Chapter 107 Think about whether it is your own problem (5k)

City Government, Mayor's Office.

The office, which was originally brightly lit, was now dark. Huang Mingda sat in a chair without saying a word, a cigarette between his fingers.

The ashtray on the desk in front of him was already filled with cigarette butts.

Huang Mingda has been like this since he found out what happened in the Summer Palace.

As a politician, controlling one's emotions is a basic ability, and one must be able to remain calm even when faced with a catastrophe to be considered qualified.

Huang Mingda has always been a master at controlling his emotions, but after learning what happened in the Summer Palace and knowing the identities and number of the dead, he couldn't help but smash a vase on the spot.

The office has good sound insulation, but even so, I can vaguely hear the phone ringing outside, which has not stopped since more than an hour ago.

Those were all calls from the families of the deceased, some putting pressure on others, some venting their anger, and some begging.

None of these people were of ordinary status, so Huang Mingda tried to appease them patiently at first. But later, there were so many people calling that he couldn't handle it anymore and simply left it to his secretary to handle.

Then he locked himself in the office, thinking about how to deal with this huge trouble.

If he doesn't handle the situation properly, he might really have to step down from this position, because the impact of the last demon serum incident has not yet passed.

And what happened tonight was ten times more serious than the demon serum incident.

"Bang! Bang!"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door outside the office.

Huang Mingda was not angry. He knew that unless it was something he could not handle, the secretary would never dare to disturb him at this time.

"Come in."

The secretary standing outside the door pushed it open carefully and walked in. Seeing that the office was dark, he turned on the light.

When the lights came on, the secretary was surprised to see Huang Mingda sitting behind the desk.

Huang Mingda is a person who pays great attention to his appearance and demeanor. No matter what major events happen, he will not let himself lose his composure.

At this moment, Huang Mingda's hair was disheveled, his eyes were bloodshot, and the collar of his clothes was torn open, revealing his underwear.

The secretary has been following him for so many years, but this is the first time she has seen him lose his composure and disregard his appearance so much. This shows how much pressure this evening's incident has put on him.

"what's up?"

Huang Mingda's eyes swept over, his face was gloomy and his voice was hoarse. At this moment, he was like a lion on the edge of anger, ready to explode at any time.

The secretary's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly pulled himself together: "Director Liu from the State Government's Public Security Department called. He...especially emphasized that he was calling on behalf of several state legislators."

Huang Mingda felt his temple throbbing and slightly swollen and painful.

He knew that the families of the deceased were dissatisfied with his reaction and began to use their real backers to put pressure on him.

Huang Mingda sighed and said to his secretary, "Bring it here."

The secretary came over cautiously and handed the phone over.

Huang Mingda took a deep breath, then took the phone and put it to his ear to answer the call.

He didn't say anything, nor did he explain anything. He just listened silently to the angry voice on the other end of the phone, occasionally responding.

The call was not long and ended quickly.

The secretary did not leave either, but stood quietly aside, waiting for Huang Mingda's orders.

Huang Mingda kept looking down at his phone, lost in thought.

The demands of the deceased's families were very clear. They wanted Huang Mingda to immediately mobilize the entire city's forces to encircle and suppress Shen Cheng, and at the same time ask for help from the state government. Their backers in the state government would also do their best to promote this matter.

To describe it in one sentence: Huang Mingda, what are you waiting for, come and avenge us!

But Huang Mingda was not willing to do so, even though his younger brother was also one of the victims.

After the incident, he specifically asked two senior demon hunters from the Public Security Bureau whether they could kill Shen Cheng as quickly as possible.

After watching the video footage shot by the drone, the two senior demon hunters said that if Shen Cheng did not leave Tailing City but hid somewhere, in order to find him they would have to mobilize the entire city’s armed forces to seal off the city and then conduct a carpet search for at least ten days before they could possibly find his whereabouts.

Because Shen Cheng is different from other extraordinary people, he has strong mobility and concealment, and extremely strong combat power.

