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

Chen Jiaju and Hu Yue were pushed and shoved by several burly men with guns pointed at their backs as they walked into the dense woods beside the road.

The forest was dimly lit, with swaying shadows of trees. Stepping on the thick layer of decaying leaves accumulated over the years produced a chilling, crunching sound.

The two men were taken to an open area, where the burly men quickly dispersed and surrounded them. Then, one of them walked up behind Chen Jiaju and kicked him hard in the back of the knee.

"Hmm!"

Chen Jiaju groaned, his legs went weak, and he knelt heavily on the muddy ground.

Immediately afterwards, a man in a black jacket walked out from behind them at a leisurely pace.

The man was around thirty-five years old, lean, wearing frameless glasses, and his hair was neatly combed, resembling a finance manager at a company in Central. However, the silenced pistol in his hand shattered this refined air.

He stopped two steps away from Chen Jiaju, looking down at the disheveled Chen Jiaju kneeling on the ground, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

"Inspector Chan, I've heard so much about you."

Chen Jiaju raised his head, staring intently at the unfamiliar face: "You know me?"

"Who in Hong Kong doesn't know Chan Ka-kui? A super cop, a star of the Serious Crimes Unit, a man who can still get paid even after crashing ten cars a month." The man in black smiled, but there was no warmth in his smile.

"But don't worry, after today, no one will mention your great achievements anymore."

Without another word, he slightly tilted his head to the side, and one of his men immediately understood and walked over to Hu Yue, handing him a baseball bat. Chen Jiaju recognized it at a glance—it was the same one he kept in the trunk of his patrol car.

"Take it," the man in black said.

Hu Yue did not answer.

"Take it." The man in black repeated, his tone still gentle. "Hit him, break his arm, or break his leg, it's up to you. After you're done, I'll let you go."

Hu Yue glanced down at the baseball bat that gleamed coldly, then looked up at Chen Jiaju.

Chen Jiaju knelt in the wet mud, a bloody scratch on the corner of his mouth from being pushed down. He looked up at him, his eyes calm, without urging or fear.

Hu Yue was silent for two seconds, then slowly reached out and took the baseball bat.

But the next second—

"call!"

Hu Yue suddenly swung his arm and hurled the baseball bat far away like trash.

"I won't do it," Hu Yue uttered three words.

The man in black's smile vanished.

"I'll repeat myself—you hit him, you live; you don't hit him, you die. It's that simple."

"I know," Hu Yue said expressionlessly, "but I won't do it."

The man in black gave him a deep look, then nodded, as if confirming something. He then stepped forward, grabbed Hu Yue's shoulder with his left hand, and slammed the butt of his pistol into Hu Yue's forehead with his right.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud. Hu Yue's head was knocked to the right, his body swayed, but he gritted his teeth and didn't fall.

After pausing for two seconds, Hu Yue stood up straight again and looked at the man in black.

"I won't do it."

A fierce glint flashed in the black-clad man's eyes. He raised the butt of his gun and slammed it down again. This time, the blow landed squarely on Hu Yue's cheekbone, the sound even louder. Hu Yue was thrown backward, forced to raise his hand to brace himself against a nearby tree trunk to regain his balance.

However, when he raised his head again, he still had that indifferent expression.

"I won't do it."

The man in black looked at him, and after a moment, he shook his head, put the gun back on his waist, and waved his hand to the side.

Two henchmen immediately stepped forward and pinned Hu Yue to the trunk of a tree, one on each side.

"Then let's send someone more obedient," the man in black said calmly.

Another henchman nodded knowingly, took out a pair of gloves from his pocket and put them on, then bent down to pick up the baseball bat that Hu Yue had thrown away, grinning as he approached Chen Jiaju step by step.

"Inspector Chen," the thug licked his lips, his eyes cruel, "it might hurt a little. You can scream it out, I don't mind."

Without hesitation, he slammed his fist down on Chen Jiaju's back.

