Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The walls inside the house were mottled, and there was a musty smell everywhere from a rainy day. Unknown insects surrounded the dim light bulbs.

Lu Chengtian lay on the greasy dining table that was never clean, trying to solve a geometry problem using the third method.

His skin was very fair, and his crow-feather eyelashes cast a small shadow under the light. He had the unique thinness and handsomeness of a teenager, and was the type of person that girls in school would blush to ask for help with their homework.

The clean but badly worn cuffs of the school uniform made the boy's wrists look even more bony.

Behind him, a withered woman emerged from the dark bedroom, her pale, sunken face faintly revealing a breathtaking beauty. Hearing the footsteps, Lu Chengtian frowned and turned back to see the woman approaching in a suspender skirt, revealing large patches of ulcerated skin, the ulcers on her calves so deep they were visible to the bone.

"Mom, what's wrong with you?" The boy's voice trembled a little, and his body involuntarily stepped back, only to see a dirty syringe on the ground.

The woman floated in front of him and stroked his face with her bony hand, which seemed to have some tenderness, but the hand was extremely cold, which made him think of the corpse in the morgue for no reason.

"Xiaotian, where is the passbook grandma left for you? Give it to mom, okay? Save mom, okay?" The woman pleaded in a sharp voice, her exposed teeth also black and rotten.

The boy took a deep breath and shook his head. The next second, the woman's eyes began to bleed. Her once bright, dark pupils suddenly turned into two black holes. Her hands turned into sharp claws, tightly strangling the boy's slender neck.

Lu Chengtian gradually lost his breath, yet he felt completely drained of strength. He felt the world around him sinking, a lingering smell of decay. The faces of the debt collectors and his mother's horrifying, zombie-like visage emerged before him one by one.

"No...don't..." The boy tried to shout for help, but no sound came out of his throat.

"But if you wanna cry, cry on my shoulder, if you need someone, who cares for you..." A burst of music sounded in my ears, accompanied by regular vibrations.

Lu Chengtian opened his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling in the dim light, and the simple white ceiling light above his head. He took a deep breath and picked up his phone. It was 4:20 in the morning.

Seeing the caller ID, he quickly jumped up, cleared his throat, and answered the phone. "Director Guo."

"Chengtian, we've received inside information that 'fresh goods' have been found at Pier 2 and are expected to leave their post in two hours. Lead your men to cooperate with the anti-drug squad to intercept them. Act quickly." Guo Jing'an lowered his voice and added, "Bring trusted individuals and take precautions. The criminals may be armed with firepower."

"Understood." After putting down the phone, Lu Chengtian quickly got dressed while calling the Criminal Investigation Detachment to meet up at the Municipal Bureau.

It was the dead of winter, and he drove his black sedan headlong into the biting wind. His dark brows flashed in the rearview mirror from time to time, his expression impossible to discern.

A waning moon hangs high in the deep blue sky, and the cities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong are still asleep. Only the men and women living a life of drunkenness in the brothels and those struggling to make a living are awake.

Pier No. 2 was brightly lit. A huge ship was docked in the port, casting a huge shadow in the dark and boundless sea. A few people could be seen patrolling on the deck.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Lu Chengtian took it out and saw a message from Guo Jingan: "The goods are in place, prepare for the raid."

"Yiqing, what's the situation?" Hiding deep in the shadows, he turned on the intercom. A whirring sound of electricity passed through his Bluetooth headset, followed by Zhao Yiqing's usual lazy tone: "There are six people on deck. Preliminary judgment is that they are unarmed, but we can't see inside the boat, so it's hard to say whether they have grenades. Do you want to go?"

"Go! Everyone be careful!" As soon as Lu Chengtian finished speaking, dozens of fully armed police officers emerged from the darkness, rushed onto the freighter, quickly subdued several patrol officers on the deck, and entered the cabin.

"Be sure to seal all exits on the ship. Don't give drug traffickers any chance to escape, and don't give them any chance to destroy the drugs under our noses." Zhao Yiqing's voice came again from the Bluetooth headset.

As soon as they entered the cabin, everyone was dumbfounded. The ship was filled with nearly a thousand containers and several crew members wearing military coats.

