Special forces soldier demobilization: Starting from the county government compound, a meteoric rise

Liu Ming's cold retort was like a bucket of dirty water mixed with ice shards, poured over the faces of the Liu Jianye and Liu Jianjun brothers.

The aloofness and sarcasm emanating from their very bones instantly choked all their carefully prepared words, leaving them unable to utter a single syllable.

The wind in the alley seemed to have gotten colder.

"Ming...Mingwa, what...what are you saying?" Liu Jianye, with his thickest skin, forced a stiff smile, trying to ease the extremely awkward atmosphere. "I'm your uncle! Blood is thicker than water, that's an insurmountable truth, how can you deny it?"

His second aunt, a middle-aged woman with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face, rolled her eyes and immediately came up with a new idea. She slapped her thigh and started howling, her voice so shrill it could pierce eardrums.

"Oh my goodness! This is outrageous! We came all the way from our hometown to see our nephew, and now that he's a high-ranking official, he doesn't recognize us poor relatives anymore! If your father knew this in the afterlife, he'd be furious enough to rise from his grave to see you so heartless!"

The woman's crying seemed to set the stage for a performance. Her aunt immediately joined in, sobbing and wailing.

"Mingwa, you can't blame your uncle! Back then... back then, the family was really struggling! We were forced into this situation! Your younger brother Qiangqiang needed to go to school, and your cousin needed to be breastfed. We really couldn't afford a single penny! We were suffering too!"

The two of them sang in unison, their performance so sincere and moving, as if the one they had turned away from them on that rainy night was not Liu Ming and her son, but themselves.

Looking at the scene, Liu Qiang, who was squatting on the ground, also felt embarrassed. He muttered with his neck stiff, "That's right, it's been so many years, why are you still holding a grudge? It's really boring."

This group of people, one after another, tried to use "family ties" and "helplessness" to manipulate Liu Ming, turning his cold-blooded ruthlessness back then into an unavoidable tragedy.

However, they were facing Liu Ming.

A man who fought his way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, with a will as firm as steel.

He stood there quietly, listening to the clumsy performance of this group of clowns, the mocking sneer on his face growing ever stronger.

He didn't get angry or scold them. He waited until their cries gradually subsided before speaking slowly in an extremely calm and emotionless tone.

"difficulty?"

Liu Ming repeated the word, as if savoring an extremely ridiculous joke.

"Forced into it?"

His gaze, like a scalpel, landed precisely on his uncle Liu Jianye's flushed face.

"Uncle, since you have a bad memory, let me help you remember."

Liu Ming's voice was soft, yet it carried a chilling quality that could freeze one's soul.

"Fifteen years ago, on a snowy day, my father had an accident at the mine and urgently needed money for surgery. My mother took the last five hundred yuan that the family had scraped together, knelt at your door, and begged you to lend her another five hundred yuan. She said she would do anything to pay you back."

Liu Jianye's face began to turn pale.

"What did you say back then?" Liu Ming spoke slowly, but every word was like a heavy hammer blow, striking Liu Jianye's heart hard.

"You know, my father's stubbornness and lack of pragmatism meant he deserved to die. You know, the Liu family's money isn't something you can just throw away and expect to make a sound."

"No...that's not how it is! I didn't say that!" Liu Jianye retorted loudly on his own, but his eyes began to dart away.

"Didn't you say that?" Liu Ming sneered. "Then let me help you recall. My mother begged and pleaded, and finally pulled out the five hundred yuan she had saved from her life, saying she only wanted to borrow one hundred, or even fifty, as long as it could help my father get through the night."

"And you, Liu Jianye." Liu Ming took a step forward, and the invisible pressure forced Liu Jianye to take two steps back, almost causing him to fall to the ground.

"You snatched that five hundred yuan from me!" Liu Ming's voice suddenly rose, like a thunderclap from a clear sky!

"You said that money was the dowry you lent to my father when he married my mother! Now it's just right to pay off the debt! And then, in front of me, a ten-year-old child, you kicked my mother, who was kneeling in the snow and crying so hard she was about to faint, away, and then slammed the door shut!"

