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

In the "deluxe single room" on the third floor of the Provincial Party Committee Guesthouse.

Hou Liangping drew back the curtains and looked down at the suddenly added armed police double posts and the cordon tape, his eyelids twitching wildly.

Although his case-handling authority was suspended, his political acumen remained.

This posture was clearly the prelude to "closing the door to beat the dog." He paced anxiously back and forth in the room like a lion trapped in a cage.

The cell phone on the table, which symbolized his last connection with the outside world, became his only lifeline.

He had to call Zhong Xiaoai.

The first call went unanswered.

The second call, after the last ring, was abruptly cut off.

Hou Liangping's palms began to sweat.

There was a time when he hated being called "the son-in-law of the Zhong family." He firmly believed that he was able to become the head of the anti-corruption bureau because of his integrity and excellent professional skills. Zhong Xiaoai was his lover, not a ladder to his official career.

But now, when the sky is falling in Handong and it looks like it's going to smash his official hat, his instinctive reaction is still to ask his wife for help.

The third call was finally answered.

"Xiao Ai, something's wrong in Handong, the supervisory team..."

"Hou Liangping, are you crazy?" Zhong Xiaoai's voice was devoid of any of its usual gentleness.

"Do you even know what the political climate is like right now? You drove a sitting deputy secretary of the provincial party committee to jump off the sixth floor, and now the entire Handong area has become a nuclear contamination zone! At this critical juncture, you're calling me so frequently—are you trying to drag the entire Zhong family down with you?!"

Hou Liangping was struck dumb: "Xiao Ai, I was handling the case according to regulations! Gao Yuliang's problem is his poor mental fortitude; he's afraid to admit his guilt..."

"Don't try to disgust me with your nonsense!" Zhong Xiaoai interrupted him mercilessly, her words piercing his heart.

"You don't even follow the most basic procedures when handling cases, and you want your family to cover for you when things go wrong? Do you think you're a lone hero?"

You're just a stupid idiot who caused trouble and can't even clean up his own mess! Let me tell you, the old man has spoken: the Zhong family knows nothing about your affairs, will not participate in them, and will not interfere! You made your own mess in Handong, so you have to clean it up yourself!

"beep--"

The phone call was abruptly ended.

Hou Liangping stood there, stunned, his hands trembling.

He refused to believe it and dialed again.

"Sorry, the user you dialed is temporarily unavailable."

blocked.

Hou Liangping slumped down on the edge of the bed.

Gao Yuliang's sarcastic remark from the rooftop now felt like a resounding slap across his face, a reverberation that seemed to echo in 3D.

"You're nothing more than a high-class son-in-law who eats with a slightly better attitude!"

"Bullshit! I'm not!"

Hou Liangping's eyes were bloodshot. He slammed his fist on the cabinet, making the water glass vibrate.

"Knock knock".

The knocking was neither too loud nor too soft.

"Director Hou, Team Leader Zhou from the supervisory team requests your presence."

Hou Liangping took a deep breath. He couldn't collapse, he absolutely couldn't collapse.

He is an anti-corruption hero sent by the Supreme People's Procuratorate to perform radical reforms in Handong. We must not show any weakness!

But as soon as he opened the door, Hou Liangping almost lost his temper.

In the corridor, two tall staff members sandwiched him tightly between them, one in front and one behind.

This isn't a talk, it's clearly an escort.

The meeting room door was pushed open.

Zhou Zhengming was sitting behind a long table, slowly wiping his glasses with a cloth.

Next to him sat an old Liu, a discipline inspection cadre, whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

On the table, there was a mountain of files, the top one of which was Hou Liangping's entire case handling record and call log in Handong.

"Please sit down, Comrade Liangping."

Zhou Zhengming put on his glasses, his smile as warm as an old professor preparing to explain problems to his students.

Hou Liangping suppressed his anger and sat down, speaking first in an attempt to seize the initiative:

"Team Leader Zhou, before we begin, I must declare: all my actions in Handong have had only one purpose: to bring corrupt officials to justice! I have a clear conscience!"

"Having a clear conscience is a good quality." Zhou Zhengming nodded, not refuting, but rather seeming to approve.

"We all understand the law, and we pay the most attention to procedures. Today, let's not talk about anything else, just procedures."

He casually picked up the first file and gently opened it: "Comrade Liangping, I've always had a small procedural question I'd like to ask. Why was your first meeting with Gao Xiaoqin, the key person involved in the case, a private one?"

"The situation is urgent!" Hou Liangping replied immediately, an answer he had rehearsed countless times. "Gao Xiaoqin could escape at any moment; I must stabilize her immediately and find a breakthrough!"

"Oh, the situation is urgent." Zhou Zhengming nodded, scribbled something on a piece of paper, and said, "According to regulations, conversations with key suspects must be recorded simultaneously. Where is your recording?"

"The conditions were not right at the time."

"What about the principle of dual-person case handling?"

"The situation is special, and there is no time to allocate manpower."

"What about the written approval procedures?"

"It was made up for afterwards."

After listening, Zhou Zhengming put down his pen, took off his half-rimmed glasses, and smiled like an old farmer who had finally discovered a treasure:

"Excellent, very good. Comrade Liangping, your four-sentence summary is extremely insightful: 'urgent situation,' 'conditions not met,' 'special circumstances,' and 'make up for it later.' These are practically the 'four magic weapons' of our anti-corruption front!"

Zhou Zhengming turned to look at Old Liu, whose face was ashen, and added sarcastically:

"Old Liu, I think your Supreme People's Procuratorate could promote these 'Four Magic Weapons' throughout the entire system. In the future, when handling cases, as long as you bring out these four magic weapons, procedural justice and organizational discipline can all be treated like toilet paper."

