The Jiangning East Road Pedestrian Street, funded and constructed by the Yuannan Group in 2005, was a landmark in downtown Jianghu City. Thanks to its nationwide fame, it had become one of the must-visit, internet-famous tourist attractions for out-of-towners visiting the city.

In 2010, responding to the municipal government's call to further boost the nighttime economy and create a "Sleepless Jianghu," the Yuannan Group pioneered the concept of 24/7 business operations.

The Yuannan Group's management had always been renowned in the business world for its high execution efficiency.

By September of that same year, nine transparent, glass-box-style outdoor structures were added to Hengmao Square, located in the center of the Jiangning East Road Pedestrian Street.

Whenever night fell, these nine transparent boxes would light up simultaneously. Amidst the dazzling, intertwined display of lights, Hengmao Square officially opened its doors to a 24-hour, sleepless nightlife for the citizens.

From then on, the Jiangning East Road Pedestrian Street became synonymous with Jianghu City's nightlife.

Technological advancements had fostered diverse forms of nightlife, completely upending the passive "work at sunrise, rest at sunset" lifestyle of the old society.

The progress of an era and the adaptability of human desires were a complex blend of flavors.

Whenever night fell, moving away from the daytime hustle and bustle, people who had been consumed by work all day were driven by their rumbling stomachs to descend from the clouds back down to the mortal realm.

And exhausted souls often required the comfort of meat and grease.

Late-night suppers undoubtedly became the most indispensable part of the nightlife scene.

Fat Mom's Signature Pork Bone Stew was located in a highly popular zone on Jiangning East Road.

The owner, Liang Bingdi, was a plump, middle-aged woman. She had a hearty personality and worked with nimble efficiency. Although she wasn't a local, she had managed to carve out her own territory in Jianghu City's fierce late-night culinary scene relying purely on her hardworking hands.

Her restaurant's pork bone stew was highly sought after for its generous portions and authentic taste. Multiple food rankings had crowned it the hottest late-night dining spot on Jiangning East Road.

The pitch-black night sky was lit up snow-white by the sleepless neon lights.

Although it was well past midnight, this was peak hour for young people heading out to forage for food. A long line of people waiting for their numbers to be called had already formed outside Fat Mom's Signature Pork Bone Stew.

A young man dressed as a delivery rider, carrying a seemingly heavy backpack, bypassed the queuing crowd and found the young waitress busy at the host stand.

The waitress was a petite girl with average looks. Because she had to deal with hundreds of customers every single day, her voice was completely hoarse despite her young age.

"Excuse me, is this Fat Mom's Signature Pork Bone Stew?"

It was the peak of their business hours. The waitress had just finished squabbling with a customer whose number had been skipped and had to re-queue. Meanwhile, the diners behind him were urging her to hurry up and give them their numbers, terrified that her dawdling would add to their wait time.

She was already dizzy with busyness, so when the delivery rider came up to speak to her, she didn't even lift her eyes. Pointing casually toward the inside of the restaurant, she instructed him, "For takeout pickups, go inside and find the front desk."

"I'm not here to pick up takeout."

The rider hoisted the backpack in his hand. "I have an express courier order specifically addressed to the host stand of Fat Mom's Signature Pork Bone Stew."

With his free hand, he pulled his phone out of his waist pouch, double-checked the recipient, and asked the young waitress, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Chen Feng, the recipient?"

The girl was already irritated from the rush. Being asked this only fueled her annoyance. "Please, I'm a girl. Do I look like a Mr. Chen Feng to you?"

She glanced at the queue ticket that had just printed from the machine. After confirming the party size was correct, she shoved it into the hand of the diner at the front of the line. "Here is your number. There are twenty-nine tables ahead of you, so the estimated wait time is about one hour."

Seeing that his delivery order was about to time out, the rider started to panic. But having no other options, he swallowed his frustration and said to the grumpy girl, "Then could you please help me call Chen Feng? My order is about to time out, and I need the confirmation code to complete it."

The waitress hadn't intended to be deliberately difficult. Hearing the words "time out," a sudden sense of empathy for a fellow bottom-rung corporate slave arose in her. Frowning, she asked, "What exactly are you delivering? We don't have anyone named Chen Feng working here."

Hearing this, the rider suspected he might have misread the recipient details. He quickly looked down at his phone again and muttered, "But it clearly says Chen Feng right here! Help me take a look, is this address your restaurant?"

