So he simply embraced his ruthless reputation further, bringing men to intercept You Mingxu at her doorstep. Though he had only intended to rough up that idiot, You Mingxu ended up being the one dealing out the beating.

Luo Yu’s fighting skills were quite good. Otherwise, his superiors wouldn’t have assigned such a dangerous mission to him. In a fair fight with You Mingxu, even if victory wasn’t guaranteed, he could certainly have given her trouble. But now, he couldn’t expose himself—how could a lawyer possess such combat skills?

So that day, after his men fled from You Mingxu’s beating, he sat alone in his car at home, thinking about her graceful yet deadly movements. As he pondered, he suddenly found himself smiling.

When You Mingxu was investigating the youth exchange murder case, Luo Yu had only instructed his men to teach the idiot another lesson, never expecting them to be so brutal that they nearly drowned Yin Feng. This gave Luo Yu a headache.

After receiving the news, Luo Yu drove to You Mingxu’s home ahead of time.

A top-level undercover agent’s surveillance couldn’t even be detected by You Mingxu.

Besides, that night, she was probably too preoccupied to notice anyway.

Luo Yu stood in the shadows, watching a police car pull up, seeing the two people in the back seat embrace and kiss before slowly separating. He saw the infatuation in Yin Feng’s eyes, the tenderness on You Mingxu’s face. Then she took his hand, slowly walking into the residential complex, like two young lovers, holding hands all the way, faces flushed as they went upstairs.

Luo Yu stood in the darkness for a long time.

Cigarette butts littered the ground at his feet.

Then he turned and left.

She had never looked at him that way.

So that’s how it was.

For a long time afterward, Luo Yu acted contrary to his usual behavior, no longer harassing You Mingxu. He even considered abandoning this angle completely.

At this time, the drug trafficking operation he had been monitoring finally showed movement. He knew Xing Jifu planned to pull off one last big job before retiring, establishing their generation’s dominion over both the legal and criminal worlds, while securing a solid foundation of support for his heir, Young Master Xing Yanjun.

In those days, You Mingxu had been pushed to the back of his mind. Even in his dreams, all he thought about was how to catch Xing Jifu.

Catching Huang Long meant nothing, catching Guo Feirong meant nothing, and even arresting all the involved personnel in the Kaiyang Group meant nothing.

He had to catch Xing Jifu.

Only by catching him would his undercover mission be truly complete, only then could this massive criminal tumor in Xiangcheng be uprooted entirely. Only then could they deliver a fatal blow to criminal forces, truly striking fear into them. Let this land be filled with the authority of the sacred police badge, where no one would dare to break the law easily, because look—even Xing Jifu, who sat firmly at the top of Xiangcheng’s criminal world, was arrested by the police.

This had almost become an obsession for Luo Yu, even surpassing the original meaning of his undercover identity.

Because over these years, although he had never personally killed an innocent person, he had hurt people, wronged people, repeatedly cleared criminals of suspicion, fought against police officers, and shot gang members. His superiors had called him ruthless, and they were right. Some things, other undercover agents probably wouldn’t dare to do, fearing they’d be exposed and end up dismembered in the streets. But he did them—doing them cleverly when possible, gritting his teeth, and pushing through when unavoidable.

Gradually, he had grown accustomed to the life of a criminal boss. He smoked the most expensive cigarettes and drank the finest liquor. Two months ago, during a secret meeting with his superior, he was offered a pack of his once-favorite Furong Wang cigarettes. He hadn’t thought much of it then, accepting them only to carelessly toss them to his subordinates later. He joined them in their entertainment with women, knowing intimately which nightclubs in Xiangcheng had the most alluring girls. If anyone showed the slightest defiance, rage would well up inside him, and he would always find ways to get even, to satisfy his anger…

More than once, he stood smoking in his high-rise office, watching the daily growing figures in his accounts, seeing his subordinates become increasingly arrogant, watching Xing Jifu’s face become more and more familiar, seeing how “veterans” like Huang Long and Guo Feirong no longer dared to look down on him, even the young master showing him a favor… His chest swelled with stirring ambition and pride.

Sometimes he even wondered if he had never become a police officer and had truly taken the other path, would he be free of any struggle and torment today? Perhaps he really could have sat in Xiangcheng’s highest seat of power.

But these were just idle thoughts.

Before implementing this massive plan, he met with his superior one last time.

They met on a small fishing boat on the Xiang River.

In the pitch darkness, the vast river was silent, with only the two of them present.

By this time, his superior had already been reassigned to Beijing for another important mission. Going forward, someone else would take over as his contact.

But today, his superior had come to see him personally, and immediately slammed the table upon meeting: “You shot and wounded a police officer?! Severely! That officer might be bedridden for the rest of his life!”

Luo Yu was silent for a moment before answering, “If I hadn’t shot first at that moment, he would have died.”

His superior: “But… ah! When you return in the future, this matter won’t be easily explained!”

Luo Yu: “But I know exactly what I’m doing, I always have.”

His superior looked at him but said nothing.

Luo Yu took out a pack of Hexiangxia cigarettes and offered them to his superior. His superior looked at them, said nothing, but accepted them anyway.

Luo Yu asked, “You’re about to transfer to Beijing. How am I supposed to work with your replacement? We won’t be able to cooperate!”

His superior angrily replied, “What nonsense are you talking about? Since when do undercover agents get to choose their superiors? Rest completely assured, whoever becomes your contact, is all the same. Besides, haven’t you been making many decisions on your own these past few years? When did you ever really follow my management?”

Only then did Luo Yu smile.

His superior continued, “Even if I transfer to Beijing, I won’t completely let go of this case. I’ll keep an eye on it. When necessary, I can dispatch people from my end to help you.”

Luo Yu finally got the response he wanted and nodded with a smile.

“What do you plan to do?” his superior asked.

“I plan to close the net.”

The net Luo Yu had woven exceeded even his superior’s original expectations.

As early as last year, he had secretly colluded with drug dealers from Yunnan and the Xiangtan gang. In other words, beyond his undercover identity, he had taken on another role as a mole. With his silver tongue and decisive ruthlessness, he repeatedly curried favor with both parties, convincing them that Luo Yu was truly an ambitious character who had long wanted to replace Xing Jifu.

Over the years, Xing Jifu had been impenetrable with Huang Long and Guo Feirong by his side. But this newly risen Luo Yu not only enjoyed Xing Jifu’s favor but also acted quite boldly and arrogantly. His alliance with those two parties, betraying Xing Jifu, meant they would share Xing Jifu’s power in the future. Both sides had been waiting for such an opportunity and thus grew increasingly closer to him.