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

Zhao Heng took a deep breath, took off his glasses and placed them on the table, then rubbed his sore eyes.

"I said."

His voice lowered, "I did revise the wording of the pilot program in Lingang. But the direction and wording were not decisions I, as a secretary, dared to make on my own."

"Who made that decision?"

"Bailao."

Zhao Heng completely abandoned the project. "The night before the closed-door meeting at the Nan'an Sanatorium, Wang Zonghui brought Zhao Ruilong's proposal to see Professor Bai. After reading it, Professor Bai said to me, 'When local governments carry out reforms, they need to be bold, but they need to be refined in their approach. They can't act like nouveau riche borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates. They need to put on the guise of financial innovation and leave a way out for all parties.' The next day, I added that passage to the approval comments, just as Professor Bai had suggested."

The official, pen flying across the paper, asked, "What role did Zhong Weimin play in this?"

Zhao Heng shook his head: "Secretary Zhong himself never shows up. But every time Wang Zonghui comes, he brings an internal approval document from Secretary Zhong's secretariat. The risk classification of the list was also done by Wang Zonghui at my request, according to the Zhong family's rules. He said it was a 'security firewall' for Handong."

The official scoffed, "A security firewall? I think it's a hunting map for targeted elimination. You've sharpened the knife, and now you say you didn't know it could kill?"

Zhao Heng lowered his head, looking at his well-maintained hands, and remained silent for a long time.

……

The Provincial Party Committee Guesthouse in Handong, the residence of the supervisory team.

Qin Yuanzhou received the encrypted notification from the capital at 10 p.m.

Lu Chengzhou, Meng Huaichuan, and Zhou Zhengming were all present.

Xiaolin walked in carrying several cups of freshly brewed strong tea, her eyes bloodshot from working so hard. As she served the tea, she muttered to herself:

These leaders seem to eat special-supply ginseng every day or something, yet they're all incredibly energetic when they stay up all night. It's like they're the only fragile, powerless worker in the entire Handong district who just keeps losing energy.

Qin Yuanzhou put the materials on the table and rubbed his temples: "The secretarial network in Beijing is now fully operational."

Meng Huaichuan flipped through the report and sneered, "Comrade Bai Wangshan's illness is probably incurable. The old leader's blood pressure has always been more politically astute than the stock market index. He's usually as steady as a mountain, but the moment the special task force knocks on the door, he's immediately in the ICU on oxygen."

"Pretending to be sick won't work anymore."

Lu Chengzhou picked up his teacup and blew on it. "With Zhao Heng's confession, the Lingang project is now definitively defined. This isn't some local official's illegal exploration; it's a case of someone at the top tailoring policies to the specific needs of the people, someone at the bottom violently demolishing and seizing land, and there are agents in the middle laundering money."

Zhou Zhengming added from the side, "In this way, all the strange things in Handong can be connected. The Zhao family does the dirty work, Bai Wangshan wears the cloak of legality, the Zhong family is responsible for sending Hou Liangping to clean up the mess, and Sha Ruijin is the security captain who was parachuted in to guard the gate. This grand scheme is really well-planned."

Xiao Lin, who was listening nearby, grinned and couldn't help but interject, "Team Leader Zhou, so Director Hou came down with his imperial sword, thinking he was Sun Wukong causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace? Turns out he's just a cleaning lady who washes carpets for people."

Meng Huaichuan was amused and pointed at Xiao Lin: "Your analogy may be crude, but the point is valid. Hou Liangping is just too vain. He was used as a pawn but still thought he was doing the people a favor."

Qin Yuanzhou tapped the table, steer the conversation back on track: "Tomorrow morning, Zhengming, you lead the team to interrogate Hou Liangping again. Slap Zhao Heng's confession and Zhong Xiaoai's original list in his face, and make him spill every single detail of the forbidden zones the Zhong family has to disclose."

"Understood." Zhou Zhengming nodded.

Lu Chengzhou looked at Qin Yuanzhou: "What about Gao Yuliang?"

Qin Yuanzhou pondered for a moment: "Gao Yuliang's value is reaching its peak. The information he provided about the Shanshui Manor and the protection chain within the political and legal system must be formalized into written documents as soon as possible and signed. His meritorious service must be acknowledged, but his misdeeds during his tenure in Handong must also be accounted for one by one."

Meng Huaichuan asked, "Has the higher-ups expressed any preference regarding the final handling of his case?"

Qin Yuanzhou shook his head: "It's still a power struggle. One faction thinks he's made a significant contribution and proactively exposed the truth, advocating for a lenient sentence, maybe just a party disciplinary action and early retirement; but the disciplinary inspection system firmly disagrees. Gao Yuliang's jump left a huge crater in the provincial party committee building, the political impact is too severe. If jumping off a building can avoid imprisonment, then everyone who gets investigated will line up on the rooftop, how can we lead that line?"

