21
Monday was an exhausting day for Chen Linyao.
Work piled up from the weekend, emails from clients waiting in her inbox, and the relentless energy of people keen to dive into the new workweek left her drained.
Especially since her job involved dealing with foreign clients, each speaking a different language.
By the time she was heading home, it was nearly evening.
The sun had already set a while ago, and Chen Linyao had just managed to drag herself out of the pile of work.
Today, she’d only prepared enough food for him for two meals.
It was so late now—had he eaten yet?
Would he complain about it when she returned?
Chen Linyao’s phone buzzed, and at first, she thought Tang Beibei was calling again to chat about the day’s events.
But when she saw the caller’s name, she was momentarily confused before recalling who it was.
The caller was Officer Lu Yeqing.
“Hello, Officer,” Chen Linyao remembered the appointment the other party had mentioned.
But it had barely been a month since then, so why was Lu Yeqing calling so soon?
“Ms. Chen, there’s an urgent matter. Please come to the police station immediately,” Lu Yeqing said, her tone anxious.
“What happened?
Should I bring Xie Zhengjie along?”
“No need.
Mr.
Xie is already here.
He was involved in an altercation—a one-sided assault, really—against over thirty people.”
Chen Linyao’s heart skipped a beat.
She knew Xie Zhengjie was stronger than most, but against thirty people?
How was that possible?
She recalled how he had been pinned down by just six people at the hospital.
Abandoning her path home, she rerouted toward the police station in City H.
At the Police Station
Earlier that day, someone reported a fight in City H, prompting Lu Yeqing’s police station to respond and quell the situation.
In the end, one of the individuals involved went in to fight with several well-known gangs from the city, all on their own.
Lu Yeqing couldn’t believe that one day the police would be asked by these gang members to protect them.
As the officer on duty, Lu Yeqing had to deal with the fallout.
One of the aggressors had no ID but identified himself as Xie Zhengjie.
A junior officer argued with him for some time before Lu recognized him as the amnesiac patient from the case she was handling.
“We need to lock him up!” Lu Yeqing slammed the table decisively and said.
This was a case of assault, and Lu Yeqing, the police officer, despised unrest in the country.
Even if this man was a pitiable amnesiac, her duty as a law enforcer required firm action.
“No! No! No!”
The thugs who had been locked in cells raised their hands, waving in frantic protest.
“Lieutenant Lu, the gang members said they were the ones causing trouble, and that this guy just happened to pass by and acted in self-defense,” the young officer replied.
“Are you crazy?!
These people weren’t even in the same place.
How could he just pass by five groups of thugs unless he was looking for a fight?”
“You have to believe us, Officer!
The big guy was really just passing through.
Please don’t lock him up.” One of the gang members said from behind bars.
“What’s going on here?” A middle-aged officer entered after being informed of the disturbance.
The story he heard sounded strange.
One man had beaten up nearly thirty or forty gang members, and he was fighting alone.
“Captain Ma,” Lu Yeqing stood up to salute when she saw that the newcomer was her superior, then quickly went over to explain the situation and request that Xie Zhengjie be temporarily detained.
After examining both the victims and the alleged assailant, Captain Ma was momentarily stunned.
Just what kind of superhuman had shown up in City H?
The thought of a superhuman made Captain Ma scrutinize the young man again.
At that moment, one of the gang leaders—his nose plugged with cotton—stood beside Xie Zhengjie, holding a smartphone horizontally.
“Boss, we’re about to storm their base,” the thug explained humbly, showing his phone screen.
“Hmm, I can see that. Proceed as you see fit,” Xie Zhengjie also held his phone horizontally, the screen displaying a similar scene.
“Boss, I’ve been frozen.
You’d better retreat for now.”
“Fool.
This is the perfect chance to deal with them.
When capturing thieves, catch the leader first—take him down!”
“But, boss, you’re our leader.
What if they take you out?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s best if I retreat into the tower for now.”
Captain Ma was dumbfounded.
Was this the same group of people who had just been in a violent brawl?
How were they now calmly strategizing in a game together?
“The tower’s been destroyed.
This is bad.”
“Don’t worry, boss.
You’re new to this, but you’ve already improved so much during this one game.
I’ve never seen anyone adapt so quickly.”
“A loss is a loss.
I don’t need flattery.
But we should analyze the reasons behind it.”
“Truly, you’re the boss.
Straightforward and unyielding.
To be honest, you’re still lacking in experience with the characters’ abilities, and your controls are a bit clunky, which left openings for the enemy.”
“Your insight isn’t bad.
If you reform yourself, I might make you a squad leader commanding ten men.”
“I wouldn’t dare.
I wouldn’t dare.”
“Why not?
Currently, you’re leading a gang of five or six miscreants.
Commanding ten soldiers should be considered a promotion.”
The gang leader, the first to be taken down by him, glanced at the other thugs in the cell before nodding hesitantly.
“As you see fit, boss.”
“Call me ‘Your Highness.’ Hmm, but here, ‘Young Master’ will suffice.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Lu Yeqing, who had been observing the scene, grew increasingly frustrated.
“You can’t just form a gang here at the station.”
Captain Ma, seeing this as well, whispered to the female officer, “Lieutenant Lu, are you sure this man has amnesia?”
“The hospital doctor confirmed it.
Besides, he’s been referring to himself as ‘Your Highness’ since the beginning and hasn’t stopped.
It seems his memory hasn’t returned.”
“And you’re certain he took on all thirty-four of them alone?”
“I wasn’t at the scene, but that’s what the officers who intervened reported,” Lu Yeqing thought for a moment and added.
“What I can guarantee is that he’s incredibly strong. After being hit by a car and losing his memory, it still took six men to hold him down at the hospital.”
Captain Ma thought carefully.
He had worked in City H for thirty years and felt that this incident might be related to people from the underground world.
A group of people stronger than imagined, inheritors of ancient arts, and mysterious Chinese disciplines.
Captain Ma had encountered cases like this twice in his career—young, hot-blooded individuals from the underground world exposing themselves by fighting ordinary people.
This incident was far more severe than the previous ones.
Back then, the brawls involved at most ten people, and the assailants were often injured themselves.
Could this man be an important figure from some powerful family?
Captain Ma had only a limited understanding of such matters.
He knew that higher-ranking officials, like the city’s police chief, would have deeper insights.
City H was a major urban center, and anyone holding the chief’s position would be no ordinary figure.
“And where is he staying now?” Captain Ma whispered, asking.
Lu Yeqing’s expression froze momentarily before she replied, embarrassed, “He’s staying with the person who hit him with their car.”
She felt that she hadn’t handled this situation particularly well.
Letting this man stay with a young woman posed risks at any moment.
However, keeping him in the hospital wasn’t financially viable, and assigning him to stay with a male officer had been met with unanimous rejection.
None of the officers wanted the responsibility, especially since they didn’t know when the young man’s memory might return—and he wasn’t even the perpetrator of any crime.
“Officer Lu, I’m here.”
As the officers whispered among themselves, Chen Linyao arrived.
Initially, she hadn’t thought Xie Zhengjie would cause any significant trouble.
Who could have predicted that her one day at work would be enough for such a major incident to occur?
“Where’s Xie Zhengjie?” Chen Linyao anxiously scanned the police station, worried about what serious injuries or consequences might have befallen him.
“YOU LOSE.”The sound of a phone game echoed across the room.
Xie Zhengjie, wearing a frustrated expression, glanced up.
He had heard her voice earlier, which had momentarily distracted him, leading to his tower being destroyed yet again.