After breaking up with my boyfriend, I made a fortune and rose rapidly in my career.

Jiang Fan froze on the spot, staring at the words, even his breath caught in his throat.

"Wang Cheng~Nanzhou~800."

Eight million.

Chen Ping closed the notebook, handed it to Zheng Xian, and began to speak.

"The entire item should be handed over, a list of evidence should be created, and each item should be documented with photographs."

Zheng Xian nodded and waved for the technician to take it.

Chen Ping stood up, patted the wrinkles on his trouser knees, and walked towards the corridor.

Fang Zhiyuan remained pinned to the corridor, the two official documents resting on the back of his hand, never to be turned again.

Chen Ping walked past him without stopping.

Fang Zhiyuan turned his head away, speaking in a low voice.

"Chen Pingfang, do you really think you can get away unscathed by submitting this list to your superiors?"

Chen Ping turned around and only glanced at him.

"Mayor Fang, your sister's signature is on page three, and yours is on page eleven."

The corridor fell completely silent.

---

Three days later, the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection officially sent a letter of assistance to the Nanzhou Municipal Party Committee.

That morning, Wang Cheng was holding a routine financial coordination meeting at the Municipal Party Committee Building No. 5.

The letter for assistance was handed in by a staff member of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection wearing a gray jacket when the meeting was in its thirtieth minute.

The notice to convene an emergency meeting of the Nanzhou Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee came half an hour earlier than the letter requesting assistance in the investigation.

---

The first conference room of the municipal party committee has an oval table and twelve chairs.

Chen Ping sat in the third chair by the window.

This was the first time he had sat at this table as a member of the Standing Committee.

The provincial party committee's appointment document had just gone through the formalities yesterday afternoon; the ink was still fresh.

Li Jianguo sat in the main seat, flipping through the folder on the table without looking up.

Wang Cheng sat in the second chair to his left, his hands flat on the table, motionless.

He appeared relatively stable, but one of the chair legs was constantly scraping the floor slightly under the table, almost inaudibly.

Chen Ping took note.

Li Jianguo closed the folder and opened it.

"There is only one agenda item for today's meeting."

He pushed the folder towards the center of the table.

"Regarding the Dingsheng Venture Capital Guidance Fund case, please have Standing Committee Member Chen explain the proposed solutions to related issues."

Chen Ping stood up, took a USB drive from his briefcase, and plugged it into the port next to the projector.

The screen lights up, and the first image is a breakdown of the shareholding structure.

Down through Dingsheng Venture Capital, there are Xinyuan Investment and Tianhong Chemical, three layers of accounts, each with screenshots of business registration documents attached.

"The 300 million yuan industrial guidance fund was withdrawn from the High-tech Zone's financial account last November."

Chen Ping used a laser pointer to select the second image.

"The disbursement process followed the approval channel signed by Sun Zhaohui, bypassing the joint signature process of the management committee director. After the money arrived at Dingsheng Venture Capital, it was transferred to Xinyuan Investment in three installments within fourteen days, under the corresponding name of project cooperation investment funds."

No one spoke at the table.

"Fang Huiying, the legal representative of Xinyuan Investment, is the younger sister of Fang Zhiyuan, the deputy secretary of Guangling City."

Chen Ping put the laser pointer on the table and moved on to the next one.

This is a scanned copy of that black hardcover notebook, enlarged to the full screen.

Page 7, line 3.

"Wang Cheng~Nanzhou~800."

The rubbing sound of Wang Cheng's chair legs stopped.

Someone at the table quietly withdrew their hand from the tabletop.

Li Jianguo didn't move.

Wang Cheng spoke, his voice very calm.

"Where did this notebook come from? Has its authenticity been verified? A one-sided record from Guangling cannot be used as evidence."

Chen Ping didn't reply to him, but bent down and pressed a button on his laptop.

A recording began playing from the conference room's speakers.

That was Sun Zhaohui's voice.

The voice was nasal, the breathing rhythm was unstable, and there were one or two pauses in the middle.

But every sentence is very clear.

