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

The interview room at the Provincial Party Committee Guesthouse.

The sealed room was completely drafty, and the harsh white light from the incandescent bulbs made it hard to breathe.

The standard special-supply boxed lunch had been sitting on the table for two hours. The fat in the braised pork had completely solidified, and a layer of white film floated on the surface of the broth, giving off a greasy and rotten smell. Hou Liangping hadn't even touched it.

He rested his elbow on the table, repeatedly trying to justify himself in his mind: it was Gao Yuliang who deliberately jumped off the building to stage an accident, it was Sha Ruijin who was eager for quick success and quick results and tried to shirk responsibility, and it was the supervisory team who deliberately fabricated charges to suppress the case handlers.

The heavy lock on the iron gate slammed shut with a dull thud, shattering the deathly silence.

Zhou Zhengming walked ahead, carrying only a thin file folder in his hand, his usual goji berry thermos was nowhere to be seen, and his expression was relaxed and calm; Lao Liu from the Supreme People's Procuratorate followed closely behind, his eyes filled with dark circles, he was already exhausted from days of dealing with people.

Hou Liangping suddenly looked up, his entire body bristling with sharp sarcasm, his tone dripping with intense mockery: "You two came all this way today just to use my divorce papers as gossip? If you don't think that's embarrassing enough, how about digging up my father-in-law's family affairs for everyone to judge?"

Old Liu pulled out a chair and sat down, letting out a long sigh. His tone was weary and disappointed: "Liangping, the organization is here today to give you one last chance to confess and be lenient. Don't keep resisting and push yourself to the brink."

"An opportunity? This is clearly a political purge targeting me!"

Hou Liangping slammed his hand on the table, his chest heaving violently.

"I personally investigated and verified the cases of Qi Tongwei, Gao Xiaoqin, and the Shanshui Group. I was also the first to break through Gao Yuliang's corruption chain! I was eliminating a cancer in Handong, but you're relentlessly pursuing the flaws in my interview process. Isn't this just a counterattack on behalf of the corrupt officials? I demand a meeting with Team Leader Qin to truthfully report to the Central Committee that the supervisory team is deliberately suppressing frontline case-handling cadres!"

After listening quietly to his impassioned rebuttal, Zhou Zhengming's lips curled into a cool, unflappable mockery. He leaned back in his chair, his fingers interlaced in front of his abdomen.

"Your 'eliminating harm for the people' rhetoric is better suited for a lecture at the Party School. Today, let's not talk about Qi Tongwei or Gao Yuliang, but about the foundation you laid when you came to Handong, and about Chen Hai's sister, Chen Yang."

Upon hearing the name "Chen Yang," Hou Liangping's face hardened with suspicion: "Don't bother her! Liang Lu ruined her relationship back then, and she left overseas heartbroken. Now her brother is in the hospital, and she's already suffered enough alone all these years. She has absolutely nothing to do with the Handong case!"

Zhou Zhengming did not refute, but slowly pulled out the first paper record from the file folder and gently pushed it to the center of the table: "Let's look at this entry and exit record first, which is a complete record of Chen Yang's travels to and from the mainland, Hong Kong and North America over the past ten years."

Hou Liangping picked up the paper with some skepticism. Lines of flight and port records pierced his eyes. The densely packed entry and exit time stamps were clearly visible, indicating multiple short stays in Hong Kong, the shortest being only thirty-six hours.

"Impossible. She lives in the United States and only came back once after Chen Hai's accident. How could she frequently travel back and forth to Hong Kong? These records are definitely forged!" Hou Liangping clenched the paper tightly, his fingertips turning white.

"The settlement address, long-term residence permit number, and original archives from the immigration and border inspection system are all attached to the supplementary file and can be accessed and verified at any time."

Zhou Zhengming fired off a barrage of questions, "You always talk about her hardships, but which overseas city does she live in? How does she support her long-term life abroad? You can't answer a single one of those questions, can you?"

Hou Liang was speechless for a moment, and for the first time, a slight crack appeared in his heart.

All his impressions of Chen Yang came from the tragic persona that Chen Hai had created in casual conversations, and he had never taken the initiative to verify the other party's real life.

Zhou Zhengming then pulled out a second document, speaking slowly and deliberately, his words gradually becoming more damaging: "We checked the entry and exit timelines, and every trip Chen Yang took to Hong Kong completely overlapped with Zhao Ruilong's activity records in Hong Kong during the same period."

"Zhao Ruilong?"

Hou Liangping's pupils constricted sharply. How could that spoiled brat who relied on his father to plunder the people have any connection with Chen Yang? He instinctively retorted sharply, "That's a complete far-fetched connection! The two things are completely unrelated. You're forcibly piecing together clues to frame me!"

