Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

"Click".

The heavy solid wood door of the presidential suite closed, shutting out Wei Zixuan's pig-like screams.

Yan Qingfeng's cold warning seemed to have grown wings and flew across the country overnight.

The camera cuts back to Beijing, to the Zhong family villa in the Western Hills.

It was just dawn, and the early autumn mist carried a chilling, deathly aura.

Zhong Xiaoai slumped in the living room, which was littered with broken glass, her whole body trembling as if she had been electrocuted.

Her custom-made silk nightgown was wrinkled like a tattered rag, and her hair was a mess like a madwoman's.

It's over, it's over.

Wei Zixuan ran away, and the 150 billion yuan bailout fund was reduced to nothing.

The huge villa was eerily quiet, with only the ticking of the wall clock.

"Impossible... My Zhong family has been rooted in the capital for decades, how could we be finished..."

Zhong Xiaoai nervously picked at the edge of the sofa, oblivious to the blood trickling from her fingernails.

"Bang!"

With a deafening crash, two high-end security doors were violently kicked open from the outside.

A cold wind, carrying fallen leaves, instantly rushed into the luxurious living room.

"What are you doing! Do you know where you are?!"

Zhong Xiaoai sprang up from the ground like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on, screaming at the top of her lungs.

A dozen or so people surged in from outside the door.

They were all dressed in black suits, with name tags from major banks in Beijing hanging on their chests.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a large belly, Lao Liu, the director of the credit department of ICBC.

In the past, during holidays, Old Liu would have to come to the back door of the Zhong family's house like a lapdog, carrying a bottle of Moutai and queuing up.

Now, however, he swaggered in, stepping over a pile of broken porcelain shards.

"Oh, Miss Zhong, you're still so angry?"

Old Liu gave a forced smile, shook the thick stack of documents in his hand, and threw them directly onto the coffee table.

"This is a joint loan withdrawal order from nine banks. Please sign it."

Zhong Xiaoai's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and she trembled with anger.

"Old Liu, are you crazy? You dare bring people to my house to collect debts? Don't you want to stay in this business anymore?"

She swept the documents onto the floor.

"Believe it or not, I'll call Director Chen right now and skin you alive!"

"Go ahead and call, call now."

Old Liu casually pulled over a chair and sat down, then casually picked at his ear.

"If you can get through to Director Chen, I, Old Liu, will walk out upside down today."

Zhong Xiaoai grabbed her phone from the coffee table and, trembling, dialed the number she knew by heart.

"Sorry, the number you dialed is currently switched off."

The cold, mechanical female voice was like an invisible slap across her face.

Refusing to believe it, she frantically dialed the numbers of five powerful uncles in a row.

Either turn off your phone, or it will emit a harsh notification sound saying "The other party has blocked you."

"They're all avoiding me? These ungrateful wretches!"

Zhong Xiaoai slammed her phone against the wall and slid to the ground like a rag doll.

She finally understood that in this pragmatic world, the Zhong family, like a great tree, had completely fallen.

"Alright, stop with the sob story."

With a wave of his hand, Lao Liu sent the men in black suits behind him scattering like hungry wolves.

"Brothers, get to work! Inventory all the valuables!"

Immediately afterwards, seven or eight court enforcement officers in uniform walked in.

They carried buckets of paste and held a stack of white seals with expressionless faces.

"Ms. Zhong Xiaoai, the Zhong Group is insolvent, and the amount of debt is enormous."

Without uttering a single word, the lead judge walked directly toward the Ming Dynasty calligraphy and paintings on the wall.

"All valuables in the property are now being forcibly liquidated and seized."

"Don't touch it! Those are the old man's belongings! Who dares to touch them!"

Zhong Xiaoai pounced over, standing firmly against the wall like a mother dog guarding her food.

"Get out of my way!"

A man in a black suit grabbed her arm without any politeness and shoved her aside.

Zhong Xiaoai's legs gave way, and she fell directly into the shards of the coffee cup she had just smashed, her hands covered in blood from the cuts.

"Stop! Let's see who dares to act recklessly!"

Just then, a roar, seemingly trying to remain calm, came from the corner of the first-floor corridor.

Hou Liangping, wearing a faded white shirt and barefoot, rushed out of the guest room.

He hid in his room last night, barely daring to breathe, but now, watching these people ransack his house, he couldn't keep up the act any longer.

He straightened his chest, trying to project the arrogant and superior air he usually had.

"I am Hou Liangping from the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Supreme People's Procuratorate! This is trespassing and violent law enforcement!"

Hou Liangping pointed at Lao Liu's nose, spitting everywhere.

"Get out of here right now! Or I'll file a case and have you all arrested and thrown in jail!"

Old Liu looked at him like he was an idiot, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Oh, who do we have here? It's Director Hou from Handong, who was publicly skinned alive."

Old Liu stood up, walked up to Hou Liangping, and spat a mouthful of phlegm at his feet.

"Your wife's money laundering activities overseas have been thoroughly exposed, and you still have the nerve to act all high and mighty?"

"You...you're being insolent!"

Hou Liangping was so angry he was practically fuming, and he reached out to push Lao Liu.

A burly debt collector nearby was quick-witted and nimble-fingered.

He grabbed Hou Liangping by the collar and threw him backward like a chick.

"Bang!"

Hou Liangping fell onto the sofa, his head hitting the wooden armrest, and he saw stars.

He scrambled to his feet, clutching his bruised forehead, and roared in exasperation.

"You have no regard for the law! Does Yan Qingfeng think he can call the shots in this capital?!"

"Whoosh—waaaah—"

Before he could finish speaking, a piercing police siren suddenly sounded outside the villa.

The alternating red and blue flashing lights shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows, turning the dimly lit living room a stark white.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look outside.

Three all-black Audi A6s, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression, came to a stop outside the Zhong family's gate.

The license plates were all printed with the words "Internal Pass" in red.

Hou Liangping saw the logo on the car and instantly jumped up from the sofa as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

He scrambled towards the door, his face beaming with the ecstatic joy of escaping a desperate situation.

"Haha! See that, Xiao Ai! Someone from my workplace came to bail me out!"

As Hou Liangping ran out, he turned back and grinned menacingly at Lao Liu and his gang.

"Once my colleague comes in, I'll handcuff all of you bastards and take you back for a thorough interrogation!"

The door of the black Audi clicked open.

A discipline inspection team leader, dressed in a crisp uniform and with a stern face, stepped out of the car, his gaze fixed on the doorway like a knife.

Instead of taking his briefcase, he pulled out a pair of gleaming steel handcuffs from his waist.

It swayed in the cold autumn wind and made a crisp "whoosh" sound.

"Director Hou, you're so energetic so early in the morning."

The head of the discipline inspection team stared at Hou Liangping's ecstatic face, a cold smile tugging at the corner of his mouth that sent chills down one's spine.

"I wonder if you'll still be able to maintain that bureaucratic tone once you're in the interrogation chair?"