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

"Answer your own question first," Zhou Zhengming said coldly.

Hou Liangping's hands slowly clenched, as if he were undergoing an extremely painful self-analysis.

"I admit... I did trust this channel before."

"Just trust?" Zhou Zhengming pressed.

"And..." Hou Liangping opened his mouth, but found that the word was stuck in his throat and he couldn't say it.

"What else?"

Hou Liangping closed his eyes in anguish.

Details he had overlooked during past investigations, clues that defied common sense but which he had forcibly rationalized, flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

After a while, he spoke in a low voice, his voice filled with endless exhaustion:

"In some materials, there were actually directions that did not conform to my professional judgment... Those clues came too coincidentally, as if they were deliberately fed to me."

"But I didn't investigate further."

"Why not investigate further?" Zhou Zhengming asked.

Hou Liangping gave a bitter laugh, a laugh that was more painful than a cry.

"Because I feel... the things they provided in the past were very accurate."

Even he himself found it absurd and laughable to say that.

A law school graduate who has spent half his life handling cases, and who loves to lecture his subordinates and classmates: "Don't be superstitious about status, relationships, or authority."

Ultimately, simply because a channel was "always accurate" in the past, they gradually gave up independent thinking and assumed that the world delivered by this channel was the complete world.

Hou Liangping slowly lowered his head, his gaze falling once again on the assessment report about himself.

He suddenly looked up at Zhou Zhengming and Lei Ming, as if asking them, or perhaps himself, "Did they also write in this evaluation that I'm 'arrogant'?"

Lei Ming sighed and couldn't help but say, "They wrote it in a more civilized way, calling it 'a strong sense of personal honor'."

Hou Liangping actually laughed after hearing this.

His voice was hoarse, and then he quickly suppressed his smile, his eyes filled with self-mockery.

"It's better to be civilized..."

"If I were them, seeing me being played like a fool for so many years, I'd probably just write two words on the report—"

He paused for a moment, as if he had used all his strength, before uttering those two words.

"Easy to fool."

Fortunately, he did not break down; in fact, he even asked to see more specific materials.

Zhou Zhengming readily agreed.

However, they only provided a copy.

Hou Liangping sat in the chair, flipping through the documents one by one.

His movements were quite fast at first, but the further he flipped, the slower he became, and his brows gradually furrowed.

When he turned to the third document, he tapped his finger on the paper, then suddenly looked up and asked, "Do you have an original version of this in your system?"

The technician next to him immediately typed on the keyboard to retrieve the file and replied, "Yes."

Is it longer than the one I have?

"It's two pages longer."

Hou Liangping's face darkened slightly, and he held out his hand: "Let me see it. I want to know how my IQ has been so thoroughly humiliated."

Zhou Zhengming looked at him quietly for a few seconds, nodded slightly, and gestured for the staff to hand over the original version.

Hou Liangping took the original version and quickly glanced at the two extra pages.

These two pages prominently mention a company with intricate connections to the old Lingang project.

In the version that was sent to Hou Liangping's desk back then, this part of the content was completely erased, as if it had been wiped clean with an eraser.

There was no data tampering or fact fabrication.

They simply deleted a paragraph.

Hou Liangping held the thin sheet of paper in his hand, remaining silent for a long time before finally speaking, "What about the other copies? Let's compare them too."

No better than not knowing, one is scared.

The second document conveniently omitted a section about the Bai family's intricate web of relationships.

The fourth document, without bias, omitted information about one of Wang Zonghui's former subordinates.

The fifth document was the most outrageous.

In the original material, there was clearly a sentence with eleven large characters: "Dongjiang Port Early Financial Training Network." However, when it came to Hou Liangping's hands, the entire sentence seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving not even a punctuation mark.

Hou Liangping leaned back in his chair, looking somewhat dejected, and remained silent for a long time.

"What did you figure out?" Lei Ming raised an eyebrow and asked with interest.

"They're not paving the way for me."

Hou Liangping slowly exhaled, his tone tinged with a helpless self-deprecation, "They just tore down all the other road signs."

This statement is a very insightful and incisive summary.

No one in the task force responded immediately.

Hou Liangping rubbed his temples and continued, "I used to think that I could find out who someone was because the evidence was irrefutable and pointed directly to them. Now, looking back, I realize that sometimes the reason the evidence only points to one person is because someone has already taken scissors and cut off all the other paths."

Zhou Zhengming looked at him expressionlessly and said calmly, "But that doesn't mean you can shirk all responsibility."

"I know."

Hou Liangping answered extremely quickly this time, even with a hint of bitterness, "The materials were handed to me by someone else, but whether or not to expand the scope of the investigation was my decision. I also decided how the procedures should proceed."

"Especially on a few occasions, I clearly noticed that there were some gaps in the materials that didn't match up, but because they were so consistent with my predictions, I was too lazy to investigate the source of the information."

He gave a wry smile and shook his head. "I used to think that the saying 'presumption of innocence' was only for suspects. Now I realize that if I doubt my own judgment, I should start from scratch."

Lei Ming finally couldn't help but speak up, a mocking smile on his lips: "Oh, that's a pretty good summary of ideological awareness."