"Captain Lu, we searched the cabin and found a total of ten suspects, including the captain. They are all here." Ma Qiang, with a messy ramen hair, pointed a gun at a timid middle-aged man, handcuffed him with a "click", kicked him to the side of the cabin, and ordered him to squat.

The Anti-Drug Brigade and the Criminal Investigation Brigade worked together and all ten suspects were quickly subdued and made to squat in a row in the cabin.

Seeing this scene, Lu Chengtian frowned.

"Oh, we've caught the suspect. Why does Captain Lu look so worried?" Zhao Yiqing walked over slowly, looking at Lu Chengtian with a pair of peach blossom eyes full of smiles. "I haven't seen you for half a month, and Captain Lu looks even more heroic."

Zhao Yiqing, deputy captain of the Narcotics Control Brigade of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Public Security Bureau, is at the same level as Lu Chengtian, deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade. They are about the same age, but Lu Chengtian is a little annoyed by this idiot.

He raised his eyelids to look at Zhao Yiqing's deliberately stylish hair and said indifferently, "Captain Zhao, don't you think it's too easy? 'Blue Flame' costs several thousand per gram on the market. It would take at least an armed force to escort it. How could it be just these few people?"

As he spoke, Lu Chengtian walked over to the suspects squatting in a row, leaned over, pinched the chin of a middle-aged man with an unshaven beard, and said, "Open your mouth."

The man opened his mouth obediently. Lu Chengtian turned his face left and right twice, as if checking the teeth of an animal, and said, "This man's teeth are clean. They haven't been contaminated by poison."

The man was as if he had been pardoned. He said repeatedly, "Officer, please understand. I'm just a fishmonger. The worst thing I've ever done is killing fish. I've never heard of 'Blue Flame'."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yiqing followed suit and checked the teeth of the remaining people, including the six people patrolling on the deck, but did not find any drug-related content.

"That's strange. Could it be that Director Guo's information is wrong?" Zhao Yiqing placed his index finger on the tip of his chin, lost in thought.

At this time, Ma Qiang and others who had led the team to check the containers also returned, panting and saying, "Captain Lu, Captain Zhao, we've randomly opened and inspected thousands of containers, and they're all frozen sea fish. We've also checked other places, but we haven't found any 'Blue Flame'.

At this moment, the roar of a motor suddenly came from the silent sea. Lu Chengtian quickly rushed to the deck and saw a speedboat with a glimmer of light leaving the harbor.

"Chase!"

With the cooperation of several suspects, several speedboats were quickly lowered from the side of the cabin. Lu Chengtian rushed out first in a speedboat, and Zhao Yiqing also took a long step and sat on it without hesitation.

The cold wind of the winter night seemed to be mixed with ice chips, which hurt his face. Zhao Yiqing couldn't help but reach out to warm his face, but Lu Chengtian seemed unaware.

Zhao Yiqing laughed and said, "Captain Lu can even drive a speedboat. You have quite a lot of skills. No wonder the policewomen from the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Public Security Bureau are all attracted to you."

"Why haven't I heard that there are policewomen in the bureau?" Lu Chengtian replied indifferently while stepping on the accelerator to the bottom.

Zhao Yiqing chuckled softly, his cool fingertips brushing across Lu Chengtian's icy face. "Captain Lu, I'm so sincere to you, but Captain Lu doesn't even feel it? That's really hurtful."

If this were broad daylight, Lu Chengtian would have rolled his eyes at Zhao Yiqing, the self-proclaimed "policewoman." Unfortunately, he was so focused on tracking down the murderer that he had no time to spare. Zhao Yiqing's "confession" vanished silently with the whistling sea breeze.

Under the dim light, Zhao Yiqing could only make out Lu Chengtian's stern outline. He withdrew his hand, touched his nose, and fell silent, staring intently at the speedboat ahead.

For some unknown reason, the speedboat in front, which had been speeding at full speed, suddenly slowed down. Then there was a "splash" sound, and it seemed that something fell from the boat. However, the sea was pitch black, and it was impossible to see clearly with only the speedboat's own lights.

Seeing that they were about to catch up with the speedboat in front, Lu Chengtian said, "Captain Zhao, please give me some cover."

Zhao Yiqing understood and drew his gun to protect Lu Chengtian, pointing it at the approaching speedboat. The powerful flashlight in Lu Chengtian's hand also illuminated the limited space on the speedboat - no one!