"I handled the disbursement process, but the approval opinion wasn't my idea. The supervisor in charge talked to me at the time, saying that someone from above had put in a good word for me. He mentioned a name—Wang Cheng—saying that Secretary Wang was aware of the matter and that I could just follow the procedures without worry."

"That 800 million was received in two installments. The first was under the guise of consulting fees, and the second was through an invoice for construction costs. I have the transfer records from that time on my personal phone; the password is..."

The recording paused for two seconds, then Sun Zhaohui read out the password, and then spoke in a very low voice.

Chen Ping pressed pause.

There was not a sound in the conference room.

Wang Cheng placed both hands on the table, trying to cover the screenshot of the transfer, but then realized he couldn't, and slowly withdrew his hands.

He spoke, a beat slower than before.

"Sun Zhaohui is a party involved in the case, and his statements are motivated by self-preservation. Therefore, the evidentiary value of this recording is questionable."

Li Jianguo raised his head.

With just this one movement, Wang Cheng stopped speaking.

Li Jianguo flipped to the last page of the folder on the table, stared at it for five seconds, closed it, and pushed it to the middle of the table.

"I have already reviewed the evidence."

He glanced around the edge of the table.

"The letter of assistance from the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection arrived this morning. The Standing Committee's responsibility is to cooperate with the investigation, not to conduct evidence verification here."

Their gaze finally landed on Wang Cheng, lingering for a full three seconds.

"Comrade Wang Cheng, is there anything you want to explain to the organization?"

Wang Cheng fell silent.

The meeting room door opened from the outside.

Two people walked in; one was wearing a dark blue jacket with a work ID from the First Investigation and Review Office of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection pinned to his chest, while the other held a document in his hand.

The person who came was of a higher rank than Director Zheng, whom Zhao Deshan had sent.

The man in the jacket walked behind Wang Cheng's chair, bent down, and placed the document in front of him.

"Comrade Wang Cheng, the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection has decided to initiate an investigation against you. Please cooperate with the investigation."

Wang Cheng lowered his head, opened the document, and looked at it for more than ten seconds.

Then he stood up.

He didn't shout or push a chair; his steps were steady. But when he reached the door, he paused for almost two seconds, then turned back and glanced at the entire long table.

His gaze finally landed on Chen Pingfang. He paused for two seconds, said nothing, turned around, and followed the people from the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection out.

The meeting room door closed.

None of the ten people remaining at the table spoke first.

Li Jianguo picked up the teacup, took a sip, and put it back with a very soft sound.

"Let's continue the meeting."

---

When the meeting ended, the sunlight in the corridor had already shifted to the west, cutting across the room and casting long shadows.

Chen Ping fastened the clasp on his briefcase and walked alone toward the stairs.

Jiang Fan waited at the entrance of the building, and followed without saying a word.

The two exited the main entrance of the municipal party committee building and stopped on the steps.

Three kilometers to the right, the tower cranes at the Xinhuo Phase II construction site are still turning, their mechanical arms slowly gliding across the horizon, the outline of the steel frame pressed solidly in the evening light.

The construction site lights came on before the streetlights, row upon row, extending upwards from the foundation.

Chen Ping stood on the steps, his hands in his coat pockets, his fingertips touching the barrel of the black fountain pen.

The phone lit up.

From: Lin Yuanzhou.

The message was brief, with no title, just the main text.

"Laying them flat, the first batch of silicon carbide samples achieved a 100% yield rate. We did it."

Chen Ping stared at the screen for nearly ten seconds.

100% yield rate.

They had written this number as a target during the feasibility study phase, but Lin Yuanzhou crossed it out himself, adding a note next to it: "Too idealistic, not included in the baseline expectation."

The number is now on the phone screen, exactly as it appears.

He locked his phone and put it in his pocket.

In the direction of the construction site, the tower crane had circled once and stopped at its highest point, its steel arm stationary. A single incandescent light shone from the top of the crane, illuminating the sky above.

Jiang Fan stood to the side and spoke.

"Director, what's next...?"

Chen Ping stepped down the steps, his foot landing firmly on the stone pavement.

"Let's go back."