth things over with Gu Changzheng—but the moment he shifted, two detectives behind Gu Changzheng lunged forward, pinning him to the ground left and right, and with a sharp *click*, one of them had already cuffed Li Jun!

At this point, Li Jun and his men all realized this was no ordinary situation!

The young man named Xiao Jun shouted anxiously, “What are you doing? Don’t you know this is Young Master Zhang Shaojie’s place?”

Gu Changzheng roared, “So what?! Is Young Master Zhang Shaojie’s place outside the jurisdiction of the Communist Party? Squat down! Gao Ye, cuff all the suspects!”

Li Jun’s mind suddenly cleared—he saw the scene and heard Gu Changzheng refer to them as “suspects.” He now knew this wasn’t a misunderstanding; the police had come prepared! All his men were under control, and not a single person could even call Zhang Shaojie!

After the detectives swiftly cuffed everyone, forensic expert Zheng Guoqiang began the preliminary on-site examination of Xiao Long.

“Male deceased, age approximately 24–26, height 175 centimeters, slim build…” Zheng Guoqiang narrated his observations as his assistant diligently recorded every word.

“No external injuries on the body surface, no old scars, pressure marks on the skin partially faded, moderate corneal opacity, rigor mortis at peak, body emits a burnt, acrid odor, foam residue around mouth and nostrils—initially suspected death by morphine-class drug overdose! Time of death between 12 and 14 hours ago. Based on the distribution of livor mortis, the death occurred right here on this sofa!” Zheng Guoqiang pointed to the sofa.

“Wait!” Zheng Guoqiang shouted loudly, “There’s a needle puncture on the deceased’s carotid artery!”

Direct intravenous drug injection?! Gu Changzheng exclaimed, “Seal off the scene! Take everyone back to the station!”

———

By the time Zhang Shaojie learned of the entire incident, Li Jun and the others were already detained at the Jiangdong Branch.

Although he hadn’t yet fully grasped how much trouble this would bring him, he immediately made a phone call…

Zhang Shaojie, younger and more arrogant than Chang Huaqiang, was openly ambitious, determined to replace Chang Huaqiang as the underground king of Zizhen!

In his view, Chang Huaqiang was old and out of touch with the times—perhaps all those seeking to overthrow someone higher than themselves used this same excuse.

He had actively provoked conflict, lured and turned over Chang Huaqiang’s men, constantly harassed them, and tried to stir up chaos.

But he had badly misjudged Chang Huaqiang’s methods.

Mistakes must be paid for—that’s an eternal truth.

————

At the Jiangdong Branch, forensic expert Zheng Guoqiang stared at the corpse of Long Guangsheng (Xiao Long) on the autopsy table. The autopsy revealed a large amount of morphine in the blood and obvious pulmonary edema—the cause of death was respiratory suppression.

The puncture on the carotid artery was confirmed—a method known as “opening the sky window” for drug injection, extremely dangerous; only addicts in the final stages of addiction dared attempt it. Yet the autopsy suggested the deceased had not yet reached the stage of needing injections—could it truly be, as the informant claimed, that Li Jun, manager of Snow Wolf Valley, forcibly injected him?

He relayed this information to Criminal Investigation Team Captain Lu Haoxuan.

The informant was a male server at Snow Wolf Valley, who swore he had personally seen Manager Li Jun enter the deceased’s room with him around 10 p.m. last night; about an hour later, before midnight, he saw Li Jun emerge from the private room looking panicked. Since he was assigned to that area, he asked if anything needed doing.

Li Jun’s eyes darted nervously, as if not hearing him, only mumbling a few “uh-huhs,” then said the guest inside was high and flying, telling him not to disturb them, adding that this man was currently a favorite of Big Brother (referring to Zhang Shaojie), free to do as he pleased.

Afterward, he saw Li Jun leave the nightclub carrying a small bag and never return.

When he clocked out at 2 a.m., the man still hadn’t come out, so he decided to check—but remembered Li Jun’s warning and grew afraid. Not checking worried him too—what if the man had overdone it and something happened? Li Jun would blame him.

After much hesitation, he finally went in—and found the man lying face-down on the sofa, motionless. Summoning courage, he leaned forward to check the man’s breath—there was none.

He froze in terror, his mind blank, and immediately thought only of fleeing—he ran straight back to his dormitory without telling anyone.

Back home, fear grew—he couldn’t even recall whether he’d left fingerprints when checking the man’s breath, and the room had his footprints…

In the end, he decided to report it.

Though the server’s account seemed illogical, considering he was barely literate—having dropped out of junior high—and knew little about the law, his mishandling of the situation was understandable.

If his testimony was true, then Li Jun was highly suspicious.

But Li Jun’s version was entirely different.

He admitted that on that night he had entered the private room with a young man with yellow hair—but the man was not Long Guangsheng.

Gu Changzheng asked him, “If not Xiao Long, then who?” Li Jun hesitated, then finally admitted it was someone from New World.

He was a man “recruited” by Li Jun’s top lieutenant from Chang Huaqiang’s side. Gu Changzheng had no interest in their schemes—he simply demanded full details, saying the police would investigate independently.

He then spent about half an hour chatting with Huang Mao in the room before leaving—not as long as the informant claimed.

Gu Changzheng asked, “When you left, didn’t Huang Mao leave with you?”

Li Jun replied that Huang Mao said he had some goods on him and was feeling the urge—he wanted to use the place to get high. Li Jun, hoping to win him over, graciously let him stay alone, while he himself left the nightclub and went home.

He only learned of Xiao Long’s death that morning when the security guard Xiao Jun told him—so Xiao Long’s death had nothing to do with him!

Gu Changzheng knew one of these two men was lying. Finding Huang Mao, the man Li Jun mentioned, would prove who was lying.

At this moment, Gu Changzheng had no idea that what had seemed a simple case had become strange and convoluted due to the involvement of multiple factions!