31: Chapter 31: So "fierce"—can these buttons withstand it?

"Snap!" With a loud bang, the enamel mug on the interrogation table jumped violently, splashing water all over the table.

Ye Qingcheng braced her hands on the table and leaned forward, the oppressive aura—a mix of wildness and justice—instantly filling the room.

"Captain Ye, this is called appreciation."

Qin Feng leaned back against the "regret chair," his gaze sweeping unscrupulously over the precarious button on her uniform, and shrugged.

"Everyone loves beauty; it's not illegal to take a look, right? Besides, I'm here to cooperate with the investigation, not as a criminal. Isn't this attitude a bit too harsh?"

"Stop with the glib talk!"

Ye Qingcheng opened the folder, pulled out a stack of photos, and tossed them in front of Qin Feng.

The photos were shocking.

In the dim alleyway, over twenty burly men lay scattered about, some with broken legs, some vomiting blood, others rolling their eyes back. Several gleaming machetes were scattered on the ground.

"Explain yourself." Ye Qingcheng stared fixedly into Qin Feng's eyes.

"Someone saw you get into a conflict with Zhao Tai. These men are all Zhao Tai's subordinates. The light injuries involve three broken ribs, and the severe ones are permanently disabled."

"There is no surveillance at the scene; only you and Su Qingyue passed by during that time."

"Qin Feng, you two are quite skilled, aren't you? Two people taking on twenty armed thugs and coming out unscathed?"

Ye Qingcheng's tone was filled with sarcasm and suspicion.

As the provincial Sanda champion, she knew the difficulty of real combat all too well.

Although she didn't believe Qin Feng could fight twenty men with knives alone—it was physically impossible, unless the opponent was Superman.

Qin Feng glanced at the bloody photos, his expression even showing a hint of disdain.

"Captain Ye, it's a waste of talent that you aren't writing novels with that imagination of yours. You said there were over twenty of them; how could the two of us possibly defeat them?"

Qin Feng sighed and leaned back. "I'm a law-abiding citizen. I usually just go for runs and lift weights. Fighting? I only know the radio calisthenics."

"Then how do you explain your presence at the scene? How do you explain the bloodstains on your clothes at home?" Ye Qingcheng pressed on, step by step.

"That's a long story."

Qin Feng cleared his throat and began his performance:

"Last night, I was walking home after eating barbecue and passed by that alley. Good heavens, I saw two groups of people fighting! It was all flashing blades and flying flesh!"

"I'm a kind-hearted person, raised to be a good citizen. Seeing them lying all over the ground after the fight, I thought I'd go up and see if anyone needed saving. Who knew that as soon as I got close, that pig-head..."

Qin Feng pointed at Li Qiang in the photo.

"This guy suddenly grabbed my leg, insisted on rubbing his blood on me, and even wanted to extort medical fees from me! Can you believe how wronged I am? The blood all over me was purely from trying to save lives!"

"Extortion? Saving lives?"

She had interrogated countless suspects; she'd seen those who wailed for their parents and those who played dumb.

But someone like Qin Feng, who treated her intelligence like a doormat and did so with such righteous indignation, was definitely the first.

"Keep making it up. Keep going."

Twenty-some people fighting each other? While that was more plausible, Ye Qingcheng still didn't believe it.

"Keep making it up. Keep going."

Ye Qingcheng sneered and crossed her arms, a gesture that made her already tight shirt look even more precarious.

"Qin Feng, don't think you're safe just because there's no surveillance. Once those people wake up, combined with the fingerprints and DNA collected from the scene, I can send you to prison even without your confession!"

Hearing this, Qin Feng suddenly dropped his devil-may-care attitude and leaned slightly forward, closer to the interrogation table.

"Captain Ye."

Qin Feng's voice was soft, but every word drilled clearly into Ye Qingcheng's ears.

"Don't you find it strange?"

"Over twenty thugs armed with controlled blades and even military telescopic batons, lying in ambush in an alley late at night. What do you call that? That's an organized crime syndicate."

"You don't investigate the source of these weapons, you don't investigate why those people brought so many men to block the road, yet you won't let go of me, a 'helpful bystander'."

