53: Listen to your heart, and take it to the police station.

In the wasteland, the night wind howled.

It swirled with grass debris and the smell of earth, stinging the face upon impact.

The high beams of several cars illuminated this small clearing in a deathly pale light, making it look like an open-air interrogation stage.

Zhao San knelt on the ground, a comical cartoon smiley face sticker stuck to his forehead.

It looked out of place, even a bit funny.

But he couldn't laugh.

He only felt that the moment the sticker was applied, his scalp felt a chill, as if a piece of ice had been stuck there.

"Master Lin, what are you trying to do?"

Zhao San asked tremulously, his eyes darting around uncertainly.

Lin Chuan ignored him, simply pulling a small notebook from his coat and uncapping a pen—it was a Parker pen his eldest brother had bought in Hong Kong Island.

"Zhao San."

Lin Chuan tapped the notebook with the tip of the pen, his tone like he was chatting about everyday matters.

"I'm the kind of person who values peace, but that depends on who I'm dealing with."

"You brought people to drive Old Man Liu to the point of hanging himself and cut down so many trees; we'll settle that separately."

"Right now, I'm only asking you one thing."

Lin Chuan suddenly looked up, his eyes shining terrifyingly bright in the shadows cast by the car lights.

"Do you have any lives on your hands?"

Zhao San's whole body jolted as if struck by electricity.

He subconsciously swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, as he forced a wronged expression onto his face.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Master Lin! I swear!"

Zhao San held up three fingers and shouted solemnly.

"Even though I, Zhao San, am a piece of work who usually bullies honest people and collects protection fees, I've really never killed anyone!"

"I don't have the guts! I usually just scare people!"

"We're all neighbors, seeing each other all the time. Many of us grew up together. How could I possibly do such a thing?"

He spoke with such sincerity that even Chu Tianbiao believed him.

However.

While Zhao San's mouth cried innocence.

In Lin Chuan's mind, a sinister voice rang out clearly.

It was Zhao San's inner thoughts.

[Why did this guy ask that right off the bat? Could it be he knows about *that*? Impossible! That was done without a trace!]

[The bodies of those two long-haul drivers are buried in the dry well on the back mountain of Liushu Town. I even weighed them down with big stones. It's been two years now; surely even the bone fragments have rotted away? Who could know?]

[He absolutely cannot know!]

[As long as I don't admit it, what can this pretty boy do to me?]

[So many people saw Chu Tianbiao take me away.]

[If they really kill me, it'll be a hassle for them to deal with. They shouldn't dare touch me.]

[I think... Dammit, why am I so unsure!]

Lin Chuan rubbed his chin.

He was amazed; the effect of this Heart-Voice Sticker was actually quite good.

He lowered his head and began writing rapidly in the notebook.

He muttered slowly as he wrote:

"Two years ago, at the back mountain of Liushu Town, two passing drivers were killed. Their bodies were thrown into a well and weighed down with stones..."

Boom!!!

As soon as these words were spoken.

It was like several bolts of lightning striking Zhao San directly on the crown of his head!

Zhao San's face, which was still feigning pity, instantly froze.

His eyes widened, and his pupils constricted violently to the size of pinpricks.

It was an extreme fear, as if he had seen a ghost!

"You, you..."

Zhao San's lips trembled, his upper and lower teeth chattering with a clicking sound. He couldn't utter a full sentence for a long time.

How... how did he know?!

Only I and those two confidants knew about that!

Those two confidants got drunk last year, fell into an ice hole, and drowned!

No one in this world should know!

Lin Chuan ignored his shock and continued to stare at the sticker, as if reading an open book.

"You absolute beast. Was it easy for those long-haul drivers to support a family? You damn well committed highway robbery and murder. Not only did you rob them, you took their lives. If you're not a beast, what are you?"

In the nineties, highway robberies were far too common.

Some village road tyrants would even bury blasting caps in the road, detonating them as cars passed!

This wasn't just simple robbery; it was cold-blooded murder!

Official statistics showed that from 1991 to September 1992, in Fujian Province alone, there were over 3,000 recorded cases.

Too many people were killed because of this.

The nineties could definitely be called an era of great savagery!

Lin Chuan shook his head while continuing to write.

"You robbed them of two truckloads of leather jackets and stabbed them over a dozen times."

[Holy shit!! He's a ghost!! He's a ghost!!]

Zhao San's inner voice was screaming.

[How could he even know about the leather jackets? How could he know about the dozen stabs? Could those two vengeful spirits be following me? Watching me right from the side?]

[It's over! It's all over! There's a crooked-neck pine tree next to that dry well; I even buried their driver's licenses under that tree!]

"If you don't want people to know, don't do it in the first place."

Lin Chuan waved his hand at the air.

"You two brothers, if you want to take a life, remember to aim for him."

"Holy shit!!" Zhao San looked back in horror, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Are there really ghosts in this world?

