Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"I oppose direct arrests."

Zhao Jianguo slammed his fist on the table. "He's one of our soldiers! He's been in the Criminal Investigation Division for ten years! His wife was tortured to death by that beast, and the murderer got away with it with just a piece of paper. Did any of you say a word in his defense? Now that he's desperate, your first reaction is to treat him like a monster and study him?"

"This is not the time to act on emotion, Director Zhao."

Chief Inspector Liu Changhe crossed his arms and coldly interrupted him, "Li Rui is an active-duty criminal investigator. For an active-duty criminal investigator to become an 'abnormal individual' and openly commit vigilante justice is the biggest scandal in the Garrison Bureau. If we don't take decisive action, once the news spreads, the credibility of the entire judicial system will collapse. We must immediately launch the highest-level arrest, control, and isolation investigation. This is not cruelty, this is discipline."

"discipline?"

Zhao Jianguo spoke again: "Inspector Liu, is there a rule in your discipline called 'fairness'? When Li Rui went to burn Zhang Zhaoqing, he spared the innocent people in the experimental chamber and avoided the pile of flammable debris. What does this show? It shows that he still has a moral compass, a moral compass called the bottom line of the police."

"Bottom line?"

Special Advisor Gu Heng sneered, "Director Zhao, you need to understand one thing. The moment he burned Zhang Zhaoqing to death, he was no longer a policeman. He was a dangerous source of destructive power, operating outside the law."

Gu Heng stood up, his words sharp as knives. "You say he has a bottom line—but is executing an enemy in such a cruel way, disregarding even innocent lab technicians, what you call a bottom line? Director Zheng previously vouched for Li Rui, guaranteeing that he wouldn't take any extreme actions during his suspension. And what's the result? Zhang Zhaoqing is gone, the lab is destroyed. The facts prove that Director Zheng's guarantee has completely failed."

This statement was like a heavy hammer blow, striking the spines of the moderates.

Zheng Guofeng sat in the head seat from the beginning of the meeting and remained silent throughout.

His face appeared blurry and aged in the swirling smoke.

"It failed?"

Zheng Guofeng slowly stubbed out his cigarette, the butt being crushed into powder in the ashtray.

He stood up, walked to the window, turned his back to everyone, and looked at the faint smoke remaining on the ruins in the distance.

After a long silence, he spoke: "The guarantee failed? Then it failed."

He turned around, his gaze slowly sweeping across the faces of the hardliners. "I protected him because I believed in the fire within him, burning only what needed to be burned. How many innocent souls are hidden in this laboratory, in those files no one dares to look at? Now that Zhang Zhaoqing is dead, this cannibalistic hell is destroyed—do you think I made a mistake in protecting him?"

"Director Zheng, this isn't a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of procedure..." Wu Yong tried to interject.

"Screw the program!"

Zheng Guofeng suddenly shouted, making the teacups on the table clatter.

He strode back to the table, placed his hands on the surface, leaned forward, and exuded an oppressive aura that swept over everyone.

"He was our soldier! Ten years! He caught more thieves and solved more cases than any of you office workers have ever seen! We are all responsible for his current state! It was my failure to give Su Xiao justice, it was Zhou Shouzhen who sold his conscience for promotion, and it was Zhang Zhaoqing and his gang of scum who manipulated the rules!"

Zheng Guofeng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the anger in his chest, his gaze icy. "From now on, my decision has only three points:"

"First, let's talk."

He looked at Zhao Jianguo and Lei Zhen, "Send someone he trusts, someone who used to mentor him, to try to make contact. No weapons, no malice. Give him a chance, and give the Special Investigation Bureau a chance. If we can persuade him to surrender, or get him to cooperate with the investigation, that would be the best solution."

"Second, prepare simultaneously."

He turned to Wang Gang, "The arrest plan will proceed simultaneously. Have the mobile assault team equipped with the latest suppression equipment and stand by outside the negotiation radius. If he completely loses control... we can't let him set off again in the city."

"Third," Zheng Guofeng looked at Inspector General Liu Changhe and advisor Gu Heng, "regarding the research—if he's willing to cooperate, we can talk. If he's not, whoever dares to forcibly perform live body removal on him at this time, I'll peel off his skin first. As for my guarantee—Inspector Liu is right, it has failed. So from now on, I will personally take charge of the Li Rui case. If it succeeds, I will take responsibility; if it fails, I will also take responsibility."

"Meeting adjourned!"

The crowd filed out.

Although the hardliners were clearly displeased, Zheng Guofeng's desperate stance sent a chill down their spines, and no one dared to provoke him at this moment.

Administrative Coordinator Wu Yong stepped out the door and whispered to Inspector General Liu Changhe, "Old Zheng has gone mad. He's gambling his political life on a corrupt and abnormal individual. Keep a close eye on him. If the negotiations go off track even slightly, immediately activate our own plan. We can't let him drag the whole bureau into this mess."

In the corner of the conference room, Wang Shiwei kept her pen tightly in her hand.

She heard all the arguments, Director Zheng's mournful plea for protection, and the hardliners' cold calculations.

Li Rui is now an "outcast" that the entire city and the entire system are trying their best to eliminate.

She wished the fire could burn further, reaching corners unseen by the web weavers.

But she also knew that the brighter the fire burned, the more hunting dogs it would attract.

------

In the dead of night in Chenxi City, Wang Shijun stood by the window.

He didn't turn on the light, letting the neon lights of the city outside the window alternately sweep across his face.

This solitude in the darkness allowed him to remain absolutely calm, but at this moment, his breathing rate was slightly faster than usual.

That was an electric current called "frenzy" coursing through the spinal cord.

The last sound that came through the phone that night was a loud bang, like a star collapsing.

After that loud bang, all communication channels went silent with busy signals.

Zhang Zhaoqing is dead.

Wang Shijun didn't care about the old man's life; in fact, to some extent, he felt that Zhang Zhaoqing's death was just right.

This greedy, humble, and somewhat deranged drug dealer has completed his mission as a "sharpening stone" and "bait."

What truly shocked and angered him was Li Rui.

"He was suspended in the afternoon, and they took action that very night..." Wang Shijun muttered to himself.

He originally thought that Li Rui, like most police officers, would first fall into a long period of self-doubt, anger, and observation after encountering such unfair treatment.

His pre-set script was that Li Rui would become a decadent, lonely, and despised "wandering ghost".

When that time comes, Wang Shijun will lead the elite of Blackstone International, descending as hunters to claim this precious "extraordinary sample" for himself.

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Thank you so much to "兰舟舟舟舟～" for the amazing certification!