Me! A high-ranking official!

"ah......"

The situation was too bizarre and too sudden. He screamed in terror, his voice trembling, and instinctively tried to pull his hand back.

But his fingers felt like they were welded to the bowl, and he couldn't pull them back no matter what he did. It was as if the small bowl was attached to his hand. The harder he tried to pull them back, the stronger the suction became, to the point that his entire arm went numb, from his fingertips all the way to his shoulder.

At this moment, something even more terrifying happened: the small bowl began to move. It wasn't something he had picked up; it had climbed up on its own, running along his fingers, down his palm, into his bloodstream, and into his hand.

He stared in horror as the small brass bowl seemed to melt away with his blood and slipped into his palm.

Whether from excessive blood loss or extreme shock, the world before my eyes spun and twisted, and I swayed precariously, almost falling to the ground.

I'm going to die! I'm going to die!

The thought flashed through my mind, carrying an absurd sense of reality. I never imagined that he wouldn't die from Cao Wenting's persecution and framing, or from the torment of AIDS, but from this little bowl. How damn ironic!

Just as he thought he was about to lose consciousness, the suction suddenly disappeared.

He felt dizzy for a moment, then his vision gradually returned. He hurriedly looked at the small bowl in his hand, only to find that the contents had completely disappeared from his palm.

He looked down at his right hand. There was a cut on his finger, from the edge of the metal box, and it was still bleeding. But apart from that cut, there was nothing in his palm.

It's gone!?

The bowl simply vanished, as if it had never existed.

He turned his hand over, then back over, opened and closed his fingers, examining them carefully three times. There were no wounds, no marks, nothing unusual. Except for the cut on his finger from the metal box that was still bleeding, his hand was exactly the same as it had been ten minutes ago.

Where is that thing? Where did it go? Did it really burrow into my body?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he felt a chill run down his spine. He looked down at his chest and then at his stomach in disbelief, feeling as if something was moving around inside his body.

Before I could think about it, a crisp sound suddenly came from behind me.

"Click".

It was the sound of the door lock turning.

Upon hearing that sound, the hairs on his body stood on end. Before he could react, the rapid sound of high heels clicking on the floor tiles rang out, clack, clack, clack…

They're coming in!

He turned around abruptly, rushed out of the bathroom, and just as he reached the door of the second bedroom, he bumped into Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing, who were hurrying in.

The three met at the door of the second bedroom. Cao Wenting's face turned ashen. Her gaze passed over Zhao Jianguo and landed on the wardrobe that had been moved. When she saw the half-open door behind the wardrobe, her face instantly turned even more ashen than a dead person's.

"Zhao Jianguo!" Cao Wenting's voice trembled as she pointed at him, her fingertips shaking. "You... what have you done?!"

Zhao Jianguo didn't answer. He looked behind them and heard someone talking at the door. It was Qi Xiongwen's voice, as if he was settling a bill with someone.

Qi Xiongwen works out regularly, and his arms are thicker than his thighs. He had already experienced that. If Qi Xiongwen comes over, he will definitely not get the better of him.

Without hesitation, he pushed Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing towards him.

In that instant, he felt a strange power surge out of his body and burst forth in his palm!

"what……"

Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing screamed at the same time. As if they had been hit by a truck, they were thrown backward, their bodies tracing an arc in the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

They landed on their buttocks, their bodies propelled backward by the immense inertia, scraping against the floor tiles with a "screech" as they slid a good three or four meters away until they crashed into the living room sofa, at which point they finally stopped.

Cao Wenting's skirt rolled up to her thighs, and one of Xu Qingqing's high heels flew off. The mother and daughter sat on the ground, their hair disheveled, their faces pale, staring wide-eyed at Zhao Jianguo as if they had seen a ghost.

He was stunned. He looked down at his hands, then at Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing, who were three or four meters away. This must have been at least four or five hundred pounds of strength. When had he, a weak clerk who sat in an office all year round and was out of breath after climbing five floors, ever had such strength?

Without a second thought, he darted back into the house, slammed the door shut, quickly locked it, then leaned against the door and let out a cold, chuckling laugh:

"Cao Wenting, guess what I saw? I'm telling you, I saw all that stolen goods! I'm calling the county discipline inspection commission right now to file a formal complaint against you!"

A flurry of activity came from outside. Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing got up from the ground and rushed to the door, banging on it.

Cao Wenting's voice came through the door, filled with an almost frenzied rage: "Zhao Jianguo! How dare you! I'm ordering you right now, open the door right now!"

