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

Jingzhou Funeral Home, Farewell Hall No. 3.

When Liang Qunfeng passed away, the Liang brothers had already been detained for investigation by the supervisory team, and their problems of interfering in personnel matters and protecting their relatives to amass wealth over the years had been preliminarily verified.

The province has set a unified tone: the funeral should be kept simple, with no memorial service, no collective condolence by leaders, no wreaths or elegiac couplets, and no funeral music. Only family members and a few old acquaintances may attend briefly to say goodbye.

The cramped farewell hall had only a single black-and-white passport photo hanging on the wall. The walls were bare, with a dozen or so folding plastic chairs scattered about. The air was cold and oppressive, lacking any semblance of the dignity of a former veteran of the political and legal system.

According to the rules jointly set by the provincial party committee and the supervision team, the top leader of the provincial leadership team will not appear.

The red lines of official discipline are laid out in the foreground: the presence of retired senior officials involved in a case and the main leadership team is easily interpreted as "supporting the problematic faction and resisting the investigation," which constitutes a serious political blemish.

The final arrangement involves tiered handling:

Governor Liu Ruian, on behalf of the provincial government, spent half an hour privately visiting Liang Lu to offer his condolences, without leaving any public footage.

As the secretary of the provincial discipline inspection commission, Tian Guofu only conveyed the organization's condolences by phone and did not go to the funeral home at all.

The newly appointed provincial party secretary, Lu Chengzhou, sent the deputy secretary-general of the provincial party committee to the scene on his behalf. The two-minute symbolic visit was merely to express the organization's humanitarian concern for the deceased's family and did not represent any endorsement of Liang Qunfeng's past issues.

At this moment, there were only a few people in the hall: several retired middle-level cadres who had been promoted by Liang Qunfeng in their early years and dared not not come, huddled awkwardly in a corner; Liang Lu, dressed in black, stood alone by the portrait, her face numb and her eyes bloodshot, with no other direct relatives of the Liang family by her side—Liang Wentao and Liang Wenjie were still being interviewed at the guesthouse and were not allowed to leave.

Li Dakang was the only incumbent vice-ministerial level official present at the event.

In his early years, when he worked under Zhao Lichun, he visited him many times to report. But now the Liang family was in decline, and the old grudges of Ding Yizhen and Ouyang Jing were still hanging over his head. He dared not stay long and just wanted to go through the motions and get out as soon as possible.

He walked slowly to Liang Lu and lowered his voice: "Please accept my condolences and take care of yourself."

Liang Lu glanced at him, her lips moved, but she didn't say a word, only nodding slightly in response.

Li Dakang was unwilling to linger. He turned around and quickly walked out of the farewell hall. He knew that avoiding suspicion was more important than anything else at the moment. A pile of economic reports awaited him in Jingzhou, and getting involved with the Liang family even a little bit was risky.

Only a few retired cadres remained in the hall, exchanging quiet greetings. They all planned to stay for a few minutes and then leave, as no one wanted to linger and arouse suspicion.

Just then, the soft sound of a wheelchair rolling over the marble floor came from outside the door, and everyone turned their heads at the sound.

Gao Yuliang has arrived.

Wu Huifen slowly pushed the medical wheelchair into the room. Gao Yuliang was covered in polymer plaster, his face was pale, but his eyes were calm and deep.

The entire venue fell into a deathly silence, and a storm of emotions surged through everyone's hearts.

Everyone knows the two deep-seated feuds: Liang Qunfeng orchestrated Qi Tongwei's exile, the root of Qi Tongwei and Liang Lu's tragic lives; Gao Yuliang later turned against them, handing over all the Liang family's personnel secrets to the supervisory team, directly sending Liang's two sons to detention, causing Liang Qunfeng to fall ill from the stress and die. The grudge between the two has long been on everyone's lips in Handong.

The veteran cadres present were wondering: Was he coming over at this time to mock them, or did he have other plans?

Unable to bow deeply, Gao Yuliang could only straighten his upper body slightly and speak softly to the black and white portrait. His voice was not loud, but it clearly echoed throughout the quiet farewell hall: "Old Liang, may you rest in peace."

The phrase "Old Liang" carries no hint of harshness, but rather a sense of calm and composure.

In the corner, several retired cadres lowered their heads in shame—just moments before, they had been trying to distance themselves from any potential conflicts of interest, but in comparison, their inferiority was immediately apparent.

Wu Huifen pushed the wheelchair to Liang Lu's side. Gao Yuliang said in a calm tone, "Death is the greatest tragedy. Let bygones be bygones. Take care."

Liang Lu bit her lower lip tightly, and the tears that had been welling up in her eyes finally slid down her cheeks. After a long while, she managed to squeeze out a weak "thank you".

Gao Yuliang said no more and gestured for Wu Huifen to leave directly. He did not deliberately try to talk to anyone, and before any of the veteran cadres could come forward to exchange pleasantries, the wheelchair slowly drove out of the farewell hall.

While onlookers were still savoring the stark contrast of the scene, the atmosphere inside the black minivan relaxed as soon as the door closed.

Wu Huifen unscrewed the thermos and handed it to him, then used a tissue to wipe the cold sweat from Gao Yuliang's forehead.