The waitress told the noisy diners who were still shouting their party sizes at her to "Hold on a second." She then leaned her head over to look at the rider's phone screen.

Displayed clearly on the screen was: 537 Jiangning East Road, Fat Mom's Signature Pork Bone Stew Host Stand.

Now, even the waitress couldn't help but mutter, "This is our restaurant. How weird."
Looking up, she asked, "What are you delivering? Open it up and let me see."

"I don't think that's a good idea. We haven't found the recipient yet."

"It's fine. Since the delivery address is correct, they probably just wrote the wrong name."

The rider thought about it and figured she was right. So, he set the heavy backpack down on the ground and pulled the zipper open.

A piece of paper had been cleverly wedged in the corner of the zipper. The moment the bag opened, it was the first thing to fall out, landing on the ground.

The rider instinctively bent down to pick it up.

On the piece of paper was a dark red fingerprint with clear ridges. Beside it was a striking, glaring line of text: "Hell is empty, and corrupt cops are on earth."

The rider couldn't help but mutter, "What is this..."

The backpack had a large capacity, and its interior was pitch-black.

Standing behind the host stand, the waitress couldn't see what was inside. She stepped out from behind the counter, bending over halfway and craning her neck to look in.

"Ahhhhh!!!" A piercing, uncontrollable scream tore out of the girl's hoarse throat.

The rider, who had been lugging this backpack the entire way, turned deathly pale. Almost purely out of instinct, he violently chucked the bag forward, desperate to get whatever that clump of things was as far away from him as possible.

The unzipped backpack slid for several meters. Its contents tumbled out, rolling a long distance and scattering right near the diners' waiting area.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The startled diners began shrieking one after another, like a string of firecrackers being ignited.

A few timid girls were so terrified they burst into tears on the spot.

The scene instantly descended into extreme chaos.

The unusual uproar outside alarmed the owner, Liang Bingdi, who was at the cash register inside. She rushed out, just about to scold the waitress, but the sight before her terrified her out of her wits.

Scattered across the ground at the restaurant's entrance were unrecognizable slices of meat that had clearly been boiled. Even more scalp-numbing were the two bloody severed limbs lying next to the cooked meat—they were a pair of human hands.

And still sitting inside the open backpack was the lower half of an immaculately washed human leg. The foot connected to the calf was pointing straight up, sticking rigidly out of the backpack's zippered opening.

The highly imaginative owner, Liang Bingdi, instantly heard the voiceovers of the black-and-white horror movies she'd watched as a child echoing in her ears.
She finally understood firsthand what people meant when they described a rigid, sticking-out leg as the absolute sign of a dead body.

The police arrived very quickly. To avoid causing unnecessary panic, they ordered the entire restaurant and its surroundings cleared.

However, the media, who had rushed over upon receiving tip-offs, weren't as obedient as the general public.

Among the crowd of reporters blocked at the entrance, a cameraman holding a professional DSLR was the first to act.

Taking advantage of the moment the police were setting up the police tape, he suddenly stretched his arm out and rapidly fired off several shots of the scattered human organs. Click, click, click.

Not wanting to be outdone, two other peers behind him followed suit.

A cameraman in a black T-shirt adjusted his frame and gave an "OK" sign to the female reporter standing in front of him.

The fully made-up reporter, dressed in a dark professional suit, immediately launched into a rapid-fire opening monologue in front of the lens, providing a general overview of the horrifying case that had unfolded tonight.

Her voice was urgent and highly infectious, vividly describing the entire process and scene of the body's discovery.

After briefly explaining the background, she pointed her right hand behind her at the area taped off by the police. "Now, please follow our cameras, viewers, and let's take a look at the police deployment at the scene."

The cameraman professionally alternated between wide and close-up shots, then panned in the direction she pointed, cutting to footage of the police officers gathering evidence.

The female reporter took this brief window to glance down at her phone.

Right now, her work group chat was exploding with a flood of new messages:

"Attention reporters on the scene! A citizen called in saying the killer left a note at the scene!"
"The contents of the note are: 'Hell is empty, and corrupt cops are on earth!'"
"Quick! Find a police officer for an impromptu interview immediately!"

Receiving the new instructions, the female reporter immediately looked up.

