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

The gunman turned and pulled the trigger. With a muffled thud, the bullet grazed Qi Tongwei's shoulder and embedded itself in the wall.

Qi Tongwei didn't dodge. He suddenly swung his left arm to swerve the medical cart, and the wound under the gauze hissed open, blood instantly soaking through half of his sleeve.

He held the gun in one hand, the muzzle following the other man's chest.

boom.

One shot.

The assassin fell backward, overturning the treatment cart, and the syringe fell to the ground and rolled under the bed.

Another person tried to jump out through the broken window but was kicked in the back of the knee by Qi Tongwei, falling to the ground. SWAT officers filed in through the broken window and pinned the person down.

The room was full of broken glass.

Chu Pingshan huddled in the corner of the bed, his face as white as paper, his hands clutching the inner pocket of his chest. The notebook was still there.

Qi Tongwei stood up, his left arm hanging limply, blood dripping from between his fingers and splashing onto the ground. He didn't look at his injury.

"Governor Chu," he gasped, "I'm terrified."

Chu Pingshan stared at him, speechless for a long time. His gaze darted back and forth between Qi Tongwei's bleeding arm and the corpse on the ground.

"How...did you get here?"

"That red line at the logistics park." Qi Tongwei holstered his gun. "It connects to your people in Haizhou, and it connects to this too. We'll follow it."

Chu Pingshan's throat moved. In all his years of life, he had never been so close to death as he was tonight.

Qi Tongwei walked to the bedside. He didn't reach out to snatch the notebook. Everyone thought he would, but he didn't.

"I know what you're carrying," Qi Tongwei said in a low voice, "but I won't steal it."

Why?

"Major General Shen once said something," Qi Tongwei looked at him, "In Handong, only the law can determine your life or death, not that black knife from Haizhou. Those two men tonight came here to prevent you from going to trial alive."

Chu Pingshan loosened his grip slightly.

He suddenly realized something. Haizhou no longer wanted him. He used to be the flag bearer, but now that the flag was about to fall, they would rather burn the flag than let it fall into Qi Tongwei's hands and speak for him.

He clutched the notebook to save his life. But survival wasn't about the notebook.

Chu Pingshan closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, he pulled the notebook out from under his pillow.

Qi Tongwei thought he was going to hand it over.

Chu Pingshan didn't. He flipped the page open, tore a page from the middle, and found no name, no reason, only a handwritten date.

He handed over the half-page.

"Investigate who Sha Ruijin met that day," Chu Pingshan's voice was hoarse. "Investigate who Sha Ruijin saw that day."

Qi Tongwei took the page.

The lake breeze blew in through the window, rustling the broken glass on the floor. He looked down at the date; blood was still dripping from his left arm.

……

The following morning, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee held a meeting.

The meeting room was full of people. Sha Ruijin placed the fourth draft of the "Self-Inspection Report" in front of everyone, the cover pressed flat.

"Comrades, take a look." He began, his tone steady, "The root cause of the Haiheng incident lies in the imperfect management mechanism and the loopholes in the supervision process. The Provincial Party Committee has learned a lesson, but more importantly, it needs to fix the mechanism."

He turned to the third page and read a passage about the rectification measures for "improving the access to outsourced auditing".

It was read very smoothly.

Li Dakang sat diagonally opposite, holding a brown paper bag in his hand, without moving it. Only after Sha Ruijin finished reading did he slam the bag onto the table.

With a snap, the conference room fell silent.

"Secretary Sha," Li Dakang pulled out the papers and pushed them to the center of the table, "These are the confessions of the two assassins that the Provincial Department obtained from the sanatorium last night. One is still alive and has confessed everything. Haizhou sent people into the Provincial Party Committee's sanatorium to kill a second-tier acting governor."

The eyes of several Standing Committee members swept over in unison.

"They've even stormed into the provincial party committee's own sanatorium." Li Dakang's voice turned somber. "In Secretary Sha's report, he was still talking about the imperfect mechanisms?"

Sha Ruijin's face stiffened for a moment, then quickly composed himself. "Comrade Dakang, the security issue at the sanatorium is a separate matter; the Provincial Committee is investigating—"

"Is it another line?"

Wu Chunlin spoke up. He hadn't said anything until now, but he pushed out a list.

"Secretary Sha, this report mentions several cadres who are proposed for promotion after the rectification." He pointed to the list, "Zhou Mingyuan, He Jianguo, and this Xu Yan. All three of them participated in the preliminary feasibility study for the Haiheng project. You personally approved all three nominations."

Some people in the conference room lowered their heads.

Sha Ruijin's fingers tightened on the report's cover. "In terms of organizational procedures, these comrades have undergone vetting—"

"You're not avoiding those you've investigated, those who participated in problematic projects; instead, you're promoting them." Wu Chunlin put down his pen. "How can this be included in the self-inspection report?"

Sha Ruijin's temple throbbed.

He leaned back in his chair and changed his tone. "Comrades, let me remind you. Handong has just stopped the bleeding; what it needs most is stability. Letting the fire escalate will benefit no one. The bigger picture—"

"The bigger picture is not a shield."

Qi Tongwei stood up from his seat.

His new police uniform had one more star on the epaulettes than last month's. His left arm was still in a sling, and the bandage was showing through the cuff.

He placed an account book on the table.

"Shunda Logistics Park was sealed off last night." Qi Tongwei's voice was not loud, but every word was very solid. "The flow of the withdrawn funds and the accounts of Haiheng's short selling of eleven companies in Jingzhou can be matched one by one. The same amount of money was first used to short sell factories in Handong, and then laundered out through the port."

He pushed it forward an inch.

"This isn't a problem with the system. It's like someone left the door open, letting the knife from Haizhou cut into the flesh of Handong."

No one spoke in the meeting room.

Sha Ruijin stared at the account book, not reaching out to touch it for a long time.

He knew there was no point in reading that report again. The accounts were there, the testimonies were there, the lists were there. Every "imperfect mechanism" he wrote was torn apart by these three things.

Wu Chunlin closed the folder. "I suggest this report be returned for rewriting."

Li Dakang added, "Rewrite it. Don't try to fool the people of Handong with words this time."

Sha Ruijin sat in the main seat, slowly closing the report. The words "Self-examination" on the cover were wrinkled from being pressed down by his own fingers.

He didn't argue anymore.

After the meeting adjourned, the Standing Committee members walked out one after another. Li Dakang was the last to leave, and he stopped as he passed Qi Tongwei.

He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled one out, and handed it to him.

"Should I get a ticket or not?"

"Go to work." Qi Tongwei waved his hand.

Li Dakang picked it up himself, didn't light it, and just chewed on it. "You didn't steal Chu Pingshan's notebook."

"If you steal it, it becomes stolen goods; if you don't, he'll talk to you about it himself."

Li Dakang glanced at him, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Gao Yuliang didn't teach you for nothing."

The two walked down the corridor. Li Dakang suddenly stopped and glanced back at the closed door of Sha Ruijin's office.

The cigarette twitched from the corner of his mouth.

"Those factories in Jingzhou are my lifeblood." Li Dakang's voice was very low. "If anyone dares to sell out the business in Handong again, I'll fight them to the death."

Qi Tongwei did not respond.

Li Dakang took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and gestured with his chin toward the door.

"He can't even write a report."

The cigarette twirled halfway between his fingers.

"Handong, I don't mind having someone else hold the pen for him."