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

Office Building No. 1 in the Provincial Party Committee Compound.

The emergency Standing Committee meeting regarding the arrest of Ding Yizhen hastily adjourned. Only cigarette butts and cold, leftover tea remained in the meeting room.

Zhao Lichun locked himself in his secretary's office.

On the large mahogany desk, the tablet's screen shone brightly. The footage showed Ding Yizhen being dragged from the cabin of a Boeing 777 by two fully armed special forces soldiers, looking like a rag doll. The urine stains on his dark trousers were clearly visible in the close-up of the high-definition broadcast camera.

Zhao Lichun exhausted all his efforts and used the three hours he gained by delaying the meeting of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, but not only did he fail to protect this money laundering front, he also became a unique joke watched by netizens around the world.

Shen Zhong, that madman who acts without any scruples, actually overcame all local procedural obstacles and mobilized two heavy fighter jets loaded with live ammunition to fly into the sky and capture people!

Once Ding Yizhen is imprisoned in the provincial military district's underground detention center, not only the provincial procuratorate and anti-corruption bureau, but even the Emperor himself wouldn't be able to get a word in. That bastard is spineless; once he's on the interrogation chair, he'll spill all the billions of dollars in bad debts at Dafeng Factory and the Shanshui Group's overseas money laundering history, and the entire Zhao family of Handong will collapse on the spot.

We can't just wait to die.

Zhao Lichun slumped into the sofa, his face ashen and bloodless.

Su Zhenhai.

His only lifeline now is this high-ranking former superior. Although he had been warned to cut ties immediately during the previous phone call, this was a matter of life and death. He was willing to hand over all his overseas accounts if it meant saving his life.

With trembling hands, Zhao Lichun pressed the red landline on the table and dialed Su Zhenhai's private number.

beep - beep - beep -

The call was connected.

There was none of the usual warm greetings from Su Zhenhai's personal secretary. Instead, a cold, emotionless young male voice came through the receiver.

Who is it?

Zhao Lichun's Adam's apple bobbed, his hands, covered in cold sweat, gripped the microphone tightly, and he lowered his voice: "I am Zhao Lichun from Handong. I am looking for my old commander, Su Zhenhai."

The other end only paused for half a second.

The young male voice rang out again, carrying a suffocatingly cold and ruthless tone: "Su Zhenhai is currently under quarantine and investigation by the military's Internal Security Bureau and has been restricted from all external communications. I have recorded your identity and demands and simultaneously reported them to the Central Military Commission's Confidentiality Task Force. *beep*"

The busy signal was like a rusty, blunt knife, relentlessly sawing at Zhao Lichun's eardrums.

Su Zhenhai was taken down by the military.

Not only did they ignore him, but Su Zhenhai himself also got caught up in the military's dead end. That was a powerful figure in Beijing with immense influence; just how terrifying was the power behind Shen Zhong!

Zhao Lichun let out a hissing sound, like a bellows leaking air, and slowly put the receiver back on the landline.

The moment his fingers left the plastic casing, he grabbed the most valuable blue-and-white porcelain thermos on the table and smashed it hard against the marble wall opposite.

boom!

Porcelain shards flew everywhere, and warm tea mixed with tea leaves shattered all over the ground.

In the corridor outside the door.

Secretary Bai was holding a newly printed notification document. Hearing the loud crash, his shoulders jerked. Without hesitation, he immediately put his hand, which was about to knock, into his trouser pocket, lowered his head, and tiptoed back to the emergency exit at the corner of the corridor, pretending to be deaf.

At the same time, at the Shanshui Manor in the outskirts of Jingzhou City.

In the luxurious living room on the second floor of the main villa, Zhao Ruilong stood in the center of a Persian carpet, clutching a remote control. On the 100-inch LCD TV, Ding Yizhen's disheveled face was playing on a loop.

The veins on his forehead bulged and throbbed.

