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

That night, Jingzhou was as stuffy as a giant steamer without any vents.

There wasn't a breath of wind.

The air was so humid it was practically dripping with moisture, mixed with the acidic smell of sweat emanating from tens of thousands of people.

It burrows straight into the hole in a person's nose.

At the front row of the Guangming Square sub-venue, there were about ten black single leather sofas.

It was described as a VIP seating area.

But the skin was strangely soft.

As soon as Li Dakang sat down, his buttocks slid down, and he felt as if half of his body had sunk into a quagmire.

My lumbar spine was sore from being pushed so hard, and no matter how I twisted, it didn't feel right.

A fine layer of oily sweat appeared on his inner thighs.

The dark suit trousers clung to my skin, and a sudden gust of night wind sent a chill through me.

Li Dakang rubbed his thighs uncomfortably, his fingers rubbing against the fabric of his knees.

"Secretary Sha..."

Li Dakang swallowed.

His throat was so dry it felt like he'd swallowed a handful of sand; his voice was low and slightly cracked.

"That's it? We're really done with this?"

Sha Ruijin, who was sitting next to him, did not turn his head.

He crossed his hands tightly on his knees, and two bluish-purple veins bulged on the back of his hands.

The knuckles were an unhealthy, pale white from excessive force.

Sha Ruijin remained silent.

The muscles in his face were taut, and the corners of his mouth were forced upward.

He maintained a stiff smile that looked worse than crying.

Li Dakang's gaze drifted restlessly forward.

There was a long, folding table in front of them, without a tablecloth.

The desktop is empty.

Forget about the brand-name base with the red flag, I didn't even see a cheap plastic microphone.

There were just two bottles of mineral water lying there all alone, with the labels torn off.

In the past, Li Dakang wouldn't have dared to even think of such a thing, even if he had ten times the courage.

Who is he? He's the Party Secretary of Jingzhou City.

At such a massive press conference that could change the landscape of the entire province or even the world, according to the old almanac of the system, even if he doesn't talk about macroeconomics for half an hour, he should at least give a 15-minute opening speech.

The city TV station's cameras had to circle around him three times, right?

But now?

Li Dakang reached out his hand, wanting to touch the water bottle.

My fingers were shaking so badly that I couldn't hold on properly, and with a "thud," the water bottle was knocked far away.

I almost fell to the ground.

He quickly withdrew his hand and awkwardly wiped the sweat from his trouser leg.

"Old Li, put your hands away."

Sha Ruijin squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.

The sound was so faint that it was almost drowned out by the huge holographic speaker overhead.

"We're not even qualified to be Yan Qingfeng's supporting clown anymore."

Li Dakang clenched his back teeth, making a grinding sound.

He was not reconciled.

But above them, Yan Qingfeng's enormous holographic image, like a god, was coldly staring down.

The scene of those foreign journalists in New York being rendered speechless was broadcast live to tens of thousands of people.

That's the kind of company that could cause the Wall Street stock market to crash with just a single sentence.

The GDP that Li Dakang built up by stamping official documents was nothing in their eyes.

"Hey, who are those two bald old men in the front row? Their heads are gleaming white, they're blocking my view of Master Yan!"

In the back of the audience, a loud, plump woman grumbled angrily.

"Hey, keep your voice down, it sounds like a high-ranking official from the province."

An old man holding a tattered palm-leaf fan chimed in.

The woman chewed on sunflower seeds and spat out some shells on the ground.

"Pah! What's with all this talk of high-ranking officials? Without Lingxiao Points, they can't even buy a steamed bun. Hurry up and sit down, don't get in the way!"

As the woman spoke, she pushed her way forward with all her might.

Her thigh accidentally bumped into the back of Li Dakang's sofa.

With a loud "bang".

Caught off guard, Li Dakang stumbled forward, his chin nearly hitting the metal edge of the folding table.

He was about to turn around and yell at someone when his usual arrogant attitude rose to his throat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see more than a dozen security guards in black, standing like iron towers on both sides of the passageway.

Shen Pojun's men had eyes so cold they could skin a person alive.

Li Dakang's Adam's apple bobbed violently, forcing him to swallow the profanity back down.

His face turned bright red from holding it in.

