Chapter 355

"???"

Feng Ju's face was dark as ink, his eyes flickering with shock and doubt. His mind, usually quick as lightning, now felt as if it had been filled with mud, unable to turn the corner no matter how he tried.

Li Shang was his greatest rival for the Bureau Chief position in the Patrol Bureau; to call them mortal enemies would be no exaggeration. So why would he come to save Feng Mu?

A terrifying thought exploded in Feng Ju's mind, shaking him dizzy like a clap of thunder:

"Could it be... this rebellious son has been in collusion with Li Shang all along?!"

He stared dead at the scene behind the one-way glass — Chen Yang, face red and swollen, shrinking in the corner. However you looked at it, he didn't seem like Li Shang's man; rather, it was his own rebellious son...

Feng Ju watched the rebellious son sitting upright in the interrogation chair, a faint, bloody smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, while Li Shang stood at his side. That posture didn't look like interrogating a suspect at all; it looked like protecting someone important.

"The reason this rebellious son has acted with such impunity in the Patrol Bureau"

Feng Ju's temples throbbed violently,

"isn't because I'm his father, but because my mortal enemy Li Shang?"

His left fingers unconsciously dug into his palm, leaving deep crescent marks on the skin, while his right mechanical fingers clenched with a cracking sound.

The voice squeezed from between his teeth was horribly hoarse:

"This rebellious son doesn't want to use his life to block my career; he wants to anger me to death alive!"

Feng Ju suddenly understood. When the rebellious son hung up the phone last night, arranging to meet today at the Patrol Bureau, it wasn't to beg him for rescue, but to forewarn him of this very scene.

Feng Ju's back molars ground with a creaking sound. He saw clearly now: behind the glass wall, Feng Mu slowly turned half his head, the corner of his mouth hooking a meaningful smile, staring straight at the wall.

The gazes of father and son seemed to penetrate the one-way glass, meeting in the void.

In those eyes there was no pleading, no anger, only a filial piety where everything was understood without words.

Feng Ju stood unsteady on the spot, his throat suddenly sweet, a mouthful of fresh blood surging up against his tongue root.

He bit down hard on his teeth, forcibly swallowing that mouthful of blood back down, laughing in extreme anger:

"Very good indeed. What a rebellious son, what a Li Shang."

Dong Ping was startled by that cold laugh into a shiver, subconsciously shifting half a step toward the door.

He sneakily glanced at Feng Ju's expression, only to see that usually imposing face now twisted horribly, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deep enough to pinch a fly to death.

He stood to the side, not daring to breathe, his mind likewise a pot of paste. Several times he wanted to speak but swallowed the words back down his throat.

Dong Ping stood to the side, cold sweat sliding down his back.

Although he couldn't sort out this tangled situation, years of honed observational instinct finally let him catch the drift:

"Captain Feng and his son's relationship"

He sneakily glanced at Feng Ju's twisted, ferocious expression,

"seems a tiny bit different from what I thought."

Dong Ping's gaze wandered between Feng Ju and Feng Mu, occasionally peeking at Li Shang, his heart a tangled mess:

"What to do? Captain Feng doesn't seem to have taught his son well at all — his son has defected to the enemy!"

Suddenly, Dong Ping's loyalty to Feng Ju underwent a violent wavering:

"Even Captain Feng's own son doesn't choose his father; should I still follow Captain Feng? Would following Captain Li Shang, Captain Li, be more promising?"

Inside the interrogation room, Feng Mu gazed at Li Shang's gentle face, his heart clear — Li Shang didn't recognize him, but because of Ma Bin, he had long been an "old acquaintance" to Li Shang.

Li Shang took out a key, bent down to unlock Feng Mu's handcuffs, and simultaneously whispered briefly in Feng Mu's ear:

"Rest assured, one of our own. Secretary Hou sent me."

"Click—" the handcuffs loosened.

Feng Mu lightly moved his wrist; the skin still retained the coolness of metal, and he blinked knowingly at Li Shang.

