Chapter 287: Thunderous Momentum, Ripping Through Decay

Yang City, inside a hotel in an old district.

Having been exposed by Liu Dazhuang, the scammer Zhao Xiong, who got wind to flee early, is hiding in a hotel room.

He drinks beer, eats barbecue, watches a TV program, and occasionally lets out a chuckle.

The boss lets him hide here for two days, and will arrange for him to take a water route to Macau tomorrow.

Although on the run, he lives unusually comfortably, even hiring a massage lady.

He raises his hand to check the time; it should be almost time?

Dong dong dong......

A knock on the door sounds.

Zhao Xiong pulls out two tissues to wipe his mouth; though excited, he symbolically asks, "Who is it?"

There is no response from the other side, making him somewhat cautious.

Just as he, full of vigilance, leans forward to peek through the peephole at the outside…

The door is kicked open hard, the door panel hits his face, and he is knocked to the ground.

Before his dizzy reaction can process what happened, he hears a series of…

"Control, control, control......"

Then he is rolled over and pressed hard to the ground, his arm broken from the pain.

Zhao Xiong first thought they were police, but when he sees them in black uniforms, with assault rifles whose muzzles are dark holes, he nearly urinates in fright.

He remembers clearly that he only ran scams, operated a casino, lent at high interest, and absolutely, absolutely did not smuggle drugs!

How could he warrant such a display, with Armed Police Special Operations even deployed!

"Don't shoot, don't, don't shoot, I'll go with you, I'll go with you!"

"Take them away!"

In a local bathhouse in Guangling, several well‑connected local building‑material merchants who are friends of Zhao Xiong are soaking.

"Hey, this rain outside is really damn unlucky!"

"Zhao Xiong ran away; I wonder if we'll run into more trouble later?"

"Don't worry, the boss can cover the sky with one hand; as long as they can't catch Zhao Xiong, the police can't pin any crime on us."

"I'm not worried about the police; I'm worried about the troops. I heard Ding Yongxin's son became an officer in the army and has some background there; I'm afraid the troops will come after us later."

"What am I? Just a junior Lieutenant, how much help can I be? What, can they mobilize troops and pull us out of the pool directly?"

As the words finish, a sudden commotion erupts outside, followed by a group of armed soldiers with live weapons storming in.

Leading them is none other than the lieutenant colonel‑ranked commander of the 17th Division's Zhencha Daitui, Yang Yong.

Yang Yong ignores the fearful gazes of others in the bathhouse and points at the three people in the pool.

"Take them away!"

"You, what are you doing?"

The young Non‑commissioned Officer with sharp, star‑like eyes leads the charge, dragging one of them out of the water forcefully.

The other two continue struggling, shouting repeatedly, "The soldier killed someone, the soldier killed someone!"

Yang Yong sneers, pulls out a paper: "You three are suspected of scamming military families, extortion, aiding cruelty, endangering lives; this is an arrest warrant!"

The boss who sells wooden flooring still tries to argue, distancing himself from Zhao Xiong and casting himself as a victim.

He also seizes logical loopholes, emphasizing they lack solid evidence and cannot arbitrarily arrest people.

Unless Zhao Xiong is caught, or he confesses himself, the few of them are only accomplices.

Yang Yong is amused, steps forward and flicks a small chicken with his finger: "Friend, don't you know the troops only need a name and a photo to arrest someone?"

"Also, let me tell you another thing: Zhao Xiong has already been captured; the crimes you three committed are what he confessed himself."

"So, get ready to sit in a big cell, take them away!"

The three guys are dragged away by a squad of soldiers amid wailing.

The onlookers in the bathhouse, after learning the gist, clap and cheer.

Especially when someone mentions that these guys might be linked to the explosive Yuanbao Liquor Co., people, still half‑dressed, rush out excitedly.

Outside the bathhouse, a few police cars are parked, but there are more military anti‑explosive vehicles, even an armored vehicle equipped with a machine gun.

The spectacle makes the crowd's blood boil; they finally have the moment of righteous justice!

But a passing, uninformed old ladybug breaks out in cold sweat.

"Isn't this the anti‑prostitution and anti‑illegal campaign now? The army is deployed?"

"I'm done, I'm done, never again, it's too damn scary, tanks even came!"

At the junction of Guangling and Jinling, a very imposing office building stands.

On the roof, the glowing letters of Qiangsheng City Construction Group flicker intermittently in the downpour.

A joint capture team composed of police, Armed Police, and the Army rushes into the building, guns in hand.

The security guard on duty downstairs, frightened by the display, raises his hands and is forced to stand against the wall, but the capture team finds the office empty.

"Commander, the person fled, not at home nor at the company; even the secretary has no contact!"

A squadron commander leading the Armed Police immediately reports the situation upward.

On the other end of the phone, the two‑star Armed Police commander slams the table in anger.

"What?"

"Someone must have leaked the information!"

"Damn it, they can't have gone far; with this heavy rain, planes can't take off, so the person surely hasn't left the country! As long as they're on our soil, even if we have to dig three feet underground, I want them caught!"

"Commander, the Army side is also intensively investigating..."

"We must get them before the Army does, must capture them ahead of them! Damn it, my old face is already ruined; whether I can keep any dignity depends on catching the person!"

"Chief, this matter is not your fault; no one knew she would take the child to the Eastern Front Command. If they found us, we would certainly take action as well."

