Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

On the rooftop of the dilapidated tenement building, the originally tranquil and oppressive balance of confrontation was completely shattered by those powerful spotlights that tore through the darkness.

The white light from the spotlights was like sharp blades, illuminating not only the mountain of heroin packages piled up on the rooftop, but also the faces of Ni Yongxiao and Lin Kun, which instantly contorted with extreme shock.

"Police! Everyone stay still! Get down!"

The thunderous roar echoed across the empty rooftop. The elite SDU fighters emerged in single file from the shadows of the surrounding chimneys and water tanks, the black muzzles of their MP5 submachine guns gleaming coldly in the bright light.

In that instant, the two powerful figures who wielded immense influence in Hong Kong's underground order shared a strikingly similar thought.

Of course, they didn't suspect that the other party had called the police. In this circle, double-crossing is commonplace, but calling the police to the scene is tantamount to digging one's own grave. Whether it was Ni Yongxiao or Lin Kun, the amount of drugs they were carrying was enough for them to spend countless days and nights in Stanley. Calling the police would not only mean losing their drugs, but also their lives.

They suspected that the other party had done something dishonest, and that during their retreat or infiltration, they had somehow made a careless mistake that led the police station's rabid officers to the scene.

However, the current situation gives them no time to be suspicious of each other.

The ten men behind Lin Kun reacted the fastest. These Shan State Army assassins, transferred from General Jinsha's command, had spent years navigating the blood and fire of the Southeast Asian jungles. The word "surrender" was not in their vocabulary.

"beat!"

Captain Capon, who was leading the charge, let out a hoarse, foreign roar, and his submachine gun spat out a dazzling tongue of fire.

Ten Shan State Army suicide squad members quickly dispersed. Unlike ordinary gangsters who would fire indiscriminately, they formed small combat teams of two or three, taking turns providing cover against the massive industrial chimneys, and launched an extremely fierce attack on the Flying Tigers members who were falling from the zipline.

"Da da da—!"

This first round of fearless counterattack actually shattered most of the blinding spotlights, and the rooftop instantly returned to that chaotic state of dappled light and shadow, extremely conducive to a melee.

The Flying Tigers members clearly underestimated the drug traffickers' fighting capabilities. They initially thought the intense pressure would lead to their surrender, but they never expected to encounter a true war machine.

"Take cover! Return fire!" the Flying Tigers captain shouted, quickly stabilizing the situation.

The rooftop instantly transformed into a battlefield. A suicide squad member rolled around, firing a series of shots with his Black Star pistol, precisely suppressing two police officers who were preparing to rappel down to the center of the rooftop. Captain Cabon was even more frenzied, using the water tower as cover and recklessly unleashing his firepower and rage with his submachine gun.

The debris from the impact of the high-explosive bullets on the concrete flew through the air, and the smell of smoke and gunpowder quickly masked the original sour odor.

Lin Kun was terrified. He huddled behind a rusty metal cabinet. Due to extreme fear, his respiratory system began to spasm rapidly, a stress response of diabetic complications under pressure.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Lin Kun tried to boost morale, his voice trembling, but amidst the deafening gunfire, it was as insignificant as a drowning mosquito.

The fighting intensified. Although these Shan State Army suicide squad members were formidable, they numbered only ten. And this was Kwun Tong, the backyard of the entire Hong Kong police force. To achieve a decisive victory in this battle, Lam Lei-meng and Luk Kai-cheung had mobilized almost the entire elite Flying Tigers unit, along with countless PTU units as backup. As time passed, the Shan State Army suicide squad members began to run out of ammunition.

"boom--!"

A stun grenade exploded beneath Captain Kabang's feet, the massive white flash and deafening sonic boom instantly robbing him of his sight and hearing. By the time he swayed and tried to raise his gun again, three Flying Tigers members had already advanced in a triangular formation towards him.

"Drop your gun! Kneel down!"

As the intense gunfire gradually subsided, Lin Kun's last line of defense was completely torn apart. The waves continued to crash against the distant reefs, but the rooftop was now littered with the corpses of the Ni and Lin family's underlings.

Lin Kun stared at the cold muzzle of the MP5 gun pressed against his forehead, and at the ferocious police officers surrounding him. His eyes, which had always prided themselves on their ability to see the world, were now filled only with extreme fear of death. His former scholarly integrity had vanished before the instinct for survival.

"Don't shoot! I surrender! I am Lin Kun! I have a lot of intelligence, I request a plea bargain!" Lin Kun raised his hands tremblingly, afraid that the other party might accidentally fire.

Compared to Lin Kun's pathetic pleas for mercy, Ni Yongxiao displayed the ruthlessness and decisiveness expected of a godfather.

The moment the gunfire rang out, he led Luo Ji and A Lai to retreat behind a water tank at the very edge of the rooftop. As a direct victim of the recent digital operation, Ni Yongxiao knew very well that although Lin Kun's gang was strong, they were ultimately no match for the police. The best course of action was to quietly retreat during the chaos.

Ni Yongxiao was intimately familiar with this terrain. Long before the warehouse was chosen, he had already mentally mapped out countless escape routes. At the most intense moment of the chaotic battle, he quickly gave Luo Ji and A Lai a secret hand signal.

Taking advantage of the excellent moment when Lin Kun's henchmen drew the police's firepower, Ni Yongxiao and his two companions crouched low and, like three ghosts, quickly passed through the dense forest of chimneys on the rooftop.

