17: I recorded Zhao Lidong's phone call in Chapter 17.

"Feng Lvzi!"

Xu Jiang received no response, so his voice grew a few decibels louder.

"Feng Lvzi, did you freaking hear me?"

"He can't hear you anymore."

Zhao Yang's voice suddenly came from behind him.

Xu Jiang's pupils constricted sharply; before he could even turn around, he took a heavy blow to the back of his neck.

His vision went black, and he collapsed straight down.

The Hostesses were terrified, their faces pale as they huddled together.

Zhao Yang smiled at them. "Don't worry, this has nothing to do with you. Just squat in the corner."

The dozen or so Hostesses understood immediately—Xu Jiang was finished today, caught by Meng Dehai and "Brother Mo."

Meng Dehai stood up from the sofa and straightened his collar. "Xiao Zhao, how's the situation on the ship?"

Zhao Yang smiled. "Xu Jiang's men and those officials have all been knocked unconscious by me. The only conscious people are in this room."

Meng Dehai breathed a sigh of relief. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine." Zhao Yang smiled and pulled Chen Yan out from behind the door. "Director Meng, let me introduce you—this is Chen Yan, a reporter from the Imperial Capital Central Radio Legal Channel. She came specifically to the front lines to interview you about the story of how you used yourself as bait to bravely dismantle a black-hearted criminal gang."

Meng Dehai was stunned. "A reporter from the Imperial Capital? Why is she here?"

"She is also a brave soul." Zhao Yang winked. "I'm sure the two of you have plenty to talk about. I'll head outside to update Director An and the others on the situation."

Just as he turned around, Xu Jiang's phone suddenly rang.

Zhao Yang picked it up, glanced at it, and handed it to Meng Dehai. "Director Meng, do you recognize this number?"

Meng Dehai looked at it. "It's a Jinghai number, but I haven't seen it before."

"Then let's see who's calling him at a time like this."

Zhao Yang took a deep breath and pressed the speakerphone button.

An anxious voice immediately came from the other end—

"Xu Jiang, where are you? An Changlin is conducting a major operation tonight. Whatever you're doing, stop it right now!"

Hearing that voice, Meng Dehai's gaze sharpened.

It was Zhao Lidong from the Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

Zhao Yang pinched his throat, imitating Feng Lvzi's tone. "Who is this? Our boss is meeting an important guest!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Feng Lvzi!"

"Who is your boss meeting?"

"How should I know? Hang on, I'll give the phone to the boss and have him call you back."

Zhao Yang hung up and handed the phone to Meng Dehai. "Director Meng, the call recording function was already on. That conversation just now was recorded."

Meng Dehai's expression turned grave. He patted Zhao Yang's shoulder firmly and then looked at Chen Yan.

Chen Yan understood immediately. "Director Meng, I am only here to interview you. I know nothing about unrelated matters."

As a reporter from Imperial Capital Central Radio, what kind of grand scenes hadn't she witnessed? She naturally knew what to focus on and what to ignore.

...

On the deck, the sea breeze whistled.

Zhao Yang assisted his colleagues from the Criminal Police Team in boarding the ship.

The first one up was An Xin, who gave Zhao Yang a light punch. "You kid, you're really something! This is a major achievement!"

Li Xiang followed closely behind. "Xiao Zhao, you've definitely earned a merit this time. You'll have to treat me to dinner later!"

Cao Break was the last to board. As soon as he stepped on deck, he pulled Zhao Yang around to look him over. He sighed in relief. "Good, good, no missing limbs. It was supposed to be a simple undercover evidence collection, yet you managed to cause such a huge stir."

"Master, come over here for a second."

Zhao Yang pulled Cao Break aside and lowered his voice. "Just after Xu Jiang was subdued, someone called him to tip him off."

Cao Break frowned. "Are you saying there's a traitor in our ranks? That doesn't seem right... everyone's communication devices were confiscated before the operation. There was no way to tip anyone off."

