The Big Shot

The entire inner street was dead silent.

Even Old Wang was hiding inside his shop, peering out.

Lin Mo stood amidst the mess, acting as if he had just done something completely trivial.

He shook his hand, as if flicking off some dirt.

He turned around, his gaze falling on Jiang Chengyue's still-dazed face.

"You..." Jiang Chengyue opened her mouth. A thousand words were stuck in her throat, yet she couldn't utter a single syllable.

Before she could gather her thoughts, from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a figure trying to sneak away.

It was Scarface!

Lin Mo reacted faster than her. With a flash, he dashed forward, giving the man no chance to escape. A clean, sharp whip kick swept the man right off his feet.

With a muffled thud, Scarface slammed flat onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Lin Mo stepped forward and planted a foot heavily on his back.

The air in Scarface's lungs was instantly squeezed out. His face turned beet red, feeling as if his internal organs had been dislocated.

"Do you have any fucking idea who I am?!" he roared, clinging to his last shred of dignity.

Lin Mo added a bit more pressure with his foot, and Scarface's voice immediately turned into a painful groan.

"Then do you know who the woman you guys were chasing is?"

Lin Mo tilted his head, looking at Jiang Chengyue, who was jogging over.

"Did you call your brother yet?"

"Ah? Is that necessary?" Jiang Chengyue was taken aback. She felt there was something slightly off about how he addressed him, yet also nothing wrong, so she just subconsciously shook her head.

Jiang Chengyue worked at the Yangcheng Broadcasting and Television Station.

That was a powerhouse combining print media, radio, and television.

It could also be considered a state-run enterprise.

Especially in a Tier-1 city like Yangcheng, anyone who dared to lay hands on a state journalist was either incredibly powerful or a complete idiot.

Looking at Scarface, he didn't seem like an idiot.

But they couldn't be all that powerful either, otherwise they wouldn't have needed to send people chasing her this far down the street.

Lin Mo turned his head to look at Jiang Chengyue.

"Not necessary? Do you think the press pass hanging around your neck is a protective talisman?"

"What the hell did you film to make these guys chase you half a street away like mad dogs?"

He had already felt something was off back at the noodle shop. Coming over early in the morning to interview a dawn market—who was she trying to fool?

Looking at it now, Jiang Chengyue was probably trying to emulate the journalists from the melamine scandal, going for some massive expose. But she overplayed her hand and ended up getting chased out of the hornet's nest.

Questioned by him, Jiang Chengyue felt a surge of guilt and subconsciously covered her chest.

Seeing this, Lin Mo swept his divine sense over her. Sure enough, it was hidden there. Movies really do ruin people. (Reference: High Risk)

Jiang Chengyue took a deep breath. "It's some stuff. Knowing about it won't be good for you."

"Oh, so you do know it's dangerous?"

Lin Mo was amused by her righteous demeanor, though the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"If you know it's dangerous, why aren't you hurrying up to inform Old Jiang? Without him to cover your back, you still dared to mess around?"

Lin Mo said in an exasperated tone.

"I..." Jiang Chengyue wanted to retort, but swallowed the words right as they reached her lips.

She looked at the immobilized Scarface beneath Lin Mo's foot, then thought about her own desperate predicament just moments ago, chased with nowhere to run or hide, and her small face flushed red.

She really had been foolish.

She always thought she could handle things herself and didn't want to rely on her brother for everything.

Lin Mo ignored her. He looked down and ground the tip of his shoe into the man's back.

"Speak. Who sent you?"

Scarface gritted his teeth, squeezing out a few words through the gaps: "Kid, I advise you to stay out of this. The water here is deep!"

"Oh?"

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. "How deep? Deeper than the crater under my foot?"

As he spoke, he suddenly applied a burst of force with his foot.

Crack!

A faint sound of bone fracturing rang out, and Scarface instantly let out an inhuman howl of agony.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! It's Boss Liu! Boss Liu sent us! This girl filmed something she shouldn't have. We just want the memory card."

Boss Liu?

Lin Mo turned to look at Jiang Chengyue.

She also immediately pulled out her phone and dialed Jiang Chengshan's number.

Jiang Chengshan answered very quickly.

A steady male voice came through the receiver, carrying the sophisticated aura of a superior.

"What's wrong? You rarely call me at this time."

Jiang Chengshan's tone was very flat.

"Brother, I..." Jiang Chengyue began to recount what had happened.

Listening from the side, Lin Mo finally figured the whole thing out.

This girl was truly something else. There was a secretive red-light district nearby, a place similar in nature to Heaven on Earth, but catering exclusively to high-class clientele.

Anyone who could come and go from that place had deeply entrenched backgrounds, tied to a bunch of shady, illicit profit chains.

You could figure out with your toes just how tough the protective umbrella behind that place was.

Wanting to pull off a massive scoop, Jiang Chengyue had asked around about the place and, by bribing one of the cleaning staff, went in the morning to shoot some footage.

And look how that turned out.

Originally, she just planned to film the exterior and be done with it. Who would have thought they'd end up capturing a big shot doing his morning exercises.

As luck would have it, Jiang Chengyue just had to record it. Filming it once would have been one thing, but she kept the camera rolling, capturing multiple angles continuously.

Finally.

The big shot doing his morning exercises spotted the camera.

How could such beautiful radio calisthenics be leaked?!

So, the big shot flew into a rage and immediately ordered his men to snatch back the precious memory card.

Lin Mo stroked his chin. According to his analysis, this incident must have happened in his past life.

The memory card was probably returned in the end, because that big shot wouldn't fall from power until a few years later.

But now...

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Chengshan clearly realized the severity of the problem, his breathing growing noticeably heavier.

That place... even he didn't want to touch it lightly.

After a full dozen seconds of silence, he finally spoke, his voice revealing a suppressed calmness. "You don't need to worry. I will ask around to see what the situation is."

"Okay! Brother, I'll wait for you. Oh, by the way, Lin Mo is here too. He helped me... chase away those thugs."

As her words fell.

The other end of the phone descended into a deathly silence.

Lin Mo could even imagine the expression on Jiang Chengshan's face right now—as if he had just swallowed a fly.

It seemed the blow dealt to the old geezer that day was truly massive.

Sorry, old geezer, you'll just have to bear with it.

Only then did Lin Mo speak up. "Better make it quick. The police are taking a bit too long to get here. Something's not right."

Hearing this, Jiang Chengshan immediately hung up the phone.

Logically, police response time in the urban district should be within five minutes. In some places, it was even compressed to three minutes.

But it had already been two chapters since Jiang Chengyue made the call.

That was a problem.

But it was fine, they could afford to wait.

After a while, the sound of police sirens finally rang out in the distance. Lin Mo turned to look at Jiang Chengyue and held out his open hand.

"Give me the card."

Jiang Chengyue froze for a second. Originally, she wanted to refuse, but for some unknown reason, she still reached into her bra and pulled out a card.

Just as she was about to hand it over, she suddenly remembered something, and her hand couldn't help but pull back a little.

After all, it was taken right out of her bra, and it still carried her lingering body heat.

So she didn't dare to hand it over.

The next second, Lin Mo snatched it away.

"You are so slow, dawdling around like a woman."

Hearing this, Jiang Chengyue was exasperated. "I am a woman, thank you very much."

"Alright, when the police ask you questions later, just tell them everything directly, including the fact that this card is in my hands."

Jiang Chengyue was a journalist, not a fool.

The moment she heard Lin Mo's words, she instantly caught on. This, along with the delayed arrival of the police, spoke volumes.