Interrogation

Early the next morning, Li Feng finished practicing the Skin-Grinding Method once and headed out after breakfast.

Along the way, he walked and pondered.

Although Ma San was merely a minor thug, he possessed the cultivation of the Qi-Blood First Stage. Once his death was discovered, it would inevitably stir up some ripples.

Especially with Lei Hu; after all, Ma San was Lei Hu's henchman, and this area was under Lei Hu's control. Things probably wouldn't be very peaceful.

Would Lei Hu actually suspect him regarding Ma San's death?

After all, they had a conflict during the day. He just feared that the Green Bamboo Gang would rather kill the innocent than let anyone escape, conducting a thorough investigation regardless of suspicion.

Or perhaps the Green Bamboo Gang had a coroner similar to the one in the City Guard Office, skilled in examining corpses and tracking investigations, who might trace it back to him through all sorts of means and clues.

All of the above made Li Feng somewhat restless.

At that moment, he yearned intensely for how wonderful it would be if his sister-in-law were still a chief constable. He would only need to develop slowly under her protection, and by the time he became a chief constable or even a deputy constable director, there would be no such bullshit problems. He reckoned that the moment he showed his face, this Lei Hu would have to nod and bow to curry favor with him. Even if Lei Hu knew he had beaten and killed Ma San, so what? He would probably only say he killed him well.

The entire day, Li Feng kept thinking about yesterday's events, looking rather absent-minded.

Fortunately, his appetite remained as voracious as ever. Although Zhang San and Chen Song noticed he was somewhat distracted, seeing that his appetite was still so large, they didn't make much of it and simply assumed Li Feng had cultivated too late into the night.

The day's shift quickly passed amidst Li Feng's absent-mindedness.

After getting off duty, Li Feng headed straight home; all afternoon, he had been preoccupied with what dishes were being cooked at home.

When Li Feng returned to Joyful Alley, he already sensed a hint of abnormality.

Usually at this time, neighbors had just finished their chores, and quite a few people would be walking around the alley or visiting each other. Today, however, as Li Feng walked all the way through, he saw hardly a soul.

As he reached the entrance of Uncle Li's home, he happened to see Uncle Li returning from buying medicine outside.

Li Feng hurriedly stepped forward a few paces and stopped Uncle Li.

"Uncle Li, what's going on? How come there's no one walking about the streets and alleys?"

"Little Li, don't you know about this? It's already spread all over the alley!"

Faced with Uncle Li's riddles, Li Feng asked patiently, "What on earth happened?"

Li Feng already vaguely guessed that it was most likely related to Ma San, but he still stubbornly wanted to ask for clarification.

"Ma San of the Green Bamboo Gang is dead! It's that ruffian who came here yesterday to collect protection money!"

At this, Uncle Li looked around and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming no one was nearby.

"Who knows what the Green Bamboo Gang will do next? Little Li, you had a conflict with that ruffian yesterday, you'd better hurry back."

With that, Uncle Li hurriedly stepped into his courtyard gate and shut it tightly.

Although he hadn't clashed with that ruffian, he hadn't paid the protection money either, so he still needed to go home early and stop wandering around outside blindly. Who knew if the Green Bamboo Gang would go crazy because a gang member died and take their anger out on him?

He was just an ordinary commoner and simply couldn't withstand any turbulence.

Li Feng watched Uncle Li enter his home, then turned away and walked straight toward his own.

Pushing open the courtyard gate, he saw the busy figure in the kitchen, and a warmth welled up in his heart.

"Little Feng, you're back. Dinner is ready."

Hearing the commotion of his return, Lin Yanqiu walked out of the kitchen.

With such an incident happening just yesterday, things weren't easy to discuss outside, so the two of them didn't eat in the courtyard; they moved the dining table inside the house.

After finishing the meal, Lin Yanqiu lowered her voice. "You must have seen the commotion outside today. During the day, everyone outside was saying that Ma San of the Green Bamboo Gang is dead."

Li Feng nodded.

Lin Yanqiu continued, "The Green Bamboo Gang will definitely be running around conducting interrogations like rabid dogs during this period. If you run into them, just act as if nothing happened."

Li Feng's heart steadied. As expected of someone who used to be a chief constable, his sister-in-law remained unflustered no matter what happened, truly giving him a lot of peace of mind.

After dinner, Li Feng prepared to loosen up his muscles and bones in the courtyard and then proceed with debt repayment.

Bang, bang, bang!

"Open the door, Green Bamboo Gang."

A knock suddenly rang out from outside the door.

Li Feng instantly tensed up.

Lin Yanqiu, who was washing dishes in the kitchen, also heard the sound and hurriedly ran out of the kitchen with a dishcloth still in her hand.

