I slept with my sister's classmate, and she turned out to be my boss.

Three o'clock in the morning, in the southern suburbs of the city.

Gu Huaiyuan walked along a dirt road for nearly two hours.

The road is flanked by wasteland and scattered abandoned factories. The streetlights are far apart, and most of the road is pitch black.

He didn't know how far he had gone, he only knew that he couldn't stop.

Suddenly, a patrol car with its lights on appeared ahead.

Parked on the side of the road, the headlights illuminated the intersection ahead.

Gu Huaiyuan paused for a moment, but it was too late to avoid it—the other person had already seen him.

A member of the joint defense team wearing a reflective vest got out of the car and shouted something to him from a distance.

Gu Huaiyuan couldn't hear the content clearly, but he knew that the other person was speaking Mandarin with a local accent.

He continued walking, but slowed his pace.

The auxiliary police officer approached; he was a man in his fifties, wearing an armband and holding a walkie-talkie.

He looked Gu Huaiyuan up and down:

"Why are you still walking around so late? There's nowhere to stay around here."

Gu Huaiyuan stopped, trying to keep his voice steady:

"I'm from out of town and I work on a construction site. I couldn't find any work during the day, so I was looking for a place to stay at night, and I got lost."

The joint defense team member glanced at him again:

"Did you bring your ID card?"

Gu Huaiyuan reached into his pocket and said, "I didn't bring it; it's in my luggage."

"Where's your luggage?"

"I left it with a friend. They were supposed to come pick me up, but they haven't."

The joint defense team member paused for a moment, then picked up the walkie-talkie:

"At the duty room, I met a person from out of town near the old brick factory in the south of the city. He said he was lost and didn't have an ID card. Let me check."

Gu Huaiyuan stood still.

He knew it was too late to run now; there was no cover nearby, and the other party had a car.

He could only gamble that it was just a routine check and that they wouldn't investigate further.

A voice came from the walkie-talkie. The joint defense team member listened for a while and then glanced at Gu Huaiyuan.

He noticed something was wrong—

Although this person was wearing an ordinary old coat, his accent didn't sound like that of an ordinary worker.

Moreover, that briefcase looked more presentable than ordinary luggage.

"Wait a moment."

The joint defense team member picked up the walkie-talkie again, lowering his voice.

"I'll have someone come and verify it."

……

3:20 a.m.

Hu Yuheng's phone rang.

After answering the call, she only heard one sentence before throwing on her coat and heading outside.

Send me your location on my phone, I'll be there in twenty minutes.

Chen Dapeng had just lain down in the next room for less than two hours when he heard footsteps in the corridor, so he opened his eyes and sat up.

He saw a colleague walk by the door and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"A suspicious person was found in the southern suburbs. He was not carrying an ID card, but his characteristics match the target."

Chen Dapeng rolled out of bed, put on his coat, and ran out.

The two vehicles set off from the base and drove along the south side of the city.

There were almost no cars on the road, and the cars were moving very fast.

About twenty minutes later.

The convoy stopped by the dirt road.

The patrol car's lights were still on, and the joint defense team members stood beside the car. Seeing them arrive, they pointed in their direction.

"He was over there, didn't run away, and didn't say anything; he was just standing by the roadside."

Chen Dapeng got out of the car and quickly walked over.

The car headlights shone ahead.

A man was standing on the roadside, wearing an old hat, a gray-black coat, and carrying a briefcase.

He looked thinner and more haggard than in the surveillance footage and in the photos.

But Chen Dapeng recognized him at first glance—

His build, posture, and the way he carried his bag were exactly the same as those in the surveillance footage at the entrance of the bathhouse.

Hu Yuheng walked to a spot about three steps away from the person.

"Gu Huaiyuan?"

She didn't call him "Governor Gu," she just called him by his name.

Gu Huaiyuan looked up and glanced at her.

His expression was calm, without any surprise or panic, as if he had known someone would come.

He didn't speak, but looked down at the briefcase in his hand.

Then bend down, put the briefcase on the ground, straighten up, and raise both hands.

The accompanying police officers took out handcuffs and stepped forward.

When the handcuffs were on Gu Huaiyuan's wrists, he neither struggled nor spoke.

Two police officers grabbed his arms and led him around toward the police car.

By the time the car returned to the provincial capital, it was almost dawn.

Gu Huaiyuan sat in the back seat with his hands on his knees. His handcuffed fingers were neither clenched nor opened, just left there.

He didn't say a word the whole time, didn't ask "How did you find me?", and didn't ask "Where are you going?"

They didn't even shift their gaze.

He kept staring at a certain point on the back of the seat in front of him, occasionally blinking.

Chen Dapeng sat in the passenger seat and didn't turn around.

He could occasionally see the person in the back seat through the rearview mirror; their gray-black coat was covered in dirt, and their hat brim was pulled down so low that only their chin was visible.

He didn't look at it for long, shifting his gaze back to the road ahead.

The car stopped at the entrance of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection compound.

Staff members were already waiting at the entrance.

Chen Dapeng got out of the car first and opened the back door.

Gu Huaiyuan bent down, stood up straight, and glanced at the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection building in front of him.

Then they were led through the main gate, down the corridor, and into a designated room.

Hu Yuheng stood at the end of the corridor and glanced at the clock on the wall—nine o'clock in the morning.

She took out her phone, dialed Chen Yuanda's number, and said only five words:

"The person has been brought back."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone:

"What about Yang Xiujiang's side?"

"Still under surveillance, no unusual activity detected."

"Then continue monitoring. Let Gu Huaiyuan know beforehand and see his next reaction."

Hu Yuheng responded and hung up the phone.

……

At 9:30 a.m., in Yang Xiujiang's office.

He sat behind his desk, his gaze fixed on the window, his fingers resting on the edge of the desk.

The phone screen on the table remained dark, and he would glance at it every now and then to make sure he hadn't missed any messages.

At 9:37, the screen lit up.

A line of text popped up: "Old Gu has been brought back."

Yang Xiujiang stared at that line of text for a long time.

He looked at it more than once, as if to confirm that he hadn't misread it.

White background with black lettering, clearly visible.

Gu Huaiyuan has been apprehended; this is confirmed...

He leaned back in his chair, sighed softly, and then closed his eyes briefly.

I forced myself not to think about Gu Huaiyuan...

After a long while, he opened his eyes, reached for his phone, and deleted the message.

Then, I opened the call log and cleared the records from the last few days.

He put his phone on the table, leaned back in his chair, and glanced out the window.

Gu Huaiyuan was brought back; he's still in the provincial capital.

He didn't know how much longer he could hold on.

But he knew one thing clearly—Gu Huaiyuan hadn't run away, and he probably couldn't either.

He was very familiar with the methods used by the disciplinary committee in handling cases.

Perhaps the provincial discipline inspection commission is already monitoring his every move.

unless……

But now, it seems too late...