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

The only sound inside was the wind outside the window.

The section chief opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a complete sentence. In the end, he took off his hat and held it in his hand.

"All contracts back then had audit signatures. I couldn't make this decision on my own."

Shen Zhong closed the ledger, his voice drowning out the noise in the room.

"I ask for the catalog, you answer with a signature. Comrade section chief, if you give an irrelevant answer on the battlefield, the artillery fire will make up for it."

The operations staff officer coughed lightly, not daring to laugh.

Zhou Weiguo paused for a moment, then continued copying the contract number.

The section chief's lips tightened.

"I admit the catalog is not standardized, but the project is genuine and the equipment is not missing. Now that combat readiness has been upgraded, if you seal off a large number of tents, it will affect subsequent allocations."

Shen lit a cigarette, but didn't smoke it; he just held it between his two fingers.

"You are very concerned about the allocation."

The section chief stiffened.

"As the quartermaster, of course I care."

Shen Zhong stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

"Then you should be even more concerned about who wants to use the escalation of military preparedness to settle scores with you."

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

Two officers from the military discipline department entered; one was older with old scars on his face, and the other was younger, carrying a sealed box.

The officer with the old scar stands at attention.

"Secretary Shen, Junji is here."

Shen Zhong pushed the account book over.

"The procurement contracts, acceptance forms, and audit logs for the northern route project, which were outsourced three years ago, were sealed on the spot. No one may access them alone under the pretext of escalating combat readiness."

The section chief looked up.

"Secretary Shen, keep at least one working copy. There's a supplies verification meeting tomorrow morning."

Zhou Weiguo tore off the first set of numbered copies.

"Copies are also blocked. If you need to use it, you have to go through military disciplinary procedures, write down the purpose, the time, and who will see it."

The section chief's lips were pale.

"This is tantamount to treating the quartermaster department as a suspect unit."

Shen Zhong glanced at him.

"I didn't say 'suspect.' Why are you so anxious?"

No one inside the room responded.

The military discipline personnel put on white gloves and placed the contracts one by one into sealed bags. The seal was pressed down with a click.

The confidential clerk strode in through the door, holding a newly printed expedited processing form.

"Secretary Shen, the old channel has sent another reply urging us to confirm the data cleanup completion time. The wording is more urgent than last time."

Shen Zhong took it, glanced at it, and placed it next to the sealed box.

"Keep it as is."

The confidential clerk was taken aback.

"Not replying?"

"No reply, no deletion, no explanation."

Shen Zhong turned to the military discipline personnel.

"List it as evidence of external interference and put it together with the cleanup notice."

Young military discipline personnel are rising in number.

"Yes."

The quartermaster turned his hat back on, but he was a beat too slow.

"Secretary Shen, I request to return to the office to organize the remaining materials."

Shen stared at him for two seconds.

"Zhou Weiguo will go with you."

The section chief's throat was dry.

"I can go by myself."

Zhou Weiguo closed the notebook.

"Chief, it's windy on the north route, I'm afraid you'll get lost."

The operations staff officer almost spat out the water.

Section Chief: "..."

9:27 PM.

The external network monitoring screen at the northern command post displayed static, which returned to normal seven minutes later. The duty officer took off his headphones, frowned, and tapped the monitor.

"It might be due to wind and sand interference, or an old problem with the wiring on the exterior wall."

Zhou Weiguo had just returned from the quartermaster department when he heard this and stopped in his tracks.

He picked up the mouse and brought up the fault coverage area.

The red frame on the screen only encloses one floor.

Quartermaster Department.

The duty officer stopped.

"No, the other floors are still connected."

Zhou Weiguo turned and left.

"Notify Secretary Shen."

At 9:41, the lights on the quartermaster floor were turned back on.

The access control system for the director's office is functioning normally; there was no forced entry or unusual card swipes. However, there is a new scratch on the edge of the safe door, and the metal stub is still shiny.

Shen Zhong squatted down and glanced at it, but didn't touch it.

"Who has the key?"

The section chief stood at the door, his face ashen.

"I and my confidential clerk each have one key, and the spare key is sealed in a secure cabinet."

Zhou Weiguo put on gloves and opened the safe.

The first layer still contains a copy of the contract.

The second floor is empty.

Everyone inside the room stopped.