"Whether it's pieced together or not, you can see for yourself."

A copy of an offshore trust agreement slid down in front of Hou Liang. The official notarization and seal of the overseas law firm were clear, and the two lines of pinyin in the beneficiary column made his eyes water: Zhao Rui Long, Chen Yang.

The two individuals jointly hold trust shares with nine-figure offshore assets.

Hou Liang's hands trembled uncontrollably, and the paper crumpled into a ball in his palm.

A massive, collapsing void appeared in his heart; his mind went blank, and he repeatedly muttered to himself, "Fake, it must be a forged document..."

"The trust is just the surface; the real root lies in the Lingang old city redevelopment project 23 years ago."

Zhou Zhengming spoke in a cold voice, pulling out a copy of the guarantee filing on the third page. "Back then, Zhao Lichun spearheaded the land resale in Lingang, with the Chen family using their status as retired cadres to back it up. The funds were laundered and smuggled out of the country through this offshore trust as a channel. You should recognize the signatory of this cross-regional guarantee agreement for the project."

Hou Liang struggled to shift his gaze to the signature. The familiar calligraphic strokes were the same handwriting as all the scrolls and inscriptions written by his father-in-law during the New Year—his father-in-law was a core leader of the Zhong family in Beijing.

At this moment, all the self-persuasion and self-comfort I had before shattered.

He finally figured out a hidden thread he had deliberately ignored before: more than 20 years ago, the Zhong family provided cross-regional guarantees for Zhao Lichun and Chen Yanshi's gray projects, building a safe haven for overseas funds; now that Zhao Lichun has fallen from power, old accounts could be dug up at any time, so the Zhong family specially sent Sha Ruijin to Handong to purge those who knew about it back then and cover up traces of old accounts under the guise of anti-corruption.

Sha Ruijin's initiative to win over the Liang family and tacitly allow him to handle cases without rules was essentially a tacit understanding between the two sides' top leaders, using the purge of local factions to erase the stains of vested interests left over from the early years.

Old Liu spoke up at the opportune moment, revealing the underlying logic of the divorce: "Do you think Xiao Ai is divorcing you simply because you violated regulations in handling the case? The Zhong family had repeatedly sent messages through intermediaries, telling you to tone down your arrogance and not to completely expose the situation in Handong. You went your own way, forcing Gao Yuliang to jump off a building and Qi Tongwei to commit suicide, completely exposing the long-buried old grievances of Lingang to the central government's view. You have long become a time bomb that the Zhong family cannot control and that could explode at any time. Cutting ties with you is the only option for the family to protect itself."

Hou Liangping stared blankly at the crumpled divorce agreement beside him; Zhong Xiaoai's neat signature felt like a resounding slap in the face.

He used to be proud that he didn't rely on his father-in-law and that he solved cases based on his own conscience. In the end, he realized that he was just a controllable tool in the power struggle between high-level officials, and that he would be discarded as soon as he was no longer needed.

Qi Tongwei's words, "You were born in Rome," and Gao Yuliang's mocking "high-class son-in-law" on the rooftop, all echoed clearly in my ears at this moment.

He used to think it was just the fallacies and sophistry of corrupt officials, but now he understands that every word they said is true.

The justice they upheld was just a fig leaf for the powerful to divide the spoils; the marriage they were so proud of was just a binding of family interests; and all their passion was a joke from beginning to end.

After a long while, Hou Liangping's shoulders slumped limply, and the anger and resentment in his eyes were extinguished, leaving only a deathly silence and desolation.

He spoke in a hoarse voice, in a low voice: "Give me a cigarette."

Old Liu silently took out a cigarette, lit it, and handed it to him.

The smoke inhaled into my lungs, and a violent cough welled up uncontrollably, while tears and snot streamed down my face uncontrollably.

He buried his head and laughed loudly, the sound of his laughter echoing through the closed interview room. He laughed so hard that his whole body trembled, and tears kept falling down his face.

"I was such a fool... I took the imperial sword given to me, thinking I could uphold justice, but in the end I was cleaning up their old messes, causing a huge disaster, and then I was immediately abandoned..."

As the cigarette burned out, the hot butt scalded his fingertips, but Hou Liangping felt no pain and stubbed it out hard in the metal ashtray.

He raised his head, his eyes devoid of any resistance or sophistry, looking at Zhou Zhengming with an empty calm:

"I confessed everything. The complete instructions from the Zhong family to send me to Handong, all the conveniences Sha Ruijin provided for my case handling, the clues Chen Hai obtained in advance, and all the inside information were written down in the record without missing a single word."