Gangster heir? Please call me a legitimate entrepreneur.

Zhou Ming sat up straight instantly on the other end, his breathing becoming more rapid.

"Qiangzi! Stay calm! Don't do anything foolish!"

Zhou Ming's voice was low and urgent.

"Did Su Ye and his gang force you to do dirty work? Don't cross the line!"

Gao Qiang squatted down against the wall, clutching his head tightly with both hands.

"Dirty work? I'd rather they made me do dirty work!"

Gao Qiang shouted, sounding like a young wife who had suffered all the grievances of her in-laws.

Tears mixed with cement dust on his face, forming a lump of mud.

"Brother Zhou, have you ever seen a mafia boss who sends someone to wake up his underlings with a loudspeaker at 6:30 every morning?"

"It's not about seizing territory; it's about herding everyone onto the parade ground and making them stand at attention reciting the 'Construction Safety Regulations'!"

On the other end of the phone, Zhou Ming was stunned.

The lighter fell onto the table with a thud and rolled to the floor.

"Memorize...memorize the rules?" Zhou Ming stammered.

"That's right!" Gao Qiang wiped his nose, becoming more and more upset as he spoke.

"For the past three months, that bastard Su Ye has treated us like we're not even human!"

"He made me live and eat at the construction site, and every day I would wear a tattered yellow hard hat and go to the scaffolding to adjust the spacing of the steel bars."

Gao Qiang stretched out his calloused hands, looked at the bloody cuts made by the steel bars, and was overcome with grief.

"If the distance is even a millimeter off, that bald bastard Lei Hu will show up right on time!"

"He was holding a DV camera, recording the whole thing as evidence, while muttering some rules from the Analects of Confucius."

"Then I'll turn around and go to that she-devil Lin Dai, and deduct my performance-based pay according to the Labor Law!"

A gasp came through the receiver.

Zhou Ming was so anxious that he kept slamming his fist on the table.

"What about the forced demolition? Where's the evidence of violent forced demolition by organized crime that our bureau chief is most concerned about!"

"Even just one photo of them beating someone would be helpful!"

"What kind of forced demolition is this, my dear brother!"

Gao Qiang slammed his head against the cement wall with a dull thud.

"Su Ye's compensation to those holdout residents was 20% higher than the surrounding market price!"

"When the residents moved out, not only did they not cause trouble, they even presented Sihai Construction with a banner and gongs!"

Gao Qiang slammed his fist into the load-bearing wall next to him.

My hand bones throbbed with pain, but the wall plaster didn't even crack.

"Brother Zhou, look at this wall! Can you believe this resettlement housing was built by a shell company run by a gang?"

"The cement they used is of a higher grade than the cement used in our provincial government building!"

"The earthquake resistance level is maxed out. I searched the construction site for half a month with a magnifying glass, and I couldn't find a single shoddy piece!"

"The accounts of the Sihai Group are dirtier than my face!"

Zhou Ming took a deep breath on the other end, trying to calm his wildly beating heart.

"Qiangzi, I know you've suffered." Zhou Ming's voice was comforting.

"But being an undercover agent means lying in the dark. If you just keep going, the fox will eventually show its tail."

"I can't hold on any longer!"

Gao Qiang completely broke down, suddenly stood up, and roared at the raging cold wind outside the rooftop.

"Just half an hour ago, I led that group of tattooed burly men who had just passed their basic electrician certification exam to win the highest honor for engineering quality in our province!"

"A nomination for the Luban Prize! Brother Zhou! I led the way in getting a Luban Prize nomination!"

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone.

It took Zhou Ming a full ten seconds to find his voice, which sounded faint, as if he were dreaming.

"And then...?"

"And then?" Gao Qiang's eyes revealed a deep fear, as if he had seen some terrible scene.

"That ruthless Su Ye just called me into his office and personally brewed me a cup of tea with goji berries in it."

"He patted me on the shoulder and said that tomorrow at the company-wide commendation meeting, in front of thousands of people, he would promote me to deputy general manager of the engineering department!"

