The beautiful young lady had been dragged out of the room by her friend.

Another woman—a shy-looking one—had replaced her, sitting in front of the defeated young man. Despite the unsettled vibe he was giving, the young man tried his best to pretend that a sordid show of unfaithfulness, of which he was the main star, hadn't just happened.

But they didn't stay long. It seemed like the appearance of the new woman could not lift the hefty atmosphere from before. The show was over, and there was not much left to see which deserved a standing ovation.

As a spectator of the show, he was left unsatisfied. But at the same time, thanks to his eavesdropping skills, the identity of the bewitching young woman from before had caught his attention. So, she was Violet Lee—the only daughter of the Lee group.

He stared at the small glass of whiskey neat, which the server had brought him. It was untouched. He'd been so engrossed in the show that he had forgotten to drink it. He held the glass in his hand and twirled it slowly with a slight frown on his face, lost in thought.

"Little Kai..." Someone was calling his name, interrupting his thoughts. A burly man had taken a seat in front of him, blocking his view of the empty stage.

"Chief." He nodded at the person he had been waiting for. His response was immediately met with a cackle of laughter.

"So formal? We're not at the office now..."

"That's true. But you called me here for work matters, didn't you, Uncle?" Kai countered, but still conceded into calling him by his familial title.

Leo Chen was the Police Commissioner of the city—the highest-ranking officer in the whole police force—and Kai Wu was his wife's nephew, who was also the commanding officer of The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong Island region.

"Haha... True. True..." Leo let out another hearty laugh. He saw a waitress and gestured for her to come and take their order.

"There are dropped bodies washed ashore in different spots on Po Toi Island. The marine police called it in." The waitress came to them with a smile. Leo smiled back at her before adding, "This is what I want to talk to you about. But first, we eat." They had both ordered the same dish—prime boneless ribeye steak served in rock salt with au jus and freshly grated horseradish.

"Your aunt was nagging at me earlier when she found out we're having dinner together. You must call her later, or she'll keep giving me a hard time," Leo complained as soon as the waitress left.

"Po Toi Island isn't my jurisdiction. How many bodies?" Kai said, ignoring his uncle's grievance.

Leo's eyes widened as he held up a finger toward his nephew. "You brat! Can't you at least pretend that you care? Don't you know how difficult your aunt can be?" he protested.

But he knew his nephew all too well. There was no point in throwing a pity party to elicit any kind of sympathy. Kai was too impervious for that. Well, it looked like he couldn't help his wife at this point. If she wanted something from her nephew, then she would have to handle it by herself.

So, Leo rested his hands on the table and could only release a sigh. "Three... All three bodies have a single clean gunshot wound to the head," he replied.

"How are they connected?"

"All gunshot wounds came from a .22 magnum."

Leo's answer seemed to pique Kai's interest. "Have you identified them? Are they part of the Red Sun triad gang?"

Leo crossed his hands on the table, letting out a sigh. He gave his nephew a grave look and said, "So you knew... Yes, one of the bodies was Wild Eddy's. He's..."

"Red Sun's muscle..." Kai finished his sentence.

Kai tapped his index finger on the table, and began to narrate, "Six months ago, a high schooler, Anson Yen, was stabbed with a cleaver in one of the back alleys of Wan Chai. The intel I got from my Informant said he was a rip-and-run kid, nicknamed Little Fatty. Little Fatty was killed by Little Fresh Meat—real name: Leslie Wong. An errand boy for Red Sun."

Kai paused for a bit before continuing. "He was also Eddie Wong's only nephew."

"Eddie Wong... Wild Eddie?" Leo asked with narrowed eyes.

Kai nodded. "We arrested Leslie Wong by the account of an eyewitness. That was also the first time I'd learned of a name: Zagan. Said to be the new rising force in the underworld. But all of this is just hearsay. There was nothing that could lead us to Zagan, except for the dead kid, who was allegedly a part of their crew," he said, still tapping his finger in a rhythm.

"Leslie Wong's first courtroom trial was two months ago. But oddly, the eyewitness changed her statement in court. She refused to identify him as the attacker, so Leslie Wong walked free. Three days later, he was found dead in his place in East Kowloon. Shot to the head. Another clean gunshot wound from a 0.22 magnum."

Leo looked grim. His brows drew together, "The Crime Intelligence Bureau has suspected a triad war... But they said nothing about Zagan."

Leo's words didn't surprise Kai. Zagan was the phantom of the underworld. Nobody in the law-abiding world had heard of them, but they seemed to be pretty much in full operation. He looked at his glass of whiskey again and downed it.

"Where do you want me in this? Po Toi is designated as New Territories. That's Brother Bao's jurisdiction. I can't waltz in there and take over," he asked.

Leo sighed. He cast his nephew a veiled glance and carefully revealed, "No, of course not... I'm forming a special cross-region task force, and I want you to lead the team."

Kai remained silent, staring at his uncle with his deep-set eyes. 

Leo had carefully brought this up because he knew Kai would reject the idea. He was planning to persuade his nephew more subtly but grew impatient with the young man's lack of response. Unable to stand Kai's piercing gaze any longer, he blurted, "Oh, dammit to hell! Say something!"

Kai's eyes narrowed slightly, yet he still didn't say anything. His gaze remained unreadable.

"Look, you can decide who'll be on the team. Although I'm asking you to give the other region commanders some face by considering their picks. Besides, they should know their own teams the best," Leo added. "I just need you to lead the team and fix this issue."

"You know how I feel about this, Uncle." Kai finally replied. His voice was as calm as a morning lake. "You're the Commissioner of Police, and I'm your nephew. Setting my principle aside, aren't you worried they will call you out on nepotism?"

