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

Outside Jingzhou South Railway Station, cold winds whipped plastic bags across the taxi lanes.

The legal representative of Haiheng pushed a cleaning cart out of the side door, changed out of her cleaning coat, revealing a gray wool sweater underneath. She held a black shockproof bag in her arms, like she was holding a powder keg that couldn't touch the ground.

Qi Tongwei stood twenty meters away, his hands already on his waist.

"Prepare for control."

Two plainclothes officers pushed past from both sides of the crowd.

Lu Yike's car was parked on the side of the road. She stared at her target through the windshield, while Gao Yuliang's call flashed on her phone screen.

Qi Tongwei answered the call, but before the other end could speak...

"Teacher, she's right in front of us, and the bag is in her hand. If I arrest her now, we can secure the evidence."

There was the sound of Gao Yuliang flipping through documents.

"Don't grab me."

Qi Tongwei stopped in his tracks.

Two plainclothes officers had already approached the target. Hearing the order in their earpieces, they could only pretend to look down at their phones and brush past the woman.

Qi Tongwei's face was grim.

"Once the hard drive leaves the station, Chu Pingshan can cut off the evidence. There are witnesses and physical evidence, so why release it?"

Gao Yuliang did not raise his voice.

"What we've caught now is an outsourced shell company. She insists she's in charge of the business data, so you can only detain her for a maximum of 48 hours. The coastal funds won't show themselves, and Chu Pingshan can even turn around and accuse you of illegally withholding company data."

Qi Tongwei watched as the woman got into a ride-hailing car, and the taillights came on.

"Teacher, I don't want to gamble this time."

There was a two-second silence on Gao Yuliang's end.

"Come see me at the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Tell Lu Yike to keep an eye on things, don't let him slip away."

Qi Tongwei gripped his phone tightly, his hand taut and stiff.

"What if I rush over and she tries to run away?"

"She can't escape. What she's carrying isn't a talisman, it's bait."

The phone hangs up.

Qi Tongwei stood at the edge of the crowd, the cold wind blowing the hem of his police uniform.

Lu Yike walked to his side and handed him a spare earphone.

"I'll take Group Two with me. You go see Secretary Gao."

Qi Tongwei glanced at her.

"Don't get too close. If she dares to change clothes, she can definitely change cars too."

Lu Yike put her earphones in.

"Director Qi, you're starting to sound more and more like Shen Zhong now, and your fierceness is reassuring."

Qi Tongwei frowned.

She had already turned and gotten into the car, leaving only one sentence behind.

"Don't worry, I'm not that easy to lose."

Qi Tongwei watched her car merge into the traffic before turning around and getting into another police car.

……

In the office of the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the lights illuminated the bookshelves that covered the walls.

Gao Yuliang stood by the window, neither holding a thermos nor flipping through any documents. On his desk lay a table calculating the age of cadres for appointment and removal, with his name written in the top column.

When Qi Tongwei entered the room, he saw the table and slowed his pace.

"teacher."

Gao Yuliang turned around, took off his glasses, and placed them on the table.

"In two months, I will be stepping down from my position."

Qi Tongwei remained silent.

Tree branches tapped against the glass outside the window, tap, tap, tap.

Gao Yuliang looked at him, his usual gentle smile gone.

"I'm not playing this game for an official position. Shen Zhong saved my son's life and pulled me out of the trap set by Sha Ruijin and the Zhong family. I've been selfish my whole life, and I have to pay back the debt someday."

Qi Tongwei's throat felt like it was blocked by something, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Gao Yuliang walked to the desk, picked up a fountain pen, and then put it down.

"I used to teach you to be patient, to wait, and to bow to power. Back then, I told myself that these were the rules of officialdom, and that it was for your own good."

He looked up at Qi Tongwei.

"I was wrong."

Qi Tongwei's eyes were red, but he stubbornly refused to lower his head.

The gunshots on the playground, the bloodshed at Lone Eagle Ridge, Liang Qunfeng's disdain, and the ropes from the Zhao family—scenes flashed through his mind one after another.

Finally, the gaze rests on Gao Yuliang's face, which no longer feigns refinement.

"Teacher, aren't you afraid I'll bring up old grievances now that you're saying these things?"

Gao Yuliang smiled, but it was a bitter smile.

"You can translate it, I'll sit and listen. Let's finish the last lesson today."

Qi Tongwei stood up straight.

Gao Yuliang picked up the map from the table and spread it out between the two of them.

"Power is not a shield, it's a knife handle. The one who holds the knife doesn't necessarily have to cut first. You have to make the other person put their neck under the knife."

He pointed to the route from Jingzhou South Station to the highway entrance.

"The hard drive we're seizing now has limited value. If we get it out of Jingzhou and it appears at a coastal fund rendezvous point, we can apply for assistance in the cross-regional transfer of illicit funds. As long as the neighboring province's public security bureau has an official record, if Chu Pingshan wants to sever ties again, he'll have to wipe the neighboring province clean too."

Qi Tongwei stared at the map.

"The risk is that the hard drive will be destroyed."

Gao Yuliang pushed the transcript of the audio recording over to him.

"So we need to make them think they're being safely moved. The more panicked people are, the less they'll want to destroy things. Chu Pingshan isn't some street thug; what he fears most isn't evidence, but evidence flowing to places he can't control."

Qi Tongwei remained silent for a long time.

The only sound in the office was the ticking of the wall clock.

Gao Yuliang put his glasses back on.

"Tongwei, I know you hate me."

Qi Tongwei looked up, his voice hoarse.

"I used to hate him. Now I don't have time."

Gao Yuliang looked at him and slowly nodded.

"It's good that you're busy. As long as you're alive, you have to finish the jobs you need to finish."

At that moment, Qi Tongwei's phone vibrated.

Lu Yike's voice came through the speaker, mixed with the sound of traffic.

"The target didn't get on the highway or head towards the coast. She transferred to a refrigerated truck at the Chengnan Logistics Park; I've sent you the license plate number. We've found her destination; it's not on the coast, but at the Qingling Bonded Warehouse in a neighboring province."

Qi Tongwei looked at Gao Yuliang.

Lu Yike continued, "Team Leader Ma also appeared. He didn't get in the car, but met up with a man wearing a baseball cap outside the logistics park, as if they were handing over a second item."

Gao Yuliang laughed after hearing this.

Qi Tongwei frowned.

"Teacher, they changed the route."

Gao Yuliang picked up a red pen and drew a circle around the Qingling Bonded Warehouse on the map.

"Chu Pingshan is scared. He doesn't dare send the stuff back to his lair, he only dares to hide it halfway. That means there's something on the hard drive that can hurt him."

Qi Tongwei picked up his police cap and turned to leave.

Gao Yuliang called out to him.

"Tongwei".

Qi Tongwei stopped at the door.

Gao Yuliang handed over a stamped cross-provincial investigation plan, the paper still warm from the printer.

"I've already signed it. Once the target enters the Qingling bonded warehouse, hand this document to the public security bureau of the neighboring province. Don't try to take credit, don't be aggressive; let them make the first entry in the records themselves."

Qi Tongwei took the document and gripped the corner of the paper tightly with his fingers.

"Teacher, this time, I won't let anyone escape from under my nose again."

Gao Yuliang looked at him, his gaze darkening.

"Tonight, you hand out this knife on behalf of the teacher."