If You Want to Hurt Yue Xiaofei, You'll Have to Step Over My Dead Body First! (Third Update)

That voice struck like a boulder hitting water, drawing every eye in an instant.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Everyone turned toward the sound.

A black Audi rolled up slowly and stopped at the edge of the police cordon.

The door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out.

Hou Tao's men instinctively cleared a path and raised their hands in salute.

"Director Ruan!"

"Director Ruan!"

"Director Ruan!"

The newcomer was Ruan Zhongxian, the head of the Jiangbei Provincial Public Security Department.

He stood straight, his clean-shaven face scholarly behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

His white police uniform shirt only added to his commanding air.

"Director Ruan, you're finally here!"

Hou Tao scrambled over as though he had spotted a lifeline. He plastered on a fawning smile, but his voice came out close to tears.

"Director Jin... he's gone too far! He ordered his men to open fire just now. He said they should shoot anyone who got in their way! He thinks he's above the law!"

"Enough!"

Ruan Zhongxian frowned and cut him off coldly.

His gaze swept across the scene, irritation stirring inside him.

That old bastard Gao Tianxiong was up to no good after all!

He knew Jin Dapao was stubborn as a mule, yet he'd asked me to come talk him down.

But now that I'm here, I have to handle this properly.

If word gets out that I can't even rein in my own deputy, how am I supposed to hold my head up?

"Come on, Old Jin. Is this really worth getting so worked up over?"

Director Ruan put on a false smile and strolled toward Jin Dapao.

"You broke the rules by bringing the Flying Tiger Squad to Jiangcheng. By rights, you should be disciplined."

"But since you did it for work, I'll let it go."

"Take your men back to the Provincial Capital, write me a report explaining yourself, and we'll put this behind us. How does that sound?"

Director Ruan certainly knew how to use words.

In just a few sentences, he had branded Jin Dapao a rule-breaker.

If Jin accepted that, he would face disciplinary action at the very least when he got back.

And Ruan could use the opportunity to establish his authority.

But Jin Dapao didn't play by the rules at all!

"Write you a report? Like hell I will!"

Jin Dapao roared, spraying spit into Ruan Zhongxian's face.

"I came here to save someone!"

"My nephew was kidnapped and locked in a basement. He was nearly beaten to death! Then that bastard Hou Tao brought men to stop us from leaving. That's obstruction of official duty!"

"I'm not just taking Yue Xiaofei out of here today. I'm investigating this to the bitter end!"

Jin Dapao's voice made the ears of everyone nearby ache.

"The Gao Family runs Jiangcheng like its own private kingdom. There's no way their hands are clean!"

"I'm going to find out exactly how much filth they've been hiding!"

What?!

Hou Tao's expression changed.

It's over!

That lunatic Jin Dapao is serious!

If the Gao Family falls, I'm in danger too!

I can't let him investigate!

Director Ruan's expression held steady, but the corner of his eye twitched.

"Jin Dapao!"

Director Ruan raised his voice sharply, trying to cow him with a show of authority he didn't feel.

"Don't push your luck! I'm the head of the Jiangbei Provincial Public Security Department, and you're only my deputy! You have no standing to act like this in front of me!"

"So what if you're the head?"

Jin Dapao lifted his chin, eyes bloodshot, and refused to give an inch.

"Goddamn it!"

"You've never spent a day on the front lines! All you know how to do is sit in your air-conditioned office and play cards!"

"You're a pompous little scholar who got ahead through a woman. Who are you to put on airs in front of me?!"

The crowd erupted.

Everyone present sucked in a sharp breath.

No one had expected Jin Dapao to expose Ruan Zhongxian's sore spot in public.

"Y-you... what did you say?!"

Ruan Zhongxian's face went deathly pale, then dark red.

When he was young, his good looks had caught the eye of the daughter of an influential provincial official.

The young woman had a fierce temper and was known in their circles as the "She-Devil."

But Ruan Zhongxian had happily spent years fawning over her, finally marrying into her powerful family.

After that, his father-in-law's connections had carried him up the ranks until he became head of the Provincial Public Security Department.

In senior circles, no one used his name. They called him so-and-so's son-in-law.

They had even given him a nickname: Spineless Ruan.

It was true.

