21: The Emperor's Invitation

Inside the command vehicle, the air was so still that only the faint hum of electronic equipment remained.

Outside the window, the red and blue lights of the police cruisers swept silently across everyone's faces, carving their expressions into flickering patches of light and shadow.

Zhao Dahai's heavy breathing broke the silence.

He stared fixedly at the screen in the car, which showed the footage of Lin Feng being escorted into a police car, his Adam's apple bobbing.

“The 'Emperor's' game...”

His voice was raspy, as if asking himself, yet also asking Chen Mo, “What exactly is that thing?”

Chen Mo leaned back against his seat, eyes closed, seemingly calming himself down.

“The ravings of a madman, nothing to be taken seriously,” Su Qingxue spoke up, though her voice lacked its usual composure.

“No.”

Chen Mo opened his eyes.

In those eyes, the cold, disdainful killing intent from before had faded, replaced by a calm as deep as a pool.

“He wasn't lying.”

Zhao Dahai and Su Qingxue's gazes instantly focused on him.

“In this world, there are always elites who consider themselves 'supermen'; they despise rules and view ordinary people as ants.”

“They believe they are qualified to judge evil with evil, and to reshape order through chaos.”

Chen Mo's voice was soft, yet it caused the temperature in the car to drop several degrees.

“The 'Emperor' is the king of these madmen.”

Zhao Dahai's fist clenched abruptly.

He understood.

This wasn't an isolated copycat case.

This was a massive, secret, and possibly global criminal organization showing its savage fangs to the Jiangcheng police for the first time.

...

By the time the convoy returned to the Municipal Bureau building, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

The entire main office of the Criminal Investigation Detachment was brightly lit; no one had slept.

They were Li Ke prisoners awaiting judgment, craning their necks toward the elevator doors.

When Zhao Dahai led the SWAT Officer team out, escorting a dejected Lin Feng...

A wave of suppressed gasps and commotion erupted from the crowd.

“They... they caught him?”

“My god, it's only been a few hours?!”

“I heard Team Leader Chen only looked at the surveillance for a few minutes before he smoked him out!”

“A monster... he's fucking inhuman!”

Everyone's gaze subconsciously avoided Zhao Dahai and the suspect, converging instead on the calm young man following at the rear.

Those looks were filled with awe, curiosity, and a trace of undisguisable fear.

Gao Fan stood at the entrance of the Serious Crime Unit One office, his face as pale as paper.

He listened to the rising chatter around him, hearing the praise once used to flatter him now being applied to the 'Coward' he looked down on most.

He felt as if his blood were flowing backward and his limbs were cold.

He had lost.

He had lost utterly and completely.

Chen Mo walked past him without even turning his head.

That complete disregard was Li Ke a red-hot branding iron, searing itself into Gao Fan's pride.

“Stop!”

Gao Fan spun around, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Chen Mo's back, his voice as hoarse as a trapped beast.

“Don't think you've won just Li Ke that!”

Chen Mo's footsteps stopped.

The entire office went silent instantly; everyone held their breath, watching this overdue confrontation.

“You just got lucky and happened to guess right!”

Gao Fan approached step by step, Li Ke a wolf driven into a corner.

“Solving cases relies on evidence and hard work! Not your kind of armchair theorizing while hiding in a car!”

He lunged forward, grabbing Chen Mo's collar and pinning him against the wall.

“Do you dare come to the interrogation room with me?!”

He practically roared it, spittle flying onto Chen Mo's face.

“Do you dare to look with your own eyes at the photos of the corpses you use as material for your deductions?!”

“You Coward who doesn't even dare go to a crime scene! You weakling!”

“You don't deserve to be a cop at all!”

Su Qingxue's face turned cold instantly, her hand already resting on the sidearm at her waist.

Zhao Dahai's expression was so dark it could practically drip water.

Just as he was about to step forward...

Chen Mo raised a hand, stopping him.

He didn't struggle, nor did he even look at Gao Fan's face, which was twisted with rage.

His gaze fell calmly on Gao Fan's hand, which was gripping his collar so hard the knuckles were white.

“You're afraid.”

Chen Mo spoke.

His voice was soft, but it was Li Ke a needle, precisely piercing Gao Fan's most fragile nerve.

“What did you say?” Gao Fan's pupils constricted sharply.

“You're not angry for the victims, nor are you questioning my methods.”

Chen Mo slowly raised his head, his clear eyes meeting Gao Fan's gaze for the first time.

