Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

On the other end of the phone, the clear and articulate female voice of the 110 emergency call operator was still ringing out.

"Please remain calm and provide the exact address and the situation at the scene. Is anyone injured?"

Ye Xiu held that old Nokia phone.

Rough fingertips pressed hard on the call button. The veins on the back of his hand throbbed.

The red-haired thug stood behind him, stunned for half a second.

Then, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, he clutched his stomach and laughed so hard he almost fell over.

"Holy crap! You actually called the police?"

Red Hair laughed until tears streamed down his face. He banged the hollow steel pipe in his hand on the scaffolding with a deafening roar.

"Ask the switchboard operator, who dares to meddle in this construction site in the north of the city tonight?"

He took a big step forward.

The leather shoes smacked softly on the muddy ground. The steel pipe in his hand swung in a wide arc, whistling through the air, and slammed down hard on Ye Xiu's back.

"Let me loosen your bones first!"

The steel pipe hadn't even touched Ye Xiu's shoulder yet.

"Waaaaah—waaaah—!"

The piercing, ear-piercing sound of police sirens tore through the air without warning from the far end of the dirt road.

The sound wasn't coming from a single car. It was a chorus of interwoven high-frequency sounds.

Red Hair's hand froze in mid-air.

He turned his head and looked in the direction of the construction site gate.

The setting sun cast only its last rays.

At the end of the dirt road, a cloud of yellow dust billowed up. Alternating red and blue flashing lights pierced through the dust, stinging the eyes.

"Bang—Boom!"

The rusty iron gate at the construction site, along with two cement bricks on its hinges, was sent flying by the impact.

It crashed heavily onto the sand pile next to it, raising a cloud of choking gray smoke.

Three all-black bulletproof off-road vehicles led the way.

The engine roared like a beast. The wide, thick off-road tires rolled over the broken bricks on the ground, and with a screech of brakes, it came to a steady stop in front of the van.

Seven or eight police troop carriers followed behind.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, the sliding door was suddenly pulled open from the inside with a "whoosh".

Fully armed special police officers, wearing tactical boots, surged out like a black tide.

The riot shields slammed into the ground, producing a uniform, dull metallic thud.

The dark muzzles of guns instantly surrounded the open space like an iron barrel.

The red and blue flashing lights made Red Hair's face look deathly pale.

"Don't move! Hands behind your head! Crouch down!"

Zhao Tiezhu jumped out of the passenger seat of the lead car.

He held that rough electromagnetic restraint net gun in his hand. He flicked the safety with his thumb, and his loud voice made the tin shed next to him buzz.

Red Hair was dumbfounded.

The steel pipe in his hand clattered to his feet. It hit him hard, but he didn't dare to cry out.

The smuggling gang's henchmen were so frightened that their legs went weak, and they all knelt down in the mud.

They're here to meet up and transport some smuggled anti-gravity engines. We haven't even seen them yet, so why have they attracted so many SWAT officers?

With this kind of presence, some people would believe they are international terrorists.

The rear door of the SUV was pushed open.

Lu Jingyan stepped down.

He was wearing a black tactical bulletproof vest. Underneath, he wore a faded police t-shirt.

His leather shoes trod across the muddy construction site. His pace was neither hurried nor slow.

His gaze swept over the thugs kneeling on the ground.

Before Lu Jingyan could even ask a question...

The burly man in front, shirtless and with a back covered in scars, suddenly turned around.

Ye Xiu is 1.9 meters tall. He has broad shoulders, a thick back, and prominent muscles.

It looks like a grizzly bear that could snap a person's neck at any moment.

But when the grizzly bear saw Lu Jingyan, its eyes instantly turned red.

He sniffed. His large feet stomped through the mud as he ran and stumbled towards us.

Weighing over 200 pounds, he ran so fast that the ground shook.

"Commander Lu!"

Ye Xiu rushed to Lu Jingyan's side. He didn't dare get too close and stopped a meter away.

