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

Chapter 84 Poisoning to Silence! There's a Mole Within the Defense Agency!

Jiangzhou Defense Office, second basement level interrogation room.

Su Qing sat across from Liu Jianhua at the interrogation table, with a complete list of Liu Jianhua's belongings spread out in front of her.

Qin Zheng stood to her right, arms crossed over his chest, staring at his former colleague.

Liu Jianhua was wearing the gray prison uniform issued by the detention center, and his hands were handcuffed to the fixed rings on the table.

"Liu Jianhua and Chen Deming have been arrested. All of Dingsheng Industry's accounts have been frozen, and we have obtained the complete transaction records for the money laundering scheme." Su Qing pushed a document over, "Your call logs, transfer receipts, and communication data with dark web nodes are all here."

Liu Jianhua glanced down at the documents, then looked up and actually laughed: "Captain Su, you're making it sound like I'll have no chance of survival if I don't cooperate."

Qin Zheng snorted coldly: "You think you still have a way out? Leaking the list of top-secret police officers and attempting to defect with state secrets—just those two offenses alone make a suspended death sentence too lenient for you."

Liu Jianhua's smile remained unchanged: "Team Leader Qin, I've worked in this department for twelve years. What haven't I seen? Frankly, all you can offer is what happened between Chen Deming and me. As for anything else—"

He shrugged, the handcuffs clanging crisply. "I don't know anything."

Su Qing tapped her fingernails lightly twice on the table: "Mr. Shadow."

Liu Jianhua's eyelid twitched.

"When you were intercepted at the airport, who arranged your route to Liaozhou? Who set up the rendezvous point in Vladivostok?" Su Qing leaned forward. "Liu Jianhua, did you think he would protect you if you stayed out of trouble for him? You're in our hands now, and to him you're already a useless piece of trash. You know better than I what happens to a useless piece of trash."

Liu Jianhua's Adam's apple bobbed, but his lips remained tightly pressed together, and he did not speak.

Qin Zheng slammed a photo on the table; it was the cover of the book "Complete Directory of Police Officers and Informants".

"If this document gets out, at least seventeen undercover agents will die. Seventeen lives, Liu Jianhua. How many do you want to take on?"

silence.

Liu Jianhua stared at the photo for five or six seconds, then suddenly said, "I want some water."

Su Qing glanced at Qin Zheng.

Qin Zheng walked to the door and knocked on the one-way glass window.

Thirty seconds later, a police auxiliary officer on duty came in with his head down, carrying a paper cup of warm water, and placed it in front of Liu Jianhua.

Liu Jianhua held the paper cup with both hands, lowered his head, and took a sip.

Su Qing continued to exert pressure: "He set the 48-hour window for you. He has a precise prediction of the Defense Agency's response speed, which shows that he is within the system. And in a high position."

"Give me a name, and I'll guarantee your death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment. If you don't, I'll have the provincial authorities prosecute you for treason, charging you with the maximum penalty."

Liu Jianhua took another sip of water.

Then he put down the paper cup, opened his lips as if considering his words.

"Captain Su, I—"

Halfway through his sentence, Liu Jianhua's body suddenly trembled violently.

His eyes rolled upwards, and he sprang up from the chair, but because of the handcuffs, his upper body only arched convulsively, his head tilted back, and white foam spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"Liu Jianhua!" Su Qing suddenly stood up.

Qin Zheng rushed to the door: "Call a doctor! Quickly!"

Liu Jianhua's body convulsed in the chair as if he had been electrocuted, his limbs twitching erratically, and the iron handcuffs rubbed his wrists until they bled.

White foam, mixed with blood, gushed from the corners of his mouth and trickled down his chin.

In less than thirty seconds, forensic doctors and paramedics rushed into the interrogation room.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, adrenaline injection, endotracheal intubation...

All possible measures had been taken, but seven minutes later, the forensic doctor felt Liu Jianhua's pulse for the last time in his neck and slowly shook his head.

"Dead. Preliminary diagnosis: acute cyanide poisoning." The forensic doctor pointed to the paper cup on the table. "The source of the poison is most likely the drinking water."

Su Qing stared at the ordinary paper cup on the table, a chill running through her heart.

The water was brought in by the auxiliary police officer on duty.

The corridor, a total of thirty meters long, leads from the water dispenser to the interrogation room, passing through two access control doors.

Anyone capable of tampering with things within this thirty-meter radius —

"Seal off the entire building! Register everyone who enters or leaves, and retrieve all CCTV footage! Also, where is that auxiliary police officer who delivered water?"

Xiao Li poked his head in from outside the door, his face extremely grim: "Captain Su—that auxiliary police officer was temporarily assigned here today, and his employee number doesn't match the official staff. The surveillance footage shows that he left the building through the fire escape five minutes ago."

That same afternoon, at the headquarters building of Dingsheng Industrial.

The hastily assembled crisis public relations team held a six-hour meeting in the conference room on the 23rd floor and finally finalized a complete separation plan.