"Where is Zhao Donglai?"

Sha Ruijin tilted his head and, under the guise of rubbing his nose, asked in a low voice.

His right eyelid was twitching and he was very upset.

"Put...put out a cordon around it."

Li Dakang moved closer and smelled a sour, cold sweat odor emanating from Sha Ruijin.

"Dong said he didn't dare to stand inside, afraid that the people would recognize him in his police uniform and throw rotten tomatoes at him again."

Sha Ruijin gave a self-deprecating twitch at the corner of his mouth.

His smile looked worse than his tears.

These people are now like a few potted plants that Yan Qingfeng keeps on the table.

It was specifically designed to fool those old men in Beijing who hadn't yet figured out the situation.

As long as they stamp the documents on time every day, the conglomerate will spare their lives.

Besides, they don't even have the power of a gatekeeper.

On the holographic screen above their heads, Yan Qingfeng threw out his final, disruptive remark.

Right in this very second.

"Buzz—"

A dozen giant generators around the square simultaneously emitted a deafening blast.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

In the sky, dozens of giant holographic fireworks composed of pure light and shadow exploded in an instant.

Although there was no smell of gunpowder, the blinding bright light and simulated low-frequency sound waves created a strong sense of physical oppression.

The shock made my heart feel heavy and my stomach churn.

The entire Guangming Square was instantly illuminated as if it were daytime.

Tens of thousands of people went crazy, their faces flushed, and they screamed at the top of their lungs.

"Master Yan is awesome!"

"Damn those bastards on Wall Street!"

The frenzied roar came from all directions like a tsunami.

The vibrations caused Li Dakang's ears to ring, filled with a sharp, tinnitus sound.

The surrounding crowd all stood up.

Even the old lady who had been eating sunflower seeds earlier threw down her plastic bag and started clapping her hands frantically.

My palms are all red from clapping.

In this frenzied atmosphere that could almost drown a person.

Sha Ruijin slowly stood up.

His legs were trembling, his knees were weak, and he only managed to stay upright by bracing himself on the metal table in front of him with his hands.

"Stand up and applaud."

Sha Ruijin turned his head and glanced at Li Dakang, who was still sprawled on the sofa.

His eyes were frighteningly empty, filled with a deathly gray of despair.

Li Dakang was like an electric puppet.

He mechanically got up, his trousers were wrinkled at the thighs and covered with a layer of damp sweat.

He raised his hands, then paused in mid-air, seemingly unsure of the rhythm.

"Slap, slap, slap..."

The two were like dried-up corpses whose souls had been drained.

He numbly clapped his hands together, following the frenzied crowd around him.

When our palms collided, we felt no pain at all.

Only endless numbness.

They witnessed firsthand the old power structure being eroded in the air by electronic cigarettes in Handong.

It collapsed with a crash, smashing everything to pieces.

My mind was filled with frenzied shouts.

Li Dakang clapped his hands mechanically while leaning his head closer to Sha Ruijin.

His lips trembled, and he failed to utter a sound several times.

He bit his tongue hard, tasting a bit of blood, which barely suppressed the panic in his heart.

"Secretary Sha..."

Li Dakang's voice was weak, and his eyes were fixed blankly on the illusory light and shadow in front of him.

"I just received a message from the high-speed rail station."

Sha Ruijin continued clapping, but his eye twitched slightly.

"explain."

"Qi Weidong from the National Bureau of Statistics... got off the bus."

Li Dakang swallowed, the cold sweat on his forehead running down his eyebrows and into his eyes, stinging painfully.

"He also brought two men in military uniforms, saying that they carried secret orders with red seals and handwritten notes from the highest levels of government in Beijing."

Sha Ruijin's hand suddenly froze in mid-air.

There was a two-second pause.

He then closed his palms again, making a dull thud.

He turned his head, looked at Li Dakang, and forced a creepy fake smile.

"Go and inform him."

Sha Ruijin's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against a wall.

"Tell him not to leave the station, to buy a standing ticket and go back immediately. If he dares to read that damned secret order aloud in Handong..."

Sha Ruijin looked up at the dazzling Lingxiao totem in the sky.

"Tomorrow, there will be three more unrecognizable corpses floating in the moat of Jingzhou."