Qin Feng stared into Ye Qingcheng's beautiful eyes, the corner of his mouth curling into a mocking arc.

"What? Is this the standard procedure for handling cases for the police in Jiangcheng? Or is it that… the Zhao family's reach has already extended into the Municipal Bureau?"

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Ye Qingcheng bristled instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

She hated this kind of power-money exchange more than anything in her life. It was precisely because she was too upright and didn't understand these underhanded dealings that she had been suppressed for so long.

Qin Feng's words hit her sore spot directly.

"When I, Ye Qingcheng, handle a case, I only care about evidence! As long as someone breaks the law, I'll arrest them, even if they're the King of Heaven!"

"A fine 'only care about evidence'."

Qin Feng laughed. "Then I hope you come back to question me with evidence, instead of bringing a few photos to tell me stories here."

Ye Qingcheng was incensed by Qin Feng's attitude, but more than that, she felt an indescribable sense of agitation.

She stared at Qin Feng; in her eyes, there was not only anger but also deep apprehension.

As the captain of the criminal police squad, she had been tracking the Zhao family for three full years.

They were a malignant tumor entrenched in Sea City—organized crime, money laundering, violent debt collection—she was clear on every single one of their deeds.

Yet every arrest attempt was blocked by a few underlings taking the fall. The Zhao father and son were as slippery as loaches; she could never get hold of any core evidence.

And this Qin Feng before her…

He had single-handedly, with his bare hands, crippled thirty of the Zhao family's top enforcers, and could still sit here drinking tea without a scratch.

This was simply not something an ordinary citizen could do!

In Ye Qingcheng's logic, this wasn't some "victim's resistance"; this was clearly criminals preying on criminals! It was the Zhao family, that vicious wolf, encountering a tougher, more ruthless opponent!

"I absolutely cannot let this go unchecked; otherwise, this guy will be the next Zhao the Tyrant."

Ye Qingcheng made a grim assessment of Qin Feng in her mind.

She desperately needed a breakthrough. Since she couldn't move the iron plate that was the Zhao family, she would start with this person, Qin Feng.

As long as she could pin a crime on him, perhaps she could use the interrogation to pry out the inside story of the Zhao family's gang warfare and tear open the Zhao family's defense from the flank!

Thinking of this, the coldness in her eyes deepened.

"Evidence? You want evidence, right?"

She stood up abruptly, her chair making a harsh "screech" against the floor.

She braced her hands on the table, and that pair of already precarious buttons faced the risk of bursting again.

She looked like an enraged female leopard, staring fixedly at her prey.

"Don't think that because you are Zhao Tai's mortal enemy, I will go easy on you. In my eyes, the nature of you street brawlers is exactly the same!"

"As soon as the forensic results come out and prove that those people were injured by you, that's excessive self-defense! That's serious bodily harm!"

Qin Feng continued to lean lazily against the back of the chair, seemingly completely oblivious to the hidden meaning in her eyes, and even had the leisure to point at her chest:

"Captain Ye, take a deep breath; be careful not to pop one and hurt someone."

"You—!"

Ye Qingcheng was choked with anger; this guy wasn't just involved with gangs, he was a scoundrel!

Just as she was about to explode and use psychological tactics to force a confession, the heavy, soundproof iron door of the interrogation room was suddenly violently pushed open from the outside.

"Bang!"

The heavy, soundproof iron door of the interrogation room was suddenly violently slammed open from the outside.

The loud bang of the door hitting the wall startled both people in the room.

The person who rushed in was the head of the Municipal Bureau, Director Zhang.

But at this moment, he was completely devoid of his usual authority, dripping with sweat, his receding hairline completely disheveled by the wind.

He was clutching his phone, which was still on a call, his face as white as paper.

"Stop! Stop the interrogation immediately!"

Director Zhang didn't even glance at Qin Feng; he rushed straight to Ye Qingcheng, his voice trembling:

"Ye Qingcheng! Seal all the case files in your possession regarding last night's alley fight; no one is allowed to review them!"

"Director?" Ye Qingcheng was stunned, her face full of disbelief. "Why? Qin Feng is a suspect for serious bodily harm, and as for the Zhao family…"

"To hell with the Zhao family! The Zhao family is finished!"