Once Ding Yizhen is arrested, the Shanshui Group will be completely exposed, and his shady businesses will be exposed.

"Gao Yuliang!" Zhao Ruilong stopped in his tracks, uttering the three words through gritted teeth, his face contorted with rage.

This seemingly respectable Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission! This old fox, abusing his power within the political and legal system, extorted and took bribes, reaping just as much as anyone else. Now that the winds have turned against him, the old fox has immediately dropped all his cover, even pushing his most prized protégé, Qi Tongwei, into the fire, clearly trying to distance himself and protect himself.

You think you can get away by stepping on me?

We're all in the same cesspool, if we're going to die, we'll all die together!

Zhao Ruilong's inherent ruthlessness was finally unleashed in this desperate situation. Since there was no way out, he decided to overturn the table!

He pulled a black satellite backup phone from deep inside his pocket—a phone he had never registered with and never used under normal circumstances—and dialed an international long-distance number to Hong Kong. Little did he know that just 0.5 seconds after the signal was sent, that encrypted frequency band was completely locked and intercepted by the high-privilege electronic warfare control room of the Handong Provincial Military Region's intelligence department.

"Brother Long." A rough, deep voice came from behind, accompanied by the sound of crashing waves.

"Move it now!" Zhao Ruilong roared into the microphone, his eyes bloodshot. "Go to that villa in Repulse Bay! Tie up Gao Xiaofeng and that little bastard!"

There was a pause on the other end, clearly hesitant about the order: "Brother Long, those are the people Secretary Gao left here..."

"I told you to go and arrest him!" Zhao Ruilong completely lost his temper, spitting as he spoke. "Take control of him and move him to the warehouse at the abandoned dock! Bring shotguns, and wait for my order!"

"clear!"

The call was cut off. Zhao Ruilong's chest heaved violently, and a cold, extremely venomous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Gao Yuliang, this is your precious darling. If you don't protect me and get through this, your precious little wife and son will be stuffed into gasoline drums and sunk into Victoria Harbour tonight!

Half an hour later. The family compound of the Provincial Party Committee in Handong.

A warm yellow desk lamp was lit in Gao Yuliang's study. He sat behind a large mahogany desk, his face calm, holding a pair of pure copper scissors, slowly and meticulously pruning an exquisitely shaped Podocarpus macrophyllus.

The screen of a personal cell phone placed on the corner of the table lit up.

Video call request, caller ID: Zhao Ruilong.

Gao Yuliang didn't even lift an eyelid. What else could a call at this time mean but to ask him to use his connections in the political and legal system to bail someone out? This was a hot potato; touching it would mean certain death.

He picked up his phone with his left hand and deftly pressed the reject button.

The study fell into complete silence, broken only by the snip-snip of scissors.

Less than half a minute later, the phone vibrated briefly.

An anonymous MMS message.

Gao Yuliang frowned slightly and clicked on the envelope icon.

The moment he saw the screen clearly, the pure copper pruning shears he was using to trim branches fell to the expensive floor with a "clatter".

It was a high-definition night vision photo. The location was a second-floor bedroom of a sea-view villa in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Gao Xiaofeng was holding her sleeping son, and in the lower right corner of the lens, half of a loaded miniature submachine gun barrel was clearly visible.

Below the image is a short caption: "Old Gao, answer the video call, or I'll be collecting your body in five minutes."

With a deafening crash, the last thread in Gao Yuliang's mind snapped. A fine layer of cold sweat instantly covered his forehead, shattering his usual composed demeanor in the face of imminent disaster.

He frantically swiped the screen, his fingers trembling so badly they slipped twice before he finally tapped Zhao Ruilong's video call button in the call log.

The connection was established instantly.

On the screen, Zhao Ruilong's extremely distorted face, with a maniacal smile, completely filled the field of vision.

"Secretary Gao," Zhao Ruilong's voice was chillingly cold, "I knew you were a sentimental person and wouldn't stand by and watch someone die."