"Is the wound hurting again?"

"Fortunately, the painkillers are holding up."

Gao Yuliang leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "Lu Chengzhou sent the deputy secretary-general over, but didn't show up in person. He handled the situation perfectly."

Wu Huifen frowned: "You came here so abruptly just now. Aren't you afraid the supervisory team will misunderstand and think you're colluding with the Liang family in private?"

"Quite the opposite." A glint flashed in Gao Yuliang's eyes. "Now everyone is eager to distance themselves from the Liang family. As the person with the deepest conflict, I am here to bid farewell and put aside old grudges. Instead, I am handing Lu Chengzhou and Qin Yuanzhou a clear message: I can distinguish between public and private matters, I understand the big picture, and I will not continue to waste time on old personal grudges."

"The local factions in Handong have collapsed, and as an outsider appointed secretary, he urgently needs someone familiar with all the personnel connections and capable of stabilizing the middle management. My move today is to show him that I am capable of being checked and balanced and useful."

Wu Huifen sighed: "You're walking on a knife's edge with every step you take."

Gao Yuliang sneered: "From the day I fell from the sixth floor, I had no way out. Now I finally see a little room for maneuver."

......

Meanwhile, the temporary command center of the provincial party committee's supervision team

Zhou Zhengming took the photos of the scene that the funeral home staff had secretly taken and placed them in front of Qin Yuanzhou's desk.

"Team Leader Qin, Gao Yuliang went to Liang Qunfeng's makeshift farewell hall on his own, said only one word to say goodbye, and did not speak privately with Liang's relatives. The retired cadres present did not dare to take the initiative to speak to him throughout the entire process."

Qin Yuanzhou lowered his eyes and flipped through the photos, his fingertips lightly tapping the table. He saw through the power struggle at a glance: "He's not putting on an act for the veteran cadres, he's putting on an act for us, for Lu Chengzhou. He's proactively putting aside his mortal feud, proactively demonstrating a sense of the big picture, and proactively sending the signal that he's 'willing to cooperate with the investigation and not create confrontation.'"

Zhou Zhengming asked, "Should we take this opportunity to contact them and inquire about any old clues regarding personnel matters in Handong?"

"No rush, let it cool down first." Qin Yuanzhou picked up his enamel cup, took a sip of tea, and spoke calmly.

"Being too eager to extend an olive branch will only lead to exorbitant demands. Let him understand his own situation first before discussing cooperation; only then will we have the upper hand."

Changing the subject, Zhou Zhengming took out a thick, encrypted file, his expression suddenly becoming serious: "The investigation into the financial flow of the old Lingang project has yielded a major breakthrough. Back then, Zhao Lichun led the development, and a nine-figure sum of money was laundered across borders through multiple Hong Kong shell companies, eventually being transferred to an offshore single trust."

Qin Yuanzhou raised his eyes: "Who is the beneficiary?"

"The two beneficiaries are Zhao Rui and Chen Yang—Chen Yanshi's only daughter."

Qin Yuanzhou gripped the water glass tightly, his eyes filled with astonishment.

For years, the outside world had portrayed Chen Yang as aloof and reclusive, who went abroad due to heartbreak. No one expected that she would share a huge trust share with Zhao Ruilong.

Did Chen Yanshi know about it?

"It's too early to draw a conclusion, but the chain of clues is clear."

Zhou Zheng opened the attachment to the entry and exit records and wrote, "In the past ten years, Chen Yang has traveled to and from Hong Kong many times. Each trip has highly overlapped with Zhao Ruilong's. There is no way that he has been living in seclusion overseas for a long time. Chen Hai holds a high position as the director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. He has been able to get ahead smoothly by relying on his father's seniority. The Chen family has long been using their status as veteran cadres to secretly insert themselves into the chain of interests."

Zhou Zhengming presented the most crucial evidence: "The person who signed the guarantee for this cross-border fund transfer was Secretary Zhong from Beijing, who is also Hou Liangping's father-in-law."

Qin Yuanzhou instantly figured out the entire hidden thread at the top level, closing all the accumulated doubts.

The early Lingang project left a financial mess, which Sha Ruijin's father and his generation covered with central government funds; the gray profits from the project were divided between the Zhao and Chen families, with the Zhong family providing cross-border guarantees, thus binding their interests together throughout the process.

Now that Zhao Lichun is about to be thoroughly investigated and the entire chain of events is about to be exposed, the Zhong family must quickly step in to cover up the old traces. Therefore, they are pushing Hou Liangping to be parachuted into Handong, using the pretext of anti-corruption investigation to cut off the old financial clues between the Chen and Zhao families and destroy the evidence of their cooperation back then.

Hou Liangping is praised by outsiders for wielding imperial authority and being purely for the people, but in reality, he is a "cleaner" arranged by the Zhong family.

Qin Yuanzhou abruptly pressed the encrypted red button on the table, his tone icy: "Arrange immediately to re-interrogate Hou Liangping. This time, the interrogation will not dwell on the individual cases of Qi Tongwei and the Liang family; go straight to the core issue: Before going to Handong, did his father-in-law, Secretary Zhong, assign him a special task, requiring him to handle the Lingang project and related old financial clues concerning the Chen family?"