265: You want to try it with me?

Zhong Huai's actions left everyone confused.

Even Lin Yu.

He had expected standard official procedures to follow: interrogation, inspection, a standoff, and then he would decide whether or not to intervene based on the situation.

But Zhong Huai did not do that.

After clearing away everyone irrelevant, he simply strolled toward the perimeter with his hands in the pockets of his combat trousers.

He didn't even look at the two Visitors from the Abyss Domain. Instead, he circled around, inspecting his team members who were in standard combat stances, and even reached out to adjust the angle of one person's gun barrel.

"Relax, everyone. It's the middle of the night; don't act like we're about to go to war."

His lazy tone was completely out of place with the heavy atmosphere at the scene.

Yan Xing and Dark Shadow exchanged a glance, both seeing deep confusion in the other's eyes.

What on earth was the captain of the Fangs trying to do?

Old Shi stood not far away, his brows already knitted into a knot.

Something was wrong.

This script was wrong.

Zhong Huai shouldn't be strolling around so leisurely. He should have immediately launched an investigation into that storage ring, clashed with the people from the Abyss Domain, and ultimately dragged Lin Yu into it!

But now, he looked just like an old man out for an after-dinner walk.

"Captain!"

His deputy, Li Mingyang, could finally no longer hold back. He hurried after Zhong Huai, lowering his voice, his words full of anxiety.

"Just… just let it go like this? That's a strategic-level energy signature! According to regulations, we must verify the contents and eliminate all potential threats!"

Zhong Huai didn't stop walking, nor did he turn his head.

"Verify? How do you verify? Make him open the storage ring and let you look through everything one by one?"

His retort was light, but it instantly left Li Mingyang speechless.

"If we investigate, the matter becomes huge. If we don't, the matter disappears. Do I still need to teach you such a simple principle?"

"But… regulations are regulations! If there really are contraband goods inside, this is dereliction of duty! It's condoning crime!" Li Mingyang's stubbornness flared up; this was the ironclad rule that had been instilled in him since military academy.

Zhong Huai finally stopped walking.

He turned sideways and glanced at his righteous-looking deputy.

"Regulations?"

He suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

"Li Mingyang, let me ask you, last night, your childhood friend who was driving after drinking in the west of the city and got detained by the night patrol team—how did he end up getting out?"

Li Mingyang stiffened abruptly, his cheeks instantly flushing deep red.

This matter… how did the captain know…

At the time, he had only used his private communicator to say a word to an old classmate on the patrol team. The other person had given him face, lectured the friend a few times, and let him go.

He had thought he did it without anyone knowing.

"Didn't you just make a phone call, pull some strings, and exploit a loophole in the regulations?" Zhong Huai's tone was flat, yet it made Li Mingyang lower his head further and further.

"If you don't investigate, it's just friends drinking too much at a gathering, making a slight mistake; you criticize and educate them, and tell them not to do it again. If you do investigate, stick the breathalyzer in their face, and it becomes drunk driving, goes on their record, and they might even lose their job."

"Tell me, is there any difference between that matter and this one right here?"

Li Mingyang's lips moved, but he couldn't say a single word.

"No difference," Zhong Huai gave the answer himself. "It's just a difference in the scale of the matter."

"The entire human civilization, regardless of time or place, from top to bottom, is built on this kind of thing."

Zhong Huai tapped his temple with his finger.

"Social savvy is the highest rule."

"Just listen to what I said, don't take it to heart, and I never said any of it."

This rebellious speech completely overturned the worldview Li Mingyang had built over more than twenty years.

"Besides," Zhong Huai's gaze swept over the two Visitors from the Abyss Domain in the field, "Catch smugglers? Where's the evidence? Just based on a piece of groundless intelligence passed over by those bastards at Customs?"

"What did they smuggle? What's the value? How large is the quantity? Do you know?"

"This storage ring is a tool here on Blue Star, but in the Abyss Domain, it's their personal property. What right do you have to demand they open their own pockets for you to inspect? If it causes a diplomatic dispute, who's going to take the blame? You? Or me?"

The series of questions left Li Mingyang speechless.

"For the report, just write: 'Received intelligence, conducted routine inspection of the target, found no suspicious items or personnel. Confirmed that the high-energy source is a storage ring, a personal item carried by the target, which falls within the normal scope, and has been released in accordance with regulations.'"

Zhong Huai concluded nonchalantly.

"It's that simple. Do you understand?"

Li Mingyang opened his mouth, his mind blank, and in the end, he could only squeeze out a dry syllable from his throat.

"...Understood."

Not far away, Lin Yu took it all in.

Although he couldn't hear what they were whispering about, from the deputy's instantly changed posture and Zhong Huai's look of ease, he roughly guessed seven or eight out of ten.

This Zhong Huai was no greenhorn.

He was a seasoned veteran, and a very high-level one at that.

He never intended to investigate at all.

From the very beginning, he had come to smooth things over.

On the other side, Old Shi's expression had completely darkened.

He watched Zhong Huai and his deputy whispering, watched the two Visitors from the Abyss Domain go from tense to confused, and a sense of foreboding grew wildly in his heart.

That brat Zhong Huai was going to ruin his big plans!

Just as Old Shi was preparing to step forward and say something, to forcefully bring up "procedural justice."

Zhong Huai moved.

He strolled leisurely up to Yan Xing and Dark Shadow.

Amidst their highly guarded postures, Zhong Huai just casually glanced at the storage ring that had triggered all of this.

Then, he made a move that surprised everyone present, including Lin Yu.

He raised his hand and waved it lazily at Yan Xing and Dark Shadow.

It was as if he were shooing away two annoying flies.

"Alright."

"You can go now."

Yan Xing and Dark Shadow's muscles instantly stiffened.

Go?

Just like that… go?

From being surrounded by a dozen menacing armored vehicles, to being blocked by dozens of murderous Fangs members, to this captain who clearly held an extraordinary position arriving in person.

Such an inescapable net, a thunderous display of force.

And the result was… just a wave of the hand, letting them go?

Yan Xing's brain froze for a moment; he almost subconsciously spoke, confirming if he had misheard.

"Just… like this?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted it.

Zhong Huai's lazy demeanor instantly vanished. He whipped his head around, and a sharp, blade-like pressure surged toward them.

"What?"

"Do you want to stay and test your skills against my men?"

That aura was the scent of someone who had truly crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Yan Xing shuddered, instantly waking up.

If it weren't for the item he was carrying, he might have really wanted to try.