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

The sound of pages turning came from the other end of the phone.

Sha Ruijin did not press him further.

Chu Pingshan took over the conversation.

"Secretary Gao's concerns are understandable. However, the provincial government's decisions cannot be dictated by an outsourced individual. The joint review team must contact him as soon as possible."

"Can."

Gao Yuliang closed the third document.

"At 2 PM today, in the Political and Legal Affairs Commission's interrogation room. The joint investigation team, please bring official documents, a list of personnel, and an interrogation outline."

Chu Pingshan's voice deepened.

"You're setting a threshold for the joint review team."

"I'm setting a threshold for evidence."

Gao Yuliang looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Whoever tries to steal the witness should put their hand into the video first."

When the conference call ended, no one in the office spoke immediately.

Qi Tongwei looked at Gao Yuliang.

"Teacher, are you really going to let them see us?"

"let."

Gao Yuliang turned off the hands-free mode.

"If we don't let them see us, they'll say we're guilty. If we do let them see us, they'll leave a record of every question they ask."

Lu Yike tore off the meeting minutes and tucked them into the file.

"I'll go prepare the interrogation room."

"You oversee it yourself."

Gao Yuliang looked at Qi Tongwei.

"Go to Team Leader Ma's place."

……

In the small auditorium of the Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee, the banner for the enterprise risk symposium was hung neatly.

There was no police summons, no police cordon. Seventeen entrepreneurs sat on either side of the conference table, with bottled water and bags of materials in front of them. Li Dakang sat in the head seat, his face grim from the start of the meeting.

Mr. Tan placed an investment agreement on the table and tapped the price clause with his finger.

"Secretary Li, 30% off."

Li Dakang glanced down at it.

The agreement was beautifully written, with terms like strategic investment, industrial upgrading, and capital empowerment—every word seemed legitimate.

But the numbers in the price column are like a dull knife, cutting into the bones of Jingzhou's old industrial base.

The owner of a supply chain company next door gave a wry smile.

"They said if we don't sign, the rating report will be sent to the bank. If the credit line is withdrawn, our cash reserves won't last more than two months."

Li Dakang flipped to the last page of the agreement and saw the coastal fund's signature; the veins on the back of his hand bulged slightly.

"Who else?"

Of the seventeen people, eleven hands were raised in succession.

The secretary stood to the side, her face pale.

Li Dakang slammed the document onto the table.

"Leave them all."

The secretary whispered a reminder.

"Secretary Li, Secretary Gao just said on the phone that he will only accept materials and will not make any public statements."

Li Dakang glanced at his secretary.

"I'm not so confused as to fire a shot now."

He said that, but his fingertips were tapping the table loudly.

Midway through the meeting, Gao Yuliang called.

Li Dakang took his phone and walked to the side door, suppressing his anger.

"Seventeen companies, eleven of them were forced to sign agreements. A 30% discount, a 30% discount! Gao Yuliang, how long do you expect me to tolerate this?"

On the other end of the phone, Gao Yuliang only replied with four words.

"Wait for the provincial committee."

Li Dakang closed his eyes, and his chest rose and fell noticeably.

"Let me tell you, these companies in Jingzhou aren't just numbers on paper."

"So now you can't let them become the emotional samples that Chu Pingshan talks about."

Gao Yuliang's voice was very flat.

"Keep the materials safe and don't make a sound. Keep the fire going, but don't burn it at the door."

Li Dakang gritted his teeth.

"You better burn it in the right place."

He hung up the phone, returned to his seat, picked up the first agreement, and wrote two words on the cover.

Retention.

……

Inside the Political and Legal Affairs Commission's internal security room, Team Leader Ma sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes bloodshot.

Qi Tongwei placed three documents in front of him.

"Family protection application, hospital green channel, witness safety level."

Team Leader Ma didn't look at the documents; he just stared at Qi Tongwei.

"Where's my wife? Where's my son?"

"Safety."

"I want to see them."

