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

Outside the office building of the Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee, low-hanging clouds hinted at an impending downpour.

The atmosphere was tense in the corridor outside the archives room.

The staff of the joint supervision office worked quickly and silently, moving out box after box of land files that had been sealed for many years.

The tearing sound of the seal was particularly jarring in the empty corridor.

The director of the municipal party committee's general office stood to one side, his professional smile more like a grimace, clutching a sweat-soaked tissue in his hand.

"Team Leader Zhou, this... Guangming Peak, Dafeng Factory, and the supplementary agreements for the early port supporting projects span too long a period of time, some even being old debts from more than ten years ago. Could you give us two days to sort them out and send them over?"

Zhou Zhengming spoke in a gentle tone, as if chatting with a neighbor: "No need to trouble Comrade Jingzhou. Our joint office is fully staffed today, with a professional auditing and archiving team. A little mess is fine, we'll check it page by page, we can wait as long as it takes."

The director of the general office felt a sudden tightness in his chest, and a layer of white sweat broke out on his back.

What's most chilling about the system is never the cursing and slamming of the table, but this kind of smiling, persistent, and thorough "care."

These boxes being moved away aren't just carrying paper archives.

This is clearly tearing down, brick by brick, all the political firewalls that Li Dakang has built over the past ten years of focusing on economic development and urban construction!

……

Meanwhile, on the top floor, in the office of the municipal party secretary.

The blinds were pulled down halfway, making the light dim.

On the large mahogany desk was a list of case files that had just been delivered and handed over.

Li Dakang sank into the sofa, not even glancing at his favorite strong tea, which had gone completely cold.

The municipal discipline inspection commission secretary, Yi Xuexi, sat opposite him, and the two had been silent for a full ten minutes.

"Old Yi..."

Li Dakang broke the silence first, his voice hoarse and filled with a weariness that had drained his confidence.

"You tell me, Li Dakang, I've never been greedy for money or women in my life. I didn't help when my wife was in trouble. I've been working tirelessly every day, rain or shine, to keep Jingzhou's GDP among the top in the province, like a donkey pulling a millstone—and in the end, how did I end up in this predicament, surrounded by enemies on all sides?"

Yi Xuexi raised his eyelids and glanced at him, but instead of offering any empty words of comfort, he went straight to the point: "Secretary Dakang, times have changed, and so have the rules."

"rule?"

Li Dakang slammed his fingertips heavily on the armrest. "I didn't take a single penny! No matter how thoroughly the organization investigates, I dare to swear to Lu Chengzhou and Qin Yuanzhou!"

"Just because you didn't take a single penny doesn't mean the teams below didn't drain the land of Handong."

Yi Xuexi sighed softly, his tone revealing a touch of the cruel reality of officialdom, "The current logic of investigation is no longer as simple as 'whoever takes the money goes to jail'."

Li Dakang laughed self-deprecatingly, but the laugh was somewhat bitter.

"To admit ignorance is to constitute regulatory paralysis and dereliction of duty; to admit knowledge but turn a blind eye is to abuse power and tacitly condone violations."

Li Dakang took a deep breath, rubbing his throbbing temples. "It's a double whammy. Lu Chengzhou and Qin Yuanzhou are using a dull knife to slowly cut me apart."

Only now did he truly understand the desperate situation Gao Yuliang had been in when he was forced to the rooftop—

When the higher-ups decide to settle accounts for the entire situation, personal "difficulties" and "objective challenges" are no more than a piece of waste paper in the face of ironclad rules and evidence.

Just then, the secretary knocked and entered, his footsteps extremely light: "Secretary Li, it's a call from the Provincial Party Committee Office. At 3 PM, Secretary Lu Chengzhou and the joint supervision team will be listening to a special report on the land survey in Jingzhou. Please be there on time."

Li Dakang's eyes narrowed, and after a two-second silence, he said coldly, "Notify the materials team to delete all the prepared content regarding the first half of the year's economic growth rate and urban construction achievements."

The secretary was taken aback: "Secretary Li, you deleted them all? Those were the biggest highlights of Jingzhou..."

"Highlight my ass!"

Li Dakang interrupted without hesitation, "Right now, the higher-ups are full of loopholes! If you go to the leaders and talk about how good the GDP looks, that's just a disguised protest, saying that their land investigation is undermining the overall economy! Only include the existing problems, regulatory loopholes, and follow-up solutions; don't write a single unnecessary word!"

The secretary stiffened and immediately nodded and withdrew.

Yi Xuexi looked at Li Dakang, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

Li Dakang remains the same politically astute Li Dakang, knowing when to immediately set aside his pride and admit his mistakes when a storm is brewing.

But this time, whether he can get through by bowing his head is no longer up to him.

