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

Qi Tongwei tilted his head to look at her.

"Those four men had hydraulic shears aimed at the back door lock." Her gaze fell on a spot on the wall, not looking at him. "I only had a baton, and the car was full of people. Those few seconds—"

She didn't continue.

The suture needle paused for a moment, and the nurse, feeling uncomfortable with the atmosphere, lowered her head and continued working.

"You did what you were supposed to do," Qi Tongwei said.

"I was thinking," Lu Yike turned to look at him, "if you were thirty seconds later."

Qi Tongwei didn't respond. The nurse was tying the last knot when his left arm trembled slightly, but he held it down.

Lu Yike walked over and took the gauze roll from the nurse.

"I'll do it."

The nurse paused for a moment, then looked at Qi Tongwei, and tactfully stepped back.

Lu Yike bent down and began to wrap the gauze. Her movements were slower than the nurse's, but she controlled her strength very steadily, pressing the edges of the wound upwards in circles.

"This lifetime," Qi Tongwei suddenly said.

Lu Yike paused for a moment.

"I've been used as a chamber pot, a knife, a stone that's been sharpened and then thrown away." His voice was flat, as if he were talking about someone else's business. "In the past few years in the provincial department, I've been surrounded by people who want my life, people who want me to help them kill, or people who are waiting for me to die so they can divide my flesh."

The gauze slipped through Lu Yike's fingers, but she didn't look up and continued wrapping.

"No one has ever shielded me from a car before." He paused, "And no one has ever had a backup copy in their pocket after losing the master tape."

Lu Yike tucked the end of the gauze into the last loop and secured it with medical tape.

She straightened up and looked him in the eye.

The distance was very close. Close enough to see the bloodshot veins in his eyes and a very faint spot deep in his pupils that didn't seem like something a provincial public security chief should have.

"Regarding the backup," Lu Yike took a half step back, her tone returning to businesslike, "we won't disclose it yet. Haizhou doesn't know I've kept a copy; holding onto this card is more useful than playing it."

Qi Tongwei nodded.

"The news of the 'missing' master tape brought a sigh of relief to Haizhou, who thought their chain of evidence had broken," she continued. "We'll wait for them to escalate their actions before we crush them."

"You're starting to resemble Teacher Gao more and more." Qi Tongwei stood up and stretched his left arm.

Lu Yike rolled her eyes at him and didn't respond.

My phone vibrated. It was an encrypted text message from Zhou Weiguo, sent from the northern front.

Three routes have been put under monitoring. An abnormal connection was detected on the second route's corresponding frequency band, and the signal's location is being narrowed down. The source of the backhaul has been preliminarily identified as the provincial department's internal network environment.

Qi Tongwei handed the screen to Lu Yike to look at.

The second route—that was the one he only told the person in the dispatch team who had been with him for three years.

Lu Yike finished reading and looked up.

Qi Tongwei's expression didn't change much, but the knuckles of his right hand holding the phone turned white.

"Go back and close the net." He put his phone back in his pocket and pushed open the door to the dressing room.

It had started raining outside the corridor sometime earlier. The puddles at the hospital entrance were shimmering under the streetlights.

Lu Yike pulled a folding umbrella out of her bag, opened it, and followed.

Qi Tongwei had already stepped into the rain. Water cascaded down his shoulders, soaking his police uniform.

"Qi Tongwei".

He stopped.

Lu Yike held the umbrella over his head, leaving half of her shoulder exposed to the rain.

"If you risk your life again next time," she said, looking ahead without looking at him, "I'll really suspend you."

Qi Tongwei tilted his head and looked at her for two seconds, his lips twitching slightly.

"Then you'll have to catch up with me first."

He reached out and took the umbrella handle, tilting it slightly towards her. The two walked side by side into the rain, heading towards the garage.

The hospital building behind us was brightly lit, and the sound of rain drowned out all other noises.

---

# Chapter 314 A Counterattack: The Mole Reveals Half of "That Day's" Face

The small interrogation room is on the fifth floor of the provincial government building.

The door was locked from the outside, and the curtains were drawn tightly. There was only a table lamp on the table, its light illuminating the face of the person opposite.

Zhao Qinming. Deputy head of the inspection and dispatch team, he followed Qi Tongwei for three years and two months.

He sat in the chair, his fingers twisted together, his knuckles cracking.

Qi Tongwei sat opposite him and placed two pieces of paper on the table.

The first image shows screenshots of three transfer routes, with the second one circled in red. The second image is a report on the signal landing points intercepted by military communications monitoring, with the time, frequency band, and terminal number clearly marked.

Zhao Qinming stared for three seconds, his face turning from red to white.

"This route," Qi Tongwei pointed to the red circle, "is one that only you know."

Zhao Qinming opened his mouth.

"The signal's location." Qi Tongwei pushed the second sheet of paper forward. "It originated from the intranet terminal in your office area, passed through a jumper to the Haizhou liaison terminal. The military's communications monitoring authority intercepted it; it wasn't me, it was the northern line."

Zhao Qinming's Adam's apple bobbed, and his whole body began to tremble.

"Director, I..."

"Think before you speak." Qi Tongwei leaned back in his chair, his voice devoid of warmth. "Once the military classifies your case as involving terrorism, it won't be a provincial-level sentencing, it'll be military law. How old is your daughter? Seven?"

Zhao Qinming's eyes reddened. He lowered his head, his fists clenched so tightly under the table that his nails dug into his palms.

"They...they took pictures of my daughter." His voice broke into fragments. "On the way home from school, three pictures, and sent them to my wife's phone. They said if I didn't cooperate, the next time it wouldn't be just taking pictures."

Qi Tongwei didn't reply. He waited.

Zhao Qinming took a deep breath and raised his head.

"I did two things. I recorded the transfer route at the logistics park and the location of the master tape storage. Both were transmitted back in the early hours of the morning."

"To whom should it be sent?"

"One phone number. He changes the SIM card every time he makes a call, but his accent is that of a local from Handong." Zhao Qinming licked his chapped lips. "He said he was the middleman, and the instructions from Haizhou were relayed through him."

Qi Tongwei's fingers stopped on the table.

"Have you met this middleman?"

Zhao Qinming shook his head. "I've never met him. But once during a phone call, someone called out to him from behind."

"What are you shouting?"

"Qin...what? I didn't hear the whole thing. Just one word."

Lu Yike stood in the shadows in the corner of the interrogation room, her pen scribbling across the notebook.

Qi Tongwei remained silent for a few seconds, then took out a photocopy of the black book's tattered page from his inner pocket, turned to the line with Chu Pingshan's words, and placed it in front of Zhao Qinming.

"Is this middleman the same person who went to the provincial party committee compound to see Sha Ruijin on the day Chu Pingshan was suspended from his post?"

Zhao Qinming stared at the line of text, his fingers trembling so much that the paper shook.

"I'm not sure," he said, "but the middleman said something on the phone the day the order to clear the Haizhou line came down."

"What did you say?"

He said, "I've already spoken to Secretary Sha, and no one will touch you within three days."

The interrogation room was silent for a full five seconds. The light from the table lamp remained motionless on the table.

Qi Tongwei stood up.

"Zhao Qinming, you have a chance."