The scarred officer looked at the director, his hand already on the recorder switch.

Shen Zhong stood in front of the safe, the light casting his shadow on the door.

"What used to be stored here?"

The section chief's lips moved twice, but his voice was dry.

"The Second Ledger"

The wind and sand outside the window were swirling even more fiercely.

Shen Zhong did not turn around.

"Sealing off the building."

3 PM, outside the back gate of the provincial government building.

Lu Yike didn't go into the information center. She sat in her car with an offline laptop on her lap.

Lin Huahua inserted the traffic management backup disk in the passenger seat, the blue light of the screen reflecting on her face.

"That gray car outside the hospital has a fake license plate."

Lin Huahua tapped the keyboard twice.

"The actual vehicle identification number corresponds to an old sedan with a Haizhou license plate, and the registered company is Haizhou Shungang Labor Service Department."

Lu Yike stopped writing.

"Shungang?"

Lin Huahua enlarged the registration page.

"It has been deregistered. The deregistration date was nine days before Jingzhou Sanzhe's acquisition. This matches the related company that Li Dakang circled."

The carriage fell silent.

Lu Yike put the pen cap back on.

"Avoid the provincial system. Check for parking payment discrepancies."

Lin Huahua nodded.

"I'm using a third-party cache. The provincial department has a long reach; don't just hand the license plate to them."

By the time the two followed the payment records to an abandoned parking spot on the outskirts of the city, it was already dark.

The parking lot gate was crooked, and half of the glass in the toll booth was broken. The attendant was a thin old man, his cotton hat pulled down to his eyebrows, holding an enamel mug with a chipped rim.

"Officer, nobody comes to this dump anymore. There are just a few scrapped cars here occasionally, and the towing company just dumps them here."

Lu Yike showed her identification without saying much.

"Who towed in that gray sedan at the very back?"

The administrator shrank back.

"How could I remember? I came at night, the license plate was still there, but it was gone the next day."

Lin Huahua raised her camera and first photographed the muddy marks on the ground, then the edge of the tire.

Lu Yike stopped the administrator from approaching.

"Don't touch the car."

The old man immediately took half a step back.

"I don't touch it, I don't even want to look at it. After that car parked there, even the dogs stopped peeing there."

Lin Huahua looked up at him.

The administrator quickly added a comment.

"It's really weird."

The gray van was parked at the very back, squeezed between two abandoned bread carts. The license plate had been removed, there was a fresh scratch on the front bumper, and a piece of dust had broken off from the door handle.

Lu Yike put on gloves and did not open the door.

"Take photos of all the mud spots on the tires. Take photos of the door seams, rearview mirrors, and fuel tank cap. Then contact the towing company to confirm the most recent towing record."

Lin Huahua muttered to herself as she took the photos.

"Director Lu, you look more like that person in the hospital room than Director Qi does now."

Lu Yike glanced at her.

"At least I can walk."

Lin Huahua: "..."

The administrator, listening from behind, was completely confused but dared not ask.

The towing platform quickly transmitted the records. The gray truck was towed in by an anonymous order at 4:17 AM, and the payment account was transferred via a virtual number.

Lu Yike then gestured for the door to open.

The car door opened, and the interior reeked of musty dust. The front was excessively clean, the glove box was empty, the trunk was empty, and even the floor mats had been shaken out.

Lin Huahua frowned.

There's nothing there.

Lu Yike didn't say anything, squatted down in the back row, and stared at the edge of the floor mat.

There's a new scratch there.

It's very shallow.

She used tweezers to slowly lift the edge of the adhesive. The adhesive strip made a soft, sticky sound, and a round metal piece peeked out from the gap.

Lin Huahua held her breath.

Lu Yike picked up the metal piece and placed it into the temporary evidence tray. The metal piece was blank, with fine lines along its edges and many serrations to the touch.

"This is not Q7-HZ-019."

Lin Huahua handed over the magnifying glass.

"The grain direction is different, and the edges are denser. It should be from another batch of the same set of items."

Lu Yike took out her phone and directly video-called Qi Tongwei.

The screen lit up, and Qi Tongwei was leaning against the hospital bed, with half of the nurses' station sign visible next to him.

"explain."

Lu Yike aimed the lens at the metal plate.

"Found in the gray car. No markings, and the edge texture is different from the previous round pieces."