He took the clean white handkerchief Li Shang handed over, slowly and calmly wiping the bloodstains from his face, his movements indescribably elegant and composed.

The handkerchief was soon stained with mottled red. Feng Mu folded it twice, pressed it into a neat square, and gently pressed it against the wound on his forehead.

"Many thanks, Captain Li."

Feng Mu showed a perfectly measured smile, speaking with understanding:

"Merely minor injuries, nothing serious. Captain Li need not blame yourself overly."

His gaze swept over Chen Yang in the corner,

"The Patrol Bureau is large; inevitably there will be some bad apples, some management oversights. I can understand that."

Feng Mu paused a moment, his voice lowering slightly:

"I only hope Captain Li can restore my innocence as soon as possible."

The corner of his mouth hooked a meaningful arc,

"There are many people and matters over at Second Prison that urgently need me to return and clean up."

As he spoke, Feng Mu rose calmly, stretching his meridians.

According to Patrol Bureau interrogation procedure, this was absolutely not allowed, but who let the surveillance go out early?

He cast a sidelong glance at Chen Yang leaning against the wall, his heart harboring no resentment, his eyes even flashing a trace of pity.

Toward the dead, Feng Mu had always held mercy.

"It seems," Feng Mu said gently to Chen Yang, "it's not that I didn't grasp my own situation, but that you don't understand what vortex you've been dragged into."

Chen Yang's Adam's apple rolled violently, cold sweat sliding down his temples.

He didn't look at Feng Mu, but stared dead at Li Shang, voice trembling:

"Captain Li, this man is the murderer of the Gong Lao case! I have evidence proving Gong Lao was killed by him!"

His voice suddenly pitched high,

"Right now public opinion on the Internet is boiling; we can't just let him go like this!"

Li Shang didn't even glance at Chen Yang, his voice carrying a hint of mockery:

"Evidence? Heh— you mean that bit of evidence you forged, or the evidence of the huge bribe you took?"

Chen Yang's pupils contracted sharply; he could understand the first half of Li Shang's words — those so-called pieces of evidence were indeed meticulously forged by him — but the second half left him completely baffled.

"Captain Li, I..." his voice trembled, "I have never accepted any bribes at all."

The corner of Li Shang's mouth curled into a meaningful smile: "Is that so?"

He unhurriedly took out a stack of documents from his pocket and casually tossed them onto the interrogation table. The papers scattered, revealing a long string of bank statements and transfer records.

"Then what about these?"

Li Shang's fingers lightly tapped the tabletop,

"How do you explain the two million transferred from an account called Ma Xuan into your father's name?"

Chen Yang's mouth gaped wide enough to stuff a lightbulb in, his eyeballs bulging as if about to fall out, staring dead at Li Shang with a look that could have burned two holes in him.

"A frame-up!" he roared like a pig being slaughtered, "I don't know a thing about this money! It's someone framing and entrapping me!"

Li Shang, however, shrugged like nothing had happened, wearing that unique, punchable smile of a case-solving Divine Detective:

"We are constables; we cannot make subjective assumptions. Whether it's entrapment depends on what the evidence says."

Chen Yang's eye sockets were filled with bloodshot veins; his gaze shifted back and forth between Li Shang and Feng Mu, and he suddenly understood something.

"You..." his voice trembled, "You all..."

But Li Shang had already turned around and waved at Chang Erbing:

"Before the truth is ascertained, Chen Yang will be suspended first. As for the cases on his hands, you'll have to trouble yourself with them."

Chang Erbing immediately straightened his posture: "Yes, Captain Li!"

In just one exchange, Li Shang acted swift and decisive, employing thunderous means, knocking this rising "God Detective Rising Star" down to a sliver of health.

Feng Mu lowered his head and scanned the scattered documents on the table, his gaze pausing on that bank statement, then narrowing his eyes at the autopsy report spread out behind it.

The corner of his mouth curled into an intriguing smile:

"Quite professional, hehe — not a bad way to die!"

(End of Chapter)