At this moment, they heard a sound on the sea. Following the sound with the flashlight, Lu Chengtian and Zhao Yiqing both saw the floating figure on the sea.

"He ran away, shoot!" Before Lu Chengtian finished speaking, Zhao Yiqing fired a bullet, and then the sea fell silent again.

Lu Chengtian drove the speedboat slowly closer, but there was no movement, only the dark sea tide roaring secretly.

"Forget it. It's so cold today. Even if you didn't hit him, he would have frozen to death. He's so far away from the shore. We can't catch him." Seeing Lu Chengtian frowning, Zhao Yiqing comforted him.

After a few seconds of silence, Lu Chengtian took a deep breath and whispered, "Let's see if there are any traces on the speedboat."

"The drug dealers chose to jump into the sea, which means they had no intention of living. There is no need to think about it. They must have been destroyed along with the drugs." Zhao Yiqing listlessly followed Lu Chengtian into the empty speedboat.

Other police officers also arrived by speedboat, and the spotlight illuminated the limited space inside the boat - there were actually four foam boxes inside.

"Open."

Lu Chengtian and Zhao Yiqing held flashlights, and several police officers used knives to remove the tape on the edges and slowly opened the foam box.

There is still fresh sea fish in the box.

"After all this time, these damn drug dealers are playing tricks on us." Ma Qiang threw the foam box cover aside, scratched his ramen head in frustration, took off his foggy lenses, and wiped them on the corner of his clothes.

Lu Chengtian looked at him silently without saying anything, but Ma Qiang immediately fell silent, realizing that he had lost his composure in front of the people from the anti-drug detachment. He obediently stepped aside and waited for Lu Chengtian to speak.

Lu Chengtian bent down and reached out to pick up a sea fish, which was still covered with a thin layer of ice. In the light, Zhao Yiqing saw that Lu Chengtian's slender, sharp fingers were slightly red from the cold, but with a little force, he crushed the ice shell on the fish.

Then, without caring about the dirt, he directly opened the belly of the sea fish, which made the cleanliness-obsessed Master Zhao frown.

The next second, the frowning Mr. Zhao's eyes lit up - a corner of the transparent sealed bag appeared from the fish's belly.

Lu Chengtian exerted a little force, and the small bag of white powder was pulled out, emitting a faint blue light under the lamp.

"It's Blue Flame!" a young policeman shouted excitedly.

The speedboat was then driven to the dock, all the foam boxes were taken out, and the reconnaissance team found a bag of blue flame in the cheeks of each fish.

"Captain Lu, Captain Zhao, we seized a total of four kilograms of 'Blue Flame' this time, and we also found a USB flash drive in the fish gills." As he spoke, Ma Qiang handed the silver USB flash drive, which was also in a sealed bag, to Lu Chengtian.

"This drug dealer is going to give us a big gift package." Zhao Yiqing exclaimed in amazement.

The silver metal USB flash drive still carries the icy temperature of the frozen fish.

Lu Chengtian looked at it, lowered his head and thought for a moment, his thoughts racing. After a while, he sighed imperceptibly and looked at Zhao Yiqing with bloodshot eyes: "The drug dealer who jumped into the sea is probably one of us."

"You said that man is 'Gray Sparrow'? Doesn't that mean..." Thinking of the calm and cold dark sea after the gunshot, Zhao Yiqing also fell silent.

"Four kilograms of blue flame, the market price is 3,000 yuan per gram, the drug dealers lost 12 million. If it weren't our own people, they would have thrown the entire cargo into the sea and left nothing for us."

Looking at Lu Chengtian's red eyes, Zhao Yiqing opened his mouth but said nothing. He thought of his shot that hadn't missed.

After a while, he patted Lu Chengtian on the shoulder and comforted him, "Don't worry, Hui Que is still registered with the drug dealers. There is a 50 million bounty on his head. He won't die so easily."

At that moment, many images flashed through Lu Chengtian's mind.

The tombstones of those nameless undercover agents were like pairs of eyes that could not close. The old policeman was left with countless shrapnel scars. His mother's dying body full of festering and hardened blood vessels and eyes that could not be closed were all entwined with him like a revolving lantern.

"He'll be fine." He subconsciously reached out and touched the ebony amulet around his neck. The warmth from his fingertips made him feel better.