With a sweep of her eyes, she instantly locked onto her interview target. Stepping confidently in her high heels, she marched right up to the police tape in three quick strides.

A young officer standing on the outer perimeter of the cordon was continuously warning the curious crowd not to get too close.

Without leaving any room for refusal, the reporter shoved her microphone toward him.
"Hello, Officer. I am a news reporter for Jianghu TV. May I ask if you rushed to the scene to provide support the moment you received the news?"

The interviewee was a fresh-faced young officer. Having just graduated from the police academy, he was a grassroots public security officer responsible for maintaining order at a nearby precinct.

His only duty at the scene tonight was to assist the veteran detectives from the Criminal Investigation Detachment by clearing the crowd in the shortest time possible.

Having never seen such a grand media spectacle before, the young officer almost subconsciously answered the seasoned reporter's questions.

"Ah, yes. We rushed over immediately after receiving the call."

"Then tonight at the scene, aside from discovering the victim's dismembered remains, did the police also find a note suspected to be left by the killer inside the backpack used to dump the body?"

"Yes, there was a note."

"Then may I ask how you view this note that was delivered here along with the victim's remains?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, what are your thoughts on the phrase written on the note: 'Hell is empty, and corrupt cops are on earth'?"

"This..." Sweat began to bead on the young officer's forehead.

Ignoring his obvious discomfort, the reporter pressed on: "Can this note be interpreted as the killer directly addressing the police, attempting to provoke you?"

Faced with this barrage of carefully crafted questions, the young officer stammered, unsure of how to reply. Finally, he could only reply weakly, "I am on duty, I am not allowed to accept interviews..."

Not having received a clear answer, the female reporter wasn't discouraged. As if prepared for this, she pulled the microphone back to herself, faced the camera, and put on a solemn expression. "Faced with our reporter's repeated questioning, the police on the scene remain tight-lipped. The case is still under further investigation, and we will continuously..."

Before she could finish her sentence, another officer inside the police tape walked over, his brows furrowed deeply. "You reporters over there, turn off the cameras! What are you blindly filming at a crime scene without permission!"

He glared at the rookie officer who was still standing foolishly beside the reporter, inadvertently making things worse. Ducking under the tape, he waved his hand dismissively. "Stop causing trouble and leave. The nature of this case hasn't been determined yet, and we are not accepting any interviews. Don't loiter here and interfere with police work."

Seeing him was like seeing a savior; the rookie officer finally found his confidence. "Y-yes! I just said that too, I can't accept interviews."

The TV crew had already captured plenty of usable footage. Knowing they lacked authorization and not wanting a direct conflict with the police, they immediately and cooperatively shut off their cameras.

The female reporter smiled professionally. "Sorry about that, we're packing up now. Working in the middle of the night—thank you for your hard work, officers."

Once the TV crew had walked far away...

Realizing his own lack of foresight, the rookie officer scratched his head and sheepishly apologized to the senior who had bailed him out. "Captain Chen, I'm sorry."

Chen Cong, the Vice Captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, always had a sharp tongue but a soft heart.

He glared at the supporting public security officer with the frustration of someone wishing iron could turn into steel. "What's the use of apologizing to me? You accepted an interview without authorization. Just wait to get chewed out when you get back to your precinct."

With that, he ducked back under the police tape and returned to his own busy work.

"Good morning, viewers. It is currently 7:30 AM on Wednesday, February 5, 2020, the twelfth day of the first lunar month. The weather in Jianghu City is clear, 6°C, with good air quality. Next, the Jianghu Morning News will bring you today's top headlines."

The anchorwoman expertly finished her daily opening before looking down to flip through the prepared script on her desk. "At approximately 12:40 AM today, in front of a popular internet-famous restaurant on Jiangning East Road in downtown Jianghu City, a bag containing..."

Murder, dismemberment, boiling the severed body parts, and then dumping the corpse in a bustling downtown area! All while leaving a note to publicly provoke the police!

Once this news was confirmed by television media reports, print media, online outlets, and even independent bloggers began spreading it with unrestrained fervor.

The search volume for keywords like "Dismembered Corpse," "Jiangning Road Pedestrian Street," and "Corrupt Cops" skyrocketed, rapidly dominating trending topics and search rankings across all platforms.

Updated! Tomorrow's update will still be at 9:00 AM! I hope the review process doesn't take too long~

I also hope to see more of you cuties in the comments section!~