"We might as well disband our discipline inspection and political and legal system altogether. From now on, we can rely entirely on Director Hou's 'intuition' and 'sense of justice' to make judgments. Wouldn't that be much more efficient?"

Old Liu from the Supreme People's Procuratorate twitched his lips violently, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

His trip to Handong was to represent his former employer in severing ties with Hou Liangping.

This kid has caused too much trouble; even the Supreme People's Procuratorate can't bear the blame.

"Team Leader Zhou, please don't be so harsh on us!" Old Liu quickly interjected, giving Hou Liangping a look of disgust. "The Supreme People's Procuratorate has always been very strict about rules. This is purely his personal behavior, and our institute firmly demands that it be dealt with seriously!"

Hou Liangping grew anxious, his face flushed red: "Investigating cases can't be so mechanical! Things can change in an instant at a scene; if we wait for procedures in everything, we'll be out of luck!"

"So you're almost at the point of getting the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee to jump off the sixth floor?" Zhou Zhengming's casual remark instantly pierced through all of Hou Liangping's excuses.

An eerie silence fell over the conference room for a few seconds.

Hou Liangping was so stunned by those words that he almost choked on his breath. He gritted his teeth and said, "Gao Yuliang jumped off the building because his mental defenses collapsed! It has nothing to do with me!"

Zhou Zhengming pressed on: "Who was the last person he had a substantive conversation with before his breakdown?"

"...It's me."

"Is there any audio or video recording?"

"no."

Was there a third person present?

"no."

"Did you have organizational authorization to, as the head of the anti-corruption bureau, 'persuade' him to surrender in the office of the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee?"

Hou Liangping was speechless for a long time before finally managing to stammer, "I...I went to persuade him as a student!"

Zhou Zhengming laughed, a laugh filled with utter sarcasm:

"So, Schrödinger's identity is right? When you need to investigate a case, you're an imperial envoy wielding the sword of justice; when you drive someone to suicide, you're a respectful and obedient student?"

Comrade Liangping, your identity switching is smoother than a Sichuan opera face-changing act! Tell me, when you walked into that office, were you representing the Supreme People's Procuratorate or your father-in-law, the Zhong family?

This statement precisely hit Hou Liangping's sore spot.

"Zhou Zhengming! This is a personal attack!" Hou Liangping slammed his fist on the table, completely losing his temper.

"I'm just helping you clarify your identity." Zhou Zhengming remained unmoved, pushing a freshly printed call log in front of him.

"From yesterday afternoon until just now, you made a total of six phone calls to Comrade Zhong Xiaoai. You are now under investigation and suspended from your duties. What are you trying to do by frequently contacting a family member who holds a leadership position in the discipline inspection system?"

Is it just normal concern between husband and wife, or is it an attempt to leak the supervisory team's internal activities to outsiders? Or to put it bluntly... is it an attempt to call for reinforcements?

"She is my lover!"

"I asked, are you calling for reinforcements?!" Zhou Zhengming's voice suddenly rose, exuding a strong sense of pressure.

Hou Liangping was cornered, and all his grievances, anger, and resentment at being abandoned by Zhong Xiaoai erupted at this moment.

He pointed at Zhou Zhengming and roared, "So what if it is?! I'm bleeding and risking my life on the front lines, and you're using a magnifying glass to find fault with me from the rear! Gao Yuliang is corrupt and lawless, protecting criminals—the evidence is conclusive! Instead of interrogating him, you're interrogating me? What exactly do you mean? Just because he jumped off a building, you've kidnapped your entire supervisory team?!"

Upon hearing the word "kidnapping," Liu, the Supreme People's Procuratorate official, turned pale and turned his head away, not wanting to look at Hou Liangping even once.

This kid is not only stubborn, his brain is full of mush!

Zhou Zhengming, however, was no longer angry.

He leaned back in his chair, looking at Hou Liangping, who appeared to be insane, with a hint of pity in his eyes as if he were looking at a dead man.

He slowly picked up the internal phone on the table and pressed the speakerphone button.

"Team Leader Qin, it's me, Zhou Zhengming."

"Speak," came Qin Yuanzhou's calm, cold voice from the phone.

"Comrade Hou Liangping was very agitated and showed serious resistance to the work of our supervisory team."

Zhou Zhengming spoke slowly, yet every word was piercing.

"He openly claimed that the supervisory team was 'kidnapped' by Gao Yuliang. In addition, it has been verified that he has repeatedly tried to contact his family, posing a serious risk of interfering with the organization's investigation and leaking confidential information. My suggestion is to immediately upgrade the control measures."

There wasn't even a second of hesitation on the other end of the phone.

"Granted."

"beep--"

The phone hangs up.

Hou Liangping's mind went blank for a moment, instantly snapping him out of his rage. A chill ran from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

He then realized that Zhou Zhengming's earlier tug-of-war was not an argument with him at all, but a trap set for him, waiting for him to confirm his guilt!

"What right do you have?!"

Hou Liangping's voice was already trembling.

Zhou Zhengming stood up and looked down at him.

"Based on every word you just said, and your 'organizational procedures'."

He didn't glance at Hou Liangping again, and coldly gave orders to the two staff members at the door:

"Take Comrade Hou Liangping back to his room and confiscate all his communication devices. Cut off all contact with the outside world until we receive further instructions from the supervisory team."

"This is illegal detention!"

Hou Liangping is still making a last-ditch effort.

Zhou Zhengming walked to his side, gently patted his shoulder, sighed, and said something that Hou Liangping would never forget:

"Ryoping, your sword is too fast. So fast that... you've even forgotten the rules that a swordsman should follow."