If you want to subdue or kill him after finding him, you must be prepared to sacrifice at least one senior demon hunter and more than ten elite demon hunters.

The sulfuric acid bombs specifically used to deal with vampires are still buried under the ruins of the Sheriff's Bureau building and cannot be retrieved in a short time.

After listening to the advice of the two senior demon hunters, Huang Mingda directly gave up this option.

He couldn't afford to close the city for ten days without catching anyone, as this would completely ruin his career.

But is it okay to do nothing?

No, if he does nothing, his career as mayor will be over. His superiors will think he is incompetent, and the families of the deceased will not let him go.

If the dead were ordinary people, maybe it could be concealed. But now the dead are powerful people. Not to mention suppressing it, the families of the deceased have already found people to put pressure on him.

Huang Mingda is now stuck in a dilemma. No matter what he does, he will die. He can't find any solution no matter how hard he thinks.

He didn't know how many times he had cursed Shen Cheng in his heart - if you killed those dozen old men, these families might really be scared by you, but you also killed their carefully trained heirs, causing their family inheritance to be interrupted, it would be strange if they didn't fight you to the death.

Huang Mingda didn't say anything, and the secretary standing beside him didn't dare to say anything either, but the phone outside was still ringing rapidly.

Suddenly, the secretary's cell phone rang and he quickly took it out to answer it.

"Okay... okay... thank you..."

After hanging up the call, the secretary whispered to Huang Mingda, "Mayor, Miss Wei is fine, and she said she knows the identity of the murderer, a Star Ranger."

"what did she say?"

Huang Mingda almost thought he had heard wrongly: "Please repeat it again."

"That Miss Wei said that she knew the identity of the murderer, a Star Ranger."

"Star Ranger?"

Huang Mingda frowned. He had read the information and knew that the murderer was Ruan Qingsha's subordinate and also a vampire.

When did he become Star Ranger?

Wait!
Huang Mingda suddenly stood up from his chair and began to walk back and forth in the office.

"Star Ranger... Star Ranger..."

Huang Mingda's originally gloomy expression gradually relaxed. He suddenly clapped his hands vigorously, and an excited smile appeared on his face: "Okay, okay, Star Ranger is good."

The secretary was a little scared and suspected that Huang Mingda was under too much pressure and had mental problems.

If the murderer is really Star Ranger, wouldn't it be more difficult to catch him?

"Mayor, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine now."

Huang Mingda looked excited, like a drowning man who finally grabbed a life-saving straw.

What he feared most now were nothing more than two things. The first was that the whole city was mobilized but Shen Cheng could not be caught, and he was blamed by his superiors for what happened in the Summer Palace and finally stepped down in disgrace.

The second thing was that he was unwilling to mobilize the entire city, and then he was attacked by the families of the deceased. When they united, it was enough to kick him out of this position.

And if Shen Cheng was a Star Ranger, then these two troubles would be easily solved.

The Star Ranger is extremely daring and dares to do anything, even assassinate the President. He keeps committing various major crimes across the Federation, and he is simply impossible to catch.

From the time the Star Rangers group appeared to the present day, only a handful of them have been caught.

Some federal officials even viewed the Star Rangers as an unavoidable natural disaster, and if they encountered one, they could only consider themselves unlucky.

If Shen Cheng is the Star Ranger, then Huang Mingda is not a poor ruler nor incompetent, he is just unlucky.

Even if Shen Cheng cannot be caught, the higher-ups will not be too harsh on him and will not dismiss him just for not catching a Star Sea Ranger.

Since there is no problem above, you can just pretend to be nice below and deal with the family of the deceased.

Huang Mingda also thought about it at the beginning, whether to give Shen Cheng another identity, but he had no say and others simply refused to recognize it.

But Wei Yiting is different. With her identity, when she said this, it was a done deal.

If others openly questioned her, they would be going against her.

After making up his mind, Huang Mingda immediately told his secretary: "Please prepare a valuable gift for me and send it to Miss Wei... Forget it, I'll go there myself." Although he knew that Wei Yiting was not there to help him specifically, Huang Mingda had to make this gesture.