"Not now."

Team Leader Ma suddenly stood up, causing his chair to slide backward.

"Then why should I trust you? You promise to protect me today, and tomorrow you'll hand me over, and I won't even know how I died!"

Qi Tongwei neither pressed him nor yelled at him. He simply placed a copy of the child's photo on top of the document.

The moment Team Leader Ma saw the photo, all the color drained from his face.

"This, this is what they found on them?"

"last night."

Qi Tongwei pulled the photo back and put it back into the bag.

"You now have two choices. Continue to act as the outsourced audit team leader and wait for them to provide an explanation for you. Or, tell us what you know so that we have grounds to raise the protection level."

Team Leader Ma's throat seemed to be choked, and he remained silent for a long time.

Lu Yike pushed open the door and came in, placing the notice that the joint investigation team would be arriving that afternoon on the table.

"If you don't speak now, they'll write a statement for you tomorrow."

Team Leader Ma slowly sat back down, his hands trembling violently.

"After I've said all that, is there any value left in my words?"

Qi Tongwei looked at him.

"Is it small change or the hilt of a knife that you're talking about?"

These words were like the snapping of the last string.

Team Leader Ma covered his face, his shoulders trembled a few times, and his voice squeezed out from between his fingers.

"Haiheng Handong Group is just the front stage."

Lu Yike sat down and turned on the recording device.

Team Leader Ma raised his head, his eyes frighteningly red.

"We didn't create the original rating model. Handong was only responsible for the number of sets and parameter adjustments. The model came from Haizhou."

Qi Tongwei asked the question very slowly.

"Who gave it to you?"

"A man surnamed Qin."

Lu Yike's pen stopped.

Full name.

I've never seen her real name.

Team Leader Ma shook his head, his voice growing softer and softer.

"They all call him Director Qin. He's the chief coordinator for the supporting consultations for the third phase of Haizhou Port. All the logic behind the price reductions, asset stratification, and standards for the divestiture of inefficient assets originated from his team."

Qi Tongwei stared at him.

Have you seen him?

No. I've only received templates via encrypted email.

Team Leader Ma licked his chapped lips.

"But there's a second layer in the Haizhou backup. That might contain the correspondence between the final payment and the model source files."

Lu Yike immediately stood up and picked up the evidence box.

"I'll go decrypt it."

Half an hour later, in the adjacent technical room.

Lu Yike plugged the USB drive into the isolation device. The second-level directory on the screen slowly expanded, the Haizhou Port Phase III final payment folder flashed, and then a red warning popped up.

The countdown starts.

Fifteen minutes remaining.

The air in the technical room suddenly tensed up.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, a red countdown timer ticked down second by second. Fifteen minutes seemed like a long time, but standing next to the evidence box, it felt like a lit fuse.

As soon as the technician reached for the mouse, Lu Yike immediately grabbed his wrist.

"Don't touch the original disc."

The technician was stunned.

Lu Yike unplugged the external cables from the isolated computer one by one, leaving only the read-only interface.

"Disconnect from the external network. Create a mirror site."

Qi Tongwei stood behind her, his eyes fixed on the countdown.

"Won't it be too late?"

"Even if there's no time, you can't just read it directly."

Lu Yike opened the evidence record form and signed it herself first.

"Once the original disc is written, Chu Pingshan's people can nail the words 'evidence contamination' to our faces."

The technician, sweating profusely, immediately switched to the isolation mirror device.

The progress bar is moving very slowly.

Fourteen minutes and twenty-one seconds.

Fourteen minutes and twenty seconds.

Qi Tongwei picked up the phone.

"Technical investigation, check all the abnormal requests made by this isolation machine just now."

The sound of keyboard clicks suddenly intensified on the other end of the phone.

Lu Yike stared at the screen, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"The countdown is not locally destroyed."

The technicians also noticed something amiss.

"It's trying to send a signal."

Qi Tongwei looked at him.

"To whom should it be sent?"