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

Qi Tongwei stopped and looked ahead.

Smoke pressed down from above, and Team Leader Ma was breathing heavily beside him.

"Identification documents".

The other party handed over a plastic-sealed card, which they waved very quickly.

Qi Tongwei didn't take it, but only glanced at the two people's feet.

Black combat boots, with fresh mud on the soles.

Firefighters won't wear these shoes into the building.

"Get out of the way."

The other person took a step forward.

"The situation is urgent; obey all instructions."

Qi Tongwei raised his leg and kicked the person in front of him in the chest without warning.

The man, flashlight and all, tumbled down half a floor and crashed into a corner. Then, another person pulled a hand from their firefighter suit; the black muzzle of a gun flashed briefly in the smoke.

puff.

The gunshot was muffled by the silencer.

Qi Tongwei pushed Team Leader Ma to the side, bullets grazing the wall and kicking up dust. The field agents following behind rushed forward, but as soon as they raised their guns, a bloody gash appeared on their shoulders, and they crashed into the handrail.

Lu Yike heard a muffled thud on the east staircase and paused.

She turned around and only saw a figure flash through the smoke.

The field worker growled.

"Director Lu, let's go!"

Lu Yike gritted her teeth, grabbed the evidence box, rushed through the fire door, placed the box at her feet, turned on her phone to record, and aimed it at the west passage.

The camera shakiened, the alarm blared, and smoke kept seeping in through the cracks in the door.

Qi Tongwei grabbed the gunman's wrist with his left hand and pressed his right elbow against the man's Adam's apple. The gun was pressed against the wall, and with another muffled thud, the bullet shattered the fire sign.

Glass shards were scattered all over the ground.

Team Leader Ma lay on the steps, his voice trembling with sobs.

"They really dared to kill me! They really dared to kill me!"

"climb."

Qi Tongwei kicked the gunman's knee away, slammed him against the wall, and took the pistol.

"Climb down!"

The field officer, clutching his shoulder, gritted his teeth and handcuffed the first person in the firefighter's uniform. Qi Tongwei dragged Team Leader Ma towards the underground parking garage; an old wound on his left arm reopened during the struggle, and a dark stain quickly seeped through the cuff of his police uniform.

The lights in the underground parking garage were half on and half off.

Just as they rushed out of the stairwell, a white van suddenly started and headed straight at them. Qi Tongwei shoved Team Leader Ma behind a pillar and fired his gun, hitting the front wheel.

The sound of a tire bursting echoed through the garage.

The car veered and crashed into a fire hydrant next to the wall. The water pipe burst, and a jet of water gushed out, mixing with smoke and dust and wetting the ground.

Two men in repair uniforms rushed out from behind the car.

One of them was holding a dagger, and the other was holding a gun.

Qi Tongwei didn't back down. Using the water jets as cover, he slid close to the gunman, his shoulder slamming into his chest. The two of them fell together into the fire hydrant, the metal valve hitting the back of the other's head with a dull thud.

The dagger slashed from the side, and Qi Tongwei raised his arm to block, tearing open his old wound completely, with blood dripping down his wrist.

He seemed oblivious to the pain, grabbed the other man's wrist with his backhand, thrust his knee into his abdomen, snatched the knife, and slammed the hilt hard next to the man's temple.

Team Leader Ma, who was hiding behind a pillar, suddenly groaned, clutched his stomach, and sat down.

Qi Tongwei turned around and saw blood seeping from between his fingers.

"This is a scratch."

The field staff rushed over to check.

"A stray bullet grazed me; I need to be taken to the hospital."

Qi Tongwei glanced at the garage exit, then at the still-ringing alarm.

"Go to the cooperative ward outside the military region's general hospital."

Lu Yike rushed over from the east exit carrying a box of evidence, her phone recording still on.

She noticed the blood on Qi Tongwei's left arm and paused noticeably.

"Your wound has reopened; you need to stop the bleeding."

"He's not going to die yet."

Qi Tongwei put the seized gun into the evidence bag and handed it to the field officer.

"The entire process was recorded and sealed. Guns, knives, fire suits, and license plates were kept separate."

Lu Yike nodded, turned the phone screen to Team Leader Ma's abdominal wound, and then to the suspect on the ground.

"Team Leader Ma, please clearly state now whether you voluntarily accept police protection?"

Team Leader Ma was in so much pain that his face turned pale and his lips trembled, but he nodded desperately.

"I volunteer! I volunteer! Don't let them take me away!"

……

In the hospital corridor, the smell of disinfectant mingled with the dampness of the rainy night.

The cooperative ward is located in the outer building of the military general hospital, outside the core area, without touching any military resources left by Shen Zhong, and only using the existing emergency medical channel. The procedures were signed by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission and the hospital many years ago, and there is not a single fault to be found.

Team Leader Ma was wheeled into the treatment room. His abdominal wound wasn't deep, but it was enough for him to fully understand how close he was to death.

Qi Tongwei stood at the door of the ward, his left arm temporarily bandaged, blood still seeping out. He didn't sit down, but leaned against the wall, the magazine of his gun already changed.

Lu Yike sealed the video recording at the other end of the corridor. She imported the data from her phone into two read-only disks, sealed them, and handed one to the duty officer of the procuratorate and the other to the internal affairs officer of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

"The original file must not be edited or transcoded."

After she finished speaking, she looked up at Qi Tongwei.

"Go and treat the wound."

Qi Tongwei did not move.

"Wait until dawn."

Just as Lu Yike was about to speak, the fire door outside the ward made a soft knock.

At the end of the corridor, a man in a caregiver's uniform slowly pushed a cleaning cart closer. The wheels rolled over the paving stones with a very soft sound, almost deliberately so.

Qi Tongwei's expression suddenly changed.

He raised his hand, signaling the field staff in the corridor not to move.

The man kept his head down, pushing the cart at the same pace. His left foot landed a fraction of a second lighter than his right, as if avoiding some old injury.

Qi Tongwei moved sideways close to the fire door, slowly raising the muzzle of his gun to press against the door crack.

The cleaning truck was parked three meters away.

The caregiver reached down to the lower level of the vehicle.

Qi Tongwei's voice was as cold as if he had just been pulled out of ice water.

"What you killed today was not a witness, but the last fig leaf of the provincial government's report."

The caregiver's hand froze by the car.

Lu Yike's camera was already pointed at the corridor.

……

The light in Gao Yuliang's office at the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission stayed on until late at night.

He sat in front of the computer and watched the entire video that Lu Yike had synced back. The firefighter's uniform, the silenced gun, the children's photos, the ambush in the garage, the frozen face in the hospital corridor—frame by frame, they all came into his view.

Wu Chunlin stood to the side, remaining silent for a long time.

Li Dakang's phone call never ended; all that could be heard on the speakerphone was his suppressed breathing.

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

"The joint investigation team won't need to fight over Team Leader Ma tomorrow."

He stared at the blacked-out screen, his voice soft, yet like a blade striking wood.

"They should be thinking about how to save their own lives."