I was just telling a story, why is the whole internet urging me to turn myself in?

Chapter 81 The Peninsula Hotel! A Hunt in the Dark!

Jiangzhou Peninsula Hotel.

Three black bulletproof vans filed into the underground parking garage. As Su Qing jumped out of the passenger seat, a real-time report came through her earpiece from the command center: "SWAT Team One is in position, blocking the fire exits on both the east and west sides of the hotel! Team Two is deploying to the north parking lot; don't let a single fly out!"

Su Qing drew her sidearm, checked the magazine, and turned to Xiao Li behind her, asking, "Have you made contact with hotel security? Where is Chen Deming?"

"We've made contact!" Xiao Li exclaimed, sweating profusely. "But Chen Deming's private security chief refused to cooperate with the evacuation, saying, 'The charity gala is a high-end private event. We haven't received any formal threat notification from the Defense Agency, so we cannot comply!'"

"Bullshit!" Su Qing's usual carefully maintained composure completely crumbled at this moment, and she cursed, "Show your badges and forcibly take over! If that madman Gao Dong starts a fight, do you think Chen Deming will take responsibility?!"

At the same time, in the banquet hall on the third floor of the Peninsula Hotel.

The crystal chandelier refracted dazzling light, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime.

Business elites in suits and ties gathered in small groups, raising champagne glasses and whispering about the latest stock market trends and real estate policies.

Chen Deming, dressed in a dark blue custom-made suit and holding a glass of red wine, was chatting and laughing with several business celebrities. He was the chairman of Dingsheng Industrial and had cultivated a network of connections in the city for more than 20 years. Tonight's charity banquet was actually held to celebrate the launch of the company's new project, and all the attendees were wealthy and influential people.

Secretary Xiao Zhou hurried through the crowd, her face pale, and whispered a few words in Chen Deming's ear.

Chen Deming's hand holding the wine glass suddenly paused, and the red wine in the glass swirled.

"Tell me, what did that streamer surnamed Shen say in the live stream?" Chen Deming asked in a low voice.

"He described everything about the body in the eastern suburbs, and even speculated that the murderer was... a forensic doctor who had experienced family troubles five years ago, and that he killed her to find out the truth behind his wife and daughter's disappearance." Xiao Zhou's voice grew softer and softer. There were now 20 million people watching his live stream online! The trending topics were exploding, and the Ministry of Defense's SWAT vehicles had surrounded the hotel!

Chen Deming's face instantly turned ashen, and the fingers holding the wine glass tightened slightly.

A moment later, he handed the wine glass to Xiao Zhou, his face regaining the composed smile of a business tycoon. He nodded slightly to the distinguished guests before him: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm truly sorry, but there's a minor emergency at the company that I need to handle. Please excuse me for a moment."

Chen Deming turned around and strode towards the side door of the banquet hall, his steps extremely fast.

He glanced at the four bodyguards in black standing at the door out of the corner of his eye, and whispered to his secretary, "Get all the bodyguards moving. Add more people to the underground parking garage, elevators, emergency exits, and all other exits. Notify hotel security that a mentally ill person has infiltrated. If they find him, beat him to death. I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong."

"clear."

Chen Deming strode toward the side door of the banquet hall, followed immediately by four bodyguards.

These four men were all hired by him from foreign security companies at high salaries, each earning a million yuan a year, and they had extensive practical experience.

"Boss, what happened?" the head bodyguard asked in a low voice.

"Someone's coming to kill me." Chen Deming kept walking. "Damn it, how did I mess with a madman?"

Meanwhile, in the hotel's underground power distribution room on the second basement floor.

Old Zhang, the electrician on duty, was leaning back in his chair scrolling through short videos when he suddenly heard a soft sound coming from the end of the corridor.

He looked up and saw a tall, thin man in a black raincoat standing at the door of the power distribution room.

"Hey, who are you? This is a restricted area, no entry here—"

Before he could finish speaking, a wad of gauze soaked in ether was placed over his mouth and nose.

Old Zhang struggled for less than three seconds before collapsing to the ground.

Gao Dong dragged Lao Zhang to a corner, took off his raincoat hood, revealing his ashen face, squatted in front of the electrical box, and took out a pair of multi-functional pliers from his pocket.

"Xiaoyu... Niuniu..." he murmured the names of his wife and daughter, "I will avenge you soon."

"Click."

The entire hotel building was plunged into darkness in an instant.

Terrified screams erupted in the banquet hall.

The crystal chandelier went out, and the faint light of the emergency lights barely illuminated the chaotic crowd.

Someone knocked over a wine glass, someone bumped into a table, and the sound of women's high heels mingled with men's curses.

"A power outage? How could the Peninsula Hotel have a power outage!"

"Security! Where are the security guards?!"

Chen Deming's four bodyguards were well-trained and immediately formed a diamond formation to protect him in the middle.

The lead bodyguard switched on his tactical flashlight: "Mr. Chen, something's wrong. Take the emergency exit and go straight to the underground parking garage to get into the armored car!"

Gao Dong, on the other hand, climbed up the fire escape stairs.

hotel lobby.

When Su Qing led six special police officers in, they ran into a crowd of people pouring out of the banquet hall.

Hundreds of well-dressed guests were shoving each other in the darkness, creating an extremely chaotic scene.

"Get out of the way! This is a case handled by the Defense Agency! Everyone, stand against the wall with your hands on your heads and squat down!" Su Qing roared angrily.

But the surging crowd blocked the way like a tide.

The celebrities in their evening gowns panicked and didn't even bother to make way for the police.

Su Qing was squeezed tightly in the middle of the crowd, unable to move an inch.

Qin Zheng and several police officers tried to manage the crowd, but with little success.

