What's Wrong, Officer?

The chief's orders, a hot pot meal paid for by Tiansheng.

That one simple sentence made their arrangement perfectly clear.

No matter how powerful the deputy chief was, his title still had the word "deputy" in it.

When he heard that the chief had struck a deal with one of the top three major consortiums, the deputy chief fell silent.

He cast a curious glance at Wang Wen, wondering what kind of background this student had to make Tiansheng Group go after him.

But whatever the case, this was no longer something he could get involved in.

After one last look at Wang Wen, the deputy chief turned and left with the people beside him.

Wang Wen thoughtfully watched them go before the lead guard ushered him into the interrogation room.

The lead guard asked just one question from beginning to end: "Did you kill them?"

Wang Wen said, "I was only acting in self-defense."

The lead guard nodded, left him with a "Come back when you've thought it through," then walked out of the interrogation room and locked the door behind him. He went off to eat hot pot with his colleagues.

Wang Wen looked at the locked door.

He blinked and thought for a moment.

Then he got up and left his seat to loosen up his joints.

He'd spent three days lying in the hospital. What a waste of time!

When it came to a lifelong pursuit like exercise, you couldn't afford to miss even a single day.

It looked like he'd have a stretch of time without interruptions, which was perfect for some recovery training.

He did high knees on the spot, warming up while testing the hardness of the floor and his shoes. Once everything was ready, he began strength training.

Since this body had gone without exercise for a long time, its stamina and explosive strength were terrible. He'd have to build them up from scratch.

An hour passed in no time.

When the deputy chief opened the interrogation room door and came in with a strange look on his face, he saw Wang Wen drenched in sweat, steam rising from his head, and burst out laughing. "You really are something, aren't you? Nothing bothers you!"

Wang Wen took off his soaked shirt and draped it over the back of a chair, baring his scrawny upper body as he continued doing push-ups.

"All right, all right. You really think this is your home." The deputy chief set a box of food on the table and called to Wang Wen, "Come eat. The cafeteria's closed today, so I scrounged up some stuff for you to cook in the hot pot. It'll do for a meal."

Wang Wen stood up, wiped off his sweat with his shirt, and walked to the table to take a look. "Got any water?"

"Sure. I'll get you some." The deputy chief grumbled as he walked out, "A meal isn't enough, now you want water too. Students at The Academy really are spoiled young masters!"

When the deputy chief returned and handed Wang Wen a cup of water, he watched him take slow sips and couldn't help asking, "How'd you offend Tiansheng Group?"

That was something Wang Wen himself found baffling.

In his previous life, the Second Consortium had gone to great lengths to curry favor with him. In this life, he hadn't even had the chance to approach them yet!

So why had they come after him first?

And why greet him in such an unfriendly way?

Were those fifteen thugs Tiansheng's people?

It didn't add up.

The whole thing made no sense.

Yu Zhi wasn't important enough to make Tiansheng take notice.

It had been the same in his previous life, as far as he could remember. The two had nothing to do with each other.

Could it have been a coincidence?

Could the person who liked Yu Zhi have had ties to Tiansheng?

But even if that were the case, Tiansheng didn't need to go to all this trouble to deal with him!

Wang Wen had gone over it again and again, but he still couldn't make sense of the whole affair.

Something just didn't feel right.

He couldn't say exactly what.

Hearing the deputy chief's question, all he could do was shake his head helplessly. "To be honest, I've never had any contact with Tiansheng Group, let alone offended them. Before today, I didn't even know who'd sent those thugs to cause trouble."

"Now that's strange." The deputy chief pointed at the food on the table, puzzled. "Tiansheng's been so blatant about it, and you still don't know what the problem is?"

"I think it's strange too." Wang Wen pointed at the food on the table as well. "If one hot pot meal can buy off the Guard Department and turn my self-defense into murder, can I invite you all to ten hot pot meals and get the guards to arrest people from Tiansheng Group?"

"Shh!!!" The deputy chief's expression shifted several times before settling into resignation. Frowning, he said, "It's not about the hot pot. It's about who's paying for it. If it were you, you could treat us to a hundred hot pot meals and the guards still wouldn't arrest whoever you wanted."

"Knock, knock, knock."

As the knock sounded, the lead guard who had locked Wang Wen in earlier strode over. Looking displeased, he said to the deputy chief, "Deputy Chief Jiang, these are the chief's orders. Please don't make things difficult for us underlings."

"Fine, fine. You two talk." The deputy chief headed for the door impatiently.

Just as he reached it, he turned back to the lead guard. "Xiao Chen, I want you to remember something too. These are the chief's orders, not yours. And I'm still the deputy chief, for what it's worth. Understand?"

The lead guard's expression shifted. He turned and saluted the deputy chief. "Understood, sir."

After watching the deputy chief leave, the lead guard turned back and stared expressionlessly at Wang Wen. "Did you kill them?"

Wang Wen took a sip of water and shook his head. "I was only acting in self-defense. I didn't kill anyone."

The lead guard nodded and waved his hand. The male and female guards who had been following him rushed over, snatched the cup from Wang Wen's hand, and took the food from the table.

"If you can't think it through, then go hungry." The lead guard leaned down and whispered in Wang Wen's ear, "You can go hungry until you do."

The lead guard loved the feeling of being in control.

Especially when he could torment someone in broad daylight.

He enjoyed it.

Seeing Wang Wen say nothing, the lead guard felt pleased with himself. He was just about to straighten up when an almost inaudible voice suddenly reached his ear: "Be careful. You're making it very easy for me to kill you."

"Say that again!" The lead guard suddenly drew his baton and pointed it at Wang Wen, shouting.

Wang Wen looked up at him in confusion. "What's wrong, sir? It'll be the same no matter how many times I say it. I was only acting in self-defense. I really didn't kill anyone."

"Chief, calm down." The female guard who had taken the food grabbed the lead guard's arm and gestured toward the room's security camera.

The lead guard looked at Wang Wen in confusion.

Wang Wen looked back at him even more confused.

After watching him for a while, he shook his head and snorted at Wang Wen. "Think it over properly!"

The lead guard left with his people.

Looking at the door, locked again, Wang Wen smiled faintly. He put on his still fairly dry jacket, dragged the chair to a corner, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.

Hungry?

It wasn't as if he'd never gone hungry in his previous life.

If this was all they had, it wasn't much of a challenge.

He sat in the chair with his head against the corner of the wall and soon fell asleep.

Unless a horde of Tower Climbers from the upper floors launched an attack, sleeping here had to be safer than anywhere outside, right?

Wang Wen slept soundly.

In the blink of an eye, it was late at night.

The guards on duty outside had already changed shifts.

At first, the lead guard thought Wang Wen was just putting on a brave face, so he watched him sleep, expecting a good show.

But when he realized the guy had been asleep for several hours—and was even snoring happily by now—he couldn't take it anymore. He opened the interrogation room door and rushed in.

He had just lifted his foot to kick over the chair when he saw Wang Wen, who'd been fast asleep a moment earlier, staring at him with his eyes open.

What kind of eyes were those?

The lead guard's whole body inexplicably stiffened. He felt as if the deadliest snake in the world had fixed its gaze on him, ready to strike the instant he made the slightest move.

The man and woman following behind him saw this and immediately shouted at Wang Wen, "What are you doing? You trying to attack a guard?"

Wang Wen paused, then opened his mouth in a yawn. Stretching, he looked at them in confusion. "What's wrong, sir? Is it morning already?"