Official statement: Tongwei is dead! You chose Ruijin, didn't you?

The call from Kyoto came to Qin Yuanzhou's cell phone at 2 a.m.

Qin Yuanzhou has always been a light sleeper. The moment his phone vibrated, he reached for the bedside lamp switch and sat up.

The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse from staying up all night. He didn't say much, but simply and concisely reported three things.

First, the original source of the "red, yellow, and green lists" from Zhong Weimin's secretariat has been verified, and the source of the data has been identified through technical means.

Second, Wang Zonghui couldn't hold out any longer in the detention center and began to confess. However, he was cunning and tried to shift all the responsibility for the Lingang project onto others, insisting that Zhao Ruilong was using the name of Beijing to swindle and deceive people in Handong, and that local officials had failed to properly supervise the process.

Third, Comrade Bai Wangshan suddenly fell ill and has been hospitalized. His family and doctors have requested that the interview be postponed.

After listening, Qin Yuanzhou twitched the corner of his mouth.

Feeling unwell.

The strange wind from Handong finally blew into Beijing along the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway.

For older comrades of this level, their health checkup indicators are usually very stable, but when it comes to critical moments, their blood pressure and heart always seem to malfunction precisely in accordance with the situation.

"We will continue to secure evidence in Handong to ensure the outer perimeter is completely sealed off," Qin Yuanzhou replied to the phone, only saying this one sentence.

After hanging up, he didn't even change his clothes before dialing Zhou Zhengming, Lu Chengzhou, and Meng Huaichuan's numbers.

...

At 2:30 a.m., the small conference room at the provincial party committee guesthouse was brightly lit.

When Zhou Zhengming pushed open the door, his hair was still messy with a tuft sticking up. Xiao Lin followed behind, carrying a stack of freshly printed materials, yawning loudly twice, tears welling up in her eyes.

Meng Huaichuan had only been in Handong for a few days, but he was full of energy. Holding a thermos, he glanced at Xiaolin and asked, "What's wrong? Even young people can't keep up?"

Xiao Lin distributed the materials on the table and honestly replied, "Secretary Meng, youth is not a power bank. I'm in a low-battery forced protection mode after an ultra-long standby period."

Meng Huaichuan paused for a moment, then pointed at Xiao Lin and laughed: "You comrade, you've got a sharp tongue."

Lu Chengzhou sat in the main seat, reaching out to flip through the documents in front of him: "Alright, stop teasing him. Yuanzhou, what's the situation in Kyoto?"

Qin Yuanzhou briefly recounted the three things mentioned on the phone.

Upon hearing that Bai Wangshan was unwell, Zhou Zhengming snorted coldly: "This illness came at the perfect time. Why now? Du Qishan just handed over that address book, and he's already on an IV drip."

Meng Huaichuan blew on the tea leaves in his thermos and asked, "Won't Beijing be concerned about the impact? After all, it involves a senior comrade of that rank. If they really investigate thoroughly, it will cause too much of a stir."

"There are certainly concerns, but concerns do not mean we will not investigate."

Qin Yuanzhou tapped his fingers on the table. "A man of Bai Wangshan's caliber cannot be brought to the fore by a single breakthrough from Handong. We must use irrefutable evidence to force the conversation to escalate."

What we need to do now is to completely seal off Zhao Ruilong's confession, Wang Zonghui's Ponzi scheme, Zhong Weimin's secretariat's designated list, and Bai Wangshan's late-night conversation at the Nan'an Sanatorium, using reinforced concrete!

Lu Chengzhou turned to Meng Huaichuan: "How's the audit of the provincial government's special funding team going?"

"We have initially identified three key funding sources, and the situation is alarming."

Meng Huaichuan opened his notebook. "The first transaction involved Handong Oil & Gas Group borrowing 860 million yuan from Huilong Investment through Liu Xinjian. It was nominally called 'Energy Logistics Strategic Cooperation,' but the money was immediately split and laundered after it arrived. The second transaction involved Luzhou Food City, which, under the guise of fake renovations and brand management fees, transferred 140 million yuan out. The third transaction involved the Crescent Lake plot, where 320 million yuan was forcibly extracted from the bank through inflated mortgage valuations."