Maybe people would mistakenly think that he had some relationship with the Wei family, thus alleviating some of the pressure from both above and below.

……

Before dawn the next day, before the government announced the news, what happened in the Summer Palace swept through the entire Tailing City like a violent whirlwind.

From reality to the Internet, countless people are participating in discussing this matter.

And there were not too many rumors this time. Photos of the interior of the Summer Palace appeared, and the tragic conditions of the dead continued to arouse people's sympathy.

There are also internet trolls leading the trend, pointing the finger at the government's inaction, which has allowed the murderer to go unpunished until now.

Some insiders know that this was deliberately released by the families of the deceased in order to force the government to take tough measures against the murderer through public opinion.

This tactic was indeed effective. The people who did not know the truth were outraged and hoped that the government would bring the murderer to justice.

The government's announcement did not come until the afternoon.

The announcement confirmed the tragedy that occurred in the Summer Palace and that there were many victims. The government is currently conducting an in-depth investigation and hopes that the public will not spread or believe rumors.

A wanted warrant was also released at the same time.

The wanted criminal is - Star Ranger, Shen Cheng.

When this wanted poster appeared, the atmosphere on the Internet that was originally calling for the murderer to be killed immediately changed.

Almost 99% of netizens immediately turned against Shen Cheng and began to support him, believing that the victims were all guilty of heinous crimes and deserved to die.

Because the Star Rangers are a group of unstable factors to the federal government, but in the eyes of ordinary people, they are a group of chivalrous knights who fight for justice and eliminate evil, and those who they kill are all deserving of it.

This did not happen overnight, but is the deep impression accumulated by the Star Rangers since their emergence - they never kill innocent people, never kill a good person, and never let a bad person go.

You said you were killed by Star Ranger? Then you should first think about whether it is your own fault.

The federal government once thought about slandering Star Ranger's reputation, but Star Ranger would fight back by sneaking directly into the propaganda department, distributing all the slanderous documents on the Internet and in real life, and stripping the responsible officials naked and hanging them from street lamps.

Someone committed a crime under the name of Star Ranger? Star Ranger immediately went to the person's house to expose the fraud, live-broadcast the execution, and beheaded him in public.

You dare to slander me? Then be prepared to die.

This style of taking revenge and repaying kindness has attracted the envy and support of too many ordinary people in society.

The internet trolls hired by the deceased's family are still trying to set the pace, but under the golden signboard of Star Ranger, all the pace is just a small splash and can't create any big waves at all.

Snapped!
In a villa, a young man smashed his cell phone to the ground, breaking it into pieces.

His face flushed, he gasped, and turned to the old man dressed as a butler standing beside him and said, "Uncle Li, arrange for someone to arrest these bastards who posted the video and talked nonsense. I want to tear their mouths apart."

Uncle Li did not agree, but persuaded: "Master, public opinion is very unfavorable to us now, and we cannot act rashly in the short term."

The young man roared loudly: "So am I just going to watch them insult my parents and brother?"

His parents and brother were also guests at the bright red dinner.

When he left, he was still full of energy, but when he came back, he had turned into a barbecued mess, and even a burnt one.

Originally, these family members had used public opinion to hype up the matter and forced the government to take a tough stance on the matter and began mobilizing forces to encircle and hunt down the murderer.

As a result, as soon as this wanted order was issued, public opinion immediately reversed and began to attack the deceased and their families.

Some people dug deep into the identities of the deceased and unearthed the dark history of the families behind them. They turned out to be a group of social parasites with a long history of bad deeds.

As a result, the Summer Palace tragedy began to turn into a carnival with the participation of a large number of netizens, and jokes and memes about the deceased were everywhere.

As the murderer, Shen Cheng was even carried into the Internet temple to enjoy cyber incense.

The young man’s parents and brother were among them, which is why they were so furious.

Uncle Li swallowed his anger at being yelled at and sighed inwardly. He had advised the young master not to hype up public opinion before, otherwise he would be the only one who would suffer in the end.