"Then why don't you think about why they would rather go to the Army instead of our Armed Police? In the end, it's because our grassroots work was not up to standard, in the end, it's our negligence!"

The chief of the squad on the other end of the phone hammered his fist hard on the table, gritting his teeth as he said, "Scamming money, scamming onto the families of our Armed Police martyrs; after we capture him, I'm going to personally slap his big mouth, then pull out his conscience and see what color it is!"

"Yes!"

The phone was hung up, and the detachment commander turned his head to look at the leading Army officer.

A flash of electric collision sparked in their eyes, and over there the report had just been completed.

Both sides had their sights on the escaped head of the Strong Group, while the police officers stood at the side, rubbing their noses with a sense of invisibility, feeling their presence was somewhat superfluous.

Late at night, in a certain park of Guo Gan, Myanmar.

Having embezzled 120 million, the fugitive former boss Yuan Fengxiang, who had escaped here, was hugging two women and snoring loudly.

The bedroom door was suddenly kicked open, and startled, he quickly grabbed a gun from under the pillow and aimed at the shadow at the doorway.

"Huh, you scared me—this in the middle of the night?"

Seeing that the newcomer was his own uncle, Yuan Fengxiang instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

He was able to successfully flee here thanks to the boss's operations and his uncle's help.

Because they were family, and he was now working under his hand, Yuan Fengxiang had no guard at all toward his relatives.

Yet the uncle came up, grabbed his neck, pressed a gun to his head, and hysterically demanded, "Yuan Fengxiang, what have you done, what exactly have you done?"

"I—what's wrong with me? I didn't do anything!"

Yuan Fengxiang was terrified into silence, and the two women beside him also fled the room in fright.

The uncle forced the gun against his head and said, "Do you know how huge a disaster you've caused? Do you know you've pierced a hole in the sky!"

"Huh? No way, I just embezzled money and ran away, it's not that serious, right?"

"Not that serious?"

The uncle gave a stupid laugh and said, "My people told me the task force has been stationed locally; the Joint Military‑Police‑Army Tribunal is reviewing, specifically to investigate this matter of yours! Now the boss has already been dragged in, and all those guys who were playing with you have been arrested!"

"Before, you were just on the run; now you've become a high‑profile target; moreover, my superiors told me to hand you over, to ensure safety!"

"What??!!"

Yuan Fengxiang was so scared he wet himself.

The uncle's superior, nominally the park's big boss.

But in reality, he is the locally notorious warlord.

Now even the topmost warlord feels the pressure, wanting to hand himself over for safety; one can imagine how serious the situation is.

He knelt on the bed, repeatedly kowtowing, "Uncle, uncle, you are my own uncle; you can't hand me over, you can't hand me over! If I return to the country I will die, I will die!"

"I beg you, I beg you to save me, I beg you to find connections, to plead. This is abroad; there must be a way, there must be a way."

The uncle, with a face full of bitter resentment, said, "If I were prepared to hand you over, I wouldn't be saying all this. But the appearance must be maintained, otherwise I would also die in a disgraceful way."

"You keep the gun; later I'll have someone escort you on the road, figure out a way to deal with the guard yourself. After you escape, call this number; someone will pick you up and take you to Jianpu Village, and once there you must change your appearance."

"Besides, we can't keep this money; at least most of it must be flushed out; otherwise, even if you flee to the ends of the earth, you'll be killed."

"I understand, I understand, I'll flush it, won't flushing it out be fine?"

Yuan Fengxiang expressed endless gratitude; now he only wants to stay alive.

After all, money can be earned again, but a life lost is truly gone.

He believes that with his own scamming methods, he will surely make a comeback in the future!

In the early hours, the rain stopped, and the sky gradually shifted from gray to white.

The head of the Strong Group, the mastermind behind this incident.

Also, under the thunderous pressure of the three sides, it collapsed in an instant.

He used the contacts, influence, and energy he had built up over decades; in the face of absolute strength, he truly vanished like a dust‑filled chicken and a broken dog.

The next day was the weekend, and Lu Yang got up early.

Breathing the fresh air after the rain, his mood was quite good.

The Armed Forces Department called, informing him that Zhao Xiong and his accomplices had all been captured, and the area would soon commence a comprehensive sweep to eradicate evil.

Within the Division, not only were they aware of his heroic deeds fighting villains, Chief of Staff Xiong and Division Commander Luo also prepared to commend him and Ding Tengfei.

The mother of the sick child has now been settled in the military region guesthouse; the girl has been taken to Gulou Hospital, where the country's most authoritative experts are treating her.

Ding Tengfei also called to tell him that his father had been released on bail, thanking Lu Yang for saving his father's life; his family will be forever grateful, just a few more nods over the phone away.

Lu Yang stretched lazily, feeling that this holiday was both fulfilling and meaningful.

"Getting up so early, why not sleep a bit longer?"

"In the troops, we should be up around four or five."

"Dad, Mom, we haven't had breakfast together in ages; it's the weekend, I'll treat you to a restaurant, I have allowances and bonuses, you can relax a bit, it's fine."

"Hahaha, I was just thinking of saying, I'll ride a bike out to buy you soup dumplings and steamed dumplings, but tomorrow you're leaving."

"Where shall we eat?"

"Of course it's Huaiyang Teahouse, let's go~"

"gogogo, let's set off!"