"Don't write it in the transcript."

Hou Liangping glanced at him and said irritably, "I don't want to rely on spouting witty remarks here to try and get a reduced sentence. I can't afford to lose face like that."

Lei Ming paused for a moment, then shrugged and didn't continue to mock him.

Next, Hou Liangping began to recall his past interactions with Zhou Jun.

"Actually, he rarely did things like a secret agent making a meeting, simply shoving a stack of materials into my hands."

Hou Liangping recalled, "Most of the time, we would just have meals, drink tea, or meet up during meetings. He would casually bring up some social phenomena, such as which local officials' relatives had gone into business, or which project's approval process seemed a bit off."

"Sometimes when I casually ask him where he heard it from, he casually says that he discovered it by chance while doing academic research."

Zhou Zhengming astutely grasped the key point and asked, "Does Zhong Xiaoai know about your private interactions?"

"She knows who Zhou Jun is, but she may not know exactly what he handed me."

"Was it her who introduced you two?"

"no."

Hou Liangping looked up and pondered for a long time. "I first met Zhou Jun at an extremely boring seminar on international legal affairs. Later, after getting to know him better, I found out that he was quite familiar with the Zhong family."

"So here's the question," Zhou Zhengming said, his eyes sharp, "who arranged for you to attend that seminar in the first place?"

Hou Liangping suddenly stopped talking and shut his mouth.

Several people in the room simultaneously turned their gazes to him, as if they were several searchlights.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Lei Ming urged.

"I'm thinking."

Hou Liangping's brows furrowed even more. "That meeting, it seems... was an invitation that was handed to me by one of Zhong Xiaoai's father's secretaries."

The air in the interview room instantly became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Name," Zhou Zhengming said succinctly.

"I need to double-check; it's been too long."

"Remember as much as you can."

Hou Liangping closed his eyes, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table. After a long while, he slowly uttered three words.

He Wenqing.

This is yet another name that has never appeared in previous investigations, as if it were invisible.

The keyboards of the tech team immediately started clattering loudly as they frantically searched for information.

Half an hour later, a preliminary report was sent into the interview room.

He Wenqing worked as a secretary to the Zhong family elders in his early years. Later, he was transferred to a policy research institution, and then entered a peripheral institution of a research department of the State Council. He retired more than ten years ago and is now enjoying his grandchildren.

But the most fatal point is—

He previously served as a director of the Policy Research Center at East China University of Political Science and Law.

Looking at the documents in his hand, Lei Ming couldn't help but chuckle: "Wow, these people's circles have finally stopped pretending to have 'love at first sight' stories."

Zhou Zhengming turned to Hou Liangping: "Have you seen him since then?"

"I've met them." Hou Liangping's face turned quite ugly, as if he had swallowed a fly. "But before, I never connected these seemingly unrelated relationships."

Why?

"Because if you look at each of them individually, they are all so normal and reasonable that you can't find any fault with them."

This is what makes this invisible net truly terrifying.

No one would be so reckless as to suddenly jump out and point their finger at Hou Liangping, issuing orders:

Go and thoroughly investigate Qi Tongwei!

You absolutely must not touch any projects in Lingang!

You get out of Dongjiang Port!

Such methods are too low-level and too foolish.

The truly sophisticated and mature approach is to naturally arrange a boring yet formal seminar.

Let a well-spoken, normal researcher naturally get to know you.

Over the next few years, they will occasionally throw at you several pieces of absolutely true and flawless material.

Once you've built up unbreakable trust in them, they'll quietly make decisions for you, deciding which materials will never appear in your sight again.

Throughout the entire process, they don't need to force you to do even one illegal or disorderly thing.

Because they already know your temperament and character inside and out, your upright and intolerant nature will naturally help them complete the rest of the puzzle.

……

That evening, Zhou Zhengming met with Zhou Jun again.

This time, Zhou Zhengming didn't waste any words and went straight to the point, asking only one question:

"He Wenqing, who is he to you?"

Upon hearing this name, Zhou Jun's composed and confident expression shattered completely.

Before this, he could calmly handle any tricky question, and even utter a few literary phrases.

But when this name came out, he seemed to be put on pause, remaining silent for more than a minute.

Finally, he said:

"My upline."

Upon hearing this, Lei Ming's brows furrowed instantly: "I say, what era are we living in? Still using this 'online' thing? Do you think you're filming a spy movie?"

Zhou Jun shook his head with a wry smile: "He's not the kind of spy superior you're thinking of."

"What's that? Your spiritual mentor?" Lei Ming mocked.

"I am an information coordinator."

Lei Ming rolled his eyes and retorted without hesitation, "You cultural people's greatest skill is giving the same piece of trash ten fresh and elegant names. Information coordination? Sounds like something a neighborhood committee auntie would say."

Zhou Zhengming didn't laugh; his eyes remained sharp as knives: "Whom does He Wenqing listen to?"

Zhou Jun lowered his eyes, staring at the smooth tabletop in front of him, as if trying to see a flower bloom on it.

After a long silence, he uttered a shocking statement in an extremely low voice:

"In his early years... he was directly responsible to Chung Wei-min."