After Ethan Wraith's extravagant fan club departed, Chief shut the conference room's door. Inside the vast room remained only Governor Gorage Hartwell, Chief Huang, and Ethan.
Chief pulled out a pack of officer cigarettes from his pocket, offering one to Gorage, who accepted with a smile. Chief hurriedly lit it with a match. "I was too embarrassed to take these cigarettes out in front of that crowd. It felt cheap."
He then offered a cigarette to Ethan, who declined with a wave, saying he didn't smoke. Chief patted Ethan's shoulder, "Man, life is tough, the pressure is high, if you don't smoke or drink, it's hard to find any pleasure."
Ethan gave a wry smile. He had tried smoking back in the day, but a girl had wrinkled her nose and said his smoking posture was ugly. This comment had crushed Ethan's spirit. He had only started smoking to look cool, and since the effect was the opposite, what was the point of continuing? So, to this day, he remained a non-smoker.
Gorage took a greedy drag, inhaling nearly half the cigarette in one go. He flicked the ash and looked at Chief, "What do you think about this whole thing?"
Instead of answering the question, Chief turned and looked at Ethan with a smile. "You sure hit hard, kid. You slapped my son's face into a swollen mess. His ears were ringing for half the day, and his mom was worried sick because he couldn't hear a thing."
"Your son? Which one is your son?" Ethan feigned ignorance.
Seeing Ethan's earnest expression, Chief thought he genuinely didn't know. He chuckled reassuringly, "Haha, it's good that you taught him a lesson for me. Saves him from causing bigger trouble. That kid doesn't study, just hangs around with Thomas and his crowd, getting into trouble. He's used as a pawn and doesn't even know it."
Ethan put on a look of guilt. "Uncle, I'm so sorry, I really didn't know he was your son, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to lay a hand on him. I was just desperate at the time. I'll come to your house tomorrow and apologize to him in person."
Chief waved his hands dismissively, "No, no, no. Before I could even do anything to you, you caused such a big stir. If they knew I made you apologize, I'd be in deep trouble. Any one of those people who came today could shake our whole WestMoon City with a stomp of their foot."
Ethan chuckled awkwardly. He had been surprised himself when he saw those people. To be honest, he didn't have much affection for those wealthy wives, even feeling a bit disgusted, seeing them as a group of women wasting their lives with their husbands' credit cards. Flirting with them was just for his job, to sell wine and earn commissions. He hadn't expected them to all stand up for him when they heard about his trouble. He felt a bit touched but still replied, "Uncle Huang, you're exaggerating. I'm the one who caused you trouble today. I should be the one apologizing to you."
"Haha, no need. The Secretary himself came to vouch for you. I wouldn't dare do anything to you." Chief laughed and turned to Gorage, "Secretary, what's the background of this kid? Don't tell me he's just a regular bartender, I won't believe it."
Gorage laughed heartily, "You guessed right, he is just a regular bartender."
Chief smiled skeptically. He assumed Gorage didn't want to reveal the truth, so he didn't press further. However, he already had his own suspicions. Someone who could cause such a commotion must be the son of a high-ranking official in the central government.
What annoyed him was that the city's elite all knew about this person, but he, the Chief of Police, had no clue. He felt like he was doing a terrible job.
If he knew the truth, he would probably cough up blood. Gorage took out a pack of cigarettes from his own pocket, popped one in his mouth, and tossed the pack next to Chief.
"He said he wants to pursue the matter to the end."
"What do you think?" Gorage asked casually. But he knew the weight of this question. It was essentially forcing Chief, the middleman, to take a stand. After asking, his heart was not as calm as his demeanor suggested.
Chief picked up a cigarette and tapped it lightly on the table, his expression blank as he pondered. The three men fell silent, the late-night conference room eerily quiet.
After a long wait, just as Gorage was about to give up and change the subject, Chief spoke, "For a long time, I've been an outsider, not involved with either side. I thought that was good, keeping myself safe. Now I realize I was wrong. I see that my neutrality was actually condoning his actions. Today at the hospital, I asked about the details of Huang Yu's beating. It was Thomas who dragged him there and instigated the whole thing. My idiot son became someone else's tool. Forget about the millions of citizens in WestMoon City, just to live up to this hat on my head, I have to do something."
"Haha, good. I've been waiting for you to say this for a long time. We really need to do something for the millions of citizens in WestMoon City. We can't let the citizens point at our spines and curse us." Gorage stood up excitedly and grasped Chief's hand.
"But I'm the one who gets cursed the most, right?" Chief smiled wryly. Because of John Bush's direct involvement, many cases in WestMoon City couldn't be tried, and public security was getting worse and worse. The citizens blamed the police department for everything, and he, as the Chief of Police, bore the brunt of it.
"That's why we need to make it up to them. Do you have any dirt on him?" Gorage asked directly, not caring that Ethan, an outsider, was listening.
Chief glanced sideways at Ethan and quickly relaxed. If the Secretary trusts him, then I have nothing to suspect. He nodded slightly and said softly, "I have some, but not enough."
"Not enough?"
"Yes. It can only cause minor injuries, not break his bones." Chief nodded slightly.
"Haha, that's alright. With your cooperation, things will be much easier in the future. Since we can't uproot him completely, we'll just have to wait." Gorage said, glancing thoughtfully at Ethan. "One day, we'll take them all down."
Chief noticed Gorage's gaze, his eyes shining brighter. This young man's identity was indeed not simple.
Ethan declined Chief's offer to arrange a car to take him home. He left the police station and walked alone on the street. It was past one in the morning, and the entire street was deserted, with only dim lights and lonely shadows as his companions. Occasionally, a car would roar past.
Where there are people, there are struggles. Ethan sighed, realizing that after hiding for so long, he was still drawn into these conflicts. It seemed that his peaceful days were coming to an end.
As Ethan was strolling along, the roar of a car engine suddenly came from behind him.
He turned to look and saw two cars approaching at lightning speed, one behind the other. They were moving so fast that Ethan, standing in the middle of the road, had no time to dodge. He could only watch helplessly as the luxurious sports cars hurtled towards him.