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

The roads inside the camp were straight and wide, with a military lamp standing every twenty meters on both sides. The light shining on the cement ground was dazzlingly white.

Li Dakang strode forward, with the soldiers leading the way, always keeping a distance of three steps between them.

The soles of the leather shoes stomped on the ground with force, each step accompanied by a loud thud from the heels.

twenty minutes.

A full twenty minutes.

These three words were being roasted in my mind, getting hotter and hotter with each passing moment.

Li Dakang had already prepared his opening remarks: "Secretary Shen, you're leaving a member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee standing out in the cold wind at the door. Do you think the three words 'military-political unity' are no longer necessary?"

The confidence to question came from the plaque of a member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and from the top position of the more than five million people in Jingzhou.

I went over the wording twice in my mouth, and I couldn't find fault with any of the words.

When we reached the corner on the second floor of the command building, the guiding soldier stopped and stretched out his hand to the left.

"Secretary Li, we've arrived."

The door to the reception room was half-open, and the lights inside were on halfway, neither too bright nor too dim.

Li Dakang did not knock on the door.

He pushed the door with his right hand, and with a "bang," the door hit the inner wall panel and bounced.

He rushed inside, enveloped in a chilling aura.

The reception room was small, with a long coffee table, two rows of sofas, and an administrative map of the military region's jurisdiction hanging on the wall.

Shen Zhong sat in the main seat.

The pine-green military uniform was buttoned up perfectly, and the gold major general's epaulets gleamed under the lamp above. On the coffee table in front of him sat a freshly brewed cup of tea, white steam rising slowly from its rim.

He leaned back on the sofa, his legs crossed, his right hand on the armrest, his thumb rubbing the brass cartridge case.

He didn't even lift his eyelids when he saw Li Dakang push the door open and come in.

"Secretary Shen!"

Li Dakang stood opposite the coffee table, his legs stretched straight, his hands in his pockets, his knuckles bulging out of the pocket fabric.

"I, Li Dakang, came here in the middle of the night and stood at the gate of your military region for twenty minutes. Are you testing my cold resistance, or are you deliberately making a fool of a provincial party committee member?"

The words were spoken with resounding force.

The person on the sofa didn't move.

The cartridge case spun halfway around my fingertip, then spun back.

"sit."

One word.

Li Dakang didn't sit down; his feet remained rooted to the spot.

"You owe me an explanation!"

Shen Zhong raised his left hand, picked up a black object from beside the sofa cushion, placed it on the coffee table, and gently pushed it in Li Dakang's direction.

A military tactical tablet.

The device is thicker than a regular tablet, with shock-absorbing rubber around the corners and a cool-looking screen.

Li Dakang's mouth was open, but the second half of his sentence was stuck in his throat and didn't come out.

Bow down.

The screen displayed a set of high-definition night vision images, four split screens, with every detail on the green background being incredibly clear—the lines on people's faces, the wrinkles on their clothes, the numbers on license plates, all were clearly visible.

In the top left corner of the image, at least thirty special police officers in black combat uniforms are deployed in tactical formations of three men around a villa.

In the upper right corner, two snipers are lying on the edge of the rooftop of the opposite building, with silencers on their guns. Two infrared beams pass through the lens and land on the window on the second floor of the villa, with the light spots moving back and forth along the edge of the curtains.

In the lower left corner, three riot control vehicles were parked at the intersection with their engines off. The spotlights on the roofs were not turned on, but the doors were half open, and the people inside could jump out at any time.

The bottom right corner view is zoomed out the furthest, showing a panoramic aerial view of the entire community.

Emperor Garden.

Li Dakang took half a step back.

With just that half step, his lower back slammed into the armrest of the sofa behind him, and he almost lost his balance.

In the center of the bottom right corner of the screen, a figure in a dark blue police uniform stands next to a command vehicle, speaking into a walkie-talkie hanging on the roof antenna.

The person's profile was clearly visible in the night vision image.

Qi Tongwei.

My mind went blank for a moment.

Emperor Garden, special police, Qi Tongwei, and more than thirty people surrounded a villa.

What kind of formation is this?

She looked up at Shen Zhong, her lips moved twice but no sound came out.

Shen Zhong picked up the teacup, blew on it, and the white steam on the tea surface dispersed to the side.

"Zhao Lichun gave Qi Tongwei a file containing all the evidence of Ouyang Jing's bribery, including bank statements, transfer vouchers, and confessions, nothing was missing."

The teacup was placed back on the coffee table, its bottom tapping softly against the glass.

"At 3 a.m. this morning, Qi Tongwei left Zhao Lichun's private residence and interrogated the person in charge of the company involved overnight, obtaining their confession."

"Lu Liang, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, was called up in the middle of the night and issued a summons in violation of regulations."

"All three of the provincial criminal investigation department's top lieutenants were mobilized, and the information section retrieved a month's worth of Ouyang Jing's communication records and travel itinerary."

One by one, neatly and cleanly, just like reading out a list.

What you see on your screen is the action that Qi Tongwei is carrying out.

Shen Zhong removed his heavy hand from the armrest and tapped it towards the tablet screen.

"Target: Your wife."

Three words came crashing down.

Li Dakang's legs went weak, and he slumped onto the sofa behind him.

"Zhao Lichun lost face and reputation after you stabbed him in the back at the Standing Committee meeting."

"Dafeng Factory has been taken over by the military, and more than 200 thugs are being held in detention. The cover of Shanshui Group could be lifted at any time, and Zhao Ruilong's matter can no longer be suppressed."

Shen Zhong crossed his hands in front of his lower abdomen and leaned back into the sofa.

"He needs a bomb right now, something that will make everyone forget about keeping an eye on Dafeng Factory."

"Ouyang Jing is that bomb."

"The news that the wife of a provincial party committee member was involved in embezzlement and bribery is enough to draw the attention of the officialdom in Handong for half a month."

Li Dakang sat on the sofa, his back pressed against the cushion, motionless.

"And you, Li Dakang, whether you know it or not tonight, as long as Ouyang Jing is taken down, you will be the 'provincial committee member who can't even control his own backyard'."

"Seven years ago, when Lincheng's deputy mayor got into trouble, your nomination for the Standing Committee was suppressed for two years."

"This time, it's not a matter of holding it in for two years."

It paused for a moment.

"You have absolutely no chance of advancing in your career."

The only sound in the reception room was the ticking of the clock on the wall.

The images on the tablet screen are being updated in real time.

In the upper right corner, the sniper adjusted the position of the stock, and the infrared spot moved from the left side of the curtain to the right side.

In the lower right corner, Qi Tongwei walked away from the command vehicle, took two steps towards the east side of the villa, and was making some arrangements over the walkie-talkie.

Li Dakang stared at the screen, his mouth half-open, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down several times, but he couldn't utter a single word.

The questions, anger, and the air of a provincial party committee member that I had prepared when I entered the room—

It's all gone.

It felt like being doused with a bucket of ice water from head to toe, chilling you to the bone.

twenty minutes.

Those twenty minutes at the door.

It's not an insult.

It's the last window.

If you had turned around and left, and returned to the municipal party committee, the headline you would have seen on your phone the next morning would have been: "The wife of Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee member Li Dakang has been detained on suspicion of major bribery."

By then, we won't need to worry about things like Bright Peak, GDP, or investors anymore.

Because those who worry about it are finished.