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

Night falls on the third floor of the Provincial Party Committee Guesthouse.

Hou Liangping had paced around the room countless times.

Footsteps suddenly came from the corridor, followed by a click as the door lock opened.

It wasn't Zhou Zhengming, whose words were so scathing, who walked in; it was Lao Liu, a discipline inspection cadre from the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Old Liu waved his hand, signaling the two staff members at the door to leave. He then closed the door behind him and locked it.

This action warmed Hou Liangping's previously chilled heart a little.

own people.

And they were all our own people, kept behind closed doors.

Old Liu walked over, pulled out a chair and sat down, took out a pack of Yuxi cigarettes from his pocket, lit one for himself, and tossed one to Hou Liangping.

Hou Liangping didn't take it; the cigarette fell onto the table.

"Old Liu, what exactly does the courtyard mean?" Hou Liangping asked, his hands resting on the table, his voice dry but with a hint of accusation.

"Gao Yuliang jumped off the building out of fear of punishment, and Qi Tongwei also fired his own gun. Why am I being detained here and interrogated like a criminal? I need to report directly to the Party Leadership Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate!"

Old Liu exhaled a puff of smoke, looking through the wisps of smoke at the once spirited "anti-corruption bureau chief" before him. His eyes held no sympathy, only a helpless disappointment and a barely perceptible hint of pity.

"Liangping, even now, do you still think this is just about a case?" Old Liu pointed at him with his cigarette between his fingers.

"This is a political issue! You've ripped a hole in the sky in Handong, and now the higher-ups are looking for someone to mend it. Guess if they'll use stones or your head to do it?"

Hou Liangping retorted, "I did nothing wrong! I was ordered to come to Handong to investigate a case!"

"Whose orders are you on?!" Old Liu slammed his hand on the table, his voice barely audible, yet it made Hou Liangping's ears ring.

"The approval document from the Party Leadership Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate is to instruct you to assist in the investigation of cases in accordance with the law! It is not for you to take a trivial matter as an imperial edict and become Sha Ruijin's personal bodyguard!"

Furthermore, you were not authorized to bypass procedures and go to the provincial deputy secretary's office alone to stage a "coup"!

"That's a special case! Gao Yuliang could collude with others at any time..."

"Can you use a different word?" Old Liu interrupted him impatiently.

"Every time you get into trouble, you say it's a special circumstance. What, do you think the law is your family's Shaxian snack shop, that you can cook it however you want?"

"Your four magic weapons of 'emergency situations, follow-up procedures'—Zhou Zhengming utterly humiliated the Supreme People's Procuratorate right in front of me in the meeting room!"

Hou Liangping was so choked up that his face turned pale, and he gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Old Liu sighed and suppressed his anger.

He didn't come here today to start a tirade.

We're all from the same unit. If Hou Liangping is really placed under investigation, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Anti-Corruption Bureau will also lose face.

In addition, he had some influence with the old master of the Zhong family, so both morally and logically, he had to point out a way to make a quick buck.

"Liangping, I won't beat around the bush. Master Zhong asked someone to pass on a message to you."

Hou Liangping abruptly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes instantly igniting with hope, as if he had grasped a lifeline:

"What did you say?"

Looking at his appearance, Lao Liu cursed inwardly.

"He said, 'Use your brain, don't stubbornly resist.'" Old Liu leaned forward, lowered his voice, and began to teach him how to survive in the officialdom.

"The blame for Gao Yuliang's suicide is mainly being borne by Sha Ruijin. Although you were at the scene, you are, after all, someone sent down by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. As long as you don't become stubborn, there is still room for maneuver in this matter."

Hou Liangping was stunned: "What do you mean?"

Old Liu wished he could pry open his skull to see if it was full of mush.

"It means that as long as you prove that you were 'deceived' and a 'simple case-handling officer,' you can muddy the waters!"

When you are questioned tomorrow, you should insist that it was Sha Ruijin who carried out a political purge and set you up, and that it was the local forces in Handong who secretly set you up!

As long as you transform "subjective malicious coercion" into "objective political oversight," you'll at most receive a disciplinary action for "impatient handling of the case and procedural violations"! The court will then pull some strings for you, transferring you back to a sinecure position and putting you on hold for two years, and you'll get through this difficult time!