“You're just afraid.”

“Afraid that your halo as the top student of the Police Academy, the favored son of heaven, will be snatched away by me, the 'shame of the Police Academy'.”

“Afraid that the heights you can't reach even with all your effort are heights I've stood upon with ease.”

“You're afraid you'll become a joke.”

Boom!

Gao Fan's mind felt as if a bomb had gone off.

His hand gripping Chen Mo's collar loosened uncontrollably.

Every word Chen Mo said was Li Ke a Scalpel, dissecting all his pretenses.

It exposed the darkest, deepest fears in his heart, bloody and bare, to the sunlight.

“You...”

His lips trembled, unable to utter a single word.

Chen Mo took a step forward, meeting him eye to eye.

“Your ambition is your weapon, but your fear makes you unable to even hold the trigger steady.”

“Gao Fan.”

Chen Mo's voice sounded Li Ke a sentence from hell.

“That is why you will never beat me.”

With that, he didn't spare Gao Fan another glance.

Turning around, he straightened his crumpled collar.

He walked straight toward the office that had just had the 'Cold Case Investigation Team' sign hung up.

Gao Fan froze in place, his body cold all over.

The gazes of the surrounding officers had shifted from admiration to sympathy, and even... disdain.

He felt Li Ke a clown stripped of his clothes, nailed to a pillar of shame for all to see.

“Aaaah—!”

He suddenly let out an inhuman roar and slammed a fist hard against the nearby wall!

...

Cold Case Investigation Team Office.

Old Liu had somehow gotten hold of a set of purple clay tea set and was leisurely brewing Kung Fu tea.

“Tsk, young people, such tempers.”

He poured a cup for Chen Mo and Su Qingxue each, the tea's aroma filling the air.

“But kid, those words just now were truly ruthless.”

Su Qingxue looked at Chen Mo with a complex gaze.

This man managed to make her see him in a new light every single time.

Zhao Dahai pushed the door open and walked in, a look of unprecedented satisfaction on his face.

He slapped a document onto the desk.

“The Bureau just issued the notice. This office, and the two next door, all belong to our Cold Case Unit from now on!”

“Also, the personnel quota has been approved. Besides the three of you, I can request two more elite officers from other departments!”

“Chen Mo, if you want someone, just say the word!”

Before Chen Mo could speak...

There was another knock on the office door.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

The door was pushed open.

A burly man with a simple, honest smile walked in.

It was Li Hu, who had almost kicked down the door with the bomb during the 'butcher of the rainy night' case.

Holding a 'Transfer Request' identical to Su Qingxue's, he walked up to Chen Mo, snapped his heels together, and gave a standard military salute.

“Reporting, Team Leader Chen!”

His voice was as loud as a bell, filled with guilt and... fervent admiration.

“Former Criminal Investigation Detachment Unit Two officer, Li Hu, requests a transfer to the Cold Case Investigation Team!”

“I... I want to follow you and learn how to be a real policeman!”

Behind him followed a somewhat frail-looking tech geek wearing black-rimmed glasses.

“Um... Team Leader Chen, I'm Li Ke from the technical department. I... I also want to join.”

“I think using technology to turn your 'oracles' into evidence is... a very cool thing.”

Zhao Dahai looked at these two soldiers who had volunteered themselves, his grin widening until he couldn't close his mouth.

A combat expert and a technical genius.

The framework of the Cold Case Investigation Team was complete!

Just as the office was filled with a harmonious atmosphere...

A young clerk walked in with a strange expression, holding a black archive box.

“Team... Team Leader Chen, someone just delivered this to the front desk, specifically for you.”

“Who sent it?” Zhao Dahai frowned.

“I don't know. A courier dropped it off and left. His face wasn't clear on the surveillance either.”

Chen Mo's gaze fell upon the black archive box.

It wasn't a standard-issue police archive box.

It was solid black without any markings, yet it emitted a faint scent of sandalwood.

Chen Mo stepped forward and slowly opened the box.

There were no case files inside, no photos.

Only a black card with gold-stamped borders.

In the center of the card was a bizarre pattern.

A snake biting its own tail, encircling a broken crown.

It was the emblem of the criminal organization, 'Tartarus'!

Chen Mo's pupils suddenly constricted.

He picked up the card.

On the back of the card, a sentence was written in ornate script.

An address.

And... an invitation.

[Jiangcheng Art Museum, Midnight.]

[The Emperor invites you to appreciate... an art of death.]

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