At 4:00 PM, Dingsheng Industry held a press conference.

Acting Chairman and former Vice President of the company, Fang Zhigang, stood behind the podium, impeccably dressed in a suit, his expression somber: "All of Mr. Chen Deming's illegal and criminal acts were his personal actions and had no connection whatsoever with the normal business operations of Dingsheng Industry. The company's board of directors passed a resolution early this morning to remove Mr. Chen Deming from all his posts and will fully cooperate with the Ministry of National Defense's investigation."

"For the past 23 years since its establishment, Dingsheng Industry has always adhered to the corporate tenet of legal operation and giving back to society —"

Upon seeing this, Xu Zhengyang abruptly turned off the television screen.

"They cut him off really fast." Xu Zhengyang tossed the remote control onto the sofa. "Chen Deming hasn't even had his formal trial yet, and they've already kicked him out."

Shen Feng didn't reply; he was looking at a dark web communication record that Xiao Yu had just intercepted.

"Master, your dark web bounty has increased to... ten million!" Xiao Yu swallowed hard. "The poster is a new account, registered at noon today."

Shen Feng stared at the number and felt his temples begin to throb.

It was three million US dollars before, and now it has more than tripled.

"Who?"

"Untraceable. It used a three-tiered platform with blockchain-based coin mixing, and the source of funds is completely anonymous. But the person who could bid a ten million dollar bounty on the dark web in one go—"

Shen Feng didn't need Xiao Yu to finish speaking; the answer was already clear.

Mr. Shadow.

Liu Jianhua is dead, Chen Deming has been arrested, and Shen Feng's live stream has pulled the whole chain from the shadows into the sunlight.

Mr. Shadow finally decided that Shen Feng was a target that had to be eliminated.

"There's one more thing." Xiaoyu tapped a few times on the keyboard. "The Lanternmen organization posted a pinned thread on the dark web forum—'After the Hound Squad's mission failed, the Queen Bee Squad has taken over the operational order in the Jiangzhou area.'"

"The Queen Bee Group?" Xu Zhengyang frowned deeply.

"The second-ranked combat unit within the Lanternmen," Xiaoyu said in a low voice, "The Hound Team that came before was already in the top five. The Queen Bee—"

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear: the people who came were even more ruthless than last time.

The office was silent for a few seconds.

Shen Feng leaned back in his chair, his mind racing: the last three million US dollars had brought three assassins, but he had withstood the combined might of Grizzly Bear, Jackal, and his own master-level fighting skills.

Ten million US dollars, and the Lamplighter dispatched his second-ranked elite squad.

What level are these people? Special forces? Blackwater-level? Or something even more outrageous?

I only have a little over three million popularity points left, and it's even difficult to buy a first aid kit.

"Old Xu." Shen Feng put down the thermos.

"gentlemen."

"How's the defense upgrade at Cloud Peak First Place going?"

Xu Zhengyang stood up from the sofa and took out a list with one hand: "The Grizzly Bears and Jackals have already set up three layers of sentries, both visible and hidden, around the perimeter. The infrared jamming flares arrived yesterday and have been deployed at the four corners of the rooftop and the entrance to the underground parking garage. The windows in the master bedroom and study have been fitted with 12mm bulletproof steel plates, so from the outside they look no different from ordinary floor-to-ceiling windows."

"In addition, I contacted my old comrades and obtained two anti-sniper early warning systems from overseas. As long as a laser rangefinder with a scope shines on us within 500 meters, the system will trigger an alarm within 0.3 seconds."

Shen Feng nodded after listening.

The hardware is in place. But while the hardware can defend against the first wave, it can't defend against the second or third.

What makes these dark web assassins so terrifying is not their individual combat prowess, but their unlimited capacity for trial and error—if they fail, they simply replace them with another group until their target is dead.

There are only two kinds of true security.

Either we completely remove Mr. Shadow, making the bounty disappear from its source.

You either need to become so strong that no one dares to take your orders.

The former requires time and intelligence, while the latter requires popularity.

"Xiaoyu".

"exist!"

"Let's change the topic for tonight's live stream." Shen Feng stood up and walked to the French windows.

As dusk settled, the skyline of Jiangzhou gradually blurred, and a few of the earliest streetlights lit up like sparks scattered along the city's edge.

"Change to what?"

Shen Feng turned around, his eyes reflecting the warm yellow light of the office.

Tell a story about "shadows".

Xiaoyu's fingers hovered above the keyboard, not daring to touch it.

Xu Zhengyang's expression changed as well: "Sir, are you sure? Last time, telling Gao Dong's story already drove Dingsheng Industry crazy. If we directly target Mr. Shadow this time—"

'

"I know." Shen Feng picked up the thermos, unscrewed the lid and screwed it back on. "But do you think he won't kill me if I don't tell? Ten million US dollars is already tied up there. Even if I delete my account and quit the internet to become a coward, those assassins won't cancel the order."

"Then why not just be upfront about it!"