"What nepotism? You and your principles!" Leo humphed.

"Why not let Brother Bao lead this case? As I said, Po Toi is his territory. Or Rowan? Kowloon is his jurisdiction, and they found Leslie Wong dead in Kowloon. It's more reasonable to have either of them to lead the team," Kai suggested, still composed.

Leo didn't respond immediately. He drummed his fingers on the table and noticed their server, who was ready with their meal. He beckoned him to come. As soon as the server left, he dug in. But soon he noticed Kai was still staring at him, waiting for a reply.

"What? I can't eat first? A man's gotta eat. My last meal was at lunch!" He continued gobbling his food, grumbling. "You eat too!" he complained, waving his fork at the young man before him.

Kai picked up his cutlery, the coolness in his expression not changing one bit. He slowly cut into his steak, glancing at his uncle. The man was still ranting while stuffing himself without fail. "You just downed straight whiskey with nothing else. You don't take good care of yourself, little Kai. You smoke too. You really should cut back on that. You're lucky I'm not a tattletale. Or perhaps I should tell your aunt about it. Serves you right!"

"There's nothing much to tell. I don't drink that much." A corner of Kai's lips curled into a slight smirk.

"And I exercise. Perhaps I should tell Aunt about your extra snack time at work? I'm sure that would be more interesting for her to hear about. You said your last meal was at lunch, but what about those pineapple cakes you always have at three?" he added before leisurely taking a bite of his steak, leaving his uncle dumbfounded.

"You! Are you blackmailing me!?" Leo harrumphed. He sighed and decided to change the topic, responding to Kai's previous suggestion. "Look, the Central Intelligence Bureau had dropped the bomb during the briefing with the Secretary for Justice earlier today. About the triad war. They said it's been going on for quite a while now," he explained. "You know how sensitive this issue is. The Secretary for Justice has been getting on my back about this.

"She had only to hear the word Triad, and she already got the heebie-jeebies and demanded that I solve it," he added. "So, I want you to lead the team because you're the only one that I can trust to do it!

"Besides, didn't you just tell me about this new crew, Zagan? Does Da Bao know about it? No, he doesn't. Rowan? Nope. Even The Central Intelligence Bureau mentioned nothing about that! You're the only one who knew. Nepotism? What nepotism? Pfft, let them come and complain to me about that when the crime rate in their jurisdiction is as low as yours!" Leo ranted.

Kai raised an eyebrow. This case definitely intrigued him, but he knew his appointment to lead the special task force by the Commissioner of Police, who happened to be his uncle-in-law, would definitely be a bone of contention to many people. Especially Rowan Lai, the commanding officer of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau of the Kowloon region, who always looked to vie with Kai.

"Zagan might as well be a myth because we have nothing concrete on them. If I bring it up with nothing to back me up, they would just accuse me of sending them on a wild-goose chase. The Central Intelligence Bureau wasn't mentioning anything about them, probably because of the same thing I just said," Kai said.

"Then how would you explain the connection between the three cases so far? The .22 magnum?"

"A criminal deal gone wrong. Personal vendetta. Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could be anything, but with five dropped bodies, it's still a stretch to conclude there is a triad war."

"Exactly! You said it yourself, it could be anything. So we can't eliminate the possibility of a triad war!" Leo quickly retorted as soon as he saw an opening in Kai's words.

He continued, "Re-appointment is coming, and the Secretary for Justice has been harping on me since this morning. Even before the briefing! You're the only one I can trust to handle this. So, you will lead the team, Kai. This is an order."

Kai understood. The Secretary for Justice was looking forward to being re-appointed, and she couldn't afford to have a triads fiasco under her watch. He said nothing else and continued to eat his meal.

Leo let out a sigh of relief. He might have had to play the boss card, but he knew his nephew's silence meant that he had agreed to his proposition.

Now that he had gotten what he wanted, Leo tried coaxing Kai into doing what his wife wanted him to do. "Little Kai, just give your aunt a call, okay? Yeah, she's meddlesome, but she only wants the best for you. It's been seven years. Don't you think this is what Rachel would want too?"

Kai looked up at his uncle while still cutting the steak. His face wasn't betraying any emotions even as he took a bite of the thick, juicy, and perfectly seasoned meat. "Aunt is meddlesome because she cares about me. I know that."

Leo snorted. That was a non-answer. Kai was the best in his field, not only because of his exceptional analysis and deduction skills, or his remarkable physique and stamina. But because of his excellent interrogation skills. There was no point in trying to maneuver him into doing something or agreeing to someone else's wish. Kai would not let himself get manipulated.

Oh well. At least his wife couldn't accuse him of not trying.

After they finished their meal and paid the tab, they went back down to the hotel's entrance. The parking attendant noticed Kai's arrival and fetched his car. A few minutes later, a gray Genesis G80 stopped in front of them. It was Leo's car and his private driver.

Kai opened the back door of the car and held it for his uncle. Leo gently patted his nephew's back and told him, "I'll see you on Monday at work. Don't go home too late. Rest early," as he stepped inside the vehicle. Kai smiled at his uncle while still holding the car door open. "I will. And don't worry, Uncle, I'll call Aunt later," he said, leaving Leo looking at him with widened eyes in surprise.

But before his uncle could say anything back, Kai closed the car door and tapped the roof of the car twice, signaling for the driver to drive away.

♡──── ❝ Author's Note ❞ ────♡

From now on, I will be using the abbreviation OCTB to describe the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau.

It would mean a lot to me if you could share your thoughts about this chapter in the comment section. And please consider voting if you liked it.

Thank you so much for reading!

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