But it was also Director Ruan's greatest sore spot, one no one usually dared mention.

Now that Jin had brought it up in public, Director Ruan shook with rage.

He pointed a delicately crooked finger at Jin Dapao and shouted at the Flying Tiger Squad Members:

"Flying Tiger Squad, listen up! Arrest Jin Dapao at once!"

It was a vicious move. He wanted to use the Flying Tiger Squad to get rid of Jin Dapao.

He would satisfy his grudge and keep his own hands clean.

But the Flying Tiger Squad Members did not move.

They stood shoulder to shoulder like an iron wall, guns aimed forward, with not a flicker of doubt in their eyes.

To them, Ruan Zhongxian's order might as well have been a dog barking.

"You..."

Director Ruan's face turned dark red.

Unwilling to believe it, he tried again, his tone slightly softer but still imperious.

"Flying Tiger Squad! I order you to stand down!"

"You don't have to arrest Jin Dapao!"

"Just leave!"

He thought he had found a way around their refusal.

Once the Flying Tiger Squad withdrew, Jin Dapao would be alone. Hou Tao's hundreds of men could easily take him down.

And Yue Xiaofei wouldn't escape either!

But the Flying Tiger Squad Members still did not budge.

Director Ruan shouted himself hoarse, yet not one of them moved a step.

Director Ruan was completely stunned.

How could these Flying Tiger Squad Members dare defy his orders?

"Are you all rebelling? Anyone who refuses to obey will be disciplined! I'll fire every last one of you!"

"Hahahaha!"

Jin Dapao burst out laughing. "Ruan Zhongxian, a pretty boy like you will never understand!"

Then he looked over the Flying Tiger Squad Members, pride filling his eyes.

"I've never treated them like subordinates."

"They're my brothers. We trust one another with our lives. We face hardship together and share the good times together!"

"Even if the sky falls, we'll hold it up together!"

Jin Dapao raised his voice, every word ringing clear.

"We never point our guns at our own brothers! Company Commander Yue taught me that, and that's what I taught them!"

Not far away,

Yue Xiaofei listened to Jin Dapao, tears welling in his eyes.

He had never imagined his father held such a place in his comrades' hearts.

He used to resent his father for spending year after year on the battlefield and barely ever coming home.

He had never realized how many people his father had influenced through his words and actions.

"Jin Dapao, don't think a few achievements and the Flying Tiger Squad you built make you untouchable!"

Humiliated and furious, Director Ruan started blustering again. "You're resting on your laurels! Throwing your seniority around! Do you really think no one can deal with you?"

"Achievements?"

Jin Dapao's eyes widened as though he had heard a joke.

"I shed blood for every damn one of them!"

With that, he tore open the buttons of his white shirt, baring his upper body.

The entire scene fell deathly silent.

"Hiss..."

Sharp intakes of breath sounded all around.

Jin Dapao's body was covered in crisscrossing scars.

Knife wounds!

Bullet wounds!

Every one of them was jagged and ugly.

Those scars were the brightest medals a man could wear!

"See this scar?"

Jin Dapao pointed to a knife wound on his chest, his voice low and firm.

"I got it when I was with the 7th Armored Company. We went to the border to arrest a gang of drug traffickers. They fought back, and I took this in a knife fight."

"I nearly didn't come back alive!"

"And this bullet wound!"

He pointed to a scar on his back. "I got this in Jiangbei, during a kidnapping case. I went in first, and one of the kidnappers shot me."

"If I hadn't been lucky, I'd be a martyr by now."

Jin Dapao's voice rose higher.

"Every scar on my body marks a time I came face-to-face with death!"

"Ruan Zhongxian, you spend your days sucking up to people in an office. Do you have scars like these?!"

Director Ruan had no answer. His face twisted, and he took an involuntary step back.

"Xiaofei, let's go."

Jin Dapao took Yue Xiaofei with him and moved to break through the cordon again.

"Stop them!"

Ruan Zhongxian panicked and shouted at Hou Tao's men, "I'll reward anyone who stops Yue Xiaofei handsomely!"

Hou Tao's men steeled themselves and prepared to move.

"Just try it!"

Jin Dapao swept the crowd with a knife-sharp gaze and bellowed:

"Anyone who wants to hurt Yue Xiaofei today will have to step over my dead body first!"