The old man straightened, looking imposing, and fixed his gaze on the newcomers.

Since he didn’t speak, no one else dared to either. It was as if liquid nitrogen froze the air, making everyone restless. Du Kang’s greeting remained unanswered, and he began to sweat. He looked up and noticed the handcuffs on Elder Fang’s wrists. He almost staggered due to his suddenly soft knees.

It wasn’t enough for Liu to condemn himself—he wanted to drag down everyone else with him!

Du Kang hated he couldn’t grab a gun and shoot the man then and there. His bow deepened, and he tore off the key on Liu belt and personally unlocked Elder Fang’s handcuffs. He asked ingratiatingly, “Why don’t we change locations, sir?”

Elder Fang asked, expressionless, “Are you ‘inviting’ me somewhere too?”

He’s angry! And not just a little! Du Kang swallowed thickly and forced himself to smile, “Please don’t jest, sir. I’m simply worried there are too many people here—what if someone carelessly bumps into you? The rest of the museum delegation is waiting for you at the guest house. They’re worried about your health. They kept exhorting me to make sure you’re unharmed and to bring you back…”

“Unharmed? I am indeed unharmed, haha!” Elder Fang clasped his hands behind his back, and his fathomless eyes slowly swept their surroundings. This sounded like praise, but Du Kang’s back was damp with sweat. “The owner of this house, a patriotic young man who donated valuable cultural relics to our museum, has been taken away by your extremely competent subordinate to ‘assist in the investigation.’ I have to thank you for coming just in time—a few minutes later, and I guess I’d have ended up the same!”

Du Kang didn’t dare raise his head. He could only repeat, “I was negligent in my supervision.”

Elder Fang gave him a profound look, snorted coldly, and passed through the crowd to the exit.

He walked past Liu without sparing him even a glance as if the man was transparent. It was obvious he didn’t consider him worth even a fraction of his attention.

With the stalemate finally broken, the four bodyguards quickly appeared at the old man’s side, blocking Du Kang from offering his arm as support. Yet, though he was so rudely rejected, nothing negative was visible on his face—he politely gave way, and the bodyguards went ahead.

Suddenly, his arm was caught. He turned his head and met Liu’s deathly pale face.

Liu’s eyes were empty. He’d worked in Liyun Town for many years and had a lot of contact with Du Kang. Du Kang always presented the image of a calm, dignified leader. This was the first time he ever saw him so subservient.

Just how important is that old man? Liu realized this wasn’t a simple failure the moment he was slapped—but with every passing second, his heart sank deeper and deeper. Now, his heart pounded in his chest, his blood pressure soared, and genuine fear had his back soaked in cold sweat.

“Secretary, Secretary Du… This…”

He couldn’t even speak properly. The palm of his hand on Du Kang’s arm was damp. The only thought on his mind was that he couldn’t let the other man go—some subconscious instinct screamed that once Du Kang left, his life was over.

His intuition wasn’t wrong. The moment Du Kang saw him, the respectful, polite smile disappeared as if it was never there. His expression became dark instead, eyes burning with fury. He looked moments away from strangling Liu to death.

“Liu Qishi.” Du Kang spat out Liu’s full name. He grabbed the hand on his arm and, one-by-one, pried the fingers open.

He didn’t want to stay here a second longer. But, before he left, he pointed his finger at Liu and said, voice surprisingly gentle, “We’ll settle this later, don’t you forget.”

Everyone crowded in the house poured outside like sardines in a can, even the students of Class 5 who would usually never be this compliant. The only ones left in the messy living room were Liu and his men.

Liu slowly took off his cap. Then, as if completely exhausted, he leaned on the sofa and slid to the ground.

He knew the location of the warehouse, and he knew that the cultural relics he’d tried so hard to get waited there. Yet, despite them being completely unguarded, he didn’t dare even approach that place.

He was like a drowning man in a sea of endless regret and fear, aware he would never survive.

His followers were in a panic too, neither daring to go out with the others nor daring to ask what was going on. They looked at each other and saw the same words in the others’ eyes—

We’re done for.

Outside, Du Kang finally found an opportunity to approach Elder Fang. He caught the old man’s frown at the messed up front yard and immediately said, “This is awful—the lawn is destroyed, and I noticed even the tea table in the living room is broken. This is completely our fault. Rest assured, sir, I’ll arrange for someone to take care of this. We will do our best to minimize the losses due to this incident and compensate the owner.”

Elder Fang gave him a glance and nodded slightly. Though his expression was still dark, Du Kang felt much better.

Realizing he had found a way to calm Elder Fang’s anger, he wanted to make up for his mistake as soon as possible. He signaled to the secretary following him with a glance and rushed forward to open the car door for the old man.

“Sir,” he began, almost pleadingly. “Let’s go to the guest house…?”

Elder Fang got into the car and said, cold, “To your town’s PSB. I’m going to personally pick up the young man you took away to ‘help with the investigation.’”

Shocked, Du Kang wanted to dissuade him. The old man motioned for a bodyguard to close the door, but then suddenly lowered the car window and looked out as if searching for something.

Finding it, he pointed towards the crowd and said, “The comrade with darker skin, please get in the front car and lead the way.”

Deng Mai’s father, who was trying to calm Gao Sheng and the other students down, started at being called out. By the time he turned to look, the car window had already been raised.

Stunned, for a moment he didn’t react. Du Kang, standing by the car, immediately realized what was going on, and his gaze toward Deng Mai’s father became much friendlier.

“Comrade Deng Fengshou, you received a task. Why are you still standing there?” An encouraging smile on his face, he beckoned to the subordinate to whom, in the past, he hadn’t bothered paying attention to because his reports weren’t very good. “Come on, squeeze in with me.”