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

Li Dakang looked at the paper and suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"You old fox, you've even figured out how to name people."

Gao Yuliang did not respond to that sentence.

The voice of Team Leader Ma came from next door again, this time much lower, with a sob in it.

"My wife doesn't know anything about this, so please don't let them look for her..."

Lu Yike stood up.

"I'll go and re-sign the protection application with him."

Qi Tongwei moved slightly.

Gao Yuliang called out to him.

"Tongwei, you stay."

Qi Tongwei stopped in his tracks.

Gao Yuliang looked at him, his tone more somber than before.

"From now on, Team Leader Ma's survival is more important than capturing ten people."

Qi Tongwei's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

"clear."

……

In the provincial party secretary's office, Sha Ruijin stood by the window. The streetlights outside cast long shadows on the glass.

Chu Pingshan sat on the sofa, his suit jacket still buttoned up perfectly. The setback at the joint meeting earlier hadn't left many marks on his face, only making him speak a little slower than usual.

"Team Leader Ma cannot remain in the Political and Legal Affairs Commission."

Sha Ruijin turned to look at him.

"What do you want to do?"

"The provincial government's discipline inspection team will take them away for questioning first."

Chu Pingshan placed a draft letter on the coffee table.

"He was the head of the outsourced audit team of the Provincial Government's Re-survey Office, and the issues involved fall primarily within the scope of internal review by the Provincial Government. The Political and Legal Affairs Commission's reason for detaining him is untenable."

Sha Ruijin did not take the draft.

He stared at Chu Pingshan for a few seconds.

"What's your hurry?"

Chu Pingshan did not look away.

"I'm not in a hurry."

He reached out and pushed the draft forward half an inch.

"I will not allow an outsourced team leader to hijack the provincial government's decision-making."

Sha Ruijin tapped his finger on the windowsill, but did not immediately express his opinion.

The office was so quiet you could hear the central air conditioning blowing out.

……

Inside the small meeting room of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Lu Yike had just returned after signing the protection application when Qi Tongwei's phone suddenly vibrated.

He glanced down and saw it was a call from the field staff.

"explain."

The voice on the other end of the phone was low, but it couldn't hide its urgency.

"Director Qi, two unlicensed minivans have appeared downstairs at Team Leader Ma's wife's apartment building."

Qi Tongwei's fingers, gripping the phone, suddenly tightened, his knuckles turning white.

The field worker paused for a second, as if hiding from someone.

"The people in the car are checking the community's surveillance footage."

Qi Tongwei did not drive a police car.

Two ordinary civilian vehicles exited through the back gate of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, blending into the evening rush hour traffic one after the other. The vehicles had no markings whatsoever, and even the headlights were deliberately kept low.

Lu Yike sat in the passenger seat, with her ID holder and a small recording device on her lap. She looked at the prosecutor's witness notice again, making sure the stamped page had no creases, before looking up ahead.

"If you had driven a police car, they might have already left."

Qi Tongwei gripped the steering wheel, his eyes never leaving the taillights of the car in front.

"They left; there are only two unlicensed cars left tonight."

Lu Yike turned on the recording equipment, and the red dot lit up.

"If they don't leave, they might forcibly control the family members. You'll need me on-site then."

Qi Tongwei glanced at her.

"If you're scared, stay in the car."

Lu Yike closed the document clipboard.

"Director Qi, you've said that too late. I'm already on my way."

Qi Tongwei's lips twitched, but he didn't laugh.

As the car turned into the old town, one of the streetlights at the entrance of the residential area was broken, casting a dim yellow light onto the glass of the guardhouse. A police officer on patrol, dressed in a deliveryman's jacket, squatted by the flowerbed at the entrance, pretending to tie his shoelaces. Seeing the car approach, he raised his hand and touched his ear.

"The person is inside."

After getting out of the car, Qi Tongwei did not enter the building entrance, but went around to the property management monitoring room first.

The monitoring room reeked of smoke. The security guard on duty was being held down in a chair by a field officer; his face was pale. On the table were a half-open pack of cigarettes and a makeshift fire inspection form.

On the screen, two men in property management uniforms are talking at the elevator entrance of Building 3. One of them is wearing a baseball cap and holding a registration book, while the other is carrying a tool bag with his sleeves pulled down low.

The field worker pointed at the screen.

"They impersonated property management and fire safety inspectors and have already asked for Team Leader Ma's wife's floor and apartment number. They also want to access the access control records."

Qi Tongwei stared at the screen for two seconds.

"Which floor does the elevator control operate on?"

"Currently, one is on the first floor, and the other is in the underground parking garage."

"It was all cut off."

The security guard suddenly looked up.

"What if residents complain..."

Qi Tongwei placed the police officer's ID card in front of him, his fingers pressing against the edge of the card.

"What you should be worried about now is not complaints."

The security guard swallowed hard and immediately turned around to operate the equipment.

In the surveillance footage, the elevator buttons lit up and then went out. The two fake property management staff waited for about ten seconds, glanced at each other, and then started walking towards the fire escape.

Qi Tongwei picked up the walkie-talkie.

"Group Two, guard the underground parking garage. Group Three, don't touch the entrance. Let them go upstairs."

Lu Yike looked at him.

"Are you trying to stall for time?"

"Let's see what they want from the family members first."

The moment he finished speaking, the field worker's phone vibrated. He took off one earphone, and his expression immediately changed.

"Team Leader Ma's wife received an anonymous phone call."

Qi Tongwei reached out his hand.

The field staff handed over the synchronous monitoring data.

On the phone, a distorted male voice was speaking in a low voice.

"Your son is in Class 4, Grade 3 at Jingzhou Experimental No. 2 Primary School. His homeroom teacher's surname is Liu, and school ends at 4:30 PM, right?"

From the other end came the sound of a woman's rapid breathing.

Who are you?

"Don't ask who we are. Your man has been detained by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and they're trying to force him to falsely accuse people. Go downstairs now and cry in front of the provincial government building; reporters are already on their way."

The woman's voice trembled.

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

"You know."

The man's voice suddenly turned cold.

"You just need to say one sentence: Team Leader Ma was coerced by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Someone will teach you the rest of the script."

Lu Yike reached out and took the listening phone.

She didn't raise her voice, but simply pronounced each word clearly.

"I am a staff member of the Handong Provincial Procuratorate. Your current call has been recorded."

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

For those three seconds, no one in the monitoring room moved.

The call was then disconnected.

Qi Tongwei put the listening phone back on the table.

"They're getting anxious."

On the screen, the two fake property management personnel had arrived at the floor where Team Leader Ma's wife lived. The man in front knocked on the door twice and then began to speak in the tone of a fire inspection.

"Property management, conduct a routine inspection of gas and fire safety equipment."

There was no response from inside.

The person carrying the tool bag squatted down, took out a thin tool from the bag, and inserted it into the door lock.

Lu Yike hung her ID card around her neck.

"You can move now."

Qi Tongwei had already pushed the door open and left.

The motion-activated lights in the fire escape illuminated one by one. Qi Tongwei didn't wait for the elevator; he rushed up the stairs, his steps extremely steady. Lu Yike followed behind, clutching a recording device with the lens facing forward.

On the seventh-and-a-half-floor platform, Qi Tongwei heard the faint sound of the door lock being fiddled with.

He slowed his pace and climbed up the wall, keeping close to the corner.

Click.

The door lock was half open.

Just as the fake property manager was about to push open the door, Qi Tongwei rushed out from behind the fire door, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and pressed his face against the wall.

The wall plaster made a dull thud when it was hit.

"police."