Meng Huaichuan raised his head and glanced at everyone: "These three sums of money eventually went through various roundabout channels and ended up in an offshore consulting company registered in the Cayman Islands."

Zhou Zhengming immediately pressed further: "Is this overseas company connected to Wang Zonghui?"

"The legal representative on the surface is an overseas Chinese, who has absolutely no connection with Wang Zonghui," Meng Huaichuan said. "But we compared the shareholding structure and the flow of funds, and found that the lawyers representing this legal representative and the agents of Wang Zonghui's family trust are the same team. Now, to solidify this closed loop, we are missing the last piece of the puzzle—scanned copies of the original contracts from Hong Kong."

Qin Yuanzhou continued, "The Beijing task force has coordinated with Hong Kong to handle things with Zhao Ruilong's ex-wife and son. The key to the safe has been found, and they should be opening it right now."

Hearing this, Xiaolin mustered his spirits and interjected, "Team Leader Qin, is the key really in that toy cabinet?"

Qin Yuanzhou glanced at him: "In a limited edition Ultraman Tiga base box."

Xiao Lin clicked his tongue and couldn't help but sigh, "President Zhao's strategy for hiding things is all about finding the darkest spot. Who would have thought that the ledger keys for hundreds of millions of dollars would be lying next to Ultraman? He's got a childlike heart, truly a childlike heart."

Zhou Zhengming glared at him: "He calls that childlike innocence? He's wary of thieves to the core. He's wary of his wife, his brothers, his business partners, and in the end, he thinks that only his underage son in the whole world wouldn't betray him."

Lu Chengzhou tapped the table with his fingers to steer the conversation back on track: "Let's not go off-topic. Wang Zonghui's attempt to shift the blame back to Handong from the detention center indicates that a tacit understanding has been reached in Beijing, and they've begun their self-protection procedures. We need to prevent them from unilaterally cutting ties with Zhao Ruilong and packaging the money laundering channel in Lingang as 'an illegal exploration by local grassroots cadres.'"

Meng Huaichuan nodded in agreement: "Therefore, the approval chain for the 'financial pilot qualification' in Lingang back then must be completed link by link. Who proposed it, who made the amendments, who submitted the report, who tacitly approved it from above, and who ultimately benefited. Not a single penny can be missing from this account."

Qin Yuanzhou leaned back in his chair and threw out the most crucial name of the evening: "And Sha Ruijin."

The meeting room fell silent for a few seconds.

Sha Ruijin has been suspended from his post and taken back to Kyoto for several days, but the final determination of the matter has yet to be issued.

Rumors are swirling around the situation, with everyone speculating about just how deeply this newly appointed provincial party secretary has been embroiled in the scandal.

But everyone present knew perfectly well what was going on.

Sha Ruijin's problem is not how much he embezzled in Handong, but that his problem is stuck in a much larger minefield.

He was parachuted into Handong under the guise of anti-corruption, so why did he give the green light to Hou Liangping's almost absurd and irregular handling of cases all the way?

Why cooperate with the Chung family's "red, yellow, and green lists" to perfectly avoid the old grudges between the Chen family and Lingang?

Why did they maintain that strange tacit understanding regarding Bai Wangshan's phone instructions and the Liang family's actions below?

If dealt with solely based on the disciplinary violations committed during Han Dong's tenure, Sha Ruijin could easily accept a "leadership responsibility" charge, or at most a "political oversight" charge.

However, if we place him within the grand narrative of the old Lingang incident from 23 years ago, then Sha Ruijin is the number one executor sent back to Handong to protect the market more than 20 years later by the Baiwangshan line.

This completely changes the nature of the situation.

Zhou Zhengming broke the silence: "We must arrange another meeting with Sha Ruijin. How much of Bai Wangshan's trump card he knows will determine whether Kyoto can successfully pry open a hole at the higher levels."

Qin Yuanzhou nodded: "The Kyoto task force will arrange the second round of talks this morning."

Lu Chengzhou turned to Xiaolin: "You arrange things with Gao Yuliang tomorrow and continue the talks. That old fox has been entrenched in Handong for so many years, he definitely has something he hasn't revealed about his relationship with Sha Ruijin and Bai Wangshan."

Xiaolin quickly jotted it down in his notebook: "Understood, I'll go to the hospital first thing this morning."