……

3 PM, in the small conference room of the Provincial Party Committee.

There were no welcome banners, no fruit or refreshments; the atmosphere on either side of the long table was as somber as a courtroom.

The newly appointed provincial party secretary, Lu Chengzhou, sat in the main seat, with Qin Yuanzhou, the head of the supervision team, sitting to his left.

Below them, Zhou Zhengming, Tian Guofu, and Ji Changming stood in a row.

Li Dakang walked in alone, and not a single person in the entire conference room stood up to greet him with a polite "Comrade Dakang, please sit down."

Li Dakang remained calm, pulled out a chair and sat down, pushing the report outline, which had been reduced to only the essentials, onto the table:

"Secretary Lu, Team Leader Qin, the Jingzhou authorities have conducted a preliminary review of the historical issues exposed in the previous land approval process..."

"No need to read from a script."

Lu Chengzhou tapped his pen lightly on the table, interrupting him.

The new secretary spoke bluntly and directly, his gaze fixed sharply on Li Dakang.

"Comrade Dakang, you're a smart man. We didn't call you here today to hear your summaries of events. The Guangmingfeng project, the Dafengchang site, and those supplementary agreements from years ago—"

In these three categories of violations, which level of responsibility do you, Li Dakang, bear?

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze instantly.

Li Dakang met Lu Chengzhou's gaze, his back straight, his voice steady:

"As the Party Secretary of Jingzhou City, I unilaterally pursued the efficiency of key projects' implementation, and there was a serious lack of supervision and oversight regarding the behavior of lower-level cadres in circumventing procedures and simplifying formalities. I bear the primary leadership responsibility for this."

"Was it merely a matter of oversight and mismanagement?"

Qin Yuanzhou, who was standing to the side, opened a photocopy in his hand—

It was the original assessment file that Sun Liancheng had hidden in the old case at the Intermediate People's Court.

Qin Yuanzhou sneered: "Comrade Dakang, back then, Sun Liancheng, the district head of Guangming District, clearly wrote in the assessment report: 'The data is distorted, there is a risk of loss of state-owned assets, and we do not agree to the transfer.'"

Ding Yizhen then bypassed his superiors and directly obtained the signature and seal of the deputy district head in charge. Such a blatant violation of regulations by exceeding one's authority—would Ding Yizhen dare to do this without the tacit approval of the municipal party secretary?

Li Dakang's eyelids twitched slightly, and his palms unconsciously tightened on his knees.

"Team Leader Qin, at that time, the key project was under great pressure to meet the deadline. I think Comrade Sun Liancheng was a bit conservative in his work. He did say to Ding Yizhen, 'Special cases should be handled specially and efficiency should be the priority.'"

Li Dakang tried his best to keep the boundaries strictly defined by his work philosophy, "but I have never instructed anyone to tamper with the evaluation data, nor have I participated in any transfer of benefits."

Lu Chengzhou picked up his teacup, looked at Li Dakang, and said in a deep and cold tone, "Comrade Dakang, in the officialdom of Handong, the top leader's words 'efficiency first' are heard by subordinates as a get-out-of-jail-free card that says 'regardless of the means, only the results matter.' Tacit approval is often more terrifying than written orders, because you are personally dismantling the red line of the system for corrupt officials!"

Li Dakang lowered his eyes and remained silent.

He knew that if he offered even half a word of explanation, he would be resisting censorship.

Qin Yuanzhou closed the file and directly revealed the bottom line of today's conversation: "Given the extremely deep involvement of the land issue in Jingzhou, the Provincial Party Committee and the Supervision Group have decided that, effective immediately, all approval authority and file review for land development, investment promotion, and old city renovation in Jingzhou over the years will be directly managed by the Joint Supervision Office."

Li Dakang suddenly raised his head.

"You only have one task now."

Lu Chengzhou stared at him, his words heavy with weight, "That means stabilizing Jingzhou's economic development and safeguarding the foundation of people's livelihoods. As for how the case is investigated, who is investigated, and how far back to trace it—you no longer have a say, and you are not allowed to interfere. Do you understand?"

Completely strip them of their control over land and projects, leaving only an empty shell of a secretary responsible for doing the work and maintaining stability!

Li Dakang felt a chill run down his spine, but faced with two unshakeable living devils, he could only grit his teeth and bow his head in response:

"Understood. I will resolutely obey the organization's decision."

After the brief conversation, Li Dakang walked out of the provincial party committee's small conference room alone.

A draft swept through the corridor, causing his clothes to flutter and giving him a somewhat desolate appearance.

As he sat in the black car on his way back, Li Dakang slowly leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes.

He knew better than anyone else that Lu Chengzhou and Qin Yuanzhou's violent dismantling of his "Jingzhou Firewall" was not merely to punish Li Dakang for his dereliction of duty.