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

Intensive Care Unit.

Chen Hai lay quietly on the hospital bed, his body covered with tubes of varying thicknesses, the electrocardiogram emitting a monotonous ticking sound.

This once spirited anti-corruption bureau chief now resembles a withered tree, lifelessly clinging to the fragile vital signs maintained by medical equipment.

Wang Fuzhen sat on a plastic chair outside the glass window, her hair gray and her eyes red and swollen like peaches.

She clutched a handkerchief tightly in her hand, wiping away tears from time to time, looking as if she had aged ten years.

Chen Yang stood behind his mother, with a simple black suitcase at his feet.

She was wearing a thin trench coat, looking at her younger brother on the hospital bed, her eyes filled with deep weariness and despair.

"Yangyang, have you booked your plane tickets?"

Wang Fuzhen asked in a hoarse voice, with a hint of pleading.

"It's booked, Mom. The flight is at 3 PM."

Chen Yang answered softly, his tone completely calm.

Wang Fuzhen turned to look at her daughter, tears welling up in her eyes again: "Aren't you going to stay a couple more days? Your father..."

"He doesn't have time for us, Mom."

Chen Yang interrupted his mother, a bitter smile playing on his lips. "He's busy at the provincial party committee compound, giving orders and trying to rescue his 'Little Gold.'"

Wang Fuzhen's lips moved, as if she wanted to say something in defense of her husband: "Your dad is just anxious... after all, it's Xiaojinzi..."

"What's the rush? Hai Zi is lying here, has he even come to see him once?"

Chen Yang's voice was so soft it seemed a breeze could carry it away, yet every word pierced the heart. "Back then, one sentence from him ruined Qi Tongwei, and it ruined me too. Now, for his own political gain, he's going to abandon Hai Zi here. Mom, don't you find it ironic? He can care about the masses of all of Handong, the workers of Dafeng Factory, and his 'Little Gold,' but he can't care about his own son lying in bed, nor can he care about the daughter whose life he's ruined halfway through."

Wang Fuzhen covered her face and began to sob softly, her shoulders heaving violently.

Chen Yang did not cry.

Her tears had already dried up on this hypocritical land the moment her father forcibly broke up her marriage and she watched Qi Tongwei being exiled to Yantai.

She picked up her suitcase and took a deep look at Chen Hai on the hospital bed.

"Haizi, your sister is gone. This home is too cold."

Chen Yang turned and walked towards the elevator, her high heels clicking on the tiles in the corridor, the sound fading into the distance.

The mother and daughter's desolation contrasted sharply with Chen Yanshi's frantic activity outside, creating a highly ironic scene.

The fact that someone who can treat even his own children with such cold-bloodedness constantly talks about "the people" is the biggest dark humor in Handong.

……

Half an hour later, in Lu Chengzhou's office in the provincial party committee compound.

Xiaolin placed the organized audio and written materials on the coffee table and reported the entire process of receiving Chen Yanshi without missing a single word.

After hearing the report, Zhou Zhengming burst out laughing, picked up his teacup, and blew on the floating leaves: "Good heavens, he even called him 'Little Gold.' Does this old comrade really think this is the time for guerrilla warfare? Relying on a godfather relationship, he thinks he can conquer the world, disregarding even discipline, law, and basic physics? A fake suicide attempt? If Gao Yuliang heard this, he'd probably be so angry he'd jump out of his cast and drag him to the rooftop for another freefall experiment."

Qin Yuanzhou shook his head, his assessment incisive: "Using the sword of the previous dynasty to execute officials of the current one. This old comrade is truly seriously ill, and he's even righteously abusive. Relying on his seniority, he puts personal feelings above organizational discipline. This kind of behavior must be completely eradicated in Handong!"

"Ignore him."

Lu Chengzhou flipped open a document on the table, showing no interest whatsoever in discussing Chen Yanshi, as if he were merely a fly buzzing outside the window. "The higher he jumps, the more it proves we're on the right track. It's understandable that the older comrades have their emotions, but we can't abandon our investigation just because they do. Zhengming, what's the situation with the Liang family now?"

When business was brought up, Zhou Zhengming immediately dropped his smile and became serious: "We have already begun a secret investigation into the funding channels that Gao Xiaoqin provided through the ministry's vertical system. The tax and audit task force just reported that the eight million yuan consulting fee charged by Liang Wenjie's wife's shell company in Shanghai was based solely on an appraisal report copied from the internet. They didn't even bother to correct the punctuation; it's extremely blatant."

"As for Liang Wenjie's Patek Philippe in the mahogany box..."

Zhou Zhengming sneered, his eyes sharp as knives. "Our men were keeping watch around the Liang family's neighborhood and discovered that Liang Wenjie has been acting strangely these past few days, secretly meeting with several 'underground money changers' who handle overseas asset transfers. That watch is probably burning his wrist right now. The fish is about to burst."

Lu Chengzhou heavily signed his name on the document with the pen in his hand.

"When the fish move, observe the ripples in the water."

Lu Chengzhou raised his head, his gaze deep and cold. "Don't alarm him. Wait until he has laid out all the threads of the underground banks and feels that everything is foolproof before we wipe him out in one fell swoop."