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

The air in the meeting room of the military interrogation center was so dry that it made one's throat tight.

Hou Liangping sat on the specially made metal interrogation chair, his hands locked to the crossbeam. Due to long-term imprisonment and psychological torture, his once spirited face had become sunken, and his stubble was sticking out in a mess.

When Shen Zhong pushed open the heavy soundproof door and walked in, Hou Liangping instinctively shrank his shoulders. The arrogance that was ingrained in his bones shattered completely when he saw the two general stars on Shen Zhong's shoulders.

Shen Zhong pulled out a chair and sat opposite him, casually tossing a document onto the table with a dull thud.

"I heard you wanted to see me."

His deep voice was flat, yet it carried an undeniable weight.

Hou Liangping raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, staring intently at Shen Zhong, his voice hoarse.

"General Shen, I heard the announcements outside. The Zhong family is causing trouble, isn't that right?"

"They want to use international public opinion to pressure you, and they want to put your Handong Military Region in a very difficult position."

Shen Zhong didn't reply, but instead took out a lighter from his pocket and deftly flipped it between his fingers. The clanging sound of the metal casing against the light was particularly jarring in the quiet room.

Seeing that Shen Zhong didn't respond, Hou Liangping eagerly moved forward, the handcuffs clanging against the beam making a piercing noise.

"I know where Zhong Xiaoai's trump card lies!"

"She is a very suspicious person and never trusts any electronic devices, but she believes in the security that power brings."

"Three years ago, she used my identity to register a social media account called 'Beacon of Justice' overseas and affiliated it with an overseas foundation."

"That account contained all sorts of dirt collected by the Chung family over the decades, as well as a 'public opinion bomb' that they specially commissioned top editors to produce."

Shen Zhong stopped what he was doing, a cold glint flashing in his deep eyes.

What do you want?

Hou Liangping's breathing became rapid; he knew this was his only chance to survive.

"I don't ask for acquittal, I just ask to have my name removed from that death row list, even if it's life imprisonment, I'll accept it."

"General Shen, the Zhong family has already treated me as a pawn. Since they are so heartless, don't blame me for being ruthless in return."

Shen Zhong stood up and looked down at him.

"Speaking out is an act of atonement; if you don't, you'll be dragged down with Zhong Xiaoai once she's completely fallen."

"As for whether you can get a reduced sentence, it depends on whether what you hand over is worth the price."

Hou Liangping slumped back in his chair, knowing there was no room for negotiation with Shen Zhong.

"Account login requires two-factor authentication."

"The first part is a secret code that Zhong Xiaoai knows. It is the house number of the old house she lived in when she was a child, plus the anniversary of her mother's death."

"The second part requires a historical verification code from my internal email account at the Supreme People's Procuratorate. It was a cross-verification system she specifically set up so that if something happened to her, I wouldn't be able to escape responsibility either."

Shen Zhong whispered a few instructions into his headset.

"Take Zhong Xiaoai next door."

A few minutes later, Zhong Xiaoai was escorted into the interrogation room on the other side of the one-way glass by two female military police officers.

When she heard Hou Liangping recount the account details over the loudspeaker, she, who had been maintaining the demeanor of a well-bred young lady, completely lost control.

She pounded on the glass frantically, her sharp fingernails scraping against it with a teeth-grinding sound.

"Hou Liangping! You beast! You ungrateful, stray dog!"

"Without the Chung family, you'd still be some backwater village working as a lowly clerk!"

"How dare you betray me? Have you forgotten who promoted you to that position?"

As Hou Liangping listened to the curses coming from the loudspeaker, he suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly, tears streaming down his face and into his stubble.

"Promote? Zhong Xiaoai, that's called keeping her under house arrest!"

"You treat me like a dog in front of the Zhong family's door, giving me a bone when you're happy and kicking me away when you're not."

"When you threw the divorce papers in my face, did you ever consider that we were husband and wife?"

"When you asked me to die for the sake of the Chung family's reputation, did you ever consider that I also wanted to live?"

Zhong Xiaoai next door was so angry that she trembled all over. Her face turned from bluish-purple to deathly pale. She collapsed helplessly to the ground, still cursing under her breath.

Meanwhile, at the command center of the Handong Provincial Military Region.

Qi Tongwei was at the command post, while Lu Yike was typing rapidly on the keyboard beside him.

Upon receiving Shen Zhong's instructions, they immediately initiated the takeover of Hou Liangping's old email account.

Lu Yike looked at the emails that popped up on the screen. The words that once represented justice and authority now seemed extremely ironic in the face of this evidence of crimes.

"Found it. This is an email that was automatically blocked by the system three years ago. It contains a 16-digit garbled verification code."

Lu Yike turned her head to look at Qi Tongwei, her eyes filled with an indescribable weariness.

"Tongwei, do you think power can really turn people like this?"

"When Hou Liangping was in school, although he liked to show off, he was definitely not like this now."

Qi Tongwei reached out his right hand and gently patted Lu Yike's shoulder. His left arm was still wrapped in bandages, and his movements seemed a little stiff.

"That's fine. If justice doesn't have enough power to protect it, it will only end up being used by these people as a scabbard for their own selfish interests."

"They haven't changed; rather, the greed that was originally hidden in their hearts has been amplified."

"Send the verification code to the technical team. Chief Shen is waiting to close the net."

Lu Yike nodded and pressed the send button firmly with her finger.

After receiving the verification code, the technical team at the military review center quickly completed the login process.

As the progress bar finished loading, the backend management page called "Beacon of Justice" was fully revealed to everyone.

Shen Zhong stood in front of the large screen, looking at the mountain of files piled up in the back office, his eyes becoming increasingly sharp.

It contains hundreds or thousands of short video templates, each labeled with a different attack target.

Heavy-handed iron-fisted dictatorship: The private domain of the Handong Military Region

Li Dakang's GDP Lies: The Blood and Tears Behind His Political Achievements

"Gao Yuliang's Hypocritical Mask: The Power-for-Sex Deal of the Political and Legal Tsar"

Even the new energy project that He Xia promoted in Luzhou was edited into negative material about "collusion between officials and businessmen to embezzle state-owned assets".

The technical team leader wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and reported in a low voice.

"Sir, if these materials are really released on a large scale, in conjunction with the Chung family's overseas media channels, the consequences in terms of public opinion will be unimaginable."

His heavy fingers tapped lightly on the table, his gaze fixed on a code at the deepest part of the folder.

"Public Opinion Contingency Plan for the Northern Route Project".