Chapter 56: Rotten to the Core

"You're really, really fast, Inspector Sheng."

Pi Zhibang put down his teacup, looking somewhat dumbfounded.

Lin Tiansheng replied, "Just a minor case. Wrap it up early so we can free up our hands to deal with the Deng family."

"Understood, understood."

"Still, a case that the Emergency Unit couldn't handle is already considered minor?" Pi Zhibang twisted the corner of his mouth with a dry laugh.

In the past, the West Kowloon Regional Crime Unit couldn't even crack one major case in half a year, but now they were coming in one after another. The year-end summary report was bound to look exceptionally impressive.

Lin Tiansheng waved his hand dismissively. "Next time, hand me a case the SDU can't handle. I'll take care of it!"

"Damn it, you're making me sound like I'm living off a woman." Pi Zhibang watched Lin Tiansheng walk away, muttering under his breath, "So imposing. He almost has the air of Inspector Lui Lok back in the day."

Moving with swift and decisive action, Lin Tiansheng returned to the office area, planted his hands on his hips, and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, ordered, "Old Ma, Ah Cong, bring both of the Deng brothers back to the station."

"Everyone else can knock off. We'll interrogate them tomorrow."

The six team members gathered their things from their desks and answered in unison, "Yes, sir."

After returning his equipment, Chicken Head had long since gone back to the O-Unit to hand in his attendance sheet.

Ventilating his anger on ordinary thugs today was pointless; it all needed to be pinned squarely on Uncle Deng's ledger.

Driving a Mercedes-Benz, Deng Zongliang steered with one hand while holding the phone in the right. Upon receiving the news of Yao Feiyu's failure, he cursed, "Useless piece of trash! Calling himself a King of Guns—what a total joke. I've wasted five years feeding him!"

"For now, suspend all smuggling operations. The heat is too intense. Watch out for Lin Tiansheng, understand?"

The Luen Ying Shue Tuen Mun leader, "Stinking-Mouth Cheung," grumbled, "Bright Gor, the bosses up north are pushing hard. If we don't get customs clearance this week, we'll have to wait until next month, and the losses won't be small."

Deng Zongliang snapped angrily, "If you're not afraid of dying, arrange your own route, damn it!"

With a snap, the mobile phone was flung onto the passenger seat, showing just how explosive his temper was.

Suddenly, a car on the left swerved directly ahead of him. A hand reached out from the passenger window, arrogantly slapping a police siren onto the roof before slowly slowing down the speed.

Seeing vehicles blocking him both on the left and behind, Deng Zongliang took a deep breath and slammed on the brakes. He waited for the officer to walk up to the car and flash his badge before lowering the window with a stony expression. "What is it, Officer? Does the Crime Unit handle speeding now too?"

Ma Delong's face remained expressionless, his gaze ice-cold as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Deng Zongliang, stop playing dumb. Our boss wants to see you. Let's go."

...

The next day, morning.

Lin Tiansheng wore a brown cotton-linen shirt over a white undershirt as he entered the office. Barely had he sat down when Zhang Jinrong stepped forward to report, "Boss, Deng Zongliang's mouth is tight as a drum; he's demanding to see a lawyer. Deng Zongming got high on weed and is howling for breakfast."

Lin Tiansheng hadn't expected Deng Zongming to have a habit of smoking weed, and with an amused smile, he said, "Get me some breakfast."

"Yuan-yang tea and a pineapple bun, how's that?"

"Whatever."

Once a family turns to crooked ways, the roots are rotted, and no good shoots can grow from them.

Carrying the breakfast, Lin Tiansheng walked into the interrogation room, pulled out a chair, and dug into the food right in front of Deng Zongming.

Deng Zongming, wearing a Gucci belt and a full set of designer labels, was handcuffed to the chair. He sniffed repeatedly, his stomach rumbling as he stared with a ravenous, watering mouth.

"Want some, Ming-zai?"

Lin Tiansheng ate with evident relish.

Fighting off his hunger after a sleepless night with bloodshot eyes, Deng Zongming slammed his fists against the tabletop and shouted, "Bastard! I won't cooperate with you."