"Thump, thump, thump..."

The dull thuds of beatings echoed through the woods. Chen Jiaju was curled up in a ball, his hands tightly protecting his head and neck, his vital organs, as he groaned in pain.

Hu Yue, pinned to the tree trunk, stared at the scene before him with bloodshot eyes. He struggled and roared wildly, trying to break free and rush forward, but he was held in place and unable to move.

however--

Nobody noticed.

Just as Chen Jiaju was being beaten and curled up in pain, seemingly powerless to resist, he slowly reached his hand, which was hidden in his coat, into a hidden pocket and pressed the emergency call button.

……

The brutal beating lasted for nearly three minutes before the man in black slowly raised his hand and said, "That's enough."

The thug immediately put away his stick and obediently took a step back.

Chen Jiaju felt as if his internal organs had shifted out of place. He lay on the muddy ground, panting heavily, his voice as rough as a broken-down water pump. Blood and saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth onto the muddy ground, sticking to the withered leaves.

The man in black walked up to him, squatted down, grabbed Chen Jiaju's hair, and forcibly pulled his head up, as if admiring a half-finished work of art.

Then, he got up and went back to Hu Yue, taking a gun from his subordinate—the .38 police pistol that had just been seized from Chen Jiaju.

The man in black shoved the gun into Hu Yue's hand: "Take it, point it at his head, and shoot."

Hu Yue's hand trembled slightly as he gripped the gun.

"If you don't kill him," the man in black's voice remained gentle and unhurried, "I will kill you first, and then kill him. The ending will be the same anyway; the only difference is—which path you choose."

"..." Hu Yue's lips were pressed tightly together into a line.

Just then, Chen Jiaju suddenly coughed violently. As he coughed up saliva mixed with blood, he uttered a sentence in fits and starts: "You... are the masterminds behind the White Stone Camp riot, aren't you?"

The man in black raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Chen Jiaju, who was lying on the ground.

"You tried to stir up trouble in White Stone Camp before... but I stopped you with my men... so you hate me and want revenge." Chen Jiaju propped himself up on his arms, leaned against a tree trunk, took a breath, and said, word by word.

"Of course... more importantly... you want to ruin the entire Hong Kong police force... so you've gone to great lengths to force Hu Yue, a Vietnamese refugee, to shoot and kill me, the super cop... then all the Hong Kong media will think the refugees are out of control and the police force is incompetent..."

He paused, looking at the man in black: "Am I right?"

The man in black listened quietly, then slowly clapped his hands, producing a crisp, somewhat mocking applause.

"Inspector Chen, you are indeed smarter than I thought," the man in black said. "Let me introduce myself—my name is Nightingale, and I am the mastermind behind this incident."

Indeed, Nightingale felt that relying solely on Zhou Yi's plan of "hiding a few people to commit crimes" was not secure enough, and he also wanted to prove his abilities to Howard. So he came up with this plan as insurance, and incidentally, it would also get rid of Chen Jiaju, the one who ruined their plans.

"Nightingale?" Chen Jiaju sneered, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "What exactly are you trying to achieve by going through all this trouble?"

"What we're after is none of your business, you dead man," Nightingale said calmly. "All you need to know is that tomorrow's headline will be 'Super Cop Helps Refugees, Only to Die at Their Hands.' Tsk tsk tsk... What an explosive news story."

"Tch, you've miscalculated," Chen Jiaju suddenly burst into laughter, a hint of mockery in his voice. "Hu Yue has no motive for murder."

Nightingale's gaze sharpened slightly upon hearing this.

"You don't know, do you? He's about to receive asylum in the US. Does someone about to get a green card and leave Hong Kong openly have any motive to attack a police officer? Your plan is a waste of time."

Nightingale's face froze instantly, a flicker of panic crossing her eyes. She couldn't help but turn her head away and mutter a curse under her breath: "...What the hell are those useless bastards in the intelligence department doing?"