"This way! The rooftops over there are connected!" Ni Yongxiao lowered his voice, his tone carrying a chilling calmness. Even in this life-or-death situation, his tie remained tight, and his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses were still as sharp as an eagle's.

The three of them leaped from the edge of the rooftop, crossing the two-meter-wide abyss, and landed steadily on the roof of a tenement building called "Dahua Dyeing and Weaving Factory." Because this area was a continuous stretch of old industrial districts, the gaps between the buildings greatly facilitated this high-difficulty escape.

Behind them, the gunshots gradually faded into the distance, with only Lin Kun's pitiful pleas for mercy faintly audible.

"Boss, go down the fire escape ladder here. The back alley is below." Ah Lai was already covered in sweat. He was tightly protecting Ni Yongxiao's flank, holding the Black Star pistol in his hand, his eyes revealing a kind of unknown determination.

Luo Jize covered the rear, his movements were efficient and agile, and he would occasionally look back to see if anyone was following.

The three slid down the rusty iron ladder and finally landed in a back alley in Kwun Tong filled with puddles and rotting garbage. The alley was pitch black because there were no streetlights, and only the tireless wailing of police sirens in the distance could be heard.

"Boss, walk fifty meters ahead. Behind that garbage station, there's a car I prepared beforehand. It's a white Mazda with fake license plates." Ah Lai's voice was deep and hoarse from running, but his unwavering loyalty remained unchanged.

"Alright, A-Lai. When we go back this time, you'll be the second-in-command of the Ni family."

Ni Yongxiao was overjoyed. In this desperate situation, he once again felt Alai's thoughtfulness and reliability. In this family, it seemed that only this taciturn driver was the one who could truly walk into hell with him.

The three quickly crossed the alley and sure enough, they saw an old but clean Mazda 929 parked quietly in the shadows.

"Get in! Quickly!"

The three quickly climbed into the Mazda. Ni Yongxiao sat in the back seat and let out a long sigh of relief; the exhaustion from surviving the ordeal finally came over him at this moment.

"Drive to Guantang Wharf. I've already prepared a speedboat there," Ni Yongxiao instructed, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

As a competent leader, Ni Yongxiao was always prepared to run away.

However, ten seconds passed, and the engine did not roar as it did.

The carriage was eerily silent, with only the sounds of the three people breathing in the narrow space.

"Ah Lai? Why aren't you leaving yet?" Ni Yongxiao opened his eyes in confusion.

The instant he opened his eyes, a crisp "click" sound rang out in the carriage—the sound of the central locking system being completely locked.

Before Ni Yongxiao could react, two cold, hard metal gun barrels were already pressed firmly against his temples, one on the left and one on the right.

Alai, sitting in the driver's seat, and Luo Ji, sitting in the passenger seat, turned around almost simultaneously. The submissive and humble demeanor they once held in their eyes was gone.

"Boss, you've been running around for so long, it's time to take a break." Ah Lai spoke slowly, his voice carrying a numbness as if he had crawled out of the depths of hell. He didn't turn around, but stared coldly at Ni Yongxiao's face, which had turned as pale as paper, through the rearview mirror.

Ni Yongxiao was completely stunned. His eyes, which could always see through all kinds of conspiracies and tricks, were wide open at this moment, staring intently at A Lai's reflection in the rearview mirror, and then at Luo Ji's cold, icy profile beside him.

The sheer absurdity and the agonizing sense of betrayal from his closest confidant caused the Ni family godfather to completely lose his ability to think at that moment.

"You...you are Lin Kun's men?" Ni Yongxiao's voice trembled, carrying a desperate self-mockery.

"No." Luo Ji spoke coldly, his .38 revolver as steady as a rock, the muzzle pressing a deep dent into Ni Yongxiao's skin. "Boss, you said your house was haunted, and you guessed right. But you caught the wrong one and missed two others."

Luo Ji paused, his tone becoming extremely solemn: "Let me formally introduce myself. Luo Ji, under Inspector Lu Qichang of the Western District Police Station, ID number 6673. I've waited seven years for this day."

Ni Yongxiao's body trembled violently. He turned his head to look at A Lai in the driver's seat, his eyes filled with the last glimmer of hope: "And what about you? A Lai... you saved my life, you did it for the Ni family..."

Alai didn't look at him, but instead looked down at the string of prayer beads in his hand, which had been pressed too hard and left red marks. His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping the ground:

"Boss, I've been to hell once and I never want to go back a second time. I may not be a police officer, but right now... I'm the police's number one tainted witness."

As Ni Yongxiao listened to the two men's confessions and the hurried footsteps outside the window that were getting closer and closer and had completely surrounded the back alley, he suddenly let out an extremely bitter laugh.

The laughter echoed in the cramped carriage, filled with the desolation of a hero's downfall. He never imagined that after scheming against everyone in the world, he would ultimately fall in this small Mazda, defeated by the two "shadows" he trusted most.

"Alright," Ni Yongxiao closed his eyes and slowly lowered his hands, "What a brilliant 'digital operation'."

The car door was abruptly pulled open from the outside by Lu Qichang and his men. The blinding spotlights blared again, dragging Ni Yongxiao, the former godfather of Hong Kong Island, out of his dark dream.

The wind swirled in the night sky of Kwun Tong. And with the crisp sound of cold handcuffs snapping onto Ni Yongxiao's wrists, the decades-long, sinister rule of the Ni family officially drew its blood-red curtain.