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

"Zhao Ruilong, what do you mean?"

Gao Yuliang spoke in a low, calm voice, trying to intimidate the other party with his presence. He was still maintaining the air of a deputy provincial party secretary.

A sharp, shrill laugh erupted from the other end of the video.

"What do I mean?" Zhao Ruilong leaned forward, his large face almost touching the camera, the screen filled with magnified pores and oily sweat. "My meaning is simple! Ding Yizhen, that good-for-nothing, has fallen! I'm next!"

Zhao Ruilong was spitting as he spoke, completely disregarding the fact that the person opposite him was a vice-ministerial level official.

"Shen Zhong, that living devil, has gone mad! Just how many troops has he mobilized? Now the military region is involved in every normal route out of Handong! I can't leave Handong!"

A wave splashed against the speedboat's glass. Zhao Ruilong wiped the water from his face and continued roaring at the screen. He was in a state of extreme excitement and fear.

"I don't want to wait to die! If those shady accounts are exposed, I'll at least get a suspended death sentence! But Secretary Gao, if I don't survive, then we're all doomed! Nobody will get away with this peacefully on the shore!"

Gao Yuliang stared at the screen, wondering what this kid was up to. He figured he just wanted a pass to the public security system.

Zhao Ruilong didn't give Gao Yuliang any more time to think. He raised another phone from outside the camera lens with his left hand and shoved the screen directly in front of the video call camera.

The scene changes. This is a live surveillance video.

The environment in the surveillance footage was extremely dark, with piles of old tin cans and moldy cardboard boxes all around. It was clearly an abandoned dock warehouse.

Two people were tied to the load-bearing pillar in the very center of the warehouse.

Gao Yuliang flicked his wrist.

They were one big and one small. Gao Xiaofeng was wearing a thin silk nightgown, with large areas of her fair and delicate skin exposed to the cold air.

The rough hemp rope was wrapped around her body more than a dozen times, digging deep into her flesh and outlining her plump figure in a particularly eye-catching way.

Her fair wrists were marked with glaring red welts from the binding. A thick layer of tape covered her mouth.

She was tightly protecting a little boy, a few years old, in her arms. The little boy was also bound with rope and was sobbing incessantly.

The camera pans to the lower right. A burly man in a black vest stands nearby, holding a dark, small submachine gun. The barrel is pointed directly at Gao Xiaofeng's head.

Gao Xiaofeng stared at the camera. Large tears streamed down her face. She shook her head desperately, her hair falling in disarray across her pale chest and shoulders. The despair and fear that emanated from her very bones seemed to pierce through the screen and strike her directly.

Gao Yuliang froze in the large leather swivel chair. A cold sweat broke out on his back, pressing his dark gray executive jacket against his back.

His pride in his composure and strategic brilliance were shattered upon seeing the broken submachine gun and the bound Gao Xiaofeng and her son. This was his deepest, most carefully protected vulnerability.

This kid's playing dirty tricks!

"Zhao Ruilong! How dare you!"

Gao Yuliang was no longer composed. He braced his hands on the table, leaning half his body against his phone, and spat out words through clenched teeth.

Zhao Ruilong put the other phone away and turned his face back. His face was filled with a ruthless, all-or-nothing expression.

"What wouldn't I dare to do!" Zhao Ruilong laughed wildly on the speedboat. "Secretary Gao! Don't forget how Gao Xiaofeng got into your bed! She's a gift I personally trained and gave to you! She knows everything about the properties you've acquired in Hong Kong, and the operations of those trust funds!"

Zhao Ruilong held his phone, swaying it in the wind.

"Now, she's my lucky charm!"

"Zhao Ruilong, if you release him, there's still room for negotiation. But this is kidnapping! That's an even more serious offense!" Gao Yuliang forced a tone down, trying to pull this irrational spoiled brat back to the negotiating table.

"Stop giving me that bureaucratic nonsense!" Zhao Ruilong cursed directly. "I don't care about that now! If I'm not doing well, nobody else should either!"

Zhao Ruilong's facial muscles twitched as he began to issue a death order.

"Secretary Gao, listen carefully! I won't make things difficult for you. I need to leave Handong safely before midnight tonight! Tonight!"

"That's impossible!" Gao Yuliang interrupted sharply. "Shenyang Heavy Machinery Company has dispatched two fighter jets. Do you think the air defense radar is blind?"

"That's your problem!" Zhao Ruilong completely ignored any explanations. "Use your power as the Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission! You have the entire province's public security bureau under your control, help me tear open a loophole and let me out!"

Gao Yuliang's chest heaved violently. This guy is insane.

Seeing that Gao Yuliang didn't respond, Zhao Ruilong's eyes turned extremely resentful, and he fiercely leaned close to the screen to issue his final ultimatum.

"If you can't do that, or if you dare to secretly send the cops to find out my background and call the police," Zhao Ruilong gritted his teeth, "then I guarantee you, tomorrow morning, your beautiful little wife and your precious son will be stuffed into gasoline drums filled with cement."

The screen went completely black. The call was unilaterally cut off.

Gao Yuliang was the only one left in the study. The half-pruned Podocarpus macrophyllus stood quietly on the corner of the table.

Gao Yuliang felt a slight numbness in his legs. He slumped back into his chair, crossed his hands on his thighs, and rubbed his thumbs together uncontrollably.

My mind is a complete mess.

Twelve o'clock.

Gao Yuliang glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was already late at night. He didn't have much time left.

Currently, all checkpoints leading out of Jingzhou City have been shut down by Zhao Donglai's men and the military. Flights are prohibited, highways are blocked, and sea routes and customs are under heavy control.

Zhao Ruilong clearly has no way to escape.

But if they didn't help him, Gao Xiaofeng and her son definitely wouldn't survive the night. Zhao Ruilong, a spoiled brat who's used to being a local tyrant, keeps a group of ruthless thugs under his command. If pushed too far, he wouldn't even blink an eye before killing and robbing.

If Gao Xiaofeng dies in Hong Kong, then all the old stories—the land grants for the Luzhou Lakeside Food City, the transfer of funds to Hong Kong through underground banks—will be unearthed.

All the political assets Gao Yuliang had built up in the first half of his life, and the entire political and legal system of Han University, would have to be buried with him. Not only would he have to shed this skin, but he would also have to spend the rest of his life working on a sewing machine inside it.

This is a dead end.

Gao Yuliang stood up and paced back and forth in the study. His leather shoes made a dull thud on the floor.

Should we agree to Zhao Ruilong's request?

That is to use power to give the green light to a serious criminal. Once Shen Zhong's people find out, without going through the Standing Committee, the military will directly slam the audio evidence on the table, and Gao Yuliang will be taken away on the spot for isolation and investigation.

This is tantamount to strapping a bomb to yourself. It's like drinking poison to quench your thirst.

You won't agree?

Gao Yuliang walked to the bookshelf and looked at the family photo displayed in the center. Teacher Wu smiled dignifiedly. But that was all a facade for outsiders. What he truly cared about was his home far away in Hong Kong.