Li Feng gave his sister-in-law a look, then walked over to open the door.

Lin Yanqiu instantly understood his meaning, quickly wiped her hands clean, and turned back inside the house.

She currently had no martial dao cultivation and was merely an ordinary person. If a conflict broke out on the spot, she would only be a burden to Li Feng.

Li Feng arrived at the courtyard gate, and after seeing his sister-in-law enter the room, he slowly pulled the courtyard gate open.

"What were you doing inside? Why did it take so long to come out and open the door!"

Several ruffians stood outside the courtyard gate, one of whom demanded.

Li Feng's gaze darkened as he rapidly swept his eyes over the few ruffians outside the door.

Not a single one among them possessed martial dao cultivation; they were all unranked punks, and Lei Hu was not present.

This meant the Green Bamboo Gang had yet to figure out who the murderer was, and his matter had not been exposed.

If they had truly discovered that he was the murderer, the ones coming definitely wouldn't be these unranked punks. At the very least, it would be Lei Hu leading a team, and they wouldn't be knocking so politely either; they would probably have kicked the door straight open.

These ruffians coming here were nothing more than obeying the gang's instructions, carrying out a routine inspection to question and test him out.

He only needed to pretend to know nothing and fool this group of people.

"I just finished eating, clearing away the bowls and chopsticks took a bit longer. What, people aren't allowed to eat?"

Li Feng asked in a calm, nonchalant tone, "I just don't know what urgent business brings you gentlemen here."

"Cut the motherfucking crap with me!" The leading ruffian looked Li Feng up and down and questioned, "Yesterday during the day, was it you who had a conflict with Ma San in this street?"

"It was." Li Feng answered truthfully, "He wanted to collect protection money, so he could just collect it; he shouldn't have hit people. That child was only twelve or thirteen years old, and I couldn't bear to watch it, so we argued a few words."

"Then do you know that Master Ma died last night?" The ruffian stared dead at Li Feng, attempting to glean a trace of a guilty conscience.

Li Feng furrowed his brow slightly, putting on an appearance of having just found out as well. "Master Ma is dead? Really! That's truly a pity!"

"Then where were you last night? What were you doing?" Another ruffian followed up with a question.

"After getting off duty last night, I've been resting at home all along and never went out at all. I am, after all, a man from the City Guard Office; patrolling the streets every day is exhausting, so where would I have the energy to run around wildly in the middle of the night? You lot can't suspect a common white runner like me."

Li Feng answered impeccably, his attitude neither humble nor overbearing.

The few ruffians exchanged glances. Although they couldn't pick out any faults, they were accustomed to running amok in Joyful Alley and felt that this Li Feng hadn't given them enough face.

The leading ruffian let out a cold snort, turning sideways to peer into the courtyard. "You say you were at home, so you were at home? Who knows if you've hidden any unsightly things in your courtyard. Step aside, brothers are going in to search and see if there are any of Ma San's belongings."

With that, the ruffian reached out a hand, attempting to push Li Feng aside and barge into the courtyard.

A faint gleam flashed in Li Feng's eyes.

He could tolerate being interrogated, but wanting to enter the courtyard?

Absolutely impossible; his sister-in-law was still inside the house. If these punks went in, there was no telling what trouble they might stir up.

While he didn't go looking for trouble, he certainly wasn't afraid of it either, especially not against a few unranked punks.

Li Feng grabbed the hand the ruffian had reached out.

"What are you doing?! Let go quickly!" The ruffian felt a sharp pain, his expression shifted, and he tried to jerk his hand back, only to find he couldn't shake it off no matter what.

"Get lost the moment you finish asking! Waiting to eat dinner, are you?" Li Feng violently flung the ruffian's hand away.

"Ouch!"

The ruffian utterly failed to withstand this force from Li Feng. His entire body was sent stumbling backward a few steps in succession before sitting heavily on the ground, taking a dog-eating-shit tumble.

"You've rebelled!" The remaining ruffians flared up in sudden rage upon seeing this.

"Wait! All of you, stand down!"

The ruffian who had taken the tumble got back to his feet.

The split second of force just now made him realize that the kid in front of him had at least entered the threshold of the martial dao; otherwise, it would have been impossible to fling him away with a single move. Even if all of them rushed him together, winning was out of the question.

Figuring this out, the ruffian could only reluctantly drop a harsh threat. "Fine, you've got guts! How dare you lay a hand on people from our Green Bamboo Gang. Just you wait for us, this matter isn't over. Let's go!"

With that, the ruffian glared viciously at Li Feng before leading the other punks away from the place.

"Fine, I'll be waiting!"

Li Feng sneered, maintaining an utterly unconcerned demeanor.