Zhao Yang leaned into his ear. "From the sound of it, it seemed like Zhao Lidong from the Political and Legal Affairs Commission."

The corner of Cao Break's eye twitched.

Recently, Zhao Lidong had been "caring" for him quite a bit, trying to win him over both overtly and covertly several times.

In the original plot, Cao Break had boarded Zhao Lidong's criminal enterprise and eventually lost his life. But that should have happened six years later. Now, Zhao Yang didn't know if he had been corrupted yet, so he spoke to test him.

Cao Break sucked in a breath through his teeth. "To tell you the truth, his secretary has been looking for me quite often lately. I figured he wasn't up to any good. Damn it, he really does have issues!"

Zhao Yang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "Then you should go talk to Director Meng about this now, so you don't end up getting dragged into this mess."

"What? Director Meng? Director Meng is on the ship too?"

"If Director Meng wasn't here, how else would we lure Xu Jiang out?" Zhao Yang smiled.

Cao Break looked at him as if he were a monster. "You kid are ruthless enough to even scheme against Director Meng."

"Don't go accusing me of that. It was clearly Director Meng leading the charge with his seasoned vigor—if you don't know how to speak properly, you can just keep your mouth shut, but definitely don't talk nonsense."

"You young people are truly bold." Cao Break expressed his mental exhaustion.

Zhao Yang chuckled and followed An Xin and the others into the cabins to make arrests.

The people in the cabins were strewn about; whether they were Xu Jiang's henchmen or the officials who had come for pleasure, Zhao Yang had knocked them all out—treating everyone with absolute equality.

Seeing this, Li Xiang couldn't help but laugh. "This is a first. Making arrests is easier than catching pigs in our village."

...

By the time they returned to the Public Security Bureau, most of the unconscious people had woken up.

Taking advantage of the moment when their psychological defenses were at their weakest, the sudden interrogations began, leaving the entire Public Security Bureau in a state of chaotic busyness.

Zhao Yang was called into the office by Meng Dehai and An Changlin.

Seeing their grim expressions, Zhao Yang felt inwardly amused, but he kept his expression serious. "Director Meng, Director An, did we poke a hornet's nest this time?"

Meng Dehai glared at him irritably. "What do you think? I initially thought Xu Jiang had only invited me, but I didn't expect there to be so many... Public Officials on that ship. Fortunately, tomorrow isn't a workday, otherwise at least a third of Jinghai's departments would be paralyzed."

Zhao Yang deliberately put on a surprised expression. "Surely it's not that bad? I walked around the ship for a long time and didn't see any illegal transactions... at most, it was just solicitation. Speaking objectively, a disciplinary action and a fine should suffice. Besides, that's a matter for the Discipline Inspection Commission, right? Our System is only responsible for crimes."

Meng Dehai and An Changlin both looked surprised, their eyes shining as they looked at Zhao Yang as if they had discovered a Treasure Trove.

These were not words a fresh college graduate should be able to say.

Shouldn't a young man his age be clear-eyed and idealistic like An Xin?

They had called Zhao Yang over originally intending to give him some instructions so he wouldn't go around talking about today's events. But clearly, they had overthought it—Zhao Yang saw through the situation quite clearly.

Meng Dehai suddenly asked, "Zhao Yang, regarding that phone call, what do you think we should do?"

Zhao Yang replied without hesitation, "I suggest you interrogate Xu Jiang first to get some information, then take his deposition and go to higher-level leaders to make a decision."

"Good!" Meng Dehai looked at him with approval. "You kid and I are thinking the same thing. Alright, you don't need to worry about today's interrogations anymore. Go back and get some rest."

"Thank you, Director Meng. Thank you, Director An. I'll leave these things for you to decide."

Zhao Yang took out a satchel from behind him and placed it on the coffee table.

"What is it?"

"The surveillance footage from the ship."

Meng Dehai and An Changlin exchanged a glance, looking at the satchel as if they were looking at a bomb.