Xiao Lin silently gave Team Leader Qin a thumbs up in her heart.

That's so true.

Although Teacher Gao's jump brought the dead end to life, it also made him the most awkward and difficult person in the system—to swallow it was too painful, but to spit it out was too risky and would damage his reputation.

"Let him write his statement first," Lu Chengzhou decided decisively. "Making the chain of evidence unbreakable is the top priority."

……

Late at night, in a hospital ward.

When Xiaolin pushed the door open, Wu Huifen was sitting on the edge of the bed peeling a pear for Gao Yuliang.

Gao Yuliang leaned against the hospital bed, his reading glasses perched on his nose, and was flipping through an old journal of the Law School of Handong University.

"Secretary Gao, Team Leader Zhou asked me to inform you that the special task force will be retrieving official materials regarding the political and legal protection chain at Shanshui Manor tomorrow morning. Please take the time tonight to prepare a written statement." Xiao Lin stood at the foot of the bed, speaking politely.

Gao Yuliang took off his glasses, glanced at Xiaolin, and a half-smile appeared on his lips: "Zhao Heng has given up, hasn't he?"

Xiao Lin was startled, thinking to himself that this old fox was truly cunning, but he laughed it off and said, "Secretary Gao, there are rules for the special task force in handling cases, and I cannot disclose specific details in violation of regulations."

"Alright, Xiaolin, stop giving me that bureaucratic talk."

Gao Yuliang closed the journal and handed it to Wu Huifen. "If Zhao Heng hadn't dropped it, the special task force wouldn't have rushed me to collect the materials for Shanshui Manor tonight. The higher-ups are preparing to close the net."

Kobayashi didn't reply, but instead took out special letter paper and a fountain pen from his briefcase and placed them on the small table.

"Secretary Gao, if you're feeling unwell, you can write it tomorrow morning."

"I can handle it." Gao Yuliang chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Now that I'm sitting in this wheelchair, apart from my brain and these hands, the rest of my body parts are pretty useless. Writing reports is, after all, my old profession."

Xiaolin nodded, turned around and quietly retreated out, closing the ward door behind her.

The ward fell silent again.

Wu Huifen handed over the sliced ​​pear pieces and asked in a low voice, "Zhao Heng confessed, isn't that a good thing? It means your judgment was completely correct."

Gao Yuliang did not take the pear, but just stared quietly at the blank letter on the table.

"Huifen, you still don't understand the marginal effect of officialdom."

Gao Yuliang sighed, his voice a little dry. "The reason I can stay in this special care ward with good food and drink and even negotiate with the supervision team is because I have the key they desperately need. I can help them get things moving."

He turned to look at Wu Huifen: "But once the fire reaches the roof, and the higher-ups decide to seal it and put the coffin on, the key will be useless. When all the lids are lifted, the supervisory team's guns should be turned back to me, the one who handed over the key."

Wu Huifen's expression changed slightly: "Would they abandon me after using me?"

"It's not about crossing the river and then burning the bridge; it's about following the rules."

Gao Yuliang picked up his pen, uncapped it, and said, "My jumping off the building broke the deadlock, but breaking the deadlock does not mean I am innocent."

He laid the letter flat, his wrist suspended in mid-air.

"In the end, everything in a person's life comes back to them."

At the top of the letter, he wrote the first line neatly.

The pen tip glides across the paper, making a soft, scratching sound.

When writing about Xiao Gangyu, he wrote fluently, listing how Xiao Gangyu abused the power of the procuratorate to handle cases illegally and suppress whistleblowing.

When writing about Cheng Du, he was very organized and clearly described how Cheng Du used public security resources to act as Zhao Ruilong's personal henchman and fabricate false evidence.

However, when the pen tip landed on the next line and wrote the three characters "Qi Tongwei", Gao Yuliang's hand stopped.

The ink slowly spread across the paper, forming a small black dot.

Wu Huifen stood to the side, looking at that name, her eyes slightly reddening, and whispered, "Old Gao, Tongwei... he's already gone."

Gao Yuliang closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The gunshot from Lone Eagle Ridge seemed to echo in my ears again.

That once spirited law school student on the playground, that hero who was shot three times on the front line of drug enforcement, ultimately sank deeper and deeper into the quagmire of power and committed suicide by swallowing a bullet.

Gao Yuliang opened his eyes, his gaze turning cold and resolute once again.

"It's because he's gone that I have to write."

The pen fell again.

Gao Yuliang's wrist was extremely steady, and the neat lines of writing spread out on the paper.

He did not exonerate Qi Tongwei, nor did he deliberately kick him when he was down. He simply used the most rigorous logic of a law professor to thoroughly and meticulously dissect the intricate web of power within the Handong political and legal system that had devoured countless people.