He pulled out his walkie-talkie: "Command center, requesting backup! A large-scale riot has broken out at the Peninsula Hotel; there may be armed and dangerous individuals present!"

"Team Leader Qin, you take some men to maintain order! Xiao Li, contact the hotel's engineering department and find out the cause of the power outage!" Su Qing spoke very quickly. "The rest of you, come with me to the basement! Chen Deming has probably already evacuated!"

At the entrance to the underground parking garage's emergency exit, two bodyguards who had cleared the way pushed open the door first.

The moment they stepped into the corridor, Gao Dong appeared from the side, holding a modified high-pressure spray canister, and pressed the valve repeatedly at their faces.

"Pfft...."

""

A high concentration of military-grade anesthetic gas instantly enveloped the two of them.

Before the two bodyguards could even utter a sound, their bodies went limp and they fell heavily to the ground.

However, Gao Dong was also grazed on the shoulder by a punch that one of the bodyguards instinctively threw as he fell.

He groaned, staggered back a few steps, and crashed into the wall, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his mouth.

Chen Deming, escorted by two other bodyguards, rushed out of the stairwell.

"Boss, watch out!" The bodyguard captain reacted quickly, shielding Chen Deming behind him while simultaneously drawing his stun gun.

But Gao Dong has completely gone mad.

He unleashed the last of his life's potential, ignoring the threat of the stun gun, and lunged forward. The scalpel flashed coldly in the darkness, aiming straight for the bodyguard's wrist holding the gun.

"what!"

The bodyguard captain screamed as the stun baton flew out of his hand.

Another bodyguard stepped forward to restrain Gao Dong, but Gao Dong endured a powerful front kick from the other bodyguard and swung his hand back, smearing the last half can of anesthetic spray directly onto the other bodyguard's face.

Three seconds later, the bodyguard also collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

Gao Dong was also kicked backward, his ribs making a clear cracking sound.

He lay on the ground, vomiting large amounts of blood, yet he still managed to prop himself up with his bony hand and shakily stand up.

Only two people remained in the corridor.

Chen Deming leaned against the wall, his face pale as he looked at the gaunt-faced man in front of him.

"Gao... Gao the forensic doctor?" Chen Deming's voice trembled.

He just couldn't understand how a dying man could possibly take down his four expensively hired bodyguards.

Gao Dong approached step by step, blood still dripping from the tip of his scalpel: "If my daughter were still alive, she would be in junior high school this year—"

"She loves to draw and says she wants to be a designer when she grows up... My wife... Her braised pork is the best in the world."

Chen Deming's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his hand quietly reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

"Forensic Doctor Gao, listen to me—that was an accident!" Chen Deming backed away to buy time while lowering his voice. "I didn't know your family member was in the car! It was my subordinates who acted on their own!"

"Here's what I'll do: I'll give you money, ten million? No, a hundred million! Take the money and go abroad for medical treatment, or get married and have a child. There's no need to die with me!"

"An accident?" Gao Dong laughed, then roared hysterically, "You call it an accident when you pour two people alive into concrete?"

"I've been investigating for five years—a full five years!"

"I killed Ma Donglai, I killed Zhang Dabiao—I thought that as long as I made a big fuss about the case, the police would investigate thoroughly! But I never expected that the real killer would be a beast in human clothing like you!"

Chen Deming finally found the gun handle, and suddenly pulled out a black Glock pistol, the dark muzzle pointing directly at Gao Dong's chest.

"Fuck you! You're ungrateful, aren't you?!" Chen Deming completely tore off his mask of hypocrisy, roaring with a ferocious expression, "Move again, and I'll send you to see your wife and children right now!"

Gao Dong stared at the dark muzzle of the gun, and his expression suddenly calmed down.

"Shoot," he whispered. "I should have died long ago. But before I die..."

'

68th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Xiaoyu stared at the laptop screen, his fingers frantically tapping on the keyboard.

He used the backdoor previously installed in Dingsheng Industrial's OA system to gain access to the Peninsula Hotel's internal monitoring network.

Although the hotel experienced a power outage, the monitoring system has an independent UPS backup power supply, which can last for another twenty minutes.

In the infrared camera footage, Xiaoyu could clearly see everything in the emergency exit.

"Grandmaster!" Xiaoyu shouted into the adjacent live stream, "Gao Dong has cornered Chen Deming! Holy crap, Chen Deming pulled out a gun!!"

"Master, you are truly amazing! You even foresaw that Chen Deming always carried a gun!"

Shen Feng sat in front of the live broadcast camera, his expression unchanged.

But deep down, unseen by anyone, Shen Feng was on the verge of collapse, screaming inwardly, "God my ass! You damn system! The script didn't say Chen Deming had a gun!"

"That old fox actually carries a gun? If Gao Dong doesn't kill him tonight and lets him live, won't he hire ten more squads of lantern bearers to bombard me with armor-piercing rounds tomorrow?!"

"It's all over, it's all over! Gao Dong, are you even capable? You're a forensic doctor, and you're going to take on Glock with a scalpel?"

"Where are the police? Sister Su Qing, you're usually pretty fierce when you arrest me, why haven't you arrived yet!"

Shen Feng was panicking, feeling a throbbing pain in his head.

But he knew he absolutely couldn't show the slightest panic right now; eighteen million netizens were watching him!

If his public image collapses and he loses his popularity points, how will he use them to draw bulletproof vests from the system?

Shen Feng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his inner panic, and leaned closer to the microphone: "Everyone, Luo Wen's final choice was ultimately wrong."

"He thought that by sacrificing his own life to send the mastermind behind the deaths of his family to hell, he could end everything."

"But he forgot that violence only breeds more violence. Violence begets violence, and that is never salvation."

True justice is not about the self-destructive acts of a rash rage.

"Instead, let the truth come to light, and let those who think they are superior tremble under the judgment of the law."