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

"Sir, please get up, this won't do."

Liu Ming reacted quickly and caught the old man who had knelt down first.

He then helped up several elderly people around him as well, his strength perfectly controlled, neither stiff nor irresistible.

He was wearing a very ordinary casual jacket today, without any guards or the pomp and circumstance of officialdom.

He stood among the common people, like a younger neighbor who had just returned from working far away.

"Director Liu, you're finally back! All these years, the people of Qingyun County, young and old, have been hoping for your return!" The old man gripped Liu Ming's hand tightly, his calloused hands trembling, his cloudy old eyes filled with excitement.

"I'm back now."

Liu Ming smiled and patted the old man's hand. "I just happened to be on vacation, so I brought my family to visit. Everyone, please don't crowd around. Go buy your groceries or take a walk if you need to. Don't let me disrupt your normal lives."

"It doesn't bother me at all! Seeing you is even more joyful than celebrating the New Year!"

Good-natured laughter erupted from the crowd, but everyone still consciously stepped back, making way for Liu Ming's family.

Liu Ming held Lin Xiaoxiao's hand with one hand and Xi Wanqing's hand with the other, while Nangong Yao carried little Liu Nian beside them. The family strolled through the streets of Qingyun County like ordinary tourists.

But every place he went left traces of the life he had risked his life for back then.

This main road in the south of the city was once a muddy dirt road, lined with low, dilapidated shacks. Back then, Wang Quangui's thugs would squat by the roadside, smashing up anyone who dared not pay protection money.

Now, this is an eight-lane asphalt road in both directions.

The former shantytowns along the roadside have vanished. In their place stand rows of neatly planned, red-tiled, white-walled townhouses. Each house has flowers and plants in its yard, and some even have brand-new private cars parked there.

Sunlight shone through the glass windows of those small villas, refracting a dazzling light.

"This neighborhood is so beautiful. I never dreamed that the south of the city could become like this."

Looking at those small Western-style buildings, Xi Wanqing felt a pang of emotion. She still remembered how Liu Ming had fought his way through a group of desperados to protect her on this very road years ago.

"These are all resettlement houses built with investment from the Nangong Group, right?"

Lin Xiaoxiao curiously peeked out.

"Nangong Group only provided the initial start-up capital."

Nangong Yao smiled and shook her head, "The subsequent construction relied entirely on these local people themselves. They used their demolition compensation and the money they earned working in the Digital Technology Park to build this place up little by little. Look over there, that's the famous 'Maker Town' in the whole province."

Following the direction Nangong Yao pointed, in the distance was a cluster of glass buildings full of modern technology. The "creating something from nothing" strategy proposed by Liu Ming back then had yielded its most fruitful results here.

Countless young people start businesses here, and countless high-tech products reach the world from here. This land, once shrouded in organized crime, is now the most innovative and dynamic economic engine in the entire Jiangnan Province.

"Director Liu!"

A woman selling jianbing (Chinese crepes) by the roadside recognized Liu Ming and excitedly ran over, insisting on giving him two freshly made jianbing. "Try them! Homegrown grains! They're free!"

Liu Ming didn't refuse, and with a smile, took the pancake, then turned around and pressed a hundred yuan under the stall's counter.

"It smells so good." Liu Ming took a big bite; it was warm and satisfying.

He ate his pancake while gazing at the vibrant city.

As they passed a newly built primary school, they happened to arrive just in time for the morning exercises.

On the wide, smooth synthetic track, hundreds of children in neat school uniforms were running and jumping happily in the sunshine. Their laughter was crisp and melodious, like a flock of carefree birds soaring freely in the sky.

The leaky classrooms are gone.

The tragedy of dropping out of school to work is gone.

Every child's face radiated confidence and anticipation for the future.

Liu Ming stopped and leaned against the iron fence outside the school. He watched the children running around quietly, his eyes becoming more profound and tender than ever before.

He recalled his days in the special forces, facing the guns of foreign drug lords; he recalled the obstruction from conservative officials in the provincial development and reform commission's meeting room; and he recalled facing the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of Western hegemony in the East China Sea.

Each time, it was a near-death experience.

Every time, I felt like I was about to give up.

He asked himself, what is the purpose of working so hard? Is it to get promoted and make money? Once he reaches his position, his power is already at its peak, and money is just a number to him.

For revenge? Luo Binwang and those corrupt officials hiding in the shadows have long been uprooted and are dead.

Until this moment.

Looking at the children studying in their brand-new classrooms, and at the people living in their new villas with genuine smiles on their faces, and listening to the lively shouts and calls from the streets and alleys...

Liu Ming finally found the answer.

Everything he did was not for the sake of leaving a mark in history books, nor for those vague and unattainable achievements.

He did this for the sake of this scene, so that the people of this land could be free from fear and want.

To be able to live like a human being, with dignity and hope.

"Phew..." Liu Ming let out a long breath.

It was as if all the resentment, fatigue, and heaviness that had accumulated in his chest over the past ten years were expelled with this breath.

"What's wrong?"

Xi Wanqing keenly sensed his change in mood and gently took his arm.

"It's nothing."

Liu Ming turned her head and looked at her three female confidantes beside her, and at her son, who was being held in Nangong Yao's arms and grinning foolishly at the children at school.

A bright and pure smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"I just think..."

"The suffering we endured, the blood we shed back then."

"When I saw those smiles on their faces."

"It was all worth it."

There is no power struggle.

The coldness of not killing.

Only the most authentic human warmth and life can be found here.

This was the only person Liu Ming had ever seen in his life.

The most beautiful scenery.