Lin Chuan looked down at Zhao San.

"They've already told me. There's a crooked-neck pine tree next to the dry well, and driver's licenses are buried under the tree."

"Zhao San, tonight, prepare to pay with your life."

"Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!"

Zhao San finally couldn't take it anymore.

He let out a scream that didn't sound human, and his entire body collapsed onto the ground like a puddle of mud.

"Master Lin!! Divine Grandpa!!!"

"I'll confess! I'll confess everything!"

"Don't say any more!"

"I'm not human! I'm a beast!"

Zhao San frantically banged his head against the ground, making thumping sounds.

He had completely broken down.

"You bastard, your gang of beasts caused more than one death."

"Besides this incident, the winter before last, there was an old merchant buying mountain goods?"

[That old man was just burned right then and there...]

Lin Chuan's eyebrows twitched as he heard this.

This wasn't just a road tyrant.

This was a fucking serial killer!

These methods were even more cruel than bandits!

The pen in Lin Chuan's hand recorded rapidly.

Every line of text was a life, ironclad evidence for which Zhao San must face the firing squad.

After writing the last line, Lin Chuan closed the notebook.

With a rip, he tore that page out.

"That's enough."

Lin Chuan folded the paper, his expression replaced by a bone-chilling coldness.

Keeping scum like this around even for the New Year would be bad luck.

He had to face the judgment of the law; a bullet was his best destination.

"Brother Biao."

Lin Chuan turned around and handed the paper filled with evidence and burial locations to Chu Tianbiao.

"Take a few brothers and deliver him, along with this paper, to the Municipal Bureau for me."

"Tell the police comrades that this is a first-class merit delivered right to their door."

Chu Tianbiao was watching, dumbfounded.

He had been watching from the side just now. Lin Chuan's miraculous methods—every word he said made Zhao San piss himself with fear, and everything turned out to be accurate.

This made Chu Tianbiao's awe for Lin Chuan flow like a surging river.

Can Big Brother tell fortunes? Or has he opened his Heavenly Eye?

So badass!

But at the mention of going to the Municipal Bureau.

Chu Tianbiao jolted as if his tail had been stepped on.

On that fierce-looking face, a rare trace of awkwardness and resistance appeared.

He shrank his neck back.

"Uh, Brother Lin."

"Could we... send someone else for this?"

"You know, your younger brother's identity is a bit... special."

Chu Tianbiao pointed to his face, which was well-known in Harbin, and smiled bitterly.

"After all, I'm from the streets."

"If I enter the bureau, even if it's to deliver a criminal."

"Those cops—no, public security comrades—will look at me like I'm a thief too."

"They might even drag me in for a urine test or an interrogation. It's such a hassle."

"Besides, if I voluntarily crawl into the bureau and the brothers on the streets find out, won't they laugh me to death?"

He really didn't want to go.

Even though he was now following Lin Chuan and wanted to go straight.

The instinctual fear of a mouse for a cat was still in his bones.

Especially since his own record wasn't exactly clean. Although not as dark as Zhao San's, his legs always went weak when entering such a solemn place.

Lin Chuan saw Chu Tianbiao's cowardly look and didn't force him.

In this era, the relationship between police and criminals was delicate. It was normal for a big-time hoodlum like Chu Tianbiao not to want to go.

"Fine."

"Since you're afraid to go, then I, a good citizen, will have to make the trip personally."

Just then.

Two blinding beams of car light cut through the darkness in the distance.

A domineering black tiger head benz, like a panther patrolling its territory, drove into the wasteland.

As soon as the car came to a stop, the driver's door was pushed open.

Qiang Zi jumped out of the car, looking high-spirited.

"Boss! I've settled everything for the first and second elder brothers!"

"The villa's been bought too. Paid the money and got the keys. Eldest Brother is over the moon!"

"I figured you didn't have a car to use yet, so I hurried and drove this big guy back to pick you up!"

Qiang Zi patted the car door, clearly loving it.

"Perfect timing."

Lin Chuan snapped his fingers.

"Qiang Zi, drive."

"Long Wu, haul this pile of mud into the car."

"We're going to the police station to deliver a gift to the people's guardians."

"Yes!"

Without a second word, Long Wu stepped forward and grabbed Zhao San by the back of the collar like he was picking up a chick.

"Let's go, beast."

Zhao San was completely dazed by now, allowing Long Wu to drag him along like a puppet.

He knew that this time it was truly over.

More final than being buried alive by the underworld.

Once in the bureau, with the contents of that paper, a bullet was definitely unavoidable.

Chu Tianbiao stood where he was, watching Lin Chuan get into the tiger head benz. He let out a long breath and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"That! Brother Lin! I won't go and get in the way!"

"I'm heading home too!"

Lin Chuan rolled down the window and waved.

"Go ahead."

The tiger head benz emitted a puff of white smoke, turned around, and sped off toward the city center with a glow of justice.