"You even fooled around with your eldest sister-in-law, so you obviously don't give a damn about Deng Zongliang as the big boss. Aren't you afraid I'll show him the photos?" Lin Tiansheng picked up a fallen crumb of the pineapple bun's crust, popped it into his mouth, and studied Deng Zongming's expression.

Prior to this, Zhang Jinrong had privately approached Ah Ming once, but Ah Ming had refused to cooperate. Presumably, Ah Ming figured that even if the affair came to light, the consequences wouldn't be severe—with Uncle Deng favoring him, it wouldn't cost him his life. But cooperating with the police would actually get him killed.

Still, Ah Ming hadn't reported his contact with the police either; that would be equivalent to blowing his own cover, and nobody was that stupid. Otherwise, Ah-liang's freedom would have been restricted long ago.

Deng Zongming spat contemptuously, a flash of misplaced righteousness suddenly appearing on his face. "You want me to betray the family? In your dreams!"

Raised in the countryside, he enjoyed the benefits of the clan system under gentry self-governance. While he was rotten to the core, he held "family" to be more important than his own life; even the most wretched people had something they treasured deep down.

Understanding this, Lin Tiansheng nodded. "Cooperating with me doesn't mean betraying the family. Uncle Deng is old, yet he's actually handed family power over to an outsider. Deng Zongliang is merely an adopted son—how can he possibly compare to you?"

"I'm not targeting the Deng family; I'm only targeting Deng Zongliang. Help me take him down, Uncle Deng retires, and you become the boss. We'll cooperate—what do you think?"

A look of sheer astonishment crossed Deng Zongming's face. "You're going to help me rise to the top?"

Lin Tiansheng let out a cold laugh. "Who do you think I am, the ICAC? When you're out on the streets, profit comes first; which cop doesn't take bribes? It's just that Deng Zongliang refuses to work with me or even give me a share of the profits, so don't blame me for playing hardball."

Deng Zongming scrutinized his expression. It looked entirely, completely genuine. Combined with the background of a corrupt cop, everything fell into place. When it came down to it, it was Deng Zongliang who was bringing disaster upon the family!

The Luen Ying Shue, customs, and personnel from the New Territories police district all took orders from Deng Zongliang. Why should the family's supreme authority fall into the hands of an outsider? If he teamed up with West Kowloon to wipe them all out, the Deng clan would be under his command in the future.

Without even getting a sip of water, Deng Zongming swallowed the bait, his face glowing with excitement as he blurted, "Good! Great! You take out Ah-liang, and I'll cooperate with you."

"Smart man." Lin Tiansheng snapped his fingers. "To take out Ah-liang, we first need to pull out his protective umbrella in the police force. I'll have my guys come in to take your statement shortly."

With a cunning gleam in his eyes and a ferocious twist to his mouth, Deng Zongming said, "I know the account numbers they use for their transactions!"

Lin Tiansheng's eyebrows twitched sharply. Finding Deng Zongming brazen enough to actually say that, he quickly called Zhang Jinrong into the room to take down the statement.

Black-money accounts were ironclad evidence. Both the Internal Investigations Command and the ICAC could pull transaction records to make arrests and press charges.

Perhaps Deng Zongming didn't know the core accounts of the entire Deng family, but as long as it related to smuggling transactions, it was enough to sever the entire pipeline.

It would completely paralyze all of the Deng family's tentacles within the police force.

Zhang Jinrong successfully walked out of the interrogation room with the written statement and couldn't help marveling, "Deng Zongming is actually crazy enough to believe you. Did he forget that our favorite thing is tricking fools?"

Returning to his desk, Lin Tiansheng took a sip of tea and sneered, "Someone who mistakes running illicit operations for family power—how much brains did you expect him to have?"

"He's fried his brain smoking too much weed."

To a young man with little worldly experience, managing the family's illicit businesses, surrounded by hordes of lackeys shouting deference, and receiving universal respect really did make him feel like the true head of the family.

Little did he know that the real foundation of the Deng clan lay in farmland, markets, land, population, and seats on the Heung Yee Kuk.

The person who controlled those sources of power was the true head of the Deng clan. Judging by Uncle Deng's arrangement, that position had always been reserved for Deng Zongming; Ah-liang was merely keeping the seat warm. It was just a pity that Deng Zongming was a born street hoodlum who simply couldn't grasp it—he just couldn't grasp it at all...