Gao Qiang covered the microphone of his phone tightly, afraid that his voice would be heard downstairs.

"A million-dollar annual salary! Plus a 5% share of the profits!"

"They provide a private car for all their outings, and even reimburse the whole family for a luxury trip to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand at the end of the year!"

Gao Qiang sniffed, and tears streamed down his face.

"Brother Zhou, please take me back quickly."

"If I continue to be corrupted by capitalists like this, I won't even want to pay the mortgage on that dilapidated secondhand house back home that I paid 150,000 yuan for as a down payment!"

"Gao Qiang! You're a policeman! What about your beliefs? What about your principles?!"

Zhou Ming finally lost his temper on the phone and roared angrily.

"Beep beep beep..."

The only response to Zhou Ming was the whistling wind on the rooftop.

In the municipal bureau office.

Zhou Ming was so angry that he trembled all over and suddenly grabbed the enamel teacup on the table that was printed with "Serve the People".

It was raised high, then slumped down.

In the end, he could only slam his hand heavily on the table, causing tea to splash all over the floor.

……

This is on the rooftop of the construction site.

Gao Qiang hung up the phone and wiped the tears from his face hard with his mud-covered sleeve.

"No, I can't fall into depravity."

He took several deep breaths of the biting cold air, trying to calm himself down.

"I was born a member of the police force, and I'll die a member of the police force. A million-dollar annual salary is nothing, and company shares are nothing!"

He was muttering to himself.

But he still carefully folded the gold-embossed "Luban Prize Nomination Certificate" neatly.

He tucked it into the innermost pocket of his windbreaker, zipped it up, and patted his chest.

Following the unfinished staircase, Gao Qiang walked downstairs with a heavy heart, stepping on the gravel.

I had just arrived at the temporary corrugated steel gate on the first floor.

Suddenly, a piercing roar of an engine came from outside.

His long-standing police instincts were instantly awakened.

He crouched down alertly, and under the cover of darkness and construction debris, peeked half his head out of the construction site.

Separated by a wall.

That was Section B of the urban renewal project in the eastern part of the city.

Unlike the orderly scene at Sihai Construction, the other side was in complete chaos.

Three yellow heavy excavators with their glaring headlights were rumbling over the broken bricks and tiles scattered on the ground.

Thick black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe, and the tracks pressed deep furrows into the muddy ground.

And in front of the excavator.

Dozens of shady-looking thugs, shirtless and revealing crude tattoos, were carrying pickaxe handles and gleaming steel pipes.

They surrounded a solitary, dilapidated two-story brick house, cursing and swearing.

On the roof of the brick house.

An old man with a full head of white hair, wearing a tattered cotton-padded coat, was holding a gas cylinder with bloodshot eyes.

The old man held a lighter in his hand and shouted something at the top of his lungs, but his voice sounded weak and feeble amidst the roar of the machine.

Gao Qiang squinted, his gaze piercing through the crowd.

He immediately recognized the fat man standing next to the excavator tracks, wearing a black woolen overcoat and with a thick cigar in his mouth.

It was Zhao Hongyuan, the owner of the civil engineering alliance, who was publicly humiliated by Su Ye and Xu Dajiang at the bidding conference yesterday.

Zhao Hongyuan took a deep drag on his cigar and exhaled a thick cloud of white smoke.

He lifted his foot and crushed the half-smoked cigarette butt on the ground with the gleaming tip of his leather shoe.

Then, he raised his head, his face contorted with excitement and anger, and gave the old man on the roof a cruel sneer.

"Old man, you're asking for it, aren't you?"

Zhao Hongyuan's voice echoed arrogantly through the loudspeaker in the night sky.

"Sihai Group is willing to be a living saint and scatter wealth, but I'm not going to tolerate your shameless behavior!"

Zhao Hongyuan waved his hand, turned around abruptly, and shouted at the thugs behind him.

"Get the hell out there! Smash the door open and drag them out!"

"Even if someone dies today, Young Master Zhao from the capital will cover for him!"