Do you think that under the magnifying glass, those cyber mobs will stand on our side?

Sure enough, compared with the truly trained heir, this young master is still too young.

The young man gnashed his teeth and started to curse again: "It's all Huang Mingda's fault. Why didn't he tell us in advance that the murderer was Star Ranger? Why did he write it on the wanted poster? In order to protect his position, he doesn't care about our feelings at all."

Uncle Li was helpless standing aside. You are all trying to force him to step down, so of course he will fight back in desperation.

After all, he is not a carefully trained heir. He is so rash in doing things and has no judgment at all.

……

While there was chaos outside, Shen Cheng had been training Xiao Qingque in the base, training her until she had no strength to stand up.

He also knew exactly what was happening outside.

Because he can access the Internet in the base, Tianxuanxing will also provide him with some inside information from time to time, letting him know the game between Huang Mingda and the family of the deceased.

This was completely beyond Shen Cheng's expectations. He originally thought that after the incident, Huang Mingda would quickly reach an agreement with these family members and do his best to encircle and suppress him.

Unexpectedly, they almost started a fight among themselves.

On the one hand, Huang Mingda wanted to keep his official position, and on the other hand, the leaders and heirs of these families died overnight, and no one left could take the lead, so things became so chaotic.

But this is only temporary, and they will soon shake hands and make peace.

When he saw the wanted poster, Shen Cheng knew that it must be the work of Wei Yiting.

Because only two people knew about his communication with Wei Yiting, the government would never know what his relationship with Star Ranger was.

Now the government is looking for him as a Star Ranger, the only possibility is that Wei Yiting spoke for him.

Shen Cheng didn't expect that Wei Yiting would actually recognize him as a fake.

This provided him with great help, not only in terms of public opinion, but also influenced the government's actions.

Because although the federal government has been keeping a tight rein on Star Ranger, it has long adopted an attitude of lying down and letting things falter when it comes to the actual capture of him.

If you can catch them, catch them. If you can’t, forget it.

Therefore, the possibility of the government organizing a large-scale force to encircle and suppress him is very low.

After hiding in the base for almost a week, Shen Cheng received an inside information from the government through Tianxuanxing.

With Wei Yiting's personal certification, the Tailing Municipal Government officially identified Shen Cheng as the Star Sea Ranger, and the wanted order was directly the highest level.

Huang Mingda did not seal off the city, but instead mobilized the police, demon hunters, and garrison troops to conduct a three-day manhunt.

Under the encouragement of the deceased's family, the state government will arrange for a senior demon hunter to lead a team to capture Shen Cheng in fifteen days.

This is already much better than what he had originally expected. He had originally expected that multiple forces would unite to encircle and suppress him, but now it is just a lot of noise but little results.

As for sending people down from the state capital.

Shen Cheng picked up the phone and dialed a number.

Don’t you have people in the state capital, but I don’t?
……

Hanyun Prefecture, Public Security Bureau.

Zhu Yan walked out of the office of the director of the Special Operations Department.

He had just heard about the Summer Resort tragedy in Tailing City in the director's office. This incident had also attracted considerable attention in the state capital, after all, it involved the Star Ranger.

The director of the operations department asked him to put his current work on hold and lead the team to Tailing City to assist the local government in capturing the Star Ranger.

Although he was not happy to deal with Star Ranger, Zhu Yan agreed without giving it too much thought.

This is work, whether you like it or not, you have to do it seriously.

Zhu Yan also knew why the director assigned this job to him. If it were someone else, they might slack off. Only he would take it seriously, even if his opponent was the extremely tough Star Ranger.

When he returned to his office, Zhu Yan noticed that the assistant standing at the door had a strange expression on his face and pointed towards the office.

"If you have something to say, just say it. Don't make eyes at me."

"Captain, someone is here to see you."

Zhu Yan pushed the door open with doubt and found that there was indeed an uninvited guest in his office - Ruan Qingsha.

(End of this chapter)