Zhao Jianguo ignored her, took out his phone, scrolled through his contacts, and found a number—the phone number for the county discipline inspection commission's petition center.

He worked in the government office for five years, and he could recite this number by heart. In the past, he would call this number to transfer calls for his superiors or to report problems for the public. He never imagined that one day he would dial this number as a whistleblower.

I pressed the dial button.

"Zhao Jianguo! Listen to me!" Cao Wenting's voice suddenly changed tone, carrying a mixture of gentleness and urgency:

"For the sake of you being my son-in-law, I can let this go. Open the door, and we can talk this over. I might even give you a little something in return. You've been working in the government office for five years and haven't even been promoted to deputy section chief. Do you think you can climb up on your own? If you act like nothing happened today, I guarantee that by this time next year, you'll at least be a deputy section chief, the year after that a section chief, and the year after that..."

"Cao Wenting, do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

Hearing Cao Wenting's hypocritical words, he couldn't help but sneer: "You're all talk now, but once I open the door, you'll be the first to kill me."

"Zhao Jianguo, you ungrateful wretch!"

Xu Qingqing's voice cut in, shrill and sharp: "Don't you even think about it? You're just a country bumpkin. If it weren't for my mother, would you have been able to establish yourself in the county town? Would you have gotten a job in the government office? Would you be where you are today? Now you're turning around and biting us? Are you even human?!"

He couldn't be bothered with that idiot Xu Qingqing, and listened to the dial tone, waiting for the call to connect.

"Zhao Jianguo, let me tell you, if you dare report my mother, your life is over! The whole workplace knows you have AIDS, you're a disgraced piece of trash! Who will believe what you say? Who would believe the words of someone with a filthy disease?"

"Bang!"

A loud crash came from inside the door, as if something had slammed against it, followed by Qi Xiongwen's angry roar: "Get out of the way, let me handle this!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three loud thuds shook the entire door violently, causing plaster to flake off the door frame.

Xu Qingqing yelled from outside, "Break down the door! We absolutely can't let him make that call!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Zhao Jianguo leaned against the door, using his back to brace himself, holding his phone in one hand, his eyes fixed on the words on the screen: "Connecting, please wait."

"Bang!"

With another snap, the door hinges emitted a harsh metallic scraping sound, as if they were about to burst open at any moment.

Just then, a voice finally came from the other end of the phone: "Hello, this is the County Discipline Inspection Commission's Petition Center."

The call finally connected. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Hello, this is Zhao Jianguo from the county government office. I am now filing a formal complaint."

He paused for a moment, then said loudly, word by word:

"I want to report Cao Wenting, deputy secretary of the county discipline inspection commission, for embezzlement and bribery, and for accepting huge amounts of money. I am currently at Cao Wenting's house. The things she accepted are hidden in a secret room in her house, and they are worth at least 30 million yuan. Please send someone over to deal with this immediately."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, then the voice rang out, filled with obvious shock and disbelief: "You... what did you say? You're Zhao Jianguo? You want to report Deputy Secretary Cao of our county's Discipline Inspection Commission?"

"Yes, I am filing a formal complaint against Cao Wenting, the deputy secretary of the county discipline inspection commission. She is accused of embezzlement and bribery, and has accepted a large amount of money and valuables."

"Bang!"

There was another thud, and the door hinges loosened a little more; he could feel the door panel bulging outwards.

"Zhao Jianguo, you just wait!" Cao Wenting's voice squeezed in from the crack in the door, filled with a gnashing hatred: "You're dead! You're dead, you know that?!"

The voice on the other end of the phone hesitated: "This... are you sure what you're saying is true? Deputy Secretary Cao is a leader in our Discipline Inspection Commission. If you report her and there's no evidence, you'll be held responsible..."

Zhao Jianguo was furious: "I said I'm filing a formal complaint! Send people over right now! They're posing a huge threat to my personal safety; the door's about to be broken down! If you don't come, I'll call the municipal discipline inspection commission and the provincial discipline inspection commission right now. I want to see if your county discipline inspection commission is even interested in this! Anyway, I have evidence; you can decide what to do with it yourselves!"

After saying that, he hung up the phone, his finger about to tap the dial pad to call the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.

"boom!"

With a loud crash, a tremendous force struck him from behind, pushing him forward two steps. His phone nearly flew out of his hand. Barely managing to steady himself, he whirled around and saw the solid wood security door hanging crookedly on the frame, its hinges completely detached. The door panel leaned against the frame, and Qi Xiongwen lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Cao Wenting and Xu Qingqing rushed in from beside Qi Xiongwen, looking like crazed shrewish women pouncing on him.