Nominal: Hou Liangping blocking the door? He was slapped away!

Inside the Shanshui Manor.

Gao Xiaoqin was half-reclined on the sofa, swirling a glass of red wine in her right hand. A Hong Kong and Taiwan variety show was playing on TV, with bursts of laughter coming one after another.

There was a knock on the office door.

Zhang Tianfeng stumbled and crawled in, his shirt mostly soaked, a charred hole in his crotch, and he exuded an aura of utter disarray.

"Mr. Gao—"

"Look at yourself! Did they demolish the entire Dafeng Factory?"

Gao Xiaoqin didn't even lift her head, twirling the wine glass halfway between her fingers.

Zhang Tianfeng leaned against the door frame, panting like a donkey that had pulled a millstone for ten kilometers. His lips trembled several times before he managed to squeeze out the words.

"It's over, it's all over."

"The army is here."

"An armored vehicle, several troop carriers, and armed soldiers blocked all two hundred of our people at the entrance of Dafeng Factory."

"None of Chang Chenghu's gang escaped; they were all tied up like dumplings and dragged away."

The wine glass slipped from Gao Xiaoqin's hand, smashed onto the carpet, splashed wine, and shattered into three pieces.

She sprang up from the sofa, stepping barefoot onto the edge of the broken glass, ignoring the wine stains on the carpet where her stockings brushed against them.

"What did you say?"

"An army? What army?"

Zhang Tianfeng took half a step back, his legs swaying.

"The provincial military district's armored vehicles led the way, smashing the police car blockade set up by Director Qi to pieces."

"I was hiding in a car on the outskirts and saw it with my own eyes."

Gao Xiaoqin stood there, her bare toes curling and relaxing on the carpet, her mind racing.

Provincial Military Region? Heavy!

It's that guy surnamed Shen again. Why is he targeting Dafeng Factory?

More than two hundred thugs were taken away in military vehicles. Those guys have plenty of information to say: who placed the order, who paid for it, and who made the connections. They can find out in a single interrogation.

Gao Xiaoqin bent down, picked up the landline receiver from the coffee table, and dialed Zhao Ruilong's number in Hong Kong.

International calls are slow to connect; it took seven or eight rings before someone answered.

"Brother Ruilong, something's happened."

Gao Xiaoqin lowered her voice and recounted the events of the evening from beginning to end without pausing or embellishing.

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Then it exploded.

"Snap—"

The dull thud of the ashtray hitting something came through the receiver, followed by Zhao Ruilong's furious rant.

"That Shen guy! Who does he think he is! A guy in military uniform, trying to get his hands on local affairs!"

"My Zhao family has been operating in Handong for so many years. What right does this outsider have to touch my people!"

Gao Xiaoqin moved the receiver two inches away, and only brought it back closer after the other person had finished cursing.

"Brother Ruilong, now is not the time to swear."

"Those two hundred-plus people have been taken to the military detention center. Chang Chenghu's word may not be reliable. What if he implicates Zhang Tianfeng, and then an investigation goes up the chain of command—"

She didn't finish the second half of her sentence.

Zhao Ruilong stopped cursing on the other end and remained quiet for a while.

"Within the Shanshui Group, not a single document related to the bridge loan for Dafeng Factory, including contracts, transfer vouchers, and internal reports, can be kept."

"Get it done tonight, and make sure it's clean."

"clear."

Zhao Ruilong's voice finally lowered a bit, but he still emphasized every word.

"The military has already entered the area, so don't even think about touching Dafeng Factory's land anytime soon."

The phone hangs up.

Gao Xiaoqin put down the receiver, looked down at her bare feet on the carpet, half of which were stained with red wine.

"Zhang Tianfeng."

"Yes, yes!"

"Go out and hide for a while. Don't come back until you hear from me."

……

Zhao Lichun did not sleep.

The desk lamp in the study was on, its dark green shade focusing the light onto a small patch of the table, leaving most of the room in darkness.

The phone on the table had been ringing for half an hour, one call after another, like a death knell.

Zhao Lichun sat in the armchair, his hands resting on the armrests, staring motionlessly at the telephone.

The ringing stopped.

Twenty seconds later, it rang again.

It was Qi Tongwei's number; he dialed it four times in a row.

Zhao Lichun did not answer.

It's not that I don't want to answer, it's that I'm afraid to.

Qi Tongwei's call must be for instructions—Secretary Zhao, the army has arrested our people and breached the blockade line, what should we do?

What should I do?

What can we do?

Armored vehicles have already been deployed. Do you think Zhao Lichun can just make a phone call and call them back?

The phone rang again.

Zhao Lichun glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 2:47 a.m.

If he doesn't answer, Qi Tongwei will start to suspect him.

He picked up the receiver with his right hand.

"Secretary Zhao!"

Qi Tongwei's voice came in abruptly, urgent and fast.

"The military's armored vehicles rammed through all the police forces I had deployed. Dafeng Factory has been taken over by the military, and more than two hundred demolition teams were put into military vehicles and driven away!"

"Shen Zhong has gone mad! This is outrageous!"

Zhao Lichun switched the microphone to his other hand and leaned back in the armchair.

"Tongwei, I was just on a conference call with Director Wang of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China."

With a single sentence, he brushed aside the matter of not answering the phone earlier, and incidentally added a layer of prestige to himself—the title of Director of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is enough to command respect.

Qi Tongwei paused for a moment as expected.

"Shen Zhong has been driven to the brink of despair."

Zhao Lichun's voice was unhurried, exactly the same tone he used when chatting with department-level cadres in the square during the day.

"It seems the military has put pressure on him, and now he's just throwing caution to the wind and trying to drag everyone down with him."

"Write a detailed report on what happened tonight, focusing on the illegal troop movements, disruption of local administration, and illegal detention of civilians. The more detailed the report, the better."

"I want to report this to my superiors."

"Yes, Secretary Zhao, I'll write it right away!"

The phone hangs up.

Zhao Lichun put the receiver back, as if all his strength had been drained away. He slid halfway off the armchair, hitting the back of the chair with the back of his head.

Write a report? For whom?

Su Zhenhai's connection has been severed.

Once the report is written, it will at most go around a few desks before quietly going into the shredder.

But he couldn't let Qi Tongwei know about this.

The Zhao family troupe is currently relying on sheer willpower to stay afloat; once that will be broken, they will lose everything.

The only sound in the study was the buzzing of the desk lamp.

Zhao Lichun stared at the ceiling, his mind racing with only one thought.

Shen Zhong took over Dafeng Factory not for the sake of those few hundred workers.

Once those thugs are forced to talk, Zhang Tianfeng, Gao Xiaoqin, and Ding Yizhen will all be caught.

Ding Yizhen is connected to the Shanshui Group, and the Shanshui Group is connected to Zhao Ruilong.

If Zhao Ruilong pulls the first thread, the entire Zhao family is finished.

The fire at Dafeng Factory has already spread to the trouser legs.

Zhao Lichun straightened up from the armchair, his hands resting on the table, his knuckles turning white.

"We must create an even bigger stir."

"Draw everyone's attention away from the Dafeng factory."