His lips twitched with grievance. He looked at Lu Jingyan like a chubby child who had his candy taken away at kindergarten.

Zhao Tiezhu held the gun, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets.

He looked Ye Xiu up and down.

"No, Long... Old Ye," Zhao Tiezhu swallowed, "were you stabbed? Or shot?"

Ye Xiu shook his head vigorously.

He roughly wiped his face with the back of his large hand, turning the sweat and grime into a muddy mess.

"No. They kicked my food."

His voice was deep and nasal.

He stretched out a calloused index finger, its nails filled with black grime, and pointed tremblingly at the muddy puddle behind him.

Lu Jingyan looked in the direction he was pointing.

Beside the mud pit.

The white styrofoam lunchbox was cracked in two. White rice and bright red scrambled eggs with tomatoes were mixed in with dirty water.

The worst off were those two big chicken legs.

The batter, which was originally fried to a golden brown and crispy texture, is now covered in black sludge from the sewer. Half of it lies submerged next to a rotten plastic bag floating on the water.

A layer of oil floated on the surface. It emitted an indescribable, rancid smell.

"A deluxe meal for thirty yuan!"

Ye Xiu pointed at the two chicken legs, his voice suddenly rising. His voice was filled with undisguised heartache.

"I pushed two hundred cartloads of cement today, my shoulders are all chafed up, and I finally treated myself to a meal! I specifically asked the cafeteria lady to pick out the two biggest chicken legs!"

He became increasingly angry as he spoke, his chest heaving violently.

"I didn't even dare to take a bite! The crust was fried until it was so crispy! It's all ruined!"

Ye Xiu reached out and patted his chest. The sound was loud.

"Commander Lu, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I read the legal education booklet you hand out every day."

He took out the model worker award certificate wrapped in the plastic bag and clutched it tightly in his hand.

"This is my legal property, bought with my hard-earned money! It's protected by the Civil Code! They're sabotaging me!"

The surrounding air fell into a deathly silence.

Only the occasional hissing sound of electricity could be heard from the walkie-talkie not far away.

Several SWAT officers, guns at the ready, had their mouths twitching wildly beneath their masks. They were desperately trying to suppress their laughter, their shoulders shaking.

The red-haired man kneeling on the ground was completely numb.

He glanced at the densely packed SWAT officers around him, then at the muscular man with a long face, crying over a box of food.

My mind just can't process this.

"No, it's not..."

Red Hair mustered his courage and tremblingly raised his head to look at Lu Jingyan.

"Officer. Just for a 30-yuan boxed lunch... you've deployed so many SWAT officers? You even brought an armored car?"

His voice was trembling with tears.

"How about I pay him back? I'll give him a hundred chicken legs! A thousand will do!"

Are these cops crazy?

Is a case involving only thirty yuan really worth making such a fuss of ransacking the house and wiping out the entire family?

Lu Jingyan ignored Hong Mao's complaints.

He had one hand in the pocket of his tactical vest. He strode over to the muddy puddle.

He looked down at the two wretched chicken legs.

The aroma of charred fried chicken mingled with the earthy smell of mud, wafting on the wind. It was a bit pungent.

The man's hard jawline tightened.

He turned his head again and looked at Ye Xiu's dusty, aggrieved face.

And those rough, calloused hands, deformed from years of carrying bricks, clutching the model worker award certificate tightly.

These hands used to hold knives and kill people.

Now it's only used to hold a rice bowl and receive awards.

Lu Jingyan looked away.

His dark eyes fell on the red-haired man and the group of smugglers. There was no warmth in his eyes, only a rigid, businesslike demeanor.

"What are you doing here? We'll talk about it when we get back to the station, in the interrogation chair."

Lu Jingyan looked at the mangled lunchboxes on the ground, then glanced at the group of stunned smugglers opposite him, his tone cold and stern: "Intentionally damaging other people's legal property, plus gathering a crowd to cause trouble. Cuff them all."