However, he quickly regained his aloof expression: "It doesn't matter. As long as you become a corpse and Hu Yue disappears into thin air, I can fabricate his motives and background however I want!"

Having said that, Nightingale didn't give Chen Jiaju another chance to speak. She decisively stepped forward, closing in on Hu Yue, and said coldly, "You have one last chance to choose. Shoot, or die."

Hu Yue gripped the police gun tightly, his gaze slowly shifting from Chen Jiaju to Nightingale's sinister face: "...You're wrong."

Nightingale frowned: "What did you say?"

"It's not two choices," Hu Yue said, "it's three."

As he spoke, Hu Yue suddenly raised his arm, pointing the pistol directly at Nightingale's throat.

The forest fell silent for a moment, then the men's expressions changed drastically, and they simultaneously drew their guns and aimed them firmly at Hu Yue's head.

Nightingale's expression stiffened slightly as he stared at the dark muzzle of the gun. He fixed his gaze on Hu Yue, a sinister glint slowly creeping into his eyes: "Have you thought this through? If you shoot me, you won't survive either."

"It's worth it to trade my life for yours," Hu Yue said. "Now, let him go, or I'll pull the trigger right now!"

"No!" Chen Jiaju roared, his eyes wide with fury, "Hu Yue! Don't be impulsive—"

But before he could finish shouting, Nightingale suddenly gave a cold laugh, as if she had been amused by a joke.

"Go ahead and shoot," he said.

Hu Yue's eyes turned cold: "You think I wouldn't dare?"

"Then go ahead and shoot. I'd really like to try what it feels like to be shot," Nightingale said slowly.

Upon hearing this, Hu Yue hesitated no longer, decisively aiming at Nightingale's shoulder and pulling the trigger—

"Click."

A hollow sound.

Hu Yue's expression froze.

Taking advantage of that moment, Nightingale suddenly raised her leg and kicked Hu Yue in the chest.

"Bang!"

Hu Yue was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, his back slamming heavily against a tree trunk. His pistol flew out of his hand and landed in a pile of fallen leaves a few steps away.

"Am I stupid?" Nightingale walked over and looked down at Hu Yue lying on the ground. "Why would I give you a loaded gun? As long as you've fired it and there are your fingerprints on it, that's enough."

As she spoke, Nightingale took a clean pair of white gloves out of her pocket, put them on, and slowly walked over, bent down, and picked up the pistol. Then she took out a pack of bright yellow bullets from her bosom and, in front of the two of them, slowly and deliberately loaded them into the magazine, one by one.

"Click".

Pushing the magazine into the gun, Nightingale grinned as she raised the muzzle and aimed it at Chen Jiaju, who was lying in the mud.

Goodbye, Super Cop.

"Bang!"

A shot rang out, but it didn't come from Nightingale's hand.

The nightingale paused for a moment, then looked down at the sky with a somewhat bewildered expression.

His right hand, which was holding the gun, somehow fell to the ground, and blood gushed from his severed wrist, spraying onto the fallen leaves, the tree trunk beside him, and his face, which was instantly distorted by terror.

"Ahhhhhh!! My hand! My hand, ahh ...

The nightingale clutched her broken wrist, rolled to the ground, and let out a heart-wrenching wail, thrashing about wildly.

The burly men in black in the woods panicked, frantically trying to raise their guns to search for the enemy—

"Bang! Bang!"

Two more gunshots rang out, and two bodies fell to the ground almost simultaneously, each with a bloody hole in their chest.

The remaining few exchanged glances, dropped their weapons, and turned to run. Their footsteps made a messy sound on the dry leaves and broken branches before quickly disappearing into the depths of the forest.

Chen Jiaju, who was lying on the ground, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he struggled to sit up and looked at Nightingale, who was rolling around on the ground in pain, and gave a mocking smile.

"Heh... now you know what it feels like to be shot."