"You even bolted the door shut from the inside!"

"I..." Liu Jianye opened his mouth, his whole body trembling violently, unable to utter a single word.

That extremely ugly memory that he had deliberately forgotten was now torn open by Liu Ming in a bloody way and exposed to the light of day!

The two women who had been wailing just moments before now seemed like chickens with their necks being choked; their crying stopped abruptly, and their faces were filled with terror and paleness.

Liu Ming's gaze then turned to her second uncle, Liu Jianjun.

"And you, Second Uncle. I remember you were standing behind the window watching. After my mother was kicked down, she crawled to your window, begging you to help her out of brotherly affection. What did you do?"

A cruel smile curled at the corners of Liu Ming's lips.

You drew the curtains.

Liu Jianjun's face turned as white as paper in an instant. His legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, not even caring that the cage containing the two roosters had been overturned.

"As for the two of you," Liu Ming's gaze swept over the two women who had just been putting on an act, "when my mother crawled away from your door, I heard you cursing her inside the house, calling her a 'jinx' and a 'husband-killer,' and saying that it was fortunate you drove her away so that her bad luck wouldn't affect your family."

"Back then, you all treated my son and me like the plague, avoiding us completely. Now that I've become an official, you've suddenly remembered the saying 'blood is thicker than water'?"

"Back then, you just watched my father die, and now you have the nerve to ask me to arrange a job for your good-for-nothing son?"

"Do you think I, Liu Ming, am stupid, or do you think you're the smartest people in the world?"

Every word is piercing to the heart!

Every word is like a knife!

Every word Liu Ming uttered was like a red-hot branding iron, branding their already rotten consciences and tearing away their last fig leaf!

The neighbors who had been watching the commotion had finally understood what was happening, and their eyes were filled with undisguised contempt and disdain as they looked at the group.

"I...we..." Liu Jianye's lips trembled as he tried to explain, but he found that his throat felt like it was blocked by cement.

Seeing his father and second uncle's pathetic, disoriented state, Liu Qiang felt a surge of anger and, with his neck stiff, roared at Liu Ming, "Hey! How dare you talk to my dad like that! It's just some old, trivial matter! You're a high-ranking official now, do you have to be so unforgiving?"

Liu Ming slowly turned her head, and for the first time, her cold eyes looked directly at this so-called "cousin".

Are you teaching me how to do things?

When Liu Qiang was glared at, he instantly felt like he was being stared at by a prehistoric beast. His arrogance vanished almost instantly, but he still stubbornly maintained his composure.

"I...I just can't stand your behavior! Just because you're an official doesn't mean you're all that great!"

Liu Ming looked at him and suddenly smiled.

"Okay, very good." He nodded. "You want me to arrange a job for you, right?"

Liu Qiang was taken aback, then a look of joy appeared on his face.

"Yeah! He should at least be a division-level cadre, right?"

Liu Ming's smile grew even brighter as he patted Liu Qiang on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely arrange a job for you. I just spoke with the municipal government, and the sanitation department in Dongcheng District is short of someone to clean latrines. I think your temperament is perfect for the job."

"You...!" Liu Qiang was so angry that his face turned red.

"What, you don't want to?" Liu Ming's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a chilling expression. "Then go back to your Sishui Town and continue being that local thug who runs rampant in the countryside."

However, I'm warning you, starting today, I'll have someone watching you. If you dare to commit even the slightest offense again, I guarantee you'll spend more time in jail than you'll spend on the streets.

Liu Ming's voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable and chilling authority.

Liu Qiang was completely deflated. Looking into Liu Ming's emotionless eyes, he finally understood that the man in front of him truly meant what he said.

The entire scene fell into a suffocating silence.

Liu Jianye, Liu Jianjun, and the others all lowered their heads, their faces turning pale and then red, as if they had been stripped naked in public, leaving them with no dignity left.

"Ming... Mingwa, back then... we were wrong back then..." Liu Jianye's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, filled with endless regret and fear.

He finally understood that some debts cannot be erased by time.

What you owe, you'll have to pay back sooner or later.