"Who deceived you?" Hou Liangping still didn't understand. "I solve cases entirely based on evidence! Gao Xiaoqin's clues, Qi Tongwei's account books—I dug them up bit by bit! I wasn't deceived by anyone!"

Old Liu was completely speechless. He took out a few sheets of paper from his briefcase and threw them directly at Hou Liangping's face.

"See for yourself!"

Hou Liangping hurriedly caught it, and when he looked down, he saw it was a list of people he had contacted and call records during his time in Handong.

Three names were highlighted in red pen.

"You know these three people, right?" Old Liu sneered. "They claimed to be 'veterans' of the Handong political and legal system, deeply disgusted by corruption, and proactively invited you for tea, offering you incriminating materials about the Shanshui Group and Qi Tongwei. Did you think that by displaying your domineering aura, righteous people in Handong would flock to you?"

Hou Liangping's palms began to sweat: "The clues they provided are indeed true..."

"What utter bullshit!" Old Liu ruthlessly tore off his mask, ripping away the most secret fig leaf of the system.

"These three people are all Liang Qunfeng's protégés! You were parachuted into Handong, completely clueless, unable to even tell east from west, so why are you always able to pinpoint Gao Yuliang's weaknesses so precisely? Because the Liang family is feeding you from behind! They not only feed you, but also thoughtfully wipe your mouth for you!"

boom!

Something seemed to explode in Hou Liangping's mind.

"You think you're the one who wields the sword? You think you have a built-in Beidou navigation system?" Old Liu's words were like daggers to the heart.

You're nothing but a knife the Liang family used to kill Gao Yuliang! A stupid knife used as a pawn by Sha Ruijin and the Liang family! You've been used as a chamber pot, yet you think you're Sun Wukong, vanquishing demons and monsters?

These words were even more devastating to him than Gao Yuliang calling him a "high-class son-in-law" on the rooftop.

Hou Liangping's proudest achievement in his life was his keen intuition for solving cases and his image as a fearless lone hero who defied authority.

He always felt that he was the one playing chess, the one who overturned the chessboard of Handong.

But now Lao Liu is telling him that he is just a pawn in someone else's hands, or even a broken knife that is held by the hilt and used to kill people, and then people complain that it is dirty!

"Impossible..." Hou Liangping's face turned deathly pale, and he shook his head repeatedly. His distorted pride made him instinctively resist the truth. "I have my own judgment in handling cases. I wasn't used by anyone! Gao Yuliang's corruption is a fact, and Qi Tongwei's murder of Chen Hai is a fact! Was I wrong to investigate them?!"

Looking at the man in front of him, who had fallen into madness and was stubbornly refusing to admit his mistake, the thought of "giving him a hand" in Old Liu's mind vanished instantly.

This person is beyond saving.

That's so stubborn, his self-esteem is warped to the extreme.

He would rather bear the serious crime of "cooperating with Sha Ruijin in carrying out political purges" than admit that he was a political idiot who was being manipulated.

"Nobody said we wouldn't investigate Gao Yuliang." Old Liu stood up, looking down at him with an expression that resembled that of someone looking at a dead man.

"But now, you've turned yourself into a case."

Hou Liangping stood frozen in place, breathing rapidly, his chest heaving violently.

"Let me be blunt," Old Liu said, stuffing the remaining cigarettes on the table back into his pocket, his tone as cold as ice.

"The formal questioning will take place tomorrow, with representatives from the supervisory team, the discipline inspection commission, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate all present. If you admit that you were fed information by the Liang family and led by Sha Ruijin, and become a tainted witness proving that they were engaged in political infighting, you can still keep your job."

If you keep spouting nonsense about "lone heroes" and "absolute justice," and insist on portraying those illegal actions as your own brilliant and heroic deeds...

Old Liu sneered and straightened his collar: "Then you can prepare to go to Qincheng Prison and be cellmates with the people you personally sent there. But I reckon Gao Yuliang is lying comfortably in the hospital right now, waiting to see how you die."

As he reached the door, Old Liu stopped but didn't turn around.

"Liangping, stop playing the hero. A real hero wouldn't make six calls to his wife for help after something happens."

The door slammed shut and was locked again.

Hou Liangping sat slumped in the dimly lit room, staring at the list on the table, which was shockingly circled in red pen, and remained motionless for a long time.