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

At four in the morning, the National Development and Reform Commission building should be one of the quietest corners in the capital.

But at this moment, the corridor echoed with a series of rapid, menacing footsteps. The pungent smell of burning flesh lingered in the air, like a persistent gloom hanging over everyone's heads.

Liu Ming walked at the very front.

His dark gray suit was stained with ash and water, and the collar was slightly open, revealing a faint red mark on his collarbone. It was a burn from the high temperature, but he seemed completely oblivious to it.

Behind him stood four stern-faced officers in dark jackets from the disciplinary inspection team. Further back were two towering figures—Tank and Lone Wolf from Dragon Shield Security.

As the team passed by, motion-activated lights lit up one after another.

The cold light shone on Liu Ming's angular face, exuding an aura of oppressive power that made people afraid to look directly at him, like the arrival of death.

At the end of the corridor is the office of Sun Dahai, the director of the General Affairs Department.

Standing before that heavy solid wood door, Liu Ming didn't pause at all, nor did she even raise her hand to knock.

"Bang--!"

He suddenly raised his right foot, unleashing the pent-up power in an instant. The wooden door, a symbol of the authority of a division-level cadre, shattered with a heavy thud, the sound of the hinge breaking echoing eerily in the empty corridor.

……

Inside the office, Sun Dahai was like a frightened mouse, frantically stuffing documents into the shredder.

The buzzing, grinding sound was unusually jarring in the deathly still night.

Hearing the loud crash of the door shattering, Sun Dahai was so startled that his hand trembled, and he fell straight to the floor from his executive chair. He looked up in terror and met Liu Ming's cold, emotionless eyes.

"Director Liu...?"

Sun Dahai's voice became shrill and distorted. He frantically tried to cover the paper shredder that was still working frantically, but a smile that looked uglier than a ghost was forced onto his face.

"You... weren't you directing operations over at the fire scene? How... how did you end up here? This door... oh dear, it's probably been in disrepair for years. I'll have logistics replace it with a new one right away..."

Liu Ming stepped into the room.

Every step he took on the expensive carpet felt like stepping on Sun Dahai's heart.

"Director Sun, are you still working so hard on official business in the middle of the night?"

Liu Ming walked to the paper shredder and casually pressed the stop button. He pulled out a piece of paper from the wastebasket that hadn't been completely shredded, with a few incomplete German letters faintly visible on it.

That's the format of an internal letter from the M Group.

"It seems Director Sun is quite capable. Not only does he manage our company's general affairs, but he also handles some 'shady' matters for the foreign dignitaries?"

"Director, what are you saying!"

Sun Dahai, supporting himself on the table, stood up, forcing back the last vestiges of his crumbling official composure. "I'm just clearing out old files from previous years. But you, with people from the security department and the discipline inspection team, barged into a subordinate's office late at night. This...this isn't in accordance with organizational procedures, is it? I'm going to appeal to the Party Committee of the Ministry!"

"program?"

Liu Ming sneered, a genuine and undisguised contempt.

He turned his head and nodded to the discipline inspection officer behind him.

"search."

"yes!"

Four officers filed in, their movements extremely professional. They didn't bother to look through the documents scattered on the table, but went directly to the seemingly ordinary wainscoting behind the bookshelf.

Sun Dahai's face turned deathly ashen in that instant.

He opened his mouth, trying to stop them, but was frozen in place by a cold look from the tank.

"Sizzle."

An officer took out a specially made detector from his bag and gently ran it across the board.

"Beep beep beep—!"

A sharp alarm sounded.

Liu Ming stepped forward and gently tapped the edge of the wainscoting with her finger, instantly revealing a hidden compartment.

There were no gold bars or bundles of banknotes inside.

There was only one extremely exquisite little wooden box.

Liu Ming opened the wooden box.

A black card lay quietly inside.

The card is made entirely of a special metal material, with a dark gold lion emblem printed in the center. It is a limited-edition "anonymous black card" issued by Swiss banks for top private clients worldwide.

Under the light, the black card gleamed with an almost sinister glow.

That was the forbidden fruit of power, and irrefutable proof of depravity.

Liu Ming tucked the card between her fingers and waved it in front of Sun Dahai.

"Director Sun, if I remember correctly, the minimum deposit for this level of black card is fifty million US dollars."

"Your monthly salary, plus bonuses, plus that pitiful travel allowance. Even if you worked from the beginning of time without eating or drinking, you probably couldn't even afford the annual fee for this card, right?"

Liu Ming moved closer to him, and the bloodthirsty aura of a "Shura" almost suffocated Sun Dahai for a moment.

"Tell me." "Is the money in this card hush money from that guy surnamed Zhao?" "Or the arson reward from Thomas?"

……

Silence, deathly silence.

Sun Dahai looked at the black card and felt that it was not a card, but a token that led directly to the guillotine.

He finally couldn't hold on any longer.

That nerve, stretched to its limit, snapped completely in front of the black card that represented all his sins and escape routes.

"thump!"

Sun Dahai's knees buckled, and he knelt heavily amidst the shredded paper.

His head slammed against the cold tiles with a dull thud, and tears and snot instantly covered his already greasy face.

"I confess...I confessed everything..."

His voice was terribly hoarse, conveying a sense of despair at the end of a hero's life.

"They forced me into this... It was Director Zhao and Mayor Li's people... They said if I didn't obey, they'd make sure I couldn't stay at the National Development and Reform Commission..."

"They ordered the fire to be set. They said that if I destroyed the core data of 'Dragon Abyss,' I could get this card and then live the rest of my life in Switzerland..."

"Director Liu, I had no choice! Those people have too much power, I... I'm just a lowly section chief, I couldn't avoid them!"

Sun Dahai, like a dying fish, gasped for breath on the ground, revealing all his secrets.

……

Liu Ming stood to the side.

He looked at the man on the ground who kept begging for mercy, trying to absolve himself of his sins by claiming that he was "out of control," and felt no emotion whatsoever.

He had seen this kind of drama in Ningzhou, in Qingyun County, and it was constantly being staged in every dark corner of power.

"take away."

Liu Ming waved her hand, her tone as cold as if she were dealing with a pile of rotting garbage.

Two discipline inspection officers stepped forward, helped up the limp Sun Dahai, and strode out.

Sun Dahai's screams and pleas for mercy echoed in the empty corridor, but no one dared to peek out again.

The "smart people" in the building all know that the storm has escalated. This time, not only the director, but also those "towering trees" hiding behind him will probably be uprooted.

Liu Ming stood by the office window.

Outside the window, the first rays of dawn finally pierced through the thick clouds over the capital and shone on the magnificent office building.

Its daybreak.

But he knew that his battle had only just begun, entering its bloodiest phase of close combat.

"Director..."

Chen Momo stood at the door, looking at Liu Ming's slightly lonely yet upright figure, her eyes filled with heartache and awe.

Liu Ming turned around and gave her a long-lost, gentle smile to the secretary who had accompanied her all the way.

"Mo Mo, go and get ready."

"Prepare what?" Chen Momo was taken aback.

Liu Ming straightened his slightly wrinkled collar, and in that instant, his refined and scholarly demeanor as a director returned.

But deep in his eyes, the fighting spirit that could ignite the entire capital became even more intense.

"Prepare a press release."

Looking out the window at the gradually waking skyscrapers, Liu Ming spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Tell those who are still waiting for news."

"The High Technology Division's doors have been swept clean."

"Next."

"It's my turn, Liu Ming, to sweep their door."

He turned to Chen Momo and said the last sentence of this chapter:

"Notify Lao Chen to go to the hospital and pick up Deputy Director Zhao for his 'discharge'."